Friday, November 6, 2009
Rewind
I am devistated that I can't get into my old blog. Here is one of my favs.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Eight
Today is Nathan's birthday!!! I am so thankful for his eight years of life. Here are eight things that I love about Nathan:
1. His sense of humor cracks me up every day.
2. He loves playing card games with me.
3. He is a super great big brother!
4. When Steve is gone, Nathan is always quick to help out.
5. Nathan has a huge heart.
6. He is a mad-phat drummer.
7. I love how much energy Nathan has!
8. Nathan is amazing, wonderful, funny, 90% head and hair- 10% arms and legs and I am so glad and happy that he is mine.
I remember being 8 once. When I was 8, we had to write a story about going on an adventure. Although I was a decent writer, I was overcome with an insurmountable amount of writers block. Out of time and ideas, I quickly jotted down an old camp song. In the way things go with me, it turned out that it wasn't a normal writing assignment, but a city-wide writing contest. A few weeks later I was somewhat shocked to find that I had won first place in the city of Arlington for my wonderful jotting down of a camp song. Go figure!
1. His sense of humor cracks me up every day.
2. He loves playing card games with me.
3. He is a super great big brother!
4. When Steve is gone, Nathan is always quick to help out.
5. Nathan has a huge heart.
6. He is a mad-phat drummer.
7. I love how much energy Nathan has!
8. Nathan is amazing, wonderful, funny, 90% head and hair- 10% arms and legs and I am so glad and happy that he is mine.
I remember being 8 once. When I was 8, we had to write a story about going on an adventure. Although I was a decent writer, I was overcome with an insurmountable amount of writers block. Out of time and ideas, I quickly jotted down an old camp song. In the way things go with me, it turned out that it wasn't a normal writing assignment, but a city-wide writing contest. A few weeks later I was somewhat shocked to find that I had won first place in the city of Arlington for my wonderful jotting down of a camp song. Go figure!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Two
It didn't take long for Steve to convince me to go on a second vacation. (I felt like we were really pressing our luck as far as the kiddos go.) Our Texas vacation, as it was quickly dubbed, really snuck up on us. I was standing in a sea of laundry when it hit me that the very next day I was going from a training to Austin to San Antonio. We packed our few remaining clean items and off we went. We spent our first night in Austin with Steve's sister. The kids were HORRIBLE. Kalea threw the world's largest fit in the restaurant. Her first in a few years. We tucked those bad, wiggly things in bed early and hoped that the next day would be better.
Day 2 of vacation was much better. We visited the San Antonio Zoo, rode the train to the Witte Museum, and then loaded the car for our hotel. Hotels.com gave us a free night, so we hunted out the most expensive hotel on the Riverwalk and booked two nights for the price of one. When we pulled into the parking garage, the Valet man greeted our hot and sweaty kids with gift bags full of toys. Seeing....or perhaps smelling our two children, the booking man offered us a room that opened up to the pool. Within an hour, we walked about two feet from our room into a large alcove-like area that housed a pool full of water and swim noodles. Kalea was quick to learn how to swim the entire length of the pool with the help of a swim noodle. After a supper of PB&J sandwiches, we walked the Riverwalk, ate ice cream sundaes and put two very warn out babies to bed.
We greeted Day 3 with an early breakfast of blueberry poptarts and a trip to Fiesta Texas. I was finishing my breakfast in the line waiting to get inside the park when a girl not far from us tossed her cookies (or should I say breakfast....and last night's supper) on all of her friends. Then she proceeded to barf circles around us. Breakfast done! Once inside the park, Steve took Nathan to ride all of the big kid rides while Kalea and I rode the smaller kid things. (The Log Ride was super fun.) After a morning of coaster riding, we met up, ate lunch, and went to the water park. This was Kalea's first trip to a water park so we let her pick her first slide. The slide she picked was about three stories high. It took us about 30 minutes of line waiting to get to the top. We were about five people back when Kalea realized that she was going to actually ride the three story slide down. The poor kid nearly popped with fear. The explosion came in the form of a cartoon-like "NOOOOOooooooo!" After Steve and Nathan went down, I positioned Kalea between my feet in our two person raft. She was squirmy with fear but agreed to go down after she saw Nathan disappear into the dark tube. Looking like a turtle with her small head tucked into her life jacket, Kalea bravely led the way down the tall slide. I am not so sure she liked it, but she survived it and said that she would think about doing it again. After a brief adventure to the children's part of the park, a wild rainstorm flew in and we were herded out of the water along with about a million other wet, soggy and now cold park visitors. It was a race back to the car, kids and cats were blowing past us in the crazy gusts of wind. After a short visit to the hotel to freshen up, we headed out to the San Antonio Children's Museum. The kids had a blast there, but hunger beat out curiosity and after an hour of playing, we left to find some food on the Riverwalk. It was raining so we found a nice Mexican food restaurant tucked away under a bridge. As our food was served, the ducks crawled out of the river, and Kalea not only named them, but tried to feed them her dinner as well. I think that she would have taken them home with her if they had listened to her better.
Day 4 was a much drier and consequently a hotter day. We visited the Alamo, Mercado, a dirty Burger King, the San Marcos outlets and then we were off to Austin. Steve's sister, Kaela, took the kids to a movies while Steve and I went on a much needed date. It was the perfect night and the end of a good vacation.
Day 2 of vacation was much better. We visited the San Antonio Zoo, rode the train to the Witte Museum, and then loaded the car for our hotel. Hotels.com gave us a free night, so we hunted out the most expensive hotel on the Riverwalk and booked two nights for the price of one. When we pulled into the parking garage, the Valet man greeted our hot and sweaty kids with gift bags full of toys. Seeing....or perhaps smelling our two children, the booking man offered us a room that opened up to the pool. Within an hour, we walked about two feet from our room into a large alcove-like area that housed a pool full of water and swim noodles. Kalea was quick to learn how to swim the entire length of the pool with the help of a swim noodle. After a supper of PB&J sandwiches, we walked the Riverwalk, ate ice cream sundaes and put two very warn out babies to bed.
We greeted Day 3 with an early breakfast of blueberry poptarts and a trip to Fiesta Texas. I was finishing my breakfast in the line waiting to get inside the park when a girl not far from us tossed her cookies (or should I say breakfast....and last night's supper) on all of her friends. Then she proceeded to barf circles around us. Breakfast done! Once inside the park, Steve took Nathan to ride all of the big kid rides while Kalea and I rode the smaller kid things. (The Log Ride was super fun.) After a morning of coaster riding, we met up, ate lunch, and went to the water park. This was Kalea's first trip to a water park so we let her pick her first slide. The slide she picked was about three stories high. It took us about 30 minutes of line waiting to get to the top. We were about five people back when Kalea realized that she was going to actually ride the three story slide down. The poor kid nearly popped with fear. The explosion came in the form of a cartoon-like "NOOOOOooooooo!" After Steve and Nathan went down, I positioned Kalea between my feet in our two person raft. She was squirmy with fear but agreed to go down after she saw Nathan disappear into the dark tube. Looking like a turtle with her small head tucked into her life jacket, Kalea bravely led the way down the tall slide. I am not so sure she liked it, but she survived it and said that she would think about doing it again. After a brief adventure to the children's part of the park, a wild rainstorm flew in and we were herded out of the water along with about a million other wet, soggy and now cold park visitors. It was a race back to the car, kids and cats were blowing past us in the crazy gusts of wind. After a short visit to the hotel to freshen up, we headed out to the San Antonio Children's Museum. The kids had a blast there, but hunger beat out curiosity and after an hour of playing, we left to find some food on the Riverwalk. It was raining so we found a nice Mexican food restaurant tucked away under a bridge. As our food was served, the ducks crawled out of the river, and Kalea not only named them, but tried to feed them her dinner as well. I think that she would have taken them home with her if they had listened to her better.
Day 4 was a much drier and consequently a hotter day. We visited the Alamo, Mercado, a dirty Burger King, the San Marcos outlets and then we were off to Austin. Steve's sister, Kaela, took the kids to a movies while Steve and I went on a much needed date. It was the perfect night and the end of a good vacation.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Mystery Found!
We FINALLY made it home. It was a little ify there for a while when the sirens from the material godesses of San Antonio and Galveston where calling Steve through the window of our 'tan man van'. We have stayed at so many hotels that hotels.com not only gave us a free stay but a $20 credit for the next one as well. The free stay seems to be burning a hole in Steve's travel pocket. The kids were super happy to see our cat, Molly, again. They promptly got out of the car, set things up around the house, and played 'tour guide' taking Molly around the house and telling her funny little tidbits around each artifact. Molly happily complied following each tour guide around meowing her story around the house. Apparently both tour guide and cat had a lot to say.
My favorite part of coming home is cleaning everything. I don't know why, but there is just something rich about cleaning 11 states out of the kids blankets and stuffed animals. Mimi by far suffered the most abuse. Like the freshly cleaned blankets, I too am freed from the burden I've been carrying so long. I've come home with a new resolve. I realized that although my life is not going the way I've planned it on the outside, my true life is on the inside. It's all about walking with God and glorifying Him......and the rest is just cookie crumbs!
My favorite part of coming home is cleaning everything. I don't know why, but there is just something rich about cleaning 11 states out of the kids blankets and stuffed animals. Mimi by far suffered the most abuse. Like the freshly cleaned blankets, I too am freed from the burden I've been carrying so long. I've come home with a new resolve. I realized that although my life is not going the way I've planned it on the outside, my true life is on the inside. It's all about walking with God and glorifying Him......and the rest is just cookie crumbs!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Blog the First
After about an hour of failed attempts to get into my old blog, I threw in the towel and started a new blog. I am hoping against all odds that I will make it back home (someday) to find my old name and password. I have great history with that blog you know......
Anywho.... I haven't blogged in 6 months and am not quite sure where to start....so I'll start with the world's longest vacation. We left our house in the city with the tiny kitchen, steep driveway and almost no back yard on June 22. We drove through a humid Arkansas, and beautiful Tenesssee, to arrive in a sleep deprived stuper of silliness at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA where Steve is getting no less than three Masters all leading up to his Masters in Divinity. Tri-master Saenz his is new self dubbed nick name. We arrived in the parking lot of the bookstore at 9:20PM after circling the campus several times to ensure that I take a million blurry....almost focused...ok not really, pictures of the campus out the window of our brand new used minivan. I swore I'd never own a minivan, and I still don't because I somehow managed to remain completely out of Steve's transacation with Carmax. Once safely in the parking lot, we opened the door to the van only to have all of the kids toys spill out into the parking lot along with Steve and I giggling and dilerious from the trip just trying to make it through the doors of the bookstore before it closed at 9:30. We had two tired kids and 10 minutes to shop and Steve completed his mission of school parafanilia in 9 minutes and 55 seconds. Loaded up on school spirited goods, we spent a restful night in tiny beds and drove on to Lynchburg to see my parents. It was a super great trip. We saw many a fort, landmark, water taxi, house, museum; my dad and sometimes mom trucking us to every attraction our eager eyes wanted to see. We stayed for about 11 days and then it was time to make our journey towards home. I say towards because we have yet to actually make it there. I hated to leave. It's not just that vacation joy that fades when you leave somewhere but it's the hard reality that I wont see my family for another 6 months. I'll miss the crazy life of being in a big house with a big family perpetually coming and going. The sounds, the space, the food, the unconditional love...it's a tough thing to leave behind.
On our way homeward, we traveled through the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana, and finally back to Texas. Once in Texas, we drove straight to the Katy Mills Mall, where we met an entire food court full of relatives. There's nothing like getting out of a car smelling like stale fries and New Orleans and walking straight into the arms of people you barely know. Fun stuff... We spent the weekend doing family reunion type stuff and even got to venture to yet another museum. This is about the moment when things got a bit...expensive? Back in May I realized that I spend an hour and a half a day commuting (in the passenger side) of our car. I go to work, go home, play with Nathan and Kalea, put them to bed, and go to bed exhausted. I got an amazing offer to be able to talk about my faith and career publically, but missed it because I didn't have time to check my e-mail. The best plan of action? To get an iphone. I was suddenly able to do everything I needed to do in the car. Next to the van, it was probably the best purchase we made. My phone was awesome for the trip until a new problem surfaced. Steve has done the bulk of his Masters work on the road. We tour America by day and by night he would leave the kids and I alone to sleep in the hotel while he spent the night hours in the hotel's business center. This venture was interesting and time consuming especially when the hotel either lacked a business center (at these times the work had to be done on the iphone) or if the hotel offered wifi to laptop owners and dial up on the computers in the business center. People do weird things on vacation, but a sleep deprived person jumps past weird into the abyss of are you crazy? Steve's student loan was more than he needed for school, so with his trusty Liberty Card, he went out and bought not one, but two laptops. Then he tried to extend our vacation.... I love the laptop, but a gal's got to go home eventually. Perhaps that will happen tomorrow?
Anywho.... I haven't blogged in 6 months and am not quite sure where to start....so I'll start with the world's longest vacation. We left our house in the city with the tiny kitchen, steep driveway and almost no back yard on June 22. We drove through a humid Arkansas, and beautiful Tenesssee, to arrive in a sleep deprived stuper of silliness at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA where Steve is getting no less than three Masters all leading up to his Masters in Divinity. Tri-master Saenz his is new self dubbed nick name. We arrived in the parking lot of the bookstore at 9:20PM after circling the campus several times to ensure that I take a million blurry....almost focused...ok not really, pictures of the campus out the window of our brand new used minivan. I swore I'd never own a minivan, and I still don't because I somehow managed to remain completely out of Steve's transacation with Carmax. Once safely in the parking lot, we opened the door to the van only to have all of the kids toys spill out into the parking lot along with Steve and I giggling and dilerious from the trip just trying to make it through the doors of the bookstore before it closed at 9:30. We had two tired kids and 10 minutes to shop and Steve completed his mission of school parafanilia in 9 minutes and 55 seconds. Loaded up on school spirited goods, we spent a restful night in tiny beds and drove on to Lynchburg to see my parents. It was a super great trip. We saw many a fort, landmark, water taxi, house, museum; my dad and sometimes mom trucking us to every attraction our eager eyes wanted to see. We stayed for about 11 days and then it was time to make our journey towards home. I say towards because we have yet to actually make it there. I hated to leave. It's not just that vacation joy that fades when you leave somewhere but it's the hard reality that I wont see my family for another 6 months. I'll miss the crazy life of being in a big house with a big family perpetually coming and going. The sounds, the space, the food, the unconditional love...it's a tough thing to leave behind.
On our way homeward, we traveled through the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, Lousiana, and finally back to Texas. Once in Texas, we drove straight to the Katy Mills Mall, where we met an entire food court full of relatives. There's nothing like getting out of a car smelling like stale fries and New Orleans and walking straight into the arms of people you barely know. Fun stuff... We spent the weekend doing family reunion type stuff and even got to venture to yet another museum. This is about the moment when things got a bit...expensive? Back in May I realized that I spend an hour and a half a day commuting (in the passenger side) of our car. I go to work, go home, play with Nathan and Kalea, put them to bed, and go to bed exhausted. I got an amazing offer to be able to talk about my faith and career publically, but missed it because I didn't have time to check my e-mail. The best plan of action? To get an iphone. I was suddenly able to do everything I needed to do in the car. Next to the van, it was probably the best purchase we made. My phone was awesome for the trip until a new problem surfaced. Steve has done the bulk of his Masters work on the road. We tour America by day and by night he would leave the kids and I alone to sleep in the hotel while he spent the night hours in the hotel's business center. This venture was interesting and time consuming especially when the hotel either lacked a business center (at these times the work had to be done on the iphone) or if the hotel offered wifi to laptop owners and dial up on the computers in the business center. People do weird things on vacation, but a sleep deprived person jumps past weird into the abyss of are you crazy? Steve's student loan was more than he needed for school, so with his trusty Liberty Card, he went out and bought not one, but two laptops. Then he tried to extend our vacation.... I love the laptop, but a gal's got to go home eventually. Perhaps that will happen tomorrow?
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