Half Way

Yesterday (Friday) we left Pleasanton around 2pm. We made a stop in Ripon to say goodbye to our friends.        And then we set off for our big journey home.  On the way out of California we were able to drive through Yosemite again.  How majestic!  The scenery is stunning in that area.  After California we drove into Nevada.  Let me just tell you....there is nothing in Nevada!  It is beautiful, but we drove for hundreds of miles before we saw a car or any sign of life.  Unfortunately we drove some of that into the night, which was scary.  I guess the wild horses, cow and deer can cause bad car accidents.  I prayed constantly the whole way.   We stopped at a hotel around 11:00 that night and slept for a while.  We woke up early in the morning and started off again.  While driving in the daylight we did have to slow down for cows crossing the interstate.  That was a new sight to see. Finally (on Saturday), we crossed Nevada....crossed Utah....and arrived in Breckenridge, Colorado. We got a beautiful condo to stay in for a very reasonable price. Tomorrow we will see our friends from Denver and spend the day with them here.  


The trip was exhausting, but the kids did an amazing job travelling.  They were so good and did not complain much at all.  It is fun to see everyone's personalities come out when we are on a trip.  Mya has to go to the bathroom ALL the time....Sara NEVER has to go.  Dan and I have the travelling set up all figured out by now.  He drives almost all of it.  I sit in the passenger seat and take care of the kids.  It is better this way.  When he is in the passenger seat....because he is so tall....he has a heck of a time turning around and tending to the kids.  It just frustrates him.  He does much better with the driving.  Even though I am horrible with directions, I am a very good navigator (I think) in the car.  I do well with the IPad and giving directions to Dan.  So we just work this way.  Except, when I am in the passenger seat I have to be the photographer too.  Now this I get tired of because Dan just loves scenery.  He thinks everything is beautiful.  And he thinks everything needs to have its picture taken.  So he likes to pull off the side of the road and kindly ask me to jump out and take a picture.  When he looks at me with those excited eyes I can't say no.  So that is how we roll on our trips.  It is entertaining and it works well for us.  


And now for all the pictures that we took.  Dan did take some when I complained about getting out of the car because it was too cold for me....so I have to give him some credit for the good ones.  We did get some beauties.

I finally got a salad to eat!  I missed my veggies so much!

Patience IS A Virtue

Yesterday was move out day. We waited all week for the day to arrive. The girls and I cleaned for the morning and then walked to Wal-Mart and the park. Then we had a picnic outside for lunch. I tried to keep us out of the house as much as I could since everything was clean. After lunch we went back to the apartment, put Chloe down for a nap and the girls watched a movie while I took a nap. And then....the waiting began! The rental furniture was to be picked up between 2:00 and 6:00. I just love those large windows of time. I was optimistic and hoped they would come closer to 2, but that didn't happen. The girls and I played outside while we waited. Dan came home around 4 and still there was no moving truck. So we waited some more. I wish I could say I waited patiently, but when you have 3 hungry children and no snacks and you are tired from packing and cleaning....you tend to be on the irritable side. I tried so hard, but my attitude wasn't the greatest towards the movers. While Dan waited at the apartment with Mya.... Sara, Chloe and I checked in at the hotel in Pleasanton. On the way there, I was listening to a local Christian radio. The pastor was retelling the story in Matthew 8 of the disciples who were in the boat with Jesus. A big storm came and they found Jesus sleeping. They woke him up asking about the storm. They questioned Him and asked to be saved because they were perishing. He said, "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?" Their faith was shaken in the midst of the storm. Those verses really spoke to me and put my attitude back in line. Yes....it was hard to wait. Yes....the day didn't go as planned. And yes....it was frustrating for us all. But, in the midst of our tough day I could choose to question what God was doing or I could choose to see the blessings of the day. What a great lesson! To end the story, the movers finally came around 7:45 that night. But they did make it and our apartment was emptied. We spent the night in a nice hotel and ate take out from PF Changs. Yes...there were many blessings. This morning before Dan left for work he signed a contract for a job in Columbus. He will start in two weeks. We are thankful for the location of this job.

Last Nights

I distinctly remember what it felt like when I was experiencing my last nights in our house last year...before we left for California.  I remember the excitement and the anxiety that comes with a big change like that.  I was exhausted from packing up the house and didn't really enjoy our last nights there.  I was scared about our move.  I was unsure of how it would work out.  But somehow I managed to keep the faith in what God was doing.  And now here we are experiencing our last nights in California.  Quite a difference!  I am NOT exhausted and I am NOT full of anxiety.  That part is nice!  I am excited and can't wait for Friday to come.  And thank goodness I STILL have faith in what God is doing and what He already has done.  I look back on the year and marvel at how wonderful He is.  By the way, this isn't my final blog entry just yet.  I have been working on the last entry for a while now and won't post it until we arrive home.  I want to be sure to journal about our trip home and share pictures of what we see.  Right now we are unsure of our trip to Colorado due to the fires.  I guess we won't know until we leave....depends on how much the fires have spread by then. The girls have been praying often for the fire and for the policemen who are fighting them (I keep telling them they are called firefighters) and for the people who are losing their homes.  They are very worried about it all.  The other prayer right now involves Dan's job.  He will be staying with the travel company and commuting to a job for at least two more contracts (contracts are 3 months at a time).  We hope to have the debt done by Christmas so that is why he is staying with the company for a while.  After Christmas we will reevaluate and see how he and I liked the commuting and if he wants to do more of it.  We continue to make sacrifices even though we are moving back home.  Having Dan gone more hours of the day...and maybe some nights during the week...will be an adjustment for us.  Mya starts kindergarten in the Fall so that will keep us busy too.  I am very committed to picking and choosing my volunteer opportunities very wisely as I have learned a BIG lesson from being with the girls for an entire year with no other commitments.  That changed my life.  Stay tuned as we leave on Friday and begin our journey home.  Our first stop before we leave California will be Yosemite...again!

The Travelling Family

I can't believe that in four sleeping nights we will be on the road home.  The girls count sleeping nights when they are looking forward to doing something.  That makes the most sense to them.  In college, I had a roommate who counted sleeping nights until she was able to see her boyfriend.  I guess that concept stuck with me and I carried it on to my kids.  The apartment is a disaster right now as I unload every cupboard and closet and clean in every nook and cranny.  I am getting good at doing this.  But this time it is much more exciting.  We have plans to leave around noon on Friday and drive as far as we can until night.  Then we will get a hotel and set out the next morning to drive all day.  We will arrive in Breckenridge, CO sometime Saturday evening.  On Sunday, we are going to spend the day with our friends who live in Denver.  We haven't seen them in a very long time so we are excited. We hope to stay in Colorado for a couple days and then finish the second half of our drive home.  There might be a chance that we can meet Dan's recruiter on the way home too.  So we will arrive in Ashland some time next week.....not quite sure when.  It is kind of fun to not have a schedule while travelling.  When we drove out here we were on quite a time crunch.  However, my only stipulation is that we are home by Saturday the 7th because I have a hair appointment scheduled.  And that is of dire importance!!!

Last California Play Date

We spent the morning with our Pleasanton friends.  We will see them tomorrow at MOPS, but today was our last "official" play date together.  The girls will miss playing with "the boys!"  And I will miss my friendship with Stephanie.  Thank you God for putting these wonderful people in our lives while we were here.

Weekend with Friends

Our much anticipated weekend finally arrived.  Our friends from Porterville drove up here to stay with us at our apartment for four days.  It was a house full of girls….five girls, 5 years and under, and of course the two mommies.  The daddies were a bit outnumbered.  When they arrived on Thursday we spent lots of time catching up….it has been four months since we have been in Porterville and seen the people that we got close to.  On Friday, Jennifer and I took the girls to the Oakland zoo for the afternoon.  That was a fun experience for the kids.  The animals were very active that day so that made it enjoyable. Friday night we had pizza and took the kids to the playground.  The daddies played some basketball while the girls played.  Saturday morning we woke up and Dan had to take the car to the repair shop because we had a leaky tire.  Luckily Isaac knows car stuff so he accompanied Dan.  To our delight the car mechanic didn’t charge Dan for fixing the tire.  When they got home we piled into our cars and drove to San Francisco.  Unfortunately we hit traffic before we crossed the bridge…which was frustrating.  But finally, we made it to our favorite spot at Fisherman’s Wharf.  We had lunch at a crab restaurant and were delighted to help Isaac and Jennifer order and eat crab for the first time.  They loved it!  After lunch we took a bay cruise…the ferry took us around Alcatraz Island and under the Golden Gate Bridge.  Then we paid our $32 parking fee (oh yes!) and got back in our cars to continue on our adventure.  We stopped in Walnut Creek and ate ice cream at the famous San Francisco Creamery.  And then….we headed home to put the kids to bed.  We are exhausted, but had a wonderful time.  Tomorrow we are taking our friends to church with us and then they leave for Porterville and we say our goodbyes for a while. 

At the zoo, Mya was fascinated with the chimpanzees

Best friends....

This little guy was enjoying his day just hanging from the tree

All the girls

Me and Jennifer

Sweet Sara

Neva and Sara

I can't forget to include baby Kaylee in the pictures

The scenic view of Oakland from the train that we took at the zoo

The whole Dungeness Crab....yum!

On the ferry boat

Guest Blogger..."Dan the Man"

I got Dan to agree to serve as a guest blogger for me on our blog.  I thought it would be neat for all fellow blog readers to hear some of his thoughts since you have listened to me for the past year.  So sit back and enjoy some of Dan’s insights about our time away!

What have you learned the most while travelling?

I guess that God’s plans aren’t always our plans.  We did this trip specifically for the financial goal to get out of debt but God has worked in my life and taught me other things that I wasn’t expecting. He taught me to be less selfish with my time. He taught me how important it is to be there for the girls and Julie. One of the biggest lessons was my anger and frustration for ending up here (in Pleasanton) and not being able to save money to pay on our mortgage. I was really focused on the money only. Then one Sunday I really felt the Holy Spirit’s presence and He convicted me to let all that go. He was teaching me that it’s not all about the money.  Financial gain can be a blessing, but it wasn’t the soul reason why we were placed here.  On another topic, I also learned a lot about parenting techniques.  We experimented with some new approaches and developed a better idea of what works and what doesn’t work with our kids. We learned to use discernment and look at where their hearts are at when disciplining. And finally, while being away from family we grew closer together and blended better as a family unit.

What was the most memorable time?

The feeling of freedom and excitement while driving out to California for the first time. We were taking a step of faith and knew that we were in God’s will.  It was exhilarating to take the step and actually do this.  I’ll never forget what that felt like.

Our vacations in San Diego and Disneyland.  I surfed for the first time at Huntington Beach and that was a blast. We also had fun on special trips like Yosemite, Highway 1 and Monterey Bay.

On our way out to California, we had so much fun spending time with the Cutlip family in Arizona.

We met some wonderful friends in California that we are going to really miss.  We developed some relationships with some amazing Christian friends (the Chavez family and the Householder family).  Their support and friendship definitely made this trip memorable.

What was the most difficult time?

When things weren’t good at work in Stockton.  I came up against an ethical issue and I felt like I wasn’t performing at the level that I was expected to because I was trying to do the right thing. 

Being away from family and not having support for me and Julie to get away and “date.”

Seeing Julie feel lonely…like in Stockton and Pleasanton when I had to take the car to work.  I didn’t like watching things be hard for her. Praise God for two cars when we get back home!

How do you think the kids have grown since you have been gone?

I think they have all matured a lot in their own way.  I have seen big changes with Mya’s social skills. Sara has come out of her shell while playing with other kids. Chloe is becoming such a little person.  You can see her ornery personality coming out. Their hearts are growing more towards Christ and wanting to do good things. I see their hearts growing in the midst of their sin.

How has this travelling adventure impacted your marriage?

I think it has made us stronger as a couple. Julie has always been my best friend and this time only made us stronger.

Is there anything else you want to share?

I just want to praise God and thank him for the gifts that He has given me and trusted me with (the kids and especially Julie). I am so thankful for Julie’s heart that she has to grow in her relationship with Christ and also as a wife and mother. I want to thank her for all the support that she has given me this last year with the job and doing this whole trip. I can’t think of many people at all that would even consider doing something like this let alone trust me that this was God’s will for us and our family.  She went through this with such a good attitude and a good heart. I don’t mean to paint Julie as a saint but she is pretty close in my book.  This whole year has been a blessing to me on so many different levels and I praise God for the opportunity to be able to do this with my family.  We are so excited to go back home and be reunited with our family and sleep in our own beds again.

Give, Save, Spend

It is pretty cool when your children get to an age where they start to "get it." Whatever you have been working so hard to teach them will eventually click. I just wasn't sure when that would start to happen. We are finally seeing that Mya is making a connection with our teachings. We work very hard to link the kids' behaviors with their hearts. We try to take it back to a heart level and see what is going on there. And of course that leads us to teaching bible verses or lessons that correspond with current challenges. One of the big things with Mya lately is teaching her how to treat others. We direct her often to the bible verse that talks about treating others the way you want to be treated. So today, at rest time, I told the girls they could watch a movie. If or when they start to argue over something, which they did over choosing the movie, I take the item of dispute away and have them sit on the couch side by side. I have them take some moments of silence until they are ready to go back to the item and talk about it with a good attitude. Of course, the final resolution involves one of them putting the other first. This is a great lesson to learn. So today I went through the motions over the movie dispute and finally Sara said she would put Mya first. However, this has been happening often and Mya typically gets her own way. So I intervened and told them that maybe they could find another solution. I waited them out a few minutes and watched Mya carefully look through the movies...unsure of what she was thinking. Finally she broke the silence and said out loud to herself, "Treat others the way I want to be treated....that means I should probably put Sara first today. I would want her to do that for me so that would be a good choice." Really??? I just love it when they "get it" on their own. It was a proud moment. Also, last week Mya had a mini meltdown in the store because I wouldn't buy her a toy. She just HAD to have a mini Tinkerbell doll. So Dan and I decided it was time for her to start earning money so she can save for what she wants to buy. I set up a job chart for her and she saves her money for the week. Then on Sunday she tithes her 10%. It was pretty cool to see her give an offering today all by herself. And she has taken such ownership of doing her jobs everyday. She is sure to remind me that we need to pay her at the end of the day for her give, save, and spend jar. This parenting thing can be pretty fun!

City Date

For Father's Day I decided it would be nice to plan a "date night" for me and Dan. It has been a very long time since we went on a date. So I got a referral from the church of a high schooler who came highly recommended. Well, our night finally arrived and we ventured into the city together....with no kids in tow. We decided to ride the train rather than drive so we could enjoy our conversation and sit close together. It was very nice! Once we arrived in San Francisco we welcomed the culture again. Our first fun "sighting" was the naked guy again. Only this time he was on rollerblades. And he had people around him chatting with him....how do you do that when he's naked? We continued on our walk to Fisherman's Wharf, one of our favorite places in the city, and decided to catch a ride with a man who rides his bicycle and pulls a double seated cart behind. We thought....why not?....it is a date after all. The guy was hilarious. He had a heavy accent, threatened to run over pedestrians as we rode along, and spoke multiple languages. Every time he saw a Chinese person he would start rambling in Chinese. And then he would mock other bicycle workers who didn't have any customers. But the best part was when we told him we didn't have cash to pay him. He rode us inside a building and pulled right up alongside an ATM machine. So funny! Once he dropped us off at our destination we had a wonderful dinner at a seafood restaurant. It was so good to have a quiet evening together. On our way home....we decided to walk instead of hitch a ride with the biker guy.....we saw a random thing. A guy was pushing a girl in a shopping cart on the sidewalk. They were having a blast...but I want to know where in the world the shopping cart came from in downtown San Francisco? Things like that just make us laugh. All in all it was a fun time and the girls did great with the babysitter. Tomorrow...the actual Father's Day...we will enjoy a day at home and finally give Dan his gifts. Mya has had a very hard time waiting. And I am proud of Sara for keeping them a secret.

Upcoming Transition

Today I filled out the change of address form to switch our address from here to home. That was odd to do. It has felt like a long three months here waiting for the travel home day to arrive. And now that it is coming......in 2 weeks!......I find that I have mixed emotions. Coming home will be amazing, seeing family and friends will be wonderful, and living in our house will be so "homey." Coming home is what I am so excited to do. But if I am being honest...I will miss California. I am a fan of Ohio, but the scenery in California just doesn't compare. So it will be an adjustment to live away from the mountains and ocean. I will surely miss it. Dan and I have created an active family so we like the hiking, exploring and adventures. This lifestyle here has been very fun. Since I have met a friend this month I have seen the "bay area" like never before. She has shown me some of the most beautiful sights. Just yesterday we took the kids on a train and saw a breathtaking view of the bay and city. Unfortunately it was hazy so I didn't take any pictures. But a picture wouldn't have done it justice anyway. For the past year we have spent most of our weekends exploring. It will be an adjustment.....bitter sweet. We leave on Friday the 29th and will spend a few days in Colorado. Leading up to our departure....the weekend before...our friends from Porterville will be coming to stay with us here. We have a very fun agenda to end our final two weeks here. For that I am glad!

Solution

The day after I wrote the blog post about Mya's sleeping concerns we decided to let Mya and Sara sleep together. We weren't sure how that would work, but Mya loves to have a warm body in her bed. So we went with it. She has done wonderful since then! In fact, she is the one who falls to sleep right away. She has her Jim Brickman playing on the IPad on the nightstand and her Sara in her bed. She is content. The only reason I was ever having her take naps was because she slept few hours at night, woke up extremely early and had dark circles under her eyes. This wasn't everyday, but it happened a couple times a week. Mya quit taking naps at 3 years old....so she has never been a sleeper. And typically she watches a movie or reads books during nap time. But I started to get concerned with her body not getting the rest it needed so that is when the nap struggles started. But it looks like we have a solution for now! Of course it reminds me of when I was little. I slept with my sister until I was in high school, I think. I know....so embarrassing! Even though I had my own room, I still had to sleep with her. Poor thing! I annoyed her and talked to her and did obnoxious things until I fell asleep at night. It must have been torture for her, but it was so good for me. Hopefully Mya doesn't do the same thing to Sara. Although, it might be Sara bothering Mya because Mya falls to sleep so fast now. Time will tell!

The Bay Area

We were told that living in the "bay area" would be amazing.....and we would nod our head and agree.  And then we moved here and started exploring.  It is amazing and beautiful and amazing!  We had the opportunity to go to a children's discovery museum located right on the bay....beside the Golden Gate Bridge.  The kids had fun exploring, but I was amazed at the scenery.  It was a very fun day.