Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful friends, Hope your day is a joyful funfilled remembrance of why we celebrate this wonderful day.

God thank you for your wonderful gift of your son Jesus, I can never repay the price YOU paid for my life, I'm so grateful.... Everyday!

I feel so blessed to be able to have my parents and my sister Em along with Rose, Leah, and their Families celebrating with us, this is the stuff memories are made of.

Walnuts

I went Walnut picking today. In my back yard.  I have lived in my home for 6 1/2 years and had no idea our neighbors had a walnut tree, It now extends partially over my deck and lower back yard so as a result I have tons of walnuts falling all over my yard! It is so cool.

Sea World Fun

                                          Shark!!

                                         Jessica my beautiful purple ballerina

                                            Me and my sister Leah! She's really not That much taller than me. HeHe

                                          Isaac and cousin Brian

Wordless Wednesday "Rain in Mission Valley"

Its Raining!!!

(singing)Oh the weather outside is Frightful and I feel so delightful, And we've no place to go let it snow...er... rain let it Rain!

Actually I do have to go to Costco to get all my food items for Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and Wednesday I'm making a BIG pot of Posole for our Christmas Fellowship after church.  I promise to drive very carefully and I am staying off the freeway cause its insane!

Did I mention I love the Rain, its so soothing and beautiful and it makes my grass green! and we are getting record breaking Rain fall! You know what the greatest part of it  is all the green oh so environmentally friendly people have been spouting "water conservation" you know take a two min. shower, don't wash clothes, water your lawn and heaven forbid you flush the toilet every time you use IT! After all this is going to be a La Nina year and we might GASP run out of water(never mind we are right next to this humongous body of water called the Pacific Ocean ). I just think God has a great sense of humor, so in the meantime probably 1/2 of San Diego is getting flooded(San Diego is built partially in a flood basin)(singing again) Let it rain let it rain.

And.... since this is such a random post In all seriousness now will you take a minute and pray for a Little boy named David and Grandmother Sally. David is missing with his mother who has and is very abusive to him, Pray that God will reveal where they are and rescue  this precious little boy and give grace to Sally.These are some precious souls in one of the Northern Ca churchs, in Chico, Ca. .

Olga

 There is a precious little girl named Olga who desperately needs all of our help, Right now until Tomorrow if you go to this blog below you can read all about it! As a side note if you donate you will be entered into a drawing for some great prizes, which include a scrapbook kit  and an Ipod.

http://babynumber10.blogspot.com/

Winter wonderland and SeaWorld!

As you can see I have a new blog background. I am seriously dreaming and wishing it could look like that around my house at least for a week. We have had some cold and chilly nights 40-50 degrees which is pretty darn cold for us SoCal people, well I just heard on the news the highs could get to the 80s-90s, is that insane or what..... See now you know why I would like the snow for at least a week. It has snowed like once or twice in the history of San Diego, so it could happen. Ha-in my dreams!

On to a more pleasant topic: We get to go to Seaworld Tonight for a special Holiday Event! I'm so so excited and I can't wait till the kids come home so I can tell them... Get changed Dress warm we're going to Seaworld! We used have passes a few years back and it was so much fun, I love it there. Isaac was a baby when we used to go so he doesnt' have all those fun memories , but tonight he will! There is a radio station KYXY that is sponsering this events so I scored on some incredible tickets . Yippee its going to be so much fun. I know I sound like a little kid, its just so awesome when you know your kids are going to be so excited. I promise Pictures soon to follow!

In Giving Thanks

Tuesday was our Thanksgiving feast at the kids school and let me tell we feasted! The awesome thing about having a christian school is there is such a Giving and Thankful spirit in that place, for that I am grateful. So there we were with lots and lots of Delicious food and it was a really awesome time. They had a speaker : Stewert Hedley . This man is 89 years old and is one of the few survivors of Pearl Harbor. He spoke in great length about what it was like being there as a young navy man of 2o years old. Wow what an incredible account he gave. Just to hear his stories and realize this man is and was an important part of history, I hope we never forget the sacrifices men and women have made for our great country. On this Thanksgiving day not only do I want to Thank God for all his many blessings on my life, but I want to give thanks for so many who sacrificed time, family, and life to bring us the Freedom we still enjoy in our Nation. Thank you to all the service men and women and also to their families who also sacrifice. I am privileged to know so many. I pray that all of you will have a Happy Thanksgiving!!! Enjoy your time with Friends and Family.

Shutterfly

Ok Ok I have jumped on the bandwagon for shutterfly's free 50 photocards. As most as you know I am a huge fan of those christmas photo cards. I grew up on those thing and of course I look forward to continuing this tradition for many many years. So look forward to getting yours from me courtesy of Shutterfly. Can't wait! The awesome thing is I don't even have to stress about taking a picture, becouse my girls have been taking all kinds of pictures so I'm going to go find some cute pics, pick out my design and I'm good to go, so thank you to shutterfly for providing my christmas cards this year!I love how I grew up in our fellowship looking forward to seeing everybodys elses christmas cards throughout the year and now my kids do the same! What a great way to keep up with how all of our families are growing. Right! So you guys can go to Shutterfly for amazing holiday cards along with photo books, and so much more. Hope all you guys in blog land have a Memorable Christmas this year, not forgetting the reason we celebrate. Jesus! Happy New Year in advance too!

Well, Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up:

“Christmas cards” to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

“Christmas photo cards” to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

“holiday cards” to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

You too can enjoy 50 free holiday cards!!!

Hallelujah Harvest

Our church joined our mother church for their hallelujah harvest. Adrienna and Olivia got to help out and they really enjoyed that. I'm glad that we are close enough so they can still do things like that! Little Benjamin is our not so happy pumpkin! Olivia was the fortune teller that got the demon cast out of her by Paul. Adrienna was Lydia seller of Purple and Isaac who is in the white tunic with the black turban in the midst of all the kids was" Isaac", Jess who is not featured here was Rebecca and Joshua our little cutie was Woody . Ohyeah my niece Victoria who is behind Adrie was a band nerd.

Randon Pictures

Just some Random Pictures of Adrie and Liv that Adrie took, and those earrings that Livie's wearing.... They're mine, not hers, sheesh .

The Glory Road

Last night Arty and I got the privilage of attending a theater production with Olivia and other kids from her school at the Lamb's Player Theater in Coronado. It is a beautiful intimate theater that does wholesome sometimes christian based plays so its always an enjoyable time. Well Last night's performance of The Glory Road was the most incredible, moving play I have ever seen! If you live in San Diego you have got to go see it! It is only playing until Nov. 14 so you better hurry.
It is the story of Clarence Jordan, the starter of Habitat for Humanity. He was a man of God who wanted to make a difference and went through a lot to do so. The setting is in Georgia and he fought against segregation with the bible. The actors were so incredibly talented, you felt what they felt. They could move you to tears and then the next minute you are laughing . They used no musical instruments but their voices and wow! All the songs they sang were Old gospel music, oh it was just so awesome.
I'm always in amazement to see and hear story's of people who have gone before us who live with every part of their being what Jesus Christ says to do, and live with such faith despite what the circumstances around say they should do. God really spoke to my heart during this production about just believing and trusting Him for the things I want to see done and having Faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what is going on around me. What an incredible Testimony we can all have if we do just that!

Ca Election Blues

Ok I never thought I would blog about something like this but I'm so frustrated today that I live in California!!! Today the weather and the beach can have no bearing on the way that I feel about the corrupt leftist California that I live in. If you look on drudgereport.com there is a map of how the United States voted: blue or red. Wouldn't you know MOST of AMERICA is FED UP and voted Red but not Cali , no no no We just can't see our great state and Nation are heading to Hell in a handbasket and we just want to continue that way! On a more positive note. Thank God my Hope is not in the Government or in the Red Party Definately not the Blue, but my HOPE is in GOD alone and only He can save us! We need a revival of Repentence! God Help us All to reach our nation for His Glory. Ok now that I got that off my chest, hope you all have a great day and if you sympathize with me leave me a note:)

Grand Canyon

I really cannot figure out how to to space my pictures and my words so I can tell about a picture before I move on with my words so that is why my pictures and my words are separate today! Any tips would be appreciated. Anyways.... Over the Columbus Day weekend our family got to go visit some dear friends of ours The Garcia's in Nevada. We had the best time with them! Friday we all piled in the van and drove about 3 hours to the Grand Canyon. It was the whole entire Marin family's first time ever so we got lots of pictures. One of my highlights was on our way seeing some of the beautiful trees changing colors. I love love love Fall and seeing the trees change is such a treat for me. That really made my afternoon. I just put a couple pics of the Grand Canyon as I am sure you do not really want to see ALL of them. One of the pictures is a "window" cut out of the rock, It is called Angels's landing, we actually got to walk on top of it. A little scary for me as I do not care for heights, but it was a great view. My next post will be about Zion National Park which we did the next day but enjoy for now...

Grand Canyon pictures

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce!

I know finally... I was able to get the pictures of Rose, Leah and I making our own homemade spaghetti sauce. It was a lot of fun and I love when I get to do cool things like this with my sisters! So you take about 20lbs of tomatoes and drop them in boiling water for about 5 mins. Then you quickly throw them into some ice water where you take them out one by one and peel the skin off. Next step is you mash them in the colander and get all the juice out. When its pretty mushy you stick it in your nice big pot with :

2 cups chopped fresh onions (then sauté or microwave them until they are soft)	3 Tablespoons of oregano
3 clove of garlic, minced	2 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons diced, fresh OR dried basil	1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped celery (optional, may be too strong for some folk's tastes)	2 Tablespoons chopped red sweet peppers
I then let it cook most of the day, it was still kind of chunky but if you want it smoother just stick in the blender. We froze it in freezer ziplock bags and that worked pretty good. Italian sausage added to it the day I made spaghetti was so good!	1/4 cup lemon juice (helps to acidify it, not necessary if you have a pressure canner)

Coming Soon.......

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce. Yum!

Beach Days....

Beautiful Day, Cute girls, Sparkling water, what more could you ask for.... Pictures are of Olivia and Brianna my niece from Az.

Navy Seals/Surf Passage

Ok I know Navy seals are not "Marin news" but we were at Coronado the other day and the Navy seal recruits were there. These are the guys that want to be Navy Seals but have to go through the grueling training to see if they can hack it. It was the coolest thing I have seen!

Wow is all I can say, I'm amazed at the endurance they have, I guess thats why they are the best. So just to try and explain some of these pictures and what they were doing: They had this nasty stinky inlet ( it seriously smelled like a sewer) that they would have to lay down and do their leg lifts/pushups/situps in. They had groups of maybe 8 in these rafts that they would have to take over the rocks , into the water, back over the rocks and then various excise's/drills over and over again without a break. You could see the fatigue on these guys faces, sometimes they would stumble and barely recover. We met a wife of one of these guys and she was telling us they do this like nonstop for at least 3 hours at a time, when we got there they had been drilling for an hour and a half. This was their second week and "Amber"(the wife) told us they started out with 200 guys and they were down to 100 and this particular exercise was called surf passage. It was funny because two of the D.I.'s stopped her and asked who her husband was and she wouldn't tell them! They found out and kind of harassed her husband a little. They had the platoon waving at her and shouting her name during the drills, it was pretty comical, but a great way to show their sense of humor too. She was pretty embarrassed but it was neat to see!

Volleyball

Yay for Adrienna! Her team won 3 out 3 games for Volleyball. Picture soon to follow!

Seaport Village

My mom and my niece Madeline are here in San Diego for the last couple of days and we are just enjoying it. My sisters and I took her and some of the kids to Seaport Village which is a fun tourist spot.

If anybody can tell me how I can post captions under the pictures that would be awesome, in the meantime ... Here are the order of pictures.

1. The "boys" Posing with the "living cowboy" statue
2.Jessica with a parrot on her arm
3.Me and Benjamin having a "conversation"
4. Grandma and Grandkids
5.The Pirate Kids
6. Mom and her girls

Madeline

My niece Madeline is here visiting for a few days and spent the night with us last night. She is an absolute crack up. She says things so seriously and matter of factly too. So here are a few: Olivia and I took her into walmart this morning and she says" Look there's a brown man just like Uncle Arty" ..... and then poor Adrie put some perfume on and Madeline walks up to her and says " What is that awful smell" And then Olivia was doing her spanish work on the computer and Madeline was pretending to be a kitty so Arty comes out into the living room and so she starts growling at him and said" I only growl at mexicans" We could not stop laughing... Where does she come up with this stuff? By the way she LOVES Arty just in case you were wondering. It was so cute last night when she saw him for the first time, She yells Arty and throws her arms around him. So Em I hope you read this cause we are having a grand ol time with your kid here:) As soon as I gets some pics I'll put them up.

Benjamin update 2

Just got this email from my mom and decided to update the Benjamin Post.

Benjamin had a check-up today, and I am so excited I had to tell someone. He is now 12.5 lbs, and the Dr told Rose "You know this isn't usual for a micro preemie baby to gain this much weight this fast." : ) He is going to get to start food, and a normal formula. : ) He had been on a specialized formula. His development is ahead of his adjusted age, Whoooo Hoooo, the Dr said his movements are fluid on both sides and again, he sees NO SIGNS of CP or any neuro problems. Then he was reading his chart and asked about his brain bleed at birth, "So, it was just a mild one?" Rose said NO! He had a 4 bleed! (4 is the worst, and he was a severe 4.) She said the Dr turned around looked at Benjamin with a stunned look on his face, looked at Rose, looked at Benjamin, and said "HE is a miracle!!!!!" And he said now and then there is a baby that will just defy all odds of what they should be, he is certainly one of those, HE is a miracle. I had goose bumps from head to toe when she told me that. We already knew that, but it is still so nice to hear a conservative Dr say that. And I am just busting with joy and thankfulness for all God has done.

Benjamin Update

I wanted to give a victory report on little Benjamin. Rose took him to the doctor for some blood work and all his bilyrubin levels are completely normal for the first time since He's been born. He is doing so awesome! So far he does everything that a baby his adjusted age should be doing. What a precious miracle he is. The pictures are of Benjamin before and after. The Elmo was bigger than Him when he was born and now you can see how much he's grown!

Makeup

I love love love makeup, its just so much fun! Mac is my ultimate favorite cause I love the intense colors. They are so beautiful. It can get expensive so usually thats what I ask my honey for christmas and birthdays:) But today I was at Target and saw this palette, and I had to get it. It was only $5.99 so I had to do a little playing around with it. Now I do not like pictures of me so just look at the eyes ok! I look a little dorky cause I was trying to get the maximum picture effect so you could see the makeup. Ha-ha. Let me know what you think:)