Things are coolin' down

It's been a while since I've posted, and I've been putting it off even LONGER because I knew it'd have to be a pretty big post to cover everything. The four main things that went on since I posted last was Mexico, Ryan's bday party, some pretty life-changing health issues with James, and finding out that Nae is pregnant again! Wheee!

They pretty much started to share the news right away and I was one of the first people to know, since I was in the other room while she told Seth. A few minutes later, they came in and told me, and then we told James. He got the cutest smile on his face. :) Then we took James over to grandma & grandpas and he told them "Guess what? Mommy has a new baby in her tummy", and he told uncle Lance, and then we went over to tell "Great Grams" & "Bestifar". Everyone was VERY surprised - including Nae & Seth. :) But we're sooo very excited. We're all hoping for a girl. Nae will find out if it's a boy or a girl before this year ends (late Nov / early Dec?). She (or he) is the miracle we have been praying for...

As you pretty much all know by now, James has had some pretty scary health issues lately. I won't go into all of the details since you probably already know (and they're outlined in Lynae's blog, lynaesthoughts.blogspot.com). But basically he's lost a lot of his strength and mobility and it has changed his life and the lives of his family members. We all had lots and lots of tears while he was in the hospital with these new developments. It's still very sad to see him try to sift through the emotions of dealing with his loss of body function at such a young age. But gosh, he is such an amazing little guy. He still bobs his head and "dances" to music. He still has a big smile on his face when we spend time with him. He says things like "I'll be right back, I'm gonna go [do this or that]". And then we bring him to go do whatever it is that he wants to do... go get a book, go hug his brother, etc. He's so, sooooo, soooo special to me. Please join me in praying for him each time you think of him or his family. He needs healing, hope, and help sorting through his emotions. He's been very emotional, which I can only imagine is caused by constantly realizing over and over again that he can't move his arm, or crawl over to his room, or play on the computer, or do what he used to be able to do a month ago. I pray that God will give him (and his parents) peace during this time, and that the doctors will be able to find a solution for what's going on with him. He's the love of all of our lives, and it deeply saddens us to see him this way. Thank you for your prayers, everyone.

*****

So, Ryan's bday party seems like forever ago now, but we had a GREAT time! He spent weeks drafting up trivia questions for a "Game Show". Basically, each category has a different subject such as "sports", "my friends" (ryan's friends), "video game characters", a bunch of different TV shows, etc. Then each category would have like 5 or 6 questions under it. There are two teams of 3 people. One person from each team goes up and challenges each other in a certain category. Whoever gets the least amount of questions correct in that category is eliminated, until an entire team is eliminated. The questions were fun, creative, and awesome! I was so proud to see Ryan really get into something and have such a fun time being so creative.

Ryan made everyone wear a paper bag on their head that said something funny when they got eliminated. Joey and Nory came, too, and had a great time playing together and trying to get into trouble by pushing the buttons on Uncle Ryan's electronics.

Jessica made the best of it... :)

*****

Mexico was A-MAZ-ING! I loved it sooo, sooo much. I hadn't been in a few years, and I had never been with Yugo Ministries (I went with Amor Ministries in the past). It was a different experience... We stayed in a hotel instead of camping. The house was a similar size and stuff, but a way different type... with drywall and paint and all that. In the past I've done stucco houses and they look kind of un-finished on the inside when we leave. This one looked like a real HOUSE when we left. It was so cool. The family we built for was awesome. It was a grandmother, Aurora, and her grand-daughter Marilyn. They also had close family that lived next door. We made great friendships with all of them despite the language barrier.

I'm amazed each year at how touched I am by the whole experience. I think I tend to go into it thinking "psh, i've done this 10+ times... I've got it down. Let's bust out this house, shed a tear or two, and drive home." It's just not that simple. Each experience, each family, each house, each neighborhood is different. Each year is completely life-changing. I LOVE IT. Somehow each year is also very, very different. Most years I come back on a "high" for God, I guess you could say. It's kind of like you're drowning in Church-like stuff and in God-like experiences and people, and it lasts into the weeks after you return from the trip.

This year was different. I came back sort of depressed. I don't know if depressed is the right word. But I was emotional. Part of it was that the James stuff happened soon after. But also, I made really good friendships with the family. I missed them, and I knew I might not see them for years, or maybe never again. It made me so sad to think that even with their new home, they might be cold, or dehydrated, or hungry. I prayed and prayed that God would comfort them and give them everything they need, and that they would seek Him first. I also felt a little bit depressed after coming back home, because my life felt so purpose-less. In other words, I felt like I was doing "God's work" when I was over there. I was almost envious of the people from the states that live there and work for Yugo Ministries and do God's work every day of their lives. How tiring, but how MEANINGFUL and fun and exciting. I just felt like... what am I even doing here in the states? In my big, stupid house. With my boring, pointless job. With no goals. I still don't have some kind of big "goal" for what my life should look like. BUT, I have realized (and they talked about this at church in Mexico), that basically, you don't have to be a missionary in another country, or a pastor, or a christian musician or the head of a big church ministry to be doing Gods work. Those positions are very fulfilling and I am SO thankful for the people who have been called to those positions. But I think every person can make a difference in their own lives, in their current jobs, in their current "worlds". I think that if you are in prayer that God has your life where he wants it, and that you try to live his scripture in your daily lives, that you WILL be doing "God's work"... even if it's not building a house every week for a new family. Although, it feels pretty good to do that every once in a while, I must admit. I think I just got lost over there in loving others. It felt so good, and maybe I hadn't truly done that in a while. I don't know if I'm making any sense, but those are my feelings on the situation. Please pray for my new family in Mexico whenever you think of them (or me). Thank you!

*****

I guess a few more things happened this summer, too. I took what I've been referring to as my "Crazy Trip". I was feeling kind of overwhelmed here and just felt like I needed to get out of town for just a couple of nights. I visited Ashley & Lucy overnight while Adam was camping with his father-in-law. It was so fun! We just mostly had girly time, made a great dinner and an awesome dessert... watched a chick flick, stayed up late. Went shopping in Reno. I also got to re-meet Ryan's cousin who I've only met one other time before. She's right around my age, and she happens to also live in Susanville where Adam & Ashley live. They've become good friends this past year or so after we "introduced" them via Facebook. She is a very sweet girl, and I wish we all lived closer so we could hang out more.

Anyway, after departing from Susanville, I took my "Crazy Trip" (not because the TRIP was crazy, but because I was crazy)... BY MYSELF to Truckee. I had fun being alone. It was relaxing. I basically went on the trip to relax. I got a facial/massage at one of the ski resort places nearby. I went in the hot-tub one night and even chatted with strangers (eeek!). I explored Truckee and even got to know my way around a little bit (with the help of our GPS!). I took about a 20 minute drive to a beach and had lunch and read my book while I laid in the sun. It was awesome! On the way home I took a detour to Roseville and did a little bit of shopping. It was a good trip. It's sort of weird that I went by myself, but I think I needed it. I'm a true, full-blooded introvert. Haha! So it was right down my alley.

*****

I also got Ryan tickets to a Giants game for his birthday. We just went about two weeks ago. My company was having a party in Mountain View where our other office is, which is in the Bay Area, pretty close to SF. They paid for our mileage and our first night there. Then, we drove to SF the following day and stayed the night there and went to the Giants game the next day. It was so fun! Our seats were awesome, and it was also the annual "Dog Days of Summer" so people got to bring their dogs, and there were like 800 cute doggies there! Before the game started, they paraded them around the field. It was SO cute. We had an awesome time -- and they WON! :)

Summatimmmeee and the livin's easy...

More like BUSY! This summer we've already bought, painted, and moved into our new house and I took a 4 day trip to Oregon with Lynae and Joey. In just THREE WEEKS I leave on a mission trip to Mexico with my dad & my church. I'm looking forward to it but I can't believe how soon it is and how unprepared I feel! As long as I have sunscreen, my meds, and a Costco sized box of thermacare heat packs, I'll be fine! :) Right after Mexico we'll probably have a party at our house so that everyone can see it. We'll probably actually have 2 different parties - one for Family and one for Friends or else I'll be overwhelmed with the amount of people at our house! Before then I need to finish unpacking this place, and then clean everything. It makes me want to buy a bunch of new stuff to put in our house and decorate our house with. Ryan won't let me. Haha! I asked him if I could spend 500 bucks, and he asked me if he could. Haha. Nahhhh. August and late July are also full of BIRTHDAYS and probably lots of parties. Ryan, Carla, Carrisa & Jessica's bdays are all within about 3 - 4 weeks of each other. Nae & Seth's anniversary is right in there, too. My boss' bday is also in early August and I'll probably have to organize getting her a cake as soon as I return back to work from Mexico.

Anyway! Oregon was way fun. I got to spend 4 days straight with my sweet Joey-pie. He's sooo cute. The car ride back seemed a bit grueling, but the way there went pretty fast. It was great to spend time with Nae (without our husbands! haha!), and see Teryn and her sweet kiddos. They're so snuggly. Chasey went to me right away and snuggled his little head against me. Caden always held my hand and gave me a running hug when I came back from wherever I was. They're both so sweet and so cute. We hiked Multnoma Falls which was beautiful (but reminded me how OUT OF SHAPE I am!), and ate lunch at their restaurant. Yummm! The kids were so good the whole time. We stayed up late and chatted, and woke up early with the cuties. We went shopping at Ikea & the mall (no sales tax! wahoooo!). We stopped here and there for Joey to play, and he would dance and find rocks to throw and yucky stuff to try and eat. He's sooo cute. His go-to dance move is the squattin' move, and his best but lest frequent move is his "spin move". :) I'm in love with his spin move. We also went to a birthday party for Caden & Chase's cousin and Josiah found a slide there that he lovvvvvvvveedddd. Here are a few pics! :)

Like I said, I still have a lot to unpack but one thing I had to finish was our bathroom. I LOVE our new shower curtain! I'm doing a black and white theme.

Shower Curtain:

Black & White Towels:

Soap covered in pretty paper by ME! :)

My new makeup bag. SO CUTE. Got it in Oregon with no sales tax :)

Ryan and I had "date day" today, and now he's watching baseball and I'm enjoying some Nutella on a spoon. DE-LISH. We went to the olive garden for lunch. Then we killed some time in between lunch and our movie by checking out the sales at Ashley Furniture. They had a few couches we liked and 2 or 3 dining room tables that we liked. I think Ryan enjoyed it more than he thought he would. And we were really only there for about 10 or 15 mins. I asked him on a scale from 1 - 10 (10 being the most grueling) how awful it was, and he said 4 which i think is pretty good. HAHA!

Anyway, I better go and eat dinner now that it's already 8:30. Should probably work on unpacking more boxes tonight, too. Happy 4th of JULYYYYYY!

Long Weekend

We have a 3-day weekend for Memorial day. Wheeee! :) It's already been fun so far. My boss was gone yesterday (Friday). Today (Saturday) was Joey's first birthday party! I had such a great time watching his cute little self walk around, open presents, and eat his cute cake! I'm sure Nae will be posting pictures soon. He is suuuuch a sweetie. He stared at Daddy the whole time that we sang Happy Birthday, and he just looked like a little angel. I gave him about 100 kisses before we left. He had little sugary "buttons" on his cake, and I stuck one to his nose with frosting. He looked sooooo adorable. He didn't even know it was there. :) I love that little guy. James was happy to help him open his presents (I think he thought it was his birthday again a couple of times!) :) I can't believe Joey is already ONE! It seems like only about 3 months ago or so that we were at the hospital watching him come into this world. Stop growing up so fast, Joey-pie!

Today after the party Ryan and I went to the batting cages at the mini-golf place. I've only done it one time. This time I did 4 coins-worth which was like 60 pitches. eek! My first round (15 pitches) I did pretty good, but by the 4th round I was SO tired. I probably only hit like 3 of them. *SIGH* It was still fun though! Ryan did the fast pitches, too and he is good! I would probably scream every time because they are REALLY fast. When they hit the back board it sounds like a gun going off.

We're still waiting on the bank to do the underwriting for our loan and everything. I'm guessing we'll close probably mid-week on the week of the 6th - 12th. But that's just a guess. Hopefully for sure by that weekend. We have an extension in until the 18th but they don't expect it to take that long... that was just a safety net. I went to World Market to look for a present for a friend, and also to check out the wine selection because I want to get our realtor a little gift for when we close. Since I know basically NOTHING about wine, I was kinda just going by the picture on the front. I found one with a good picture and picked it up to put in my basket. I then realized that the name of it was Menage a Trois. Uhhhh. Yeah. I decided to put it back. I don't want to send the wrong message! YIKES! That would be an awkward gift.

Ya gotta check out this blog someday. http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/2010/05/sweet-charlotte-girl.html (Start from the beginning to see her whole story. This is her latest post though.
She also wrote this book: http://www.amazon.com/Will-Carry-You-Sacred-Dance/dp/080546428X

What I've been up to

PACKING!

We found out that we most likely will NOT be closing this Friday like we had hoped, so I'm now counting on the close date on our contract which is June 3rd. Hopefully we can get painting done and then move in asap! I want a little bit of overlap time so that we can get this place cleaned up and the new place prepped. I can't wait! In the mean time, I've been packing up stuff we don't use every day. I still have a TON more to pack though.

LOST!

The LOST series finale was on last night. I've been a devoted viewer since Episode 1. All of our friends love it too, so we had a get-together last night to watch it. It was fun! There were a lot of parts of the finale that I liked, but knowing that was the END... the LAST episode, and seeing how many of the mysteries went unanswered, made me over-all NOT like the episode. I was disappointed! I was hoping for the last scene to make me go "Oh my gosssshhhh!!!!!". It did not. I had fun preparing for it, and watching it (up until I realized it was THE END). The episode itself will probably slowly grow on me, but I don't think I'll ever be totally satisfied. *sigh*. That was my favorite show. My new favorite is Modern Family. That show is soooooooooo funny. I also think that it could be entertaining to a lot of different types of people; many age groups, girls, guys, parents, teens, grandparents... I LOVE IT. If that show gets cancelled I'm be so pissed! I'm bummed that Flash Forward is getting cancelled. It is not in my top favs but it's still one that we've watched consistently and I was hoping to keep watching it. Guess not. :(

I made LOST cookies. It's supposed to be a beach. I used crumbled cookie for the "sand". I really wanted to put little crashed airplanes on them but I didn't know where to find that sort of thing.

CRAFTS

I've been getting back into craftsy things lately. My latest thing is covering soaps. It'd probably be cooler if I actually MADE the soap myself, and then covered it, but I'm not that devoted. Without having to make the soap, it's actually a pretty quick craft which equals instant gratification. They sell 3 packs of soap for 5 bucks at Ross, so it's pretty cheap too. Here are some that I made for my mom and mother-in-law for mother's day:

I also recently got together with my craft-night-girls, Robin and Rachel, and we made jewelry. I made a necklace. It turned out cute! (sorry, no pic right now). Robin's earrings turned out great. They look store-bought. Rachel made some spiffy necklace which required crocheting that she's been working on for a while now. It looks really good! I wish I had more talent! But it's fun no matter what.

VACATION

We want to do something special for our 5th anniversary. Unfortunately, February is pretty much THE busiest time for Ryan at work. It's likely that he wouldn't be able to get the time off. So we probably need to plan our vacation either at the end of this year, or not until next year in May-ish. I've been wanting to take a big vacation before we decide to have kids because we might not be able to do something like that for several years once we have a baby. No, we don't have an official PLAN of when we're going to have kids, but we just know that we are probably getting a bit closer to that time now that our 5 year is coming up (plenty of time as "just" a married couple), we're buying a house (stability? Not that we couldn't have stability without a house. In fact, we'll probably be MORE poor. But somehow in our minds a house = stability. Still haven't figured out the logic behind that) :) So, perhaps we'll start trying in about a year. NO PROMISES PEOPLE! :) It's just a thought! Might still be a few more years. Who knows. No official plans yet.

Anyway, my "big vacation" plan is to go to HAWAII! I think a 5 night, 6 day trip will be best for us. I also want to go this year so that we don't have to wait like a year to go. I'm thinking November is best. Then it can count for my birthday, too! :) I first started researching Oahu because that is where Lost was filmed and you can go on a Lost Tour and see all of the places, swim at "kate and sawyers waterfall", and take pics in front of the yellow dharma barrack houses. It just sounded FUN! That is, until I watched the finale. haha. Just kiddinnnnng! But seriously, it might not be AS fun now that it's over and they'll probably tear down a lot of stuff. Plus, before we would've had a chance to meet or at least SEE the actors, but now that they're done that wouldn't happen. I still think it'd be fun. BUT, I found out after talking to a few people and researching online that Oahu is probably not the best of the islands. Parts of it (honolulu) are kinda big-city-ish, crowded, touristy, etc.

I took a "which island fits you best" quiz, and I think Maui or Kauai are going to be better choices for us. I've read that you should try to visit at least 2 islands when you visit hawaii, but that seems to be easier said than done. Right now I'm leaning toward Maui. It seems like it might have the best of all things. Some privacy, some touristy stuff to do, some nature-y stuff to do, etc. Hawaii is all I've been thinking about! I think I've been driving Ryan CRAZY talking about it. "Which island do you want to go to, what do you want to do, do you want to learn to surf, do you want to parasail with me, do you want to go on a dinner cruise, do you, do youuuu?" Yeahhhh. I see how that can get annoying. Especially when all of that stuff goes through my mind at bed time. I just want to make sure that we both have lots of fun. We don't always have the same interests, so it's something we need to plan ahead.

I haven't booked anything yet because we kind of need to see how our finances go after we move in to our house. We have some money saved for a vacation but you never know if we'll have to use it another way, or how much we'll be able to save in addition to our travel fund. So we'll see! I liked the reviews of Maui Coast Hotel on travelocity ( http://hotels.travelocity.com/hotel/hoteldetail.do?propertyID=34894 ), so we might stay there. Who knows! If anyone has been there before let me know what you think! Ashley also sent us a link to a condo from her boss which seems to have good prices and a great location. I believe it's in Kauai if I'm remembering right, so maybe we'll stay there if we go to Kauai! I can't wait to be sitting on the beach with a Mai Tai in my hand and my boyfriend (aka Husband, aka Ryan) by my side!

in escrow!

We've been in escrow for about 2 weeks now. We're SO excited! We're supposed to close June 3, but our bank lady told us it might end up being a little bit sooner, like the very end of this month. I've been packing up boxes of stuff we don't use everyday and going through all of our crap and organizing stuff. It was nice to have the Mexico rummage sale right around the time I wanted to get rid of some stuff!

We are SOOO excited about our house. Everything worked out really, really perfectly. We've been looking for houses since early this year. We started out pretty slow, but then got more serious about it in the last couple of months. We looked at a lot of houses in Chico, and also considered a few houses in Paradise because they were significantly cheaper. (Although, you do pay for that in gas and inconvenience). We made an offer on a house that was really cute. It was a little bit small but it had a beautiful back yard, and it still had 3 bedrooms like we wanted. It was a great house over all. I didn't love the size of the kitchen or some of the flooring, but the rest of the house was great. We had to put a really low-ball offer in since it was listed for more than we could afford. We didn't get it. I wasn't totally bummed, but I also wasn't sure if we'd find what we wanted before the deadline for the $8,000 tax credit.

We looked at this house on Ceanothus that was listed for basically exactly what we set as our "max" in our minds. We went to see it and it seemed SO nice and big!!! We had looked at 2 other houses that day and they were horriblllllle. This one seemed perfect. It was an REO and we knew that it was under market because we could see what other houses on the same street were listed for and selling for. We figured someone might just make a higher offer than us, above the asking price, and we'd lose out. But we though "hey, let's give it a try!". When we went to write the offer, our realtor called to see if there were any offers. It sounded like there was one other one being submitted but he didn't know how much it was for. We figured they were probably offering the asking price like us, so he suggested we offer $500 more. I guess it did the trick! They counter-offered us for the same price, just with a few stipulations like a shorter escrow time (works for us!) and a shorter amount of time for inspections and things like that. So, even though it was technically a "counter offer", they essentially accepted our offer! Woo hoo! We signed agreement papers like 2 or 3 days before the cutoff for the $8000 tax credit, AND we also signed in a small window of time to where we not only qualifed for the $8000, but we will also get $10,000 from the state. YAYYY! The 10 thou will be payed in increments over 3 years. so we'll get a little over $3000 around tax time for the next 3 years. YESSS!

I just feel so blessed. The timing was PERFECT. We qualified for both tax credits. We got a great house (built in 2007) for UNDER market and still in our price range. It's bigger and newer than the houses we had looked at. It's in Chico in the 95973 area which we like. We'll be moving when it's not rainy outside. It's just perfect for us. We feel kind of poor now since our payments will be a lot more than what we're used to paying in rent, but I'm thinking our taxes the next few years will make that a lot easier! We just never thought we could get a house like this in our price range. A few little downsides - we needed to buy a new stove, and we'll need bathroom mirrors since there aren't any. Also, the backyard is tiny and pathetic but that doesn't really bother us. Almost no yard work!

Here are a few pics of the house from the real estate sites. We'll take more pics when we move in! :) :) :)

(Garage is in the back)

Here's our charming (read: small and pathetic) back yard! :)

Great Lyrics

I bolded the parts that stand out to me :)

"By Your Side" - Tenth Avenue North

Why are you striving these days?
Why are you trying to earn grace?
Why are you crying ?
Let me lift up your face,
Just don't turn away.

Why are you looking for love?
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough?
To where will you go child?
Tell me where will you run, To where will you run?

And I'll be by your side, Wherever you fall
In the dead of night, Whenever you call
And please don't fight, These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side.
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life, I want to give you life.

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

_____________________________________________

James 4:8

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Oma's Bday & Paradise House

Yesterday was my great grandma's (Oma) 97th birthday. She is SO cute! I cannot believe how long she's lasting and how she can still totally pass for 80. haha. I know that she IS fading (losing her vision, hearing, memory in some ways, etc), but I do sometimes think she'll live forever! Haha. I joked with Ryan that I think she's like Richard Alpert from Lost. :)

Here's my beautiful, loving, sweet, godly great grandma Maria:

Before I went to Oma's birthday party, I went over to Lynae's house and had dinner with them (Pasta primavera. yum!). We walked two doors down to a cute yellow house that is for sale in our price range. Nae had snooped around the day before and noticed that the back door was unlocked. So yesterday we snuck in and looked around. It's a cute house. It's 3 bedrooms and 2 baths like we want. The size is smallish/average - about 1200 square feet. The backyard isn't any smaller or bigger than we need, and it has a little back deck. The kitchen is a good size and already has a dishwasher. The living room is a little bit small, but i've seen worse. It has a thing in the corner where it looks like a wood stove used to be. The windows are cute, and there's a BIG one in front in the living room. The main downside is that it smells like SMOKE and it was also built in 1970 so there might be some updates that we don't really realize. It looked like the garage might need some work, but the roof looks okay and the carpets seem to be pretty new.

We're going to try to see the house tomorrow with a realtor. I tried to contact our Paradise realtor the other day but I haven't heard back from him, so I'll probably see if our Chico guy can show us. Or, maybe the door will still be unlocked...? :) Ryan is yet to see it, and there is a house in Chico in a good location that we've been contemplating; it just needs a little bit of work. So I guess we have some decisions to make!

After we snooped at the house and ate dinner, it was time to go to see Oma. James got to ride in Aunt Leelee's car!!! :) He's so cute. I showed him that I had glasses, too and he said "they're new like mine are new!" I sang to him on the way there, and he doesn't make me stop like Ryan does. Haha! "Me and you, and you and me... no matter how you toss the dice, it has to be... the only one for me is you, and you for me... so happy togetherrrrrr!"

I had James guess how old Oma was turning, and he settled on "27!!!" Just a few years off. I tried to tell Oma and I'm pretty sure she heard me, but she might've been doing her fake laugh and nod thing she does when she has no idea what you just said. But still, I'm pretty sure she did hear me. :)

We took a few family pictures, visited, watched old family videos. Oma asked if my dad had any more "negatives" left on his camera because she wanted a picture of her flowers. She's probably never heard of a digital camera. We hung out on the "Oma swing" and wondered if it would break since it's 50+ years old, and ate ice cream cake. Oma shared her piece with Joey and he really liked it. He ended up with blue frosting all over his face and even on his ears. It was so sweet to see them together. I can't believe they're 96 years apart! Yikes!