Grandpa and Grandma and I

I am back from the funeral and slowly recovering from the travel and stress of the past three weeks. While in Wyoming, I really enjoyed sitting at Grandma's kitchen table with our family, going through photo albums and reminiscing. I brought home a few old photos and wanted to share two of my favorites.

This is one of the last photos taken of my brother, grandmother, grandfather and I together.

This, as far as I know, is the very first photo taken of my grandparents and I.

I'm so glad that I still have my grandmother in my life but I will surely miss my grandfather. I can't wait to see him in heaven someday.

Even in the face of death, God never fails.

"For he knows how we were made;
he remembers that we are dust"
Psalm 103:14.

On Friday evening, April 25, my MIL called and said, "The doctors say Dad isn't going to make it. Can you come?" Four hours later I was on a red-eye flight to Michigan and arrived at the hospital on Sabbath morning. Less than an hour later, they turned off life support. Two hours later, he was gone.

I'm glad I was able to say goodbye. He was in a coma, but the nurses said he could hear us. I told him that I would miss him and that I would tell his granddaughters what a wonderful grandpa they had. I'm only sad that we were not able to share that we had just signed our adoption agreement two days prior to his death.

That evening, Pastor Dwight came over and talked to us about the hope that we can have in God, even in the face of death. He shared more of Psalm 103.

"But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments"
Psalm 103:17-18.

I hold tight to that promise. My father-in-law was a wonderful man, a righteous man. God's love will be faithful to his children's children.

I knew I'd cry too much if I tried to speak at the memorial service, but I did read Psalm 103. I broke down when I reached this verse...

"As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him"
Psalm 103:13

More than anyone else in my life, my father-in-law accepted me, flaws and all. He welcomed me into his family with open arms. He patiently answered all of my questions about childrearing, the Bible, literature. We shared recipes back and forth through email and talked on the phone almost every Sabbath. His death leaves a gaping hole in my life.

However, I know we will meet again. I have faith that God will bring us all together again as a family.

"who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,"
Psalm 103:4.

God promised! I believe it. Dad, I miss you and can't wait to see you again.

Thanksgiving in Wyoming

I have returned from my trip to Wyoming. Overall, it was a good trip. I'm so glad I got to see my grandparents. My grandfather is 84 and isn't doing very well. We have plans to see him next July for a family reunion but thought it might be wise to make this trip Just In Case.

Buffalo
Snow!
Grandma playing Angry Birds on my tablet
Josh trying to get Grandpa to try a temporary tattoo
Three generations of boys
Grandpa, Josh, and I
Josh and I with the grandparents

In addition to visiting with my grandparents, I was also able to see an old friend of mine. I hadn't seen her since my wedding six years ago. It was nice to be able to chat face to face! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the two of us.

Hopefully we'll all be together again next July. If not, at least we were all able to spend some time together this Thanksgiving. For that, I am thankful.

Quick update

It's amazing how fast time flies. This week, we've been diving back into our normal routine, my husband concentrating on his work and me trying to shift back into the housework. Once you get out of routine, it's hard to get back into it!

On Sunday, hubby and I started the P90X fitness program. It's intense! Workouts are around 60 minutes, 6 days a week. Today was day 6 so we get tomorrow off. On top of that, we're trying to stay current with our running schedule. We had two 1 mile runs and one 2 mile run this week. The running is scaled back but we're trying to keep our legs aware of what running is.

On the homemaking front, I've been struggling with my emotions a bit this week. I know I've been spending way too much time on things that don't really matter and not enough time on the things that do matter. It's too easy to spend 30-60 minutes wrapped up in a good book. I have a couple of really addicting games on my tablet. While I do not think these activities are inherently bad, I do feel that there has to be balance. Without it, nothing gets done.

There isn't much time left before sundown today, for which I am grateful. I'm looking forward to the Sabbath and going to church tomorrow. My homemaking ponderings will have to wait until Sunday. I am planning on sitting down with a cup of tea and my computer and making lists of what I do everyday versus what should be done. I need to get back to a good schedule.

Last Sabbath, I chatted with my grandma in Wyoming. It turns out my grandpa isn't doing very well and Grandma isn't sure how much longer he's going to be with us. My brother, my dad, and myself were planning on taking a trip to Wyoming late next spring but we moved the dates up. Now we're going to Wyoming for Thanksgiving. This was completely unexpected and has definitely thrown me for a loop. I like knowing WAY in advance when I'm going to travel and I'm not quite prepared to be away from home again, especially when my husband can't go with me. I'm flying up to Denver, which is where my brother is also flying to, and we're both getting picked up by my dad, who is driving from Texas. Then we'll be driving up to Casper for three days. While I'm not prepared to travel again, I am looking forward to seeing my grandparents.

On a much lighter note, I still haven't made a good pumpkin pie! The one last Friday was bland. I made another this week but something was off with the consistency. It was like eating pudding. I have two more recipes to try but something has to work out! Making pumpkin pie should not be this hard.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll try to get back to regular posting next week, detailing how things are going with my priority lists and schedules.

Gone again

It was very last minute. Yesterday I traveled to Tucson with my husband and spent time with my sister in law while my husband worked at a client's office. While we were visiting, my sister in law invited me to accompany herself, her sister, and my nephew for a three day jaunt to San Diego. Sure!

We are headed off early this morning. My husband is dropping me off in Casa Grande at 6:30, where my sister in law will meet me at 7. Hubby returns home and we proceed to San Diego. I am so blessed to have a husband who encourages me to spend time with my family! I am also blessed to be able to afford these short trips.

In October, my brother, his wife, and their son will be moving back east for his military assignment. This will be the first time they've lived in a different state, other than my brother's assignments in Iraq. I will miss them terribly! I have been excited to spend so much time with them lately, a chance to get to know both my nephew and my sister in law better before we live over 1,000 miles from each other.

I've been gone a lot and I look forward to life returning to normal next week. My blog posts have been intermittent as I haven't been home much in the past two weeks. I miss my hubby. We are normally inseparable. But I am thankful for the time spent with family, for being close to them now. When they have moved and I don't see them for a year at a time, I will be very grateful to have these recent memories.

Procrastination - Don't do it!

I am learning once again the evils of procrastination. You'd think I would have learned this specific lesson by now, as I've been struggling with it my entire life.

In 13 days, my brother, his wife, their son, and their daughter will be arriving for their 6 day stay at our house. In 15 days, my mom and her fiancé are getting married.

Has my bridesmaid dress been hemmed yet? It's in progress.

I planned a quilt for my 4 month old nephew; have I started that yet? Actually I did but I discovered today that I have to redo all of the work I've done so far (one full day's worth).

Is my house clean for their impending visit? It's not bad but I still have some work to do.

Have I started planning the family party that's scheduled for the day after the wedding? Hmmm... nope!

Do I have any time this weekend to get started on any of the above list? Not exactly! Tomorrow is the Sabbath. On Sunday morning, I'm racing in a 5k just north of Phoenix. In the afternoon, I'm driving with my mom and her fiancé to pick up my niece and deliver her to my brother, who will be meeting us an hour south of here.

Am I complaining? Not really. Just lamenting the fact that I can't seem to learn the simple lesson of planning ahead and being prepared. Some of my earliest school memories involve staying up really late and getting up super early to finish a project that was assigned a month earlier. Oops! That was 20 years ago and I'm still doing the same thing.

I'm claiming this promise:

I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.
Psalm 121

I'm not claiming it because I'm hoping God will help me get everything done in time. I'm claiming this promise because God cares about the deeper matter - my sin of procrastination. The Lord is my keeper and I know this is a habit He wants me to overcome. With His help and guidance, I can do it!

My new nephew

Last night, I met my nephew for the very first time. He's three months old and so adorable!



I only got to see him for a couple hours but we'll see him and his mother again on Monday for a bit. Then nephew, his mom, and his dad (my brother) will be staying with us for almost a week in June. I am so excited!

I'm an auntie again!

Landon Joshua
Born February 12, 2011

Loving my family

Today was a low productivity day, but I'm okay with that. My brother is stationed in Iraq until next summer. He was on-line this morning and really wanted to play games. We spent almost two hours playing an on-line version of Pictionary. How fun!

After he went to bed, I washed the dishes and picked up around the apartment. I spent an hour learning Japanese this afternoon and then took a nap. Hubby's receiving emergency work calls almost every night and we're both really tired.

So all in all it's been a very quiet day. I'm trying to remember that relationships are more important than feeling like I've been productive enough. I have a hard time relaxing when I feel like I should be doing something. But taking a nap with my husband or spending some time playing games with my brother (who I won't see for another year!) is way more important than a pristine house. Now if I can just learn how to actually relax!

Busy times

Why is it that house guests wear me out so quickly, even when I love them? I wouldn't trade this time for the world, but the pace of our days is much busier than I am used to. Combine that with my increased exercise these past two weeks and Sabbath couldn't come at a better time.

We've already been really busy. Wednesday evening, hubby and I took my brother and his wife to the Phoenix Art Museum. When we finished exploring the museum, we stopped by the library, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and ColdStone. No worries; I'm being strict with my diet and didn't partake in either Starbucks or ColdStone but both smelled really good.

Thursday morning, we completed a 45 minute cardio session with a P90X DVD. The workout didn't seem as hard as the Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred DVD. The P90X cool down left much to be desired so we left the house and walked 2.5 miles. In the afternoon, I taught my brother and his wife how to play one of my favorite games - Ticket to Ride. They seemed to enjoy it and my hubby and I enjoyed the opportunity to play with four total players instead of our usual two.

Thursday afternoon saw me spending another hour or so finishing up my mom's cloth napkins. Then we all carpooled up to The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom. The restaurant has really good hummus. I wish I could figure out how to make my hummus taste like that.

After dinner, hubby, myself, my brother, and his wife all stopped into Macy's to search for a birthday present for my mom. Her birthday is the second week of June but we will be celebrating it over Memorial Day (along with my dad's birthday and Father's Day). My brother is traveling to Iraq the first week of June so we are cramming a bunch of celebrations into one long weekend at the end of May.

This morning I skipped my exercise. I was just too tired from all the running around we've been doing. Thankfully, I've been waking up about 20 minutes before the rest of the house so I've had quiet time each morning to read from the Bible. That's a nice blessing. Later this morning, my brother, his wife, and I visited a nearby mall looking for the present he couldn't find last night. After an hour and a half of visiting nearly half the stores in the mall, we declared it an unfruitful trip. At least we got a lot of walking!

Now my brother and his wife are off to pick up his daughter. They, my mom, and her boyfriend are going to a concert tonight. Hubby should be home any time now, as soon as he finishes with his client. Because I'm the only one home, I took the opportunity to catch up on dishes and tidy up the kitchen. Then I decided I might as well vacuum. While vacuuming, I figured I might as well sweep the kitchen and clean out the cat litter boxes. Even though I'm very tired, the work kept calling my name and it's a pleasure to know that my hubby will return home to a clean house and a calm wife.

I think I'm going to read for awhile until my hubby calls to say he's on his way home. I picked up several Christian nonfiction books about marriage and homemaking and I'm excited to see what I can learn. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and a very restful Sabbath!

Pillowcases complete!

I am so excited. Finally, after much delay and a bit of procrastination, I have finished my first set of pillowcases (used this pattern). The first one was completed several weeks ago, but I procrastinated on finishing the second pillowcase and then took an emergency trip to Texas.


The picture is the pillowcase I finished this afternoon. They're matching, so I saw no need to set up the other and take a picture. ;)

I bought this fabric years ago, I think while I was still in high school. My plan was to sew two pillowcases for my brother, as he was obsessed with using chili peppers to decorate his bedroom. I don't know why I waited so long to start these, but hopefully he still likes them. If not, he will at least appreciate the humor in his old decorating taste.

If I have the time tomorrow, I'm going to hand wash the fabric for my grandpa's quilt. Then I can start cutting out all the squares I will be sewing together.

Goings on

Hubby's working today so I'm at home by myself. It's so quiet when it's just me here! I can tell the cats are hot during the day because they sleep on the tile for hours at a time. I'm hot too but it's not too bad.

So far today I've washed the dishes, cleaned off the kitchen counters, picked up the living room, washed a load of laundry, vacuumed the apartment, and opened yesterday's mail. I don't think I'm going to tackle any additional housework today except cleaning out the catbox before hubby comes home.

Yesterday, we visited the Sunflower Farmers Market. They have some great sale prices! We brought home some apricots, nectarines, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, and bell peppers. We also found that Sunflower carries the entire line of Simply Asia products. We used to buy them at Sprouts but they have since stopped carrying them and Walmart only carries two varieties. Sunflower had them on sale plus each box had a coupon for saving a dollar instantly. We bought four boxes! My favorite variety is the Soy Ginger noodles, though that may change once I try the new flavors.

I'm plowing through my library books. Between hubby and I, we currently have 48 books checked out. The library allows 50 books per library card (we have two), so we could bring more home but I would never be able to finish everything. Sometime this week I'm going to post about a couple of the books that I thought were exceptional.

My brother and I are making plans for my mother's 50th birthday. That's all I can say, just in case my mom happens to read my blog between now and this weekend. 50 years old! I can't believe my mother is going to be 50 next week...

Whew! What a week! I am completely exhausted. I have a few things that I want to post about but I just don't have the energy. Tomorrow may or may not be a laid back day, but Thursday is going to be packed. I think Friday might be our first quiet day but even that is debatable as I will need to clean for the Sabbath.

It looks like all our house guests will be gone by the end of the weekend. Getting back to regular blogging is one of my requirements for next week.

Until then... :)

Geocaching

My hubby, brother, Dad, and I have been geocaching today. My brother got me hooked on it last year when he took me out on a couple hunts. I haven't searched for that many caches, but every time we get together, we search for a couple. Today we found five!

If you haven't tried geocaching, check it out. It's a lot of fun, anyone can participate, and there are geocaches all over the world! We don't have GPS but we can still participate by finding the general location and then following the clues. It's a wonderful treasure hunt.

My brother arrived at my house safely this evening. He and my dad were supposed to drive up to Wyoming tomorrow morning for my grandma's birthday. Unfortunately, my brother's truck died once he reached Phoenix and he hasn't been able to start it. So... it looks like Josh and Dad will not be traveling to Wyoming and will instead be staying with hubby and I!

At least now I have the opportunity to share my new found recipes!

Job search update

Hubby landed a two week contract! It's part time, a few hours each night, but it's something! He has training on Monday and Tuesday and then he'll receive assignments for the next two weeks. Praise the Lord!

All our bills are paid for March. I am just amazed that we managed to pay every bill, on time, for this month without using any credit cards. God is very very good.

I was planning on trying out a new French bread recipe today, but I realized this morning that I have to make a starter that sits out overnight. Oops. I should have read over the recipe yesterday when I decided which bread recipe I was going to bake today. I'll make the starter either tomorrow night or Sunday night.

Other than that, I'm still catching up on dirty laundry from my trip. Hubby was really good about keeping up with his laundry, so I just have to wash all of my clothes from the last two weeks and some towels from around the house. I didn't even realize I had enough clothes to wear for two weeks without doing laundry.

My dad will be arriving tonight and my brother will arrive on Monday, I think. They are driving up to Wyoming for a few days and then will be back here to stay for another week. I've seen my family more often in the last two weeks than I have in the last year. Being spread around the world makes it really hard to get together for dinner.

I love the internet!

I have internet now!! I am so excited. I've missed four days of work this week due to ongoing internet issues at this apartment. Quick update...

My brother flew in Monday afternoon, safe and sound. He's been working part time this week and our family has been spending the rest of the hours together. My dad, mom, and I are here all week. My niece was here earlier this week for a few days but had to go home last night. I'll be here with my brother until sometime next week.

And I have internet now! The furnished apartment we're renting was missing a modem and it took a couple days to get one delivered. But I have internet now! (Can you tell I'm excited?) Now I can get back to helping my hubby job search plus keep up with my contract job.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Soon and very soon...

... my brother will be here! His flight arrives in seven hours. My mom is coming to pick me up in two hours and I haven't even packed.

Supposedly we'll have internet at the apartment we're staying in, so I should be able to keep posting this week. I hope so!

Have a great day everyone!

Happy birthday, little bro!!

Today is my brother's 24th birthday. I cannot believe that he is already 24. Seems like yesterday that he was 8, helping me create a town full of Legos, Barbie dolls, and Hot Wheels cars. ;) Now he's on the other side of the world, spending his birthday working!

Josh, we're sorry you're not here today, but we celebrated on your behalf. We splurged and bought a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream and tipped our spoons to you.

Happy birthday, brother!!

Mini Reunion

I'm back in town for a quick visit! I was blessed by catching an earlier flight yesterday so I landed around 4:00PM. I've spent the day catching up on sleep, doing laundry, and packing for tomorrow's departure. Hubby and I leave for the airport at 5AM.

Here's one quick teaser picture from my trip. We were all visiting my grandpa for his 84th birthday. The picture is Grandpa and all his grandkids, except for my brother still stationed in Iraq.

Top (left to right) - Jessi, myself, Grandpa, Derrick
Bottom (left to right) - Nevin, Tiffany