Sorry it's been so long since I posted
or have gotten around to your sites.  Trying to keep up with my
daily schedule around here is difficult, indeed.  I start
schooling the little ones at 8:30 and end about 2:30 - 3:00 with my 9th
grader.  Then there's cleaning and cooking and then it's evening
time, where I'm preparing for the next day -- by 9 I'm ready to plop in
bed, but usually don't make it until 10 or later.

The last couple of weeks have been
real difficult on me and even though I am drawing my strength from the
Lord to deal with things head on, my heart is grieving in several
different aspects.
There is a death to a few certain
things in my life that I never expected to change.  And although
I'm resigned to a couple of them, one is really killing me, that being my husband's work situation, because of
the uncertainty of what it will bring and mean.

I tell ya, dealing with cancer was so
much easier than dealing with these things.  And maybe that's
because there is a distinct beginning and end to my cancer and my
treatment.   Not that I'm at the end yet, as I will not be
considered truly cancer free for another 4 years (and even then...) but
it has an end, either in that I'm cancer free or I'm dead.  But
these other things seem to just sit in a painful limbo, or slowly and
constantly try to erode my peace.  It's such a fight, and
sometimes I become very weary.

The Word of God is constantly
encouraging me to fight the good fight, not to lose hope or become
weary,  keep my eye on the goal, not to be anxious -- all with the
blessed promise that God has my good in mind for all things and in all
circumstances. 

Yet, knowing that something is
ultimately for your good, doesn't necessary mean that grieving doesn't
come with it.   I thank God that I can grieve and cry out to
Him and He hears me and comforts me!!!!!

On a different note...

Also
-- we had a spectacular storm here earlier in the week.  In my
lifetime in California, I have never seen lightening like that here!
Here is a picture from the L.A. times.

Isn't that AWESOME!
Talk about the glory of God being displayed in nature!!!!

Well - have a good rest of your week!!!
~me

Gosh... another week has snuck by...  yikes! I feel like I'm in fast gear - life is just flying by.

Well, we went to the beach today with school for our "park day"! Wow...
just a few hours in the sun and now I'm turning redder and redder by
the moment! I tried to mainly stay under an umbrella, but, well,
obviously I didn't manage it good enough! ha!

Here are some pictures from our memorial day.  We had some friends over to relax with us.

This shot is from later in the day. All the adults sitting around chatting...

My Elizabeth....


Bekka, Jessie, my Valerie
Nika


Annie and Elizabeth playing ping pong.
Annie scores one for the team!!!

Eric is going to kill me for this
one... but that's what you get for trying to run away from me when I'm
trying to take a picture!

Christy, my Gracie, Sarah and Hannah


Annalise, Sammi and Jillian



I just had to include this one. 
If this was the only picture you saw of our day, you'd think that no
one had any fun! ha! They all look so very bored!

We also celebrated my friend, Dee Dee's, birthday that day. I brought out the cake so I didn't get any pictures to post!
Happy Birthday, Dee Dee!!!


Also, Monday was another one of my friend's birthday:
Happy Birthday, Princess Jan!!!

Oh and a Happy Birthday wish to my friend who's birthday is today:

Bonjour, Becki, Joyeux Anniversaire!!!

Hahaha... I was just visiting zippyboot's xanga.  You have to go
check out this link.... tooooooo bizarre and too funny... if she get
stuck, drag her around with the mouse....
Thanks Zippyboot!!!
Click Here

Well, I hope that you all enjoyed last weekend, too!
Love ya,
~me

Hello Ladies!
Wow! The hurricane tragedy is just so very horrible. I can't watch the
news because it almost seems to me like they (the news people) just
THRIVE on the horribleness of it all.  They have the camera right
in the faces of these people and they pain and suffering and ask the
STUPIDEST questions.  It's like everyone (again, news people) is
looking to get the pulitzer prize for capturing the most horrific
personal human story.  If the devastation isn't mindboggling
enough -- they have to exploit it.  Tragedy on top of
tragedy.... 

I can't believe it's already been a whole week since I last blogged.  Schooling sure does keep me busy...

Speaking of which, schooling is going well.  I'm noticing a level
of independence in my youngest, now in 3rd, in working by herself -- O
can give her some explanations and directions and then she goes and
does the work herself.  That's exciting!  My oldest is now in
high school and THAT is a lot of teaching. She is especially enjoying
History and Geography.  Not to keen on Science for the
moment.  I got the Lab book for it, but I need a bunch of
stuff.  I guess if I am going to have all 4 of them do this
eventually then spending the money on the lab stuff would be worth it;
plus some of the stuff will carry over to biology and chemistry.

I got a cold starting late last Saturday. It's been difficult to get up
in the morning, but I'm glad I pushed myself to -- it's nice not to be
behind in stuff in only the 3rd week of school.

Here's some more good thought from Oswald:

. . it is written, ’Be holy, for I am holy’

—1 Peter 1:16

We
must continually remind ourselves of the purpose of life. We are not
destined to happiness, nor to health, but to holiness. Today we have
far too many desires and interests, and our lives are being consumed
and wasted by them. Many of them may be right, noble, and good, and may
later be fulfilled, but in the meantime God must cause their importance
to us to decrease. The only thing that truly matters is whether a
person will [receive] the God who will make him holy. At all costs, a
person must have the right relationship with God....
 
Atonement through the Cross
of Christ means that God can put me back into perfect oneness with
Himself through the death of Jesus Christ, without a trace of anything
coming between us any longer.

Never
tolerate, because of sympathy for yourself or for others, any practice
that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means absolute purity
of your walk before God, the words coming from your mouth, and every
thought in your mind— placing every detail of your life under the
scrutiny of God Himself. Holiness is not simply what God gives me, but
what God has given me that is being exhibited in my life.

Isn't that good?!!!  Such a good
reminder of why we are here and not to get caught up in the business of
life and forget or put on the back burner what our goal needs to be in
our walk.  Do you all find this as difficult as I do at times?

I wish for all of us this week, that we would get a chance to be still
before God and let Him help remind us the purpose of our lives, and the
changes we each need to make, if any.

Love to you all!
~me

Hello my friends!

You know, I am finding that having xanga friends is very unique in the
sense that there never is, well, at least in my case, a reason to get
upset at these people (you people) or for you all to get upset with
me.   This is very unlike real face to face life where we end
up upsetting each other eventually.  It's not like that in
xangaville. I
can feel love from people I've never even meet but are tied to because
we belong to the same universal body of Christ.  It's interesting.  I
care for you all.  I pray for you all.  I'm interested in what is
happening in your lives.   I
guess someone could say something to me that would be hurtful (or via
versa), but our collective God-pursuing goal is to encourage one
another.  It's easier to reflect the life of Christ or it seems
so. And although I'm sure that this is also our goal face to face, that
is, to encourage one another in our thoughts, deeds and words -- we
often do not have the choice to "close the window down" when we are
upset.  Real life happens and we respond in real time.

There are certain relationship I struggle with.  Here too my goal
may start out to be one of encouraging the other person, but I often
find a lack of grace (or rather an abundance of selfishness) that makes
me critical, judgmental and impatient of the other person.  Why
doesn't that happen in xangaville?   Probably because I
choose who I want to communicate with based upon their site and their
blogs.   I probably choose those that are more like me or
those that struggle with the same things I do.  Very few people in
realsville are of my choosing.  It's my unsaved neighbors or
unsaved world around me that I have to deal with on a day to day basis
as well as those Christian acquaintances that I don't always have the
choice of not being around -- those people that rub me the wrong way or
challenge me.
 
I don't know why I'm all of sudden reflecting on this.  Nothing
has happened this week that would expose to a greater extent the
difference between realsville and xangaville.  But I trust that
God want me to see something here.   Something important that
I'm not to miss. I'm sure it has something to do with how I react to
those around me and how those around me respond to me.  Something
about the "xanga" me and the "real life" me.  Not that there is
some vast difference between the two -- more like a subtle nudge that I
should respond more like I do on xanga to people and their
situations. 

I think it may have to do with my impatience with others -- which you
can sometimes get in long term relationships when nothing changes --
but there is a difference -- my xangaville friends know that I am would
not (at least I hope you know) attack you -- I might point out
something I see as it relates to God - but if I do that to you or you
do it to me, at least on my side, there isn't that self-defense wall
that comes shooting up.  I know you have my best interest at heart
when you write.  But in realsville that sometimes gets all blurred
and self-defense is how we respond sometimes (or sometimes all the time
depending upon the person).  

Hmmm.... it's good to reflect on things like this.  Yet, I sure it
doesn't all make sense to you what's going on in my head!

Just a random thought, yet purposeful in God's eyes.
~me

Hello and Happy weekend!!!

I've made it through my first week of school -- WHOOT WHOOT! It went
well.  All but Thursday -- I had an oncologist appointment and my
daughter had an ortho appointment so that kind of threw a wrench into
my day of schooling -- got all but Elizabeth done.  But -- I don't
plan much on Fridays so we were able to catch up today!

So I have a new hobby!!! I had put a photo powerpoint presentation
together for my daughter's 13th birthday last year (birth to 13 kind of
thing).  My hubby bought me a program that makes DVDs, so I
transferred her little show over to it, added some titles and comments
and music and WA LA!  it came out really nice!
 
So now, I'm making a DVD photo show (put to music) for each year we
have been married.  I have 2003 and 2004 done (these took only
about 4 hours each).  These were pretty easy to do as we've had a
digital camera since then.  It will be more time consuming to go
back in time as I have to scan things in or take a digital of the
original photo. But it's really fun to do --  as fun as making my
photo scrapbooks -- and MUCH less messy!

If I can figure out how to get a video thing working on my site I'll upload one of them!

Well -- that's about all.  I will be on a little less often as
school has started and my time is a bit more limited -- but I so enjoy
keeping up on all of you!!  Just probably won't be posting as
often.

Have a good night!
~me

Hello!  I'm home!!!

We have a picnic to go to today, so I won't be able to get around to
see your sites until tonight some time -- hopefully!  It will be a
mad dash to the computer since myself and my two daughters are all
trying to update and visit our xanga friends.  Tomorrow I start
school so if not tonight -- then hopefully tomorrow night!

Vacation was a blast.  I really had a great time and it was very
relaxing -- not a lot of rushing around, rather just visiting and an
occassional trip to here or there.  I'm sure on the down days when
the cousins were not around it was boring for my kids, but hey -- I
enjoyed the rest!!!

Well -- I'll post pictures when I update again.  Thanks for all of
you who commented even though I wasn't able to get to your sites from
my parents computer to keep up on you all!!!!

Love ~me

Hello from Nevada!  How is everyone doing?  My parents computer does not display xanga -- well, it does for about a minute and then the "blue screen of death" comes up and you have to turn the power off to it and reboot!  But updating, if you can get this far to the xtools, seems to work ok.  I can stay on this screen for a while and nothing happens.  Trying to read my comments is another story -- blue screen of death after I bring it up....  however, I can actually make the blue screen go away and read the comments, but I can't do anything else and have to power off and reboot to do anything else... I'm sure this is really boring, but wanted to let you know why I'm not going around and reading your sites or commenting!  Darn it anyways!

We have had a great time so far.  I miss my hubby very much though -- I wish we could have afforded him to come up for the week.  Drove up on Thursday and got here about 9:30 pm.  Friday was a lazy day -- didn't do much but hang out.  Saturday my cousins came.  Again, it was a lazy day.  We hung around here for the most part - we did go out for a bit, but it was reeeeeeeeeally hot! In the afternoon we got a thunder and lightening storm -- that was cool.  Today we went to Golina Park up in the mountain and had a picnic and a hike.  I played with the girls in the creek -- freezing cold water -- I slipped and fell -- but only up to my thighs! VERY COLD!!! Too fun.  I'll post some pictures when I get home!

Well, gotta go now.  I'll write more later!

~me

I have so much to say, but no time to
say it... I've wanted to update, but I just have had no time.  So
-- just a quick note to let you know I'm alive and kicking and am
leaving for Nevada later in the week.  I'll hopefully have more
time once I get to my parents to sit and write and read all of your
posts!
Love to you all!
~me