PLEASE PRAY

This is an excerpt from my friend Hope regarding her son Silas. They have been dealing with his health for months and he has been tested for so many things. There have been ups and downs and so much crazy uncertainty. But through it all she has put all of her hope and trust in God and is an amazing example to me!
Please pray for her son Silas. And be thankful for your own kids' health!!

            "Neuroblastoma is almost exclusively a childhood cancer. It is usually present at birth but not detected for several years until the tumor(s) grow significantly enough to exhibit symptoms. Wikipedia and http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/GD/Templates/Pages/Childrens/HemOnc/HemOncShortContent.aspx?page=2372 both have pretty good descriptions of the disease. There is still a lot we don't know and won't know until after the CT scan. I am expecting to find out tomorrow when the scan will be done, and after that we will have more information.
It is not likely, but we could go in for the scan and find nothing, or we could go in and find some pretty grimm news (and some in between). Either way, we know that God is GOOD. This is not happening outside of His hand. We are so thankful for a God who loves us, he knows what we're going through because He watched His own son suffer to the point of death for our good. He loves Silas more that we do (pretty unfathomable) and is faithfully comforting, loving, and teaching us through this incredibly hard time. My heart is breaking & and the same time trusting the only refuge I've ever found to be secure, is still faithful and good."

my weekend

Friday night:
Portraits at Sears for Lucas (2 year) and Ava (6 month). Best Sears experience ever. I'll go back.
Coffee Bean. Allison was working so she gave me my favorite drink for free-sugar free chai tea. Blended. It tastes like a pumpkin pie shake. I think I got 2 sips because my 3 sons stole it and never gave it back!
Dinner at Claim Jumper. Happy Hour. In the bar. All 6 of us. It was seriously fun. Great deals too! Martini for $6, Zuchini for $3!
Costco. Found the cutest coat for Ava.

Saturday:
All day soccer tournament. First game started at 8:30am. Caleb's team won 1 game. All season. Yep.
Lunch at the field. Carne asada tacos catered by a Mexican meat market. Fabulous.
Jesse was the coach and the team got him: a plaque w/ a team picture. $25 to Applebee's, $25 to Souplantation, $15 to Starbucks. Score.
Got Melissa's baby shower invitation in the mail. So excited for baby girl Grote!
Made dinner. I forgot what it was. Must not have been very good...
Left at 7:30pm for some time out alone.
Tutti Fruitt frozen yogurt. Tutti fruittt, pomegranate, birthday cake. Delicious!
Ross. Found a girl crying in the corner because she lost her mom. She looked about 6 but didn't know her mom's name. She was scared to go to the front so I started yelling "Kristi's mom! Kristi's mom!" No one came so I finally just went to the front and left her alone but thankfully she followed me a few seconds later. They called for "Kristi's mom" and she came to the front. It was a weird experience. I need to teach Lucas my name!
Met up with some girl friends for tea and talking.
Came home at 10pm and the UFC fight night was still going strong. Made some homemade chips for the crew and finally went to bed at 12:45am since Ava woke up and needed a bottle right when I was going to bed at midnight.

Sunday:
Church. Revelation. Pastor Tim is preaching hard! It's a blessing.
Chargers game. They won. Denver lost. That's a big deal and we'll be AFC champs for shizzle!
Watched Jesse and another neighbor dad and about 10 neighborhood kids play football. It was intense.
Wanted to go to MB to walk the boardwalk and watch sunset but the kids were having so much fun playing football so I just stayed and watched. Next week, hopefully!
Made dinner. Invited a neighbor kid over. She's a sweetie.
More football. Some Facebook/emails.
Cleaning my house. Excited for my cousins visit tomorrow. And parent-teacher conferences.
Amazing Race and red wine.
Nightie Night.

Oh, I forgot to say it was sunny and 70 degrees everyday. Because it always is.

Community

On Thursday nights I meet with my missional community. What is that? Simply put, it's a group of people from my church Kaleo that are covenanting to do life together and be the church in a tangible way while serving together in the community so that our unbelieving neighbors will see it and want Jesus too.
Awesome, right? It is. It's a blessing. I'm learning and growing in community. While it's easy to see how this is a fantastic thing, sometimes it's...hard. I'm prideful and selfish and that makes true community difficult. But I want to live my life with others who know me well. And care for me. And love me. And encourage me. And I want to do the same for those people. And together, I want to reach my neighborhood (all of San Diego, really!) for Jesus.
The New Testament speaks of the church as a family. Besides Jesus, nothing is as important to me as my precious husband and four precious kids but I hope that my life will become so intertwined with the fellow believers in my missional community that I consider them as precious to me as my own family.

John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing"

Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

Are you living in community with believers?

I'm a soccer mom

This morning I was watching an re-run of The Practice. When it was on regularly it was my favorite show. It's about lawyers and ethics and morality and black and white and how they make shades of grey sometimes. I loved it. I wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember-probably starting in kindergarten. I had a Great Lawyers of America coloring book (true story) and told everyone I was going to be a lawyer first, than a judge, then a Supreme Court Justice. Watching The Practice reinforced everything I was looking forward to: the courtroom drama, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the intellectual debates, the power suits.

But, I'm not a lawyer. I'm a soccer mom. As I was watching The Practice this morning, I was feeding my 6-month old daughter and getting my toddler ready for my 6-year old son's all day soccer tournament and my husband is the coach of said team. I would be driving to this game with chairs, a cooler of drinks, diapers, sunscreen all loaded up in my Suburban with personalized plates (true story). Yep-I'm a soccer mom.

Have you ever thought something would be really great and then something even greater happens that you didn't expect? (It's like the time we went to see Matt Kearney open up for this band we'd never heard of called The Fray and they rocked the mic!)

Well, that's what happened to me. When I turned 19, God grabbed a hold of my heart and never let go. My desires changed and suddenly a couple years later I was married and a missionary in Slovakia and then a mom. It's been a crazy journey ever since. It's not always fun or exciting and I haven't been in a courtroom since but there are still intellectual debates and lots of drama! I'm a soccer mom so of course there is the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat (a little more agony this season though-keeping it real. Jesse kinda got stuck with some duds). No, my life is not what I ever expected it to be but better than I ever imagined.

Now, if only I could find a reason to wear some of those power suits...

blog etiquette from Jesse

Yesterday I wrote my 1st blog in my can-I-do-one-blog-a-day-for-a-year? set of blogs. It was a long one. As I was writing, Jesse asked me if I was writing a book or a blog. I laughed but he insisted it was too long. He pressed the issue and said, "If you're going to do it, do it right!" Me:"It's fine Jesse." Him:"Break it up into 2 or 3 blogs." Me:"Babe, I can't. I'm writing about my morning. Are you a blog expert?" I asked. "Ummm, yeah! Look it up! No more than 3 paragraphs, Angie!", He says and shuts the door. (He was saying this as he was leaving) Then he opened the door back up, stuck in his head and said, "Wait! Are you writing a blog to complain about your life?!?" By now, I was laughing so hard and finding this whole thing so ironic that told him I was putting this conversation in my blog, too. He didn't laugh so I start to sense that he was getting irritated with me and my blog now and then he just left. I didn't want to make my long blog longer so it had to be it's own post today.
Oh, and just to be clear, he was also totally supportive of me writing. In fact, he was so supportive he took Lucas with him-to the DMV!!! Honestly- I can't think of a worst place to take a 2 year old! But that's how amazing Jesse is. So here's day two on my one year journey. And it's short and sweet just like my hubby wanted because I love him!!

Can I do a year of blogs?

I haven't written in awhile. I want to. But I just...can't. I have the raising boys series hanging over my head and I've been so overwhelmed that it seems ludicrous to be writing to others about how to raise their own kids!
But I want to write more. It would be a good outlet for me and I need an outlet. Well, one that doesn’t cost money anyway.
I just read Julie and Julia and I wanted a project, too. I don’t want to cook everyday for a year though. But what about writing. Everyday. For a year. I like it. I can do it.
So I sit down during my first bit of free time this morning and I'm already exhausted from the past hour! I want to write something big, important, meaningful. I want to change your life and mine. But my mind is blank, I am still in my pj’s. And I have a cup of hot tea I want to drink. I need to clean the house. Take a shower. Do laundry. Check Facebook. I can't write right now! Plus, SpongeBob is blaring in one ear and Lucas is alternating between sucking his thumb on the couch next to me and swan diving onto my head. As I type. My life is funny, I think. You’d laugh at my life, and we all need to laugh right? So…instead of something amazing, I’m going to give you a glimpse into my life. Well, a glimpse into the last 2 hours of my morning...

6am=I wake up. No one is crying! Yes! I can read my Bible. I'd go make tea but I'm scared to wake up any little people so I stay put. Jesse is snoring so loud! I push him a little and he kind of rolls over. Not really peaceful but it works. Proverbs 12 and Mark 10. I'm encouraged. And convicted. “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.” I read. Hmmm. Uh-oh. "Lord, help me not be a fool!" I pray. I pray some more and then I hear them. All FOUR! At once. Ok, let's go!

6:39am=I weigh myself. Guess those wontons last night were a BAD idea…And that’s all I have to say about that.

6:40am=I’m bottle feeding Ava while Lucas is screaming for "milk too!" as he pushes a plastic bowl on my foot. I think he's trying to put my foot in the bowl but it actually hurts! "STOP IT!!!" I scream and throw the bowl, totally annoyed. He looks at me, wounded and then smiles. Oops, guess I already blew it. I'm thinking about this as I hear something I'm blocking out. Oh, it's Lucas SCREAMING. He's screaming MOM! and it makes Ava cry. This makes the boys laugh, who all this time are playing video games about an inch away from me. At least they're dressed for school. "Knox, get your brother some milk. “Caleb, put lunch pails in backpacks." They grumble about some level they were almost to but obey as I change Lucas’ and Ava's diapers. Lucas doesn't want to wear his pj's anymore so now he's only in his diaper. Whatever.

7:10am= Ava is playing happily in her saucer while I make the boys breakfast. Scrambled eggs and cereal bars from Trader Joe’s since it’s almost time to leave to take the boys to school. “Mom, did you make D.J. a lunch too?” D.J. is a boy in one of my son’s classes who my son noticed rarely has a lunch. It disturbed his little heart so much he couldn’t stop crying over it one night. So, I’ve made him a lunch since then. I’m grateful for my son's sweet heart and start thinking about how I should write the boy blog after all when he begins screeching in his sister’s face, “hi baby, hiiiiii baaaaabeeeee!”. I smack him on the head as he laughs. Maybe not.

7:25am= Ava is crying, Lucas is crying for more food and I’m making sure the big boys are ready for school because they will be late if we don’t leave in 5 minutes. Thankfully, Jesse is still here so I can leave Lucas and Ava with him! “Brush your teeth, brush your hair, get your backpacks and shoes on, get your scooters and helmets, let’s gooooo!” I sound like that annoying mom song. That sucks. And I am vaguely aware of the fact that I’m hungry (I despise eggs so I haven’t eaten) and I would love a hot cup of tea.

7:30am= I go start the car with one son already in the front seat and one comes trailing out of the house. Hair unbrushed with a milk moustache. “Go brush your hair! And brush your teeth! (“I did brush my teeth!”) “Then wash your face!” My other son starts to laugh and I see food all in his teeth. Yuck! “You go brush your teeth too!” “I did!” I flip down the mirror and tell him to look. I think even he’s grossed out as he scurries back in the house. As I’m sitting there my mind flashes to them in junior high and I smile to myself thinking I won’t have to worry about girl nonsense if they keep up this hygiene plan…

7:34am= We’re off! I’m driving them to school in pj’s with flip flops and a sweater over it. No time for make-up or hair brushing for me. Ewww. I’m scary. I’m halfway there (its 2 blocks away) when I notice my son in the back seat is actually just sitting in Lucas’ car seat. No seat belt. I’m not proud of this but I let him stay in it since I decide its safer than moving while I'm driving. He has a helmet on though. Yeah, I’m not sure why either. Talk turns to Christmas presents and I ask if we should get Lucas a scooter or a trike. “Get him lipstick!” one son says, and giggles. I giggle too. It was funny. We pull up to the car line and of course there is someone to open the doors since I look crazy and my car is dirty and my son is sitting in a car seat. Oh well. “Schools not that hard that you have to wear a helmet, is it?” he jokes. I give a courtesy laugh; tell my sons “Bye. I love you!” and drive home to write this blog.

8am=I'm writing and right now Lucas has successfully wedged himself onto my chair, between my butt and the chair back and is screaming "Bob-Bob" excitedly. Oh, and burping. But I finally drank that tea!

See you tomorrow! :)

Overwhelmed and Excited

This will have to be quick since I hear Ava girl fussing on the monitor but it's been way too long without a blog post. And the raising boy series is hanging over my head, too! But I just got Internet LAST NIGHT so it will have to wait. Maybe till the boys go back to school? It's already less than a month away though-August 20th is the 1st day of school! WHAT?!?!? Seems too early....
Ok, I'm in San Diego. Officially have my new address but chickened out about getting a new SD cell # today. (Seemed like too much work to give it to everyone right now! haha!)
Well, I love it here. It's hot and sunny (duh!) but it feels like home already. I'm excited about the community we're already building and new friends seem like old ones in some ways already. My boys all have friends already too-church friends and neighbor friends! What a blessing! School friends and sports friends will come soon. Even Ava seems to love it here except that her room is the hottest in the house! Jesse preaches at Kaleo this Sunday and although last Sunday was my first time, it felt like I fit right in. I even signed up for the women's retreat and am totally excited about it already.
I miss my family and friends in WA, of course. But I feel overwhelmed and excited about this HUGE new adventure and feel totally blessed that we are able to start a whole new life!
Hugs to my girlies! And I'll be back later....