"I wanna go home"

Ethan woke up the other morning and snuggled in my arms, "How's my boy this morning?", I asked him, laying his head on my shoulder with a big sigh, the kind of sigh a heavy heart makes, he said, "Mommy, I wanna go home, to the Shunga house". My heart was heavy, I want to grant that request so much, but all I could do was tell him the truth, "I wanna go home too", and I squeezed him a little tighter, "Soon, soon we'll go home".

Give Him a Lemon!

If you have never done this you know that you really wanted to and why not, turns out Zachary actually likes them!


At first it really was, I admit for our own amusement, and what a hoot! But then he wouldn't leave it alone, face after scrunched up face he endured until he only had the peel left!
And he would have eaten the peel if we would have let him! All our laughter and the laughter of those at the tables around us, he didn't even notice, he has a new love, LEMONS!

Happy Birthday Grace!

My baby girl turned 8 on Monday. She is turning into the most beautiful young lady, she is so smart, she scored a 99% on her Stanford Reading Test in school! She completed her second grade year with flying colors, she is a collector and a very artistic girl. She has a sense of fashion that is all her own, and I love that she wears what she thinks is cool, no matter what anyone says! This year I decided to make each of the kids their very own special plate at Potwin Pottery, something special that would be a keepsake, but that they could also use, Ethan was the first to receive his and he puts a plate over his plate to use it, because he doesn't want to get it dirty! Needless to say the plates have been a big hit! Since Grace and her cousins, Joy and Bailey were off to Colorado on the morning of Grace's birthday, per Grace's request for this year, so, we did a little at home party for her,

with a few family members there.

Grandma Linda and Great-Grandma Joy were among the honored guests, and it was a great success, Grace felt very special, and loved!

Our sweet little tea set was done just in time for the party too, so we showed it off to all the guests, we are very proud of how it came out!

The clowns were there too, and all we paid them was a slice of strawberry cake and some ice cream, they were hilarious, kept us in stitches!

Looking forward to the coming year and watching our princess grow is a never-ending drama/comedy and always a love story!

Just the 10 of us!

I have been wanting to post a picture of the house and all of us that live here currently, it's a lot! I have to say though, we are doing well as a whole, the slightly cramped situation doesn't feel cramped, most of the time it just feels like home, what with all the family here (Don't worry Aaron, we aren't THAT comfortable and we will move out as soon as our house is done!). Honestly, what a great summer to get to know some of your family REALLY well. Good and bad, it's definitely brought us all closer together (Another part of God's plan?).
Andrea and Aaron's house is a three bedroom, I'd say about 1800 square feet, and somehow we all make it work. We put another refrigerator in the garage, which is a must have for ten people. Everyone just has to remember that it is only for a short time and I really think that we will look back and cherish some of these times we've spent together this summer. This is a really wonderful thing that Aaron and Andrea are doing for us, we will be eternally grateful to them, and anytime they need a place to stay, they can come on over, they will always be welcome at our house!

Progress

So, as you can see, there is progress being made on our house! We have sheet rock hung and A wonderful guy doing the finishing for us. He gave us a great price and he actually put all his other work on hold to do our job this week! We were blessed to have found him.


This picture above is our master bedroom, looks a little different, doesn't it! It really looks more like a bedroom everyday!

Randy, our sheet rock finisher, works with Rob at Frito Lay and he does this on the side, he is hard working guy for sure!

Rob and I spent all day Saturday installing doors, we found out how we work together in stressful situations, I think we did well. We got the job done and I still let him sleep in our bed that night! Just kidding, he let me sleep in our bed! I think once we figured out that we both knew what we were doing and didn't need to walk each other through step by step it went really well. We have both done a lot of remodeling and have individual skills and it's really neat to put them all to use in front of each other. I really appreciate him so much, he is a very talented remodel er, and now I have seen it first hand.

I know you're probably thinking, didn't you just get done with a flip house and this same house a while ago, yes, but actually, Rob and his best friends do the team work and I kind of have done my own part separately, so this was really a first for us. I think we will continue to do this stuff together, you sure do learn a lot about a person when you work on something like this together (Another part of God's plan?).

Next Saturday we are having a painting party, 8am-8pm, we'll have lunch and turn up the music, and paint till we're done or we drop, whichever comes first! It really will be fun, you're invited too!

Meeting Mr.Right

Have I ever told you about how I met my Rob? Well, you're missing a great story then! About three years ago my Mom and her best friend of twenty-something years, Hildred were discussing Rob, Hildred's nephew and how he so great and a Christian guy and who could they set him up with, would I maybe want to meet him? A few more inquiries about who this guy was and I agreed, they could give him my number, well, within about a month he called, at first he had to leave a message, a rather unenthusiastic message, like he was made to, I might add, and I thought, gosh, don't do me any favors (in all fairness, he had just been at work for a double). But when we did talk, we talked for about a half hour on the phone and I had a good feeling already.

Here's the thing, while I was in the dating world, "kissing toads", I had made a list, criteria, if you will, for the man I needed, to get married again. I had that list in front of me during that phone call, and I checked off a few of them, this may sound completely unromantic on my part, but getting hurt by yet another Mr.Wrong, was not what I wanted, so now, I had standards and high ones at that!

Things on my list included, a Christian, a family- oriented man, a leader, someone with a strong sense of who he is, and a good communicator. Now, also on the list were things like, funny and romantic, it was a very well-rounded 27 item list. I had prayed over this list in the months before and Rob sounded like a good possibility.

On our first date, I met him at the restaurant and he was standing there in front of Timberline Steakhouse with a bouquet of flowers and I would love to tell you, just then he scored big points, and good looking - bonus! This interview, I mean, date was off to a good start (hey, I had two kids to think about!). The conversation from about 6:30pm to 3am never lagged and I checked off 24 things off my list. I don't think I had ever been so completely honest with anyone, but my therapist, ever. It was freeing, so relaxing, to just be myself. I was truly not concerned with what his opinion of me was one way or the other, I had standards for him and he was hitting a home run and I think for the first time I felt like finally I was worth it and bending over backwards trying to be someone I was not for the person I was with was not going to even be an option.

In discovering more about Rob I remembered meeting, Keith, his son. I only remembered him from when he was a baby and about two, over at Hildred's house. But I remembered even then being taken with this adorable little guy, he had stolen my heart, way back then, and seeing Rob's pictures of him, it brought that all back to me, Keith, was one in a million for sure.

I was truly amazed at the things we talked about, things you just don't talk about till the fourth or fifth date, at least, but you know, both of us being parents and knowing who we are as individuals actually made it easier to know if the two could become one. Neither one of us were here to make a new friend, we were looking for Mr./Mrs.Right. Walking on air in the early morning hours out of the Denny's on Wanamaker, which that night, was the most fabulous coffee spot in the world, I actually was 98% sure that I had met him, my Mr.Right.

Growing up with such a godly, strong father, I was measuring this man up to the very high standard, Daddy, himself. Yes, I know, it has not escaped me that he does look a lot like my Dad, that was not a qualification, I promise! With Rob, I have never felt uncomfortable in his
presence, never even self-conscious, perfectly comfortable, treated like a queen, respected!
He is a good and godly man, and he came with references!

That first date was September 27, 2004, our engagement, October 30, 2004, and our beautiful wedding on Christmas Eve, 2004, all a testament to how well we fit each other. Don't make the mistake of thinking that we are similar, we are so very different in every way, but it is our differences that make us two parts of this whole marriage and we truly appreciate our differences, and we respect each other for them.

I am not writing this telling you a fairy tale of happily ever after, we have had our rough patches and trials and obstacles to overcome, but the fact is, "what God has joined together...", we have taken our vows to each other very seriously and walk in faith that God will lift us up.

Very important to me is a man that I can respect, someone whose actions actually demand respect, and Rob is one of those men that stands upright and does what is right, is hard-working and is faithful to his family and to God and that I can respect.

Through all the trials we are going through in this marriage, the flood, for example, comes to mind, I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man beside me to be strong when I am weak and that I can lift up in his weakness. We would not claim to have all this figured out, but what we don't, God does, and we have the faith that binds us together, and we will learn it as we go along.

I could go on and on, and I will, throughout my bloggings about that many wonders that is Rob. The happiness and the blessings on us as a result of us following God closely and keeping our eyes on Him has been a tremendous foundation for our marriage. I thank God for my Mr.Right!

I love you honey!

Zachary's Photographer

Obviously you can tell that I really enjoy pictures and scrap booking, blogging, I get portraits done very regularly. Zach's 9 month pictures were closer to being 10 month old pictures and I hate that, but with everything going on, we had no time or money for portraits, that's where Zach's new photographer comes in, Amy knew about our situation and offered to take Zach's picture for us! I thought that was so sweet and I had no idea what we were in for! She is absolutely amazing! I am sold, she is it for our family from now on, seriously, check out these portraits, they truly are works of art! She is so great to work with and she is reasonably priced and even if she were outrageously priced, she'd be worth it - wow, there is very little I say that about! Zach just loved the session and she is great with him, he really had a good time! I really felt like she captured Zachary's personality and it will forever make me remember the things I love about this time in his life.
So much has happened in Zachary's short life, as Grace said "He sure has had an exciting life so far, hasn't he!"

I worry sometimes that what with all the busyness he'll just grown up right under our noses! I love the way that these pictures capture the way he is right now, in all the ciaos, he is still so sweet.

You can visit Amy's web site and book her for portraits at

www.freewebs.com/faithfotos

or e-mail her at

faith_fotos@hotmail.com