So Here We Are

Setted (as much as possible) in Scotts Valley, CA. We're nine miles from the beach and in the midst of the Redwoods! Great! I (Michele) am the new Adventure Program director here, year round! Cool eh? Jeff (Booker) is a full-time stay-at-home dad and do an AMAZING job. The house has never been so clean.. seriously.. no, I mean it.. for real..It's the best. I came April 1st and the fam came out in June, after school and a short family camping trip. I had an extremely busy summer: 7 weeks of camp, 6 of which I led camping trips with teens. Now the kids are settling in, starting school and going to bed EARLIER! My job now is to focus on groups using the facilities/ ropes courses, school groups and maybe some custom camping trips. I hope learning how to sea-kayak is in the future! I've had all kinds of training and doing a job that I absolutely love. Jeff is happy to hang at the house and keep the kids in line. We love visitors!
So, here we are and I'll try to keep up w/this blog now. PEACE!

In California

Hey Friends and Family!
Not a lot of anything going on with the blog since I've been in Cali!
Yes, here I am. In Scotts Valley.. 9 miles from the beach, up the hill from Santa Cruz and south of San Francisco. It's AWESOME! Our family will be living in the midst of the Redwoods with a pool, playground and all other "campy" thing in our back yard. The last two days I've been training on our ropes-course, which includes: climbing, playing and ZIPPING out of trees. Yup, that's my job. There's a camp/hiking trip set up for next week over my 32nd B'day (cough..sputter..gah!).
Then home to see my fam for a day or two before MORE wilderness training. Anyhoo...
We'll ALL be together here by June 23rd-ish, so drop a line or letter if you want.

3100 Bean Creek Rd
Scotts Valley, CA 54755

BERRIES

We get these frozen berries that the kids LOVE! Raz, blue and blackberries. Good in yogurt, with a little milk on top so it freezes into 'ice-milk' , in pancakes, on icecream, or just in a bowl with a spoon.

Boxes

So, I have strep throat and as I spend the day sitting around and looking at pictures I'm reminded of a few things:
1. Most people in America have too much "Stuff". Toys, clothes, movies, tech gear, furniture... you name it.
Kezzie loves the bananna boxes I picked up from the store. But, she likes to fill them with "stuff". Hmmm.
2. I've always had access to health care.. whether I had to pay for it or not... it's around and I can go to the doctor on my
block or on the other side of America. SUCH a blessing.
3. Kids are honest. Grown-ups not so much.
4. Everyone has their own agenda... what if, on everyone's list, was to be a blessing to someone else. I'm still working on
that.
Boy, being sick makes my brain hurt.

Couldn't Pass This Up

So, I blogged about Zander and his thing with wearing LOTs of tee-shirts at once...
And then i happened to come across this video..


So, I guess he's headed towards The Guiness Book... which really doesn't suprise me. LOL!

Drenched

I just found this picture from when Michaela was doing some vocabulary homework. They had to fill out a whole sheet with definitions .. different forms of the word and so on. Then they had to draw a pic or put a pic with it ... well, the word was drenched and she convinced her brother to stand in the shower for a shot.... oh boy.

Jesus Rocks

I just really want this shirt. That's all.

Spaceship

So, this is Jordon in his spaceship. He was giving his brother a ride when Zander started getting kinda wild.. so Jordon says..
"Do I have to pull this spaceship over?" Jeff and I exchanged eyebrow looks and laughed.

Hats

Kezzi loves to put on hats.. or blankets.. or anything. She finds all kinds of stuff to put on her head. Also... for some reason, she loves to gather socks. She'll go around the house picking up all the socks she can find and just carry them in a big bundle. Hmm.

New!

Went out to CA for a job interview (more to come about that), and while there I took the plunge and got my first tattoo. I really do love it and have no regrets about the"permanency " of it. This Psalms says : Seek peace and pursue it. It's a must for everyone.. don't you think?

Zander

We love this boy. He makes me laugh and want to jump out of a window, usually on a daily basis. He's so curious and thoughtful.
We bought Michaela a sea monkey kit and when we couldn't find the packet of eggs Zander gave it up and said he ate them... he thought they were yucky. OYE! Here's some pics... going through my PEZ collection, waiting for the bus and he's had this thing about wearing lots of clothes. I think he had 6 shirts on in this one and couldn't get his arms down.

Daddy's Bundle

YIKES!

Where did the past 30 days go?? So it's Feb. now and my husband and sister informed me I REALLY need a new post up. Well, lots of things have happened in the last couple of weeks, but I need a minutes to sit down and tell. SOON I promise. .Check back!

Yet Another Weather Update

I have never paid much attention to the weather 'till I moved here.
Today's report : air temp now -15 deg.
with wind chill -35 deg.
high today will be -4 deg.
Even after 5 years I can't really get used to this frigid cold! It makes your floors chilly and all of your windows are icy and NOONE is allowed outside for fear of frostbite. What the...? UGH! i guess we'll be watching lots of movies and playing games today... hmm, I guess thats okay. :)

Her Mom Rocks

So our friends the Kurtzs bought Kezzi the most awesomest shirt ever.

Happy 2008!

So, another year is upon us. Who know what it holds. We mostly pray the same thing... that God would bless us in whatever direction we go ... because we want everything we do, to be for Him ... so I suppose whatever happens, it'll be just fine.

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Col. 3:17

And Finally....

Zander's birthday. Yes. Dec. 26th. What a bogus deal huh? We celebrated on the 27th with just the fam and gramma and grampa. He wanted an army cake. I did my best to do camouflage... yum. It was good though. I think he'll be celebrating a half birthday from now-on.. maybe in June.

So now..

Christmas has arrived! We spent Christmas eve with Jeff's family having dinner, going to church, and opening presents at their house. Then Christmas day belongs to just us. Opening presents, playing, and eating candy all day. We watched the Nativity Story and rested. We were all pretty sick with a flu bug at some point, but it didn't ruin it.

Then the kids have their Christmas Concert...

..at school. That is one nice thing about living in a small midwest town... no one freaks out about the kids singing "Christmas" songs. Michaela's class performed on recorders. It was quite good actually. Sure was loooooong though. When you have one at the beginning and one at the end you can't skip out on most of the program. Yikes!

...and decorate a gingerbread house

The boys each got to do a side of the roof and sister did the walls. Eating the candies is by far the best part.

...and bake cookies

Lots of different colored frosting makes for some pretty yummy looking treats!

Then you have to decorate....

I think I did pretty good this year NOT rearranging ornaments. I let the kids decorate the tree all they wanted and then I did the rest. I'm in charge of tinsel ... do I need to give a reason? Even though Zander likes to put everything on one branch, I held off moving some... I got a little twitchy.

The Christmas "season"

When you have 4 kids the Christmas "season" (Thanksgiving through New Years) is super fun, but way exhausting!
First you have to get a tree. That's always great! It was really COLD this year (like 14 degrees) when we went out... so needless to say we picked a tree quick!