We're finally uploading pictures! I know, you're all thrilled. ;-) We ended up not going to Marine World this weekend, due to the bad weather and then a sudden death on Jason's side of the family. His Dad and Grandma ended up taking a flight up to Oregon for the funeral. Since we have season passes, we're just going to plan our next trip for a better weekend. Pictures are being uploaded tonight, so they should be on here by tomorrow morning. There aren't many and they're pretty much just random shots, so nothing to get too excited over. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We very much enjoyed a nice, quiet weekend. It was a nice glimpse of what our lives will be like with Jason not commuting so far and working such long hours. He starts his new job tomorrow and is very excited about it. :)

Happy Monday to everyone!

We realized just a few weeks ago that this month marks our one year anniversary in our home! I know for most people that's not a very big deal, but for us, after we've spent one year and one night in this house, it will be the longest we've ever lived at a home, since getting married. I'm not bragging... in case it sounds like I am. :)

We are SO thankful to God for the home He's blessed us with and so very thankful for our neighbors, the area we live in and just the blessing its been in owning our own home. I got a kick out of seeing all the pictures, because especially the landscaping in the front yard looks very different! Our flowers, plants and trees are so much bigger and fuller now and all in full bloom right now. I also thought it was amazing how much bigger Rachel is. She was such a baby in all those pics! I've pasted one here so you can see.

Anyway, just another post to give thanks to God.

For those of you who really want to know what I look like at 4:30 in the morning after a 19 hour day, you're in luck.  In simulated infrared, here I am.

Jason needed to go into Sebastopol for a work meeting on Friday and so the kids and I tagged along with him. I was shocked to discover several cities in that area that I've never been! I've lived here so long and kind of figured I'd been to most of the cities/areas within several 100 miles from us. Sebastopol and Santa Rosa are very close together, so while Jason was in his meeting (which lasted all day) the kids and I went off and explored the area.

We had a blast in Downtown Santa Rosa! Its a beautiful town, gorgeously landscaped and has architecture that's just breathtaking. I've never seen so many brick and stone buildings that are each so different looking! We went to the mall first and got Rachel's ear re-pierced. She lost an earring several weeks ago and (sadly) I've not had time to get the earring replaced and so the hole was pretty much closed up. She was such a brave girl! I know its not terribly painful, but still... I expected her to freak out  little. We bought a completely new set of earrings; cute little pink flowers with a little green jewel in the center. Super cute.

After the mall we took the jogger and explored more of the Downtown. We probably walked 4 miles, but it was such a new place, with lots of things to see, so the time went flying by. Since I knew we would be there for most of the day, I planned to have the kids take naps in the car, but I realized I forgot my book. So I went to Barnes and Nobles and bought, what will probably end up being one of my all time favorite non-fiction books ever. I bought the book Mistaken Identity and it is one of the most well written books I've read. Brings so much glory to God and is such a tender journey through the tragic circumstances in two family's lives; seeing how God took what could have been (to many people) something horrible and impossible to get through and used it for the good in their lives and for many others. Such a good book, I highly recommend it.

Rachel fell asleep on our walk and so when we got back to the van I laid the back seats down and turned it into a bed for them. Within about 30 minutes they were both out cold and slept 2 hours, so I got some good reading time in. After their naps we had a yummy lunch/early dinner and then ventured back into Sebastopol and did some more exploring before picking Jason up from work. The day was a bit long and tiring, but we had so much fun! I loved the drive up there. Sonoma especially looks like a beautiful place. I'd love to explore that area next time we're up there.

I can't believe a new week is here already. Seems like the days are just flying by. We heard a wonderful sermon this morning, from one of my favorite books in the Bible; 1 Timothy. This post is long enough, so I won't go on and on about it, but I'll just say it was fabulous. Such a good reminder to me of God's amazing grace and His far reaching forgiveness. Awesome sermon. Our church website (www.calvarytruth.org) has it available to listen to online, if you want to spend 45 profitable minutes this week. 

So I'm going to post about something other than a cute quote from the kids, something new that they're doing, what we did for the day or a cool YouTube video. I must say I hate that I've sort of become sucked into the whole youtube craze... never liked it much and I still don't, but I find it drawing me in more than it did before. Ug.

Back to my topic -- as we're anticipating this 3rd little blessing joining our family in about 6 months, I've been doing a lot of brain storming with Jase on how to better organize the house and free up some space. We absolutely love our house and we hope to be here for many years. I don't think either one of us ever planned on this being our final home, mainly because we'd like to have a large family and we don't anticipate having to live in a smaller house with a larger family. At this point though, we know there are many ways we can increase space, use storage better and make every square foot really count and stay here for quite a while. This is why we recently sold our white computer desk/armoire (one of my favorite pieces of furniture) and bought the side-by-side bookshelves. We needed more storage space and wanted to take up less room.

One place we'd like to really to utilize is our garage. Once our back yard is finished and all those huge boxes of playground and patio covering equipment is out of there, we plan to completely re-do the garage. We'd love to take most of the stuff in our closets (minus clothes) and move it out there. I would say the only thing I don't like about our house is the fact there is NO storage space! We have no hallway closet, no real bathroom storage and small closets in each room. So that's the one thing I'd change. 

My reason for writing all this is not to bore you all to death... I have a question for you and please, if you have an opinion, LEAVE A COMMENT. We can't imagine your thoughts. We're wondering if any of you have garage organizers that you love and would recommend to us. I've looked around at Lowes a bit and I've seen things here and there that I like, but nothing that really sticks out to me. We'd like overhead storage and then maybe some racks to hang on the walls for shelves and then maybe some shelving units with doors on them?

Seriously, share your thoughts. We'd love to hear them. It would be a huge help! Thanks.

I know when you get on the subject of vaccines, it can become tense and controversial, so I'm not going to say much here, other than I found this video clip to be... interesting.

If you start doing research on this subject it can be eye opening and a little scary too. Especially when you find out your Pediatrician does not vaccinate her own children.

I took the kids to see the Horton Hears a Who movie today! It was their first time in a movie theater, since being small infants and the experience was... interesting. Well, it started out interesting, but ended up quite well. 

I hadn't really thought ahead of time about how scary movie theaters can be for two small kids. We paid for our tickets and then walked into the theater and their eyes were popping out of their heads. Ethan was literally enamored by the arcade games and Rachel thought the food court was amazing. We walked to the door we needed to enter for the movie and when I opened it, both of them flipped out; screaming, crying, running away from me, you name it. I suddenly realized I opened a door to a very large (and very dark) walk way and wanted them to enter it. So I explained to them that this is where you watch movies like Cars, Toy Story, etc... before you buy them in the store and bring them home. Ethan replied with "So, this is where the cartoons live?" and I decided it was close enough so I said yes and he calmed down. Rachel calmed down and became rather happy the second she noticed the HUGE movie screen, but Ethan remained very cautious.

They both loved the movie (as did I) and it got quite a few laughs out of them. I knew Ethan would do fine, since he likes watching movies, but at home, Rachel usually only lasts about 15 minutes into a movie and then she's done. She sat very still on my lap for the first 45 minutes and then fell asleep for the rest. After the movie we had lunch with my Mom and Annaliese and then went home... sadly, I think the outing did me in. I'm still not over this yucky virus and today it really hit me hard. We got home at 2pm (Jason was here working from home) I fell into bed and didn't get up until 7pm. I'm feeling like I possibly have the stomach flu, but its so hard to tell when I'm already dealing with morning sickness.

Anyway, good movie and we highly recommend it!

I was going to write all about our weekend, but decided just to hit a few highlights:

 

•  My Macbook Pro arrived!  I got it set up, moved most of my data over, and installed all my software.  I also got BootCamp installed, Windows running, and a couple of game demos to exercise my snazzy video card.  To sum up, I'm extraordinarily happy about this machine; it's amazing to me how much of a step forward it is from my old Powerbook -- it's fast, the screen is bright and clear and beautify, it's fast, and comes with Leopard (which I like a lot so far), and it's fast, and it's nice to have the iSight camera up top, and it's fast.  Did I mention it's fast?
• Windows validation stinks.  I have a legitimate Windows license, installed on one computer, etc.  However, Microsoft's validation scheme decided that I've reinstalled my computer with that license too many times and won't let me activate the system.  Sounds like I either have to talk my way through a phone support person, or drop another $100-150 on another license.  What the heck?
• Call of Duty 4 is very, very well done.  I sense another $50 disappearing from my wallet some time very soon.  Portal is also extremely fun, and I'm going to be picking that up soon as well. 
• I wish I didn't have to bounce back and forth between Windows and Mac just to play games.  One day...
• We lost our copy of "Cars" a few months back.  I picked it up on Friday since the kids were sick.  We watched it I think 5 times this weekend ;)
• I finally got our Christmas lights down.  Amazing that I put off for 2 months something that took 20 minutes and a visit to borrow the next door neighbor's ladder.
• I'm about to wrap 2 personal projects that have taken way too long and sapped my time for primary projects.  Unfortunately, one-more-thing syndrome means that they're not likely to die nearly fast enough to make me happy.

 

Rachel and I had (another) Mommy and Me date on Saturday. We went to the Dinsey's Princess' on Ice show with my Mom, my sister Trish and her girls Kate and Emma. We had a blast! I was worried that Rachel would last 15-20 minutes and then want to leave, but she proved me wrong. She sat their, the whole time, glued to the show and, she's been talking about it (in lots of detail) ever since. Our camera has officially bit the dust, so I didn't take any pictures. You can go to my sister's website and check them out there, if you're curious.

In other news, the kids are still sick. Jason and I are avoiding getting as sick as they are, but we're both feeling under the weather. For me its partly pregnancy related. This is probably the worst the kids have been in a while, if ever. I hate hearing them cough so much and poor Rachel chokes every time she coughs. They've both been resting great and today they enjoyed the nice, sunny weather. I remembered the time change Friday and Saturday, but then completely forgot about it last night. We stayed home from church, so didn't remember the change until around noon. Thankfully its never been an issue with the kids, so we just set the clocks ahead and moved on... enjoying the late sunset of course.

Hope you all have a great week!

I took Ethan to Kaiser today, mostly because the fevers were not subsiding. He has two bad ear infections (again) so he's back on meds. He also does have that all famous virus going around, which is kind of what I assumed.

We go in a couple weeks to see a Ear and Nose specialist to find out about some options for helping him with some of his health concerns. We would appreciate your prayers regarding this. We'll be up against some pretty difficult decisions, including a major surgery possibility. Something that helps in our favor is that I had the exact same health issues and so it sheds quite a bit of light and knowledge on the situation. :)

We know that God will make things very clear to us and will give us the right direction to take. I admit to finding a lot of joy and comfort in knowing that. I'd hate to make these decisions based on our feelings or our own wisdom.  We would really appreciate your prayers as well.

Thanks!