Baseball and a Birthday!

Lane scoring a run!  He is having fun with baseball this year.

Lane is a strong hitter.  It took a little practice with the pitching machine this year but he is doing well now!

Always in the "ready" stance!

I also celebrated my 30th birthday over the weekend!  I had a couple friends over to celebrate that night and I also got to go see a play and have dinner with a few of my friends the next day.

My friend Kelly brought the balloons, my necklace and some party hats.  Lane wanted to try them on :)

And... my friend Susan made a delicious Lemon Cake from scratch!  She did a wonderful job and it was the perfect ending to a delicious night :)  I was sad that Reese had to miss it, but it was so great to spend an evening with some fun ladies and great friends.

Kind a feels weird to be thirty.  I am excited to begin another decade in my life.  I look back on my twenties and am blown away by all that's happened in those 10 years.  I am praying that the next ten years will bring many blessings, growth and happiness!

It Is Well With My Soul

There has been so much sadness recently.  Yesterday I went to bible study feeling frustrated in my current situation, only to be completely humbled by listening to a few people's prayer requests.  Stories of stage 3 throat cancer found in a young Navy officer with a wife and young kids, a local boy who has been fighting cancer and is now in his last days, the list went on.  I left bible study thankful that my problems seem to be small at this moment.  This week a couple from my home town had to say goodbye to their baby girl who lived less than a month. And today I got news that a girlfriend from high school and her six year old daughter died in a car accident early this morning.  And I can't get the picture out of my head of the cemetery where Case is buried, so many new little ones buried next to him in just two years.  It hits you hard, it put things into perspective again.  Because although through my own sufferings, I would have hoped to gain the perspective to live in the moment and enjoy every second, I forget to do that sometimes.

At this point, what do we do.  When our world is so full of sadness, it seems so hopeless at times.  I was reminded of the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul.  I was told the story of how this hymn was written after Case died.  I thought it fitting for a night like tonight.  I found the history written out on a website:






This hymn was written by a Chicago lawyer, Horatio G. Spafford. You might think to write a worship song titled,
'It is well with my soul', you would indeed have to be a rich, successful Chicago lawyer. But the words,
"When sorrows like sea billows roll ... It is well with my soul”, were not written during the happiest period of 
Spafford's life. On the contrary, they came from a man who had suffered almost unimaginable personal tragedy.

Horatio G. Spafford and his wife, Anna, were pretty well-known in 1860’s Chicago. And this was not just because
of Horatio's legal career and business endeavors. The Spaffords were also prominent supporters and close 
friends of D.L. Moody, the famous preacher. In 1870, however, things started to go wrong. The Spaffords' only 
son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later, it was fire rather than fever that struck. Horatio 
had invested heavily in real estate on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 1871, every one of these holdings was 
wiped out by the great Chicago Fire.

Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on the family, Horatio decided to take his wife and four 
daughters on a holiday to England. And, not only did they need the rest -- DL Moody needed the help. He was 
traveling around Britain on one of his great evangelistic campaigns. Horatio and Anna planned to join Moody in 
late 1873. And so, the Spaffords traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French 
steamer 'Ville de Havre' across the Atlantic. Yet just before they set sail, a last-minute business development 
forced Horatio to delay. Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go as planned. 
He would follow on later. With this decided, Anna and her four daughters sailed East to Europe while Spafford 
returned West to Chicago. Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read: 
"Saved alone."

On November 2nd 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with 'The Lochearn', an English vessel. It sank in only 
12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters 
Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being 
torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved from the fate of her daughters by a 
plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had 
been rescued, Mrs. Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, 
"You were spared for a purpose." And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, "It's easy to be grateful 
and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God."

Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved 
wife. Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's 
voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. "A careful reckoning has been made", he said, "and
I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep." Horatio 
then returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.

The words which Spafford wrote that day come from 2 Kings 4:26. They echo the response of the Shunammite 
woman to the sudden death of her only child. Though we are told "her soul is vexed within her", she still 
maintains that 'It is well." And Spafford's song reveals a man whose trust in the Lord is as unwavering as hers 
was.

It would be very difficult for any of us to predict how we would react under circumstances similar to those 
experienced by the Spaffords. But we do know that the God who sustained them would also be with us.

No matter what circumstances overtake us may we be able to say with Horatio Spafford...







When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Hanging Out With Grandma

 I got these fun pictures while Grandma Alma was visiting a couple weeks ago too.  Estelle is having a lot of fun with bubbles.  I adore the picture of her and Lane looking at each other.  Lane and Estelle just love each other!  She is getting old enough now where she can really bother him and then he begins to bug her back and then she has a fit, but most of the time they get a long well.

While Lane was in school on Monday, Grandma, Estelle and I went to walk around the Hotel Del Coronado.  It is just a beautiful place to look at and there is a lot of history there.  My favorite part was looking at their garden.  It had all sorts of herbs and yummy stuff growing in it, very inspiring!

This tree is the tree Marilyn Monroe stood in front of in Some Like It Hot.

Sorry about the absence of blog posts.  Right after my Grandma came we all got really sick.  Oddly enough I think Estelle picked it up somewhere and we got it from her.  It was a yucky stomach bug and it took Lane and I like 5 days to get over it.  That and trying to keep up with my classes as well as some dental issues for me, left little time for things like blogging.  I really could use some prayer right now, just to get through these last few weeks of my classes and that my mouth would stop hurting.  :(  On a brighter note, I did just find out that I have only one more class to go before I graduate with my AA/transfer degree!  So I will be taking a 6 week class in the summer and be done for now :)

Carlsbad Flower Fields

My Grandma Alma came to visit the other weekend!  It was really great having her come see where we live for the first time.  One of the things we did was take her to see the Carlsbad Flower fields.  It is fields full of ranunculus.  It reminds me a lot of the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon WA.  They have fun things for the kids to do too, like the sweet pea maze.

 Estelle was kind of all over the place if I took her out of the stroller which made taking pictures of her hard.  I wanted to get some really cute ones of her in the flowers, but nothing...

Lane was really into taking his own pictures too.  I gave him my old digital camera and he was taking as many pictures as he could of all the flowers and anything that interested him really.  I love how enthusiastic he can get about things that I don't really expect him to be interested in.  

Legoland Pictures

For the past year we have had Legoland passes. It was fun, we didn't go a ton but plenty enough to get our money's worth. Lane loves Legos and no matter how many times we go he finds something that is really interesting or exciting to him. They have lots of Star Wars characters and models built throughout the park.
Legoland also has a water park. It was really hard for me to go there with Estelle last summer because she was so little and there isn't a lot of shade. So we tried it out again when we went on Sunday. It wasn't real warm out so Lane was the only one that actually got in. Estelle and I got our feet in the water and she enjoyed watching everyone. Here she is lounging at the water park :)
They were both very tired by the end of the day. I love it how they are both sleeping the same way in the car! I will miss our outings to Legoland, but now we have zoo passes again so that will keep us busy!

Easter

I finally made some Easter cookies. I think I have only done that once or twice before. I had to throw in a picture of them though :)

Before church on Easter morning I gave the kids their Easter baskets. To be honest I don't think we have ever done baskets for the kids. Grandma usually gets them a few things but this year between me and her I put together a little basket for each of them.

Estelle got pretty excited about hers. She later gave me the stick of Peeps she is holding in the picture and insisted I open it for her. When I wouldn't she had a little hissy fit. Fun! She knows what candy is a lot sooner than Lane did!

After church we got together with my friend Kelly and her family and had an egg hunt.
Grandpa Jim helped Estelle out.
Lane got the golden egg!
Estelle's first egg hunt. She did pretty good, she pretty much got the concept of putting the eggs in her basket. :)
More help from Grandpa.

Our pretty girl with her basket. I wish I would have gotten a picture of her in her Easter dress. Although I didn't get her a new dress, she just wore a hand me down one, she still looked pretty cute. It was a good week, now back to work and school this week!

Spring Break

We had a pretty low key spring break. We got to do some dog sitting for one of my friends in the neighborhood, so a black lab named Lila kept us company for the 10 days Lane was out of school. On Wednesday we met up with a couple of my sister Michele's friends who were visiting San Diego.

It was fun hanging out at the zoo with Kelly and Lisa and their families. A "little bit of Washington" came to visit us which was fun!

Gage, Ezra and Lane hanging out at the zoo.

A few of the kids hanging out on one of the statues.

My dad also came to visit over Easter. He got here on Friday night and left today (Monday). We rode the ferry over to downtown and we toured the Midway and ate dinner at the Fish Market.

Lane was SO into the Midway. It is a retired aircraft carrier turned into a museum. They have the headphone tour and he was listening to as many as he could, not wanting to miss a thing! He was cracking me up and I loved that he was so interested in learning!