Fres-yes

we still have qualms about what we are actually up for here, but we do love the decision to stay because it means practicing our grace walk with Jesus and ourselves. so here we stay until mid-sept and then we'll go from there. life is good as we play in the pool and relax and restore and get more training just before we go off to indonesia where there won't be a whole lot of breathing time there...actually that is not true...we must learn to breathe all through life...that is what we have NOT been doing and so we are also here to learn to breathe while being pressed. does anyone have that question answered? we would love your insights :D

Hazel loving on her little man, Kenneth

yes! this is our life group from Colorado in a boat white water rafting...a great time was had by all...and what a practical way to build "team" :D

potato sack races never get old

Home run!

He's growing up too fast!

i love this kid!

she is a beautiful little lady...

Bear Trap Ranch. A good took some pictures of us so this is the most recent we have of all five of us. This was not a day that Paul was excited to have his face in a camera...he had things to do.

Orville Reddenbocker

is that how you spell his name? well...i think he would be extremely proud of this new popcorn we have discovered through KJ and Kelly...it's microwave caramel popcorn and it's soooo yummy! we love it and yes...we are leaving the states soon so we will not be able to sit and eat it whenever we want so i thought i would pass on the info so that all of you could do the taste test...it's simply good and necessary to have things like microwave popcorn in your pantry. :D

Fres-yes or Fresno?

hey everyone. we have arrived in Fresno...or Fres-yes as Chrissy likes to call it. it's hot here. but we are in the nicest place we have ever rented (by ourselves...nothing can beat the park house with the budds :D) 3 bedrooms and get this...TWO bathrooms! the kids are so excited about that feature...and the fact that we live right by a playground...maybe 20 steps away! it's a nice little community of about 20 families????

life sure is interesting...we have had this "mountaintop experience" in colorado with God showing himself to us in fresh ways that blew us out of the water...and now we are here in this new chapter wondering what is up? our first impressions are not so cool so we hope to keep an open mind about it all here but we were expecting a lot (because of our BEST SUMMER EVER with OCI) and this just isn't relating to Greg and I as we expected. i know we are only on day 3 but COME ON! we will save more opinions and thoughts and enlightenments for future blogs...this one is mainly to let you avid readers know that we have moved again and we are OK.

we can check our email and we still have our cell phones...so all is well! THANK GOD FOR COMMUNICATION!
you can pray extra for us in these matters:
gavin has swimmers ear and a pretty nice bill that just came in from when we got his tonsils, adnoids, and tubes put in his ears in March...the medical billing teams are not on my "good" list for giving us our bills on time...
paul and greg have stomach issues
martha has been dizzy with headaches and stomach stuff for awhile now...wierd!
hazel is doing fine for the moment so pray that she keeps up with herself...she just goes constantly!
our visa work is being done but indo always has nice little quirks to their procedures...and today Chrissy had to help us out with copying and scanning and emailing our passports... i just hope that our visas go through and plane tickets can be bought soon for the beginning of OCT!!!!

so the night is cooling as i sit outside to type...pretty nice actually! thanks to you all for being our friends...we love life because of YOU! and i talked to Larissa last night and she told me that God has not brought us all the way here to just drop us...He is still working and He is still in control and He still sees us...all of which is true and deep in our hearts! so we just need to let Him work and believe that He is bigger than our best outcome...

hey mark

this post is for my brother, mark, all the way over in australia!
i am here! my email is marthacopeland@oci.org
our email and other info is at the bottom of all of our prayer letters.
if anyone needs a prayer letter out there...just let us know!
love you mark and anne
martha

"home" again

we have arrived back to the area in which we call "home" and life is good. we have been able to catch up with friends every day...be it by phone...cuz we can use it again!!!!!!! Praise God! or by email cuz it's so fast and fun...or in REAL LIVE PERSON! friends are a blessing that we treasure and it is important to us to connect with people so this time has been rich and rewarding to share what we have learned and gleamed from God. we have also gotten in some creative mural work. this new mural is moving along really fast and fun because we were ready to use our hands again. the topic : 7 days of creation... in a church nursery...a pretty big project. our days are good here, but we do miss our mountain community we grew so much with in Colorado. i would send pictures in this but we have not found our camera since we returned. i am sure it's here with us but when we aren't really able to fully unpack...we feel more like a tornado has unpacked our belongings and everything is everywhere! poor grandparents(Greg's parents)...we have over taken their house...but only for another week. this week is going to be a great one! tomorrow is my (martha) birthday!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm still 29 years old :D (forever!) and we are going to the beach and then a double baby shower for some friends and then out to eat with more friends...tuesday and wednesday we will be finishing up our mural and then eric comes home...we have missed his presence here in sunny Cal...then on friday we will be leaving with all the copelands for san diego to a family time share to hang out for the weekend. monday the 13th we will leave for Fresno, CA for 30 more days of training and growing deeper with God. so we will return again to "home" mid- sept and have a target date of leaving for Indo. early October. we realize that timing is hard to put on paper when we are leaving it all up to God, but we are confident that He has the PERFECT timing for us and it's fun to live by the seat of our pants (most of the time :D)

the kids are great...gavin is enjoying playing with all of Greg's old legos that grandma found and he is building castles and rockets and helicopters and being alone and creating is a big thing for him (we have realized this summer) so this is GREAT! paul is constantly full of energy and we just have to direct that so he doesn't get in trouble with Gavin or Hazel...he loves to dance and hold poses and make faces at the ladies using his eyebrows and he is really creative with is excuses why he can't go to bed at night. hazel is strong...nothing she does is half way...if she is happy...she lights up the house...if she is mad...the whole neighborhood knows it! she doesn't talk fully yet...words come out randomly...but she knows how to boss...i mean, get her point across without words. :D we love her spirited nature and she brings life to our family even at a young age. we love all 3 kids so much and it's just plain fun to have them around. each one is so different and we are all growing together to understand what "family" means and how to help each other be the best for God's kingdom. we see strengths already in them and praise God for seeing us where we are and giving us hope for our futures! Go El roi!

i think it's tuesday?

hello again...just wanted to write to say that we, as a camp, are under attack. many are getting sick and it's no fun as i just went through it...was down for 36 hours straight sleeping mostly and i am still on a comeback but man...please pray for us here...over 100 people living together calls for this sort of thing but we know the evil one lurks.

on a better note we are only $250 from having 100% on our monthly support! God is amazing and we are thinking we will be leaving Sept. 1, 2007. we are still learning so much about grace and the gospel and what that means for our daily lives...wow...we have not yet arrived and the road is going to be great if we can just adjust our heads and hearts to really have relationship with God so we can in turn have a meaningful and fruitful life with people here...

so much going on in our heads...we are blessed to be apart of this and life is good. the internet isn't so great...so i haven't been able to get on except to check email...so please be patient with more photos to come...

BUT you can go to www.OCI-US.org and see a running slide show of our first week and probably the second week even...if you are interested :D

May you all feel God's grace on you today...

in His grip!
martha

there is more mercy in Christ than there is sin in us

...it is important to realize that faith and repentance are not confined to the beginning of the Christian life. They are rather attitudes of the heart that continue throughout our lives as Christians. Each day there should be a heartfelt repentance for sins that we have committed, and faith in Christ to provide for our needs and to empower us to live the Christian life. - Wayne Grudem

The faith by which a believer daily lives is not specifically different...from the faith required of every man for his salvation. The life of faith is only the continued repetition...of those exercises by which we first received Christ...as our God and Savior. - Charles Hodge

oh the days are full of learning...we have not yet arrived...our walk is a continuous restructuring of how we view grace and mercy and what that looks like in our daily lives...today i was blown away again with how i let sin creep into my life in the little things...and how i need to practice going to God immediately so as not to propel those thoughts down further and deeper. i have been kind of living a "just do it" Christianity that does not leave me with a lot of deep inner joy. i crave God in a whole new way. i don't want to play in my puddles of grace...i want to jump in His ocean that He has provided for me...sin robs us, beats us, and leaves us for 1/2 dead and i know that i have the reputation of being alive...but i have been 1/2 dead and now that i am finding my purpose again...i am becoming more and more alive each day...learning to live in the grace based community of my family and those around me

my goal is to be able to spend and be spent for the nations and still have that inner joy

good ol iowa corn

yes, we did get some early iowa corn at paula and larry's house one night. but i am thinking that we are not going to be getting anymore corn here soon...i just love the look of it...this happens to be dustin's corn...in audubon...he is our farmer friend who our children hold in high regard for the things he gets to do all day.

jail birds

we stopped at fort cody to show the kids some american history. they seemed to be more into the fake guns and shooting any innocent bystander at the tourist shop than learning about cowboys and indians. some day they will come to us and want to know all the knowledge we have in our heads...

The closest thing to a beach we could find

on our day off we ventured down the mountain to find some heat as it has been quite cold to us. we found a park with a lake that had some sand...i mean mud, that the kids had a good time playing in. ducks came by and the mountains in the background made for a new experience!

Kids, more kids, boys and hazel

this is a shot of the little river running through our camp...the kids have played long hours already and they still beg to go back. God's creations never cease to wonder for the kiddos...or us! hazel is getting along with all the boys paying attention to her...why is there such an abundance of boys everywhere we go? the boys also go and get sticks to use as their guns for battle for the day...so they line up on a bench for worship - ready to go out for the day...the days are fast for them cuz when we lay them down in bed...they are out cuz they have played hard!

Our home for a month (along with 30 other people!)

ht
this is a REAL log cabin and the inside is incredible...so sound so we don't hear all the babies crying at night...hazel seems to have the loudest lungs! there are 3 sets of twins...two of them are 10 months old and then there are more babies...so hazel loves all of them! we have to get a picture of all the kids together...it's great! living in community is truly a gift from God!

My dad is the coolest rock climber ever!

Greg rock climbing in Colorado

yes...the little blue speck you see in the background is Greg climbing an 80 ft. rock. Paul and Marshal climbed a different rock to get a better look and "be taller" than DAD :D

Gavin and Paul tease Sister Hazel

God sees us

YEAH! we are in Bear Trap Ranch Colorado...just about an hour west of Colorado Springs. the days are great. we have been "in camp" for a week now and all is REAL. God knew this is just what we needed after some long months of preparing. (i have to interrupt here cuz i am sitting in a large log cabin watching ANNIE with 5 little boys and hazel. all boys have eyes glued and hazel is cheering Annie on as she fights and then walking around the room trying to get the boys to laugh with her, but they are into this...funny!) i can't even really describe all of our emotions going on here but the gist would be that we have come into a family who seem to have known us for a long time...but they still like us...no...love us! they "get" our thoughts and words and it's so encouraging to be around like minded people. you know? have you ever done that? even though we aren't all the same, we can understand, grow, and better each other. God has moved here and continues to do so. i believe we are going to be changed persons for going through this program. i personally have cried buckets...as for greg...you'll have to ask him...because it's a safe place to release and empty ourselves so that God can fill us with what HE wants in us...so good so good! it's funny how you can hear verses from the Bible 100 times and then the 101th time, the words become alive and true to YOUR life...the words have always been true...but God prompted something more so he can really be there and show you that He has always been there watching...providing...seeing and pursuing ME! so i hope you can be encouraged by your life today...because tomorrow may never come...yesterday is gone...today is all we have!

can you contact us? i don't know?

hey...we have had the worst month of communicating and it came at a time when we feel we really needed it most...but somehow we have survived...our phones are no good but you can leave a message and we can check the message from another phone...we can text cuz that is on our plan at least for martha's phone. but we are finding that many people are NOT getting my texts and this is frustrating as well as we try to keep in touch and nothing is working except this blog! thanks again for those who inspired us! and we have email. now as far as colorado goes???? we think there is no cell phone service up where we will be...we THINK we can get internet but we are not for sure...so our communication may become even LESS! UGH! we will update this as much as we can but please don't give up on us...we figure INDO will be better than this! :D

Ankeny, again

after greg and david (kem's husband) played a little tennis and my good great friend kem and i got to walk around my mom's backyard and talk "uninterrupted" we returned to Ankeny again on saturday to see our kindred friend, Larissa who just got back from Africa and had many stories to share. this girl is hard core and even swims in the rivers with who knows what snakes! it is so refreshing to spend time with her again and to know that even though we hadn't seen or talked for awhile...we could still connect...an encouragement all in itself! our generous friends, KJ and Kelly were gone for the weekend and they let us stay in their house and now they are back so we got to hang out some yesterday (father's day) as well and have some good talks on parenting and watched a movie and ate at Fazoli's (this great little italian place that greg and i used to eat at regularly when we lived here). it's funny to hang with our 3 older boys who are talking all the time to each other and saying all sorts of funnies. hazel is even talking more and more...she said "poopy diaper" and "KJ" and maybe we heard a "Kelly"? but life seems to be fun in this house and we love it here! tonight, monday, we are giving a presentation at their house so that will be good to connect with people we do not necessarily know. we also get to hang out with bryce this afternoon and have supper with a childhood friend who has 2 boys herself! then the kids will be babysat by kindy's parents who have full-on adopted our kids as their own grandkids while we talk at our presentation. that is our day.

we return to audubon for tuesday and wednesday. thursday we will go to a water park in Omaha for josh's (my nephews birthday) from there we are leaving for colorado springs on thursday night to drive through the night one last time! time is moving right along and soon we will be transitioning again but for a longer stay :D it will be good to not live out of suitcases. we look forward to getting some healthy outlook on life as well as prepare to go in August. this may be a little "iffy" as our last 20% is coming very slowly so please pray that we can remain peaceful about "the when" we leave and focused on "the why" we are leaving. we have been given a green light to buy our tickets but then there is hesitation as to "what date" we should aim for. grace, wisdom, humor, flexibility and creativity are at the top of our list these days for prayer.

i really have to go cuz paul needs to be "held and rocked like a baby" and one quick quote he says now cuz of Kelly is "is anyone ready to rock and roll?"

Our Iowa "Work"

this is what we have been working on...at least this is ONE of them...they take a couple of days to start and finish but Greg is getting much faster as he puts in the most time :D but there are about 400 of these 2' x 2' tile mosaics to be done and i think by the end of this week there will be 25 done...so there is a long way to go! they are all birds drawn by John James Audubon...for our town "Audubon" to put in their sidewalks on the Main street...just a little snap shot of what we are up to!

Dustin's tractor team

Martha's sister Teresa and daughter Hannah

cousins, cousins, cousins

unbelieable people and stroller

LOOK WHAT WE ARE SPORTING! A STROLLER THAT HOLDS EVERYONE!!! yesterday we came home to a huge package on the front steps. it was the sit-n-stand stroller greg and i have been contemplating buying over the past bit. we couldn't ever muster up the means to get one "new" and every time we went to buy one...we just didn't do it. we had talked with our friends KJ and Kelly about our dilemma and even finding one was a bit of a struggle out here in iowa...so anyway, after we left their house THEY went ahead and purchased one for us and this came as HUGE surprise and encouragement for us that we are "spoiled" by God and friends and we wanted to say a bigger thanks to them and to all of you who are supporting us in this time of "tomatoes" (as paul would say). this is a busy time for us, but we enjoy our little family so much and it's been great to connect with so many friends across the states again! God is faithful and He gives strength to the weary. THANK YOU!

farms, weekends, cell phones

we are huge fans of farms! in the past 3 days we have visited 2 farms and man, have we gone "hog wild" :) we first went out to the johnston's farm where they are self sufficient farmers who we admire very much! they had baby turkeys that we got to hold, one baby kitty that took to hazel and let her do anything she wanted to it...so hazel carried it around like a rag doll, they had milking cows and one bull (the leader) and we tried to have the tongue feel our hands but we were a little too jumpy for that. soon we found horses that all the kids rode bareback and only paul had the hesitation to get on...hazel nearly jumped on by herself and gavin acted like a natural! meg, the senior in high school, led the kids around and they eagerly followed for whatever she had up her sleeve to do next on this adventurous farm. this farm also had a big dog and with the wind nearly blowing us over...this night was amazing and very memorable. it's always good to catch up with old friends.

the next night we ventured only 3 blocks from grandma's house and found the gleason farm. they had a good homecooked "iowa" meal for us and then we visited all their steer (they USED to be bulls) and this was great to get right up next to them too, but the best part of this farm was they had a tractor that everyone got to ride in! gavin and paul even got to drive it and wow! now they are real farmers! grant, the little boy who lives on this farm, has a four-wheeler just their size so the boys fought over who got to ride the 4-wheeler the rest of the night. here again, great to be in good company. and visiting people with little babies is a highlight for our kids too as they seem to love all the new friends and want to "help out"

iowa is full of pollen and we are discovering we have allergies! super! even i, martha, who have never suffered my whole life, am now having the itchy eyes, stuffy nose, and sneezing. so we are all walking around acting like we have colds or something! i guess we have been away too long! this weekend we are up in northwest iowa with college friends, going to a parade, petting zoo, and fun fest...all for free! and my grandparents 85th birthdays (so that means lots of aunts and uncles and cousins), and even some old california friends will be seen! we will be away from our audubon pad for 4 days and when we are home it's a lot of cutting, gluing, grouting, with the mosaics. it is slow but pretty cool to be doing this with the old brother, clinton p.

time is going fast and 12 days we will be off for colorado springs...june 21...it's coming closer and closer and we continue to be amazed at the kids flexibility and good attitudes (for the most part :D) we have had more problems now in communication however...we got a huge bill from our cell phone company and they told me the wrong deal 2 times and then charged me for it...sooooo...what to do? we aren't quite sure but we will be texting from here on out. if you want to call us, you can do my mom's # 712.563.3128 but we hope to be getting on email again this week! sorry we can't be doing more...just know we are missing you all with smiles in mind! the fieldhouses received our passports so this is great and means we can really go to indo in august!

Gavin, Trey & Paul (Ankeny, IA)

Gavin in bubble costume (Ankeny, IA)

Hazel isn't going to sink with these (Mesa, AZ)

our faithful travelers doing a great job (Quinter, KS)

Paul in his "tomato chaser" (Salina, KS)

Too much flexibility? (Bellflower, CA)

globalcafeonline.org

check it out...our friends KJ and Kelly (who we are staying with for the weekend) are part of this church here in Ankeny (Prarie Ridge) and they have a global cafe in the church that supports missions and i think what they are doing is super fine and if you are interested in doing this in your area with the coffee or anything...you could! just passing this along :)...also www.puravidacoffee.com

and we are super excited to be going to kindy's parents house tomorrow for slow cooked pork chops, corn on the cob, homestyle beans, etc...my mouth is already watering! and then they are going to watch all 3 kids while greg and i go on a "date"...what do people do on those anymore? :D we are happy to be here in ankeny...everyone is taking great care of us and we feel loved.

June 1

June 1 means that we only have 20 more days in iowa. june 1 means that clint and joni have been married for 22 years. june 1 means that we are going to ankeny to see some great friends from when we lived there for 6 months prior to California. and something special, clinton p is renewing his vows to his wife tonight in Des Moines and we get to bring in the secret flowers for the ceremony :D! i'm so glad we get to do that...to show support to our family while we are here is big for us. i am suppose to be working on a mosaic but both clint and greg are gone so the office is pretty lonely to work all by myself!

i can say there is a lot of attack going on with our enemy in many different areas and some of it is hard to watch and some is hard to deal with and some is down right mean. i want to be able to "do" something about it but i am learning that if i can step back and pray and be centered...the time comes when HIS words get to be used INSTEAD of MINE...amazing how that happens! so i am trying to be patient and yet alert for my role.

paul does not like grandma's "grandfather" clock and asks us to turn it off...he hears it in his head and can't sleep. and he is finally understanding (i think) that he is NAMED after grandpa Paul instead of "once being" grandpa paul. every time we have told a story about my dad he would say "i did that when i was older?" but now i think he is coming around to understanding he has his name sake...and rightly so! they have so much in common already

gavin enjoyed playing tennis with all his cousins last night at the tennis court, poor greg and jacob couldn't get a game in very well with all the extra feet running around! and then MORE rain made us go home :( but we all seemed to still have smiles on our faces

hazel enjoyed meeting her baby "boy" friend, torin, and bigger "girl" friend geneva the other night and doted on both of them...especially watching and mimicking everything the 2 year old girl would do! she wants to be a lady and we pray for that as well :D

i don't know if you all know that we have been given the green light to go to indo! yeah! sooooo...i guess that means we can get our tickets for the end of august! it's a REAL DEAL...God is so faithful and amazing to us and we are completely grateful to Him and you for being apart of our team! love you...

Audubon, IOWA

this seems to be the most efficient way of communicating to everyone now so i am grateful for the fellow bloggers who inspired us! we have no internet at my mom's house so i'm not sure how often this will happen here in IOWA and then i fear colorado will be even less???? i hope we don't lose friends over the lack of communication. phone service isn't so great here either but know that miss the california crowd like crazy.
i just left the boys to plant flowers with grandma and i am sure they will chase the birds, squirrels and spiders they are finding left and right to their amazement! and hazel and i ventured uptown to the bank. we started a bank account and it only took 15 min. and 10 of that was talking with the lady about our lives now! i love small town for that reason! just because they know me i can get a bank account! yeah!
i also had to drop off a pair of shoes for my niece hannah at the middle school this morning and it was funny to enter the building after such a long time. everything seemed smaller than what i remembered it. i guess i have grown :D
greg and my brother clint are mosaicing at the moment and i am holding hazel on my lap. she is screaming to all of you in there and saying "ki...ga...ki...go" cuz we just saw pictures of malachi and gavin and she wants to return to that page...not this boring writing! how we miss our little people too...pictures don't cut it and they want to "play" with old friends too

what else do you talk about in a small town, but the weather...it's humid...chily...yet hot...it's hard to wear the right clothes...and it looks like it's going to storm ever since we left kansas...wierd weather...and i know that cali is better cuz i talked to chrissy and she was headed for the beach...whatever
one other thing is that it's fun to see people i knew back in the day and they look exactly the same! old teachers at a track meet,...they just have gray hairs now...people i went to school with and them having kids in school with my nieces and nephews...i see them working around town doing grown-up jobs...i don't feel grown up yet...but they look it.
the kids are loving the hang out time with thier nieces and nephews...my sister lives on an farm with animals so that is the best when we get to go over the "bumps" (hills) to get to their house to see the baby kitties and 4 dogs and sheep and a horse. my brother lives behind the houses across the street from my mom so it's easy to get there and we do or they come over cuz gavin is our social light inviting everyone everywhere. the kids are settling so that makes life easier when they are happy. my mom's house is referred to as "iowa" and if we are away from it...they want to return to "iowa"

so much to say and yet i don't even have the words to describe our hearts yet. we mourn, we hope, we get excited, we anticipate, we mourn again so i guess this is a time to be processing and maybe that is another reason why it's hard to communicate? but we still need M&M's to keep the thoughts of JOY running...God is so faithful to us and we feel and see His hand so in that we reassure ourselves that life is good and this process is needed to move on.

Pheonix to Quinter, KS

i guess you have to be a little patient with us. this is the first i have been able to add anything and i can't figure out our emails either. soooo....this is our communication since saturday! but here is life since then.. we said goodbye to grandma and grandpa in LA and left at 6:30 on sat morning going towards pheonix. we weren't gone more than 1 1/2 hours and the boys were already asking "are we in iowa yet?" so we started the countdown...in hours and minutes...and 7 hours later we got to pheonix where we swam in our friends (old superintendent from indonesia) pool and hung out there until we left for Colorado Springs about 8:30 pm...we drove the night switching every 2 hours or so until we got to our hotel in CS about 11am. the kids did great at sleeping most of night on the road. paul and i were up together from 3-5:30am watching the sun rise over the mountains and talking the WHOLE time. we were having a race to see who would see the sun first and just as it rose over the mountain i looked back to let him know it was there and he had just fallen asleep...oh well...quietness is good too! when we got to the hotel we all checked out the pool and then took a quick nap and went to garden of the gods to climb the mountains there...this was our 7th anniversary and several times we got a good laugh at how we were spending it! we all went to bed at 7pm and woke up at 8 am...what a great night! the next morning we checked out focus on the family and let the kids play in "oddessy" and we bought new stories to listen to while we drive with the money grandma and grandpa gave the kids to "buy something special with"...so then we went on to kansas...just a measley 4 hour drive...but it was difficult...stopping nearly every hour to appease our 3 kids in the back...good thing we are doing most of this trip at night! the skitters have come in handy at rest stops to just run and run them! so keep reading...i know this is getting long but here comes the good stuff! we got to quinter...a town of 900 people on monday afternoon. the kids were so excited about this area. we weren't even here an hour before they saw the cat dig a whole next to them in the dirt and poop right there and cover it back up! a first for them! amazing! we walked 2 blocks to visit another aunt and uncle (the uncle is 102 years old!) and we heard him play his harmonica and sing a song so the boys each sang a solo! another first for them! in kansas everyone has basements because of the frequent tornadoes (or tomatoes as paul calls them...he really believes we are talking about huge spinning tomatoes) but the boys were extremely excited to sleep in the "basement" so they were eager to go to bed...until they got down there...then the shadows and all became very scary and not so cool but yet another first to sleep in a real basement. the next day we visited grandma chestnut in the long term care center and the boys were amazed at all the older people living in one building. we did sittercises while we waited for our lunch with all the residents and played dominoes on the floor. later in the day the sky became dark and the clouds began to circle...we thought for sure we were getting a "tomatoe" so we stood outside admiring the weather going on around us... the lightening wouldn't stop lighting the sky, the thunder was constant and we even had some hail...all of these new to the boys! we did end up going to the basement but only briefly after realizing that the whistle that had blown was for 6 o'clock supper and not a tornado warning...silly. well, all the weather stopped us from having a big family picnic in the park so we met at an activity center instead and that was good fun to see everyone including 2 new babies! so now today we are awake and getting ready to go see grandma and aunt patti who has a super cool little yippie dog and then we will head out to salina where we will see greg's two other uncles and their wives. after we have supper with them we will drive the night to audubon. only a 6+ hour drive from salina. so we are nearly done driving and i'm glad! roadtripping with 3 little ones isn't like it was in college! but we are surviving and missing southern California people already. thanks for all the phone messages...we aren't ignoring you...we will call back! i must go...there is a real live bunny in the backyard and they can't wait to show it to me! kansas is great!!!!!!

so we are sitting in an empty house that echoes too much. my hands are really dry from all the scrubing i have been doing tonight...never knew how much the kids had crayons in their hands as they were walking past the walls :D i can not quite believe that we are coming this close to leaving. my stomach says "this is too much" my head says "are we sure about this? cuz i'm already wiped out" and my heart says "keep going...the best is yet to come" ...so which one do i listen to? gotta choose the JOY...gotta keep going...gotta listen to my kids as they keep having fun with pretty much nothing around the house. but paul did say to me today after i was explaining to him that he needed to share his stick, "but mom, i don't want to share anymore cuz if i let go...i don't get it back." and my heart sank for him. he feels all this too...and i just hope they don't start hording "things" cuz everything is temperarily gone. i guess i am mostly sad to leave this place. it has been good here. it will continue to be good here. and our kids love it here. but they adjust quickly so i am going to try to keep up with them. play like them. yell like them. i wish i could sleep like them, but that will come too! don't know where i will be the next time i write...but right now i am at 16712 Reeves Ave, Bellflower, Ca 90706.

gavin, paul, and hazel play in the mud

I don't know how to do this

but here we go...
we are starting a blog just to keep in full touch with all of you interested. and even those not so interested can check in time to time...

today i got a call from kindy and she was crying that we were leaving...it's true...no matter how much we deny or try to slow the days...they are creeping closer...i don't know how to do this either

the kids and i were sorting through their toys this morning...more sorting...seems like that is all i do lately but they were able to help a little with toys until they find one they haven't seen in awhile and begin to get excited with new ideas...that's all good

bryce is leaving tomorrow...just another piece of our chapter coming to a close out here...the kids are really going to miss him and his silliness in our home

today is friday...we leave 3 weeks from now! yidda...i better get busy...