I heard some more sad news

Doug Didominicus passed away a few days ago, we was former classmate of mine from Ramona High School Class of 2001. He went missing for over a week and they found what they believe to be his body and they have custody of 3 suspects right now with a 1million dollar bail out. So, we say good bye to Doug today with services coming up soon. Seems like we are just too young for this to be happening, but the police reports that Doug may have fallen out of graces with these suspects for reasons unknown yet. Keep his family and friends in prayer through this tragedy.

L

Been a long time

It has been quite a while since I blogged. Last you probably heard, we have decided to give up on buying a house right now. We owe quite a bit of money because of Andrew's car stuff and we are busy paying around $800/ month to get it paid off so we don't have that hanging over our heads. It is a nice thought to be able to imagine someday waking up in our own house, but it may be a far away dream that never comes to fruition.  We'll wait on the Lord and pray that He gives us an answer.

Work has been crazy, I have been doing well at my job. The President of the my company has complimented me several times and said that she he has been very impressed with my work. My VP is always telling me how much she appreciates me and what a great job I always do. So, I know that I am doing the right thing and being a good employee. My manager, however, seems to think that not doing her job is fine and when issues come up I try not to be a taddle tail, but issues need to be brought up to my VP. I don't want to have to bring these things up but when they start to effect my job I have to say something. It's been a difficult and frustrating road to see someone making 2 times as much as you and not doing even half of a job. Anyway, I am just doing the best job I can to be a good employee.

Hezekiah is growing like a weed, he is so funny and very mischievous... He's climbing boxes to get to our computer desks. Laughing out of nowhere, and throwing beach balls all over the house. It has been so fun to watch him grow up, I watched this episode on 'the doctors' that had an 18 month old being potty trained. Potty trained! Wow, I guess I should buy a potty for Hezekiah so he could get used to it... We'll see! I went to pick up Hezekiah and Sarah who watched him was watching her new nephew who was 3 weeks old. I just looked at this little baby and went wow, it seems so long ago since I have seen a baby this small again. Ohhh, how I miss those days of a little baby. 1 more year to go before I even THINK about having another baby, but I do miss those days where they sleep anywhere and you know why they're crying... Ahhh someday again, we will have another little one crying around this house again. But 1 more year!

Other than that just trying to read my devotionals, we plan on taking Hezekiah to a pumpkin patch to take some pictures of him and hopefully some family photos.  Probably the next week or so we'll do that. And we just keep on truckin!

Divorce

A word we too commonly hear today, even in the arena of Christianity we hear this word too often. Since when did marriage become a thing of convenience for people? When did it become okay to walk away from your spouse because you're bored or the grass looks greener on the other side? Is this what our world has come to... if you don't give me what I want when I say I want it then I am outta here! Love is not the butterflies in your stomach when you first meet, that my friends is infatuation. Love is a commitment to never say I'm giving up, even when things look grim I am gonna hold on through this storm because that is what I promised in front of my God, my Family, and my Friends.

It saddened me today to learn that a friend of Andrew and I got served divorce papers today. Some strange things had been happening in the marriage, but how do you find yourself so happy one day and turn around and be ready to walk away? Crazy, Crazy... that's about all I can say right now.

What would this be like?

As we get closer to the rapture of the church, what if God was slowly
lifting his hand of protection? What kind of chaos would we see in our
world? Economic disaster, natural disaster, political disaster, moral
disaster.... Aren't we headed that way already? Just something to think
about!

Please get out and vote!

Go knock 'em out Johnny!

I thought this was powerful

I thought the closing statements from the VP candidates last night went very well, I especially thought Palin had a very strong closing statement quoting Ronald Reagan as I have had in past blogs and thought that was a very smart move on her part to quote Reagan. I think in many ways they are trying to differentiate themselves from the Bush administration and trying to really show us that they are following more closely to Reagan and not Bush. I think that is wise, Many people would call Ronald Reagan the greatest President in American history and I would have to agree, so McCain-Palin keep going with Reagan!

All Together Separate

Back when I was in high school we had this amazing local band, that our church was particularly close with. And if anyone has heard the song "Paradigm" yep... that's them! Here' what Dex, the lead singer, has been up to:


New Creation from FC Post on Vimeo.

Freedom

"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not
ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each
generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known
freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again

"We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." --Ronald Reagan

Webster defines this word as many different things but the first on their
list is this "1: the quality or state of being free."

I grew up as a kid of divorced parents. My Dad a marine who served in Vietnam and spent a lot of his time, before us kids were born, working for the Vietnam Veterans Association taking weapons away from Vietnam Veterans throughout LA. A scary and dangerous job he stopped when we were born... But my Dad didn't walk away from that war unscarred and untouched. Although for the most part a very normal guy, there were others that weren't so lucky. He has a big heart for military to say any less would be wrong. I am so very proud of my Dad, in fact if it weren't for the Hand of God protecting
him from that mortar... None of us kids would be here today. He witnessed the un-American behavior of spitting in his face, or when he returned he tried to get his hair to grow as fast as possible so that people wouldn't mis-treat him.

I so often think about the cost of our Freedom. The freedom's we enjoy to choose our Presidential candidate, and the freedom to say how we feel in blogs like these. I hear  often from people against the war that we shouldn't be there. But at this point I don't care about people talking about the past anymore, what's done is done. I want to move forward and get to the end of this war just like everyone else. We will never get to the end of this war by sticking our tails between our legs and walking away and hope that it fixes itself. Should we have not done anything about the Berlin Wall? Should we have let the Japanese get away with bombing Pearl Harbor? I don't take for granted any life that has been taken during this war I believe their cause is noble because they say it is... but who are you or who am I to say that their cause wasn't or isn't noble? That isn't decided by you or I, but decided by that man or woman who is the one fighting for those freedoms we so easily enjoy. So before you decide to be the first one to cast that stone, think about the cost of Freedom. Don't just proclaim you support our troops, and then go protest in Washington... because our troops see those news reports and they don't need us to be protesting, they need to be supported and even if we don't agree with the reason why they are there- they are there so support them!

I love this quote... another one by Ronald Reagan "You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing is worth dying for, when did this begin...? ...Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots of Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world?"

I know this may have come off strong to some, but if God was able to create passion inside someone for something they believe it, it should be shared. Everyone is going to have their own beliefs on who should be the next President... that's why we live in America we are able to enjoy Freedom!

Date Night

Tonight was date night for Andrew and I. We left the baby with friends Dave
and Nancy and took off to the Riverside Plaza to watch the movie
"Fireproof" with Kirk Cameron. We just happened to run into 3 other
couples from our church there as well and enjoyed some good conversation.
It is an amazing movie, I really think every married couple needs to see
this movie! Whether you're having trouble or not, you should see this
movie. It was powerful and inpiring, Kirk Cameron did an awesome job. I
hope you all get a chance to see be inspired by the movie.

"Love is not a Fight"

By Warren Barfield. This is one of my new favorite songs, it was used as the main song for the movie "Fireproof"

Love is not a place
to come and go as we please
It's a house we enter in
then commit to never leave

So lock the door behind you
Throw away the key
Work it out together
Let it bring us to our knees

Love is a shelter
in a raging storm
Love is peace
in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave;
May God send angels to guard the door
No, Love is not a fight
but its something worth fighting for

To some love is a word
that they can fall into.
But when they're falling out
keeping that word is hard to do

Love is a shelter
in a raging storm
Love is peace
in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave;
May God send angels to guard the door
No, Love is not a fight
but its something worth fighting for

Love will come to save us
If we'll only call
He will ask nothing from us
but demand we give our all

Love is a shelter
in a raging storm
Love is peace
in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave;
May God send angels to guard the door
No, Love is not a fight
but its something worth fighting for.

Cause I Will Fight For You
Would You Fight For Me
It's Worth Fighting For.

Thomas Jefferson

"We should never judge a President by his age, only by his work"

Cuban- born author blasts Obama campaign

Cuban-born author blasts Obama campaign volunteers for displaying Che Guevara flags

Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 2/18/2008 6:00:00 AM

A Cuban historian and author says it's absolutely "unreal" that two of Barack Obama's campaign offices in Houston would prominently display a Cuban flag with an image of one of the Castro regime's most notorious thugs.

Humberto Fontova escaped Castro's Cuba in 1961, and in 2006 published Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Fontova says apparently some admirers of the Cuban revolutionary are volunteers for Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois). And in several recent reports on Houston's Fox television affiliate, a Cuban flag with Guevara's image can clearly be seen on an office wall.
 
The Cuban-born author says during the Cuban missile crisis Guevara advocated a nuclear attack on the United States. "He said, 'If the nuclear missiles had remained in Cuba, we would have fired them against the heart of the United States. The Americans are nothing but hyenas fit only for extermination.' The Obama campaign considers this [man's image] an appropriate decoration in their campaign offices?" wonders a disgusted Fontova.
 
The author was not impressed with an Obama campaign spokesman's response to the controversy, who simply said the Guevara displays were "inappropriate." He says one could only imagine the media reaction if a Mike Huckabee volunteer displayed on a campaign office wall a poster of white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.

"Can you imagine the media hullabaloo over that? And do you think for even a millisecond that Huckabee could get away with just saying, 'Oh well, that's inappropriate?'" argues Fontova.
 
Fontova says it is outrageous that Obama reportedly refuses to wear an American flag lapel pin, but some of his supporters can prominently display a Cuban flag with an image of a communist mass murderer.

Would Obama’s Robin Hood Tax Plan Redistribute Wealth?

Would Obama’s Robin Hood Tax Plan Redistribute Wealth?

Posted using ShareThis

Presidential debate

I was pretty disappointed on the debate tonight, It's a good thing that there are 2 more debates coming up.

One thing Obama just can't seem to get right is connecting with the voters. He's a great speaker, and he's pretty charismatic but is that enough? For me, it's not enough. He can't seem to pull in the emotional side at all, it always seems he's just about business and not about me as an American. I think he made a lot of valid points, however, he does what he does best and that's being a politician- not a leader. I have some really huge concerns with Obama- Why does he have a flag of Che Guevera in his campaign office? Why won't he wear an American flag, or put his hand over his heart during the national anthem? This worries me, because I don't feel like his loyalty lies with the USA. He even slipped up and said his "muslim faith". I don't identify with Obama on any level at this point.

McCain really disappointed me because he hit a lot of the emotional side. I can identify in more ways with McCain, and not just because he's white or whatever people would like to think but because of my own family. My own Dad was a Vietnam Veteran who fought for this country, so can I connect with McCain as a voter. Yes, but why couldn't he manage to at least give Obama one look? One acknowledgment that he was present? Was it because he wanted to portray an image that he is the only commander in chief, I think on some level it made him look a little arrogant and I wish that wasn't how he had come off. I wished he would have stayed on point to the questions asked, and stop saying "He just doesn't understand" These kinds of comments are going to kill him with the undecided voters. The final word for me is McCain, and that is no matter what I disagree with on both sides of the parties- At the very least I know that McCain will be loyal to the USA... his POW history proves this again and again.

No more housy house

So for now, we say Bye Bye to the idea of buying a house! It is a pretty sad decision but we have decided that because of the economy we can't depend on Andrew always being paid by the church which really hampers our hopes of buying a house. So we are actively taking steps to ensure that we are able to withstand the changes of the economy and not strap ourself to something we may or may not be able to commit too. We have decided to take Andrew's pay from the church and just put it in savings and act as though we are extremely poor so that if anything happens we will be able to make it without that income. And we can, we live very below our means but it is a naive thought to think that this economy won't effect us and right now we are just trying to take the right steps. Owning a home is a luxury- not a right and not a necessity so... We are taking this dream of owning a home and putting it to the back of our minds unless God decides somewhere along the road to tell us he has other plans for us.

So awesome!

Interesting little quiz!

Gotta love America's Next top model!!!

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Fireproof- Go see this movie!

It will be in select theaters starting Friday September 26th- Riverside Plaza and think the next closest is in Ontario!




Interview with Kirk Cameron on Good Morning America:

Your marriage masterpiece

I have been reading a pretty cool book written by Al Janssen, it has an interesting outlook on Adam and Eve and goes into great depth about how playful Adam and Eve were with each other and what kinds of conversations they may have had with God before the fall. The first couple of chapters I have read have been pretty enlightening. I think it's pretty easy to get stuck in a rut in your marriage and get in a routine and forget all the little things that you need to do in your marriage. Romance is not dead, and even as silly as it seems we still need to make that extra effort to be loving and romantic even when sometimes it hurts our wallet, or when sometimes you just don't want to do it because it would be too much work. So anyway, if you get a chance, you can go to: www.Christianbook.com and read an excerpt.

Choose cruciferous vegetables

We have all been told by our mothers, doctors, teachers, and other sages of healthy living always to remember to eat our vegetables, particularly those that are green and leafy. The evidence is overwhelming that these delicious and beneficial greens contribute to a well-balanced and nutritious diet, especially those that belong to the cruciferous or cabbage family of vegetables. These are the vegetables, also called brassica vegetables, whose four-petal flowers form the shape of a cross - cruciferous means "cross-bearing." While the terminology may be new, these vegetables may already be a staple in your diet.

Cruciferous vegetables include Swiss chard, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, watercress, radish, rapini, arugula, spinach, turnip, kale, and bok choy. Packed with vitamins and minerals (some crucifers have more than others), these vegetables boast impressive nutritional qualities and potent anticancer properties.

Nutrition experts often refer to brassica vegetables as "functional foods." Functional foods are foods that have benefits beyond basic nutrition - for instance, health benefits such as preventing certain diseases. Like all vegetables, crucifers possess high levels of antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, iron, folate, soluble fibre, and lignans. All these compounds may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, since studies show that crucifers reduce plasma homocysteine levels, and higher homocysteine levels increase the risk for heart disease. Additionally, because of the high amount of calcium found in crucifers (especially kale, Chinese cabbage, and broccoli), they protect bone density and may help prevent the onset of osteoporosis, particularly in women.

Most findings on crucifers support their cancer-fighting abilities. Researchers have isolated sulfur-containing phytochemicals called glucosinolates that are abundant in cruciferous vegetables and that have the potential to inhibit cancer. These glucosinolates, when chopped, chewed, and digested, are converted into compounds called isothiocyanates, which act to prevent normal cells from becoming cancerous cells by stimulating the body to clear potential cancer-causing agents (carcinogens). Researchers from Ohio State University have shown that isothiocyanates are able to stop cancer cells from spreading. A 2004 study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that the isothiocyanate sulforaphane fights the spread of breast cancer cells, even in the later stages.

Isothiocyanates can also help prevent cancer. Some glucosinolates that cruciferous vegetables have in abundance have been linked to reducing the risk of breast, prostate, cervical, colon, and other cancers.

• A Harvard and Ohio State study that showed that men who ate 2 or more half-cup servings of broccoli per week were 44% less likely to develop bladder cancer than men who ate less than one serving a week.
• A study by the UCLA Medical Center found that people who ate more broccoli (about 4 half-cup servings per week) were 50% less likely to develop colorectal cancer than those who never ate broccoli.
• Sulforaphane has been found to increase the liver's ability to help prevent cell mutations that may develop into cancer.
• Researchers have found that one glucosinolate, indole-3-carbinol (I3C), deactivates an estrogen metabolite that promotes tumour growth, particularly in breast cells.
• Other research found that men aged between 40 and 64 who ate 3 or more half-cup servings of cruciferous vegetables a week were 41% less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who did not.

Before you gorge yourself on crucifers, however, there are some cautions to heed. While they are loaded with beneficial nutrients, it should be noted that cruciferous vegetables also contain goitrogens and nitriles. In large quantities, goitrogens can reduce thyroid activity. Very high quantities of nitriles, which are found especially in Brussels sprouts, can have negative effects on the liver and kidneys. One way to lower the levels of goitrogens and nitriles in cruciferous vegetables is to cook them for 30 minutes or more. This will reduce the amount of goitrogens to one tenth and will also reduce a large amount of the nitriles. While cooking reduces the amount of nutrients in vegetables, it actually increases the amount of antioxidants absorbed by the body in crucifers.

In any case, the many benefits of crucifers far outweigh the small negatives. Not only are they cancer fighters, they also help control the appetite due to their high soluble fibre content, and they are thought to decrease the absorption of fats from other foods eaten during the same meal.

The next time you're planning a meal, reach for cruciferous vegetables, whether they be tried-and-true favourites or new and exciting options. Your body will thank you! And when choosing them, keep these things in mind:

• adults should have 2 to 3 cups of cruciferous veggies a day; children should aim for 1 to 2 cups
• look for firm, dark green leaves or heads; try to avoid leaves or heads that are yellow
• keep fresh cruciferous vegetables in the refrigerator in large, airy plastic bags

Brennan Robertson, Hon. B.Sc. (Nutrition)

Why do people wave?

When they cut you off either on a street or on the freeway... Are they
saying "Hi, I am an inconsiderate selfish jerk who is too stupid to get in
the lane I need to turn in and arrogrant enough to think I drive a big
stupid raised suv that gets 5 mpg and I don't need to wait behind all these
cars going way too slow... So I am just going to cut in here because I am
big and stupid!"

I am sorry... I know that sounds harsh but seriously I get so tired of
people not thinking ahead and getting impatient because they can't drive 60
down a 45mph street. I wish people would learn that this world doesn't
revolve around them... And care about other people. They are the reason car
insurance is so high, people get lazy and stop caring that anyone else is
on the road but them.

Ugh! My frustrating for the day :)

As with other blog entries

I was still annoyed yet again by another vehicle who had a Christian sticker on it and driving like an inconsiderate, dangerous, jerk... and still proclaiming to be a Christian. Yeah!!! You show the world the love of God by cutting them off on the off ramp on the freeway and not obeying the speed limits.... yeah!!! That will show the world how kind, caring, and selfless Christ was.... that is all I am going to blog about this subject right now.

Today is another reminder

Today marks the 4th anniversary of Josh Gladura's passing, this year never comes without some sort of reminder of how thankful we should be for the lives we have. Today was a day of reflection and memory, a day sometimes I dread because I am always too emotional. I can't ever say that Josh and I were ever best friends, and in fact for a long time he HATED my guts for trying to "take away" Andrew from him. Somewhere between hating me and being friends with me, he must have realized that I wasn't going away from Andrew's or his life as long as he had Andrew as a friend. I can call Josh a friend, because those last few months of his life something changed in him and in me and he actually became nice to me and we even laughed about his and my goofiness. He was one of Andrew's best buddies, so to see Andrew missing him is enough for me to feel empathy right now. Josh was goofy and friendly with a lot of people, and he was able to reach quite a few of them in his life... with that said he only had a handful of people who were truly close with him and really knew him- not just spent a few days hanging out with him but truly knew him. I don't pretend to know everything about Josh or even pretend I am one of those handful of people because it would be a lie. I barely started getting to know  Josh when he passed, and I say that because even though we hung out for 3 years we never gave each other a chance to get to know each other because we were too busy hating each other... lol. So where do I go from here? I am going to be real, I am not going to pretend I had some great relationship with Josh, when I barely started to get  to know him. I truly wished that I was able to spend more time with him after we started getting along because I truly miss all his goofiness... I am going to be upfront and real because that is what is right.

I miss a lot of things about Josh, his countless times hanging his head out of the car with his tongue hanging out and wearing his swim goggles and towel on his head, I miss him sharing his video of "Gay Spiderman" and the "Mystery of Britny Spears boobs", I miss the nights in Lytle Creek, I miss that he ALWAYS wanted the windows down even when it was cold outside (just like Becca does too), I miss his laugh, and I will never forget the night Andrew has his windshield wiper sprayers pointed sideways and Josh decides to spray someone in the car next to us and had their window down and those girls happened to be crazy and chase us in downtown Fontana. I mean for goodness sake the first time I met him and Clint we were going off- roading and when we pulled up in Andrew's car Josh was hanging his head out of the side of the truck and screaming "Hiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!" And I can hear him saying Hi in his usual Josh manner like it was yesterday! The only thing I truly wished I could change, would be if Josh could have been there for our wedding, because he would have been standing up there in our wedding party.

Those memories are the ones I will cherish the most :)

Taken from Andrew's sermon today

Really cool, and you can guess he wrote this himself:

"Imagine you are in a darkly lit room you don’t know how you got there or where you are at in fact you are not even sure if it is real it has the feeling of a dream where things or more vivid and colors are little off. Still a little confused you begin to become aware of a scratching sound light but constant. You turn to see a man at an old oak desk writing under a green glass reading lamp which happens to be the only light in the room. You cant quite make out his face but you can see the corner of his eyes are wrinkled not from stress or a hard life but from experience and understanding. As you start to walk towards him he makes what seems to be a final punctuation, closes a book and stands up he takes a few steps and fades into the darkness before you have time to say anything.

It is entirely too quiet now and you begin to notice that every step you take comes with a deafening creak not because it is loud but because it is that quiet. The room smells old and musty, older then any room you have ever been in before. You reach the old desk and can tell it has been well taken care of.  The book the man was writing in was very thick and the cover was a rich and heavy leather the inscription read Jeremiah 29:11 and under that “the greatest story ever written”. You open the book and to your amazement the words “your life” stare back at you the pages written in the most beautiful calligraphy you have ever seen. As you read on you start to realize that this is a story about your life. You keep reading and notice that markings scribble’s words in the margin start to appear and in a different hand then the author much like a teacher grading an essay but some how familiar. How long you stayed there can not be certain but one thing was for sure you finished the book on the very last page was Proverbs 19:21. A loud noise pierces the room and as fast as you can blink you are in bed with your alarm clock going off. You sit up swing your feet around and sit at the side of the bed with your hands on your face. The scribbles underlining and writing in the margin was your hand and they were the changes you felt were needed in your life that you now know were mistakes. What will your next page look like?"

Reminding me of my own love story!

So every time I hear or watch that video (Taylor Swift- Love Story) I can't help but think about my own life and what a cool love story God has written for us. I can say that our love story began when we both fell in love with the Lord first and was serving Him. And somehow, he blessed us enough for Andrew and I to start our own love story. We hung out, laughed a lot, fell in love, and ended up getting married on April 30th, 2005. And this love story just continued on in our lives when Hezekiah was born. A regular, everyday love story that began in our hearts with love for Jesus. We've had our bumps, sure, and having Hezekiah was NO fairy tale... but now that he's here is such a joy. Sometimes, I think it's good to look at our life in some ethereal way, because when thinking about how EVERYTHING works out... it has absolutely nothing to do with us. But, it has more to do with how Christ has allowed our lives to work together in such a beautiful way. Besides, what fairy tale doesn't have some bumps along the road with a happy ending? We are not yet at the happy ending but working towards the best ending of all... Heaven!


This picture was taken on our unofficial "first date" Man, Look how skinny I was!!!!

One of my new favorites:

Okay so here is the music video for Taylor Swift "Love Story". I think I have played this song maybe 20 times today already:

Heitmann-Voight wedding

I photographed a friends wedding several weeks ago and have finally gotten them processed so here are some pictures from that wedding. They had a very casual hawaiian themed wedding, very intimate and fun wedding:
 







 





 

The Audacity

High Fructose Corn Syrup

I am not much of a big TV watcher but... I recently saw these commercials about High Fructose Corn Syrup. Don't be fooled that this is a natural ingredient. They genetically alter the fructose from corn to make this substance. I think it's hilarious that the commercials mention "just like sugar it's fine in moderation". The problem is they put this is almost everything we eat now... Bread, Juice, Crackers, Cereal! I mean come on, how can we have it in moderation when they put it in everything we eat, it's an absolutely ridiculous commercial to try and promote this substance when really it comes down to the bottom dollar. High fructose corn syrup is cheaper to produce and that is the only reason for the switch from regular table sugar. One thing I hate about the commercial, is that it makes health nuts look like we are idiots and we don't know why it's bad. It's a stereotype and I am sure there are plenty of people who act like that lady, it's just interesting that's all!

Here's the commercials, if you haven't seen them:





Also, here's an interesting video from a Registered Dietician on the subject:

This weekend

Andrew decided him and his brother Matt were going to hike Mineral King
near Sequoia, it's like a 1/2 day hike in and out and there is pretty much
no way they can contact anyone by cell phone but they do have a nearby
ranger station. Pray for their safety, they should be returning tomorrow.

Also, pray for my Dad. He always goes to Spain every year for 4 weeks for
missions trip and he caught a parasite while he was over there that has
gotten him severely dehydrated. He is barely able to eat anything and had
to go to the hospital yesterday so just pray for his recovery and health.

So this weekend for me will be pretty slow and I like that. It's nice to be
able to sit around in my pj's all day until I have to go to Target for some
small items. Ahhhh for relaxing weekends.

On the house hunt, we are still looking at houses even though we know that
we won't be ready for a few more months. It's very very exciting, Andrew is
scared silly about being tied to a mortgage when we are used to our 985/
month rent... But I don't think we'll ever feel at ease when we buy a
house, it will be scary but still exciting.

Loan stuff

We met with Tom Tinker, who is the Loan Officer which by the way, we both really liked. Straight forward kind of guy, really nice and gave us lots of information and is going to do our loan approval. It actually seems pretty good what we are looking at for our loan, he did say that a lot of the grant programs have been taken down off the market for borrowers to use so he said the best thing to do is to buckle down and save the money we need for the down. Which we are doing anyway, so it seems like everything is going well we should after the 1st of the year and taxes... of course be set to go on really buying a house now that the grant programs are pretty much out the window now. So.... on to the next step in our search for a house, here we go!

More medical fun!

Found out this morning when I arrived at urgent care because of facial
swelling and small blisters on my face that I now have cold sores... Don't
ask me how or from who I got them from but I now have to takes medications.
Ugh... So this stinks :( They did tell me I could have had them for several
years before and just never had an outbreak of them before today. Wierd!

House # 1 and House #2

Alrighty, so we looked at 2 houses so far... we are not making offers on any of these houses though. We thought #1 would be perfect and inside it has serious potential but when we found out it was a short sale and it had 2 offers already on the table we were already skeptical. House #1 4836 Granada Ave was going for $185,000 3 bedroom, 2 bath, and a den and a HUGE garage. Also, we had our realtor look it and found out that the owner's owed something like 400k so we knew that the bank was not going to approve that. Here is the pic of house #1:


House #2 looked adorable from the outside and it had a nice open kitchen/ eat in dining room, but when it came to the living room and bedrooms. It was supposedly a 3 bedroom 2 bath, but it had a circular fireplace that made the living areas and bedrooms completely awkward. And what was supposed to be the master bedroom was like a huge den of some type and was the only place that had hook ups for cable.The agent stated there were 2 offers on this house and it was going for $194,900 but it was in the right neighborhood. The floorplan of the house wasn't anything we could change unless we totally gutted the house. Here's a pic of house #2 4741 El Molino Ave:

Pre-Qualified

We thought that we would basically never ever ever ever ever be able to buy a house it seems like no matter how much we made or how much we saved it just never seemed like enough. We have been doing some searching and found a couple of different options to help us on that road. FHA loans are pretty awesome for first time home buyers, but even with that you still need 3% or 5% , well where are we going to get that kind of money? We found Riverside county has a Mortgage Assistance Program to help you with your down payment, you put yourself on this waiting list they get you your down payment, but in 30 or 45 years you would owe that money back in 1 lump sum... so we thought well that's cool if we were totally desperate to buy a house but wouldn't help us in the long run. We found through FHA they have these down payment grant programs as well. Basically, non-profit organizations gift you a certain % or amount to you to help with your down payment, some are seriously just gifts and other have more restricted contingencies. On some of these grant programs they literally give you money no strings attached. So we thought, Hey! Let's give it a try and see if this will work for us. We have to find a house and make an offer before they approve the amount you need for your grant. Pretty cool right? I thought if this works, we might actually be able to own a home someday :) It doesn't state anywhere on the information that you have to be low income so we are going to give it a shot and see what we can find.

We decided to go with South Pacific Financial Corp (whoo hoo) for our loan, basically, because I know the company I technically used to work for them about 5 years ago. We are going through the Riverside branch because they are so close to both of our work and they are extremely nice! Lo' and behold the real estate agent we are going through usually uses them for his clients, coincidence? I think not! We talked with Rich and he got our information, checked our credit and he said we were approved for $300,000 or higher if we wanted... Yeah we are NOT going that high for our first home because that would be CrAZy! and not to mention stupid :) So, we are looking at 200k or under because that is the kind of payment we would be comfortable with. So we pre-qualified for a loan.... Yeeeaaaahhhh! Now, we just need to get approved and then then our agent will start looking for homes. Just keep it in prayer, we are totally fine waiting if we need to because there seriously is no rush to be chained to a mortgage but it certainly would be nice :) Whatever happens, the Lord's will be done.

New logo

I have been messing with new logos a lot, trying to make my logo simpler and easier to read, as you might notice the right of my blog under fun stuff is the new logo and if you click it, it will take you to my newly constructed website, I love the new layout and fonts. So here is my newest logo:

Living life in this fishbowl

Sometimes, I have to say that life seems like we are always swimming in circles. You save a little and then it goes out the window. So you keep working and working to save the money again and something comes up and it's out the window again. I try to keep my eyes on God and just focus on Him instead of looking in circles and getting dizzy. It's hard sometimes not to look at what others have and not feel some sort of jealousy because God has blessed them in a different way than in my own life. I by no means, ever, ever want to be wealthy but having a little money in savings wouldn't hurt right?

Every time we hang out with friends or someone has a party everyone seems to always talk about the housing market and I know all the stuff about houses and the process in buying a house, but sometimes I hate talking about it because it is a reminder sometimes of how we're just not at that point in our lives to where we can even really look. We could borrow money from people we know to buy a house but then we'd be paying a mortgage and the person we borrowed money from and that we just could not afford and it doesn't make sense for us. It seems sometimes when looking at the housing no matter how many raises you get and promotions it never seems like enough to buy a house... well a decent house anyway. 

On the upside, I guess if you can see it that way, and that's where I have been taking life from... Work has been extremely stressful because 1) We have construction being done on the outside of our building with jack hammering and all. 2) Because sometimes people in my office don't always pull their own weight. 

I feel like when I am at work I really give like 150% and others sometimes only give maybe 50% and it jsut really sucks sometimes because then I have to work even harder to make up for the many things the other person may not be doing. I just pray seriously, that whatever the Lord's will is at my work that it be done. I don't plan on leaving because the big boss I work for is just amazing, I will be learning so much from her, she is thorough and smart, she's a great teacher. I just wish the other problems could be handled. 

Too late!

Today on a whim some friends stopped by and they were talking about buying a house in the downtown area, so we pulled up the MLS to take a look and got carried away and started looking at all sorts of houses, and we saw one that was going for $160,000 in an okay neighborhood with 3 beds and 1 bath, so we took a drive with them to see the house they were looking at in person and so we decided to would do a drive by at the house we saw on the web but instead found a better house across the way. Since no one was living in this house we took a gander inside and was in great condition, but we had no idea how much they were asking. We asked Andrew's Dad to take a look on the realtor MLS site to see what this house was going for and it was only going for 149,500 but was in escrow... so needless to say we didn't even have an opportunity. We really weren't trying to look for houses it was just on a whim and it looks like now is just not the right time. We need to get finances better in order before we start looking. We will check back at the end of the year before we start looking again. We want to have a lot of money down before we buy and we don't just want to buy some cheap property because we can, we want to make sure that what we buy we can grow into with another baby somewhere in the future and upgrade to a nicer house in about 5 to 10 years depending on the market. Anyway, I am off to decorate my baby's birthday cake!

Reallity hits...

That Hezekiah is really turning 1 year old! I can't believe that going through an emergency c-section and all the recovery that I went through to
the many many many sleepless nights when he was first born to
being pooped on right after his bath to
being pee'd on while changing his diapers to
watching him smile for the first time at me to
seeing him roll over for the first time to
seeing him crawl to
seeing him eat food to
OMG seeing him walk now!

I just can't believe this little baby of mine is now turning 1 year old!!! How did time fly so fast, you know those many night feedings at the time seemed so exhausting but that little baby then loved to be cuddled and hugged and wrapped tight and secure.... now he wants nothing more than to walk everywhere on his own. It's amazing and also scary because the next time I turn around his little jibberish will someday make sense and then I will turn around again and I will be taking him to pre-school... okay okay, I won't try to get ahead of myself too much here. I cherish this little boy so much, and love him to death I cannot wait to see how he grows even more but I wish it would slow down juuuussstttt a little bit here. My only prayer for him right now (other than to stay healthy) is to someday have a love for Jesus like my husband and I do, to grow up someday and make some girl the luckiest in the world and to love her like no other can. But for now, I will pray that he grows strong like his name means --Hezekiah "Strengthened by God".

I hate black widows

I just have to say this because ever since I had all my things from my
Dad's when he moved boxed up and moved onto our patio, I have never in my
life seen SOOOO many black widows and HUGE ones. Every time I go to do
laundry outside I have to do a check through and kill several before I can
feel safe about even being out there. Ugh, there are just too many dark
places for them to hide. Does anyone have any advice for keeping them
away??

New blog template

Alright so it has been a little while since I did an update on my template for blogger, I am pretty happy with the turn out of this, I had been just working with a blank template with a designed header but I found this website: www.thecutestblogontheblock.com and have been very impressed with their templates, easy to use and hardly any set up. Whoo hoo for another score on a cool website!

Hezekiah walking!

Hezekiah has drastically improved on his walking skills and definitely gotten more confidence as you can see below in the video!

How bizarre is this?

I ate so horrible last week, snacking on Cheetos, cookies, Panera bread bagels, snickers bar.... I mean I are horrible last week and for some strange reason ( I can only guess because of stress) that I managed to lose weight still. forgive me, I am back to regular and organic eating now but it really made me say "How bizarre!?

Say Bye Bye for a little while

So I noticed the last week or so a small crack on the under side of my engagement ring which was given to me by my grandma. So I took it to the jeweler today and they told me they could do  quick fix which would cost $30 or to fix the problem completely they could do this process called shank and it basically adds more gold to the ring to make the under side of the ring thicker in width so it wouldn't break anymore. They tried to convince me into buying a whole new band, but I told them several times that I really like the setting and the ring the way that it is I just would like to ensure nothing happens to it. The guys also tried to tell me that my ring was worth less than I estimated. I told him to his face, I really don't care about the worth it's just sentimental because my grandma has passed away and it means a lot to me. So anyway to shank the ring, polish it, clean it, and do the rhodium (the white gold process) it is going to cost me close to $200. Ahhhh yay, and on top of it all I won't get my ring back until next Wednesday.... Ugh! Anyway that's me venting for now.

Selah

"We can imagine the worst and hang on for dear life, or we can take a deep
breath and praise God for His presence and power. Praising him changes our
perspective. It remedies panic and restores peace. And as our outlook
changes, we become less focused on personal needs. We become more aware of
those around us."
Grace Fox

Working in a truly mysterious way!

So We spent the weekend camping on Catalina Island but before we left
Andrew couldn't find his wallet, so we looked all over but still never
found it. Andrew had been calling the bank making sure that no one had
found it and started using our cards. When we got home we put Hezekiah to
bed and literally ripped apart the whole house looking for his wallet, we
even ripped apart the bed and started to make sure he didn't throw it on
the bed. We gave up around 10 and went to bed, but before I went to bed and
said a little prayer asking God to show us where it was. I woke up at 6am
and pulled my clothes for the day from the closet and laid them on the bed.
With it still dark in our bedroom, I looked down at my clothes and BAM
right next to them was laying his wallet!!! Is God awesome or what!? The
whole way to work, I am just saying THANK YOU LORD! Makes no sense at all,
but Thank you!

Delivered from the Scoto

You're probably reading the title of the this blog, wondering what the heck
Scoto is! I myself wondered the same thing when a Pastor used this word in
a Sermon. I have been delivered from the Scoto, in Greek it's meaning is
Darkness literally meaning blindness. I have been delivered from darkness,
from blidness, from a meaningless life.

In thinking about this it brings me to this verse 1 Peter 2:9 "But you are
a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to
God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his wonderful light."

And what a wonderful light it has been. These last few months I really have
felt like I have been in this slump, not acting like I should, having very
little patience, and truly feeling exhuasted with everyday life. I have
been taking steps to put me back on track again, I bought a new devotional,
praying more, and listening more to sermons to keep me in the Word. Hearing
this verse really brings me back to where I was at before I was a
Christian- living an ungodly life and not focused on anything, and clearly
depressed with where my life was headed. I can be truly grateful now in
looking back, that God was gracious enough to call me out of that darkness
and into His amazing light.

As I am on the boat riding to Catalina for the weekend, this time here
allows me to really stop, take a minute, and enjoy the simple life that God
has given me. This weekend is about Impact, the theme of our trip with the
youth group. We are in a day where we are seeing prophesies coming to life,
is there truly time to mess around with our end destination. Christianity
is not fire insurance, it goes deeper than that in ways I think most of our
society has no clue about because they think all they need to do is be
saved and that is enough.

So, if you were to die tonight - Do you know where you will be going?

Thought this was fun!

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

One life to live

I know from this blog title you may think I am going to talk about a soap
opera - but I'm not. Sometimes the things that happen in my life would make
an interesting movie... For sure.

I named this blog this because I feel like sometimes it is truly hard to
have any faith at all in people. Not people I know necessarily, but people
I don't know. How can you have faith in people today that are ruthless,
rude, uncaring, unloving, and narcissistic? I could be truly pessimistic
and continue talking about how disappointing people are nowadays but I am
going to try and be positive. I have faith in God, and that is about the
only reason I can get out of bed somedays. I don't claim to be a saint of
any kind, I get impatient and uncaring at times but never to the extreme
that I find in others today. How can I look at life with fresh eyes other
than asking for God to give me His. He somehow finds a way to find some
good in each of us and I find that particularly amazing about Christ and
His grace. We have this 1 life to live, and sometimes God gives us do
over's in our decisions but most times we are subject to dealing with the
consequences of our bad decisions. We have this 1 life to live and only 1
family to live it with, so why is it so hard to get along?? Can't we all
just put these differences aside for just 1 second for the greater good in
the purpose of our Savior?

A lot of the sermons I was listening to was talking about Revelation and
the end times and I disagreed on some of their views. So I am interested in
what all your view is on the rapture of the church? What's your opinion on
how you think it will all go down? No judgements here, I am just interested
:)

Well that's all for now, I am headed off to sleep now!

In loving Memory of Albert Barajas

Albert Barajas
June 25th, 2008

A while back I asked you to pray for my co-workers husband who was
suffering from ALS and he has been in the hospital for the last couple of
months. I received word this morning that Albert passed away early this
morning. Albert was deeply loved by his wife and 4 children and went home
to be with his Savior today. Keep his family in your prayers, that Christ
would wrap his arms around them and just let them know that He loves them
and he had a purpose for Albert's life.

Services have not yet been arranged.

In loving Memory of Albert Barajas

Albert Barajas
June 25th, 2008

A while back I asked you to pray for my co-workers husband who was
suffering ALS and he has been in the hospital for the last couple of
months. I received word this morning that Albert passed away early this
morning. Albert was deeply loved by his wife and 4 children and went home
to be with his Savior today. Keep his family in your prayers, that Christ
would wrap his arms around them and just let them know that He loves them
and he had a purpose for Albert's life.

Services have not yet been arranged.

In loving memory of Christopher Laurie

Statement on the Death of Christopher Laurie, Son of Pastor Greg Laurie
July 24, 2008

Christopher Laurie, son of Pastor Greg Laurie and Cathe Laurie of Harvest
Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, died this morning in a car
accident in Riverside. A resident of Huntington Beach, Laurie, 33, served
as the art director at Harvest Christian Fellowship for the past three
years.

In addition to his parents, Christopher is survived by his wife, Brittany,
and daughter, Stella, as well as his brother Jonathan. Christopher and his
wife are expecting another daughter in November.

Memorial plans for Christopher are pending. More information will be posted
to the Harvest website as details become available. Please check on the
details at www.Harvest.org .

Friendship Community

Our pastor was in a leadership meeting and Friendship community asked to
have Andrew preach on August 3rd, so we are heading out that way again for
him to preach. I am really looking forward to hearing his upcoming sermon.
It's been a long time since we have visited that church and a lot has
changed with them, so it should be good to go back and see how things are
doing.

My top 2

I am trying to look at life through different eyes. Not ones who are
disgusted with humanity and unsympathetic with the world. I feel sometimes
I don't ever stop and smell the roses and stop to really enjoy the
beautiful things in life. Yes, there is a lot of bad in this world and we
can't pretend it doesn't exist. But what I mean is we cannot be so hard to
the world that we stop being compassionate, even if they never return the
favor, we cannot lose our compassion just as Christ had for us. Give me
your eyes Lord so I can see people how you see them!

These 2 artists have really touched an area of my spiritual life that make
me truly look at life with different eyes. Their full albums are not even
available until August but you can buy the singles on iTunes now, and I
truly think you'd enjoy them- Jimmy Needham's "Hurricane" (Lyrics below)
and Brandon Heath's "Give me your eyes" (Lyrics below).

Hurricane- Jimmy Needham

I have built a city here
Half with pride and half with fear
I just wanted a safer place to hide
I don't want to be safe tonight

I need you like a hurricane
Thunder crashing wind and rain
To tear my walls down
I am only yours and now
I need you like a burning flame
A wildfire untamed
To burn these walls down
I am only yours now
I am only yours now

I am yours and you are mine
You know far better than I
And if destructions what I need
Then I'll receive it Lord from thee
Yes, I'll receive it Lord from thee

I need you like a hurricane
Thunder crashing wind and rain
To tear my walls down
I am only yours and now
I need you like a burning flame
A wildfire untamed
To burn these walls down
I am only yours now
I am only yours now

It's your eye in the storm watching over me
And it's your eye in the storm wanting only good for me
And if you are the war
Let me be your casualty
Til I am yours alone
Til I am only yours O Lord

Give me your eyes - Brandon Heath

Look down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city of lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touch down from the cold black tile
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
Yeah
Yeah

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide whats underneath
Theres a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
To ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work
He's buying time
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus
I've Been there a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all alone Chorus (x2)

Ask anything?

It has been really nice listening to Kwave in the morning and listening to sermons while I drop the baby off at daycare and run to work. I was listening to Chuck Smith and he is teaching in 1 Kings 3. So just as Chuck Smith asked the question, so will I ask the question.

What if the Lord came to you and said, Ask me for anything and I will give it to you. What would you ask for?

4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."

6 Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

7 "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life." 15 Then Solomon awoke—and he realized it had been a dream.

I think if you were truly honest with yourself, this answer could give you a better idea of where you need to be in your walk with the Lord. Your answer to this question can be really revealing, because how you answer this question I think reveals truly where your heart is. Is it of worldly things or of spiritual things? Would you ask for a closer walk with the Lord, a deeper knowledge of His ways, or would you ask for a house or more money?

Baine- Black Wedding July 13th

This last Sunday I photographed yet another wedding, with this new lens I bought and I was extremely excited when I arrived on site at the Groom's house to see such a beautiful Oasis. The wedding was awesome and so was the couple, wanted to share a couple of my most favorite photos just from uploading with no edits yet so far from the wedding! Let me know whatcha think :)

Portrait of Hezekiah

Hezekiah is looking more and more like a little boy and less like my little baby anymore. I recently bought a new lens for my wedding coming up tomorrow (for all those photography geeks, I bought an 18-200mm with vibration reduction). I really needed a better all around lens during the ceremony to catch up close and far away shots and I think this one does the job. I am still using my portrait lens (55mm 1.4) because for only $100 has been my favorite lens for portraits and indoors shots. I believe this wedding with be an outdoors wedding tomorrow, so it should be interesting doing this one all on my own :) Cute couple, so I am really excited to do this wedding.

Anyway back to Hezekiah, here is the most updated portrait of him and I love his face and eyes in this picture. He just has the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen :) I love this kid!

Peace

Seems as though I haven't written a blog in a while and I have been listening to some sermons on the radio on 107.9 and the sermon I listened to the last couple of days were in regards to Peace.

So I ask the question, Do you feel at peace? Or are you at peace? Those questions to me seem to be 2 different subjects. Feeling at peace and being at peace, I believe, are 2 very different things. Do you have conflict in your life, whether it be with friends or between God? If you do, then you are not at peace. You have created an illusion that you are at peace, you are merely just feeling at peace. If you don't become at peace with God, then you are in a perpetual conflict with your maker. When will you decide to wave the white flag and surrender? Not under our terms, but under God's terms.

Are you a peacemaker? See, peacemakers build bridges, not walls! Peacemakers drain their motes and allow others to cross the bridge. In this society, don't we all on some level build a mote around our lives? Romans 12:18 "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."

If at all possible! There are going to be some people in our lives, no matter how hard we try won't let us live at peace with them. They don't want to be happy, and they want nothing more than to create conflict rather than put it away. There's a problem there, because Christians are all bound together and the one thing that binds us together is the ultimate peacemaker, Jesus Christ. He was THE peace child that came to the earth and gave us the ultimate reconciliation- dying on the cross. 2 Timothy 2:24 "And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful."

Selah.

Thank goodness for apartments!

We were noticing the last couple of days that our A/C unit was making a dripping sound but we thought it was just condensation from using it so much... but it turns out it wasnt! I came home yesterday to the entryway to our bedroom being wet.

Today when I woke up I picked up some clothes off of the floor and noticed they were damp from laying on the floor of our closet. I came home after work and I distinctly remember smelling mold or mildew and when I went to the bedroom and our closet it was so horrible. I walked down with Hezekiah to the manager's office and put in a work order to have both things looked at. He completed the A/C leaking problem and said he would have to come back tomorrow to completely replace the padding and carpet in the areas where water damage had happened.

And I say, thank goodness for apartments because had we owned our own home when this problem happened we would have to fork out the costs to get both problems taken care of. I am totally okay with waiting a little longer until we own a home just for that reason alone!

Today I am exhausted

And that's because Saturday morning we all got woken up at 4:30am to Andrew's work calling about an urgent issue at work he needed to handle. This will all be a part of the new job duties, but even the baby woke up once he heard Andrew talking and working away at his computer. So needless to say the baby was a little more fussy than normal all day.

Then to top off my exhaustion after a long weekend (with 2 birthday parties in 1 day), last night Hezekiah decided he was going to wake up at 1:30am for no apparent reason other than to cry and cry and cry. So, I got up, made him a bottle (falling asleep while holding the bottle) and then send him back on his way to his crib. Meanwhile, I am TRYING desperately to fall back to sleep only to wake up 5 hours later for work. I felt like such a zombie today. It's been a long time since I have been this exhausted.

Next weekend will only be worse, hopefully we can spend a quiet 4th of July at my parents house and then Saturday go to my niece's birthday party, and Sunday a baby shower. Phew! I am tired just talking about all the parties, etc. going on.

Also, I know that Hezekiah's 1st birthday is a couple of months away still but I thought I would mention that I have set up a list on Kaboodle.com to help people decide what to buy for him. Here is the link:
http://www.kaboodle.com/kendrewh/hezekiahs-1st-birthday.html

Tragedy Strikes- Always wear a helmet

As many of your remember Andrew's best friend Josh Gladura passed away due to injuries from skateboarding without a helmet...Today we say good-bye to a kid that used to come to our youth group, he hadn't been coming for the last couple of years but I wanted to take some time to remember this young life now gone. Nathan Ketsdever was only 20 years old and he passed away today of the same thing Josh Gladura died of. He passed away from damage caused from not wearing a helmet while skateboarding.

I feel like Josh's passing was 1 in a million in the way that he died and how it all came out, but to have yet another life taken due to not wearing a helmet. I have created a website to bring to light the reality and dangers of not wearing a helmet. The site is under construction right now, but the site is called: www.fightforjosh.com so when you get the chance check it out in a few weeks and it should be up. I know at some ages wearing a helmet seems like such a stupid and dorky thing to wear at times. I have to admit in my teenage years I too thought helmets were for dork's and I never wore one while bike riding or anything. I feel like I am baffled and left wondering how it is possible to have 2 people pass away from something that was supposed to be so fun. I hope you will pray for Nathan's family in this time of tragedy, that God will surely inhabit their lives and that they would turn to Him for their needs and questions. Don't let you children go another day without wearing a helmet and if you see any others or know of others, speak out and let them know about Josh and Nathan.

Weight Loss counter

If I were ever to go back to school and start a new career I definitely would have gone and become a nutritionist or dietitian because I am so interested in this area as well. I feel like I am constantly learning about foods and what good properties fruits and veggies have and trying to give them to the family. God tells us over and over not to be gluttonous and I am really trying keep to this. Not because I am vain and I think I NEED to look good, but it's also about feeling good as well. Eating healthier makes me feel good and working out gives me energy. I want to try and get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and a lot of woman keep telling me"Good Luck" so here I am eating organic, small portions, and the right kinds of foods. I have always said that I wanted to lose weight in between babies so I don't put weight on top of weight so, this is what I am working for.... (don't get any ideas, we are waiting a few more years before the next kid). Here is my weight loss counter and I have put it at the bottom of my blog page in case anyone wants to see my progress!

www.my-calorie-counter.com The webs free Fitness Journal

Another week, Another new schedule, and a prayer request!

Tomorrow we start our new schedules for work and the baby. I will be starting my day at 5:30am instead of 6am because now I will be dropping off the baby at the sitter's at 7:30am and picking him up at the same time as always 2:30pm. Andrew will be starting work at 7am and getting off at now 3:30pm. This will definitely be hard at first- I will have to be dedicated to getting to bed on time for sure now. 5:30am comes tooooooo early for me!

Effective July 15th, Andrew will be promoted to his new, higher paying position! It means a lot more responsibility for sure, but will be really nice for us because it now looks like we might be able to afford a house a lot sooner than we had been planning. We are going to pay off some debts and then SAVE like crazy :) For me, the next couple of months I am looking at our annual raises which might only be like $0.30 more an hour for me but it is better than no raise at all and I will have NO complaints. My job really is such a jack of all trades at this point, I was covering for my co-worker Hortencia while she has been out the last week or so (see below) on Leave of Absences, and so I am jumping from one thing to the next at work and from one day to the next I don't know always what I am going to be doing for my job. My job description definitely doesn't seem to fit what I am doing anymore :)

My prayer request if for my co-worker Hortencia and her family, her husband was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) several years ago and up until the last couple of months has been able to stay at home with the help of his family and a wheelchair. With his disease it slowly disintegrates the use of your voluntary muscles, so he has been slowly not been able to use certain muscles. What's hard about this disease is that your mind stays sharp, but your body is what gives out and although he is all there and knows what's going on there is nothing he can do. He has had a trach put in so allow him to breathe and after a few weeks in an assisted living home was sent to the hospital for care. It has been an extremely frustrating road because of our state and federal systems set up for Medicare/Medi-Cal have denied her and her family financial help which has been such a shame because she is in need. Not only dealing with her husband's disease but having to fight the system for his benefits and his rights because he can't do it anymore. The Dr's treat her and him as though they shouldn't fight for him because he's going to die anyway and I think that is horrible. I really want to lift her and her family up in prayer, that if it is in God's will for her husband, Albert, to be healed. For her and her family to be given strength and courage during these challenging times, to not lose faith in Christ, and for God just to wrap His arms around this family and let them know that He loves them with an everlasting Love that goes beyond this life we have now. If you can, just keep them in your daily prayers as I know others will be praying for them as well.

GOD is GREAT!

God is not JUST good, but HE is GREAT! Andrew will be changing his schedule from 9am-6pm and staying home with the baby during part of the day to now 7am-4pm because we have been stretched too thin for too long between work, baby, and church. Getting off earlier will help us have more time during the day. With Andrew not being home with the baby it now means that Hezekiah will be at the daycare now for 7 hours a day which is OK I guess, it's not what either of us want but he would be there a lot longer if I worked til 5pm so I hope everything works out. Ultimately, it is better for our family financially for Andrew to be switching his schedule because as I had mentioned in earlier posts he was up for a VERY big promotion. It looks like that will be happening next month and with that promotion now Andrew will be making $10 more an hour, which is so awesome. We have been struggling a little to make ends meet since I went back to work and GOD yet again comes through for us and decides he wants to bless us EVEN more. Thank you Lord for being so gracious to us.

Our mechanic working on Andrew's car STILL has not finished the car, so until he finishes it he is paying completely for a rental car for Andrew because we cannot do without a 2nd car anymore. With our crazy schedules it was making it extremely stressful for both of us. So, maybe next month the car will be finished :(

Hezekiah says Mama!

I swear this baby has the cutest voice ever!

Happy Father's Day!

First, I want to wish my husband Happy 1st Father's Day. I am thankful for this man, who is a GREAT Father to Hezekiah. He is always patient with him, even now that he is a little more fussy because we say No and is getting into EVERYTHING including Andrew's electronics. Here's to your 1st Father's Day Honey:

Now, to my own Dad who has always been a big part of my life. He has a strong heart, but a gentle spirit. In times when he should be extremely angry, he showed no emotion and said nothing when something mean COULD have been said. For listening to all my problems and being there for me when I was in need of some comfort. For being a true example of what devotion means by spending time with God EVERY morning without fail. Wishing you a Happy Father's Day Dad, I love you :

Worst office freak out ever!

What's new?

Unfortunately, not too much right now! We are still waiting to find out when Andrew will get his nice, big promotion, could be as early as July or it could be quite a bit longer. We are waiting for his Director to sell his house, and in this market it might take a while, so we are still waiting! Work for me, right now, is going well. I am working pretty heavily in Physician Recruitment now, and it is fabulous... a lot of work, but completely fulfilling as far as my career goes. I really look forward to coming to work on days when I know I get to work with my VP especially because she teaches me so much, and I hope someday to be like her in her demeanor and her position in the company. I have considered many options for going to school, I am looking as the certification program for Human Resources Management through UCR extension center, but they are a little out of our price range at this point at $495/ class and having to take a minimum of 5 classes on Saturday's only. So, it's there and eventually I will be able to take those classes but it will take me quite a bit unless my work decides to do tuition reimbursement.

Hezekiah is doing very well, wanting to walk ALL the time and pulling himself up on everything. He is bonking his head on a lot of stuff in the process of trying to learn balance. Looks like kind of a long road as far as that goes. He has a total of 8 teeth now and is chewing on all sorts of fun foods like Avocados, mashed potatoes, cherrios... he hasn't quite mastered bringing the food to his mouth yet he just puts it in his hands and then doesn't know what to do with it after that. Hezekiah is still the best baby in the world, even through teething I didn't notice any changes in him at all. It's hard to believe that he will be turning 1 year old in just 3 short months. Man! Time flies! I will have to figure out a location for September for his birthday party since I pretty much only have 1 family member in the city we live in now.

We are waiting on the LORD for some answers and help... we still haven't gotten his car back from the shop and what seemed like what was supposed to be a temporary arrangement for work, daycare, etc. seems to be more of a permanent thing because I don't feel like I will ever get this car back. Right now, not having the second car has been like 6 months of non-stop stress and every minute of the day being timed to picking up and dropping off... it is extremely frustrating right now. Tomorrow, the shop is paying completely for a rental car for us until Andrew's car gets done. Lesson learned for Andrew for sure, no more getting this car faster! Now, we are back to square 1 as far as saving for a house again because of the car situation and the costs... so what could have been only 1 more year might be turning into- Who knows how long!? Just doing the best we can to put any little extra pennies into an account and hope and pray that God will someday have a house in our future. It has definitely been a struggle going back to work and making only a 2/3 of what I was making before and I think we are still having to teeter todder right now until we FINALLY adjust to the income change. All I have to say is, Thank goodness for Annual Evaluations and Merit Increases! Anyway, that is about it for now- make sure to keep checking out Hezekiah's website for updated pictures!

New "do" for summer

Well since it only seems fitting to keep my hair as low maintenance as possible with the baby and with it inevitably going to get VERY hot. I figured I would cut my hair a little shorter now... okay maybe A LOT shorter lol. And I am so very proud of myself I was able to achieve this new "do" with my own pair of scissors and razor... whoot whoot!