Audrey Turns Five

Audrey Grace turned 5 on Saturday.

In our house, turning 5 gets you the ability to chew gum and get your ears pierced, in addition to whatever other presents family and friends gift upon you.

We had a late night the night before. She slept very well.

sleeping - last night as a 4 y/o

When she awoke on her birthday she was all too excited to start her birthday activities.

I'M 5 MOMMY!!!

We started the day officially with breakfast.  She's been BEGGING to go to Coco's for months.  We promised her breakfast at Coco's for her birthday.  So there we went.

Making a tower out of the creamers

After breakfast, Auntie Becky came up and gave Audrey her gift.  She wins the big prize for the soundtrack to the movie Frozen and a new pair of flip-flops - without the back strap.

New "grown-up" flip-flops without a back strap

"Frozen" Soundtrack

She got to talk on the phone with family who doesn't live local -- Gramma Janet, Auntie Berta, Gramma Linda, Brother Andrew.....

Talking on the phone to family

Then we went to the mall and got her ears pierced.  It was a traumatic experience.  It took us about 10 years to calm her down from the first year.  Josh agreed to get a new earring of her choice if she got her second hole done.  She wasn't happy with it, and screamed up until the gun reached her ear.  As it did, she quit screaming, took a deep breath, said, "be brave! be brave!" and was perfectly fine.  She said the 2nd ear didn't hurt at all.

"Be brave, be brave be brave." - If only she had said her mantra on the first ear.

Holding Daddy's hands to help him be brave

Be brave Daddy

Pretty new flower earring

It was Kymi's Prom on Saturday too, so we spent the afternoon getting ready to take fun formal-ish photos for Kymi and her boyfriend Tom.  In the process of getting set up, we got to take other photos too.

Then the girls and friend Tina helped decorate the birthday cake.

Mmm ... chocolate cake with strawberries

In addition to the already mentioned presents, Audrey also helped pick out her very first bible.  She's very excited to learn about Jesus and where He lived.

Weekend 10

Last weekend Josh with mountain bike riding with some guys from church.  Meanwhile, the girls and I went for a hike on the same trail.  I took my camera with me.  I was struggling finding the balance between mom on a hike and photographer in nature.  Consequently, my photos were not technically the best.  BUT ... they documented our fun outing together, so it's still a win!

Audrey at the plaque that sits at the trailhead

Audrey and the valley below

Josh and buddies starting their ride

"Look mom ... the number 8"

These wildflowers were so pretty.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo of one.  Guess I'll have to go back and try again.

The valley below.  You can see probably 20 miles east.

Pretty field at the top of the hike, where our trail met with several others.  This is where we chose to turn around.

I loved how the purple flowers and yellow flowers looked together on the side of the trail.  But again, just couldn't get them in focus. 

The girls were ecstatic to see a lizard on the trail.  He skittered away as soon as I tried to get closer to get a better photo.

Both girls together at the plaque at the trailhead. 

Memorization Monday - 2/10/14

I didn't have a verse for this week.  Nothing jumped out at me throughout my reading last week and the sermon used a verse that I already knew.  I grabbed the "Verse of the Day" on my youversion app.  (If you don't have a youversion app, I highly recommend downloading it.  It's an awesome FREE (both monetarily and ad-free) app.)

anyway ... my verse this week is 2 Corinthians 5:15

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

This is the crux of our faith.  Christ died for ALL of us.  And now, we live FOR HIM, not for us.  It's all about the death and resurrection.

Are you memorizing or studying anything right now?  Please feel free to share it here.

Memorization Monday

A day late on this one due to a sans-technology 3-day weekend with family. This week's verse is what our current sermon series is based on.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 

Ephesians 3:20-21

What are you memorizing this week?

Memorization Monday - 1/27/14

This week's verse is a classic Psalm.  I like how it reminds of us God's greatness and why we should praise and honor Him.

Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty— and I will meditate on your wonderful works.

Psalm 145:3, 5 

 

 What are you memorizing or reading or studying?  What have you read lately that's made you stop and think or praise the Lord?

Memorization Monday - 1/20/14

This week's passage comes straight out of our sermon from yesterday.  The sermon was on living out God's calling for our lives.  In addition to the points Pastor Mike made during the sermon, I am reminded of a saying I originally heard in college, "God does not call the equipped, He equips the called."

Ephesians 2:10 

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 What are you memorizing this week?  Or at minimum, what passage(s) are you studying?  Tweet or G+ your memory verses with #memorizationmonday.  Or leave a comment here.

Memorization Monday - 1 John 2:15-17

The memory verse this week comes from my daily reading.  A good reminder where we need to focus our attention and energy.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

1 John 2:15-17

Do you have a verse you are memorizing this week?  Share it here in the comments.  Or tweet it using #memorizationmonday.  

Happy Memorizing.

Memorization Monday

New Year, new hopes. Trying again to memorize scripture.  

This week's is from our sermon series.

Colossians 1:27
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

2014 Goals

Well, it's that time of year to sit down and assess last year's goals and set goals for next year.

Last year's goals:

Health/Fitness

• Run 750 miles this year
• One run of 20+ miles
• Do yoga once/week (average)
• Hit the gym 2x/week (average)
• Running 3-4 times/week (average)
• Weight - happy with maintaining to losing up to 10 lbs.  Keep same pant size or go down 1.  No more than that.  But I'd really like to find a good maintenance routine.
• The weekly goals are flexible.  Obviously allow myself to get sick.  I've found that it's difficult to run when on vacations.  And there are times when life is so busy I can only get my lunchtime runs in.  But on average, I want to shoot for these frequencies.  

Spiritual

• Spend time in the word and prayer 4x/week.  
• Ideally this should be daily, but let's face it - with two toddlers in the house, it doesn't happen daily.  I have a 4-day schedule that I've made in the past and I'd like to get back to it. 

Professionally

• I'd love to say that my goal is to get a promotion this year, but I don't really have a whole lot of say in that.  And since I've been aiming for a promotion for 3 years, I'm not holding my breath.  But it's on my list of things to strive for.
• Be more assertive with the two who I work with.  Less wishy-washy in giving them direction and guidance.  Be more straight-forward and to the point.  (These are two people who I am sort of in charge of - unofficially - no title but all the responsibility)
• Be more independent and creative with finding projects and things to do.  Stop waiting for bossman to come to me and instead find the ideas and initiative to do it myself.
• Don't be so sensitive when corrected or given negative feedback.  Suck it up and move on.  Learn from it and grow. 

Relationally

• Be more sensitive and aware of Josh's wants/needs/desires.
• Be more sensitive and aware of my children's wants/needs/desires
• Make grander attempts to meet new people at church and form new friendships.  To get together with different people.  
• I only know a select few people at church; those I know are older with older children or younger with no children. I want to change that.  I want to get to know more people in the same station of life as me - early to mid 30s with young children.  (I don't have time or ability to go to a MOPS group.) 

Around the House

• Clean the bathroom more often
• keep my stuff organized in the bedroom and on my desk
• clean out the garage!
• Pay off 2 credit cards

So how did I do?

Health/Fitness: I had a non-running related injury in early April that prevented me from reaching my goals.  I'm OK with that.  I re-vamped my goal sometime in the summer.  I was not anticipating my injury to keep bothering me.  About one week a month starting in July I had to not run while my knee did it's wonky thing.  After 6 months, I think I figured out what triggers it.  Ultimately I'd like to have it fixed surgically; that will require convincing my Dr. that there's something actually wrong.

Spiritual: I did fairly well with this.  I did various reading plans through YouVersion.  I read through the Proverbs with my BFF.  I read a couple Christian Living/Devotional books.  I prayed consistently.

Professionally: I felt good about this.  I did not get a promotion.  It did come up (again), so my hopes aren't all lost on this.  I feel like I've taken great strides in my dealings with people.  And in my motivation and productivity.

Relationally: This is a hard one to really gauge since it isn't a quantitative subject.  It's an ongoing life-struggle for me.  For 2013, I think I did OK in this.  I've met new people at church.  I've tuned in to Josh.  I've played games and read books with the girls (dropping everything to do so).

Around the House: I think I cleaned the bathroom more frequently - I didn't keep track though.  So I don't know.  I worked hard at keeping my things organized.  I am more sensitive to the messes around me.  The garage got cleaned several times throughout the year.  One credit card got paid off, but due to some unforseen expenses (vacation for funeral, my injury, josh had some extensive medical bills) and decreased income, we were unable to pay off the second card.

So what for 2014?

Health/Fitness: With my injury still bothering me, my goals are small this year.

• I'm not setting a mileage goal because I don't know what is going to happen with my knee.  
• When healthy, I'd like to work out 5 days/week.
• I'd like to get my long run back up to 10 miles.
• I'd like to complete my 2.9 mile hill/trail run without stopping to walk

Spiritual:

• Continue my prayer/reading routine
• Memorize verses again (I keep trying and failing on this one.  I'm not sure what I will do to make it actually happen)

Professionally: Not really sure here.  A lot of things are out of my hands.

• I want to be bold and ask for a promotion.
• Continue improvements in productivity and independence.

Relationally:

• Continue to spend quality time with the girls
• Continue to be more in tune to Josh
• I want to really work on my relationship with Kymberly and my irrational outbursts/anger toward her.
• Family night 2 nights/month (due to Josh's unpredictable gigging schedule - I don't want to commit to more than that.

Around the House:

• Pay off the card that didn't get paid off in 2013.  Continue to work to be debt free.
• Continue improving on seeing my messes and cleaning them.

Photo Fail with a random photo bomb......

A couple weeks ago Josh had band practice at the house.  So we made plans to go to the city and look at the giant Christmas Tree in Union Square and check out some of the stores and get some hot chocolate.

While in front on the Christmas Tree, Audrey wanted to get a picture.  Annie, however, wasn't too interested.

This little boy, however, was more than willing to get his photo taken.

Oh well.  We'll take what we can get.  

Annual Pumpkin Patch

A couple weeks ago we did our annual visit to the pumpkin patch.  Like always, it was hot and not fall-like as one would appreciate for an October visit.  Annie was in a grumpy mood and just didn't seem to embrace the fun as the rest of us did.

We managed to get a few photos and have some fun.  Annie eventually cheered up when it was time to go on the tractor-train ride.  

They really enjoyed the teeter-totter.  Although neither one was really heavy enough to get much action out of it.

Audrey enjoyed feeding the goats

Cliche photo walking across the bridge.  Small miracle that I was able to do this with no photo-bombs

Tractor-Train ride thing

Her only smile of the day.  I thought she would be scared - but she absolutely LOVED this ride.

She refused to sit alone; so Aunt Becky saved the day and sat with her.  

My forever princess - I think she was secretly hoping these pumpkins would turn into Cinderella's coach

She was so enthralled by the tiny pumpkins.  

5th Anniversary Getaway

This past weekend Josh and I celebrated our 5th anniversary.  Our good friends from church watched the girls for 2 nights and we just spent 48 hours enjoying each other's company.  It was great to be able to talk without interruption.  To be able to eat dinner without having to coerce a young child to eat hers or have to cut up someone's meat.  It was fantastic to watch TV without concern of content.  We put our cell phones down and just focused on each other (it helped that we forgot phone chargers so were on minimal use mode until we got home).

The best part of the entire weekend, though, was seeing my daughters' faces for the first time on Sunday.  Audrey running through the worship center to jump into my arms.  Annie grabbing my neck and giving me the biggest hug a 2 y/o could muster.  Hearing their stories and adventures.

Many thanks to John and Heidi for watching the girls for us.  We really appreciate it.

We went to Santa Cruz.  I've lived in the bay area for 10 years and have never been to Santa Cruz.  Amusement parks hold little interest for me, and the best times to go to SC are when it takes 3 hours to get there due to the insane traffic.  So I've just never been.  Our anniversary was a perfect excuse to go.  It was Friday, so there was little traffic and few people.  We could just enjoy the scenery and each other without chaos.

We stayed at a quaint bed and breakfast within walking distance of the touristy spots, without being in the touristy spots.  And we had opportunities to check out the local areas too since we walked quite a bit.

I took a few pictures.  I love the ocean; it just captivates me and all my attention.

This particular photo is a rare event.  Me and Josh together - alone.  I'm not proud of this photo from a technical standpoint.  The focus is wacky, the camera was too low, etc.  But I love it because it's a photo of my husband and me on our anniversary.

To see more photos from our trip, visit my flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/biochemtine/)

Moon Rising

Having enjoyed my sunrise shoot so much the other day, and having discovered a local spot where the bay (and the hills in the peninsula) I was aching to get out and watch the sunset.

I chose a day based on what my schedule allowed.  The sky wasn't anything special that day.  There was a grass fire a couple miles east of me, so the sky was hazy.  But there were no storm clouds (I missed one heck of a lighting storm the other night ....) or anything spectacular.  Living in a valley, however, I've not been able to watch sunsets regularly like I used to growing up.  When I was in college I had a dorm room on the top floor of the tallest building on the hill looking west.  It was an ideal sunset watching location.  And I LOVED it.  But the last 8 years or so have really been lacking in sunset availability.  So any sunset is awesome in my book.

At any rate, I hopped in my car and drove to "my new spot."  Got there in plenty of time.  Due to high winds on this hill, I did not take a tripod.  My tripod isn't very sturdy to begin with, let alone with high winds.

I was waiting for the sun to do it's thing.  Got a couple "practice" shots in, set my exposure, got a feel for the location and waited.  I sat down on the bench, facing east, and saw this.  

The slight hazy/smokey sky with the sun reflecting off it was pretty in and of itself.  But the moon coming up just behind the clouds ... MONEY!  I was excited to get it; kinda wish I noticed it a minute earlier when it was only half up.  I've been aching for a decent moon photo for the better part of 6 months.  I like this one enough to share it.

Hike with the Girls

I took a detour on the drive home the other day and ended up driving past a local regional park with some hiking trails.  After I explained what the place was, Audrey was itching to go on a hike and check it out.

So Saturday afternoon, after we all took much needed naps, the girls and I went on a little hike.

We logged about 2 miles total.  But with small children, that's 2 very SLOW miles.  We stopped a lot and rested.  We took our time going up the hills.  We looked out on the valley below from the top of the hill.  We mooed at the cows at the bottom of the hill.

The girls each had a copy of the map and they followed along, finding each trail marker on the map as we passed them on the trail.  We got to the 5th trail marker when we decided to turn around.

It was windy.

The girls learned that cow poop is also called a cow pie.  They learned what they look like and know not to step in them.

I practiced patience with them and let them play and have fun and move at their pace.

They posed for pictures.

Audrey fell, got up, wiped off the dirt, and was ready to keep going.  (My girl's a rockstar when it comes to falling!)

It was an awesome outing and I hope to go again.

Got the map - we're ready to go!

PEACE!

The view from the top of Donlon Hill

Looking down at the valley below

Believe it or not .... the bay is visible from here.

CHEESE!  (now can we go home mom?!)