Mother's Day 2009

Mother's Day was low key (just how I like things). Timothy's teacher had the kids make the most amazing mother book (she never stops), and it even had seeds in the back for us to plant together! Timothy & Samantha received this loving email from their Daddy:

Hi kids! It's Daddy!

Today is a special day for mommy. Did you know that today is Mother's Day? That means it's a day to celebrate what a great mommy you have! So please tell mommy you love her today! Say, "I love you mommy!"

I love you both.

Yesterday I contemplated my children and treasured them in my heart...

Timothy-Everywhere we go, he takes his hands and crashes them together in different ways. Most people probably think he's crashing cars or trucks. But I know that he is imagining Super Smash Brothers Brawl. In this game, there are "stages", and they have levels (imagine a 3 story house). Two characters battle. When they hit each other, they knock each other off the stage or sometimes a character jumps high in the sky to avoid dying.

WE DON'T EVEN OWN THIS GAME.

I die when I think about the germs, and I spend a lot of time, telling Timothy not to touch or "You can't do Super Smash in here!". But yesterday when we were on the canned food aisle and canned corn became the most recent stage (with varying heights-it was ideal), I just couldn't help but smile at the fact that this is my son. Something inside of him continually imagines these battles and choreographs them! I'm his mom, so I get that.

Samantha-this is my outdoors girl. I grew up in the suburbs, and really my idea of being outside is walking down the street. Not Samantha. She wants to be IN the dirt, IN the sand, picking flowers, climbing hills. Nothing is too messy for her (unless it's spilled liquid-then cover your ears!)

God is good like that knowing I need tons more outdoor time than I get, and love for my child is the best means of getting me to do something unnatural. So, this weekend we went on a short hike on the Tecolote Canyon. This is a giant canyon here in San Diego, and has tons of trails. It was simple enough that Samantha could walk it herself, and even Timothy & I enjoyed it!

Quotes from the hike:

Timothy-I've never seen a cactus THAT close before.
Samantha (crying)-I want to walk MORE!

We could have walked for hours, and she still would have cried when it was time to stop because she loves being outdoors. I get that and love it about her. I'm her mom.

Weekend Wrapup #11: Catchup

I have been going full speed for quite a while now, but I have spent the entire day today doing nothing structured at all. I've read a novel (in the middle of the day!), snuggled with Samantha on the couch, played Uno & Candyland with Timothy, cleaned house a little, washed some clothes....you get the idea! I had one flyer to create, but other than that I haven't HAD to do anything. It's been so fun! And of course the kids have felt how relaxed I've been, and they've been completely enjoyable all day. So nice!

And then I had a big shock of the day! A couple of hours ago I checked my email, and I had emails from my husband! We haven't had communication for almost a week, and I didn't expect any for several more days. I actually wouldn't be surprised if they shut communication down again! Thankfully, I've had a great coping mechanism this week that has worked, so I will continue to use it if I stop hearing from him again! I've had a much better (calmer) attitude this week than the 8-day silence at the beginning of the deployment.

What a great, relaxing day! Tomorrow I hope to repeat the relaxation AND emails with my husband!

Weekend Wrapup # 10: Weather Differences

A couple of days ago I wrote on my Facebook status that it was a perfectly sunny San Diego day. And my thoughts behind it were that we've had some very overcast days lately, and my friends here would get that it's great for it to finally be bright and springy. So I laughed out loud when my friend, Christi, responded, "It's 20 degrees here!" Yikes! I am not made for that kind of weather. I got another tickle today when I checked Christi's blog to see these pictures and another friend who blogged these pictures. I think I got cold just looking at those (4D blogging!) And this was our weather today...

Would Timothy and Samantha pick building a snowman over blowing bubbles? In a heartbeat!

Weekend Wrapup #9: Newport Beach

We have wonderful friends in Texas who went to Disneyland this week over Spring Break. We met up with them at Newport Beach on Saturday, and even though it was COLD, we all had a wonderful time!




Josh building a sand castle with essentially no tools!


Samantha working on it later...






There's a Ruby's at the end of the pier!


Then we decided to get on the Ferris Wheel. The kids loved it, but Sheila & I were a bit freaked. What was I thinking?

Weekend Wrapup #8: Did You Know?

Last Saturday I went to a children's conference with some women from my church. We got to pick 4 breakout sessions that we wanted to attend, and I learned a great deal that I want to implement at AWANA. During one of the general sessions, they played this video about how technology has changed since the mid-80s and what the future global impact will be of technology. Pretty interesting stats...

Weekend Wrapup #7: Memorial Service

On March 3rd, the husband of one of our MOPS moms, went to be with the Lord. I did not know him, but his wife is an amazing, cheerful woman who exudes the joy of Christ every time I see her. They have two young children, and my heart hurts for her. One thing that always amazes me about being around Christians when death occurs is the reminder that this life is not the end. Those of us who believe that Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead have eternal life! (Romans 10:9, John 3:16)

And this Memorial Service proclaimed that over and over. Perfectly selected song choices and tributes from family and friends (including my friend) made this memorial service a celebration of her husband's life and a worship service to our Heavenly Father. The following song was sung, and because the words are quite poignant I thought I would share them...

Find Us Faithful

We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness
Passed on through godly lives

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover
And the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them
To the road we each must find

Repeat Chorus Twice

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

Words and Music by Jon Mohr
Copyright 1988 Music/Jonathan Mark Music (admin. By The Sparrow Corp.) All Rights Reserved. International Copyright secured.

Weekend Wrapup #6: Mamma Mia!

February 28th, a friend of mine and I watched Mamma Mia. Talk about torture. I know several people who liked it, but I'm not one of them. It had vulgar moments that didn't have to be there, terrible singing (why can't Pierce Brosnan just go back to being Remington Steele?), and random songs that didn't even relate to what was going on. I did not like it.

Weekend Wrapup #5

I'm backtracking big time, but when this deployment is over I want to look back and read about each weekend, so here goes...

Saturday, Feb 21st was our AWANA Games competition. Timothy has 2 characteristics that work against eachother. He is extremely competitive, but like many SPD children, he lacks coordination. Our parenting philosophy is two fold: 1) practice makes perfect (which Timothy has actually started to quote!) and 2) let him lose until he learns that winning is not everything in life. Timothy was disappointed that our team didn't win at the games, but he recovered in a shorter amount of time than the last time he didn't win. We call that progress!

Sunday, Feb 22nd I had a cookie exchange (or combining) with other wives from Dan's ship, and we mailed the division a bunch of cookies. I haven't heard anything about the package, so I think they STILL haven't gotten them. Think they'll be good?

Weekend Wrapup #4: I Just Needed 10 Minutes

By 1:00 on Saturday,I had listened to Samantha cry or whine for 18 hours, and I thought I was going out of my mind. Still complaining about her skinned hand from Friday, she had a new cough and a bloody nose from a fall earlier in the day. You could have told her she was getting ice cream, and she would have found a way to cry about it.

When I dropped Timothy off for AWANA games practice, I knew I couldn't sit there the whole hour watching him and listening to her wail. I thought the best bet was for Sam and I to at least go somewhere, get some drinks and kill time. But then she started crying because she had to go back to the car. After getting us both buckled, I sat there because I knew it wasn't safe for me to drive until she stopped crying!

Just then, my PRECIOUS friend Demi showed up to drop her son off. She came over to the car, thinking she was just coming to chit chat. All I could get out was, "She's been crying for 36 hours" before I lost it. Demi said, "Samantha, would you like to go for a walk? Alicia, you just stay here as long as you need." I didn't argue. I didn't say I was okay. I didn't even say...

I just need 10 minutes.

But that's all I needed. I sat there and let myself cry over nothing really but the incessant whining of a 3 year old. But that's what I needed to do. And once I had cried HARD for 5 minutes or so I took another few minutes to pull myself together. Then, I could look at my daughter once again. No, the rest of the day was not cry free, but because a friend cared enough to take my child for 10 minutes when I needed it most, I could manage it.

I had to let myself be helped.

Weekend Wrapup #3: Sick Kids

I was supposed to go to a Jeans & Jewels fundraiser at our CF foundation office. Oh, and I SO wanted to go (insert pout), but there is NO way I would expose CF kids to the germs of my two. I also needed to drop off our first GREAT STRIDES donation!!! We'll be kicking it off very soon, but Dan was busy before he left!

The one thing we did on Saturday was go to AWANA games practice. While Timothy was running around, my friend Demi and I organized our AWANA Sparks stuff. The church bought new cabinets, so this was a perfect time to really know what materials we have! Organizing like this is so totally my idea of fun (as indicated by my Org Junkie link ups!) I think I found markers in 8 different plastic containers. I'm all about consolidation!

I had a much quieter Sat this week due to sick kiddos. I've now made it through 3 Saturdays!

Weekend Wrapup #2: Girl Night

We started our Sat with a trip to the library. Each kid picked out a Veggie Tales movie (this is fairly standard), and I checked out several books by Denise Fleming, an author that is new to me. I'll be reviewing those soon.

After that we attended another birthday party. It was a beautiful day in San Diego, and the kids played so happily! I actually got to talk to other moms for almost 2 hours straight! So fun! I'm going on my 4th day of no communication at all with Dan, so adult conversations are precious!

Sat night one of my best girlfriends from church came over to play! There is a father/son retreat at our church this weekend, so she was available! We put the kids down and had girl time! We watched Bend It Like Beckham-great movie.

Of course today is the Super Bowl! I am watching it for the football, and from what I've seen so far I think the commercials may be slim pickings this year. Hopefully, the really funny ones haven't been released yet, but here are a couple of good Pepsi commercials...

Good luck Arizona!

Weekend Wrapup #1: Keeping Busy

I just made it through my first week with a deployed spouse and most importantly I made it through my first Saturday! I find that day the hardest because it's the only day of the week that I don't have a regularly scheduled event. So I'm going to start highlighting our Saturday activities, and it may also include Sunday here and there.

Yesterday was busy...

We started the festivities with a birthday party. We are quite blessed to live in very nice military housing that has playgrounds every few blocks. There is such a nice community atmosphere here, and lots of people host b-day parties at these play areas. It's always fun to walk to a birthday party!

We left from there and went to AWANA Games practice. Yes, our AWANA Sparks and T&T kids will compete against other AWANA groups in Feb, but we have to practice before then! The first hour they walked all over campus (very hilly) balancing bean bags on their heads, and then the 2nd hour they practiced the games. Timothy was intense. Samantha played with all the excess toys, and then she took a snack break. She is meticulous about her orange peeling!

And if that wasn't enough to wear them out, I took them to the YMCA last night! Samantha fell asleep on the way there and Timothy was asleep when I picked them up. He never falls asleep like that-he was exhausted.

I signed them up at the Y because I was invited to a White Elephant party. I got one of the more normal gifts...a snow globe. Someone received 90210 Season 3. That's funny. The party was a lot of fun.

I also put my foot down about an ongoing issue of music in our car. The kids always ask to skip this song or that song (usually because it's slow), and I finally made a "no skipping" rule. Timothy caught it the first time, but Samantha is still learning.

We have a new "favorite" Veggie Tales cd called The Incredible Singing Christmas Tree. You can click on the link to hear excerpts. Make sure you listen to #7! Timothy has now decided to assign us all parts. He says that when Daddy comes home he can be Mr. Lunt!