Bus Ride

Well, we are back from our little trips, and they were both a lot of fun! Andrew and the boys had a fun time at the zoo, all I really got out of them is that Jacob cried every time they went into see the baby elephant because it smelled so bad. As soon as Andrew would walk back in, he would cry again! I went with the boys to see the baby elephant a few weeks ago, but I'm sure it's getting big already!

My trip went really well. All three teams won their games, so that was good, and it was a good trip on the bus. I'm not really one of those people that always says that God talks to them, because truth be told, I don't feel like He does. This could be because I'm not listening, but that's not my point in the story now. When offered this position of coaching at the high school, I told the varsity coach straight up that my main goal was not going to be to teach the girls volleyball skills, but rather I just really wanted to make an impact on the girls for the Lord. I felt like God really opened up that opportunity to me, and that was my purpose for this season. I have had a blast coaching and really enjoyed my group of girls, and there have been little ways that I have felt I have impacted them, but nothing major until last night.

When I was in the shower after Andrew left with the boys for the zoo, getting ready for my trip, I really felt like the Lord spoke to me. I felt like he told me to go to the back of the bus (where the girls sit) on the way home from the game. Ok, no biggie, I can do that. So, after our game, I was sitting up front with the other coaches for the first few minutes of the trip, and then went back to the back of the bus. I was looking for an open seat and saw one--one seat. "Wow, how easy is this, God?" I knew exactly where I was supposed to go. I sat down with that girl and just started chatting, no biggie. About twenty minutes into our conversation and sharing of "cool" new music, she just started crying. At this point I was thinking that it was what God wanted me to come back there and do, and thought it was cool. Well, after really listening to her heart, another girl was crying and wanted to share her story. Then another. And another. I got to share my story, which led to yet another girl sharing her story. I swear it was the coolest thing ever! We were all just bawling (can you tell we are a bunch of girls?) over listening to the deep wounds and scars that our teammates have endured, and are enduring at this very time. It was such an amazing time of bonding and witnessing where God was glorified and shared with all the girls there. There were fifteen girls for the last two hours of our trip that really got to open up and just be listened to. It was such a powerful time, I remember looking outside the big windows several times to the moon behind the spotted clouds and feeling overwhelmed with a sense of awe with God. I could almost see the angels that were surrounding and guarding that bus as Satan's grip got weaker and weaker of a hold on these girls.

One of the coolest things too was how one of the really "tough" girls from the other team who I have had some attitude problems with joined in our conversation after listening and crying for an hour. At the end of our bus ride, she said that she felt like we were a big family now, which was amazing considering there have been issues between her and some girls on my team! It ended up being a good mixture of girls from different teams too, which was also a great time of bonding. It's really hard to explain here all of my feelings, but perhaps the best way I can make you understand is that it was like that one night at camp where everyone opens up and God really moves. The night that makes everything worth the whole week at camp? Yeah, that one. God is good.

Day Trips

I'm off to Redmond for a volleyball match. Why to Redmond? I'm really not sure! We better win after driving all that way! I'll be gone from now til after midnight, so Andrew has the boys all day. He just left for the zoo with the boys (we have a zoo pass from Grammy and Pops for Noah's birthday), but I'm a little nervous about Jacob, this will be his first time away from me for that long. I have a ton of bottles for him, but he never takes those as well. I guess we'll see how it goes!

On another note, our car broke down yesterday...we are waiting to hear back on how much it's going to be, but we're to the point where we are thinking about just getting a new car instead of fixing this car I've had since high school...but it's paid for...and we weren't planning on buying a car 'til next year, so don't have our car fund completely built up and are really trying not to get into debt...what to do, what to do?

I play?

We had a good weekend, I got to scrapbook the cutest pages ever on Friday night until 2am, then had to get up at 6:30 for a volleyball tournament that lasted 12 hours, but we took third, it was our first loss of the season, but we're still undefeated in league play, so that's good. I was so proud of my girls, they are such a great group, we lost to Westview in three: we won the first 25-23, lost the second 26-28, and lost the third 16-18. As you can see they were all such close games, they were so fun! If we would have won we would have played Central Catholic, one of the top three teams in the state, and after seeing them play, I know my girls could have beat them! Next year I guess! We all went to church on Sunday together with some friends, then over to their house for real Mexican food after--it was awesome! I got another lesson done in my online class, which means I only have two left! I'm going to work on one today, so hopefully this week I'll be officially graduated!

Last night we were just hanging out after the kids had been in bed for about an hour, so Andrew asked if we wanted to play a game of dominoes. No one was too excited about dominoes--at least no one down stairs! We decided on playing Farkel, one of my parents favorite dice games and were getting ready to play when Noah walks up and says, "I play? I play dominoes?" This had been after a full hour of him being put down, he must have heard Andrew ask about dominoes, and decided he wanted to come down and play! It was so cute, but I had to be the mean one and say no. We comprimised and let him take a train to bed with him (from Grammy) and we set the dominoes out for the morning.

7:30 roles around this morning, and can you guess what the first thing he says is? "I play dominoes?" And play dominoes we did.

These pictures are from the Dalia Festival this summer.

Jealous?

Sometimes I get caught up in the craziness of life. Beds unmade, naked boys, music playing, giggles, wrestling around, nothing accomplished, laundry all over the floor, noise galore, but you know what? I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Wii Golf and Speaker Phone

Well, we made it through a crazy busy day today, and the boys were amazing! Everything went really well. While driving from one location to the next Noah kept asking to call his uncles, which was so cute cause we weren't even talking, just listening to music and he says, "Noah call Uncle Jared." Then after Jared, of course he wanted to talk to Lukie and Jakey too. I would dial and put him on speaker phone and let him talk while holding the phone. They can't always understand what he's saying so there's a little interpretation required. After he was done talking, I just had to tell them to hang up because I couldn't reach the phone while I was driving and he didn't want to give it back to me! Then at the stoplights I would get my phone back when I could reach him:) He sure loves his Uncles and talks about them and looks at pictures all the time! He always wants to call them now.

Tonight when we got home after grocery shopping (which came after our small group, so after 10) we asked what the boys did with my parents while they were watching them. The usual, volleyball, books, and playing around. Plus, my dad played Wii golf with Noah.

As many of you already know, we can not get Noah to sit down for longer then 5 minutes to watch tv. Sometimes we can push ten with Finding Nemo or Thomas, but Noah justs doesn't have the attention span, he likes to be moving and busy, which is great, except for when you just need a little break during the day. Except for playing on the Wii. He will play for a whole half hour, which is amazing when you have things to do. (who says tv isn't a good babysitter?) Anyways, so he and my dad played together, and guess who won...good guess...Noah! I just thought that was so funny! Here's a little clip I took a few days ago of him playing in the basement.

New Friends

It's been a busy week so far, like always. We are all pretty much better after being sick for a good week and a half, so that is nice. I started working out again today and felt good to be back in the swing of things. When I don't get that workout in it throws everything off!

We also have finally met some new friends in our neighborhood, they live a few houses down and have two little kids each a year older then my two. They seem like such a sweet and relaxed family that we could get along with really well. We had them over for dinner a few nights ago, have already started swapping childcare, and have been for walks and had a picnic at the park. It's nice to know another mom who is home during the day that we can play with. Noah and Elijah ride their scooters all the time together to the park up the street, and they make each other belly-laugh, which is funny to see Noah at that developmental level, joking around with other kids! Today at the park Noah and Ester, the 1 1/2 year old girl were drinking out of the lower drinking fountain which is normally for dogs! It was so cute that we let them keep going, it's a brand new park, so hopefully it wasn't too gross yet... They drank so much water, Noah's diaper was totally filled when we got home:)

Tomorrow I am gone from 8:30am to 9 at night, so it will be a long day for all of us. I have Bible study, babysitting, volleyball, and our new lifegroup (couples small group with our new church). There will be 15 minutes after volleyball where I will be home to drop off the boys and eat a quick dinner, can anyone say pizza? Andrew's in school all day Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he'll fly home to meet me for our small group. He has his first test tomorrow, but he's done such a good job of studying. Tonight I quizzed him and he got 100%! I have more videos to post of the boys, but it will have to come later...too much going on!

Fishing with Uncle Jared

Well, we had a fishing afternoon, but it wasn't quite the day we imagined. After church we headed up to the lake to rent a boat for the afternoon. My parents had called in the morning to make sure there were going to be boats available, and they said it wouldn't be a problem getting one, but we could only reserve one if we were paying for the whole day, which we weren't. So we drove up there only to find all the boats taken, go figure. So, we decided to have our picnic and throw rocks into the lake and then go fishing from the shore.

Uncle Jared spent the night with Noah, so he joined us on our adventure. Here are some great pics of him and the boys. And I'm sure it goes without saying that he did make fun of Jacob's big head, and I quote, "Wow, Jacob, you must have really strong neck muscles to hold up that huge head of yours!" What can I say, our boys do have huge heads! Jared tells the best stories, so we enjoyed talking with Jared and catching up with him!




During the fishing part of our afternoon, we all walked over to Small Fry, which is a little part of the lake that they stock for anglers under 14 learning how to fish. We were there for about 45 minutes and Noah only had one bite. There wasn't too much activity, but we were also there in the middle of the day, not the best time for fishing. Finally, Noah caught a fish and we all were in shock for a second! When Noah was reeling in his fish, I don't think he really knew what was going on since he had five adults yelling and screaming in excitement:) I grabbed the video camera as fast as I could and got it just as he was pulling the fish out of the water. He didn't really like the fish all that much, at least he freaked out when he didn't want to touch it--until of course the car ride home when he asked to touch the fishy. See for yourselves in our clip of the afternoon with Jared. Thanks again Grammy, Auntie Karen, and Mom Mom for the video camera, we are loving using it and documenting all the special moments with the boys! The video is at the bottom, when I was importing it it came in with a few choppy parts, I'm not sure why, but I didn't want to take the time to fix it, so sorry!