A trip to the desert

Our family took a short trip to the Palm Springs area as an end of the summer get-away. Living in year round 70 degree temperature, I am quick to forget what extreme cold and HOT feel like.  Well, we were reminded of hot temperatures.  It was up to 115 degrees in the day and down to 98 degrees at night.

 We took the boys to an exotic car museum.  Their interest and knowledge of cars has been greatly increasing this year.  They both picked out their favorite!

 In between swimming times, Brooke and I did a little shopping at the quaint shops at our resort---La Quinta.  Gary and I took an opportunity for an evening stroll.  It is beautiful (but still hot!).

                                      We stopped at the dinosaur exhibits on the way home.

 Everyone of the kids are becoming quite the fish.  Wesley is pictured below and has always been our best swimmer.  He was teaching me to swim the backstroke/freestyle, alternating between the two.  It was interesting. 

 I am thankful that we got a good family picture at the top of the post.  However, here was the first attempt.  Gary set his camera up, but he didn't quite make it in time :)

A little surgery....a little history

I have been working with a dentist for the past couple of years on doing some grafting on my  gums.  He called me up last week and asked if I would be willing to drive to USC and be the patient that he would perform surgery on as a lab case to his dentist students.  Hey, a free surgery!!  I took him up on his offer.  Gary and the kids decided to drive me down to LA and we made a day of the whole ordeal.  We showed the kids some history of LA items.  In the morning, we went to Watts Towers and Wrigley field in LA (now just a little league field). 

 

  After my surgery, we went to Hollywood, Pinks Hot dogs, Angel Flight, and the Fashion District in LA.  Of course, after my surgery, I was unable to eat one of those delicious hot dogs, and I walked around with an ice pack on my face :)  Overall, a fun (though semi-painful) day!

End of School Year

 This is the sight that I see every morning when I drop Brooke and Andrew off for school; after dropping them off, they run  down to the gate to see me drive by.  I love it!!! Wesley started this tradition on his first day of second grade, and it has not stopped.  Wesley gets dropped off at the middle school, so I don't see him, but I guess there is a time to outgrow waving bye to your mother each morning :)  This picture was the last day of school.

The Elementary school at VMS had a skate party to celebrate their year of school.  Brooke was more than happy to pose with many of her friends, but I could only catch Andrew while he stopped for a quick drink on one of his very short breaks.

Brooke completed third grade; Andrew is done with elementary school (completed 5th grade) and Wesley is finished with 7th grade and ready to enter his last year of middle school.  I am thankful for the good friends and godly teachers that they have had at Ventura Missionary.  But....we are ready for summer.  No more homework, book reports, and pack lunches (those are just my personal favorite things to be done with).

Little League Padres

Andrew is my athlete. He has always had a dream of being a professional athlete. The problem is that he has not yet decided what sport he wants to focus upon----the choices have always been football, basketball, or baseball. Well, we are currently in the beginning of his first season in Little League, and he loves it! I think he enjoys practices and games more this season than he ever has in any other sport.

We miss his grandparents being able to come to his games, so these pictures are especially posted for them to get a good look at their grandson. Andrew plays short stop or pitcher. The pictures below are from today's game against the Dodgers. Andrew's team won, and they are currently 5-0.

A blessing in disguise

As Christians, we think of blessings as things that God does for us that make our life better. We consider good health, a home, loving family, godly friends, and beautiful things in nature as blessings. I agree that these are blessings from God, and I pray I never forget the source of all that is good.

However, I think many of God's blessings don't always FEEL like blessings. I found out this past week that I have an autoimmune disease that may cause me some discomfort in my future. After confirmation of this disease, I had an unexplainable peace. Not just peace that God would be with me (for which I am thankful), but peace that this was a good thing. It will most likely not feel good, but it will be good for me.

The following song is one that captures this truth so beautifully. Not always are God's blessings enjoyable things to share with others. Sometimes His blessings cause us physical pain or emotional discomfort. Sometimes His blessings hurt!


I think a blessing is any act that God sends our way to make us more into the image of His son that we need to be. I realized that God needs to give me this disease to make me more like Himself. He will better use me because of my weakness. He will accomplish His way in me more if I am dealing with this discomfort.

I have many family members who are struggling with all different kinds of pain. Many of them are physical, some related to loss or pain, and others are uncertainties. But, in all of these things I encourage us to know that God is in control (which I think we all like to believe), but if we really believed it, then we would not worry about the future. He is shaping us today for what He has in store for us tomorrow.

Thank you God for my blessings......even those that I sometimes don't like to feel :)

Happy Golden Birthday...........

Andrew's golden birthday is tomorrow! He will be 11 on the 11th. First, I must say that I thank God every day for the gift of Andrew Beard in each one of our lives. He is an example to me of unselfishness and kindness.

His desire for a birthday party was to take some friends to Sky High, a jumping arena in our area, and then to have dinner at In 'n Out Burgers. On Wednesday, we took Andrew and 5 friends to both of these places, and they had a great time. It was nice to be able to take 8 kids out to a rather crazy location and yet not have any "episodes." They were great examples of what a group of Christian guys should be :)


Opening gifts after a burger and shake dinner.


Andrew exiting the foam pit.

Andrew entering the foam pit.


Wesley loved taking the lead on the dodgeball games.


Sadly, today, Andrew tried to do another front flip, but this time it was on a trampoline. He hit his head. I am thankful that there was no major damage. I do believe he will wake up on his birthday morning with quite a black and blue face :)

A Christmas surprise

We have been travelling for Christmas this year. Our entire family flew to the mid-west on December 11th to spend time with both of our families----the Sturgills and Beards. I have so many pictures that it would overwhelm my blog.

However, I do have one special surprise. I was looking forward to having a white Christmas. When we got to Wisconsin, it was unseasonably warm (warm in WI is when it is more than 30 degrees). While I was happy to not have to endure the cold, I was disappointed that we had absolutely no snow. Brooke has never played in snow, so I wanted her to get her first experience.

We went down to Rockford, IL for a family gathering, and when we woke up one morning, it had snowed overnight. We were surprised, and I was ecstatic. The snow did not last the whole day, but it gave us a morning of fun!

We then headed to southern Indiana, and again, there was no snow. The picture of Andrew below illustrates the unusual weather. But, again, one morning, we woke up to snow falling. It was nice to see it actually coming down. Again, it only lasted one day, but gave us plenty of time to enjoy. My mom had people praying that her California grandchildren would get snow for Christmas. Several of them told me that the weathermen were not expecting this snow. Truly, a miracle from God for this California crew!

We got enough snow to make snow cream---YUM!!!!

Fall Pictures

As the week of Thanksgiving approaches, I am starting to anticipate our trip to the mid-west. We will be leaving for 4 weeks for Christmas! We are going to be seeing family and friends in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Tennessee. We are all looking forward to the snow. It is the first time in my life I really wanted Wisconsin and Indiana to get TONS of snow!!!!!!

So, I realize that I needed to post some of our fall pictures. I love fall! It starts to cool down in Southern CA, and the crisp ocean air is refreshing.

The first pictures were from when my parents visited in October.

A friend from college contacted me that she was visiting the area. It was great to get together for dinner with her and her husband. Liesa (Woywoda) Guenther and I were great friends in our first year of college, but it was great to re-connect in person.


The kids had Thanksgiving chapel yesterday. Andrew's class was doing some recitations, and they were asked to dress up like either Pilgrims or Indians. Andrew took it upon himself to create a Pilgrim outfit (this is one of my least favorite things to do---costumes), and I was pretty impressed with his results. Of course, Wesley thought he looked more like a black leprechaun, but he was the hit of his class.

Brooke gets baptized

Yesterday was an exciting day for the youngest member of our household! A couple of weeks ago, when I learned that we would be having a baptism service on October 2nd, I asked Brooke if she was ready to be baptized. She had attended the last class for kids on baptism, and she had completed a workbook on it, and we had talked about it with her. However, fear was the main reason that she gave for postponing this event.

When I asked her, she initially stated, "I don't know. I think I will be very afraid." I told her that sometimes it is scary to do the right thing, but I wanted her to consider doing it, and I let her think about it. She came back to me a few moments later, with a very brave face, and she told me that she had decided that she should get baptized now.

After she was done yesterday, I told her how glad I was to see her get baptized, and how proud I was of her for doing the right thing even if it was scary. She said, "It really wasn't so scary. I am proud of me too.......Well, not too proud :)"

I am thankful for her testimony in front of our church and even more in front of her classmates and friends each day.

First Birthday

I remember each of my kid's first birthdays, vividly. They did not do too much with opening presents, but they sure loved to dig into their cake. Well, we had another first birthday this past week. It was our puppy's first birthday. He had much the same reaction.

Yes, we celebrated our dog's birthday. We do not know his exact date of birth, but we did some speculating and calculating and have decided upon September 15th. We were very excited.....he was unaware. I know what you may be thinking, but hey, there does not have to be much reason for us to have cupcakes and a bit of a party!!!!

The kids suggested using peanut butter for frosting; yes, Buddy LOVES peanut butter! He licked the entire top of the cupcake before devouring the rest of it!


Wesley wrapped his present in newspaper, but Buddy was not interested in the present. He wanted more cupcake. We opened it, and he eventually ran off with the orange bone, a squeaky orange bone.

I think in the picture above he is still licking peanut butter off of his face. Happy Birthday, Buddy! We are happy to have you in our home.