Things are good

I thought it was about time for me to let you all know how things are going. It is looking up. We haven't been doing a whole lot, but it is still good. I have made a friend and she is also my work out partner. I am so glad to have her. Her name is Angel. Truly God has blessed me with my new friend. I really enjoy our time together. She makes me laugh and she encourages me too. We have been working out for about 2 weeks, this is our 3rd week. I am feeling pretty good. It really helps me to know that she will be at the gym, definitely keeps me accountable. We have started hanging out quit a bit. We had her, her husband and kids over last Friday night for dinner. It was really fun. Ben had a chance to meet her husband. I made enchiladas, and can I just say they were amazing. I used to be able to buy this pureed chili stuff to make great enchilada sauce when we lived in Albuquerque and hadn't found it again until we moved here. Let me just tell you I was so excited when I found it. I could go on and on about it. They were soooo good. Even the kids loved it, and the enchiladas were spicy. Okay, well, moving right along. Ben is still enjoying his new job and really liking the company he is working for. It is nice to see him happy and not stressed out. The kids are still doing good. Megan is having a bit of a rough time right now. The friends she made are not so nice lately. It is really sad. Megan is not sure what is going on, but she still keeps her chin up. She is becoming friends with a girl from school. I am hoping that works out good. I have been praying that they both find good friends. Jacob seems to be doing good. I haven't heard any complaining yet. That is good. They both are doing good in school, which is very nice. Jacob was slacking a little bit, but is back in shape. Here what is cool is that they have what is called "Parent Portal" I can go and check his attendance, his grades on papers and for missing assignments. It is so wonderful. I am checking almost everyday. He had 2 C's at one point and brought them up to B's. Megan's school is getting the Parent Portal too, but just not yet. She is doing pretty good though.



Well, it is becoming easier for me to be a stay at home mom lately. Maybe I am just really starting to adjust. It has been nice, because I actually have someone I can call to do stuff with. I believe that is making a huge difference. My friend, Angel is a stay at home mom too. Oh, and what is funny is she grew up in California, actually in Ceres and Modesto area. How cool is that! I have been working on some projects at home. I am tackling sanding and re staining my coffee table and 2 end tables. I am almost done with the coffee table. I have only been working on it for about 3 or 4 weeks. LOL It is a slow process what can I say. Hehe! It has been fun. I need to get a move on it before winter starts. I am hoping to finish the coffee table this week. Hopefully they will all come out good. Well, I guess that is all I have for today. I hope I didn't lose any of you in this blog of babble.



I still missing my family and friends. Know I think of you all often. Miss you bunches!

Love you all!

My friend

I come today with a sadness. I have a friend that has been fighting cancer for about 10 years. She is a wonderful person, so full of life. She blew me away how positive and optimistic she was. She always looked at the good of things. Every time I would see her and even just a picture she was always smiling. I am not exaggerating, she truly was always smiling, always happy. So full of joy for life. We could go months without talking, and we could call each other and it was like we talked all the time. We always had stuff to talk about. She was so fun to be around. What an inspiration she was. I just found out today, but looking her up on my space that she lost her fight on July 1, 2007. I can't even believe it. I am so mad at myself for not being better about calling, for not being a better friend. I have thought of her so often and thought oh I should call her and then though I will do it later. That was a big mistake. I can't believe I didn't even get to say bye. I sit here and I just can't fully grasp it that I lost my friend. She was only 35. That is just not right. I am glad she isn't in any more pain or suffering anymore, but I am so sad she is gone. I want to call and hear her happy and joyful voice again. Let me just tell anyone who is reading this, if you have the urge to call someone you care about, don't wait call them, don't put it off. You just never know what will happen. I am taking this hurtful experience and learning something from it. I want to tell all my family and friends that I love you all very much and each of you has a special place in my heart. Each one of you have provided me with such a wonderful life. I am so thankful God has brought every single one of you into my life. I take from Tina's life and her example to live life to it's fullest. Don't let things keep you down. You have a choice to be full of joy or to wallow in pity. I know that I will be making a cautious effort to be full of joy and truly embrace and love life. We don't know how many days God has given us, so live the life you have been given with joy. Even though I sit here sad I am joyful that she no longer has to suffer. I know that one day I will see her again. I look forward to that day to see her smiling face again. Just sitting here thinking of her smile makes me smile. She had such a big heart. I close this hoping that you will really consider what I have said. I hope it all makes sense. Love & miss you, Kim

Some pictures from 9/1/07 - family day out

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. We drove up in the mountains for the day. It only takes us about an hour or less to get up there. The kids fished (no they didn't catch anything), we took our Jeep four wheeling, we did a bit of hiking, and really enjoyed the scene. Sometime I would look out the window and it looked like a picture, so beautiful. I wanted to put more pictures but it wouldn't let me add anymore. It was so pretty up there, so calming. I love being in the mountains admiring God's work. He is so amazing.

Well, I am doing much better since my last blog. I have actually meet a couple of people. I meet a lady when I was helping at Jacob's school and she invited me to her Tupperware party that night. So, I went. It was so much fun. We had a game we played that was "How well do you know your hostess?" Well, let me remind you I only had met this woman like 4-5 hours earlier. The game was multiple choice, that was helpful. I decided I would just put what answer best suited me. Well, let me tell you, I WON! How cool is that. This woman is a lot of fun and her husband is too. I think Ben & him would get along great. She called me this morning to see how I was doing. She thought Megan went back to school today, so she wanted to see how I was holding up. Megan goes back tomorrow. I thought it was great that she called me. We are going to start tomorrow going to the gym together. I am way excited about that. I really need that accountability. It helps me to know that someone is waiting for me at the gym. I don't want to be the one not to show up. No way! I am exciting about my new friendship. God is really taking care of us. Ben & I met another couple on Saturday at his company party. They were really nice. We probably talked with them over an hour. Hopefully we can get together with them and the other couple. The lady from the school her family goes to the church we are considering stay at. We will see what happens with that. I am really excited to see what God has in store for us. I miss you my family and friend! Lots of love, Kim

A Tough Time

Hey everyone! I thought it might be about time for me to write again. I haven't been writing because honestly I have been struggling a little bit with me. This transition in being a stay a home mom has been tough. I love the fact that I can stay home, but it is hard not working outside the home. I miss all of the interaction with my coworkers(friends). I still don't know very many people, so I don't do much. I have notice that depression has hit me, so days not too bad and other pretty hard. Even though I know I am where God wants me to be it hard. I have tried from time to time to snap out of it, not so easy. My desire is to be a better mom & wife, but I have let depression interfere. I write this now to you and ask that you would pray for me. I need to take every day one at a time and just embrace it. Embrace the privilege of being where we are and what God is doing or going to do.

Well, I had started this blog a couple of days ago and didn't have the chance to finish. Since I began writing on my struggles it has helped to see what I need to do. I don't have it down yet, wouldn't it be nice if I did. I think looking at myself and knowing what I am doing to avoiding things has helped me. I realized I have avoided calling some of my family and my friends, because if I don't call I don't have to think so much about how much I miss them. How dumb is that. So, I am sorry to all who I have not called, but please understand it isn't because I don't miss and love you, it is purely selfishness on my part. I know recognizing it is part of the solution. The last couple of days have gone a bit better. Ben & I had a long talk the other night about it all and that helped. He is so wonderful. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband/friend.

In all that, I have not been taking care of my body. Trust me it isn't a pretty sight. I don't put myself together each day, just throw my hair in a ponytail and go (don't even bother with make up). Since recognizing this I have made an attempt to put myself together more. Megan & I have been working out the last couple of weeks on and off since she is off track until Tuesday. This has been fun for both of us. I had started tracking my calorie intake. Well, not the last couple of days. I need to do that. My plan is continue with all of the good things for my body. I also want to set an example for my kids how important it is to take care of yourself. So, why do I tell you all of this? Because I know I need help. Would you please pray for me in my struggles? I want to glorify God with every part of my life and right now my focus is on my body or should I say the Holy Spirit's dwelling place. That is almost hard to say especially since I have failed to take care of it. To think the Holy Spirit dwelling in me and me not caring enough to take care of it. That is not good. My goal is to be faithful in my workouts and in watching my calorie intake daily and simple to put myself together daily. Please help me by praying and encouraging me with this. I figure if I have accountability from you I am more apt to do better. Thank you all for listening to me. This is very therapeutic.

Know that I do pray for my family and friends even though you don't hear much from me. I miss and love you all!

Our weekend

Well, I have to say our weekend didn't go how I thought it might. That seems to happen quite a bit to us. We have learn to just adjust and laugh about it. Friday was pretty uneventful. We just hung around the house. Oh wait, there was one eventful thing. I can't believe I am going to share this. Okay well anyway, Megan wanted to go to the park, so Ben suggested we take a family bike ride to the park and hang out. So, we head out on our bikes and we are almost to the trail and I was in the lead, then Ben took the lead. Okay so in that process of that, I didn't make a wide enough turn and ended up trying to go up the curb. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. I went up over my bike. I am sure it was a sight. I did injure myself a bit. I hurt my elbow, my shoulder, and some bruises and scraps on my leg. I was embarrassed and hurting. At first I told the kids that they were to tell no one about this. Now, I can look back and laugh. I am such a nut.

Then on Saturday we took out time getting ready to head to the balloon fest. Heidi and Dalin came over to go with us. At the Balloon fest there was suppose to be a Civil War reenactment until 12:00. Well, we showed up at 10:30ish and we didn't not find any reenactment of any kind. They had some different booths there, really not much to see. We did get to see a real astronaut. That was kind of cool. So, we were there for about 15 minutes. Whew hew! After that Heidi, Megan, Dalin and I went shopping. We always have a good time together. That night we went back to the balloon fest to see all the balloons lite up. There were a bunch of different kinds of hot air balloon. There was a United rental truck, the Energize bunny, regular ones and then the flying pig. It was pretty but didn't last very long. Maybe next year we can get up early enough (6:00a.m.) to see the balloons lift off. As for this year it was okay for us.

So, Sunday we were suppose to try a new church. Yeah, still trying to find where we God is calling us to be. Well, we didn't make it to first service. Which is what service we needed to go to so we could help clean a house of the family from Ben's work. The husband/dad needs the house to be very clean before he can come home from the hospital, so he doesn't get sick again. The wife/mom also has MS which makes it hard for her to do stuff. So, we skipped church and headed over to clean. Not really what I was expecting at the house. It was great to go help as a family. Jacob and Ben worked outside in the yard. They did a great job out there. I was proud of how Jacob did and his attitude. Megan & I worked inside. Megan worked with another girl on cleaning pictures and walls. She did really good too. I worked in the kitchen with another lady. It was a bit difficult cleaning up someone else dirt, especially if you don't even know them. There was a lot of work to be done, by the time we left there was still a lot of work to do. We were there for about 5 hours. I am glad we had the opportunity to help this family. I am really happy that my family was so willing. It was great serving another family. The husband/dad is suppose to come home from the hospital on Friday. I pray that it all works out and they are able to bring him home.

That is about all that happen this last weekend. We definitely were busy all weekend, but it was all good.

Happenings

Well, this week has been a rough one. I am adjusting better without my dog. I do miss him very much. I am working through it.

So, yesterday (Thursday) Ben & I went to Jacob's back to school night. It is still just hard to believe that my son is in Jr. High. We had the chance to quickly meet his teachers. We had about 8 minutes in the class and then 3 minutes to get to the next class. We enjoyed meeting his social studies teacher. He is funny. I think that is one of Jacob's favorite classes. All of his teacher seemed to be nice. Jacob made it a point to tell me that I had to meet his friends mom. He told me which classes to look for her in. He talked to her earlier in the day and she told him to have me find her and that it should be easy because she was probably the one Asian in the class. Jacob thought that was funny. By the way, she was not the only one, which I knew she wouldn't be. I got the nerve up in the last class. She was really nice and I believe she is a stay at home mom too. I told her we should have coffee sometime. That is me trying to step out a little. Now I just have to work up the nerve to call her and invite her to coffee. That is the tough part. I am glad to see Jacob making friends so quickly and being excited about it. He really wants his friend to come over which is why it was so important that I meet his friends mom. Well, hopefully we will have is friend over soon.

Our weekend plans are looking good. There is a balloon festival that is about 10 minutes from our house that I think we will be going to. I remember when we lived in Albuquerque they had a balloon festival every October. But believe it or not we never made it to it. How sad is that. So, we decided that we are going to this one. I think we will go to some of the activities that are happening during the day and then go to the balloon launching at night. I think that will be really neat to see. I will be having my camera ready. Heidi and Dalin are going to be coming along with us. We always have fun together. Then on Sunday we are going to try a new church. After church we have a great opportunity to go help a family from Ben's work. Ben got an email at work asking for help. The story is that this guy that works at the same company as Ben got sick and rushed to the hospital. He has leukemia. He has been in hospital for 2 months. In order for him to be able to come home from hospital his house has to be sterilized, outside and inside. His wife as MS, so is not able to do it by herself. I am actually very excited to help with this. We are going to take the kids with us. What a great opportunity to share Christ's love. Is this not what God has called us to do? I look forward to see what God will do with all of it. I love the chance we get to work with others in this. I am really excited that my kids are helping too. I believe that it will be a lot of fun. To think of cleaning as fun, yeah when you are doing it for Christ. It is the least we can do after all He has done for us.

We knew God was going to use us and this is just the beginning. I look forward to what else God has for us to do for Him. We know we are here because that is where He has called us to be. That is an awesome place to be, in God's will. I pray we will always be in His will. I will keep you up on how things work out with our weekend.

A Sad Day

As I sit here to share with you today, I come with sadness in my heart. Today is one of the toughest day for me since we have moved here to Colorado. We have been having some trouble with our dog, Rusty. He is a great dog, although he doesn't like other dogs. Then with moving here we have a lot lightening & thunder storms (almost every night). We all are not use to that but Rusty especially didn't' deal well with it. So, he started to try to get out of the backyard. One time he went through the fence. Then he was able to climb over the gate. So, our next step was to put a shock collar on so he wouldn't go over. Well, today we find out that none of that matter if he wants out, he is gone. And today there was no storm happening. As hard as it was, we had to make a choice for our dog and our family. Rusty has been a part of our family for about 3 1/2 years. He has been in our Christmas pictures. We took him camping and water skiing with us. He slept on his own bed next to my side of the bed. Yeah, I had spoiled this dog. This also caused a bit of arguing between my husband & I. We have talked a lot about finding him a new home. Well, today we took him to a place to be adopted. I love this dog very much and it was like losing a family member. I cried like a big baby. I know that it was best for our family. Although it may be the best thing for us, it was very hard. It is going to take some getting use to not having him around all of the time. It is a sad day. The kids are dealing pretty well with it. They both cried a bit. I know with time we will be okay. I will always love Rusty and I am praying that he finds a great home. A place where he can run and someone to love him. So, this was my day in a nut shell.

I just got done putting my kids to bed and I sit here just crying. I think it is going to be harder than I thought. I miss my dog. I miss him laying next to us where ever we were. I miss him following me around the house. He was funny because he had to be with us in the house. We should have called him Shadow because he was our shadow. I almost feel that I can really just let myself cry now that my kids are with me. They saw me cry, but not like I am as I type this. I felt I needed to hold it back a bit for them. They are dealing with it better than I am. My kids had popcorn for a snack and I saw some on the floor and thought oh, Rusty will eat it. He loved eating our food droppings. I realize there is no Rusty to eat those now. I am just feeling so sad.

It is just makes me realize that there is always a battle going on. As hard as things may be from time to time we have a choice to make. Do we dwell on what bad things or sad things are happening or do we deal with it and move forward. This maybe something that takes a little time to move forward on, but I know that is what I am suppose to do. I can focus on the negative of it all, but I need to look at what God has for us now. I need to learn from it all. God has a lesson for us in every situation. The question is are we will willing to look at what we can learn. What can we be thankful for? God is bigger than it all. I am so grateful for that.

I hope this all makes sense, I feel as though I have just babbled here today. To be honest it has helped me to feel a bit better. Thanks for all of you who listened.