Labor Pains

Where has all the time gone??? I'm starting this entry like this because I want to see how many times I can say it in my blog. :) This is a phrase that I heard a gazillion times growing up and even more after I became a mom. Everyone would say, "If you think time goes by quickly now, just wait until your kids start school." Now here I am, saying it ALL too often. Tomorrow is Kiley's birthday and, are you ready for this? She is turning 12! Next year she'll be a teenager! At this time 12 years ago, I had been in labor for 21 hours, and little did I know then, I still had 11 more hours to go. Now flash forward to today. Did I blink and 12 years passed by?


Last night we were at the Duck's game with a couple of the pastors from CCV. One of them works in youth ministries. I hear John from behind me say, "Our daughter will be in jr. high next year." I think my heart skipped a beat before I started to feel light-headed. Then it hit me: next year I will be a parent of a jr. higher! I wanted to fall to my knees and beg God to have mercy on me and turn back the clock. I thought about that statement all the way home from the game and all night until I fell asleep.

It was the first thing on my mind this morning when I woke up. As I worked through my morning routine, I started to become at peace with it all. After all, she has grown into such a kind, beautiful young lady with a heart for the Lord. She is this way because of the circumstances of life and how we have raised her. If we turned back the clock, the outcome could be disappointingly different. She is still the shy girl she's been since she was in diapers and has some social issues, but she's perfect to us and we LOVE the person God made her to be.

Twelve years may have flown by before our eyes, but they've been a great 12 years! We've experienced the death of loved ones, illnesses, John's accident, deep sadness and much more, but more importantly, we've experienced the love of our children, constant hugs and kisses, "I love yous," first steps, school plays, church programs and way too many blessings than I could ever list. Most importantly, we've all grown together in the love and joy of the Lord. We are living in the happiest days of our lives and all we can do is embrace the joy and grace of each day, no matter how quickly the time passes.

Facing Off at Face-Off Fest

One of the highlights of hockey season has come and gone. Face-Off Fest is an event put on by the Ducks to thank all of their season ticket holders. They have free food, tours of the locker room, skating on the ice, autographs and interacting with the players, bounce houses and much more. For our daughters, it's the best part of hockey season! Once again, we had a blast! The highlight for Kiley and me was skating on the ice. It's amazing how big of an area it is once you're standing on it. Kiley is still learning how to ice skate, so other than one lap on my own, I skated with Kiley to keep her from falling. We loved standing on center ice, right on the giant "D." John and Makenna watched and cheered us on from the glass and Makenna was more than happy when I went to one of the camera holes in the glass to hand her my sunglasses that were still on top of my head. Makenna's highlight was getting her favorite player, Corey Perry, to sign his trading card, she already has his autograph on her jersey and then bumping into him later on the elevator. Johns highlight? Having a trading card made of him and his girls. It was a great family night and we're already looking forward to next year! GO DUCKS!!!!

Divine Design - Reflecting on the Path God Put Me On

What a weekend! I returned Sunday from a weekend retreat in Costa Mesa at the Wyndham Hotel and Resort. It was the first retreat I went on through our church, CCV. Wow! They really know how to inspire, teach, love and care for the women of our church. The hotel was beautiful, but most of all, the Holy Spirit was present and working in my life and the lives of the other 160 women that were there. I shared a room with my Bestie, Janet and our friend, Christina. We enjoyed the fellowship with other women, laughing and crying with each other as new friendships were formed. I pray that these new friendships will inspire me for a lifetime.

I’d like to share a story I wrote during a workshop I took at the retreat called, “Seeing God in Your Story.” While writing out this event from my life, I was able to reflect on how much God has done in my life as a result of this powerful experience I went through.

Several years ago, I considered my life to be fairly ordinary and not really exciting. All of that was about to change. John often worked nights, so it wasn’t unusual for me to lay asleep alone in my bed. Although my girls were asleep just down the hall, I felt alone in our big house. Finally, I drifted off to sleep around 1am. John would be home soon, then I'd sleep more soundly knowing he survived another dangerous night at work.
Startled by a sound, I awoke and smacked the alarm clock, but the noise didn't end. It was the phone and little did I know, my world was about to be rocked. "This isn't good," I thought as I searched for the phone. I looked at the clock and it read 3:10am. I looked at the empty bed space beside me. Where was John? He should have been home an hour before. Fear set in. A ringing phone at 3:10am is usually not a good thing. I answered the phone to John's voice. Relief, he was alive. My mind began to fill in all the questions that raced through my mind. He was probably calling to say he'd be really late and didn't want me to panic when I awoke in the morning. If only! If only that was what he was about to tell me. Instead, I heard these words, "I'm at the hospital. I was in an accident. A stupid drunk hit me head on. You stay put at home, let the girls sleep and I'll call you later. Love you." Before I could even process what he'd said, he hung up. Wait! What just happened? He couldn't tell me something like that and then just hang up! By then, I was very much awake. As the grogginess wore off, questions raced through my mind. What hospital? How bad? Was he okay? I had to talk to him again. I dialed his cell phone, praying he would answer. I got his voicemail. No! I didn't want voicemail! I dialed again and that time he answered. "It will be okay," he told me. If only that had been true.

We live the rest of the story every day of our lives. John had a serious injury to his spine. A piece of his spine launched itself against his spinal cord. His neck was a mess and major surgery was required to repair as much of the damage as possible. After a titanium plate and screws and over a year of physical and occupational therapy, J made a very good recovery for his injury, but nothing ever was the same again. He did beat the odds and was able to regain 67% of his mobility and returned to work 14 months later, but he lives with pain, unable to participate in many of the activities he used to love. Although the entire experience was beyond difficult and I had to care for my husband in ways I never thought I'd have to, we are at peace with what happened. God did some amazing things through that accident. He drew us closer to each other and best of all, He drew us closer to Him. I don't think we could have learned to completely lean on God, even when we don't understand what He is doing, if we hadn't lived through that event. God tended to our every need, providing friends and family to support our physical and emotional needs. God taught us the importance of community, letting go of control and taking one step at a time when we can't see the path in front of us. God taught us that He is faithful and all things are possible with Him. Amen!

Opening Day for the Ducks

Last night was the first official game of hockey season. If you don't know, we are "Die Hard Ducks Fans." We have season tickets and love going to the games. John had to work last night, so it was just myself and the girls. We arrived at the stadium at 4pm so we could see all the players arrive and walk the red carpet. Much to our surprise, we ended up getting a handful of autographs, including Andrew Ebbett, Bobby Ryan and George Parros. The absolute highlight for me was that George, at my request, drew his mustache on my sweatshirt under his autograph. :) After the red carpet arrival, the girls and I headed out to pizza. It was such a fun time to talk about all the players and text John about all the players we saw and met. We then headed back to the stadium for game time. Opening Day ceremonies were awesome with Wild Wing taking to the ice with young hockey players skating circles around him with Ducks flags. After the introduction of all the players and National Anthem, the game began! The first period brought a devastating 4 goals in a row by the San Jose Sharks. The Ducks FINALLY scored a single goal in the third period, but was such a sorry loss for the team. There was no shortage of fighting though with the first fight breaking out just 2 minutes into the game. Parros was on his best behavior with no fighting, but he didn't disappoint us by shouting at the Sharks as he leaned over the bench motioning his arms all around.

Despite, the disappointing loss, it was a great night for me to have time with the girls and bond with them. I am so proud of my little hockey fans!

LaJolla Rough Water Swim

This last weekend marked the 79th Annual LaJolla Rough Water Swim and our 3rd year participating in this great event. Makenna competed in it for the 3rd time and I competed for the 2nd time. Kiley chose to "opt out" after her first swim last year. This event is also a fun social time for our swim team. We all traveled to LaJolla on Saturday and met at the cove for a practice swim with Coach Wade. We all stayed at the Sheraton and then enjoyed yet another great dinner at TGIFriday (which of course included their yummy Vanilla Bean Cheesecake). Although only about 10 families from our team participated, we enjoyed getting to know those families better and then cheered each others' children on the next day at the event. The current in the water was quite a challenge for all the swimmers this year. It was truly a Rough Water Swim! Just about all the swimmers had slower times than years past, but since my goal was just to complete it, I reached my goal! An added bonus this year was that my parents came down to cheer us on and our "front row friends" Bill and Janet surprised me by showing up too. It was a great weekend and we definitely earned our medals!!!

First Day of School

What a day to start school, 09/09/09! Claremont was one of the last districts in the area to go back to school. Some districts have already been back for a month! You might say the day was bitter sweet. I was looking forward to having a quiet house again, but wasn't ready for all of the chaos that comes with school: huge packets of paperwork, homework, projects, lunches to pack, etc. The hardest part though came a few days before school started. We were walking back home from the school after checking the class postings and Makenna said, "We're both upper graders now!" I about collapsed into tears. How could they both be upper graders? Where had the time gone? Weren't we just here for kindergarten orientation a few days ago? Yet, somehow, the years passed because Makenna started 4th grade and Kiley (are you ready for this?) started 6th grade!!! It's her last year in elementary school. Despite the lightning speed passing of time, I'm proud to be where we're at. Our daughters are GOOD girls! We couldn't be more proud of them! They both do very well in school and are such giving, polite and sweet children. Okay, they do have their bad days, but overall, I can't complain!

Of course, John was at work and wasn't able to walk them to school on the first day, but he surprised us in the morning, by getting up extra early to buy donuts and left them in the kitchen with a nice note for the girls. Can you say "sugar rush" on the first day of school? Oh how happy they were though. Both girls got their first picks for teachers. Kiley has Ms. De Leon and Makenna has Kiley's former teacher, Mrs. Douglass. Both are excellent teachers. :) As we walked up to the school, Kiley's best friend, Amanda, found us just before we were going to cross the street to the school. We barely made it on campus when Makenna found her best friend, Brooke. All 4 of them acted like they hadn't seen each other forever even though they were all just at Adventure Mountain together 3 weeks before! They lined up in their proper lines, got greeted by their teachers, followed by a greeting by their principle. Before I knew it, their teachers were leading them to their classrooms. I had secretly (it's really no surprise, I do this every year) packed notes in their lunches reminding them how much we love them and how proud we are to be their parents and of course a Bible verse for encouragement. I smiled at lunch time knowing they were reading their notes. It's official: summer is over and we now have 2 upper graders!

Summer Winds Down to an End

It happens every year, despite my attempts to stop it, summer winds down to an end. We love summer at our house. It means lazy days relaxing in the pool, camping at the beach, summer camp and time with family. Best of all, it means no homework, no packing lunches and no hurrying out the door in the morning. It does have it's drawbacks though, triple digit temperatures (heat is good but baking is not), the girls getting sick of each other and fighting and oh how I miss my quiet house during the day. We started the summer with a camping trip at the beach with the O'Malley Family, there were visits to Mamaw & Guga's house in Wrightwood, playing at the lake with cousins, several trips to Laguna Beach with the O'Malleys and a week at Adventure Mountain at Forest Home for the girls (quiet house for John and I). It was a great summer! We enjoyed every moment of it. Now, here we are, the start of a new school year......I guess all things must come to an end. I've posted some pictures taken throughout our wonderful summer.