Last MOPS meeting today!

So sad! The last MOPS meeting was today. We won't meet again until September. Even though I've only been going for a short time, it has been such a time of refreshing and blessing for me. I'm definitely going to miss it over the summer. The nice thing though is that they started a ladies' Bible study a couple weeks ago that just goes through the summer so me and my friend Becky (who introduced me to MOPS) have been going. We are studying the fruits of the Spirit. These times of fellowship with other godly women have been really special times!

Memorial Day Weekend!

What a blessing three day weekends are! It was so so so nice to have Jason home for an extra day. We didn't really do anything super spectacular but that's kinda nice too. We went to some friends' house on Sunday night and played Scattergories until midnight. Then Monday we went to some other friends' house for some BBQ. It was nice to just hang out. We also went to two different used kid's stores. My new favorite thing! We got such great deals at these places on clothes and shoes for Kate and Julia. And they even have stuff like puzzles and books for Kate. Fun! And way cheaper than buying them new. What a blessing!

Mother's Day!

Jason and Kate made my Mother's Day really special! I got a few really thoughtful, sweet little gifts. We also went out to lunch after church at this BBQ place we had never tried. I love BBQ and this place was pretty yummy! It was nice to just spend the day with Jas and Kate!

Tagged!

Thanks for tagging me Sara!

Five things on my To-Do list:
1. Finish cleaning our room after our semi-remodel.
2. Do the dishes.
3. Read a MacArthur sermon from Luke.
4. Finish a parenting book.
5. Redecorate Katey's (and soon Julia's) room.

Five favorite snacks:
1. Chocolate (ice cream, brownies, cookies, pretty much any form of chocolate is fine with me!)
2. Cantaloupe.
3. Chips and guacamole.
4. Cheddar cheese.
5. Arnold Palmer from Trader Joe's.

Five things I would do if I was a billionaire:
1. Support missionaries (especially friends that we know that are serving the Lord in that way)
2. Buy a house on some tropical island somewhere (not to mention one in California).
3. Send my kids to a good Christian private school.
4. Buy a second car.
5. Give money to TMC and TMS to support the work they do.

Five places I've lived:
1. The mountains in Central California.
2. Hotchkiss at TMC.
3. With siblings in Santa Clarita.
4. At Northglen on Magic Mountain Parkway in Valencia, CA (our favorite apartment so far).
5. Five different places in Las Vegas, ending up in our condo in Henderson.

Five jobs I've had:
1. Afterschool counselor at Sunshine Day Camp.
2. Catering at Corner Bakery in Valencia.
3. Cracker Barrel in Las Cruces, NM for six weeks.
4. Ghirardelli on the Strip in Vegas.
5. Red Robin in Vegas.
6. The most important, most fun, most fulfilling job is now being a mom (corny I know but it's true!)

Five people I'm tagging:
1. Amanda Taylor
2. Emily Taylor
3. Kim Archer
4. Mariejte Van Straaten
5. Alisha Renfro

Not much happening!

Well, not much has been happening lately which accounts for my lack of blogging. I guess nothing exciting that is. Katey took some swim lessons and is now finished with them. I took no pictures because it was a "Parent and Me" class, meaning I was in the water with her, attempting to get her to do what the teacher was saying. She likes the water, she was just too busy watching the other kids to really be interested in doing anything. Besides that, not much! We've been doing some interesting studies lately. We've been studying tithing and whether or not it's applicable for the church today. That's been interesting and really informative. And now, our pastor is about to get into Mark 13 where Jesus talks about things to come. We are at a Reformed church so our pastor believes that Israel is done away with (is actually now the church), is amill, etc. Of course, this is very different then the way we believe and have been taught, so we've had to do a lot of studying to find out why we believe biblically what we believe. It's been good for us to get into God's Word ourselves and to be able to somewhat formulate our beliefs on these issues. I'm sure we will be challenged to study even more over the next several weeks. So pray for us!

Clark County Fair!

Last weekend we went to the Clark County Fair. It was a dinky little fair (nothing like the LA County Fair or CA State Fair) but it was still fun. Me and Jason love to go on the Zipper but since I'm pregnant that was pretty much out of the question! Anyway, here are some pictures!

Katey being the little crack up that she is!

Mom and Kate!

Jas took Katey on the Merry-Go-Round.

We couldn't tell if she was enjoying it or not because her face was so blank the whole time. It wasn't until after she got off the ride that we found out if she had enjoyed it....

Yep, she cried when they got off. Guess she liked it after all!

More from the Fair!

We went to see the animals and when we got to the pigs, there were a bunch of little piglets! Cute, cute, cute!

As we were looking for somewhere to eat our picnic lunch that we had brought we happened to look in one of the big tents and the hypnotist was about to start so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be really funny and pretty entertaining (though I'm a little creeped out by the fact that people pretty much have no control over their bodies who are being hypnotized, weird, and I don't really get how it works). Anyway, Katey really wasn't interested so this is the picture of her entertaining herself in her stroller. She climbed up there by herself and loves playing with the buckles.

It's a Girl!

Well, we found out today, we're having a girl! I'm excited for Katey to have a little friend! Fun times!

A Goal!

Ok, so, I have a new goal. And I figure the only way I'll actually carry through with this one is to put it on here for the world to see (ok, maybe not the world, but at least a few people who know me pretty well and have my phone number and email to call or write me if I fail). My goal is to work out for the next two weeks, every day. You see, I usually will make some goal to work out and then tell myself if I just do it 4-5 times a week, I'll be good. That means that I have 2-3 days off. And that means I take too many days off, finally winding up in the cessation of my work out attempt. So, no more days off for me. What has motivated me this time is a new prenatal workout DVD that I got. I did it yesterday and it was actually FUN. Yes, I know, work out, fun? The first 20 min segment is a salsa dancing routine and to me that's fun. So I figure I should get my money's worth and at least do it for two weeks. My goal is to gain as little weight as possible for this pregnancy, versus 45 pounds like with Katey. Jason's in the process of losing some weight and getting healthier so I don't want to be a big blimp when this baby's born and him be all skinny!

So please, any of you who read this, if you notice me slacking off (I'm going to be posting in the right column my progress) PLEASE yell at me, send me a note, encourage me, whatever you think might help! I'm hoping to not need it but hey, I know my aversion to working out! Thank you in advance for your thoughts and prayers! And if any of you want to join me in my goal, just let me know and we'll keep each other accountable!

Phobia!

Ok, so today me and Kate were enjoying some time out on the patio. I was reading and she was playing, some inside and some out. Well, she comes outside holding a piece of bread leftover from her sandwich at lunch and sits down next to me. A minute later I look down at her and tell her to eat the piece of bread she's still holding in her hand. A second later I happen to look at her face. There is a HUGE spider on her cheek! As my parents and my husband can tell you, I do NOT like spiders. And today confirmed the fact that I am actually terrified of them. Growing up, we lived in a log cabin style house in the mountains, so of course there was an abundance of spiders. Most of these spiders seemed to wind up in my shower. I eventually got to the point where I could get a really long piece of toilet paper, let the spider crawl onto it and then flush it down the toilet. Although I detest insects and spiders of any kind, I can't bring myself to smash them. That's disgusting! So that's just a little background about me and my history with spiders. Now back to today. Did I mention I was terrified? However, because Kate's life was in danger (I don't know what kind of spider it was but it was big and brown and any big, brown spider has the potential to be deadly in my mind) I smacked it off her face and onto the ground. I was tempted to just let it go from there (remember? I hate smashing spiders) but then I knew I would probably never go on the patio again because I wouldn't know where it was or if it had had babies. So, I took the towel that we've been using as a doormat and dropped it on the spider and stomped on it. Katey in the meantime is just watching me like "what the heck are you doing mom?". She didn't seem the least bit concerned that I had just slapped at her face and then acted like a crazy woman. I must confess, however, that my bravery ended there. I called Jason to tell him about the incident and then told him he needs to move the towel with the dead spider under it when he gets home. There's no way I'm going near that thing!

All this to say, having kids makes you do crazy things. Only my child's life being in danger =) would make me ever touch a spider or smash one!