Sunday, October 17th - a wonderful run

I've taken up running again. I love it! As long as my body holds up, I hope to run.

In the past, I have always run through a neighborhood, and I've always loved that. Everyone in Livermore talks about "Sycamore Grove Park", which is just down the street from us. I didn't go for months, because at first we were too busy settling in, and I had the difficult school runs. One other thing put me off of it. Everyone talked about how beautiful it is.....and the rattlesnakes. I have ZERO desire to see a rattlesnake up close. ZERO. No matter how congested the parking lot (testifying that people do, indeed, love Sycamore Grove Park), or how many stories I heard about people who had "seen one" and come away unscathed, I remained steadfast in my ZERO desire to come anywhere near a live (or even a dead) rattlesnake.

Time passed. The school routine improved, and we were settled in. I REALLY wanted to start running again. The weather is so conducive to it here. I mapped out a route in our neighborhood, but our neighborhood is a fraction of the size of our Austin neighborhood. I would have to go in circles 3 times to get the distance I wanted.

One day I caved, and I tried running to and in Sycamore Grove park. I loved it. The paths were big and wide and it seemed pretty easy to spot a snake. For the last month, I've been 3 times/week and I have yet to see anything more wild than a squirrel. WHEW! I still look carefully when I run under a small patch of trees, but in general, I've found the park a WONDERFUL place to run.....and so far, there have always been people around.

Here are pictures of my route. I start here, in our neighborhood.














At the end of our street is this nice bicycle path, that leads to the park. Those are grape trees in the picture.















This is just after the entrance to the park.















This is shortly after the entrance. There is a little wooden bridge over a stream that I cross, and then this.














See the wide path? If there were a snake across it, I would turn around.















I've never NOT seen someone else on the path. Usually, there are a few people.














There are about 3 patches of shade on the path.















I always think twice before going under the trees, but I think I'm the only one who does that!














This is on the way back.















It's uphill on the way back. That's the only part I'd change!















Overall, it's a great running path. I think everyone except Kathryn as accompanied me at one run or another. Kathryn is still worried about the snakes. I don't blame her, but so far, it's been terrific!

Sunday, October 17th - a thoughtful spot

Is this not the most inviting looking place to sit?














The view looks like this:














We have had the most BEAUTIFUL weather the last 3 weeks. It's been hot, but not too hot. In fact, it's been downright completely warm and pleasant. While the mornings are slightly cool, I found that if I sit on the porch swing, which is in the sun, the coolness vanishes and the warmth envelops me. I sit and swing and pray and read my bible.

It's not obvious in this picture, but the mountains are just ahead and they are beautiful.

It's been such a beautiful way to spend my time with God.

July 2010

You can see that I'm still catching up....but I'm almost caught up! Somewhere after our visit to England and right before David came to visit, we celebrated Kathryn's 9th birthday! I really wasn't in the mood to do anything big, and she wanted a sleepover. It does mean less sleep for us, but in general, it's lots of fun, and it made her very happy.














She had 3 of her friends come over. We made home made pizzas for dinner, and she cut her own cake!














They watched a movie, stayed up talking and talking (very quietly), and generally had a super fun evening.














The next morning I made pancakes and bacon, and the girls were still talking!

Happy Birthday my very sweet 9 year old! You are a treasure. We love you!

More spring 2010

Remember a couple of posts ago, I mentioned how beautiful our area is? It is BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't believe the abundance of pretty spring flowers.



















Whoever landscaped our yard did a GREAT job! For the last 8 months, something new has opened up!















This is Ravenswood. It's a house that is around 100 years old and is a historical landmark.















Andrew wasn't in the mood to have his picture taken, but this pretty bush is in our yard. You can tell that I'm close to a horticulturest from my extreme knowledge of the names of all of these plants!















There are hike/bike trails all around us.















These were in our front yard. They are dormant now in the fall.














Here is a longer shot of Ravenswood. It's probably less than 2 miles from our house. You can get to it from the hike/bike trails!



















I didn't realize how lovely it is in the spring in California. We really enjoyed it!

Spring break 2010 - the Mystery Spot

This is one of my REALLY back blogged posts. Spring break arrived just 3 1/2 months after we moved to CA. Paul is so amazing - he was ready to jump in and do something....so we went to a place that sounded fun: The Mystery Spot. It was SO MUCH FUN!

Here we are, entering the spot.



















We had both Andrew's Kindergarten bear (he was Kindergartener of the week) and Flat Stanley to show around. Fortunately, they were able to join us for this fun adventure.

It's hard to describe this place except to say that it does seem to defy gravity. Everything leans 3 degrees. Even us. A lot of it is an optical illusion, and they freely admit that, but it still doesn't explain it all, and that is obvious as you are there. For example the shack is built on a hill, so you expect to be "tilted" when you are inside....but you can't explain how you can't straighten up. You truly can't!

















If you hang from a doorframe, your feet swing out. You CAN'T hang them straight down!


















You can balance on the edge of this table and lean into the air, and you don't fall down.



















There were stairs that were built vertically into the wall and you could walk up them effortlessly without holding onto anything.

There were tons more things and we were laughing our heads off as we did the tour.

It was well worth the day out and we'd recommend it to future visitors.

On the way back to Livermore, we drove North, along California's beautiful coastline. It was our first time to do that. You have seen pictures in my blog already, but this was our first time and we were just amazed at how beautiful it is.















We had our first Northern CA beach experience. It as wonderful! It reminded me quite a bit of Cornwall, England, but was different enough to know that we were somewhere else.















All in all, it was a fun Spring Break!

Late July - after Marilyn's visit

A couple of days after my sister visited with her son, David, it was time for Paul's company's family picnic. We were going to Saratoga Springs, a campground and picnic area that looked pretty.

Really, what place ISN'T pretty out here in Northern California???!!

We drove the commute down to Paul's work and then took busses to Saratoga. It's located just South of Silicon Valley, between Los Gatos and Cupertino. It is unbelievable how the scenery changes in such a short amount of time. Instead of beautiful mountains and pretty flowers, you start to see tall, beautiful trees. I think these are redwood trees. It's so different that it's like being in another state!

Here we are, just entering the park.














Andrew is wearing his "soccer strip". Do they call them that here in the U.S. ? It's his soccer uniform from England, but it's for a Scottish team - the Celtics. We won't be losing him when he wears it, that's for sure!

It was a typical corporate family picnic - every imaginable outlet for the kids to try. The boys and Kathryn liked this obsticle inflatable.














You can never go wrong with a giant slide. The only problem was that John was slightly too young to slide down it! He was pretty sad about that.















This shows its age, but the kids liked it anyway. It was nice to see something so "natural" in California, not so perfectly beautiful.















That is John on the upside down "u" shaped climbing frame, while Andrew is easily spotted eating a snowcone on top of the other climbing frame. Note we were surrounded by the beautiful, tall trees!
















The lines to some of the inflatables were a little long, but they had dress up clothes for the kids to wear while waiting. This is "dahrling Kathryn". Fortunately, she has zero interest in acting!















They catered delicious BBQ for us, and when the kids were done, we let them play in the (mostly) dry creek bed while we sat and relaxed together.




















On the other side of the creek bed, they had one of the best petting zoos we've done. Andrew was completely thrilled (our animal lover)! He got to hold a chicken




















and pet a goat, among TONS of other animals!














We finished the night on this rock climbing wall. That's Princess Kathryn, climbing in her beautiful halter dress, in her bare feet. She made it look so easy!




















Megan had to work a little harder - we think it's actually harder for the bigger kids! She DID make it to the top, though. Determination will help you every time!



















However, Andrew beat both of his sisters to the top, and he knew to ring the bell, although both Paul and I had completely forgotten about that, and it was Andrew's first climbing wall experience!



















Somehow he knew to "swing" back down as well. He must have been studying the people in line before us while Paul and I were talking to his co-workers.




















Where was John, you might ask? He was too young for the climbing wall, but sometimes a good bouncy castle just takes away the sting.















John more or less lived in this bouncy castle while the other 3 were waiting in line and climbing. You can do that when it's a company event and no time limits on activities. I enjoyed meeting some of the people with whom Paul works, and seeing yet another part of beautiful Northern California....and not making dinner, either!

Next up - a very late post about our Spring Break back in April, shortly after we moved!

Friday, Sept 17th - Being in God's will for your life

YEA! It's time for my post about how GREAT it's been to be in God's will! I'm so glad to be able to share this with you because what happened to me was SO NEAT!

Being in God's will for your life is the BEST place to be. It might be uncomfortable or difficult or downright hard and not fun, but it also brings so much peace.....and God IS THERE and SO REAL when you need Him.

Most of you reading my blog know that, although I was excited to move to England and be closer to Paul's family, I didn't REALLY want to move. I had a 1yr old, almost 3 yr old, 5 yr old and 7 yr old. Mostly I struggled with the terms of our move. It was an open ended, sort of 'forever' move. I was totally content living in Austin. I loved our church, our friends, our house and our life. If Paul had come home with an offer for an assignment in England, with a clearly defined end date, I probably would have rejoiced with him and been very excited. It wasn't that. It was a "3-5 year" indefinite...sort of "forever" move. There were no promises that we would return after 3-5 years. There was definitely no guarantee that we would return to Austin. In fact, we were cutting our ties to Austin. I DIDN'T LIKE THAT! I definitely didn't want that!

However, I prayed about it, and I got some surprising answers. God made it very clear that He thought it would be a good idea to move to England. He showed me that my contentment was in our church, not in HIM, and that this would be a growth period for me. The chance to grow spiritually was intriguing - exciting even; the fact that it was England (where Paul's family lives) was REALLY exciting. The fact that it was a "move away" move, and we wouldn't know if/when we were coming back, and where we would move when we came back - that part I didn't like AT ALL.


God made it clear, though, that He wanted us to do this, so I obeyed. With every step towards moving internationally, my heart broke a little more. The night before we left, I sobbed into Paul's arms and said I didn't know if I could do this.

Living in England was harder than I expected. I went full of hope thinking that maybe we would make a difference in people's lives.

Instead, I was alone most of the day, all day, everyday. The cost of living in Britain is high, and most women worked. There were a few things I could join but one by one, God closed the doors. I kept praying and over and over and cried out to God for help, and I heard His quiet whisper - this is about you and Me. God closed doors and forced me to work on our relationship. It was hard. It was very lonely. The weather was cool and rainy, day after day and year after year. It was constantly damp. It was dark from 3pm on for 3-4 months of the year. I would watch the sun fall over the horizon as I picked up the kids from school. It was like living in a cave from after school until the next morning. It was the loneliness that was so tough, though.

But then the sun began to shine. My quiet times with God were SO RICH and SO FULL. They were indescribable. I heard God talk to my heart on a DAILY BASIS. He was so close and so real. I'm forever changed by those days. When we moved to England, I thought we'd take 1 vacation a year, per the U.S. routine. I was BLOWN AWAY by all of the traveling we did! It was always my heart's desire to have our children understand life outside of the U.S. I NEVER expected it to be in the form of traveling all over Europe! Never!

It goes without saying that it was WONDERFUL to be close to all of Paul's family. COMPLETELY WONDERFUL. They were family, which was best of all, but they were also my lifeline to some social activity and it helped. All of us have made irreplaceable memories. Hopefully our children have been changed by having relatives so close by.

Facebook came into existence - or at least into my existence. I felt closer to our friends in Austin. Who knew that social networking would come to my life when I moved away?

3 years went by, and then we had an opportunity to move back......but it wasn't to Austin. Paul tried hard. His company understood....but the job was in California. California. ANOTHER one of my fears. What was God doing? Trying to knock down ALL of my fears? Maybe :) Need I talk about the extreme high cost of living in California, the poor schools, the liberal attitudes, the state taxes, the regulations? How about starting all over again in a new place? Honestly, I'm not a mover! I'm a PLANTER! What about our friends and our church? I OBEYED and went to England, why didn't God send us back to Austin? (He never promised to do that.)

We prayed, and Austin became a possibility. I heard God whisper Austin to me. Suddenly we had a chance to return to Austin! Our move to England would be all that I hoped for...an assignment! We prayed for God's will to happen. Then the door to Austin firmly closed. We didn't ask for Austin. We asked for God's will. See what a change had happened to me? Instead of asking for what I thought would be good for us, I asked for what God thought would be good for us. That's a BIG change. It's an IMPORTANT change.

I didn't expect what happened next. God kicked into high gear. We had looked at houses in California on-line. I knew we'd be paying almost 3X the cost of a house in Austin for a smaller, older house in California. It just seemed completely ridiculous. What a waste!

We had 3 days to find a house in the Silicon Valley area of Northern California. We gave the realtors our desires. I wrote them on a piece of paper in order of priority. I didn't dream big. I was realistic.

For the first time, I had to leave the kids and go to ANOTHER COUNTRY separated BY AN OCEAN without them. The most I had left them before was to a hotel downtown with Paul. I think we did that twice in 10 years. I had to pray a lot for this house-hunting trip across an ocean, to another country, without the kids. The kids did great! God gave us great childcare.

In our jet-lagged state, we slept far less than we needed on our 3 days away. We saw over 20 houses in 3 days. We prayed a lot. AND GOD SHOWED UP. Even though my heart wasn't in this move, GOD SHOWED UP. It was His will for our life that we go to California, and He gave me the shock of my life.

He provided the most amazing house. It took me a about 3 months after we moved to find my paper list of my realistic desires for a house in California...the list where I thought we might get our top 1-2 desires, to realize that God gave us EVERYTHING ON OUR LIST! He even gave us FAR MORE than our list! Our new house is TWICE the size that I thought we'd find. It is about 30 years newer than I dared hope for. It is a high end house, something I NEVER expected in California. It is in one of the top rated school districts in all of Northern California (That was #1 on our list). It is in a small, conservative town. The house and the town are completely beautiful (That was never on my list at all).

I still can't believe it.

The move was totally smooth. No problems anywhere. The kids sailed into their new schools and LOVED IT. I was the one pining away for the English school. (I still do sometimes, but I'm not going down that path again.) The older 3 kids made friends in a WEEK. All 3 of them. In one week, they had play dates and by the end of the 1st month, Kathryn had an invitation to a SLEEP OVER! My mind was MORE than boggled by God's goodness, mercy, graciousness and power.

Things were going so well that now I had a little bit of a struggle. This house was huge -much larger than either of our two previous houses. When our furniture arrived, it looked RIDICULOUS in this house. Hence my struggle. We had a huge amount of wide open spaces. It wasn't my desire to spend a bunch of money on furnishing the house; on the other hand, God provided the house. We felt sure He wanted us to pick this one. I prayed again, and I felt God saying that He gave this to us. It's OK for me to furnish it a little.

I prayed over and over that God would help me spend wisely; that I would honor Him with our spending. Paul looked at the numbers and gave me 'decorating' budget. Wait until you hear what all God did.

* I found TWO couches that were almost 1/2 the cost of what Paul and I discussed as a budget. Two for the price of one. You can't go wrong with that!
* I had a chair recovered to match one of the new couches. The material that the decorator suggested was out of stock. I walked away and prayed while she found some new choices. I picked one of the choices. She checked the price and it was 1/4 the original price.

* The week that I took the chair in to be re-upholstered, a coupon showed up in the mail for 20% off any re-upholstering.

* I fell in love with a kitchen table and 8 chairs, but I didn't want to pay that much. Months went by. One day I went into the store and that table was on sale. So were the chairs. So was the fabric that the decorator suggested for the chairs! The whole thing fit into our budget!

* When I got to the stage of hanging pictures, we had the EXACT RIGHT amount of pictures! There are no weird blank walls shouting for something on them, despite the much larger house (There are a lot of windows in this house).

* I found a framer to frame a couple of pictures that I had a local artist do for us when we left England. She matted the pictures and threw them in with the cost of the picture. It turned out to be FAR CHEAPER than paying for mats and frames in the U.S.

* Just before I took the pictures in to be framed, another coupon showed up for 15% off any frames at shop I picked.

* Even with 2 extra rooms, and much larger in size, we only had to buy 2 new lamps for the whole house.

* And, the thing I liked the best, after asking around, I found a decorator FOR FREE. I'm terrible at mixing and matching, and the free decorator took away a lot of stress.

There are even more things, but I think you get the idea.

None of it was me. All if it was God. I'm still in awe when I come home. We prayed over this house and asked that it would be a place that God uses for people to visit to feel His love.

The best part of all - the PEACE that comes from being where you are suppose to be. That peace is AMAZING. In England, I never worried about anything. Even now in California, where there are so many things I disagree with or don't want to expose the kids to, I don't worry. I have complete peace that this is God's will for us. God doesn't have to do this, but over and over, once I hear something that I don't like, my kids make statements that show me how GREAT God has been to protect them. I just keep praying.

God's will is a nice place to be. It's the BEST place to be. Now let's be honest. Has it been easy? NO. Has it been fun? NO. Has it been relaxing and full of happiness, NO, I've been exhausted. Do I daydream about our (previous) life in Austin. Yes. I'm as sinful and rebellious as the next person. Am I happy? Well, God doesn't promise us happiness. He promises us PEACE. I have peace. It was very clear that God wanted us in California. I have great peace that we are where we are suppose to be. It feels WONDERFUL! In fact, although it's been hard and tiring, following God's will for our lives has been THRILLINGLY AMAZING. I truly mean that! I have a peace that's beyond all understanding. It feels WONDERFUL! I look at all we did and I'm in SHOCK. God has been SO GOOD to us!

Life here isn't perfect. Paul is commuting 30 min to 1 1/2 hours each way every day. It's the first place that we've lived where he doesn't eat dinner with us regularly. He can't commit to anything for the various activities at the kids' schools, and I can't possibly do it all. Again, I could be critical of our life here, but I trust God. He is so good and so big and powerful....and He's done so much for us - so much that we don't deserve. I trust Him for our time here.

I'm thankful that Paul has a job! Since moving to California we've met A LOT of unemployed people. It scares me. I'm shocked and beyond amazed that we've had the experiences that we've had. None of it is us. It's all God.

All of the amazing things we've done - all of the beautiful places we've been......it has been God and not us that has initiated these things. We are far from perfect. We are totally sinful and completely undeserving of these things. God may choose to take them all away again. It's all His, and He can do that. If he does, it will be for our good. Right now, my heart is so full and so amazed that I want to give everything away. Really! Since we moved back to the U.S., we've upped our spending to the missionaries that we support. We gave a one time donation to a new set of missionaries. I'm trying to spend even less on groceries and life so that we can support more kids who don't have food to eat every day.

When those stubborn thoughts of Austin enter my mind, I ask God to help me let go and trust Him more. I BEG Him that we will not be distracted by what we want, but that God CLEARLY helps us hear His will for our lives.

Lastly, I ask Him that my will be aligned with His. He is good and all powerful. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! I wonder what God will do in your life if you trusted Him fully?

Next up, I have a couple of posts - one of a visit we had to Saratoga Springs, California, and one to "The Mystery Spot". Our adventures continue. It is AMAZING.

Saturday, July 31st - the most beautiful beach

The drive to Pfeiffer beach took us along the famous California Hwy 1. It is just plain pretty. Look at this coastline!














Pfeiffer beach lived up to our expectations.....and even spilled over to be better than expected!
Over and over, God delights me. I thought it was far enough South to hopefully escape the "cloudy and cool" Northern California beach weather. Turns out that it wasn't far enough South, BUT, today, the sun was out, which the park ranger commented was very unusual! My tired and exhausted body and mind were so thankful for the little treasures that God keeps giving to keep me going!

The purple sand wasn't evident. It looked pretty brown to me. However, when we explored a bit, what looked like some rocks turned out to be light purple sand! I did take a picture, but even in the picture it looks like a rock. When you come visit (and you all are welcome) we can direct you, or take you there and you can see this purple sand in person!

It was wonderful to get to the beach. We staked out our spot, put some towels down and started organizing our stuff. The kids asked if they could run down a sandy hill. Sure. Why not? Kids having fun with the sand is a great beach activity! This one looked super fun. Doesn't this look great?!

Let them run and burn off their energy while we get set up. We put our towels down and I sat. The kids had been going up and down the hill and suddenly they were only going up. I mean, up into the mountain! FOR GOODNESS SAKE! Is it not possible for us to just sit and relax? Literally, I had JUST sat down!

See them going UP?




















I don't know whose idea it was, but 2 children made wise choices. John (our "street smart" boy), THANKFULLY said that it was not good for him to go up. It was too tricky. Maybe his heart wasn't as obedient as we want it to be, but God gave him the ability to know when it's smart to say NO. We were SO THANKFUL that John didn't join in this escapade! Our good girl, Megan, REALLY wanted to go, but she was havering. She stood on the crest between the sand slope and the mountain and wasn't sure what to do. We were yelling for them to STOP, but the roar of the ocean drowned out our desperate cries. Both Paul and I went charging up the sand and on to the mountain, and I was able to get far enough up for Megan to decide to go back down. My sister stayed with Megan and John and took pictures, while Paul and I charged up the mountain. By sheer luck, I got to the top first, and we took up stations. Paul stayed near the top of the sand dune part while I charged further up.

It was STEEP. The other picture doesn't do it justice. Look at this.















The view from further up was amazing! That is Paul in the black shirt with his hands on his hips. As I sent people back down, I gave them a "talking to" about ASKING before they do something. Apparently Paul did the same thing as they came through "his station"!















In case you think we were overreacting, look how steep this is!




















It was almost a drop off at some points (although TOTALLY BEAUTIFUL, which I'm sure was completely lost on the kids)!















We got all 3 back down safely, although I had a few moments where I prayed HARD and had visions of sending out the park rangers. It turns out that the path up the mountain split at one point and all 3 were totally out of sight. I yelled and yelled, but they couldn't hear me. I pictured staying out there all night, waiting for the rangers to find the children, even though I knew my imagination was going wild. Just when I started up one of the paths, Andrew appeared totally unconcerned and having a great time exploring and climbing. I was SO RELIEVED that I gave him a HUGE hug (carefully, so we didn't both fall to our deaths) and asked about the others. He was NOT very re-assuring when he said that he didn't know where they were!

Fortunately Kathryn showed up just then, and after another minute, David showed up. WHEW!
Here they are, starting back down the path. Did I mention that it was STEEP?















Paul got stuck on the way down. Kathryn picked one way down, and I followed her, but Paul picked another. It was somewhat re-assuring that Kathryn took the "better" path. She was at a cross roads, looked at it and said, "this way will be better". I agreed with her and also didn't want to let her out of my sight. Paul took the other way and ended up here.



















Oh well. It all came out all right in the end. We all talked with the kids about RESPECTFULLY ASKING PERMISSION before doing things like this in the future, and then we had did have a great afternoon.

Pfeiffer beach really was wonderful. Look at these rocks!














We allowed the kids to climb on them (and Paul was sitting on one of them).














The beach was so nice that someone got married on it!















It had this nice little stream.















And this fun pool of water.















It was truly beautiful!



































It was a GORGEOUS day. Look at the blue sky! Actually, that is common in Northern California. I can't believe how blue the sky is here!




















John actually feel asleep like this BEFORE we got to the beach, but it gave him energy to run up and down that hill! (I guess the mirrors and laser spy thing wore him out.)



















Andrew had SUCH a great time that he chose this day from our whole summer to talk about when he gives his "speech" in 1st grade!

Pfeiffer beach - totally beautiful and totally worth the drive. We had another great day.