Julie, me, and Dez at the wedding

Had so much fun and adventure the last two weeks, I haven’t had time to write about it.We went to Amanda and Alex’s wedding and had a great time there with our friends. Owen and I got to dress up and have some much needed adult time.

Then took off to Utah that afternoon with the kids. The trip out wasn’t too bad. The kids watched movies and slept a little bit. We got to Mesquite, Nevada and stayed in our usual hotel, The Virgin River, and then drove up the rest of the way to South Jordan, Utah.

Grandma Susie, holding Benjamin at the Park

Blessed moments included the whole family sleeping down stairs in the basement on different beds all lined up together. It was fun. Should have taken a picture. Owen’s parents OK and Susie gave the kids their birthday presents. They LOVED them. Although funny thing is, most of them enjoyed playing with eachother’s toys rather than their own. Jameson did get an Elmo baby that he just loved. He slept with him every night. When he went to bed, he’d push the baby Elmo’s chest and it would say, “Elmo’s sleep.” So cute.

Owen and I also got presents. Two 100-dollar Visa gift cards! So excited. I havent’ gone shopping for myself with 100 dollars to do as I please in a long time. It felt great! I got a pair of jeans, a pair of sweet Nike’s from the outlets, a shirt, a dress, and a pair of sandals. Yep. It was awesome. 🙂

Other than shopping, that week we tried to stay active. We went to the splash pads, the resevoir, and a water park to stay cool on hot days. At the resevoir, our friend from Oceanside, Desiree Maciewski and her kids actually met up with us. They happened to be in the Salt Lake area as well, visiting family. It was super nice to hang out with her in a different environment. Such a beautiful family.

Back at the family house, the kids rode their skooters a lot outside on the street–it was a gorgeous and safe neighborhood with friendly neighbors and lots of kids.

One day we took the kids to this really neat trampeline place. It was in a business park and the entire place was filled with trampelines so that you could jump from one trampeline to the next. There was tarzan ropes and basketball hoops high on the walls and of course, balls to throw into them. There were even some neat foam pits. The kids had an absolute blast. Even Benjamin wanted to jump!

boys with their Grandma Great

We did get to spend some time with the family. We went with OK and Suzie, Arza and Rainey to a beautiful park in Salt Lake. It was huge. Sort of the Salt Lake equivelant to Central Park. We had a picnic and threw the football around a bunch. Owen’s sister Holly and her family came over often. Kanan and Jameson loved that. They played often with Bell and Gavin. Sometimes with Spencer too when Spencer was in the mood. Often times, big Spence likes to hang out with the adults. Owen’s sister Lindsay came over one night and made a delicious stirfry for everyone. OK made an awesome speggetti and sausage one night as well. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see OK and Susie and as much as we’d liked because they had to work and  then sadly, Susie’s dad died and so they left for the funeral about two days before we had to leave.

OK, cooking up dinner

We did however, meet up with OK again in St.George on our way back down to Cali. He took us to dinner at a great buffet restaurant. I had prime rib and it was divine. 🙂

We have been back for a couple of days and have just enjoyed spending time together. Jameson is back on his skooter again and his bicycle—much needed after a 12-hour drive. I got a SlipandSlide on sale at Kohls for the boys. They are loving it! I also got to visit my friend Carmen a couple of days ago and help her pack. She and her family are moving and are very excited to have their own place after 6 months or so living with family. Kanan got to color, play legos, and watch shows with his favorite buddy, Kameron while we were there. Last night, I skipped fellowship group to go to a Vigil for a colleague who tragically and unexpededly passed away last Sunday. While a vigil wouldn’t typically be considered a “blessed” moment, I was very moved by how much the students loved him. So many great stories were shared. He lived a short, 52 years, but made a huge impact on the lives of his family members and students while he was here. In many ways, that is what life is about. I pray he knew the Lord and is with him now.

It has been a while since I’ve blogged. I remember a time in my life when I had time to blog like once a week. I love writing. I love finding poignancy in the fragments of life, in the little windows. One day, I hope to find the time to be able to do that again. It seems nowadays life is just so busy. But tonight. Tonight I have some time and I feel inspired. I normally have about 8 blogs a month I write for Owen’s clients and so when I do have time in the evenings, I’m spending them writing other people’s business blogs. But this month the baby is due. And so Owen gave me the month off. Another one of his bloggers is taking over the blogs this month and that means I have time to breathe, pack the house, prep for the baby, and then in two weeks—July 17^th to be exact, take care of a newborn again.

Tonight, Owen has some Christian rock ballads playing in the living room stereo, the cool summer breeze is blowing through our balcony window bringing in light whiffs of smoldering coals from the bbq shrimp kabobs we made for dinner, Jameson is sound asleep in his crib, and Kanan is off with his dad. I just sat down and pulled out my grandmother Lois’s composition book of her memoirs. My project for this summer is to type up her stories so she can give them to her kids. My grandmother’s stories are the best. She really has had an amazing life. And just the idea of starting the first page of her book, gets me thinking about my own life and where I am right now. I am in the midst of living out the stories that one day I might be able to share with my kids. And right now so much is going on. So I thought, I’d take a pause here for a moment and write some of it down. How much of the emotion that permeates this very moment I’m not sure I can explain when I’m 85. Will I even remember it exactly? I don’t know.

Owen and I and the boys are at a cross roads in our life. And we just decided to turn left. The blinker is on and the car is starting to idle out. We are excited. I’m a little scared. But we’ve got God taking care of us and that makes it feel less scary. Like a roller coaster. You know you will be okay in the end because you’re confident in the ride’s engineer. But what is the ride going to be like?

I look back at the road we have been on. I am ready to turn left. Where have we been? Two people who lived in the world and had a blast, but found ourselves in a place where the world just didn’t satisfy anymore. Two people who found Jesus and then found each other, married quickly and experienced a volatile first year of marriage as we got to know each other fully. We made adjustments and grew, our rough edges smoothing out with each friction to something much softer. In our second year of marriage, we moved and mourned the surprise death of my father, then had a beautiful baby together named Jameson. In our third year of marriage, we grew some more as Owen finished school, started a business, and watched Kanan and Jameson grow as well and fill us with love and laughter and inspiration. We also discovered to our surprise that we were pregnant again, and watched out little apartment shrink and our stuff crawl up the walls with each month my belly grew. We anticipated the possibility of me staying home with the kids when I was pink-slipped, praying God would use this to build Owen’s business to the point of breadwinner and bring me home. We recognized that our timing is not God’s timing when my layoff was rescinded and used the benefit that we still have two incomes to look for a house to rent and call home for our growing family.

And now here we are. We found a three-bedroom house in a cute neighborhood next to all of our friends and places we go often. It has a backyard for the kids to play in and sits on a quiet street that dead ends, so I don’t have to have a heart attack if the kids ride their bikes on the side walk. We move in 14 days and the baby is due in 17 days. Owen’s business is growing and he continues to learn and make it better. A new school year is around the corner where I will return to work about 4 weeks late from maternity leave and try with all my might and lots of prayer to teach full time in Temecula and raise three boys, maintain a house, and be a supportive wife to my hardworking husband who is desperately trying to build the business enough so that in one year, I can take a leave of absence and be really be home.

So much changes with renting this house. We will have more room so it will actually hopefully look clean and therefore reduce our stress. It will have a backyard for the boys to play in so they don’t get restless on those Saturdays when I have to catch up on all the work I couldn’t do during the week because I spent it teaching instead. But it will also require us to spend differently. We actually need Owen’s business income now to maintain. Before, it was just extra cash for paying off things and saving for a rainy day. The baby changes things as well. Now on top of adding an extra human to our home, we need to find a daycare provider who can take care of both our baby boys—and for hopefully cheap because we will be tight. We have no idea yet who that is going to be. And on top of all of that, Kanan starts kindergarten in the fall. He will be going to an elementary school near his dad’s house in Oceanside. It is full-day, thank God. And I found a little Lutheran church next door to the school that has a preschool and after school program for kids in the public school. So Kanan has a place to go to afterschool and be safe until I am able to grab him after my commute home from Temecula. Not too bad either in price–will cost us about a hundred dollars a month.

So we are turning left. Down a road of a house, a brand new baby boy added to our two active boys we already have, a growing business, a teaching job in Temecula, kindergarten, and finding/paying for daycare for our babies. I’m looking up articles and ideas on how to cook fast and healthy meals so I don’t get too stressed in the week with just making dinner. I’d love ideas on how to organize everything else too….chores, family time, work time….you name it. Do kindergartners have homework?

It really feels like it’s a whole new life ahead of us. A new life filled with new blessings and trials. Of opportunities to grow closer together and closer to God and also to find new cross roads in the distant future. On July 14^th, the day we move out—we are officially through the intersection. And three days later, when Benjamin comes, we will be on the road, the two of us in the front seat holding hands and giggling, three kids in the back seat with crackers and juice boxes loaded, and the stereo playing that old Amy Grant Song, “Thy Word is a Lamp Unto my Feet.”

Okay Grandma Lois, I’m ready to type out your memoirs now. Thank you for inspiring me to think about mine.

Owen and I celebrated our 2 year Anniversary on October 1st. About a month prior to that day, I came up with a great idea for our special day: wine tasting in Temecula and spending the night at a nice hotel. Owen was in. So I set to work, finding a great plan for our special day.

That morning we dropped Jameson off at a friend’s house to be watched for 24 hours, dropped off Kanan at his dads and then headed out to Temecula. I couldn’t open my email on my way to get the address to the hotel I had booked, but I knew it was off of Winchester. I was pretty certain it was The Holiday Inn so when we discovered a Holiday Inn near Winchester, we pulled right it. We tried checking in but the front desk said we needed to do it when we returned from our wine tasting trip (which was scheduled to pick up at the hotel around 10 AM. So Owen and I headed over to back room where the hotel was giving its complimentary breakfast. About 10 minutes into a delicious omelette with toast and jelly, and a hot coffee, my email finally worked. I opened it up to make sure the pickup time was correct, but instead I was greeted with shocking news. We were at the wrong hotel! We were scheduled to stay at another hotel down the street! Owen and I looked around embarrassed realizing we were eating stolen food and quickly snuck out of the hotel and raced to our car in hopes to make it to the hotel we were scheduled to be picked up.

Soon enough the Grape Vine Express arrived and took us on our trip. We toured four different wineries that day. Our favorite was the Leoness, where we got to walk through the vineyards and taste the grapes right on the vine. It was a beautiful winery resting on hills overlooking wine country. Toward the end of the tour we got to sit in a dimly lit room where the barrels of wine were stored. Would have been a beautiful and creative room to hold a wedding reception in. The rest of the wineries were rather crowded and did not include tours. Still, they were fun and Owen and I enjoyed talking with each other and meeting people, and of course, tasting the different wines.

We came back to our hotel and rested for a couple of hours and then headed out to Old Town Temecula for our anniversary dinner. We found this great mediterranean restaurant there called Soros. Owen was a bit skeptical at first of the restaurant, in fear that mediterranean food would be mostly vegetables. I assured him he would be able to eat meat. We enjoyed the warm October night on the patio of the restaurant, the tables illuminated with tiny white christmas lights and the moon. Live music floated through the dinner area from a beer-garden near by. I had a delicious beef shish-kabob and Owen enjoyed a chicken artichoke dish.

We finished the evening by walking around old town and finding this tiny little wine tasting room at the bottom of an old hotel. There were three men there around our age playing cover songs of 80’s and 90’s music with their own reggae twist. A man renting the tasting area poured us a zippy and dry Zinfindale from his own vineyard and Owen and I laughed and sang a long with the band to old Sublime, Violent Femmes, and Chris Issac songs. We would have stayed longer if these two blonde cougars with their rich, old boyfriends hadn’t started to annoy us with their provocative dancing and squeeling. So we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the rest of the evening, just the two of us.

The next morning, we ate the less quality but still delicious breakfast that we were supposed to eat, given we were now in the right hotel. And then raced back to North County San Diego to pick up our little Jameson who we missed so much.

All in all, our Anniversary filled us with many fun memories.