What happened to the time?

....oh wait, I know.

My time is consumed by two little rascals named Jackson and Cullen.

Don't get me wrong, I have loved every minute that they have been here, and I will continue to spend as much time with them as I can before I leave for Haiti, but I can't seem to find the time to be productive. I keep telling myself that as soon as they go down to bed I will get something (anything) done. But come 8:30 when they waddle down to the bedroom, I am not far behind them.

This week we got a massive heat wave. I love the heat. But going from wearing a sweatshirt last weekend to sweating pretty much all day long, the heat is taking it out of me.

This week has been an amazing week. I am not very good at putting my thoughts and feelings into words, but here is my best shot and trying to describe how amazing VBS has been this week. For all of you who do not know, VBS stands for Vacation Bible School. It is this amazing summer program that my church (as well as many other churches) puts on in the summer. I have had the unique opportunity to be involved with it. And it really has changed my life. Whenever explaining what my role has been this year, I add on that it is the best role, because I get to travel around to different sites and see all that God is doing around our county. As amazing as each and every one of the sites is, I get to be blessed by being directly involved with four of our 30 some odd sites. I get to connect with the leaders of the sites as well as get to see all these different kids every day. At the end of every day, I stand in awe of all that God is doing. And then I remind myself that I get to do this all over again in less than two weeks when we travel to Haiti, and I get excited all over again. God is moving in some amazing ways, and I am so honored to get to witness it.

Now that VBS is coming to a close (tomorrow is the last day), now comes the time to really start preparing for Haiti. Rockharbor, my church, is donating what is left of the VBS supplies for us to take to Haiti (well, what of them we can fit in our bags). So starting this weekend, we are going to start sorting through the remaining supplies and organizing them. It is hard for me to believe that we leave in 11 days. And as I sit here, I am making a mental list of all that needs to be done, and the list just keep growing and growing. I know that it will all get done. And I have been blessed with a very flexible job this summer, which has made this trip possible, but it still seems a little overwhelming.
*There is a trip to REI in my near future, although all of what I need is still unknown
*VBS of course
*Personal packing and preparing
*Trying to spend as much time with my nephews (I leave before they do, and I will miss them so much)
*Finding my passport, which should be at the top of this list
*We are still trying to raise some more money for the trip, although we have been so very blessed already by everyone who is supporting us

There are so many other little details that should be on that list, but looking at that list is making me want to get going, so instead of adding all the other minor things, I figured that I better get cracking on some of them.

I still can hardly believe that we are 11 days and counting!

an unexpected Friday off...

I got home last night and just had the itch to paint. Normally I want to break out all of the craft stuff, but tonight, I knew I wanted to paint!

And so the painting began. This ocean scene started out similar to the one below, but much darker. I was stumped last night, so of course I left it sitting on the table and went to bed. I woke up this morning, added some more paint, and this is what I got.

If you look around the edges of the photo, you can see my mess!

I really like the spring colors of this painting, I might have to use these colors to make another ocean scene. Can you tell that I really love the ocean?

I really do just love art, and painting!

What was I thinking?

For those of you who know me, you know that I love to be busy. Every now and then I love my days off where I can just lounge around and do nothing. But I think I was a little over ambitious today with the being busy thing.
Yesterday was a wonderful day. I met up with some friends to watch the USA vs. Ghana game. As sad of a game as it was, it was fun just to be with friends. As soon as the game ended, we rushed (and I say that as in getting ready for a wedding in 20 minutes is unheard of for me) and headed out the door for a wedding. Some friends of mine from college got married yesterday. It was such a fun wedding. And such an honor to be a witness to their love. Anyways, we didn't get home from the wedding until 1am. At which point Adrienne and I decided to she would come stay at my house since we had plans of watching the 7am England vs. Germany game. You think 7am sounds ambitious, we took it one step further and attempted to get to the pub before 6:30 in an attempt to get a seat rather than stand for 2 hours for the game. We got there at 6:15 to see quite the line in the parking lot. I was a little upset considering the effort put into getting a seat. But come what may, we did not get a seat, and ended up standing next to some of the drunkest men I may have ever met. I am pretty sure they started last night and drank all through the night and were still drinking at 7am. Luckily after the first two goals scored by Germany we left. Right before England scored their first goal, and their second one was not counted. I am especially happy about this because I was not looking forward to having the beer those men were drinking showered over me. I already had it spilled all over my feet. We ended up watching the rest of the game at someone's house. And then Adrienne and I headed to the 9am service at church. By the time that was over I was starved, so we went to In and Out. It was amazing, but also kind of irrelevant to this story. So after that we headed back to watch the Argentina vs. Mexico game. I have to admit, I am rather enjoying watching these games. I can see why there are such dedicated fans. So after that game we headed back to church for a 2 hour Vacation Bible School training/meeting. I headed into the meeting with a jar (my favor from the wedding the night before could not have been better) full of m&m's in an attempt to stay awake. The 4 1/2 hours of sleep I got the night before was just not cutting it. They worked, I stayed awake the whole time. Can I just tell you all how excited I am for Vacation Bible School this summer? I love the vision and the curriculum. And on top of getting to participate in it here in Orange County, I get the privilege of doing it two more times while I am in Haiti. This is going to be one amazing month. I can hardly wait for all that is in store for me.
All that was originally to say how exhausted I am today. But it is so worth it.

Here we come Haiti

So we had been planning on buying our Haiti tickets for some time, but something always kept pushing it back. So we set a deadline. And today was our deadline.
Well come 6:30pm, we hadn't booked our tickets yet. So I started to search for them. Compare prices, all of that fun stuff. Well the tickets we had been looking at were around $480.00. We were pretty excited about that. Well we got on and the prices kept changing. We booked 5 tickets tonight at 5 different prices. It was...insanity to say the least. At one point my mom walked in the room, possibly from all the squealing and yelling coming from down the hall, and commented that it looked like a travel agency in here. It was pretty close. We had 3 credit/debit cards on the floor, one debit card written on paper, a computer, 3 phones (all of which were in use), and a pad of paper.
So back tracking a little, there are 5 of us going. Adrienne, Anna, two of Anna's friend (Rachel and Katie), and myself of course. So we were booking tickets to fly to Port Au Prince from two different airports (Seattle and Los Angeles) but attempting to somehow coordinate flights so we could all be together. There were several threatening calls put into American Airlines (so those fun automated people who answer the calls but never know what you are saying, apparently if you threaten them, they put you right through to a customer service agent...it was all done out of a good spirit of course), as well as several calls to Rachel and Katie trying to coordinate their flights with ours which was not working out so well thanks to the ever changing American Airline prices. Literally within 30 seconds we saw the flight I booked go up $30, and then another $20. I felt like I should have been on wall street, you know where they are always yelling at each other bidding on the stock prices? It was highly entertaining, at least to those of us in the room who were not having heart attacks.
But when all is said and done, 4 hours later, 5 tickets later, we are all booked to go to Haiti!
There is so much excitement in this house! We will be taking off late in the night on July 27th and getting into Haiti in the morning of July 28th. We will be there 2 weeks, and are leaving to return home on August 11th.
Please keep us in your prayers as we are preparing to leave, as we travel, and as we are there. This really is an amazing opportunity. Each day it is becoming more and more clear that this is exactly where the Lord wants each and every one of us. I feel to privileged to have this opportunity and calling from the Lord.

This morning I was really in the mood to do some arts and crafts. A few months ago I was at Michael's and they had some amazing deals on frames, this white one is probably my favorite of them all.

(If you look closely you can see my Lakers shirt in the reflection)

I had all of this paper, so I brought it all out and started to rip little pieces off and lay them in a design. The frame looks beach-ish to me, so I decided to go with that.

The flash made this last picture look a little funny. but I really love all the colors. Although this art project only made want to do even more. I just have to come up with other ideas for pictures to make.

Father's Day

So in case you didn't know, I love making cards. And I love finding new ones to make, or getting new ideas. I am also addicted to Martha Stewart! I get like 5 e-mails from her daily, and I love looking at everything from food to crafts. Well, obviously Father's Day is tomorrow, so I have been getting Father's Day ideas from her. Well she sent the template for how to make this...

and given, if you look close you can see how many extra folds I made that I didn't need to, but I still love it. It is one of the cutest cards I have ever made! Now if only my father (or really any guy in general) had an appreciation for all the hard work put into it! None-the-less, I love it. Here is how to make it! Have fun!

And Violet gets her championship!

(Disclaimer: I know that Anna looks way tanner than me, but I promise she isn't that much tanner)

It was a great day over here! A little nerve racking, there were a few times during the game where I am pretty sure we all stopped breathing. But Violet was a trooper, she slept through it all. Even through my jumping up and down and all of our squealing as the last seconds ran off the clock! Now we will have to buy her a Lakers outfit. My dad bought each of us these shirts, and when I asked where Violet's was, he said that she had to wait until they won a championship for her. Well tomorrow I will make sure to tell him he better get her a shirt!

And a special shout out to Breanne and Rachel who joined us for the game. They were troopers with all of our craziness!

What a great game! The only thing that could have made it better was if Kim, Brandon and the twins were here!

I am pretty sure this might be one of the funniest things I have ever seen!

http://myexwifesweddingdress.com/

So today I experienced my first World Cup game. I don't know what I really expected, but it blew all of my preconceived notions out of the water. I stood there for 3 hours laughing to myself about what I had gotten myself into.

I should have known it was going to be quite the experience when we were pulling up to the pub and had to park on a side street and walk to get to the pub. And the fact that there were a bunch of people standing outside. But no, I didn't pick it up from that. So I went on, and we entered the pub. There was about a 10 foot walk way to where the host station is supposed to be, and from there on out, a sea of people.

My view to the left

My view to the right (there was also two other rooms behind us that looked similar)

A sea of beer to go along with those people. And what happens when you drink too much of any kind of liquid? You have to go to the bathroom? And I swear, every person in there had to go at least twice. And each and every one of those people somehow managed to step on my feet. Lesson of the day, do not wear flip flops to a crowded bar! Not only was there a ridiculous amount of beer spilled down my legs and on my feet, my toes were numb by the end of the morning.

But putting that all aside, it was a great experience. There were people decked out in some very interesting get-ups, some very loud cheering and chanting, and a passion for a sport I have never experienced. I can see why their fans are so dedicated. It is just fun. Although I still do not understand all the rules and what not, it was a really good game. And I met a lot of very interesting people. The poor man behind me that I kept getting shoved into kindly pointed out (since he could tell I was not a die hard fan, simply by the way I was dressed) that he bets I never thought I would meet so many new friends in one morning. And that is very very true. I thought we would be sitting at a table, not smashed in a mosh pit type bar area, eating breakfast, not having beer spilled down my legs, and having some nice conversations, not losing my hearing because the fans are quite loud. It is to say the least, a memory I will never forget.

Starbucks

So 3 blogs in two day, it might be a bit over the top since I haven't blogged in like....3 months or something, but what can I say? I am just in the mood lately!

So on Wednesday, I was taking Dylan to gymnastics class, and as per our regular routine, we went to Starbucks. He is the only two year old that I know that gets excited about Starbucks. But it is a good excuse for me to get it. Well, I finally got tired of paying the 50 cents to get soy in my drink, so I was talking to the barista and she was telling me that if I registered my starbucks gift card, I could get soy for free in my drink! Hello, sign me up! Free soy, that is sooo exciting. So, I put some money on a gift card, brought it home, got online and was registering, and noticed some way cool benefits to this card thing! It will automatically refill your card if you set it up. And the more drinks you buy, the more stars you get, the more points you earn. I am all about the points systems. (That is probably why I LOVE Swagbucks- by the way Kim, I have 3 people signed up under me, and it is like the greatest thing ever!) Anyways, if you are a Starbucks drinker, even on the rare occasion, I highly recommend doing this. Oh, and plus you get 2 free hours of wifi a day at Starbucks. Not that I am ever there for that long, or even would get on the internet while I was there, but it is still a cool perk!

Can you tell I am excited about this?

Baking

One of my favorite things to do is bake!

I wish I had more time. And that I didn't get yelled at every time I made something. But I push on and bake whenever I have a chance or a reason.

Recently I found a cake cookie recipe. I absolutely love it. So far I have made chocolate cookies and lemon cookies. The lemon ones were amazing! And I put a raspberry in the middle, and they looked soo cute! Not to mention, they were sooo good!

I also wish I had a camera to take pictures of the stuff I bake. Then this would be more interesting. Someday!

Thanks to Violet being born, I have a new obsession with taking photos. Well, I have always loved photos, I just don't have a camera. So I use Renee and Jon's. Anna said Violet was going to dislike me some day for all the photos I make her pose for. I highly disagree. She is going to thank me. Anna then proceeded to tell me that Violet was not a doll. To which I also disagreed. She is my little dress up doll. And she didn't fuss once during her outfit changes today! (Kim, you can just thank me now... without me you wouldn't have nearly as many photos of her!)

All that to say, I love shutterfly and their new share website feature. I can upload all the photos I want and then share them with whoever. It is GREAT! I know Kim has loved it! Well, for the two other people who might read this, here is the link. Feel free to fall in love with Violet like I have. And don't you worry, once Jackson and Cullen are here, they will be added to the website as well! I am sure a good 1000 pictures will be posted over the month of July of the boys and Violet!

http://rachelalaina.shutterfly.com/

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

So lots has been going on this past week. Kim and the boys were here (more to come on that later), but as always, Kim got me hooked on yet another thing. Although I do not know everything about this, she told me about this thing called swag bucks. It is a new way to google search but you can earn points which you can redeem for gift cards. Well, I am always on my computer, so I might as well earn points doing it! Call me crazy, I don't care, I am way excited about this!

So here is a modge-podge of my life. Last weekend over the holiday weekend I flew to DC, despite the ridiculous amount of snow (see photo below)! It was such a good trip, but far too short. It made me miss my nephews that much more, but I was able to spend three full days just playing with them. This is a pile of snow outside my Kim's apartment complex. If you know anything about me, you know that I think anything close to 60 degrees or below is arctic weather. I pretty much ran from the house to the car to whatever building back to the car and back to the house. The least amount of time spent outside the better!

Other than running to and from buildings and cars, this is what we did all day. The boys would rummage through my suitcase and play with whatever looked like the most fun. Here Cullen has my wallet. The other favorite was my travel toothbrush and toothbrush case. Jack spent most of his time perched above in the basket. Cullen occasionally snuck in, but Jack soon reclaimed his territory.
Cullen climbing into the basket
Jack giving me a smile. Jack is getting really good at giving hugs. It is just to die for. He will reach his arms up so you will pick him up, and then he will tightly wrap his arms around you. I never wanted to put him down. He quickly realized that I was a sucker for him and would pick him up whenever he so wanted. I really just couldn't pass up a hug.
Cullen had to give me a big smile as well!
Trying to take photos of these boys with you is a very difficult task, hence why there is only one of Jack and I.
And now to the better quality photos that I stole from Kim. My camera has decided it will only hold a charge for like 5 minutes, so I have resorted to the camera on my phone. It works, but not all that well. These are the cookies we made. We tried to make them Valentines night, but we didn't realize the dough had to cool for 3 hours. So we made the dough and because we both had a sweet tooth, we also made brownies. YUM! And then on Monday we made the cookies. They are some of the best cookies I have ever had!
And these last two photos we were in a bit of a rush to get out the door, but I am sooo thankful that Kim snapped them for us.

And on to the next event. This is what a typical Saturday night and Sunday morning look like for me. This is the elementary room at my church.
And now onto a not so typical Friday night, but such a fun one! I went to a Brad Paisley concert with some girl friends of mine. We had soooo much fun. This is Miranda Lambert who opened for him. This is the second concert of his that I have been to, and let me tell you, he puts on one amazing show!
That is Brad Paisley! Does the cowboy hat give it away?
Last but not least, (more photos will come...) this is grandma's birthday cake! AMAZING! Better than any ice cream cake I have ever had, and it was sooo easy to make. Grandma likes to tell us she can't chew her food anymore, but as soon as you bring this out, she suddenly can chew again. Most of the time we laugh at her for it. She has as much of a sweet tooth as I do.
Chocolate cake with ganache frosting and cookies and cream ice cream in the middle. DELICIOUS!
Well, that's all for now. But hopefully soon I will post the few photos of grandma that I took of her with her birthday cake. I already can't wait to get off work and go home so I can have another piece, and it is only 9 am!

So, it has been a while since I last blogged....

But, in my defense, I have been being pretty productive...

This is my new hobby, making cards!

All of these birthday ones are made with cross-stitch thread. I could spend hours doing this... oh wait... I already do!

Oh, and I spend WAY too much money at Michael's and Joanne's as well!

These baby carriage ones are Renee's baby shower invites (sorry if I ruined the surprise for anyone)! I had sooo much fun making them, but they were very hard to make as well! Hopefully they make it through our postal system in one piece! They are on pink cards, and the carriage is made out of paper that is 1/8th of an inch thick. I have this quilling tool (which is one of my favorite tools ever) which is how I got all of the cute spirals! I also made some of my Valentine cards with the same tool!

And the last of my pictures (not cards) is made out of yarn. They are super cute, but thick because you basically thread the yarn through hole punches. They turn out adorable, but you have to add a backing on the inside so you don't see the ugly side of the heart!

Every time I have a long weekend I pull out all my craft supplies, (much to my mother's dismay) and work away for a few days. I absolutely love my new hobby!