I'm Back

I have returned after going to the battlefield and returning wounded but recoverable. Not quite that bad but at times I wasn't so sure. The surgery went well, only taking 3 1/2 hours, and I stayed in the hospital less than 48 hours after the deed was done. Came home on Wed. And was glad to be back amongst the ones that love and adored me, enough to wait on me and help me get what I needed for a while. Hospitals no matter how beautiful still have the same problem of staff, which unless you bring your own nurse, your care is minimal. Enough about that.
Larry is off today at mediation, which means you sit all day, pay your lawyer all day so that the other side can get together and try to decide what they want. I am sure he will come home after yet another day, frustrated, angry, tired, and totally disappointed in the judicial system of honor and truth, and right wins. Don't know what else to say except pray...God IS IN CONTROL -- EVEN WHEN WE ARE NOT AS SURE AS OUR FAITH TELLS US TO BE! Yet it is what keeps us going on, able to withstand wrongs done to us, forgive as we have been forgiven, and most of all face today because CHRIST DIED, WAS BURIED, AND NOW LIVES! How people who do not have faith in God handle the crisises of today I will never understand.
Rebecca is off for an afternoon swim...2 hours or so of laps, turns, and stokes. She needed another suit today since her last one is riddled with holes from chlorine....Can't believe how hard it is to find a suit that will last through daily swim practice (a month)...I am sure concrete wouldn't get holes in it but she seems to think it might be hard to swim in?!?!?
Tomorrow is Andrews 5th birthday. Today sister took him to the store to buy his birthday cereal(family tradition of being able to eat all the sweetened cereal you want on your birthday and not at any other time). He chose Waffle Crisp and Cookie Crisp....Maybe sister didn't help out to much after all. Bob the builder is the current favorite theme making it easy for me to decorate the cake. For lunch we will eat chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and little carrots with ranch dressing. Chocolate cake will top that off with presents for the birthday boy. For dinner it is Tues. night at Awana's so dinner at church, cupcakes for the class and I am sure a rousing song of Happy Birthday unless he gets out of control......Which of course if you know Andrew is always a strong possibility....
Better close before all becomes bored to tears.....We will miss you at the party .......

Update on MoM....

This is not Lisa. This is Rachel, her daughter. My dad does not do the whole blogging thing, and the comments were that people wanted an update.
This is what I got from calling home yesterday.
My mom is doing alright. She got out of the hospital after only two days. Her arm swelled up from the wonderful IVs they gave her. She has not been able to move about much, but has more mobility then a large rock. (that is my analogy, if you have a better one, use it). She is tired a lot, and her sugars are really low. All in all, I think she is doing wonderful and I am glad she is starting to recover.
I love you MoM. I look forward to when you are posting instead of me, as everyone will agree.

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Up early with nothing to eat...not even a little choc. or a diet soda. What does a woman have to put up with now days? Anyways, this will be the first surgery I have ever had that requires both a spinal block and general as well. The 1st spinal I had 18 years ago I swore I would never do again...but just 4 years later and that one went OK. They keep telling me that medicine has changed since then and it isn't the same...Let's hope not. For some reason I am not to sleepy tonight yet I am exhausted. Oh well, sleep will come. I will be off the blog scene for a while (about 5 days at least) so will miss you all but know that God is taking care of each of us.
Love MoM

Fair Fair.......

FAIR FAIR FAIR The Santa Cruz fair is in full swing. Our club put in a garden with the Alice in Wonderland theme and took 2nd place. Daniel and Rebecca designed and installed a garden in the junior dept. and took 1st place with best in division award as well. At least someone has a green thumb in our family. We have hostessed at the kids dept. for one day, worked in the clover deli one day. I don't plan on seeing another nachos or hot dog for quite some time. Daniel served ice cream and milkshakes were made...the younger kids visited with all the local law enforcement department and collected pencils, stickers, buttons and such....now we are on break until Sun. when needed again. Time to catch up on school, chores, doc. appointments, painting, cooking, and most definitely eating.
Our new dyson vacuum cleaner has come..never give Larry a book about some great invention....or inventor....he gets fascinated and now we own a dyson...at least Larry is now excited about helping to house clean...for at least 1 day. AT least I won't be able to get near the new vacuum for a few days..and my house will be cleaner than you can imagine.!!!
Well, I must not ignore the family much longer....it is time to start dinner. Red enchiladas yum! A few for tonight and put some in the freezer for next week when I am sure I wont want to cook. Then to make some chicken casserole as well....stock cooking here I come.

"Dragon of loneliness"

It is late, late, late on Sat. night. 11:00 late. Fred, Alma and family came over after dinner. We had B'bque pork ribs, rice, spinach and prickly pear candy. The prickly pear candy didnt turn out and was more like a jam....that should have been spread on toast....so much for trying new stuff.
Church was about "Slaying your Dragons" The dragon of loneliness. The first part was an overlook at the Ameican Experience. We value individualism BK "Have it your way" Our individual rights are all important. Next we studied Community - Since God exisits in Community (trinity) and we are made in his image and he tells us being alone is not good(Gen.)then we need to see what it means to be in community. So restoring community in our church family should be important. Growth as individuals happens best in groups when we help each other and speak truth to each other. There are many different types of groups that have different reasons for getting together. Find one that you fit in and go with it. The service can apply to the kids away at college as well....friends and groups are sometimes hard to find but companionship, help, and growth happen best if you find one you can be a part of.....sort of like your Alpha group(APU)...and I don't know what is available at LETU. Food for thought...we are thinking here as well as to where and what God wants us to participate in.
Dad's ice cream is gone....no more clinking in the bowl and it is late so I am off to bed. Lots to think about and get accomplished tomorrow. Hope this blog finds you all well and resting in the promise that God loves you, has great plans for you, that you are getting on board with those plans, and growing your faith. Love your MoM

MoM, I have added the links back to your site. If you want anything else changed...just IM, Comment, or call me. I shall try not to take over you blog too often...mwhahahahaha.
~Princess Rachel~

A quiet night

Can hardley believe it...it is only 9:00 and no one is up on this cool Fri. night. College kids seem to be out since there is no responce to im, I know Julie is at a Dodger's game (baseball..football..soccer...????). Rebecca begged to go to bed early (she swam two times today 5-7:30 am and 3:30-5:30 this afternoon). Dad is busy with computer work fixing the web sites and I am filled with peace and quiet (avoiding folding the laundry) to blog to my hearts content. Well, "Ma" and "MoM" have met secretly via email and discovered we have lots in common, children (10), like to blog, love choclate, drink diet coke,....who knows where our common intrest will end.......
Tomorrow starts 10 days of busyness around the house and area. The Santa Cruz county fair opens Tues...gardens for compition need to be put in, club booths finished, animals to see, corn dogs??and cotton candy??, clover deli worked in and hostessing in the 4H youth building.....I'm tired already. So if you don't hear from me, know that the family is off doing our "country thing" at the county fair. So "Howdy and Bye Y'all" for now. The laundry is calling......MoM

Short lived team sports

Rebecca's time on the water polo team was short lived. The head coach of the school called and said there was 3 different committees that would have to sign something for her to be able to play. She had already made the team...and practiced with them for about 6 weeks, almost daily. One group only meets quarterly....so she was uninvited to the team. After all the work to get her on the team, weeks of practice, a $70. swimsuit, what a disappointment. This of course brought tears, anger, frustration, and trust. Just another example of how God can even use non-likeable humans to bring about his will or desires for our lives. This is a very hard lesson to learn...Be able to say "Thanks" for the hard stuff and move on.
Dad and I came home after looking at some houses to find Fred (cat) sitting on top of the bird cage totally engrossed in the pretty little treats running around. He was so engrossed he never noticed Dad until it was to late....he got a small skydiving lesson without the parachute, but as always landed on his feet.
We had a yummy dinner of spaghetti, peas and carrots, and salad with ranch, and seed cake for desert. Then Dad added a tree to his painting and Daniel added some detail to his buildings, Rebecca went to bed (she has to be up for swimming 4:45 am), I of course and blogging and im- ing the kids, now off to bed to acquire the rest required for tomorrow. So goodnight.

Today was HOT and I don't mean good hot, I mean temperature HOT! Ok it wasn't as hot as some of you had, but, for us in cool, non humid, foggy coast line, CA it was HOT. It made it to the high 80's. You need to remember that we don't have AC here not even in our cars because, it never gets hot here. Enough whining, I am running out of cheese.
We signed Rebecca and Daniel (High schooler's) up with a charter school today so that Rebecca could stay on the water polo team. We are still going to R4 for the rest of the family. Pacific Coast Charter school in Watsonville. We shall see.....?????
We have heard some interesting prayers around here recently. Trying to get the children to learn to thank God instead of always asking. They ask interesting things.....Robert tonight ask God to "please make Julie smart and help her to get some school work done", Andrew has asked "Make Rachel better cause she is sick of school" (I think he meant sick at school), and of course the all time family favorite "Help us to have a good time, help everyone to have a good time" We are desperately trying to teach the kids that God is not the personal recreation leader in charge of making sure we have a good time. We will give it time.......lots of time.
Every one can IM each other now so we can jot notes to each other throughout the day to let each one know he or she is thought of often. By the way you can even IM a thank you when you get a special package from home!!!
Today Grandmom and Aunt El left and went back East. The "last trip" to visit old friends and I mean some "old" friends. So remember to pray for their safety and that they can enjoy catching up on the last few years. I guess you could even pray that they "have a good time"
Well, it is now dark outside and kids are tucked into bed, at least a few of them, and dinner is cleaned up from. The windows are open and a cool breeze has ascended on us once again. Yeah CA. So I bid you all a good night, will pray you get rest, wake up full of energy, make time to study and understand, develop good friends, lean hard on God when trouble arises, and most of all truly feel loved by God and your family. Goodnight

Labor Day
Didn't Labor much today on Labor Day. Glad that the family had labored the days before so the house was clean and the chores done.
Just got home from Azusa Pacific Univ. It is about a 7 hour drive south which is long but not impossible to do. Julie and I had a great time at the orientation weekend provided by all the staff. She is all moved in to her room, met her roommate, involved in an Alpha group (APU's way of including all the freshman and making sure they have success their first time away from home.),shopped at Wallmart & Target, got her new address, paid more money for school, just the usual off to college start. After Sun. lunch I drove home all by myself. I really enjoyed the solitude and the music up loud so I could sing along. Made it home in time for movie night and to see about all the changes my husband and kids did to the house while I was gone. This is one of the main reasons I can not leave for long.
Sheep were given to a friend so they are gone. Rachel's cat is now up for adoption. Bebe has moved into our home because she tore up her nice room her mom made for her! Yes, Julie, she tore up the screen and disappeared worrying Dad and Rebecca a lot. She is learning to get along slowly!!! We keep her away from Chudley who really wants to make friends and have another playmate......NO WAY DOG. The birds now live on the end of the table and are very noisy. So all animals are being very well taken care of.
I am now very tired after the long weekend, excited about things in the days to come...Fair is around the corner...will write more later.