God is SOOOO GOOD!!!

Ok, I have to confess I have been planning this blog entry probably for the last week or so. So what makes this blog entry so special? This is my 100th blog entry (and almost the anniversary of my very first blog entry)!!! In honor of this monumental blog entry, I thought it was time for a new look (for the blog). I also thought I would take a look back on some of my favorite blog entries.

Well, who could forget my very first blog entry (if you were reading that long ago). I started this blog after some encouragement from some friends (well... Ryan...). At the time, I was watching Dalton (you all remember him right? the kid with an extra thumb? Well, he is all grown up now... and has a normal amount of fingers!) Who knew that such a great job with such a great little boy wouldn't last (well... God knew). Well, as you all know, God had a different plan for me that no longer involved Dalton. It is so cool to see how God is so faithful in taking care and providing me what I need. After the job with Dalton ended God handed me another amazing job with another AMAZING little boy! Who knew that this new job was going to be such a growing experience for me and for Mason (and his new little brother).

This last year God has been so faithful, not only with my jobs but with my family also. You all probably remember my mom's cancer scare. I am happy to say that her health is still holding up with regular doctor visits and regular monitoring of any recent changes.

Let's see, what else has changed this last year:

• I got a new car
• I got a new job (another one after Mason and Caden)
• My sister graduated High School
• Caden was born
• I went to Hungary to hang out with GEMKs
• The airline lost my luggage on the way to Hungary (which I never got back)
• among so much more...

God really has been SOOOO GOOD to me this last year and I am so glad I have gotten to share all of the ups and downs with all of you!

Another Hair Cut???

That's right! My Hair ADD monster got the best of me again! Well... what really happened is my friend Chad called me two days ago saying that he was in town and wanted to cut my hair. My last hair cut was about 6 weeks ago by Chad's friend in Santa Monica. It wasn't a bad haircut, but it wasn't the way Chad does it and it needed a few adjustments... Anyway, here is the new due (how do you spell this type of due... is it due, do, doo, dew??? I am SOOO bad at spelling...).

ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM!!!

Today I went to Santa Clarita with Ryan and some kids from the youth group to go miniature golfing and go-cart racing. It was such a fun day and it was nice to get to spend time with two of the girls from my group (Kate and Colleen). It was also lots of fun to spend time with my sister Janae. I uploaded some new pictures to flickr so please enjoy a slideshow from today's festivities.

A-???

Well, as you can probably tell by the pictures that Amber and I finished our tote bags (btw in case you can't tell Ambers is the pink one)! Amber actually finished two weeks ago and I just finished this last Monday. I am not sure what Amber got on her bag, but I got an A -. Normally I am stoked by A -es, but I was kinda disappointed by this A -. Because my fabric was so tin, Ms Dress (yes that is really her name... she's cooky) suggested I not only line the inside of my bag with the same material, but that I uses a fusible interfacing on the outside layer of the bag. I also made the straps two times (I think I am going to use the other ones as headbands) and had to figure out how to sew together the inside to the outside. Long story short, it took a LONG time to finish the bag and it was a little disappointing to only get an A - (she actually almost gave me a B +... I would have been REALLY disappointed for that one). But Amber did a great job on her bag and next week we should be starting our pajama pants.

Look at my Guys!!!

WOW!!! What a week this has been!! It's been pretty busy, but I thought I would show you all a few pictures of my growing boys!

Friday I got to go over and see my boys (Caden had his 2 month check up and Sam had to take him to SB) Caden is doing SO well and is growing SO fast!! It's so good to see how well he is doing in comparison to how many problems Mason had. Caden is in the 95% for height (I think he's around 25" long now... I really don't remember what Sam said... remember... he is 2 MONTHS OLD!!!) and the 90% for weight (um... I think she said he's around 14 lbs now!!). He is such a cutie and is pretty happy MOST of the the time (he still has at least one Colic spell a day... usually around bedtime...)

And now for the update on Mason. Look at those BEAUTIFUL eyes of his!! They are healing so well and he is in such great spirits! He is crawling all over the place and learning signs (well... they are kinda like signs... we take what we can get) and trying to communicate with us as best as he knows how. He just got into the STAR program (I think that's what it is called... it's a 5-day-a-week Behavioral Therapy program... they come over for an hour 5 days a week and do... therapy I guess with him). Last week she came every day for two hours to just play with him and get him used to her. The poor guy has been SUPER clingy lately (to Mom and to me)! I think it's partly due to the age and a lot due to all of the new people that have been in the house lately.

But those are my guys and I just wanted to share some pictures with you all. Thank you for all of your prayers. Have a GREAT week!!!

Wasted Time

Do you ever feel like you are wasting time? I have felt that way most of this semester; between classes that I hate and schedules that suck, I have felt like I have been wasting my time driving back a forth between school and home. Tonight was one of those nights were I especially felt like I was wasting my time. I drove down to class around 3 (I had to get some stuff done in Ventura before I headed down to school) and got there around 5. My class didn't start until 7 so I sat on the quad and did some homework and people watching. I went into class only to find out that the cats had not arrived for our class dissections (oh yeah... we were supposed to start our cat dissections tonight and that was the ONLY reason I even bothered driving down there). So instead of doing cat dissections that were supposed to take at least 2 hours, I spent 20 mins picking up my test from last week and glancing at the one cat in class that had been dissected... All this to say, I HATE wasting time!!!

In other news, this week has been pretty mellow. I actually went to class this week which was a nice change. Tuesday I actually got to spend some time with my family for once. We went to dinner. If you can't tell by the photo, we went out for Chinese...

The rest of the week was pretty normal (other that a crazy Crossroads with some WILD kids). I have sleep overs this weekend which should be interesting, but we shall see what happens!

BIG 20!!!

So, this post is a little on the conceded side... but it was my birthday and I figured I should take some fun pictures.

The day started with a wonderful breakfast that my dad cooked for me!!! And then it was off to work! The day was pretty relaxed with some computer lab and a little bit of town time.

I ended up taking the middle school students down to Alpine in Ventura for one of our day student's Bar Mitzvah. It was a killer party and the kids had a GREAT time!!!

And just a quick update for all of you who have been praying for Mason. This was him on Friday. He is doing so well and I am so happy to be watching him on occasion.

Look at those BEAUTIFUL EYES!!!!

Mason Update

Wow! Two posts in one day? This has been one of the MOST productive days I have had in awhile! Despite not going to class this morning (yes I know I am a slacker... but listen to what I did the rest of the day). So after waking up around 7 and working on some homework, I headed over to the coffee shop to hang out with Cory. I was surprised to see Danielle and Christine there with their youngsters. It was nice to see them especially since I have been working weekends and am not able to go to Community. After spending a couple hours at the coffee shop with Cory, I headed home to try and get some stuff done. As soon as I got home I turned on some music and started washing my car (for the first time in a couple of months... oops!). After washing my car I spent about 2 hours cleaning my room (again, I haven't really done ANY cleaning in about two months... it was not so good...). After a deep clean of my room, I hopped on our stationary bike for a nice ride and even did a core workout (I was on it today). In between all of this I did about 4 loads of laundry (my clothes and my sheets...). Once my Dad got home he even changed the oil in my car (so nice...).

Around 4 hour later I took Janae to soccer practice and decided to head over to see how Mason was doing (remember, he had surgery yesterday!). Mason was doing so well it actually kinda brought me to tears (yes I am a nerd... whatever...). Here is a picture of Mason's BEAUTIFUL blue eyes one day after surgery. Apparently they looked really REALLY bad yesterday.

Not only were Mason's eyes healing very well (we have to watch him like a hawk because he is not allowed to rub his eyes because of the stitches), he has also grown so much over the 10 days that I haven't seen him. He is so alert and interactive now. His mom also said (after me only being there for 15 mins) that short time I was there was the happiest he had been in the last few days (talk about a tear jerker... that really made me cry...).

Not only is Mason so much more interactive, he is also officially crawling!!! He has been scooting (or more army crawling) for a few weeks now, but now he is up with his knees under him and his arms fully extended. It is so amazing to see all of the therapy and exercises (and those hot spandex pants) come full circle.



He is such a handsome boy and I am so happy that I got to be a part of his life and his development. Sam is still in the process of finding a full time nanny (the lady she had was going to work out until she got a job offer teaching or something like that). But I have a feeling I will be seeing less and less of Mason and Caden.


Speaking of Caden... Holy Crap!!! He has grown so much in the 10 days since I have seen him (obviously taking after his brother). Caden will be 2 months old on the 24th and he has already outgrown his 3 month clothing. Tonight, after I put Mason to bed (I love putting him to sleep and I seem to be the only one who can cause he hasn't taken a nap in about 10 days) I got to give Caden a bottle (man all that kid does is EAT!!!). After the bottle and a little burping action, he too fell asleep.


I couldn't resist taking a picture of this beautiful baby boy while he was still asleep (and not screaming... he still is kinda colicy and has resorted to SCREAMING instead of crying... it's really sad). But that is the update on my boys (whom I am now starting to accept that they are not my boys). Thank you for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for Mason's eyes to heal. Pray for Caden to get over his Colic. Pray that Sam can find someone (she is interviewing someone this Friday I believe) who can meet her and the boys' needs as best as possible.

Ode to Sewing

It has come to my attention that I have yet to post about my amazing sewing class that I have been taking for the last 5 weeks. About two months ago, a good friend of mine (Hey Amber!!!) approached me about possibly taking an intro to sewing class at the esteemed Ventura College. Seeing how I had been reading up on fair trade and sweat shops, I thought it would be a really cool idea to learn how to sew my own clothes. Well, let me tell you something... it's a lot harder than it looks.

Well, it's really not THAT hard. It's something I could potentially do on a more regular basis with lots of practice. Last night we learned how to hem jeans (which is awesome because I am short and always have to hem my jeans and would rather not pay $15 for someone else to hem my jeans). We also started on our tote bags. To help document our (Amber and my) journey through sewing class, I brought my camera last night to take pictures of the festivities.

The first picture (top) is of Amber (obviously) driving us down to VC (Amber, if you ever want me to drive I am more than happy to... let me know). The second is of my beloved sewing machine (it's not mine, it's VC's but I get to use it... We also learned how to thread the machine... for the second time this semester). Like I said before, we learned how to hem jeans last night. One thing Ms. Dress (yeah... that's our instructor's name... um... she's a little COOKY!!!) said about heming jeans was to be very careful because you could break your needle. As you can probably tell, Amber didn't really believe her and broke her first needle... It was really funny.

After a few poses by Amber (notice the pink army print... yeah that is for Amber's bag... SOOOO GOOD!!!) we went home for the night. I have that despite passive aggressive teacher and the super late night (not really that late, it's just late when I have other things to do after the class is over) I have really enjoyed spending this quality time with such a good friend. It's been tough going to college but still having this life back here in Ojai. Most of last year was kinda lonely watching the rest of my friends take off to different places. I am so thankful for God bringing people into my life to share things with. God is so good and definitely meets my needs every time... So, that was my Ode to Sewing! It was really an Ode to Friends... but sewing sounded better...

Prayer Requests

I am sure I have posted this picture before, but for now it will have to do. Just a quick post for now with one very important prayer request (I have some stuff to post about OVS weekends and my super AMAZING SEWING CLASS!!! but I have to save those posts for tomorrow or later this week). Tomorrow morning around 9am, Mason is scheduled to have eyelid surgery. He has very lazy eyelids and his doctors believe that has to do with why he is a little behind. So to help him later on in life, he will be having plastic surgery tomorrow morning (it's the surgery that older women usually get to tighten up the eyelid muscles and reduce wrinkles... funny how they use it for babies too...). I haven't gotten to see Mason for a week and it might be for good. I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but I have a feeling that it is gonna work out with that new lady that was "trying out" the job last week. Which means I will not get to go over and see Mason and Caden as often as before. Nothing is set in stone and I really haven't gotten to talk to Sam about it, but I knew it was coming and I am bummed, but ok with it. So, please pray for Mason tonight, tomorrow, and the rest of this week (I don't know the whole recovery process for the surgery but I imagine for an infant, it is not too good). This is also the second time in a week that Mason has been put under anesthetics (he had an MRI of his brain last week... the report came back with no irregularities but his doctor wants him to see yet another specialist... this time it's something about genetics... scary stuff) and it will definitely be a tough few days for Sam and her family. Please be in prayer for them this week. Have a beautiful week!