ThirTEEN!

Okay...where do I start?

Not so many years ago, I was a teenager and it felt like I was never going to grow up. It was taking so long. Would I ever be an adult? Would I ever get to be in charge of my own life? Would I ever get married and have kids?

So, I blinked my eyes a couple of times and it's August 31, 2008. My oldest daughter is 13!?!?!?!?!?

HOW?

I kind of remember being pregnant, but if I tried, even a little bit, I could convince myself that it was a dream. The vague recollection of feeling sick and having headaches everyday. Maybe feeling someone kicking me from the inside. I think I remember something about a hospital and some excruciating lower back pain. Then, I think there was some crying. From me and a little tiny baby girl.



If it was a dream, it was pretty real. I can remember her cute face and the way she smiled. She jabbered and babbled and screamed. She grew some teeth and her hair got longer.



Pretty soon she was walking, then running in little tiny tennis shoes.



She twirled and danced and skipped and galloped. She did the hand motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider." She sang "Jesus Loves Me" and her "ABC's."



Next came preschool. She took her backpack to school and everyday she brought home paintings and art that she had cut and glued. She wrote her name on lined paper. She told me about bugs and clouds and mud. She told me that yellow and red make orange and blue and red make purple.



In Kindergarten, she learned her alphabet sounds, learned how to count to 100 and memorized Psalm 100. We went to school and watched her cross the stage wearing a little square paper hat.



In first grade, she learned to read and boy, did she love it. She read Junie B. Jones books and Magic Treehouse and Frog and Toad and Amelia Bedelia. She lost a front tooth.



In Second grade she went to the regional spelling bee, played in her first piano recital and was a shepherd in the Christmas play.



In third grade she went whale watching then did a diorama all about whales. She played softball. She lost her second front tooth.



In third grade she had to do book reports and science projects. Her big front teeth grew in.



In fourth grade, she sang in Royal Choir, studied the California missions and had her first heartbreak with friendship between girls. I think this was my first wake-up call. She was growing up...



In fifth grade she met Carolyn, her first real best friend. She laughed and giggled and acted goofy. She was on the safety patrol at school.



In sixth grade, she had her first locker, was on the yearbook staff and changed classes for different subjects.



In seventh grade, she had to adjust to a new school, make new friends, figure out who she was in a new town. She thought her heart would break from missing her friends up north. She thought she would never have friends again.

Now, as I type these words, she is in the other room playing Rock Band with nine, yes nine, friends from school. These friends are all here helping her celebrate her thirTEENth birthday.

Now we are back to the beginning. She is now a TEENAGER. I wonder if she is wondering if she will ever grow up. Is she thinking that it's taking too long? Will she ever be in charge of her own life? Will she ever get married and have kids?

Only the Lord knows the answers, but for today, I am going to burn this day into my memory. Because before I know it, again, I'll probably be writing about her teenager...



I love you, Emily! You are a great girl and a good friend. I am very proud to be your mom!

Happy Birthday, Em!

A Tribute to Andrew...

My cousin Andrew is a Marine in Afghanistan. This past weekend, he was injured (not mortally, Praise the Lord!) in an accident. His back and ankle are broken. Thankfully, it seems that he will recover completely from his injuries.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you, Andrew...

Thank you for being the kind of man who fights for his country.

Thank you for being the kind of man who can see a silver lining and keeps his sense of humor.(Coming home to see the Angels...)


Thank you for being the kind of teenager who took an interest and played with the little girls who look up to you and love you...



Thank you for being the kind of boy who let little girls climb all over you and jump on you...



Thank you for being the kind of cousin that makes me proud to call you family. You are such a person of character. Your parents are so blessed to have you for a son. Your sisters are blessed to have you as their brother!

Thank you for being someone we can all look up to... We are praying for your speedy homecoming and recovery! WE LOVE YOU!

Megan Jill...

...loves to draw.

...loves to be outside.

...loves to listen to music.

...loves the trampoline.

Here she is doing all of the above.


When she was finished...

Triple Crown...

I am so proud of Chad...

At the end of last year, he set a personal goal to run a half marathon. As he researched when and where he could run one, he set his sights on a Triple Crown of Half Marathons. He started training and on January 20 he ran the Carlsbad Half- Marathon.

He finished with a time of 1:54:30, 8:45 per mile
Overall he placed 1620 of 6334.
Men - 1085 of 2632
Age Division 35-39 - 188 of 429

In April, he ran in the La Jolla Half-Marathon. The course was harder. The weather was hotter.

Time 2:00:18, 9:16 per mile
Overall place - 980 of 4815
Men - 716 of 2250
Age Division - 131 of 402


This past Sunday, August 17, he ran in his third race to complete the Triple Crown.

We all drove down to San Diego on Saturday and stayed the night in a hotel. Chad needed to pick up his racing packet at the Fitness Expo on Saturday so we decided that it would be fun to make it into a weekend.

The girls love staying in a hotel. We were able to get a room at a hotel that was right along the race route.

We checked in to our room and went out to see the race route and have dinner. After dinner we went back to the hotel to swim.


Everytime we left the room, the girls all tried to be the first one to push the elevator buttons.

We went to the store to get some water to hand off to Chad during the race. (Abbey practiced her break-dancing while we waited in line.)

Ice cream at Cold Stone...

And back to the room for bed.

In the morning, Chad left early for the starting line. The race was starting at 7am so around 7:15am the girls and I went out in front of our hotel to wait for Chad to run by!


Once he ran by, we went back inside for breakfast. We were thinking of him while we ate waffles and pancakes.

He finished the race with a new personal best!

Overall - 1061 out of 6461
Men - 795 out of 3129
Age Division - 128 out of 515
1:51:05 - 8:29 per mile pace

This is Chad once we got home...


Good Job, Babe!!

Back to School!

This morning I awoke to another beautiful sunrise. It's a new day...the first day...OF SCHOOL!!! AGAIN! ALREADY!

I crept into the girls rooms to peek at them sleeping peacefully so that I would remember the day didn't start in total chaos.





After I got ready for the day, I checked to see how the girls were coming along...

Em...hair and make-up...

Meg...hair and teeth...

Abbey...making bed...

After breakfast we went out front for our yearly pictures at the front door.

Megan Jill - 6th Grade (First year at middle school)


Abigail Larue - 3rd Grade - Mr. McCandless (the first man teacher for our family)


Emily Nicole - 8th Grader - Yikes!



The girls had requested "breakfast burritos with potatoes, bacon, sausage and eggs" for breakfast. The each also had one small bowl of Captain Crunch Crunch Berries left from their trip to Gram and Grandfather's house.

At 8:00 am Megan and Emily left for school with our neighbor Ashley.

Normally, I drive the morning carpool, but today I wanted to stay with Abbey to see her off to her classroom.

I can't wait until they get home so I can hear all about their day!

14 Years!

Last week Chad and I celebrated our 14th anniversary.



Emily had an out-of-town friend here for the week and so we had decided ahead of time to put off going out on an "Anniversary Date" until we didn't have so much going on. Chad had to be in Newport Beach for work. I had 4 teenage girls (Em and 3 friends) and 2 more girls (Meg and Abbey) and a trip to the mall.



We decided to meet in our room at 8:00 pm for some time alone. Sometimes it's hard to remember that we are not just mom and dad, housekeeper and electrician, cook and accountant, nurse and playmate, taxi driver and financier, but that we are also husband and wife.



By the time the day was done, and we finally did get to our room together it was 9:30 pm. We were tired and out of gas. We laughed a little about how it had been "just another" day around our house.

C: "I'm sure there are a lot of couples who don't make a big
deal on their anniversary sometimes."
S: "I'm sure that there are plenty of couples who make sure that they make their anniversaries a big deal every year."

But then he said something else.

He said that there were a lot of couples who never make it to 14 years.



He is right of course. How sad. I can't imagine the havoc and pain and chaos that some families endure because of divorce.

It was nice to realize that just because we didn't make a big deal on the day of our anniversary doesn't mean that we aren't committed to each other. It doesn't mean that our relationship isn't a priority. Both of us would rather give ourselves the benefit of being flexible in a sometimes hectic life.



So we talked about some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the last 14 years. Obviously there were the births of our children, but how about things like buying our first home, and now our second. We went on some great vacations, we were able to send our kids to Christian school for many more years that we'd even hoped. We moved back to Southern California to be near our family. And we talked about how even our lowlights aren't really that low and there have only been a couple.



We decided that we're a good team. We work well together and our strengths and weaknesses balance each other out.



I am so thankful to the Lord for the husband and father that Chad is to me and the girls. He is a blessing in our lives and he gives so much of himself to and for us.

Here's to the next 14 years...

(Oh, and by the way, we did get to go on that date...)