puddle walk

 While Terry was gone on his two week mission trip, the kids and I tried to stay busy in order to more quickly pass the time. The first night we were at my folks for pizza and that was super helpful. Home was depressing so it was good to get out of the house. It was always good to get out of the house! There were big thunderstorms dumping rain just north of us that evening. The tornado sirens went off, apparently, for flood warnings. Yeah, the kids freaked out but we were all fine. 

The second day I filled in at work (thankful I had that to do!) and that evening we had another big storm!

I like thunderstorms, but when they knock the power out while my husband is gone, it makes me feel a little vulnerable. Hoping it wouldn't last long, I let the kids play on some mini-screens. Haha, a phone, an ipod and a Nook. 

After an hour we got our power back and then it went right out again until 1030 that night. We decided to go for a walk. I talked to Terry on the phone that night and the kids waded through the deep puddle up the road from us. The neighbor kids had been swimming in that!

And then Evie fell in! It was quite funny. It wasn't so funny for her to shower in the dark or for me to get all four ready for bed by myself (Terry is so incredibly helpful at bedtime. He does takes care of the older three and I do just Ezra. Usually by that time of the day I've just had it). I was so thankful when that power came back on.

Terry's Mexico/L.A. mission trip

Terry has been back from his two week mission trip for four days and I am a happy woman. And my kids are happy. We are happy together! The night he got home he shared some of the many stories from his trip and made me a little happier about having lent him out for a while. They experienced some amazing things, answered prayers being foremost in my mind. 

So, to go back to the beginning, Terry and his team of 25 students and parents had been preparing for this trip pretty much all of last school year, and especially since the new year. They'd sent out support letters, raised money at the church through a brown bag fundraiser, a chili cook-off and finally, a super fun dinner theater. There was a lot of prep that went into this trip! But though it was hard work, it was beneficial to them individually and corporately. It prepared the team to work together for two solid weeks. It made them into a very united team. 

I had been dreading that day but of course it did finally come. I am quite selfish. I am no where near as selfless as my husband. I have lots to learn there and this trip was one thing that helped me along that path of growth (i hope anyway). 

So the day of departure came - Monday, June 1. Here the group and their families preparing to leave by going over some ground rules and praying together. 

It was super windy and bright. They all look so happy to be starting off!

The bus company put vinyl stickers on the bus with our church's name as well as Terry's. You can see Noah didn't want to let go of his daddy any more than I did. 

One more picture before he got on the bus.

Noah bawled his little heart out as we drove home. Poor kid. Perhaps we shouldn't have gone straight home because the house seemed empty, but that's what we did. Terry had left us these little foam books though, as I mentioned in my last post. He made one for each of us and they had a short note for us to read every day of his trip. They also included clues to small surprises he had hidden around the house. The first being a sheet of stickers, then bubbles, Hotwheels cars/rubber bands, and more stickers. I got something bigger, something I could Facetime him with - a new used Ipod. 

Here is a map of their route to Tijuana, Mexico. It took them three days to get there. Hence their need of the bus.

Their first stop was Table in the Wilderness in Centennial, WY. That's where we've taken our DisConnect trips and they (Dan) were the ones who led the mission trip for Terry. I don't have a good photos from that night, though I know they're out there to be found. I am just making due with what I have though. 

The second night was a hotel in Cedar City, UT. Here's their nightly devotion time, by the pool this evening.  

 Poolside again.

Day three brought more driving, but the end was in sight. Here they are at a rest stop in Nevada. 

Terry's appears none to pleased with Natasha's Flat Stanley... No idea...

Late in the day they switched out the bus for two rented vans in San Diego and they proceeded across the boarder with no issues. Then, apparently, they went straight to eat tacos. That's what I would've done. 

Day four was spent starting work on the house building by Terry's half of the group; the other half was at The City of Angels orphanage. Part of the team's fundraising efforts went towards all the materials for constructing a house for a new Christian family that Table in the Wilderness had chosen. We had their picture and were praying for them. The husband previously had a successful taco stand but sold everything except this garage to pay for his daughter's eye condition. 

They got a lot done in one day! 

Terry spent day five at the orphanage putting together a gaga ball pit for the kids. 

Here is he posting against the wall that his 2011 Gburg group painted the last time he was there.  

On Day six, they worked hard to complete the house.

They didn't quite finish. They had those gables left to do and some other small things but the leader, Sergio, assured them that he would get them done.

 Here's Terry with the hard working husband and father of the family.  

And here's the family. The most touching story of the entire trip (that I've heard so far) was concerning this family. That evening, Israel (the man) wanted to thank the group for building them a house so he made them tacos at their home base, Rancho Solo. Members of Israel's church also came to say thank you. One of them spoke very good English and was able to tell Terry and the team how they, as a church, had been praying for someone to come and take care of Israel's family. The church was doing what they could but they needed more. Terry's and his team were a direct answer to prayer. God took care of this little family through my husband and those he led! Amazing.

Day seven began at a large church in Tijuana called The Arena.  

The group then went to Sam's club and used more of their funds to buy supplies for some nursing homes and hospices. 

This was one of the old folks home. Terry said this day was "emotionally overwhelming seeing two hospices, an old folks home and a halfway house for men who were saved out of deep dark sexual sin." Those men had some incredible testimonies. God does miracles in each transformation.

That evening the team had a fiesta at the orphanage and said goodbye. 

On day eight, they drove south to Ensenada to have a fun day at the beach. There were horse rentals! 

Terry got sunburned. 

Yummy coconut milk. 

On day nine the group drove to L.A. to get ready for the next phase of their trip. They camped out at Azuza Pacific University, did laundry and relaxed at Dan's wife's brother's house. 

Day ten the team was split between serving at two homeless shelters, the Union Rescue Mission and the LA City Mission. The group is listening to Dan before they get started on their day.

Here are some of the make-shift tents they saw downtown. Terry said it was difficult to go from seeing the poverty in Mexico to seeing the poverty in the United States. There was a stark contrast. The people in Mexico were working hard and getting no where. The people in the US seemed to be in their situation by choice. Both shelters offered programs to get people on their feet.

Here's Terry's group in the elevator during a tour of their shelter.

On day eleven they switched shelters and completed their work in the kitchen where they prepared and served foot, talked with people and wrote some encouraging note. Then they took the subway downtown for some sightseeing.

Day 10 hands!

The following day, day eleven, was spent on the beach. They went to Santa Monica Pier and had lots of fun. 

The lifeguards wouldn't let them use their floaties. I got a kick out of Terry's tube name.  

On day twelve they started the long trek home. Whereas on the way down they took three days time to drive, now they took only two days.  

Terry was their worship leader, even on the bus.  

And finally, after 14 long days, he came home!  

My bubbles, erm, husband! 

He brought a sense of humor back to my life. How I missed him. I am thankful for how God was at work but am pumped he is home! 

a few reasons why I love my husband

Terry is seriously the best dad. He's so selfless with our kids I just don't get it. I'm with them every single day (there's no fall school vacation from your kids when you homeschool) and I am totally selfish with my time. I don't want to sit down and play with them. Not even a little! But he's all about that. And that is precisely why I was attracted to Terry in the first place. Well, besides being totally sweet to his sister and ahem, previous girlfriends - the punks. And he was a very strong Christian. And cute. And tall. And funny. But I digress.

He's so good with kids! I have a very clear memory of hanging around outside Nikki's house before bible study while Terry played with her son Dylan, who is now in our youth group (crazy!). I was just inwardly swooning over how good he was with Dylan. I was really looking forward to having his kids when we got married. Of course, since they are his kids, they are crazy like he is. So it's a good thing he's around to help me.

Example number one of selflessness: He reads to them. He reads them pretty long stories too. When there was just Noah to read to, I could handle that okay. But even just adding Evie to the mix overwhelmed me with reading. Samuel and Ezra had no chance. Terry's helpful like that.

Example number two: Jump hugs. I don't know how Terry and the kids came up with this, but it's a tradition in our house now. If Terry has enough time before going to work, the kids will all beg for jump hugs, run up the stairs and fling themselves into his arms. It's a good trust exercise :) He's never dropped one yet!

How fun does that look?

Evie's always all dramatic about it. Has to be so girly. 

And Noah is getting too big to be allowed. Terry keeps saying he might have to quit catching Noah.  

Ezzie needed another jump. But he's easy so that it's okay. 

Reason number three: Thoughtfulness. And selflessness again. Before he went on his big trip to Mexico, he gave up his limited free time over several evenings and quiet times putting together these foam books for all of us. Yes, I got one too. He doesn't do this stuff all the time, but when he does, he goes big. When he did this kind of stuff when we were dating and engaged, I was totally overwhelmed. I had no experience with that kind of sweetness and I just did not know how to handle it or accept it. I had a lot of guilt. Debilitating guilt. But I'm better now. Now I can just enjoy it! I love my husband!

new dresser

Terry and I have had these passed down dressers since we got married. Before we got married actually. They belonged to Terry's uncle who generously gave them to us a few months before we moved into the trailer on the ranch. We had nothing so it was super helpful! At the time they were a blonde color, like from the 80s or perhaps early 90s. Either way, we didn't care for it and so Terry painted/stained them himself. To add some texture to them, while they were still wet he pressed a Walmart plastic bag into the stain. Believe it or not, they were much improved, and I liked them at the time. But they were getting older. They needed repainting or some serious TLC. 

However, in the fall Terry made us a new platform storage bed that held four drawers. And the two on the end are massive. So my idea was to retire our old dressers and replace them with one slightly larger, prettier one and use the new space under the bed. 

But that didn't happen for a while. I told Terry's dad I was interested in a new dresser if he ever ran across one in the Classifieds or at an auction. I searched Craigslist in the fall, looked at a couple and then forgot about it. We just grew accustomed to having both dressers cramped on one wall in our bedroom with just barely enough room to enter the room. 

But two days before Terry's mission trip, Jerry found just the thing. He discovered this lovely oak dresser at an auction, so we got it for a steal of a deal. And I seriously love it!

While I was cleaning it up, I found the bottom two drawers were made of cedar! All that patience or forgetfulness paid off. Oh, and I was able to sell our old dressers so we came out ahead!