So my blogging has been sporadic at best, huh?? This month has just truly been nutso.  After getting back from California, I was called in to work many more hours than normal, Mitch was gone for 2 separate business trips, we went camping, and now we're getting ready for Mitch to leave for a week starting tomorrow (he's chaperoning a SERVE trip with our church's youth group) and Lucas and I are headed to Sioux Falls to hang out with my family for Father's Day.  Then next week I work full days again!  Maybe, someday, things will be back to normal again!!

I have a ton of pictures to upload but haven't found the time yet, so be looking forward to those...someday!

One exciting bit is that we finally turned in our initial paperwork this week for adoption #2! Don't get too excited...the waiting continues as we basically had to start completely over (this floored me...I thought we would just have to update paperwork from the first time around but not the case).  So now we wait for our initial application to be accepted, then we attend a one day class in mid-September, THEN do the homestudy.  And then, hopefully by November, we'll officially be in the waiting pool again.  Ah, the wonderful process. But hopefully it will ALL be worth it. 

In the mean-time, Lucas is keeping us plenty entertained. His new trick for the week is climbing out of his crib. Oh joy! He stayed in there nicely for bed-time last night, so hopefully that continues to be the case!! I don't think I'm ready for a big-boy bed, but maybe later this summer??  How old were your kids when they were transitioned out of the crib?

That's all for now...but happy Friday!

Hey everyone!

I still can't believe it is June already! Time is such a weird thing...it just keeps flying by.  The last bit of May ended in a flurry.  Mitch's parents were here for the fews days before Memorial Day, and we had such a nice weekend with them. Goodness, it feels like such a long time ago already!  We grilled out, enjoyed time at the zoo, had a yummy meal out, and just lots of time to play.

I found out Friday night, just as we were sitting down to dinner, that my uncle had passed away.  I knew it was coming, as he had been in the hospital and was unresponsive for a couple of days.  I didn't really expect much sadness since he had been in a nursing home for so long, but it still hit me hard.  He was my dad's only brother and such a good uncle.  I wasn't extremely close to him, somewhat due to distance, but he alwasy genuinely cared and kept in touch well.  He once offered to pay me $100 if I could go without smiling for 1 minute.  I couldn't even do it!! I don't think he was doing anything purposely to make me laugh, but just being around him was reason enough to smile when I was 7 years old :). 

So anyhow, I had in the back of my mind all weekend long that I should go to California for the funeral.  But there were things I kept coming up with that kept me from making plans right away...work, flying with Lucas by myself?!, money, etc.  But I knew it was more important to go.  So I finally booked my flight on Monday night. I used a free flight that Mitch and I had planned to use for a vacation in the fall, but I guess we'll worry about that later!  I thought I was going to work Tuesday so I set the flight for Weds. morning...but after arriving there on Tuesday morning, it was clear that they hadn't expected me to come in.  So I hurried home, discovered I could change my flight to that afternoon, and I packed like crazy!  Thankfully I had done laundry the night before! :) 

Lucas was CRAZY on the first flight (2 1/2 hours long). He didn't stop moving the entire time!! I knew he was tired, but there was just too much to see. He played peek-a-boo with the people behind us, slid down to the floor, laid on the floor, hopped back up to the seat, ate crackers, read books, pushed the buttons the light panel, threw his stuffed puppy at the people behind us, sucked his thumb for 2 seconds, tried to eat his Color Wonder markers, read some more books, at some pretzels...whew!! I was pretty relieved to get to Phoenix.  Although that airport was SO crowded!! The flight from Phoenix to Orange County was pretty short, and we were very happy to see my parents at the airport! They had flown in a few days earlier and rented a car, so that worked well.  I'm glad we don't have to fly half way across the country every time we want to see Grandma and Papa!!

The 2 hours time change was a bit of a challenge, as Lucas continually woke up super early in the morning.  But Grandma was often up as well so helped entertain him for a while!  We stayed at my Auntie Carol's house...very kid-friendly as she's used to having grandkids around, which was nice.

Wednesday morning  we went to Seal Beach and had lunch at Ruby's (a 50's diner at the very end of the pier). Lucas enjoyed seeing the ocean for the first time, watching boats and sea gulls.  It was a gray morning, but still so beautiful.
 







Wednesday evening was Uncle Bill's visitation.  That was a very hard moment seeing him in the coffin...didn't look like him as he had aged a lot since I had seen him last.  It was good to see cousins, however...so many bittersweet moments. 

Here Lucas is with my sweet cousin Lisa.  Lisa is Uncle Bill's daughter.


Lucas was so tired as he hadn't napped since 11:00 that morning (thus I was tired as well!), and the visitation was an hour from where we were staying.  So I was not looking forward to his late bed-time!  Unexpectedly, we were blessed by being offered a room for the night in that city...friends of my parents had plenty of room and graciously invited us in.  They even had a crib for Lucas...he fell asleep instantly! What a blessing to be there that night.

Thursday morning was the grave-side service, followed by his memorial service at church.  It was hard to say good-bye...but is such relief that he doesn't have to live in the nursing home, in his too-quickly-aging body anymore.  The memorial service was beautiful...lots of good music and a neat open-mic time.  My cousin Lisa and my Aunt Carol shared quite a few stories about him; then it was opened up to the people attending.  Uncle Bill: a man who cared deeply about his family, excelled in his work, was intensely generous, had a crazy dry sense of humor, loved to put on a big ol' BBQ, and loved his Lord.  Those are all good things to remember about him.

It was an exhausting time...good to be with family and good to remember.  I had originally thought about going home Friday already, but I'm so glad we stayed until Sunday.  Those last 2 days were just fun...that's important too! 




 

I didn't grow up close in proximity to all these cousins (my dad was the only one of his family who left California for the Midwest...before I was born), but they are FAMILY and it's so good to keep those ties strong.  Love you all, my California cousins!!

And then, it was time to head home...


  I was just dreading flying home Sunday morning, and was praying & praying that God was help Lucas to relax on the plane.  He was so good on the short flight to Vegas...but I still had an almost 3 hours flight to get home!! Oh please, oh please??!!  Thirty minutes after take-off, my little boy who could not even sit still on the way there, was fast asleep.  Oh, hallelujah.  We made it home in one piece!!

Do any of you have perfectly organized linen closets?  Mine isn't too bad, but it also is for random kitchen items, so it's a little stuffed. 

But one thing I like to do to keep at least the sheet organized is tuck the fitted sheet inside the top sheet so you can always find the whole set.  I have also tucked both sheets inside the matching pillowcase...have a need to change your sheets quickly?  Pull out the case and you have your whole set!   Simple, but it works for me.

Also, for blankets & flannel sheets that you only use in winter time, you can use those vacuum bags we’ve all seen on TV. You can put blankets in the bags and suck the air out with a vacuum. It protects them and it reduces the size of bulky items for easy storage.

If you are still short on space, get rid of ancient towels and sheets you no longer need!

On dealing with paper clutter:

Right now I have a pile of mail that is waiting to be dealt with on my table.  I usually keep up with it fairly well, but there are always things that take a while to find "their home".  Here's some advice I found that could be helpful if you struggle with this too!

• Avoid being a neat freak.  Neatness doesn't count if you end up throwing away stuff you need in the process of cleaning up. (I've been guilty of this!)
  
• Be selective.  Clutter doesn't spring from not having the time or space to put things away; it comes from being indecisive.  (so true!) Decide exactly what you want and get rid of anything that doesn't fit.
• Forget some advice.  "Handle each paper once" is a little too extreme to work.  Instead, try to take action each time you pick up a piece of paper--either file it, make a notation on your calendar, call someone, or decide it is not pertinent to your life and recycle it.
• Don't be afraid to file.  You should be able to clear your desk just by filing things in the proper place (if you have that proper place organized in the first place!). 
  

What do you do to keep a handle on paper clutter? 

For me, each time I get the mail, I (usually) at least go through it right away.  I pick out the junk mail first & throw that in recycling.  Then I open statements, recycle the envelopes, and make a pile of the things that have to be just filed versus dealt with (ie. paid, etc).  Magazines are one thing I struggle keeping up with...but they usually get put right away in a magazine rack we have in our bathroom, so we always know where to find them .

So my blogging has been sporadic at best, huh?? This month has just truly been nutso.  After getting back from California, I was called in to work many more hours than normal, Mitch was gone for 2 separate business trips, we went camping, and now we're getting ready for Mitch to leave for a week starting tomorrow (he's chaperoning a SERVE trip with our church's youth group) and Lucas and I are headed to Sioux Falls to hang out with my family for Father's Day.  Then next week I work full days again!  Maybe, someday, things will be back to normal again!!

I have a ton of pictures to upload but haven't found the time yet, so be looking forward to those...someday!

One exciting bit is that we finally turned in our initial paperwork this week for adoption #2! Don't get too excited...the waiting continues as we basically had to start completely over (this floored me...I thought we would just have to update paperwork from the first time around but not the case).  So now we wait for our initial application to be accepted, then we attend a one day class in mid-September, THEN do the homestudy.  And then, hopefully by November, we'll officially be in the waiting pool again.  Ah, the wonderful process. But hopefully it will ALL be worth it. 

In the mean-time, Lucas is keeping us plenty entertained. His new trick for the week is climbing out of his crib. Oh joy! He stayed in there nicely for bed-time last night, so hopefully that continues to be the case!! I don't think I'm ready for a big-boy bed, but maybe later this summer??  How old were your kids when they were transitioned out of the crib?

That's all for now...but happy Friday!

Hey everyone!

I still can't believe it is June already! Time is such a weird thing...it just keeps flying by.  The last bit of May ended in a flurry.  Mitch's parents were here for the fews days before Memorial Day, and we had such a nice weekend with them. Goodness, it feels like such a long time ago already!  We grilled out, enjoyed time at the zoo, had a yummy meal out, and just lots of time to play.

I found out Friday night, just as we were sitting down to dinner, that my uncle had passed away.  I knew it was coming, as he had been in the hospital and was unresponsive for a couple of days.  I didn't really expect much sadness since he had been in a nursing home for so long, but it still hit me hard.  He was my dad's only brother and such a good uncle.  I wasn't extremely close to him, somewhat due to distance, but he alwasy genuinely cared and kept in touch well.  He once offered to pay me $100 if I could go without smiling for 1 minute.  I couldn't even do it!! I don't think he was doing anything purposely to make me laugh, but just being around him was reason enough to smile when I was 7 years old :). 

So anyhow, I had in the back of my mind all weekend long that I should go to California for the funeral.  But there were things I kept coming up with that kept me from making plans right away...work, flying with Lucas by myself?!, money, etc.  But I knew it was more important to go.  So I finally booked my flight on Monday night. I used a free flight that Mitch and I had planned to use for a vacation in the fall, but I guess we'll worry about that later!  I thought I was going to work Tuesday so I set the flight for Weds. morning...but after arriving there on Tuesday morning, it was clear that they hadn't expected me to come in.  So I hurried home, discovered I could change my flight to that afternoon, and I packed like crazy!  Thankfully I had done laundry the night before! :) 

Lucas was CRAZY on the first flight (2 1/2 hours long). He didn't stop moving the entire time!! I knew he was tired, but there was just too much to see. He played peek-a-boo with the people behind us, slid down to the floor, laid on the floor, hopped back up to the seat, ate crackers, read books, pushed the buttons the light panel, threw his stuffed puppy at the people behind us, sucked his thumb for 2 seconds, tried to eat his Color Wonder markers, read some more books, at some pretzels...whew!! I was pretty relieved to get to Phoenix.  Although that airport was SO crowded!! The flight from Phoenix to Orange County was pretty short, and we were very happy to see my parents at the airport! They had flown in a few days earlier and rented a car, so that worked well.  I'm glad we don't have to fly half way across the country every time we want to see Grandma and Papa!!

The 2 hours time change was a bit of a challenge, as Lucas continually woke up super early in the morning.  But Grandma was often up as well so helped entertain him for a while!  We stayed at my Auntie Carol's house...very kid-friendly as she's used to having grandkids around, which was nice.

Wednesday morning  we went to Seal Beach and had lunch at Ruby's (a 50's diner at the very end of the pier). Lucas enjoyed seeing the ocean for the first time, watching boats and sea gulls.  It was a gray morning, but still so beautiful.
 







Wednesday evening was Uncle Bill's visitation.  That was a very hard moment seeing him in the coffin...didn't look like him as he had aged a lot since I had seen him last.  It was good to see cousins, however...so many bittersweet moments. 

Here Lucas is with my sweet cousin Lisa.  Lisa is Uncle Bill's daughter.


Lucas was so tired as he hadn't napped since 11:00 that morning (thus I was tired as well!), and the visitation was an hour from where we were staying.  So I was not looking forward to his late bed-time!  Unexpectedly, we were blessed by being offered a room for the night in that city...friends of my parents had plenty of room and graciously invited us in.  They even had a crib for Lucas...he fell asleep instantly! What a blessing to be there that night.

Thursday morning was the grave-side service, followed by his memorial service at church.  It was hard to say good-bye...but is such relief that he doesn't have to live in the nursing home, in his too-quickly-aging body anymore.  The memorial service was beautiful...lots of good music and a neat open-mic time.  My cousin Lisa and my Aunt Carol shared quite a few stories about him; then it was opened up to the people attending.  Uncle Bill: a man who cared deeply about his family, excelled in his work, was intensely generous, had a crazy dry sense of humor, loved to put on a big ol' BBQ, and loved his Lord.  Those are all good things to remember about him.

It was an exhausting time...good to be with family and good to remember.  I had originally thought about going home Friday already, but I'm so glad we stayed until Sunday.  Those last 2 days were just fun...that's important too! 




 

I didn't grow up close in proximity to all these cousins (my dad was the only one of his family who left California for the Midwest...before I was born), but they are FAMILY and it's so good to keep those ties strong.  Love you all, my California cousins!!

And then, it was time to head home...


  I was just dreading flying home Sunday morning, and was praying & praying that God was help Lucas to relax on the plane.  He was so good on the short flight to Vegas...but I still had an almost 3 hours flight to get home!! Oh please, oh please??!!  Thirty minutes after take-off, my little boy who could not even sit still on the way there, was fast asleep.  Oh, hallelujah.  We made it home in one piece!!