Like Father, Like Daughter...

We took the boat to the lake on Monday and Bella rode in her tube for the first time alone. Most 3 year olds would probably be a little scared, but not Bella. We taught her hand signals the day before and here she is giving her favorite one...



Here are a couple more...





And of course, here's where she gets it from (cause we all know it isn't me)...

"God doesn't care if you're late..."

"As long as you make it there safely" was what the Sparks Police Officer said to me after I told him I was on my way to work at the|rock church right down the street (he asked me where I was headed that I needed to be driving 55 in a 40 mph zone). After agreeing about his assesment of God wanting me safe and a brief conversation about my "unique" name he was kind enough to not give me a ticket and inform me that I really needed to watch my "need for speed" as they would be out every morning monitoring the stretch of road I drive on my way to work.

I can't tell you how relieved I was not to receive a speeding ticket. I'll admit that I'm a bit of a lead foot, especially around here. I blame it all on living in "Big City" California for so long...the flow of traffic is 80 mph and it is quite a task for me to slow myself down and drive in a place where most people go 5 mph BELOW the speed limit. Plus I think it's in my genes...my mom drives faster than I do sometimes! ;)

As I was leaving work, one of my co-workers reminded me of what the officer had said to me earilier in the day and then said, "I can't believe you actually used the God card." I replied, "you better believe I did and guess what...IT WORKED!" ;)

Happy 4th of July!

We hope everyone has a wonderful day celebrating today. Andy has to work all day, so it's just Bella and I today. I have some work I have to get done and then we are going to go check out the town festivities. We will visit Andy for a while and maybe have lunch with him and then of course watch fireworks tonight. We have some sparklers for Bella to do tonight. It will be the first time she's used a sparkler so it will be interesting to see what she thinks. I of course will be sure to take pictures!

As most of you know today is bittersweet for our family. For years the 4th of July was a very special time for our family. All of our holidays were wonderful, but there was something about the 4th for us. I think it had a lot to do with my dad's love of fireworks and how cool Jason and I thought they were. It was always so exciting for us, whether we were setting them off on the street in front of our house or in a small town called Trout Lake with our friends Jim and Darlene. And then as fate would have it, 7 years ago today my brother and I stood in a hospital room with our arms around eachother as we watched Pop (for those of you who didn't know, we called my dad "Pop") leave this earth. All of sudden a day filled with such good memories and happy feelings was now tainted with an inescapable saddness. Time has been a friend to me. I am still sad, but it's not the unbearable weight that it once was. Today my saddness comes from the fact that my dad never saw me graduate from college, get married, or have a child. He would have been a great grandpa to Bella.

In October when I found out I was pregnat of course the first thing I did was calcualate my due date. You can imagine my surprise when I realized it was July 4! A day marked by the end of life would now be marked by the beginning also. The death of a grandfather and the birth of a grandchild. Although I realized the chances of actually delivering on my due date were slim, I really felt like God was giving our family a gift with this special date to hold on to. And then I miscarried. So many times I asked God, "WHY?" I simply didn't understand why he would allow this to happen. Not long after my m/c I was listening to my Jeremy Camp CD and the song, "I Still Believe" was on. The whole song is very special to me, but there is one part that has been stuck in my mind ever since. It says,

Though the questions still fog up my mind
With promises I still seem to bear
Even when answers slowly unwind
It's my heart I see you prepare

I now know that God is preparing my heart for something. I don't know what it is, but that's okay. It's not always easy, but ultimately I know that His ways are so much greater and that sometimes we have to trust that He knows what we cannot see.

So today, a day filled with some of my best childhood memories is also a day filled with saddness from the loss of my dad and now for the first time, the loss of our very much wanted baby. As I was thinking about it last night, I thought, "well at least I get it all over with in one day." ;)

With that, today is going to be a happy day for us. Bella and I are going to put on our red, white and blue and we are going to celebrate a day that for so many years brought me more joy and fun than any child could have ever hoped for. Those memories are ones I will never forget and there are the ones I'm going to choose to fill my day with.

Where have I been???

In consideration of everyone's time, I'm going to use bullet format to answer my question...

-- My cousin Brad was married on June 24th in Mt. Shasta. Bella and I spent 5 days at my mom's preparing for the wedding and visiting with family. The wedding turned out absolutely beautiful and we had a really nice visit. Congraulations to Brad and Dee! May you have many years of happiness!!

--We came home from Grandma's with a little something extra!

Meet Lucy...



My mom and Mike found her in their garage, stuck in the back of a drawer in a large tool chest. They have no idea how she got there, but after hearing something for 2 days they decided to investigate and were shocked to find a baby kitten. Bella of course took to her immediately and my adament refusal to bring home a kitten was slowly broken with comments like, "Look mom, she loves me so much". What can I say, I'm a sucker!!

So far she has been a wonderful kitty. She tolerates Bella's constant desire to hold her and take her everyone she goes. She has been litter box trained from the moment we brought her home and is already starting to plump up and look like a healthy kitten should.

--Last Saturday we attended Andy's cousins wedding. It was another beautiful wedding. We had a really nice time seeing our family and were sad to have to leave so soon. Bella had a great time dancing the night away and Andy even busted a few moves that I didn't know he was capable of. ;) Here is a cute picture of Andy chasing Bella around the dance floor...



--My "part time" job has quickly become much more than that. I've spent appx. 30 hours a week doing my job and still have things that need to be done. Andy has also been working a lot and so in the few moments we have together we have been trying to come up with a plan of how to both work jobs that are quite demanding and still maintain our home and most importantly be good parents to Bella and good spouses to eachother. It's not an easy task but I'm confident that we will figure it all out. Like Andy said, "there has to be a way because there is no doubt that we are both exactly where God wants us to be". I couldn't agree more!

--Yesterday we spent the first part of the day at church and then came home and got some housework done. In the evening we had friends over for Margaritas and a BBQ. We had a great time and are so blessed to have such great friends.

--Today I spent most of the day cleaning and catching up on laundry while Andy slaved away outside. He did some serious weed control and our back yard is looking quite nice again. We are going to take it easy this evening and enjoy some family time.

--For those who may have tried to call us the past few days, our phone has been out of commission. I came home on Thursday to find that our phone had no dial tone. The repair man finally came out today and was able to fix it quickly...evidentally they had been out doing some work on Thursday and unknowingly disconnected our service. Everyone knows that I'm a phone talker, but I have to admit that it was kind of nice not to hear our phone ring for 4 full days! ;P