My Good King

Just a quick post tonight. It dawned on me a few days ago that I'm already behind in my "Year . In . Review" layouts, so I put February's together. Believe it or not, for such a simple concept, these layouts took about three hours combined. I couldn't believe it! Anyway, these photos depict the highlights of February. Maybe tomorrow I'll do March :) (I wonder how many hours that will take?!) Just in case you're wondering, Carlos is still sick--no fever, just a sore throat now. Hopefully he'll go back to school on Tuesday ('cause I need some "me" time before I turn into a monster, lol!). 'Cause as you all know, life is all about me, right ;) Happy Monday, y'all!

That's how I feel right now. I haven't had "girl" time with a bunch of women for almost two months now (for different reasons). I have, however, really been craving it ... to go out with a bunch of my Christian friends, and just have fun and hang out--and talk about girl stuff. I had the perfect opportunity this morning. I was soooooo excited. My sister-in-law had a tea party at her house. We set up and prepared as much food as possible yesterday. I made arrangements for childcare for Carlos (it was a mother-daughter tea). She was going to have a Christian speaker that I was looking forward to. I was just waiting for the moment when I could arrive and enjoy the fellowship with other women. She had invited about thirty total (mothers and daughters included). I LOVE being in a roomful of Christian women just discussing life and the Lord. LOVE it. And then ... ... about 5 o'clock this morning, Carlos comes to me (in bed, of course) and tells me his tum...

In case you're confused about the title, it's because we went exploring new territory like Lewis and Clark (only somehow I don't think our exploration will make the front page, lol!). We went back to my latest favorite hangout on Monday ... and we had company!! My sister-in-law, her aunt, and a bunch of my nieces and nephews came along for the fun. That was sooo cool!! My sister-in-law overheard one of the kids ask (as they exited the car), "What are we going to do here, anyway?" They asked again later, and my sister-in-law very simply replied, "We're going to have a picnic." Here's a picture of us enjoying our picnic soon after we arrived. As soon as they finished eating, one by one they scampered off into the tall weeds to explore and discover. You could hear their laughter and conversation, but you couldn't see them :) I, of course, couldn't resist the urge to snap a "few" (emphasis on few ) photos, so this is them scamper...

LONG VERSION: About six years ago I got one of those Betty Crocker cookbooks that they used to sell in the grocery stores in the check-out aisle. It was a crock-pot cookbook, and being a working woman in those days, I had recently discovered the wonders of crock-pot cooking (the 15-minute prep time, the easy clean-up, and the wonderful aroma of a home-cooked meal that greeted me as soon as I walked in the door after a long day at work) . I tried one 0f the recipes, and it was DELICIOUS. So tasty. Then we moved, and the cookbook became lost in all our stuff for several years. I went through all our boxes (finally, lol!) last year, and still didn't find it. I mourned the loss of that wonderful recipe, and resigned myself to life without that wonderful soup. Then, eureka!! Last week, I was looking for an invoice, scouring all the paperwork in the garage and our house, when lo and behold, in the back corner of a cabinet, a mini-cookbook caught my eye! Yeah! I found it. I made it today,...

We went to see this movie last night. I don't remember the last time I saw a movie on opening day. It was fun, and not nearly as crowded as I thought. I HIGHLY recommend seeing it, by the way. The creativity is amazing. All that to say this: Even though we loved the movie, our real treat came as we were walking back to our car after the movie. A little boy (maybe four years old) walking in front of us picked a daisy from a flowerbed, held it close to his mouth, and started screaming at the flower: "WHO!" "HELLO!" "WHO WHO!" It was sooooo adorable. We were cracking up. That made my day. I'm sure he was absolutely convinced there was a little world in that flower :)

Saw these plates on a California license plate and thought of you today, Ronalyn: You're a mom and you're from Hawaii (and if I'm not mistaken, your heart is still there :) ). We all seem to be having a hard time adjusting to Daylight Savings Time. We all three took naps today, and we've been lethargic all week. Hopefully we'll catch up by Sunday. I'm not liking how lethargic I feel most of the time--makes doing even the simplest chores seem like climbing Mt. Everest. Seriously. And one more teeny tiny piece of info: we are enjoying simple dinners while Carlito is gone. Tonight we had a baked potato with a bunch of toppings (sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, and chili) and celery with peanut butter. And Ashley prepared it all herself (she learned from me how "difficult" it is to bake potatoes in the oven, lol!). She's going to be quite the cook by the time she's college-age. Kudos to her!

I got tagged by Ronalyn, so these are my 7 random facts. If you get to the end of this post and you are dying to know more about me--which I'm sure you are ;), just click here for 8 more, lol! I dream of making my love of photography into a business in about 10 years or so (after I take some photography classes and hone my skills, lol!). I just LOVE capturing memories. I spent a year in France as an exchange student in college and visited Spain and Italy (Italy twice). It was one of the most awesome experiences of my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I was really glad to get back home to America when the year was up :) When I was little, my favorite books were the “Little House” series. I was completely fascinated that people actually lived like that. I was so enthralled with that way of life that I used to wish desperately that I could have been born in that time period. Now I look back and think how crazy I was … and how much I would miss all my technology and kitc...

WARNING: MANY PICTURES!! We never go on day trips, but this week (to take the kids' minds off the fact that Daddy is gone--in the Philippines), I took the kids to Santa Barbara. I made it a surprise (which I don't often do), and we had a relaxing day together. And, of course, I took a gazillion pictures (actually 64). So, after a lot of painstakingly difficult choices, I have narrowed the pictures I will post to "only" about 10. So, family, sit back and enjoy, and friends, skim through them quickly :) The day started with the L-O-N-G ride (2 1/2 hours to be exact), and the proverbial "Are we there yet?" with a little twist: Ashley would ask "Are we halfway there yet?" Are we 3/4 of the way?" etc. You get the picture. They were great in the car until the last 20 minutes or so. We started our time there with a nice little picnic at this really neat park. Here are some pictures: This picture doesn't really do the park justice, but it will giv...

So, I was just going about my business today--you know, life as usual, chores, kids, homework, dinner, etc., and I get a call from my husband around 8:00 p.m. that he's bringing a friend over to the house for dinner. I have met this friend a few times (Hi, Bobby!!), but we haven't seen each other for years (they live in San Francisco). After the initial excitement wore off (about three seconds later), I realized there's NO RICE in the house. That's a huge problem, considering he's Filipino and eats rice every day. So I made a quick Yoshinoya run, and pulled up in the driveway just before them. We had a great visit. The time just flew. We had a lot to catch up on. He is one of several high school and college friends that my husband still keeps in touch with. It is always mind-boggling to me that they all grew up together in the Philippines, yet several of them have made their way to California. Pretty cool, huh? This is the friend who graced us with his pre...

My "Big Girl" had the privilege of going to Disneyland for a workshop for her performing arts class she's in (her elective in school) ... talk about a cool reason to get out of class for a day! She invited me to join them for part of the day (just part of the day, mind you, lol!). So I took her up on her invitation and snapped this photo of her and her friends being teenagers at Disneyland. It was so interesting to enter the world of her friends and see the interaction among them and hear the teenage conversations :) You can tell they're really comfortable with each other, which is nice. I wish I could show you a nice pic I got of all of them together, but I don't have permission from their parents to put it on the web, so I will restrain myself. You'll have to take my word for it that they are all really pretty (and have nice personalities to match!).

Well, as anyone who knows me slightly well will know, decorating is sooooo not my thing. My whole life I have had very little desire to make our house a home, give it a relaxed, welcoming feel, etc. Which is fine until you have people over and realize that your house really isn't welcoming. Then you feel badly for them because they have to stare at bare walls and a complete lack of style for the duration of their visit. Then they leave and you breathe a huge sigh of relief (not that they've left, just that you don't have to stress anymore because you're sure they were looking around thinking, "DO something with this place. Give it even just a dash of character.). Then you go on with your life and try to pretend that never happened. And every now and again you do feel badly for your family that when they bring people over their home is not really a place they can be proud of. Then you shove that thought far back in the recesses of your mind as quickly as it ...

That's where else we went on Saturday. Just me and my boy (and a friend). Ashley was at Winter Camp. That's probably a good thing, because I'm sure she would have been extremely bored--unless you count checking out the hot guys in uniform ;) Another serendipitous discovery was this Coast Guard Open House. It was the coolest thing. Apparently they do this every year (so you know where we'll be on the first Saturday in March for the next several years!). We got to go all the way to the top of this lighthouse (the light was fascinating, and the view was really neat). While we were waiting in line to go in the lighthouse, Carlos saw this and it immediately attracted his attention. "I wanna go see that, Mommy." So we did. It is an actual Coast Guard boat with guns. He was in heaven, I think :) He spent the majority of the time fiddling with the guns. He was amazed that they are actually real! Of course, he had to push every button on the control panel, lol! Just l...

I remember learning this word in high school (I think I liked the sound, lol!), and a gazillion years later, I found the perfect opportunity to use it :) I was browsing through this book looking for something to do with the kids last weekend, and I happened upon a website for this park in Palos Verdes. I thought I'd give it a shot this weekend and we'd have a picnic there. I really had no idea what to expect. It was like a little adventure. I was so excited! I actually found a small patch of "country" in the Los Angeles area!!! Having grown up in VERY rural Illinois, I do miss the wide open spaces sometimes . EUREKA!! Probably most of you who live here knew about this park, but I am excited because my kids have no idea what it's like to roam around in wide open spaces with no one around and discover new things about nature. I have often been sad about this--that there's no way they can ever have the kind of childhood we did where we just roamed free and made i...

We heard this in church today and it totally brought everything into perspective in such a cool way. Enjoy! (Unless you were in church with me this morning!)

LOVE this video by IgniterMedia.com I knew these people and their faults, but hearing them all clumped together makes God's grace so real. We are good enough ... just the way we are ... right now. Hallelujah.