Hello Disgusting. Good Morning Gross.

So Jas and I started the end of the year out with a detox/cleanse.  He read about this particular one in a magazine and since he's had so much trouble with his stomach lately we thought we would give it a shot.  I agreed that I would give it a go with him and even though it hasn't been quite as bad as I thought, there have been lots of times that I've wished I would have allowed him to embark on this food journey alone. 

The bummer is that half way through it, it doesn't seem to be clearing up any of the issues that we were hoping it would.  And alas, I don't think I'm going to finish the month out looking like Heidi Klum, although I am no longer popping out of the top of my pants and other clothing items, which is very good news indeed. 

The low down: we eat a liquid meal for breakfast and dinner and then a restricted lunch.  The hardest part for me has been giving up coffee in the morning - no caffeine, no coffee, even decaf.  I usually roll out of bed and go directly to the coffee pot.  Sometimes I set the timer the night before and have it waiting for me when I get up and if not I stand and watch it drip into the pot until there is enough for a cup.  I'm not even in it for the caffeine, just something warm and wonderful to get me going.  I've had lots of herbal tea lately, but it just doesn't cut it.  A week and a half to go and I get my blessed coffee back. 

We've had lots of weird juice concoctions.  Jason is such a machine, he can just down it, probably like he downed certain beverages in college (I'm just speculating since I didn't know him in college).  Or to give him the benefit of the doubt and probably more the case, maybe he just downs that nasty juice like he does a glass full of water at the end of a bike ride.  There have been nights were I just sit at the table and stare at my glass and try and gag the thing down one gulp at a time. 

A week and a half to go.  I'm dreaming of hamburgers already.

In other news, we are trying to decide what in the world to do about our church 'situation'.  In May we started going to a new church that we love, love, love - mostly.  The only problem is that if we fell over dead and never showed up to church again, I don't think more than a single person would notice.  And that single person is the children's director who checks our kids in on Sunday mornings.  It is getting to the point that we are getting a little lonely.  So we're trying to decide what to do, what to do.  UGHH!  It has been just another friendly reminder that this world is not our home and nothing here on this earth is perfect.  It has really convicted me though about being friendly, even if it is just making eye contact and smiling. 

We're also trying to plan out our trip to AZ.  We're headed down for a missions conference at our home church during the middle of February.   I have already made a schedule of where we are on which days, which evenings and afternoons we are going to be seeing people and when I get to meet my cousin's new little baby and spend time with my nephew that I haven't seen since June.  It is always such a struggle when we are there because whenever we go the time gets divided between my immediate and extended family, my friends, our 'couple' friends, the church, supporters and in-laws.  It gets to be SUPER frustrating for me sometimes trying to stretch ourselves so thin.  However long we are there seems to never be enough time.  I am super excited about getting in some good SUN time while we are there. And some good mexican food too!

ten whenever - warning: this is a super cyncial dump session

1) I have once again been neglecting this blog. You will see from the pictures below that it isn't the only thing that has been neglected lately.

2) I've realized how much a creature of habit I am. In the last 2 months Jason has been gone around 20 days and spent 3 weeks working at night and we've had about 10 days of company and as a result I felt like my life has been derailed. I can't quite get back into the swing of things. I haven't been to the gym, I've hardly been to the grocery store, I haven't been cleaning. To tell you the truth I have no idea what has happened in the last 2 months. I'm attaching some evidence. This is what my house looks like today while I am busy typing away on this blog....

My lovely living room, what you see when you walk in the door.  Welcome!

My inviting bedroom.  Doesn't it just scream romance?

Mirielle's room.  It is actually pretty clean.  I'm going to turn her into on of those hoarding shows as soon as she is old enough.  

My super sanitary kitchen. I was so behind earlier this week, I ran 3 loads in the dishwasher in one day just to catch up on all of the dirty dishes.

Yep, I'm awesome.  Don't you wish you lived at my house?

3) Speaking of letting things go, I submit evidence #2.  Myself.  I saw this picture and thought... What. In. The. World.....  Nothing like a picture of yourself to bring you back to reality. 

This picture was taken at a trip to Disneyland earlier this month.  I just need to point out that we didn't pay for the trip because we are missionaries and we don't do extravagant things like go on vacations, especially to Disneyland.  Currently the only thing we are doing with our money is paying off medical bills because our benefits are so stinkin' AWESOME. HA!  Back to the picture.  Jason's mom ordered us all matching shirts for the trip.  Bad news:  We were called the Smurfs and I felt like a major dork-a-doo wearing it around.  Good news: it was easy to find each other.

Anyways, I think I'm going to blow this picture up and tape it to my fridge.  Hmph...

4) Kellan tuned 5 this month.  We took him down to the John Deere tractor store and I'll just say that John Deere employs the nicest people.  This guy took both of the kids for rides on the tractor and a crazy off road 4 wheeler.  Major highlight. 

6) Jason and I have started going to a counselor.  So when we finish paying off our thousands of dollars of medical bills we will have counselor bills waiting for us to keep us company.  The counselor said that we we are in a 'period of discernment' which is a really nice way of saying we are confused and frustrated and having a mid-life crisis.  Basically it boils down to this:  my husband is a pilot through and through and he is not piloting he is teaching. 

We have no idea if we should make a change, how we could possibly make a change and how we would deal with the possible guilt of making a change.  Because if we love the Lord and want to see people come to know the Lord we should be ready to suffer, right?.  At least that is what we have been told in the past.  So how are we supposed to discern if it is time for a change?  We haven't had such a great track record of making great decisions so we are going to pay a couple more thousand dollars to have someone help us make a decision regarding what we are supposed to do with the rest of our lives.  Oh joy.  Don't even get me started.  

7)  This is the first time since we moved here that I haven't looked forward to the fall.  I guess it is because I know that the weather will be crappy until June.  This is a great place to run a photography business.  We've had one day of sun in the last week and it is supposed to rain and rain for the next few days.  Scream!!

8) I took this picture of myself a few days ago, because I finally did my hair for the first time in I don't know how long.  I took Kellan to preschool in my schlumpy sweat shirt with no makeup on and my hair in a pony tail and ended up walking in behind a mom who was all done up in a cute outfit, make-up and a cute hairdo.  Shame on me. So I pulled out the curling iron and went to town.  The good news about being a photographer is I can 'retouch' my face.  Now if I could only figure out how to make my LAZY eye look not so lazy. 

9)  Mirielle put foam rollers in her hair all by herself this weekend.  She had school pictures this week and wanted to do the same do.  Um, let me think about that one.  NO!  So I put her in bigger size rollers and she was MAD when she took them out.  There was weeping, screaming and gnashing of teeth.  After working on her hair for 40 MINUTES she was finally satisfied.  I'm so shipping her off to boarding school when she hits 13. 

10)  If you don't ever want to come back and read this blog again.  I don't blame you.  Hopefully next time I come back to post I will be in a better mood.  Like maybe in April....

ten on tuesday - a day late

1) Jason is on his 10 day long cross country trip. Please do not come rob my house if you live in Spokane and read this blog.

2) Our Lolo (grandpa) Chris from the Philippines has been here visiting the last few days. Chris and his wife Lynn were our fill in grandparents when we were in language school in the PI. It has been so fun to spend time with him and laugh at all of our most embarrassing and humiliating memories. And there are LOTS!

3) Pandora radio is on right now playing Madeleine Peyroux. Perfect music for an evening on the computer. Check her out.

4) My mom is coming in tomorrow and I'm super excited. Mirielle already has several sewing projects lined up for her.

5) Kellan started preschool this week. He LOVES it. His favorite part according to him: chasing the girls. Last night he told me, "Mom, tomorrow I'm going to go in all by myself like a big boy." Then he got mad when I told him this morning that I had to go into the building with him to sign him into his class. It is such a GREAT confirmation that the choice to put him into preschool was the best choice for him and he is ready to go and having fun!

6) A few Sundays ago I was talking to Mirielle about what happened at church that morning. Our church had a service celebrating 2 new churches that were being 'launched' out of the congregation. They brought all of the kids in when they prayed for the 2 new pastor's families.

I went on to tell her that our church in Phoenix prayed for us like that when they sent us out and explained to her that we are missionaries up here and what that means, etc, etc.

After she thinks for awhile we have the following conversations:
M: Mom, I think when I grow up I want to be a missionary to France.
Me: Oh yeah, why is that?
M: I think it would be a pretty interesting place to go.
Me: It probably would be. Why do you think it would be so interesting?
M: Because there are some people there that only wear their underwear instead of clothes.
Me: Really, how do you know that?
M: Uncle Matt told me

I can only imagine what that conversation went like! And it SO does not surprise me that the answer had something to do with Uncle Matt!

7) I really wish there was some ice cream in the house right now, which is exactly why I have refused to buy some when I'm at the store.

8) I'm pretty sure that I have one of the messiest kids in the world living in my house. Can't quite figure out how to get that girl to keep things clean.

9) I had 2 photo sessions on Saturday. FUN!

10) Here are a few pictures of the first day of school and our trip to Starbucks after to celebrate.

Ten on Tuesday

1) Lately I've really been loving listening to Kellan singing the Pirates of the Caribbean song around the house. I'll miss that little voice when he heads to preschool.

2) We just had a garage sale on Saturday. I spent hours and hours the last few weeks sorting through our junk. Good news: We can now walk in our shed! No more boxes of outgrown toys and clothes being stored. And this morning I even noticed that I was surprised to walk in the back dungeon part of our basement and see the floor. I love getting rid of stuff. Too bad I like to shop too!

3) Jas and I just sat down with the calendar. It is looking like a busy fall. Good busy though. Uff. Makes me tired just thinking about it!

4) We have a NTMA guy staying with us this week. I should actually say a NTMA friend! Tomorrow night is dinner at our house with the students while Doug is in town.

5) I'm starting to feel like the gluten free diet has been a blessing in disguise. I feel so much better about what we are eating. It is nice to walk into the grocery store or Costco and just shop the periphery. I've been discovering new recipes and have started to enjoy cooking just a little bit more :-)

6) On that note - I have been thoroughly disgusted as I've started reading food labels. The next time you go to the grocery store, try looking at the ingredients in sour cream. It's now a dollop of Daisy for this family!

7) I'm getting an itch to redecorate something in the house. I think Kellan's room is next on my list. Jason is going on a 10 day trip in September, which means that it is play time!! Last year while he was gone I redid the basement. Just something about the hubby being gone that gets the creative juices flowing!

8) Did I mention that I'm ready for school to start?

9) Today it is back to the orthodontist for a new mouth guard. Hopefully this will help more than the last one. I've been waking up lately with my jaw locked up. Not fun.

10) Off to do some more back to school shopping with the kids today.

Hope you have a lovely Tuesday!

Ten on Tuesday

I thought I would try this format out for updating this blog, since I'm obviously pathetic at keeping it current. I figured in a list format I could just post rambling thoughts and they hardly have to be coherent, which is how I seem to be rolling these days.

1) Jason took the kids camping this weekend and it was absolutely heavenly. It is the longest amount of time I've ever been alone in my own house. It was a total of 48 hours and it was sweet bliss.

p.s. - the man is an awesome dad and my hero!

2) We took the kids back to school shopping last weekend. Thankfully Mirielle picked out something cute because I told her she had to find something from Gymboree (yes, I know it is $$, but otherwise she picks out what I think is the ugliest stuff in the store and I'm just not that into stuff that looks like something some punk 14 year old would wear or hello kitty stuff - I know I'm a snob!).

We got a new pair of shoes for Kellan, which happened to be the same size as Mirielle's shoes, so now I'm wondering if the kid is going to be as tall as his uncles. Anyways, they were super excited to get some new stuff and then SUPER MAD when I told them they had to wait to wear all their new stuff. Lesson learned - next year shop the weekend before school starts!

3) I keep having these weird baby dreams. I have a baby, someone else has a baby, I have to take care of a baby, I'm taking pictures of a baby. It's been kinda weird.

4) Going gluten free hasn't been as bad as I thought until we tried taking Mirielle off of gluten. The girl has been complaining of her stomach hurting for the last year and she seems to be doing better in the last few weeks. We're good until about lunch and that seems to be when things fall apart. She doesn't like the gf bread and all she wants it a piece of cheese and a hot dog and then she is still hungry the rest of the afternoon.

5) Speaking of which, if I hear a kid tell me "I'm huuuuungry!" one more time today I'm going to lose it!

6) I'm super ready to be in a routine, and although I'm really looking forward to Kellan having preschool this year, I'm not looking forward to the running back and forth.

7) The kids have been taking swimming lessons at the YMCA so yesterday when K was in his lesson, I decided to swim some laps. I swam for 30 minutes and I think the last 5 were the only ones that I wasn't thinking that I was going to die. The hardest part: I usually huff and puff and pant when I exercise, but you can't exactly do that when you have your face in the water. I thought my lungs were going to explode. Those 30 minutes made me mighty happy that I had spent all of those years on the swim team. I actually felt like I knew what I was doing!

8) The absolutly best part about Zumba: when an unsuspecting guy joins in the class. I especially like it when they are big and buff. I have rare seen a man that can manage that class. The guy last week stumbled around with his eyes as big as saucers and his mouth puckered up like he was sucking on a lemon. Watching him: priceless!

9) We've been reading Ramona this summer and are though 5 of the books. Jason told Mirielle that when she finishes reading (when I finish reading her) all of the book series we would take her to watch the movie. She's super excited.

10) I've been trying to come up with good ideas for getting my photog business going. Any good ideas??

Another case of "What in the world was I thinking?"

I've been looking around for awhile for a chair that I could use when I'm taking pictures. Something vintage/retro old fashioned with some cool character. Yesterday I drug the kids into the Goodwill store and after admiring a chair that had potential (that was $70 - wait, I'm in a thrift store right???)

I saw this baby as we were leaving the store. I LOVE it. I love all of the tufting and the buttons. I even kinda like the color, but wouldn't ever want my kids to sit on that nastiness. In a moment of insanity, I thought I could possibly do the kind of magic that my mother could do with recovering chairs and I bought it. For a whopping $8.

Then I drug the kids to the fabric store and bought some beautiful red fabric. I brought it home and started to pull it apart and what I discovered is that I might have a potential disaster on my hands. However, I am determined to turn it into something beautiful, if for no other reason, than to know that I don't have another unfinished project sitting in my basement. I figure if all else fails, I'll have to have my mom guide me while on the video cam through Skype.

Bada Bling!

Jas did a good job with our anniversary this year. He actually did a GREAT job. 10 years this year of being man and wife. I love him. And not just because he bought me some bling. He must have been paying close attention because I am in LOVE with my new sparkles!

Makin' Me Happy Today

I pulled all of my bulky winter things out of the closet and replaced them with my bright spring sweaters


I FINALLY, FINALLY after years of thinking about it registered myself for an online photography class. I'm anxious to start and the end of the month!




My ugly crocs. I know they aren't the most fashion forward shoe, but I can walk around the house all day in them and not feel like a creeky 80 year old lady by the end of the day. Plus these have a super soft snuggly lining in them. So cozy!


Spring is on its way bringing a feeling of rebirth.


Makes me smile to have sun streaming through my windows today too!

Birthday Time

Jason passed the mid-30 mark this year and I thought I would try and do something fancy this year and make a cake completely from scratch. It took forever and while it was delicious, I'm not quite sure it was worth the effort. The cake part went pretty well, but the frosting was another story. I tried adding raspberries to the middle frosting (it was a 3 layer cake) and because they were frozen and a little soupy they ended up making the frosting a giant goopy mess. It squished out the sides and was dripping off of the plate and all over everywhere. Lesson learned. I won't ever put frozen fruit in a frosting again. It was mmm mmm good though and it made the man happy so end the end I was happy because he was happy. I now know for sure that my calling is not in cake making!

Happy birthday Jas! I love you!

Drip Drop

Last year was snow, this year is rain. Today and yesterday we had blessed sunshine, but lately there have been lots of drip drops around here.