The things children say

I love the things children say, especially when the words seems so grown up and they are so little. I just read Jamie's blog where Emily said "now I have my ticket to Heaven." It filled my heart and made me smile. Today in the car driving back from Kids Kingdom, Rebekah put her hand on my arm and said, " Mom, I apologize for everything since I was born." I cracked up laughing. Now if you know Rebekah, you understand why that is funny. Rebekah is our most trying child we have. She is extremely persistant, and headstrong. She can negotiate like nobody's business. So I told her apology accepted and continued to drive home, with my heart filled with life's simple little blessings.

Go Karts Part 2

Ok so Tim took his office staff to Need 2 Speed today for a meeting and some racing. I was going to go along so that I could take pictures, however my wonderful, super sweet loving husband said that he'd video tape and I could race. YES!

Everyone who was going was pretty excited. Few had never been there before. Then there's Chris. Hardcore racer. And don't forget his brother Mark. The first race we had was a warm up. Mark took first place in that race. Then the second race we had Chris took first place. Surprisingly Holly our office manager took 3rd place in the first race. As for me, I took 6th place both races. =( Guess I need some more practice. Overall we had a blast.

Go Karts!

Amy and I had the opportunity to ride the Go-Karts at Need 2 Speed.
If you've never done this, I highly reccomend it! I absolutely LOVED it.
(When I drove my Pontiac Grand Prix, my kids were constantly reminding me "Mom, your not a race car driver.")
If I ever had the chance to go one one of those Fantasy Vacation Camps, I would choose race car driving.

These area few pictures of my cousin Amy and I out on the lake. I haven't seen Amy since I was 7 years old and she came to live with us for a while.
We did many things this week, indoor go-karts, hiking to Mossbrae Falls in Dunsmuir, visiting her father in Mt.Shasta, Sundial bridge and Turtle Bay Museum.
We had some minor communication difficulties, I wish my signing was better so that I could talk about more in depth subjects.

Magic Word

Yesterday morning after dropping my son off at summer school, (school starts at 7:30am) my daughter Rebekah asked if we could stay home today and watch movies. It seems like most of the day we are driving from place to place getting errands done. So I told her alright. She fell back to sleep on my bed for a couple of hours, allowing me to get some things done, and shower.
When she woke I told her come on lets get ready to go, she replied, "Mom, you said that we could just stay home and watch movies today, where are we going?" I said, "We're going to Costco with Grammy." Rebekah- " I'm up!" It seems like those are magic words in this family. Whether it is Lets go to Grammy's house, or we're going shopping with Grammy. The kids always get excited to be with Grammy. She is like their own Fairy Godmother or something. Grammy caters to their every need, or desire. She always listens to them, and what they've done with great enthusiasm. She shows extreme patience and love towards them, and always makes them feel extra special. That is just one reason she is my mentor.

My Garden

Every morning I go out to my garden and check things out, see how big the plants have grown since yesterday, see if there are any bad bugs eating them. This is my first garden, so I'm pretty excited to watch my veggies grow. I've never really had a place for a garden, so when we had our backyard re-landscaped last Fall, they put in a raised flower bed. It's only about 2 1/2 feet wide, but about 25 feet long. I don't really have a green thumb, I usually neglect plants, forgetting to water them, and not giving them fertilizer.

Jesus uses gardening practices in many of his teachings. One of my favorites is the parable of the sower Matthew 13. We simply can't just throw out seed and expect it to grow. We must take care of it, water it daily, nurture it until it produces fruit. Last night at Bible study Joel used an illustration that we must become sponges filled with water, not dry and empty, so that we have something to pour out onto others.

Those words really inspired me to do some self-reflection on if I am really filled with the water of life, or am I dry, having nothing to give.

Kung Fu Panda

So I took Rebekah to see Kung Fu Panda today. She enjoyed the movie, but don't ask me how it was, I fell asleep. Slept through most of it too. As you can see from my 1am blogs and comments, I have sleeping issues. I haven't always had them. I used to be a heavy sleeper.

I can remember when Kayleigh and Brandon were babies it would take every ounce of energy to wake myself up and take care of them. I think one reason is when Tim had sleeping issues I kind of took it on as well. He sleeps better now, Praise God. However about 4 times a week I'm up for several hours in the middle of the night. I probably should use my time better than I do, I usually watch tv desperately trying to fall asleep, or I go on the computer.