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:)

E.R.

OH EM Gee Like my girls like to say we were in the E.R. for the 3rd time in 2 weeks. This time with Isaac. Enough already, I dislike that place immensely.

See this post was supposed to be how summer has finally hit San Diego now that the kids are back in school and going to the beach is a little harder to do with our schedules and all that. Seriously it has been at least 90 and this whole summer we have averaged 65 to if we're lucky 70 degrees and gray skys. And before all you desert people mock me for complaining about 90 degree weather most people here in San Diego do NOT have airconditioning so it can be pretty uncomfortable. But back to the supposed to post, I bought a little blow up pool for Jess and Isaac got it all set up and Isaac gets stung by a bee. He had never been stung before so when he immediately started breaking out in hives I gave him some benadryl and it just went down hill from there so I took him to the urgent care and my poor kid was going in anaphalytic shock. So he got a ride in the ambulance( I asked him if he was excited about that, he nodded his head yes. :) )to the E.R. for some monitoring, so now I get to keep an epi pen with us in case he ever gets stung again:( . HE did good , did cry when they gave him a shot, but he was not feeling too hot for a while there. We are home but I must confess to a certain degree of frustration that the devil thinks its ok to hit my kids. Actually it makes me stinking Mad! God is good and I know in the end We win, so I have to be ok with that.

Wordless Wednesday

First Day of School!!

Today is the first day of school for Jessica and Isaac. Jessica is in 4th grade and Isaac is in 1st. It was so cute to see the brand new kindergartners and how tall everybody has gotten over the summer. Their school is very small so we are like a little family.

I'd Need a Savior

I was looking for some music to do tonight for our revival with Asghar Gafoor and I found this song that has always been one of my favorites. Now one of my most favorite things to do is Sing. I do not think I could live without singing and I don't want to just sing a pretty song so people can say oh that sounded so good or whatever. When I was a teenager my mom told me if you sing without God's anointing it is meaningless and so I really do ask God to give me songs when I sing and it amazes me when He does.
This song when I hear it makes me want to fall on my face and weep for the Goodness of God.
There are times in our lives when circumstances and life can be difficult and it certainly seems that way lately for me, but God in all his awesome Power and Might Stills Sees, Still Hears, Still wants us to trust HIM and most all He loves us so much. So no matter what life brings no matter how much I might not like the things that are happening to me, the reality is I'm so thankful for the Precious gift of Jesus and salvation and my life is forever changed because of that.
So here are the words:

How many names
Can I use to explain
the love of my Jesus
The life that He gave
And so many times
Will I praise you today
I lift up my life
Cause you're always the same
And My offering
To you I bring

You're name is Jesus
You're the wonderful, counselor, my friend
You're what I hold on to
I know that You brought me through
all the days of loss and to the cross you knew
That I'd need a savior

How many songs
Can I sing to proclaim Your wondrous love
oh and beauty so great
and what would I say
If you brought down the rain
and everyday I walked through the pain
My heart would still say....

I'd need a Savior

Sick

Well Olivia and I have had an interesting weekend.
It all started Thursday. I had taken a new convert to the beach with me and I started feeling really crummy, You know the body aches, fever, etc.. on top of that I was really sore becouse I had done a workout that I hadn't done in a while, so we get home and go to bed, well Olivia comes and tell me that she's not feeling good I take her temp along with mine and yup we're both sporting a 102. Well that was one of the most awful painful nights. I hurt so bad from exercising( I think I threw my back out)that I couldn't sleep, I had gotten up to get some Ibuproferin and could barely walk and when Arty got up he gave me a muscle relaxer. About 10 that morning I got up to get some toast because I was feeling nautious( note to my self:muscle relaxer and Ib is not good on an empty stomach) When I got to the kitchen, I knew I was going to throw up- now remember my body is not cooperating with me muscle wise and I knew if I threw up that was going to kill my back. I took a swig of milk and passed out. Next thing I remember is looking up thinking what the Heck? Olivia says I rolled over the broken glass and milk so that freaked the kids out, Thankfully I was able get to my room where I stayed there for the next 2 days. Sunday I wake up and feel 75% better. Thank God because I had new converts to pick up but then Olivia starts to violently throw up and scream in pain, I get her situated go to church we have a Holy Ghost Time with more visitors(more about that later) I get home she starts up again so I take her to the e.r. cause now I'm thinking appendicitis. Fast forward 4 hours or so blood work is done ct scan, they said yes it could be appendicitis or even kidney stones, but would have to do more tests. They gave me the option of taking her appendix out right then just in case that was the problem, but because the surgeon wasn't 100% convinced and I had a whole bunch of people praying and she was doing better we went home.On the way home we had an awesome conversation about believing God for what we pray for and you know what? she has been perfectly FINE. God just totally Healed Her!!!! What an incredible reference for her to know that God hears not only our prayers but hers too! Now saying all that, I really believe this has been an assault from hell because for the last month every sunday morning we have had visitors and between this last sunday and the one before that we've had 3 families come in and get gloriously saved, I'm just so excited because I know God is moving in our little church and no matter what the devil trys to throw our way God is God and He is so good, sickness and all. So Thank you Jesus for your Faithfulness