Bog Boy

Last summer Eric began a vegetable garden. It was so wonderful to have fresh lettuce, squash and carrots. We decided to do the same this summer, so in preparation we began a mulch pit. Maybe a couple years ago some friends gave us a fiberglass pond they didn't need anymore, which we did use as a pond, but the upkeep got to be too much, so we emptied it and began filling it with compost made of yard and kitchen waste. Unfortunately we overlooked two things. One, we forgot to cover the mulch pit when the rainy season started, and two, we did not create any sort of drainage for the pit either. As you can imagine, the pit began to fill with rainwater and essentially turned into a stinky bog. At least it was contained.

Just a few days ago Eric and the kids were spending time outside when Sani took an interest in the bog. Eric watched from a few feet away while Sani used a stick to poke at some of the mysterious contents floating in the bog. Within a split second's time Sani lost his footing as he leaned too far over the bog and slipped headfirst into the murky mess. Eric quickly fished him out as he had slipped completely inside, and consoled him. He was was wet from head to toe, and covered with a cold stinky, slimy, sludge. Eric eventually stripped him down and hosed him off before taking him inside for a bath. Ah the joy of boys!

Sani before getting hosed off:
The bog...you can see where a patch of leaves is cleared away from Sani's dive into the mess:

P.S. Eric has since emptied the bog and put the wet mulch into our garden.

Kids

Sani's hair just might be even more curly than Cadence!
My beautiful girl!

Nothing like a trip to the zoo with grandparents and ice cream too!

Cadence watching the elephants:

The kids and Nosey:

Sani stuck in the laundry sorter:

Curly-Q:

Faces of Cadence:

Walking in daddy's shoes:

Weekend Getaway

In February I won Eric and I a weekend away, just the two of us! The package included two nights stay at the Shaver Lake Village Hotel "Honeymoose Cabin," a day at Sierra Summit with lessons, lift tickets and rental included, a gas card, and a delicious dinner at the Trading Post. We had a wonderful time and the grandparents watched the kids. Enjoy a few pictures!

It snowed the first 24 hours or so, but made for a beautiful setting:


Eric relaxing on the comfy bed. The cabin included a kitchenette, sitting area, and bathroom with a spa tub...oh, and about 46 moose throughout to complete the theme:

This was our first experience with chains....what a pain!
Just a taste of what we saw:

A giant pile of snow...

Here we are at the Sierra Summit Snow School about to learn the basics of snow boarding:
I found out that I am scared of the ski lift...I held on for dear life most of the time, but did manage to snap a picture or two:

This my most frequent position of the day...I was almost overjoyed when one of my bindings began to break and I got ride a snow mobile down the second half of the mountain...what a relief!

We filled a small cooler with snow to show the kids since they'd never seen it before:

Cadence throwing a snowball:

Our mini snowman!

Cadence thought the snowman's nose was delicious!

Sani chucking his snowball:

Time Flies

It's exactly a week until my birthday. I will be 31. Though I'm told that I'm still pretty darn young, the way things have been lately it's like I can almost feel myself aging. Many areas of my life are in a state of transition and change, and while I'm coping pretty well over all, it does take a toll on my energy, my emotional availability...my joy. Sigh.

Without going into detail, I can say things at work have become very stressful as several of us have been told we will be transferred to new positions sometime in the near future. This involves a lot of politics and business related stuff I wish I didn't have to think about. My friends and I share the sentiment that we would rather be able to simply focus on doing our jobs and doing them well, rather than being caught up in the drama that comes with working for a government agency.

I continue to make progress towards my MA in counseling. As part of this program I have been involved in my own therapy for personal growth, which is probably a good thing with all that has gone on. It continues to be a juggling act trying to take care of school responsibilities and still give my wonderful family the time and attention they need. My school will be merging with Fresno Pacific University come June, which shouldn't negatively impact my course of study, but will result in the loss of most faculty and staff at my campus. It will be sad saying goodbye to some of them as they have been a great source of support and encouragement for me throughout the years.

Then there's church. I have been a part of our church for over 20 years. Right now our congregation and leadership are going through a considerable amount of transition and restructuring as well. In all honesty I am just not sure where I fit into our congregation at this point in time. The church is changing, and I am changing too, which as brought me to the place where I am not quite sure if it is a good match anymore as far as values and expression of faith tradition goes. I suppose with a little more time this may become more clear to me.

In January my parents, for financial reasons, had to give up the family house. While this has happened under the best of circumstances for them as far a losing a house goes, it was still a bit of a loss to process as my family had nearly 2o years of memories there.

The excellent news is that life in my household is going well. It is good to have sanctuary in the midst of so much change and uncertainty. Eric continues to teach dance two afternoons a week at a local high school. He loves this! Eric is such a support and strength to me, and a wonderful father. In fact, we won a weekend get away in February when I shared our story and got to brag about what a great guy he is to our local Christian radio station. We tried snowboarding for the first time. Eric got the hang of it while the mountain more or less had its way with me. I'll try to post some pics from that trip.

The kids keep growing, like a continual blossoming. Cadence has seemed to struggle a little with some speech issues, so we are having her screened in the next week to see if there is something more that can be done to help develop all her sounds. I have also started looking into preschool options. I would like to see her get familiar with the school structure and socialization before she goes to Kindergarten. Hard to believe that is just a little more than a year away!

Sani is an active little guy. It is rare to see him walk as he almost always runs, hops, jumps, or finds some other way to get along. He's picking up more words here and there. One of his first words was "stuck" because, well, he's often getting himself in a pickle. And my how he loves drums! He drums on everything and loves getting to drum on the set at church since we're good friends with the drummer.

So thanks for tuning in...hopefully I'll get some pictures up sometime soon.

Liz