Blessings

We have received many blessings in the last week! We found out for sure that we can get free dental check-ups and cleanings from a parent at Stone Ridge, Matt's school (we had heard rumors of this, but never knew for sure). Neither of us have been to the dentist in the last 2.5 years because we haven't had dental insurance of any kind and didn't want to put up the money. And Matt's insurance from work doesn't cover dental, so what a generous gift :). What a blessing, thank you Lord for providing.

The school I'm at right now (MCS-Merced Christian School) is paying for their staff to attend the ACSI teacher's convention in Sacramento at the end of October. They had offered to pay for me, and then we would just have to pay for Matt's fee and half a a hotel room. But even at that, plus food down there, we decided that things were a little too unstable with our incomes right now, and that we would hold off on that until next year. But then on Friday I was informed that some funding came in for Matt to be able to go too... so we're both covered and all we have to pay the whole time is for gas and food. Again, what a blessing, thank you Lord for providing.

I cam home to share that good news with Matt on Friday, and he informed me that Stone Ridge is paying to send us to a different conference as well. Actually, just Matt will be attending an AP Chemistry conference on Saturday, October 10. But we both get to go to and stay in La Jolla for Friday through Sunday. I've actually been to La Jolla once before in high school, it is right out of San Diego, and quite the upscale/ritzy little town. So it looks like a beach reading and strolling around town day for me while Matt is at the conference. Again, many blessings, thank you Lord for weekends away even when we don't have the means to pay for them.

I don't think I mentioned on my post about Seattle anything about my plane trip to get there... as I am putting my stuff in the overhead bin, someone asks me if I went to Calvin. I was a little weirded out until I realized that I was wearing my Calvin jacket. It turns out that my seat was right next to this awesome couple (Nick and Ann) who graduated from Calvin about 5 years ahead of me. Dutch bingo shows up in the most unexpected places! They live in between Sacramento and San Fran (moved there 2 years ago from Michigan), and have 2 little kids. He is a pastor and they were going to Seattle for a church conference that weekend. I talked to them for quite a while and got to know them a bit. That next week, Ann finds me on facebook and extends an invite to stay at their house if we ever want to take the BART into San Fran, and that they have a fenced yard, and Samson could come too. I NEVER have these things happen to me! I think our heavenly father is really wanting us to feel loved and enjoy ourselves while we're living here. We've been trying to figure out how we can do little trips and weekend excursions, but Samson really ties us down.

This week is going to be crazy. I am teaching half days, and then parent teacher conferences from 1-6ish every day. Good thing I am enjoying time at home with Matt this weekend!

Weekend In Seattle

I have been having a wonderful weekend visiting friends and family in Seattle, although I have been doing an awful job of taking pictures. I drove to Melinda's in Sac on Wednesday night. We had some good girl time. I got to Seattle Thursday morning and got to see Evangeline and Lucca both for several hours that afternoon. It was SO great to spend time playing with them and seeing and hearing everything that I've been missing. Evangeline says so many words now: moo, baby, mommy, daddy, cheese, apple, mema (grandma), and I'm sure there were more too! Lucca can stand on her own, but is still very apprehensive about it. I played peek-a-boo with her from behind the coffee table and got her really laughing and excited. She also showed off her fake laughing for us.

Snack time!

What a face!Peek-a-boo! I love that smile!

Story time with Auntie :)

Thursday night, I brought Dan and Christina with me to my friend John's house to meet/hangout with him and his wife. They just bought a gorgeous house in Edmonds and it was great to see them.

I hungout with my mom and got some good mom/daughter shopping in on Friday. Then I went to my friend Allison's wedding that night. I had a blast seeing other friends, Brittany, Heather, Christina, and Kim there. It was a really beautiful wedding and her family made some funny and touching speeches to make the day so very special for her.

Saturday I got to see Tash! We ended up mostly just doing a lot of talking, but it was really really great. We went for a walk on the Burke-Gilman and got rained on for a while, then visited Andrea, who just had knee surgery. That night I went to see Dan and Christina's apartment near U-Village and did a lot more talking there :).

Today (Sunday) all my siblings came to my parents house to celebrate Dustin's birthday last week. We were glad to have Christina join us too. It's always so nice and special to be able to spend an afternoon with my whole family, since I don't get to see them very much. I was really missing Matt though, it would have been nice to have him there too. Especially to see Evangeline and Lucca and how big they're getting. It's funny because we used to play games between dinner and dessert, but now the babies are our sole entertainment.

Showing Uncle Jordan where the cool toys are :)

This is the best pic I could get with this squirmy one...

Beautiful

I planned this trip before I got my subbing job, so I took 3 days off to do it. It's going to be a crazy week returning Monday night and working Tuesday again. Especially because I will have to get grades in and start getting ready for parent teacher conferences, but I'll also be really wanting to spend some quality time with my hubby because I miss him a lot after so many days apart! Yep, that's right, I am doing PT Conferences. That's the week following this week though, so that means an extra part or full time week of work at least :).

A Visit from Christina!

Christina came to visit! I was just a little bit excited for this particular visit, considering I haven't seen her in over 2 years! It was fantabulous :). She arrived in Merced at noonish on Friday (I left work on my lunch to let her in our apartment :-P). It was so bitter sweet to see her then jet back to work for the afternoon. Matt and I took her across the street to the pool and we all hung out there a bit (strangely though, it was over 100 degrees that day, but the late afternoon got cloudy and cooled off a bit). We had some amazing chicken tacos with more fillings than you could imagine for din din. Then we played some games, had some wine, and cozied up for a little tv. Saturday we took our weekly run to the farmer's market (after some pumpkin pancakes), the headed to the mall in Modesto. Mostly just window shopped, and Matt got to drool all over the apple store. That night we took Samson to a big park to run around, but it turned out to be really busy, so we just walked around.

Sunday Christina and I drove to see Melinda in Sacramento. We ended up going with her and some friends to a flea market in Denios. It was pretty fun, I wish we had something like that to go to more often. Garage sale meets dollar store meets farmer's market meets market in a third world country, lol (meaning it had all of those parts to it!). It was SO nice to just spend those 2 hours each way in the car chatting with one of my best friends, and knowing we could do that all day long if there were enough time!

Christina headed back to Seattle Monday, but I will get to see her again on Thursday when I get to Seattle! This is sort of a crazy week at work, scrambling to get things graded and in order for the sub and for when I come back next Tuesday. Oh well, it's way worth it.

The Merced Dog Park is Closed...

So, we have this wonderful, brand spanking new dog park just a mile down the street. It has looked finished and exactly the same and since we moved here, and yet it is still not open. Last weekend we saw someone in there, even though the gates are locked, so we thought "we need to find out how to get in there too!" We went there to see and sure enough, someone else was in there. There was a part of the fence that slides open and wasn't locked (the main gates are locked), so we went on in and had a great time. We went for several days in a row, with more people showing up every night. Then the sliding fence was locked, but someone found a small gate at the far end that had a loose lock so that you could still squeeze in. So we continued with our fellow breaking and entering friends and dogs like this for a couple more days.... until I arrived Thursday night and not only were all the gates securely locked, but there were signs posted, "The Merced Dog Park is Closed. It will be open October 1, 2009." Come on! It is completely finished and ready for dogs, why torture us with another month? We did already meet some "regulars" in our short week of fun though, and can't wait until it's open so that Samson can play with his new friends and get some more energy out!

The Rents In Town

Last weekend my parents were here. They actually came Wednesday night through Sunday afternoon, so for quite a while. Matt and I were working Thursday and Friday but they went and visited family and friends during those days. Saturday we all went to the Chaffee Zoo in Fresno. That was a lot of fun. We even got to pet sting rays! It was wonderful to have them see where we live and spend time with them. We were so happy that they could come :).

Sting rays!

Don't worry, their stingers were removed.

Mom and Pops