I have felt compelled lately to watch what is going on in the world and to rely on Jesus as a strong tower through difficult seasons. 

Here is a link to a post that brother-in-law Will wrote back on February 18 of this year. I just thought it might be a comfort to know that God knows the future and provides a place of safety and rest for His children.

God is good. He is good all the time.

Here are a few more pictures of our fun day today.

So today was Anders and Chris' first day of "my little sportster" class. I went along to take some pictures and of course hollered a little from the side lines. They are learning how to kick a soccer ball and hit a t-ball. I'm sure there will be some other skills to learn as well. The class was pretty chaotic and the poor girl who was running it had a pretty quiet voice and didn't seem to feel comfortable telling people what to do.  Hopefully next week will be a little more organized. 

After class we went to grab some breakfast and then headed over to the Paramount ranch. The Paramount ranch is basically a set built to look like an old fashioned looking town and it was used in a ton of old western movies. 

There used to be a train track and a train on location but was moved quite a while back. There is still a very realistic train station and platform. The whole time Anders kept talking about a train and he thought we were going to get on a train! Since it was close to 100 degrees outside we sat down at some picnic tables under a nice covered area. We told Anders that the train wasn't here anymore and that we weren't going to see a train today.  He climbed up on the picnic tables and walked back and forth all the while having a conversation with himself. It went something like this. "old train...new train...on?? noooo! hmmmm, train old? Yeah. no train. New?? hmmmm...."

We were trying not to laugh but it was sweet and funny to hear him try and work out the dilemma of not being able to see a train today.

So, Chris and I were chatting last night and I was telling him something about the day regarding Anders and a bottle. He gets this smug smile on his face so of course I stop and ask him what is so funny! He then points out that he has never heard me use the correct past tense form of "drink". It turns out that whenever I refer to something that has been drunk I say......"drank'n" like "after he had drank'n it all up he didn't want any more"......I'm blushing just writing this!

 

Now, I grew up reading a lot, going to private school, having parents that were educated and who loved to read and are both articulate writers and yet here it is, "drank'n".

So, if any of you who see me catch me using this term, please stop me and correct this horrible mangling of the English language!

Well, all a ya'll folks out thars, i'd betta go and git me somma that there moonshine yonder and drinks it all up! A'n after I've drank'n it all up Im's gonna go and skin me some possum!

Hear is a little silent movie for those family members that live far away. Jumping on the bed is a new thing and although we think it's kind of funny I think it's going to do the crib in one of these days! The crib is already a bit wobbly.

Our camera doesn't record sound unfortunately. I was asking him if he wanted to go to the park and of course he wanted to and mentioned that he wanted tennis at the park. 

Here are a few little quirks about our new place in Calabasas. 

- A downstairs corner apartment next to the parking lot. We get lots of talking late at night about 9 feet from  our heads. One of the conversations went something like this (at 2 in the morning). "hey man, that was fun let's do that again sometime! @$#@ yeah, N!$@#r! Oh man! I'd better get home or my wife's gonna kill me! Maybe I can sneak in and say I fell asleep on the couch! @#$%!"

Charming to say the least.

- Lots of bees on the pathway leading up to our door. Anders say's "scuse me!" I taught him to give the bees space so that they can make honey. =)

- A thief(s) in the neighborhood. Anders tricycle was stolen from in front of our door during dinner last week. Yesterday I came out and noticed that the car next to mine had had it's window broken into. I guess they couldn't see anything valuable in my car under all of the stuff!

Yesterday Anders came up to me and shrugs his shoulders, throws up his hands and says dobedoo? ohhhh, doobedoo, sad... New??

Doobedoo means tricycle, bicycle or motorcycle in our house.

Other than these little bumps we are really, really loving our place. It's convienent to friends out here, it's pretty and rural feeling. The parks are incredible. We have a washer and dryer. The list could go on!

Since we now live 15 minutes from a good beach I decided to take Anders down last week. I realized that he really had never been to the beach to play in the water! He had more fun than I expected and he still talks about it.

It was my first time taking a child to the beach by myself so I learned a few things like, don't forget the cooler in the car, bring a chair, bring some kind of talc powder to prevent sand/diaper chaffing, bring fresh water for rinsing afterwards and lastly, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the best beach food!

Kristy Caver and I took our boys to Disneyland two weeks ago so here are a few of those pictures. The highlight for Anders was the Winnie the Pooh ride and getting to meet Winnie the Pooh IN PERSON. I'll include the picture of Anders looking up at me in line with the look on his face that say's "what? I get to actually walk up to Pooh and hug him????" It was pretty fun. =0)

Here are a few random pictures of our new place. It has taken WAY too long for us to finally find the cord that makes this possible so I have a lot of photos  to go along with all that we've been up too lately.

We recently had our friends Mike and Denise over with their one year old son Gus. Anders loves him and they get along fairly well. Gus is big for one so he can hold his own if Anders plays like a two year old.

Below is a picture of the park that is just down the street from our apartment. It is a lovely walk and the view is so pretty.


These pictures don't really do our space justice so hopefully I can take a some better ones later and post them. 

We really love it here and are so happy that we moved. 

I had to post this hilarious satirical article that Chris read to me this morning. If you are a baby boomer you will find it either really hilarious or slightly offensive. Although I think that any of the baby boomers that read this blog will find it funny. 

Here is the link.

(disclaimer - All of the baby boomers that I personally know do not fit with the "hippy" stereotype. This article is completely for fun....)

I googled "what did Sarah Palin accomplish in office?" because I want to see if what she accomplished is as impressive as everyone is saying (or not so impressive as some are saying). Here is one link that I found, and here is another link.  

From what I've read she does have the experience and grit needed to turn Washington on it's head. I'd be happy to see that kind of change in the White house even if she's only the vice president. Actually I think that McCain and Palin are both the types to buck the status quo and change things up. I just want to see it happen!

Well, we had our first experience living in "fire territory" yesterday. The hill up behind our apartment caught on fire and ended up burning about 80 acres before the fire department was able to completely kill it. I was driving back home from Costco and a friend called to ask if we were o.k. or if we had to evacuate.  I figured that I had better hurry home and see what was going on! While I was on the freeway we had to drive through an area that was being targeted with the water dropping helicopters. Of course they weren't dropping water on the freeway but around it. My car was getting drops of water and ash on it as we inched our way up the 101. Anders was pretty excited about all of the "moke!" and whenever a fire truck would wail by he would say "mmm help". He did think that the smoke had something to do with choo choo's as most of his life revolves around trains right now.

From my patio we can see the hill where the fire started. It's right above the park that we walk to.  While we stood outside watching the fire fight we waved at the big helicopters that were flying over so low that we could almost see the pilots inside. It was quite dramatic and it made me extremely thankful for the fire department! It was amazing to see how precisely they hit every little spot of flames that would pop up. It was an incredible effort and the fire was out by mid afternoon. Impressive!

Here is link to sister Heidi's blog regarding Todd Bentley and the cacophony surrounding his public humbling. The reason I am posting this is because I want to encourage other Christians to pray for Todd and his wife as well as any other believers that are struggling with public consequences. I know from experience the power of love, acceptance and the healing that comes from prayer and restoration.

Thanks to Aunt G. Here are a few moving pictures from the crazy week before we moved. My mom was a great help and Aunt G. came over a couple of days before the move and worked her magic as well. It was one of the most crazy things I've done. It was the first time I had had to pack up a whole house not just a room. 

 

We are officially in the new place and are starting to feel settled. I'm hoping to get my camera up and clicking soon to show what it's like out here.

This past week was really stressful and last night Chris and I finally re-configured our bedroom and unpacked a few more boxes. We are almost done! This apartment is quite a bit smaller and has a lot less storage than the old place so it's been interesting to try and tetris everything into place.

My only moving war wound happened last night when the paper shredder fell on top of my foot and it hurt so bad that I immediately burst into tear and hobbled out to the living room. It would have ended there except that when I get hurt I also get kind of angry so.... I karate chopped the padded desk chair out of frustration and anger and I think that my wrist hurts more then my foot..... It was a pitiful sight and it put me out of commission for about 20 minutes while I iced my wrist.  Now I understand where Anders gets his hurt/angry reactions from!

Chris was really sympathetic and didn't laugh until I felt better and then we both were able to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

I'm sitting here in our "old" apartment taking a break from packing.  It has been a stressful job and I realize that I've never really packed up a whole household before. It is a big job!  When I get stressed my body starts warning me to slow down by swollen tonsils, canker sores, headaches and such.... yuck. So I'm taking extra vitamins and drinking lots of water and of course not slowing down!

Chris hired some guys to move us on Saturday so we just have to make sure that everything is in boxes and easy to get to. I'm looking forward to seeing someone else do a lot of work.  Next week will be filled with some unpacking but I'm hoping to take a couple of Chris' vacation days to drive up to Santa Barbara and Solvang. I want to at least enjoy some of his time off not just spend it all slaving away!

I'll blog again as soon as we are sort of settled. Maybe I'll find the cord that enables me to add some pictures as well. 

These pictures are from this weekend.  Actually the pictures with Chris and Anders were taken Sunday and the swimming pool pic was taken today.

These  are mainly for Grandma J. because she is the one who gave him the sweet little sailboat outfit. He looked like quite the little old fashioned boy in it. =0)

Sunday was a rare family day for us. We decided to skip church and get a replacement for Chris' church sound job since Chris had been down in Malibu all of Saturday for another sound job.

We spent the day resting and going out to lunch at the local Corner Bakery. In the later afternoon we drove out to my parents house to spend some time with them. It was one of the nicest days we have had in a long time!

We'll look forward to more days like this after we move. 

Today my friend Kelly and I took Anders and Aubrey to the Fullerton Arboretum. The kids had a great time and we basically just followed them around as they explored. We met another mom with a little boy named Max. They all had fun sitting on the bleachers playing "drum". 


The picture of Anders touching the pumpkin was me trying to get him to not get too rough with the plants and to only touch with one finger! Otherwise leaves and flowers would be pulled apart.

The canopy of vines was a  favorite and the kids enjoyed running back and forth through it.  

Afterwards we went to the Corner Bakery for lunch and then Anders and I continued on to Pinkberry for some frozen yogurt and blueberries. Yum!

Yesterday  I redeemed a spa finder gift card that Chris had given me as a Christmas gift to get my hair cut. I've had hair to my shoulders for some time now and it was really starting to bug me.  I rarely styled my hair and mostly just put it into a wet bun for the whole day and then would sleep with it back in a ponytail because of the heat. Completely un-hairstylist like.

When Chris came home last night I mentioned that I felt more like myself again with the short hair, and didn't he think I  looked more like the old GG again? He paused and said, "yes.... but with more cares." *sigh*.  I guess that as a mom there is a certain weariness that lingers into each evening.

How carefree life was as a single, girl with all the time in the world. But then again how sad to have no sweet husband to rub my feet and laugh with or no precious little red-headed boy to pick up and give love'ns to. I'll take the extra cares thank-you very much!

I feel a bit guilty for waiting so long to blog but it couldn't really be helped. Around Anders birthday Chris spilled some tea on to our already older laptop and it was instantly ruined. I was just glad that it wasn't me!! So now I am sitting in front of a nice new (to us) IMac that Chris won on E-bay for 340 bucks. It is MUCH better than the old lap top.

Since my last post we had a great fourth of July visiting with Mike and Denise Radka and their little one Gus. It was his first birthday on the Fourth so we attended the party and then spent the rest of the day at their house in Simi Valley.  I took a lot of pictures but they aren't uploaded yet.

I had a weekend in Palm Springs with some girlfriends which was completely delightful. It's a once a year treat that I missed last year because I didn't want to leave Anders yet. But this year I felt JUST FINE about it. =)

As I am writing this I am very aware of a large accumulation of boxes behind me. I'm also aware of all of the things around me that are not in boxes..... The reason for the boxes? On August 8 we will be moving about an hour away to Calabasas. We just found out last week that an apartment that we have been wanting came available and so we decided to take it.  The list of pros and cons was long and detailed but the pros won out. We will miss our current residence greatly and I will be very homesick for the ease of having friends and family so close.  I love our big windows that look out on lots of trees and the breeze that we get. I'll miss the friends that live right here in our complex, I'll miss the new Pinkberry Yogurt shop that we have grown to love.... so many things to miss.

 Chris won't miss the hour and fifteen minute drive to and from work, and we both won't miss the hour each way drive to church on Sunday's.

So, the next few weeks are to be filled with packing, donating, selling and throwing away our worldly goods. 

I'll post again soon, hopefully with pictures.

Tomorrow is Anders Two year old birthday. We celebrated in style on Saturday in over 100 degree weather. Everything was Thomas the Train and we had a bubble machine which was a BIG hit! It was fun to see Anders playing with some of the friends that came and of course it's always special to see him with Grandparents and Great Grandparents.
I had fun making the cupcakes and using a special food coloring spraypaint. We had to keep them at home in the fridge until the last minute because it was so hot we were afraid they would melt before the party. It ended up being a really fun day despite the heat.

We have also enjoyed having Chris' mom here for the week. I didn't get many pictures of our time together on my camera so this is the best picture that I have of Grandma J and Anders! Tomorrow we head off to Disneyland for the day. What I'm really looking forward to is Friday when I get to drive out of town and join some friends in Palm Springs for a girls weekend!