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Hi all!

Gracie is all better and no one else got it here ... at least not
yet.  But, sadly, the little girl Grace spent time with on
Thursday came down with it on Saturday and her little brother came down
with it on Sunday.  I think everyone's recovered now, though.

I have a really busy week.  We are going camping on Sunday for 5
nights up by Santa Barbara -- Refugio State Beach -- with 80 of our
church body in a group campsite!  For those of you who have been
subscribed to me for over a year will remember our last trip to Refugio
a year ago March when we got rained out and had to evacuate... 
Here's a photo that was at the top of my page for a while:

We
were evacuating our tenters because their tents were a foot under
water!  Refugio Pass got 4" of rain that day and night...
yikes!  But, good news, looking at the 10 day forecast for there,
it looks like it will be in around 80 for most of the week!

Well, I'll leave you with a couple of photo's of Grace that someone here took in the last week:

Gracie just loves Squeekers.  She takes about 30 pictures of this
cat a month - in varying degrees of telephoto (like the same shot over
and over just closer or farther or from a different perspective ). 
I told someone recently that it's a good thing we don't have a kitten
-- there'd be 200 pictures a month of the thing.

Valerie, I think, took this picture.  I just love it.  Don't
know why - I think it's just the angles that her arms make in the picture
and the silly, far off look in her eyes!

My soul waits in silence for God only;

From Him is my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation,

My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.
Psalm 62:1-2


~Diane

Well -- not much sleep last night.  Poor Grace had the stomach flu. 
It's been a looooooooooong time since anyone has had the flu
here.  She only got sick a couple of times before midnight
(started around 10pm), but from 12 - 3 she was up every 15
minutes.  I started, near the end, to have her drink a half a cup
of water afterwards each time as a way of hopefully helping to flush
out her stomach a little quicker.   She finally slept  from 3 -5, got sick, then 5 - 6 and got sick again - but hasn't gotten sick since then.   She started running a fever this morning.  And wouldn't you know it, she went to my friends house yesterday afternoon  -- I pray for to God protects them from getting it as well as the rest of my family.

It's
been quite some time since I've had to stay up with a sick kid. So
long, in fact, I couldn't tell you when the last time was.  And Gracie was so apologetic for "keeping me up" -- she's  so sweet.   I told her - I'm just standing here, you're doing all the "work".  Poor kid.  She's a trooper, that one.

Well -- just a quick update.  I covet your prayers on our behalf
for this not running through our family and because I'm running on
fumes...

 ~Dianemarie

Hello!

Job well done!!!

We
had our promotion ceremony this last weekend for our homeschool group,
Aslan Academy (which by the way was the first homeschool ISP in
Southern California - it was started in the 80's).  Here is a
picture of Julie and Gracie on the way over to it:

During the ceremony, we have student presentations -- we allow
each student up to 2 minutes to present something (although most are
much shorter than that).  Here are some pictures of kids:

 



Gracie recited all the presidents. She was promoted to 4th grade!






Julie took a sign language class this year and here she is signing the words to the song (as it was playing) "Above All".  She was promoted to the 6th grade.






Valerie recited Psalm 19. She was promoted to the 8th grade.






Elizabeth sang "Dream a Little Dream of Me". She was promoted to the 10th grade.






This is our cake -- isn't it neat -- It's our school photo. I didn't even know Sam's Club did
stuff like that!  And for a 1/2 sheet it was only 18 bucks! Very reasonable -- and VERY GOOD!

We
were planning our first trip to the beach on Thursday -- the last
couple of weeks the weather has been beautiful.  But wouldn't you
know it, June gloom showed up today and it never cleared all day
long!  It's not necessarily cold: it did get up to about 75 today,
but at the beach, without the sun, and a breeze coming of the ocean --
it would be cooooold!  So I'll have to cancel if continues to be
this way which would be too bad because our schedule only will allow us
to make it to the beach like 6 times this summer (twice in June and 4
times in July)...  However, we are camping at the beach for a week
(the week after Father's day). It's up above Santa Barbara so we
shouldn't have June gloom.

Ok... gotta run and get dinner started.  I hope all of you are
doing good.  I've tried to check in this week, but haven't
commented much. I hope to later tonight.

~Di

Hello! 
I hope you all had a relaxing weekend!!!  I'm coming down the end
stretch of my school year.  We end this Friday - promotions is on
Saturday!  I am very excited to be done with it all. 
Teaching high school was very challenging - but we made it! YEA!!!

It is so beautiful here today -- it was 80, but now it's down to 75
with a slight ocean breeze.  I wish I didn't have so much to do in
the house; I'd love to just sit outside and veg; maybe take a swim.



I finally bought some window coverings for my front room!  I
haven't had any on my sliding glass doors since I painted in there 3
years ago (this month).  We have a gate that locks on the outside
of our door - so we drapped an old tie-dye bedspread over it to block
out the light.  Lovely, huh?!  Well, I'm waiting for Steve to
come home so I can use his drill and by tomorrow I'll have it
up!!  I'll take some before and after pictures for you, so you can
get the full effect!

Praying for you all that God's blessings will be seen even in the difficult things!

~Di

That was the title of my daily devotional today.

Living simply seems so difficult in a world where everything from going
to the grocery store to trying to navigate your way across town is not
so simple.  Orange county is not a simple place.  Everything
seems to struggle for my attention.  Reading the Word and having a
quiet time seem so complicated in that it's so difficult "find
time"  that will be uninterrupted by life.   In order to
do that, it's either early in the morning or late at night - both of
which I'm tired.  I want to focus on God in the best part of my
day when I'm thinking clearly and not the fringes when I'm exhausted or
tired...  Something I'm still working on balancing.


Jesus taught that growth in our spiritual
life comes not by
striving to act more mature in the Lord (I'm not talking about a desire to be more godly, I'm
talking about in our own
ability, where we do it, but our heart
is not in it such as the Pharisee's law keeping), but from
concentrating on
our Father in heaven through immersing ourselves in the His Word and
living it.  It is simple, yet, such a struggle to walk it out.

Lots
going on... I cannot wait until after June 3rd when things should slow
down -- actually, even more so, I can't wait until we go to Refugio
State Beach for almost a week in June!!!!  Looking forward to a simple, relaxing time with good, Christian fellowship as 80 of my church family will be there with us!

I was going to post pictures from my daughter's surprise party that
we gave her last week, but I can't seem to find the cable to my
camera.  So that will have to wait! 

Blessings on your day.
~Di

A
dear, sweet sister in the Lord passed away this Mother's Day from
cancer.  She was 47.  My heart is grieving for
her family and her sister.  Although I know they all rejoice that
she has gone to be with the Lord, I know that they were not done with
her yet, and their hearts are sad, too.

Hello!

Only
Elizabeth, Gracie and I went.  Gracie was quite amazed at the
amount of cousins she had (there had to be 50 - 100 there) - 2nd, 3rd
and 4th cousins.  We
stayed with some cousins, the Cerri family.   Barring the
funeral part, we really enjoyed our stay with them!  Here is a
picture with my two girls and the Cerri girls the morning of the funeral.

 

Gotta go, but I wanted to check in real quick.  Hopefully I can update more later!
~Di

Well,
looking back, I haven't been doing very much updating with my site -- 5
times in almost two months.  That's pathetic.  Oh well -- I don't foresee it getting any better until after June 4th - then life will slow down considerably for me. Yeah!

...Ellie Ballerina...


Val was also in this number and in another one in
the picture below




At the Youth Expo -- Ellie is on the front left - Vallie is behind the girl in the middle.


This is Julie doing her tap routine.  Val was
was also in this one - below.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!
~Di