First newspaper article of the 2009 WC vball season

Today the Whittier Daily News published an article about the Whittier Christian girls volleyball team. Check it out here. Go Heralds!

Surprise Visist

Yesterday at 3 pm, my dad called and said he and mom were on there way to So Cal to pick up a bus for the bus company he works for. They found out about this trip at 11 am, took 30 minutes to pack and started driving, hoping to make it to the bus company in Los Alamitos before they closed at 5 pm. When they got to Pasadena, and were going 35 mph on the 210 freeway, they got a call that they could not pick up the bus that night because proof of insurance had not been figured out. So they came straight to Whittier Christian High School where Erin has playing her first volleyball match of her senior year. What a fun surprise, for them and for us! WC played Sunny Hills and won easily in 3 games. Another random thing that happened last night during warm ups of the junior varsity game, one of the WC girls hurt her knee and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. And so another vollleyball season is underway!

WC volleyball

Today was picture day for the teams at Whittier Christian. I went to take some casual shots and head shots of the girls and teams for the program they will be selling this year. It was incredibly hot today, over 100 degrees inside the gym and outside. The girls did great considering they were sweating just standing there! Next week they will finally get to play their first matches and a tournament after a little over two weeks of practices.

The Beginning of the End. . .

. . . the first of the lasts. However you want to say it, today our last daughter started her first day of her last year of high school. It is a day with mixed emotions: joy, pride, relief, disbelief. Time surely could not have traveled this fast. I distinctly remember a scared little 2-year-old Erin hugging her little purple stuffed Barney while seeing her older sister Lindsay off to Kindergarten. And just a few years later, Erin ran to be the first in line to go off with her new kindergarten teacher, unafraid because she had seen big sister do it and survive. Perhaps that is the advantage of being the second born: learning and watching what is just ahead for you. And Erin has done a good job of observing. She is ready for this Senior year of high school. She has been looking forward to it since her freshmen year, when sister Lindsay was a senior. Erin looks forward to having one fewer class than those lowly underclassmen, getting to go off campus for lunches, and leading her volleyball team to the goal of winning a CIF championship. Hopes are high, expectations higher, the whole year lays open before her. There is much to do in the nine months to come: homework, tests, college apps to send in, decisions to be made, practices, games, friends to hang out with, trips to take, and when it is all done, it will seem it just started.

Sabbath

It's been a crazy few months. Days and weeks go by and I find myself wondering, "What have I been doing?" I make lists and check things off the list, but why does it still feel I haven't accomplished anything? Like I'm spinning my wheels?

I was refreshed today to re-read some thoughts on taking a Sabbath. It seems so simple, but so difficult to accomplish. What does a Sabbath look like for me? It's NOT leisure, for leisure to me is draining, unfulfilling and absent of anything sacred. I need to know, not just what to avoid, but what to pursue. What can I do to refresh my soul and what do I need to avoid that whithers it? So as I ponder these things I am reminded by Mark Buchanan in his book "The Rest of God" the reasons for Sabbath and what I need to be pursuing:

"Real Sabbath, the kind that empties and fills us, depends on complete confidence and trust, that is rooted in a deep conviction that God is good and God is sovereign. There's no rest for those who don't believe that. If God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called to his purposes, you can relax. If he doesn't, start worrying. If God can take any mess, any mishap, any wastage, any wreckage, any anything, and choreograph beauty and meaning from it, then you can take a day off. If he can't, get busy. Either God's always at work, watching the city, building the house, or you need to try harder. Either God is good and in control, or it all depends on you."

Thankfully it doesn't all depend on me. God's got it under control, it's when I mistakenly think that I have any form of control that I get weary.

And a final quote from Mark Buchanan about what it is I need to pursue:

"God is always speaking. . . but we're not always listening. We don't make the effort and so fail to go boldly into his throne room to receive what we need: a word that can pierce, and cut, and heal. Here's the paradox: If we don't listen, we never enter his rest. Yet if we don't enter his rest, we never listen."

Mother's Day 2008

Erin and Lindsay - May 1994

Erin and Lindsay - May 2008

Great memories were made this Mother's Day 2008. On Saturday morning at 8:00 am my family took me to breakfast. I was amazed that my two teenage daughters would agree to go so early on a Saturday morning. But that is all I knew about the day, that we were going to breakfast and then we would do something else for the rest of the day. After yummy bagels and chai tea at Panera, we got in the car and Tim and the girls started reciting all the things they thought about doing on this mother's day. They included train rides to San Diego or Santa Barbara, and other fun outings, but they finally decided they wanted to re-live the many days we spent at Disneyland as a young family. We had so much fun going to all the rides that were the girls favorites, and they introduced us to the "Fast pass", which is a great addition to the Disney experience. Who doesn't want to "cut" in line? It had been at least 10 years since Tim and I had been to the magic kingdom. Although much of it was the same, we oohed and awhhed at the new additions, and reminisced about the things no longer there (the people movers, the sky buckets, etc). We walked until we could walk no more, then we got an ice cream and sat on a bench and people watched for a while. We got stuck on the Indiana Jones ride (who hasn't?), and had fun talking while we waited in lines. The record line wait for this day was 60 minutes for the Nemo/Submarine ride. It was a good ride, they improved it quite a bit, but we weren't convinced afterward it was worth a 60 minute wait (there are no fast passes for that ride). Over all it was a very fun and memorable day. I was so blessed to realize that my two teenage girls still like to hang around us and do silly things like go to Disneyland. What more could a mother ask for then to spend a day with her family at the happiest place on earth!

House painting

Before and after, all in one shot!

Before

After (the sunshine helps too)

For a break, Erin got Grandma to help her wax the Jeep.

Dad, adding more and more caulking.

Abby "helping" her mom, Rachel

Great helpers, Erin, Ryan and Lindsay

Two windows done, many more to go!

It has been an exhausting week. It all started a couple of months ago with my Dad and Mom said they would like to help us paint the house. Tim took the week of Mar. 31-Apr. 4 off. Then Dad had some health problems in mid-March and we decided not to do the house painting. Fine with us, but Tim still had the week off, and we were going to do some other projects around the house. But then on Sunday of this week, Dad called and said they had no plans for the week and he was feeling much better, they could be here by Wednesday to start painting. We shifted gears quickly and off we went, prepping, making decisions about colors and plans for how we wanted to go about this project. Tim was the crew chief and worked very hard. But we had lots of helpers. Dad was the caulking king, going through at least 12 tubes of caulking. Mom wore out rollers and brushes. Erin, Lindsay and Ryan helped sporadically when schedules allowed, and Rachel, Nathan, and Abby from the back house pitched in too. It was a great team effort. So after 4 solid days of painting, we are halfway done with the house, not including the garage and back house. So there is plenty left to do. I'll have to add Advil to the shopping list. We ran out this weekend.