One Year Ago Today!!!!!

Today is the day!  One year ago, we moved into our mountain home!  Can you believe that?  One whole year!!!!!!!  It seems like just yesterday that we were making that drive up the mountain.  Micah in the moving truck with a trailer behind it, and I in our car with a trailer behind me.  (Yes, we had a moving truck and two trailers.)  I burnt up our brakes coming into camp that first time.  I had no idea what it even meant to "downshift."

Here we are one year later, and I am one mountain-driving-momma!  Those "hills" don't scare me!  (Right Sheri Ritter?  LOL!)  We have come to call ourselves Southern Californians.  We don't do hot weather...above 80 degrees!  We don't know what to do when it rains, besides sit in the house and watch it.  Humidity, what is that?!!!  I wear Rainbows.  (If you don't know what they are, then you are not from SoCal.)  We love the beach and pretty much keep our beach gear ready to go at any time!  We laugh at the 20 turkeys in our yard each day, and if we don't see at least that many deer each day, we know something is wrong.  Grace rides horses bareback!  It's really amazing how much we have become a part of our new home.

On the other hand, I feel like I just got here yesterday.  I can remember conversations we had on that first day here at camp.  I remember coming into our home for the first time, and realizing that this is where we were going to live.  I remember breaking out in hives at every mention of homeschooling my children!  I remember missing our families so bad that it hurt.  (Okay, that hasn't gone away, and that's a good thing.)

I can't even really begin to explain what this year has done for me!  I can say that I love my mountain home and the friends that we have made.  I love PCCC and the ministry being done here.  I am so gracious for God's love and mercy every single moment of every single day!

I am not sure how often I will blog from here on out, but thank you to everyone who has encouraged me throughout my one year journey as a Mountain Momma!  I am so thankful that I was willing to "climb every mountain."  The journey is sometimes a long and windy road, but WOW, the view from the top is always amazing!

About a month ago, this song really spoke to me as I was thinking about our journey this year.  I hope it encourages you just like it did me!  Before you watch the video, read the lyrics.  God is so faithful to his children, even though we don't deserve any of it!  He is FAITHFUL!

Never Once by Matt Redman

Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we've come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us

Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You've done
Knowing every victory
Was Your power in us

Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Never one did we ever walk alone
Never once did you leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Allergic Reactions

Friday was a FUN day around here!  Well, let's just say it was very eventful.  Benjamin was outside playing around 1:30 pm and got stung on the finger by something.  (hornet, bee, wasp?)  I gave him some Benadryl and put some on it to take away the sting.  That was all normal.  Well, then I realized that it was a bit more swollen than I would have thought, but I just figured I would watch it.  (Now, it was about 20 minutes after the sting that he began itching his ears.  However, he does this fairly regularly because he gets water in his ears and it really bothers him.  I thought nothing of this!)  About another 20 minutes went by, and I needed to head out to the barn to check on Grace who was riding horses.  I looked at Ben's hand and it was really getting swollen, but again I really just thought "Wow, that was quite a sting."  So, I walked out to the barn for about another 20 minutes.  When I came back inside, Ben was laying on the couch eating chocolate chips.  (That last part is important for dramatic purposes of my story!)  Anyway, I walked over to look at his hand, and the poor baby had hives all over his face.  So of course, I handled it like a great mother and began screaming for him to get up!  (That's what good moms do, right?!)  When he stood up, he had chocolate ALL OVER his neck!  I began trying to look to see how bad the hives were (and they were everywhere and really bad), but was getting chocolate everywhere!  So, I gave him another Benadry and called Micah in a panic.  (Oh, and I threw him in the shower because we needed to get the chocolate off of him!  Poor baby!)  Micah comes in and I am freaking out, to say the least.  Micah looked at me and said, "You're gonna need to leave the room!"  Yep, I was not calm.  So, I let Micah look him over and then went back into the living room.  It was affirmative, off to the doctor we would go!  At this point, I really wasn't sure if I was heading to the ER or the doctor, but I knew we were going down the mountain!  Remember that our mountain takes 25 minutes just to get down our 6 mile road, then it's another 45 minutes to the doctor.  So, I drove with my hand on Ben's chest and kept making him talk to me the whole time.  About 30 minutes down the mountain, I could tell that the Benadryl was kicking in and that the hives were getting better.  I knew that we were not in a life threatening situation at that point, so I relaxed a bit!

We now know that Ben is allergic to some sort of stinging insect and it is SERIOUS!!!!!  No more playing around!  

In all my time of being around children (and that's a lot of time), and children with severe allergies, I have never actually witnessed the reaction itself.  SCARY!  So glad he was okay!

On a completely different note, here is an amazing picture from the top of our mountain.  This picture was taken by one of our staff here and I told her I was going to steal it!

If you look really close, that power line that is in the right, actually looks like a cross.  Cool, right?!

Fall is here!

We did not get to experience the coming of Fall on the mountain last year, because we did not get here until October.  Let me tell you...it is BEAUTIFUL!  The weather is crisp and dry, the leaves are falling and changing colors, the turkeys and deer are EVERYWHERE.  I mean the first day of Fall is actually Saturday, right? (I am trying to remember if it is the 20th or 21st.)  Anyway, I am just so excited that when I tell the kids it is Fall, it will actually feel like Fall.  Love it!

We were going down to dinner tonight, and the air was so cool.  Then after dinner we played a little baseball (well, actually hit some balls and ran around), and I did not sweat!  You know I LOVE that!

Anyway, if you need a little Fall getaway, come see us!  It's beautiful!  (Oh and we have apple trees down the way that we are going to go and pick in just a few weeks!  I'll be sure to take pictures!)

Nothing much...

School is running along pretty smoothly these days.  We have learned how to get from class to class on Thursdays when we go down the mountain, and Grace is LOVING her classes.  I am so thankful that she has the opportunity to get out of the house and be with others this year.  Here's hoping it just gets better and better!

Oh, other than that, nothing much happening around here...except that I saw a MOUNTAIN LION this morning!!!!!!!  Yep, NOTHIN' MUCH!  What?!  That is MUCH for this girl!  It was crazy how fast the thing was running, and how big it was.  I don't want to do much hiking on the mountain now!  (Well, I mean I didn't really do that much hiking anyway, so I guess this won't change things too much.)  But, seriously, I saw a mountain lion and it was not in a cage!  Crazy!

So, here's hoping NOTHIN' MUCH is happening for you too!

First Day of School Anxiety...for MOM!

Well, we had our first day of classes at "real" school yesterday.  I thought that we were good to go.  We had been to Meet the Teacher, and had visited all of the classrooms, so I was feeling confident.  (That's never a good thing.  You know, when you get too confident!)

Let me take a step back for just a moment and explain how this "school" thing works for us again.  We home school 4 days a week, then one day a week we head down the mountain to enjoy classes with other children.  So...Grace takes 5 different classes, with 5 different teachers, and 5 different sets of kids.  Oh, and the classes are in 5 different rooms.  And...Ben takes 5 different classes, with 5 different teachers, and 5 different sets of kids, in 5 DIFFERENT classrooms.  (Anyone feeling the anxiety yet?!)  I had thought about this and how it could cause a few issues, but we were told that when we arrived on our first day, the children would be given lanyards with their lovely little schedules laminated so that they could follow them all day.  (Or at least keep up with the schedule so that someone in the hallway could direct them to the right place.)

Mmmm, hmmm...yep...you guessed it!!!!!  The program that prints those lovely little schedules for the lovely little lanyards seemed to have had a glitch.  So, when we arrived, Grace and Ben were greeted by the nicest smiling faces and handed a small paper schedule which was not in sequential order, nor were room numbers on this lovely thing.  (Take a deep breath!  The story does actually turn out well!) It was at this point that I began to sweat.  I look over at Grace to see what class she is supposed to go to first and realize at this point the schedule is not in order and that both kids will actually need to know how to read a schedule to accomplish this day.  Grace has tears in her eyes as she says, "Mom, I don't know how to read this thing."  I assure her she will be fine and rush through a schedule reading mini-lesson.  I end this mini-lesson with this statement, "At the end of each class, get your schedule and walk up to the nearest adult and say, 'Where do I go next?'"  Survival people!  That's what you have to teach sometimes.  So, Grace felt better and I dropped her off in her first classroom, and she was smiling!

My thoughts now turn to Ben, and here is where the sweat begins to drip from my forehead.  Not only is my sweet boy supposed to keep up with this piece of paper (that means nothing to him, by the way), but he is also supposed to remember to grab his backpack after each class and take it with him, and figure out where he is to go next!  (I'm going to stop for some oxygen now!  Okay, I'm back.)  I honestly did not even know where to start since I do not know ANYONE in this school.  They do not know me, and they certainly don't know Ben.  So, what did I do?  Well, I walked up to the teacher and said, "I'm FREAKING OUT!"  That's what all good mothers do, right?!  Luckily, the teacher was a lovely lady, and could sense my anxiety.  (Maybe because of what I had just said.)  She assured me that all would be well.  I think I kissed Ben's forehead about 20 times and said have a great day about 15.  He kept looking at me like I was crazy!  Then I walked out into the hallway, and there she was!!!!!  Our angel!  (God has given us one every year.  Sometimes two or three or 50!)  Mrs. Coffey.  She went and took a picture of Ben's schedule with her phone, in case he lost it somewhere along the way, she would have it.  She walked him from class to class all day!  Sweet, precious lady!!!!!!

So, the kids made it through the day, thought it was great, and definitely want to go back next Thursday!  Yay!  Oh, and the office has the lanyards made now, so we will be getting those next week too.  Wow!  What a day!

To end this, I just want to say that I am so thankful that I have been a part of an amazing school district all these years, where I knew people on every campus and they KNEW my kids.  In fact, I think there were days where I texted teachers to turn my child's shorts around because as he got out of the car I realized they were on backwards.  Yep, pretty sure I did that, and they loved me through it!  I miss my HISD home, and all of my friends and family there.  I know I am going to come to love our new school family too (I mean, I already love Mrs. Coffey), but it's okay to miss the old.  Right?!

How deep the Father's love!

I have been really working on getting up each morning and exercising.  Now, for those of you who REALLY know me...I DO NOT like to exercise.  I am not one of those people who get invigorated from the profuse sweating, burning of muscles, feeling like you will die with the next breath!  I really wish that I loved, or even liked, to exercise.  I just don't.  With that being said, I DO know how good exercise is for me, so I am pushing through the profound hate that I have for it.  (Yes, everyone should cheer at this point.)

Anyway, my exercise time has also become a time of listening to worship music and really just trying to start my day thinking about my Savior.  I used to try listening to fast workout music, (Pandora has an amazing 80's workout station!) but I found that I was counting seconds until I could be finished.  I wasn't singing along and having a great time, by any means.  So, I decided to search for another station, and since I really enjoy Matt Redman, I simply typed his name into Pandora and got myself a "Matt Redman radio station."  This simply means that I quite enjoy the praise and worship that comes on.  This morning, How Deep the Father's Love came on and the words just really stood out to me.  I love how that happens.  You can hear a song like it's for the first time!  I  REALLY LOVE that!  Don't you?!

So, I realize that I posted this link on Facebook and many of you have already seen it, but I just wanted to post it here too.  Love this song and the words and what they mean to me as a Child of the King!  So thankful that I am HIS!

What did you do on Summer vacation?

Today was our first day of school!  We were trucking along quite well, and needed a little water break, so I asked the kids, "What did you do on your summer vacation?"  We all had a great laugh, because OF COURSE the three of us know what we did.  No sharing necessary!  Ha!  Ha!

Anyway,  I promised that I would quickly run through our fun summer, so here it is!

1.  We went swimming A LOT!!!!!!  My kids LOVE to swim, and I love to take full advantage of the camp pool!  Fun times!

2.  We went to the beach!  Um, we live in Southern California...need I say more?!

Oceanside Beach in Oceanside, CA

3.  Our AMAZING friends, The Lowery Family, came to SoCal for vacation, so we got to spend a day with them!  (LOVE these people and all that they mean to me!!!!!!)

Grace, Rebecca, Kristen and Ben 

(Rebecca and Kristen were running in a Color Run, and made Grace a tutu just like theirs for their race.  So cool!)

4.  Headed to Texas to spend time with family for two weeks!  So glad that we got to do this.  (I will have a full post on our trip to Texas.)

At the airport, ready to head for Texas!

5.  Micah had surgery on his elbow.  (This wasn't necessarily fun, but definitely a part of our summer.  Plus, I HAD to have a reason to post the following picture!  He's gonna kill me!)

You got to love a man in a hair net! (Is that what that thing is called?)

6.  Grace spent a week at our girl's horse camp.  Yep, she spent one entire week learning all about horses, how to ride and how to vault.  (I will post more on this one too.)

Grace with her sweet friend, Sydney at horse camp and riding her favorite horse, Trigger.

7.  Then we had another awesome visit from our Texas friends, The Ritter's and Bennett's. I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun we had going to the zoo and beach with these friends!  These girls have been friends since they were two years old, and still love one another just as much!  (Can't wait for them to come again, and this time stay on the mountain!  No pressure Sherrie!  Ha! Ha!)

Grace and Shaylee...Shaylee and Grace!  Love these girls and their sweet friendship!

8.  And to end our summer, Grandma and Lauren came to visit.  We loved having them during their cross-country road trip!

Grace, Lauren and Ben in Balboa Park

We enjoyed everything we got to do and all of the friends and family we got to visit with!  Now, time to get back to our regular schedule and get some routine going again!

Summer's Over...I'm Back!

Wow, summertime!  Have any of you read Jen Hatmaker's blog post about "Worst End of Summer Mom Ever!"?  If not, google her.  It's hilarious!  Anyway, I can totally relate, except that the end of summer now means the kids and I are going to get MORE time together...HOME SCHOOLING!!!!!

We are a camp family.  What does that mean?  Well, to lots of people, that means we live in a super amazing playground where we get to eat free meals, swim, and do all of the activities any time we want.  (Okay, so some of that is true.) But to us it means a busier time of the year than others.  That is when camp is filled to capacity each and every day (hallelujah) and our staff is serving their little hearts out.  It means that we see daddy/Micah, but also that we understand daddy is busier than usual.  I equate our summertime to football season or basketball season for a coaches wife.  It's just that...a busy season.  We LOVE it, don't get me wrong, but when summer comes to an end I think we all take a long, deep breath, (sleep a couple of extra hours) and hug one another really tight.

We have had a great summer here at Palomar!  Southern California and our beautiful mountain continue to impress me and we continue to grow in our relationships with our staff here.  We did lots of things with friends this summer, which I will be sharing in days to come, and I have been preparing for our new school year almost all summer.

I wanted to share about our school year on this first post, because I know that so many of you have been praying for us and our school situation.  Most of you know that I really NEVER considered home schooling my children!  NEVER!  In fact, I was actually told by my son's doctor that it would be the most detrimental thing that I could do for him.  WELL, when you move to the top of a mountain, your ideas change.  So, we began the home school journey, and I could tell from the beginning that God was completely and totally behind this decision, 100%.  He had our back!  We made it through last year, but I knew that I needed to research our options, so I did (with the help of some friends here), and we found Coastal Academy in Oceanside, CA.

Coastal Academy is actually one campus in The Classical Academy family.  It is a university model charter school (which means FREE), in which you have many options to choose from for your child.  We chose to be a part of what is called C track.  This means that I will homeschool the children 4 days a week, and one day a week we will head down the mountain to attend classes from 9am-3pm.  The classes are called C'lectives, which are like electives classes, no core curriculum basically.  The school provides me with all curriculum and lesson plans, an educational specialist to support us along the way, and access to all amazing activities that the school does.  (Theater, band, choir, lego club, etc.)

I was so impressed with the school when I first visited, but have continued to be impressed at every single moment.  My prayer was that in choosing this particular campus, we would be able to meet some friends that also attend our church.  Well, God has continued to answer that prayer in amazing ways!

Last week I attended a conference that the school holds for parents to get us ready for the year.  It was called JumpStart, and wow, was it amazing!  There was a keynote speaker and then 4 breakout sessions to choose.  I met someone from our church at EVERY SINGLE session!  I'm serious!  I even met a mom who will be going to classes on Thursdays (that's our class day), who has a daughter and son in the same grades as Grace and Ben!  It's just so good, ya'll!  We have been praying for this for the kids, and I am so excited!

So, thanks for praying for us, and please do not stop!  God is amazing and continues to show me his faithfulness when I am so unworthy!  I am so grateful for where we are and where we are headed!  Here's to a great school year, and the end of summer!  So glad to be back!

How's the adjustment going?

Recently, we have been asked several times how we are doing with the adjustment to California and our new home.  You know, "How are you doing, REALLY?!"

It's a good question.  I mean, we left everything we loved and moved 1/2 way across the country!  We live at the top of a mountain, at least 45 minutes from the grocery store.  Asking about how we are doing is a good question!  Funny thing though, our answer has been the same since the first day we arrived...we are doing REALLY WELL!  I tell people that this is a really BIG DEAL, seeing that I am a really emotional (cry a lot) kind of person.  (Just ask my family!)

All I can say is:

I have a peace that passes understanding, down in my heart
Down in my heart
Down in my heart

I have a peace that passes understanding, down in my heart
Down in my heart to stay!!!!!

(Sorry, sometimes I like to think of my life as a musical so I just bust into song every once in a while!  Don't you?!)

Really, though, all joking aside, we are doing really well!  We still absolutely love Palomar Christian Conference Center and our family here.  We love our mountain (and the weather).  We love that everything imaginable is available only 1 hour away in lovely SoCal.  We are beginning to feel a part of a church family, and that is super exciting!

All of this is only possible because God gives us a peace that DOES surpass all understanding when we follow him.  I can tell you that making the decision to leave our families and friends in Texas was REALLY hard for me, yet when Micah and I prayed in the hotel room in San Diego after his interview, we both felt an overwhelming peace!  I am so thankful for that!

So, our adjustment continues to be good.  I am not saying that everything has been absolutely perfect friends, but the adjustment has been just fine.

I am heading back to Texas with the kids next week, and I can't wait to see our families!  I know we will see some friends, and I know that I will miss lots of friends too.  (Not seeing people makes me really sad, but it is reality when you move.)  As excited as I am to come back to Texas for a few weeks, I know that I will be just as excited to get home, which is a testament that our adjustment is going well!

ESPN Sports Nation and Time With My Man!

Micah and I decided many years ago, that he would plan all odd year anniversaries and I would plan all even year anniversaries.  Works out great for us!  So this was my year for planning.  Seeing as how we are in full time camp ministry, our anniversary is not really at the most convenient time.  So, I decided that we should attempt to do something fun before summer officially begin around here.

I have learned how to get free tickets to tapings of many shows, and when I found out that ESPN had begun taping in LA instead of only Connecticut, I was super excited!  I knew Micah would be so excited to go to anything at ESPN, so I got tickets to ESPN's newest show "Nation at Night."

We were able to head out early on Wednesday, which made our date even more fun!  We decided to go on a Hollywood/Beverly Hills adventure before the show.  I really LOVE getting to experience new things with Micah!  I mean, I guess that IS one of the reasons I married him and chose to spend the rest of my life with him.  Anyway, we attempted to see the Hollywood sign first.  Well, I had heard that it wasn't that exciting, and whoever told me that was right.  You are so stinking far away from the sign that you can hardly even get a good picture of it  These are our wonderful pictures, ha, ha!

At least the flowers are pretty in this one.

After seeing the sign (from far, far away), we drove through Hollywood and Beverly Hills.  

Pretty Woman!

Someone's FANCY car that was attracting LOTS of tourists.

Then it was off to ESPN!  

Aren't we cute?!

The sign!

One of the stars of the show:  Brian Scalabrine!

Inside the studio.

Sound check.

Guest host:  Michael Rapaport (Good Will Hunting)

Gotta have another selfie inside the studio!

Keepin' it classy!  (This cutout is literally right behind the studio as you walk in.  Hilarious!)

Then as we were headed to our car, we realized that Brian Scalabrine was walking right beside us so we took one more picture opportunity.

We had a really great time!  Going on new adventures with Micah is alway super fun!  However, I am pretty sure it would not have mattered what we were doing, just spending time with this guy is the best!

Our 14th Anniversary!

Today is our 14th Wedding Anniversary!  Wow!  I really don't feel old enough to have been married for that long, but since we have a 10 year old and an 8 year old, I guess it must be true!  I can remember our wedding day like it was yesterday.  I remember all of the amazing people that were there for the rehearsal, and my complete emotional breakdown that night.  I remember how extremely happy I was, and how "in love" with Micah I was.  I remember the beautiful flowers and all of the excitement getting ready that morning.  I remember seeing Micah as I held on to my Daddy's arm, and thinking "this is for real!"

Then, as the actual service began, I remember feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit as we made our commitment to one another and to God in front of all of our many friends and family.  I can remember James and Mrs. Yerkes singing "I Stand in Awe" as the service was ending, and thinking how very blessed Micah and I were to be a part of such amazing families that raised us to know about commitment to Christ, first and foremost, which allowed us to know about commitment to one another. How blessed we were to have Christian friends who have been there from the beginning to support us along the way,  Thank you Lord, for such blessings!

I love Micah Beard more today, June 12, 2013, more than I could have ever imagined on June 12, 1999!  So thankful for our journey together, and the road ahead!  Micah Beard, you are my Superman, and I love you with all my heart!  Happy 14th Anniversary!

"Sew" Blessed!

I have lived my life as a youth minister's kid, a preacher's kid, and a camp director's wife.  So, I have pretty much been in full-time ministry my whole life.  I can look back and remember so many people that gave to my family.  Whether it was cooking us a meal, bringing us vegetables from their gardens, keeping my sister and I when my parents had to be away, sending cards with money that allowed us to by school shoes, or any other number of things that you could think of, we were always blessed!

Recently, Grace got to experience this same thing, when a retreat group chose to bless her sweet little soul in a very special way!  Here is the story:

Here at Palomar, we are so blessed to get to have volunteers come up to help out around the camp.  We have several groups that come throughout the year, park their RV's, and spend a few days to a few weeks being a part of our staff and helping out wherever is needed.  One of the volunteer groups that comes is called S.O.W.E.R.S  We recently had an amazing couple come up to spend  a couple of weeks with us.  This couple was from Spring Valley, CA which is actually right outside of San Diego. (Pretty close to us.)  The wife of the couple, Sherry, is a master quilter and seamstress.  While she was here, she held her own quilting retreat one weekend.  She invited all of the female staff to join her retreat if we were interested, and she would teach us or we could just come to work on any projects we already had going.  Well, I am no seamstress, but Grace was really interested.  Grace has spent many hours with her Gran learning how to sew, and has made several things before, so she REALLY wanted to go to the retreat.  It ended up, that I had to be someplace on Saturday of the retreat, so we allowed Grace to go down to join the "Living Stitches" ladies.

Oh my goodness!!!!!  I cannot tell you how awesome it was when I went to find Grace on Saturday afternoon.  There were sewing machines, material, quilts, and ladies everywhere and Grace was going to town on her own little projects on Sherry's 1956 Singer sewing machine.  She was the happiest I have seen her in a long time.  So proud to tell me all that she had done, and Sherry was amazing with her.  Teaching her things that I could never have done.  Oh, and the other ladies...LOVELY!!!!!  They were all just pouring into her the entire day.  Wow!  Well, as you can imagine, Grace was up and ready to head back down to the retreat on Sunday morning before my alarm went off at 7:00 am, and because Sherry was still going to be at Palomar for another week volunteering, she allowed Grace to spend every evening working on her very own little quilt.

Well, all of that is a super amazing story, but that is NOT where this ends.  Sherry and her husband had another volunteer engagement at a camp in Arizona, so they left their RV at Palomar and ran to their home in Spring Valley to get ready for their next trip.  Sherry told me they would come by on Tuesday evening before they headed out for Arizona (when they came to get their RV.)  Anyway, on Tuesday evening when the knock on the door came, there was Sherry and her husband with a gift bag and BRAND NEW SEWING MACHINE for Grace!  For real!  Grace's face lit up, and she was so excited!  Sherry shared that the ladies of the"Living Stitches" retreat wanted to bless Grace after that weekend with her, so they passed a basket and took up money to buy her a sewing machine.  As if that wasn't enough, many of them went out and bought her all of the other things she would need to go with that...thread, seam ripper, pins, pin cushion, bobbins, bobbin holder, and even a gift card to JoAnn's!  As I write this, I just pray that those amazing, sweet ladies know how much this meant to Grace!  Really, so amazingly sweet!

I am so thankful to people like Sherry and her husband, John who give their time as retirees to bless  Palomar Christian Conference Center (and so many other camps across the nation) with their gifts.  I am so thankful that they were able to pour into Grace while they were here.  She will forever be changed by their graciousness!  I will forever be changed by their graciousness!  I am so thankful for the ladies (whom I did not even spend time with) that chose to show love to my daughter in a very special way.  I pray that I too, can pour out God's love to others through the gifts he has given me!

Grace and her sweet new friends for life, Mrs. Sherry and Mr. John!

Her machine!  Wow!  I know!

It also had a case to go over it.

All of her other goodies!

Her first project.  Snap pouches.  (She made the flowered one, and the others were given to her.)

She made this pillowcase!

See the fancy stitching.  She was super excited about this and now her machine has lots of "fancy stitching" options.

Her quilt!

The Ocean

Micah and I have always loved the water, and I am so fortunate that both of our kids love the water too!  When we lived in Texas, we spent lots of time at the pool, and always tried to visit the beach in Galveston as much as we could.  That was the only beach we knew, and the kids loved it!

Now, we get to continue to spend lots of time in the pool (that's a benefit to camp living), but now our beaches are SO much different!  I mean, my kids are swimming in the Pacific Ocean for goodness sakes!  The water is not Caribbean blue, but it is blue and clean.  The sand is so much different, and there is not tons of seaweed everywhere.  I think my favorite thing about the beaches in California is...wait for it...NO HUMIDITY!  It's crazy!  Normally, when I leave the beach, my hair looks like I have been through "who knows what," due to the sand, salt water and humidity.  When we went to the beach recently, I got in the car and realized my hair actually looked presentable.  Love it!

So thankful that we get to enjoy sunny summertime in Southern California!

Our home away from home for the summer!  Camp pool.

My sweet beach beauty!

Sunset at Carlsbad State Beach

Another view from Carlsbad State Beach.  Can you see the coastline all the way down?  Gorgeous!

Headed down for some fun.

Oceanside Pier

Oceanside Beach

THIS...is American Idol!

I know that most of you saw all of my posts on facebook about getting to attend a live taping of American Idol, but I wanted to share all of the details with you.

When we moved to California, I began researching everything that was available for us to experience that was close by.  Well, I got online to see how you could attend tapings of tv shows and ran across the site that gives out American Idol tickets.  I put my name on the waiting list, really just for fun.  I had no idea what it meant to get a ticket, or if this site was even legitimate.

So, you can imagine how excited I was when I got the email stating that I had gotten tickets to the Wednesday night taping during finale week.  I was ridiculously excited!  Then I had that wonderful feeling that this was probably not legit, and I would drive all the way to LA, to have people laugh at me that I actually believed I had a chance at getting a ticket.  I decided to go for it, even if it was a fraud!  (Now, I did call the company like 3 times to ask if this was legit!)

We (myself and a great friend from camp) left our house at 5:30 am because we knew that LA traffic would be bad.  We ended up hitting morning traffic right during rush hour.  NO BUENO!  I was super excited that I didn't kill us or anyone else in LA traffic.  Anyway, we got to the LA Convention Center at 9:30 am and found our line.  The workers from On Camera Audiences was already there checking people in, so we got in the line of only about 40 people.  We waited in line for about 1 1/2 hours, and met some really great people.  NO ONE was crazy or rude.  Everyone was super kind and considerate, which was great!  At 11:00 am, the tickets arrived and they began handing them out.  Once we got our tickets, we had until 3:30 p.m. to just walk around LA Live (This is the area where the Staples Center and Nokia theater are located.  Lots of restaurants and a really cool courtyard to hang out in.)  We ate at ESPN restaurant, then hung out and "star gazed."  This is where we got to see all of the top ten contestants and parents as they were heading to interviews or into the theater.  SO FUN!!!!!!

At 3:30 p.m., we got in line to enter the theater.  At 4:00 pm, the doors open and we headed inside!  Oh my, was it cool!  It looks exactly like what you see on tv, only brighter and louder!  We were 11 rows back on the left.  A "pretend Ryan Seacrest" came out to get the crowd excited and to tell us what was about to happen.  He was out only about 5 minutes then you heard a lady count down from 10, and the show began.  It was the fastest show ever, but so fun to be a part of!  At each commercial break, 4 people came out just to touch up Mariah Carey.  EVERYTIME!  It was ridiculous.  I was beginning to understand why Niki Minaj was so fed up with her.  Niki only had one gal, and she only came out a few times.

Anyway, it was a really fun experience, and yes I will be getting on the waiting list for next season!  And...Micah and I are headed back to LA this Wednesday to celebrate our 14th anniversary by going to a taping of Sports Nation at ESPN!  Yay!

 Here we go!

TICKETS!  So excited to have these in our hands!

Hailey Rinehart getting ready for an interview.

This is the courtyard area at LA Live.  See the Staples Center?!  So cool!  The real red carpet!

Jessica Sanchez...#2 from last season!  She is so tiny!

These cute girls had already put their phones away, so I took their picture and texted it to them!  They were so excited and cute!

Devin Velez

Colton Dixon doing an interview!

These are Angie Miller's parents.  They were at the ticket booth signing in, and I stood there and waited for them to finish up.  Her dad was so nice and actually visited with us for a few minutes.  Her mom was still a bit upset that Angie was cut last week!

And the winner is...Candice Glover, and these are her parents!!!!!!!!  They were so nice!

Random

I'm random tonight!  Just a warning...

It's been rainy and cold here on the mountain for a few days.  (Texas friends, I know that you guys got to experience this last week.)  When it's rainy up here, we pretty much sit inside of the clouds.  It's actually pretty cool.  Fog everywhere.  When I was a teacher, I would always say on days like this, "I just want to go home and put on my p.j.'s and curl up on the couch."  Well, now I have the opportunity to do that, but that is not necessarily a good thing!  When you are homeschooling your children, but you really just want to lay on the couch, it takes extra "oomph" to get up and accomplish something!  Anyone out there know what I mean?!

Anyway, things are still going great.  I still love being home, teaching the kids, and living on a mountain.

I booked flights to Texas for the kids and I this summer.  It got us all super excited about heading back, but I know that I am going to miss our mountain! (And let's just be honest...after this trip in July, I may vow never to return to Texas unless it is the dead of winter!  I don't, never have, loved the humidity and  sweatiness that it brings on!)   I love how God changes our hearts!  I love that I catch myself calling California home every once in a while.  I love that I have even said "our church" a few times, when speaking about the church we have been attending.  These are all things that continue to remind me that God sent us here for His purpose.

Two weeks ago, we started having a women's bible study at our house.  Last week we read some things from Amy Carmichael, and let me tell you, I really love reading her stuff!  She makes me think!
I am going to leave you with something that she said that I LOVE!!!!!!!  I am even considering making it our family motto!!!!!  Possibly plastering it all over our home!!!!  (Can you tell that I am passionate about this?!  Ha!)

"A cup brimful of sweetness cannot spill even one drop of bitter, no matter how suddenly jarred." - Amy Carmichael

Good, right?!

Legoland, California!

On Monday, we had the opportunity to go to Legoland.  Many places, we have learned, give discounts on particular days to homeschool groups.  So, we gathered 12 people and headed to Legoland for a 1/4 of the cost that it normally is!  (No, really though, we got in for only $21 per person when it is normally  $78 for an adult ticket.  Crazy!)

Anyway, I have to say that Legoland is THE BEST amusement park for our aged kids.  They could ride EVERY single ride, and didn't get too scared on any of them.  It was great!!!!  Plus, there must be something said about the fact that visiting an amusement park where you don't just drip sweat the entire time, is lovely!  Love SoCal weather!  Have I said that before!  LOL!

Here are some pics of our trip.

The welcome sign made completely of Legos!

Starting the day with the Lego Pirate!

Bionicle!  

Pharoah out of Legos. 

Fun ride with our friends.

Everyone loved this slide!

This spider was so cool!  

Lock 'em up!

Coolest dragon ever!

Grace was hilarious on this ride.  It was for little kids, but she made the most of it!

Our crew was getting tired at this point.  Can you tell?  This was where there were no rides, but you could walk around and look at all of the amazing things made out of Legos!  Check some of it out!

Grace driving her car.  She's already a multi-tasker...having a lollipop while driving!

Go Ben and Noah!

Grace and Ashley made it up like four times!

When the kids jumped on the circles, the instruments played.  Fun!

Okay, can we say impressive!

Cute girl at the end of our day!

Lego elephant that squirted water!

Mount Legomore!

All made of Legos!

Such a fun day, and so impressive how many things can be made from Legos!