Operation Restoration

This is something I have been so looking forward to all week. Adventure Life Church was asked to partner with the Raleigh Rescue Mission to help on a project called Operation Restoration which is like an Extreme Home Makeover. They find people in the community who cannot fix up their homes and have volunteers come in and help fix up the house.

We were lucky enough to come help an elderly woman who has not been able to help maintain her home. Mr. A, KA and I met our pastor, his wife and son at the job site along with about 30 other volunteers from other churches and community organizations.

We started working on her landscaping in the front. We dug out all the weeds and problem plants. We cut back a lot of old brush and overgrown plants to make them more manageable. We then worked on the side of the house doing the same thing. Literally after an hour and half we were done with both front beds and the side. We began looking for more work. The organizers thought that those front beds would have taken us all day. Some of us helped paint while others help cut down some of the old trees that were in the back yard.

I loved hanging out with KA doing this. She was in her element. This is something she has wanted to do for awhile. She loves helping others. She painted a little, help move tree branches, dug up weeds, whatever needed to be done she was ready. We talked and hung out. It was just a fun day to work with her.

At the end of the day, we were able to stand back and look at what we had done. It wasn't much, but it will definitely help this woman. She was so appreciative. She came out and thanked the volunteers. She was so sweet.

They have about 6 more houses they are looking at working on this year. We cannot wait to go work again.

Happy Birthday to KA!

We have entered a new place in our house - OFFICIAL TEENAGER LIVING HERE!

Today is KA's 13th birthday. I cannot believe this child is now a teenager. I don't feel old enough to have a teenager but I really can't believe that 13 years have gone by so quickly.

She is my oldest daughter and one of my friends. I am still her mom, but neither of us have lots of close friends and we just seem to connect. We have literally grown up together. I was only 20 when we had her. We made mistakes and unfortunately she has taken the biggest hit with that. Two immature young kids raising a child - there were bound to be some mistakes made.

However, she has and is continuing to grow up to be an awesome young lady. She is a great student who loves history, math and science. She loves books and always had. I remember when she was about 2 or 3 her favorite book was "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." One night when my parents were at the house, she sat down to "read" to my dad. My dad thought he would be reading and asking questions about the book, but KA sat down and "read" the book. My dad looked at me and questioned "she can read?" I said no but she has the book memorized and it is a rhyming book so it is easy for her to catch on to. She has an amazing memory for things - songs she has heard, books, etc.

One of things I treasure most about her is her giving heart. She is compassionate and passionate. When she finds a cause, she wants to help. Lucky for us, we have found a church that is missions focused where we do lots of things for the community. KA loves that. In fact next week we are helping an elderly woman with her house - kind of extreme makeover - on a smaller scale. She is so excited for that! They were doing stuff today on her birthday, but it didn't work out for our church. She wanted to go down and do stuff on her birthday. Unfortunately it didn't work out for us either, but next week we will be there. I can definitely see her as a missionary or a head of some non-profit somewhere helping someone.

Well I could truly go on and on about this kid. She is fabulous! I love her dearly and cannot wait to see the wonderful woman she will become.

Happy 13th Birthday, KA! I love you more than 1 million sour gummy worms!

Mighty to Save

This song has been my anthem this week and the song God has been using to talk to me. I really love to worship to this song.

The second video is Laura Story telling the story of her husband and his bought with cancer. It is inspirational to say the least! Having a mom go through cancer I have an empathatic heart for what she went through. However there is still something to have the person be your husband vs a parent.

This song just reminds me that God is so much bigger than anything I am going through and He is in control. He can move those mountains I stare at and get defeated by. He is my Savior.

God speaking

Things around here have been crazy between work, church, family, housing, health issues...I just feel like I can't hear God. I know I have been so busy that I haven't stopped and listen. Also I think there is so much going on that God is probably trying to say something but I can't hear it because of all the noise.

That is however until yesterday. God spoke to me from the time I got into my car. It started with the song that came on after I started the car. It was Laura Story singing "Mighty to Save." That song has become my anthem in the last couple of weeks. I just love her version of the song...I like Hillsongs too, but there is something about the way she is praising that just helps me worship.

After that song was done the scripture verse spoken was:

Philippians 4:13- "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

Not only did this scripture help me yesterday but that scripture verse has special meaning to me. It was our youth group's scripture verse after our friend, Christin, was murdered. It was her favorite verse. After her passing, that scripture gave our youth group hope and something to stand on.

Then there were some awesome songs of just worship. They basically said that God was here and He is in control.

The next scripture that came on air happens to be one of my favorites from Matthew 6:25-27 stating:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

OK...God smacked me in the face with that one! I am worrying about everything but I have to remember who is in control. It's definitely not me! God is in control and everything is about His timing and His ways. I think I am letting go but apparently I haven't as much as I thought.

God forgive me for trying to take control of things that I shouldn't. You are in control and I love you. I trust you! I completely trust you! Thank you for speaking to me through all the noise. Help me to remember to be quiet and listen to your voice. And if I can't seem to let the noise go, smack me in the face like you did yesterday.

Field Trip w/ AJ

This was my first field trip with either one of my girls. I have been a working mom ever since KA was 18 months old. AJ has known nothing but me working. Mr. A has been the field trip dad for most of the small trips. This however was a big trip that involved an overnight stay. I decided I had not seen much of the NC coast so it would be something both AJ and I would enjoy together. I was to chaperone her and a friend of hers.

Before we even started we had two things against us: 1) the heat and 2) my health. The day before I found out that I had gall stones and that I would probably need my gall bladder out soon. I woke up nauseous and anxious about whether I was doing the smart thing being 4 hours away from home. I talked with Mr. A and he said that he had been praying for me and felt that I would be fine. I agreed to go only to deal with the other problem...the extreme heat. We had been having a heat wave in NC for the last week with temperatures in the upper 90s, low 100s. The coast was suppose to be lower but unfortunately it wasn't. We pressed on. We had two days to see tons of things.

The first place we went was Festival Park in Manteo, NC which houses a coastal maritime museum, fossil digs, colony persons and a ship that the kids could climb on. We were lucky enough to be the first group to hang out in the museum before heading outside to do our other adventures. The kids loved the area and the things to do, it was just so hot! We really couldn't enjoy it to its fullest with it being so hot.

The tour guide decided we would make a change in our itinerary and do an indoor activity next vs. an outdoor activity. Hallelujah! We went to the NC aquarium which was pretty nice. Let me stop here and say that I am a snob when it comes to certain attractions. Growing up in So. California, I had virtually every possible attraction around me -the beach, Disneyland, SD Zoo, Sea World, plus some awesome aquariums including Birch Aquarium in San Diego. This was no Birch, but did have some cool things to do and see. We had over an hour to look around. After 20 minutes, my little group was done. So we visited the gift shop and hung around the shark tooth pit looking for shark teeth and fossils.

After the aquarium, we headed to the hotel to get cleaned up and get ready for dinner and the Lost Colony play. The hotel was not 5 star by any means, but it was located right on the beach with its own private entrance. The bummer part is we weren't allowed to let the kids or us in the water. This was hard as the kids just wanted to have a little fun. Trying to keep my two out of the ocean was almost impossible. After dinner we headed off the the Lost Colony. This by far was my favorite thing. It was an outdoor theater with some amazing actors/singers. The costumes were amazing! The only downer was the heat...it was still in the upper 80's at 8:30 at night. Unfortunately one of the teachers collapsed at the play and was taking by ambulance for dehydration/exhaustion. Like I said, it was hot! We also had been going since 6:00 am and it was close to 11 pm. We were all exhausted including the kids.

The next day wasn't much better. It was a little cooler, but we started off almost as early as the day before. Breakfast was served at 6:30. We had to be on the bus by 8 am to head to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It was a 90 minute drive from our hotel down so most of the adults took cat naps on the drive down. Thank God for charter buses! Cape Hatteras was beautiful! It is the tallest lighthouse in the nation. Unfortunately, I wasn't willing to chance my health walking up the stairs, however, I will one day. I hear the view is amazing! AJ's friend went to the top and had a blast. AJ stuck close to me that day...she wasn't feeling so great due to the heat which we found out at the next stop.

The next stop was Jockey's Ridge for lunch and running around on one of the largest sand dunes. After we had finished lunch we started heading out to the dunes when AJ looked at me and said her stomach hurt. I told her to get in the shade and with that lunch made it's second appearance. Needless to say we never saw Jockey's Ridge. She and I headed to the bathroom then back to the buses. Another chaperone was gracious enough to take my other student with them to the dunes. AJ and I sat in the air conditioning while she cooled down. Most of the groups came back to the buses pretty quick as it was still pretty warm and people were slowing down.

Our last stop was The Wright Brothers Memorial. I had been looking forward to seeing this as I took aeronautics classes in High School and I have always loved flying. Unfortunately we didn't get long there as we were needing to get on the road. It was pretty amazing to see what they did with just a glider. I wish Mr. A was there as he is a big aeronautics person too. He would have really enjoy it with me.

Finally we were on our way home after this whirl wind trip to the coast. While I enjoyed it, I would have like to see some of these things a my own pace. Some places I could have done with shorter amounts of time and others longer. I also missed having Mr. A and KA with us. It just didn't seem the same without them. However I did enjoy having some one on one time with AJ. We really haven't had any events like this before so this was a lot of fun!

Praise God, I did not have any flare ups and did great! I had a lot of people praying which was awesome!

Sorry there aren't better photos or more of them. My camera's battery must be fried because it cannot hold a charge. Most of these were taken with AJ's cheap point and shoot camera.

Thankful for family

Today I am thankful for my family.

Not that I haven't been thankful for them before now, but things in the past few weeks have really made me stop and made me think about my family - both immediate and extended. Between the Chapman family losing their 5 year old daughter to a tragic accident to my aunt's death two days ago, it has really made me stop and remember that we are not promised tomorrow.

I am thankful for:

The times my husband, daughters and I begin laughing and we don't know why. We can go until we are all crying and gasping for breath looking at each other trying to figure out what was so funny in the first place.

The times my girls lay their head down on my lap and I play with their hair while we watch TV. I know there will be a time...it happens but not all the time yet...that it will stop.

The singing in the car at the top of our lungs. Also, each summer we have a song that becomes our anthem for that summer. We play it with the windows rolled down on a warm summer evening as the sun is setting with the song on repeat until it drives one of us crazy and we change the song. We still haven't chosen one for this summer yet...but our family's all time summer anthem is "Gone" by Switchfoot.

That my girls still want to come and talk to me about their problems. I may not be the best listener, but I am trying.

I am thankful for them period!

They are mine...fighting, yelling, crying, get out of my face at times, you need to walk away right now, leave your sister alone, can I make it through this day...kids!

They are mine...laughing, crazy, loving, best friends, caring, compassionate, goof balls, wanting to change the world, passionate...kids!

I am truly reminded this week that life is too short to worry about the small stuff. Yes, I want to raise great disciplined kids, but I also want my kids to experience life. I want them to have fun and be kids while they can.

I am thankful that God gave them to me. He trusted them to me and I need to live up to that which He trusted me with. I am not worthy sometimes to be called their mom! I have made some mistakes...some big ones at times. I am thankful that these girls still love me despite not being the best mom they need at times.

I am thankful for my family!

Aunt Joann

Today was a sad day for me. My mom notified me via email that my Aunt JoAnn had passed away. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had been doing ok or so we thought. My parents had spoken to her at the end of April and she told them that she was in remission. She cried as the words came out. My mom, a two time cancer survivor herself, told her she understood. Those words are like gold to the patient and their families.

My mom spoke with her brother on May 5th and he told my mom that he thought my aunt was going downhill fast. Apparently she was as my cousin, their oldest daughter, flew out from Texas to be with her and help the family with hospice care. My cousin stayed for two weeks. The hospice nurse apparently told Christy that she believed my Aunt Jo was waiting for her to leave before passing. My cousin left for home on Monday evening and by Tuesday morning my Aunt Jo was gone.

The sad thing for me besides being on the opposite side of the country is I really hadn't seen my aunt in almost 14 years. We were really close as I was growing up. My aunt and uncle lived within 15 or so minutes from us and we did many things together. I have a ton of cousins - literally I don't know all of their names. My aunt and uncle were foster parents since I can remember. They had kids in and out of their house for years. They adopted a few of the kids, others they had guardianship over. Even though they weren't "officially" theirs, they called my aunt and uncle "Mom and Dad" and considered them family. They stopped being foster parents about 14 years ago when their last foster baby became officially theirs.

It was great hanging out at their house because we always had someone to play with. There were always older kids to look up to and babies to adore. I have some cousins who are fairly close in age that we did most of our hanging out with. Unfortunately, they moved away when my grandparents became sick and they wanted to help. It also was getting to cost to much to live in San Diego so they moved to my mom's old stomping grounds of Merced, CA. That is literally in the middle of CA between Fresno and Sacramento. My uncle had grown up there on a farm and I think deep down he really missed it.

We didn't get to visit very often...a couple times a year which didn't help us stay close. But the straw that broke the camels back was a huge family feud after my grandmother's death. A lot of things got said that were hurtful on all sides and people stopped talking to each other. Even when my mom got sick both times, it was hard communicate as old feelings were still there. My parents and my aunt and uncle were able to start moving forward in the last few years. Unfortunately for other family members some of the damage is still fresh even after 14 years.

Being as an outsider/child to a lot of this family feud part of me wants to say grow up! Unfortunately it is not that easy. People were hurt and it is hard to let go of that hurt and move on. I wish things were different but even in my aunt's death people are still not willing to put things aside. Life is too short! It is not worth all the bickering and anger festering in you to hold onto what was said in the past.

So, to my Aunt Jo...I am sorry I was not able to say I am sorry in person. I am sorry the extended "family" wasn't as willing to be there for you or Uncle Mel and the kids during this time in your lives. I am clinging to the memories that I do have...lots of laughter (my aunt had the best laugh!), a great smile, lots of "sugar" (love) and lots of family. Thank you for those things in my life. I wish you could have met my kids. I think they would have loved you!