Fourth of July

So I am playing around with the auto posting feature in windows live writer to get the hang of it. Who knows when this will actually post but I won’t learn until I try, right? =) Look at me getting all fancy with my blogging skillz.

We had a great 4th of July up in OP with friends and fam. The McCarver fam invited us for a good ol’ fashioned cookout during the day and we met up with Linda, Patrick and sweet Caitlin for fireworks that night. So much fun!

Fireworks under the bridge with Sarah & Brennan

Sweet hugs for Grammy who kept him safe

I lost track of Sammy for a few min at the cookout. Look who I found just about to put his finger into the icing on a cupcake…

What.. you don’t eat your cupcakes with a bucket-o-berries too?

He would have been so excited if only he had been awake to see it….

Me and Linda Kaye doing our mommy thang…

The kiddos all ready for the big night, can’t you tell?

 

Love the amount of confusion on Sammy’s face right after he woke up to find himself surrounded by bounce houses, farm animals, and hundreds of people.. his words were “what happened me? Where I go mommy?

Gilfriend was ready to PART-AY! Look at her! She loved all of the excitement

We took Sammy back up to see the fire trucks after he woke up and one of Mr. Swartz’s guys let him “drive” it aka sit on the seat

Watching the display!

Yep, I totally LOVED the fact that even with fireworks going on my Caitlin bug only had eyes for… you guessed it ME! She wanted me to hold her the whole time and with every sniff of her sweet baby head my uterus skipped a beat. Too much info? Yea I kinda thought so. Sorry. Isn’t she just a doll?? Big beautiful eyes like her Mamma and as sweet as pie!

Its the little things…

Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing~ Mother Teresa

I have been having some very super cool “God” moments lately. He and I have been on quite the journey with one another. Can’t wait to share more about that but for now just wanted to post one little tidbit while I have a moment. Do you go to God with everything? I mean everything, even the little stuff? Do you think He even cares about the little things that are important to you? Well He does, more than you know. He craves and yearns for you to talk with Him and share those desires of your heart. Yes He is God and He knows everything about you right down to the number of hairs on your head so he technically already knows them but what He wants most of all is for us to be in a relationship with Him. To simply spend time with Him and share our hearts and thoughts with Him. Just as we want our own children to come to us for wisdom and counsel, God wants the same with us. He wants to fill us with unspeakable joy so that when those terrible times come, and they surely will, we will be found in Him. He wants our joy that comes from His love to spill over and touch the lives of others around us.

I love when God answers the smallest most insignificant prayer of mine, almost as if to say.. “See my beloved, I really do care about the little things in your life”. Psalm 40:16 says He wants for all who search for Him be filled with joy and gladness. I will share an example that sure some may explain away as a coincidence but I know it was not.

I have wanted since early LAST summer for me and my Sams to spend some time on the beach together, a day of pure family fun. Sam hadn’t been able to join us on the beach since Sammy was a baby and I just longed for to share that time together. In my head we would frolic around, laughing and giggling.. well not exactly but you get my drift. We had tried since Feb to orchestrate this day and every time we had a day picked, something with one of our families would come up or some random event would cause a change in plans. I finally got sick of it and declared July 3rd would be our beach day. If anyone wanted to spend time with us they were welcome to join us on the beach because that is where the 3 of us would be. Wouldn’t you know Sam was given MANDATORY overtime that day? We changed our plans, no big deal, Sammy would be off schedule but we would just drive straight to the beach after he got off that morning but then…. his car broke down. Yep. We worked through it and found a way to still be on our way but by that point I was a tad bit cranky (ok.. cranky is an understatement). Then as we were driving up, the rain clouds rolled in and it started to pour. Sammy became very grouchy as he refused to take a nap in the car. Two hours into our trip with a whiney toddler and rain so loud Sam and I could barely hear each other it seemed very clear our beach day would not happen.

Sam asked me one little question and I lost it. My pitiful tear rolled down my cheek while I asked him “Why does this have to happen? Why is it virtually impossible for the three of us to spend a day on the beach together?” I whined. My wonderful husband put it all in perspective thankfully and reminded me that in the grand scheme of the world and all the problems going on, we are doing pretty good if this is what I have to be upset about. Yes, I agreed but Ouch, the reality check hurt and I felt like whiney princess. I closed my eyes and silently prayed for God to forgive my poor attitude and to give me a change of heart so we could enjoy what was left of the day together. At this point we were minutes from the beach and were looking for a place to turn around and head to his parents’ house.  All of a sudden Sam jerked the car and our wheels literally squealed as he pulled us into a CVS parking lot. “You wanted a family fun day on the beach, well we will have one. Rain or not, tired toddler or not, we will make the best of it. It’s not lightening, we’ll be fine. It will be great, you’ll see”. With that he left the car fighting the wind and rain and ran into CVS to get us some giant bottles of water. “What happened mommy? What Daddy doin in dat wain?” Sammy asked. “Well baby, looks like we are going to the beach in the rain” I replied. I thought Sam had lost his mind and so did the man in the booth we paid $7 (YES SEVEN BUCKS NOW, TALK ABOUT INFLATION! I was floored!) to so that we could drive our car onto the beach during the monsoon.

It was simply amazing, as we drove to find our perfect spot the rain slowed and sure enough, by the time we got out of the car the rain had stopped. The sun peaked out from the clouds and we had a BLAST together. It wasn’t too hot, we even had a breeze! It was everything I had hoped for and more. We had a great talk about God and all the beautiful things He has created with Sammy. It really was a time of true joy as we laughed & played together. We did not frolic but Sammy and Sam chased birds down the beach so that sorta counts, right? It was the perfect day and wouldn’t you know just as we got all packed up and closed the last car door out of nowhere the bottom fell out and the torrential down pour continued? It may sound weird but I got a tingly sensation all down my spine and as egocentric as it is to think that God stopped the rains just for us, I do. I am sure there was a bigger purpose and plan to it all BUT I do know that His timing was perfect and allowed us to enjoy the window of perfect weather while it was there.  I thanked Him for showing me that He understood just how important that family time was to my heart and He worked out all the details so we could still enjoy it. I am so grateful that he cares for the little insignificant desires of my heart just as much as the big ones! I love my Savior!

He LOVED putting his feet in the sand and ran squealing as soon as he got out of the car

Our little all American boy spread his patriotism to those driving by us as he yelled “God Bwess Amew-ca” and waved his flag to each car. The honks and laughs/waves he got in return encouraged him to then up it from one flag to TWO flags.

 

 

Should’ve switched to Geico…

Sam is an expert on beach life having lived on the beach and surfed for so long, so yep.. that is what you’re thinking. He showed our TWO YEAR OLD how to TOUCH A JELLY FISH without getting stung. I have no further comment on this.

Sammy likes some sushi so when he found seaweed he said “oh yummy, I eat it please?”

Oopsy!

Thank you for his sharky swim suit Grammy! He loves it and calls them his “sharps”

This is called progress! My child who once hated the sand and was so upset if a spec got on him now buries his face in it for fun!

They have my heart, just look at them!

A little update on us

I sure do miss blogging! We have been very busy making so many sweet memories this summer and I have been spending the time I would typically use to blog to catch up on some summer reading. This is the first summer since I started grad school that I have not been slammed with work so I have enjoyed doing some pleasure reading for a change. I have had so many ideas of things to write and share on the blog but haven’t taken the time to do any of it. We have been having quite the summer and I can’t believe all of the amazing memories we have made and it isn’t even over yet!

To bring you up to speed, Sam is loving his job but of course the night shift does play quite the toll on our time with him and is exhausting in many ways for him and for Sammy and me. We decided to really maximize the days we do have with Sam and have headed off most of those days in search of some adventures. We have also been able to spend time with precious family and friends we haven’t seen in a while. On top of all of this, Sammy and I took a spontaneous trip to the Keys (amazing time!!) and I am making good progress on my dissertation. I am finishing analyses now and then have the final two sections to write up then I am DONE! That light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter and brighter, thank you JESUS! Hannah and the kids are still gone and our house feels overwhelmingly empty at times as I miss them with all of my being but I am learning to cope. I treasure the sweet phone calls from them and am so thankful their mom is super cool about letting us stay in touch with them.

Sammy is doing great & loving summer but asks about “his” Hannah every day, sometimes more than once. I have been able to pick him up earlier from school now that things have slowed down some for me and I am eating up all of this quality time with him. He has been having super great reports at school. His teachers say he is really coming out of his shell (finally! Its only been a year.. I’m just sayin) and is being a big helper in the classroom. The potty training is progressing, don’t know if others have found this or not but he seems to be trained (except over night) when it comes to pee but not even close when it comes to #2s, it is rather frustrating but I am trying not to push him. Just when I think we are out of the woods with one behavior issue (biting, spitting, etc) another one creeps in. He has began to pinch now.. UGH! It isn’t very frequent yet but I want to catch it before it becomes so. If any of you mommies out there have dealt with pinching your advice is appreciated!

This was his response when I told him we were going on a vacation to the ocean!!! He was more excited than I thought he would be!!!! He threw his hands up and yelled “Yay! My turn for Bay-Cay-shun!” because all his buddies in his class had been coming back from their vacations and telling about all they did.

 

Here are a few pics from our trip to the splash park with his friend Jane.

My coordinated matching kiddo.. can you tell there was a sale so we stocked up on beach gear??

Little Miss Janey LOVED the splash park, she was a adorable!

Big Day for a Little Bookworm

Sammy got his very first ever library card! I know this may not sound like a big deal to many but for me and my son this is huge. He is such a bookworm! I have to say, he gets it honestly. Sam and I both are bookworms ourselves. I have always loved to read, in fact one of my favorite things to do is to get lost in a great book. I always feel like such a nerd when I literally can’t put a book down and I stay up until the wee hours of the morning reading only to then find myself dragging the next day. I mean, seriously, I am 30 years old. Shouldn’t I have outgrown this? I have no self control when a truly good book is involved, I tell myself just one more chapter.. and then I am lost in it. I remember getting in trouble as a little girl for sneaking away to read when I should have been doing chores or my homework and even one time as an adult! Yep that’s right. Once when I worked at Citibank my book was so good that when I came back from my break I just couldn’t put it down so I hid it in a folder and tried to finish the chapter while taking my customer service calls. My boss failed to see the humor in the situation, much to my dismay.

So, for this lifelong nerd, it makes my heart sing to see the love of books that Sammy has. He truly has always loved reading. Sam and I would read to him while I was pregnant and I remember he always kicked and moved much more compared to other stories during Wynken, Blynken, and Nod and it still is one of his favorite bed time stories to this day. We learned early on that one of the best discipline tactics with him is to take away one of his favorite books. Boy will he snap into action then, he becomes sweet as pie when a book is on the line. I hope that Sam and I can continue to foster his love of reading and learning as he grows and I see this special day truly as a milestone for him.

Well I decided it was way past time he checked out his first every library book so off to the library we headed. He was like a kid in a candy store when we arrived in the children’s section and boy did he put on quite the show for the librarians. He could barely contain his excitement! They said he was hands down the most excited they have ever seen about getting a library card and I have to agree, even I didn’t expect his reaction. We ended up checking out 12 books rather than one (I have already warned you.. books are my weakness. We discussed this in the first paragraph, remember?). We have enjoyed reading them and Sammy has taken extra special care of them and done a great job putting them back in the new designated “library book spot” after he reads them.

They had some great preschool computer games that I totally wish I could get a copy of. He played these for a solid 40 min!

check out his giant stack of books! She let him scan each one in himself, which he loved.

Here he is proudly holding up his library card with his name on it and his giant sack of books. I am so thankful for the sweet librarians who made the trip extra special for him.

The big performance

Samantha and Krista had their big end of year performance at school shortly before they left town. It was a super big deal to them as they had practiced a lot for both the “drum line” and the step team (reminded me of STOMP) portion of it. This was put on by the afterschool program they are a part of and the dance portion was meant as a tribute to Michael Jackson so the kids danced to Thriller. Samantha had a solo part during the step team performance and she beamed the entire time, I was so proud of her. Krista did great with both parts and I loved watching her interact with all of her peers, she giggled the entire time she was on stage. I learned a lot about interaction among tweens from having lunches at their school with them and their friends. With Krista emerging into these teen years I feel I have a lot to learn and I was even a little intimidated when I first went to eat with them at the big middle school rather than their little elementary school we were all used to. Isn’t that weird? I even found myself worried if my hair looked ok as I was walking in to the lunch room that first time. The interactions between them and their fiends are so interesting and so very funny to me and make me MORE than glad I never have to be in middle school again.

Samantha was very nervous about her drum solo and was scared she would forget her part but she did a wonderful time and didn’t miss a beat, literally! She has always been a natural performer and she really shines when she is on stage performing in front of large groups. She may be a tiny little thing but boy when she opens her mouth to sing, you better watch out! So powerful! I have seen her do this in several environments, dances for Big Brothers Big Sisters events, Cheerleading at our church, school performances, etc. She gets a little nervous before hand but once the performance begins she steals the show, every time. Krista did a great job conquering her feels and seemed to enjoy herself while performing too. I was very proud of both of them! They each got personalized awards. Krista received the “I sing twice as much as I drum” award and Samantha received the “I smile all the way through my drum solo award”.

Check out this pic of Krista, do you think she was just a little nervous??

Samantha is in the front to the left side of Michael Jackson’s casket.. uh yes. I did just type that. I know, I thought the same thing

Krista with her sweet Grandma who does so much for all of them!!

Samantha with her teacher, he is a great guy and seems to really care about ensuring each kid has the right goals in mind for their future, my kind of guy!

Our big group at the table, we sat with one of Hannah’s friends and his family and we all had a great time. The cooking club made our dinners and I am thinking they may have needed to attend summer school, it was difficult to get down to say the least but we still applauded their effort

Krista paraded Sammy around to all of the tables thankfully he was a good sport about it

Class clown all the way!

Krista getting her award, giggling of course

and Sammy with hers

Of course I had to put just one pic of my cute little Banana up!!

Here is a link to Samantha’s drum solo.. she was so brave!!!

We heart VBS

 

Yep that’s right, we are VBS junkies all the way. The DeLucca family sure enjoyed it this year. It took us almost the whole weekend to recover from it but boy did we have fun! I had the privilege of teaching Sammy’s class of “two”s but really most of them were three. Sammy actually has declared he is three ever since then. Anytime I tell him he is 2 he says “no I free now”. Our little class was so sweet and one night we had a total of 11 kids! It got chaotic a few times but for the most part the kids were very well behaved and soaked up our little Bible stories and lessons like sponges. We related each craft to their Bible story and I was amazed at the end of the night when we would chat about what we learned just how much they had retained. It can be hard with this age to really see the big picture of how us spending a few hours a night for only one week of their lives may actually impact them. I trust that we helped to build a biblical foundation for each of them from which they can continue to learn more about Jesus and how he created them perfectly and loves them so unconditionally.

Super Sam (that is what Sam makes all kids we work with call him, that’s right, he forgoes the Mr. Sam and goes straight to Super Sam) never ceases to amaze me every time we teach children or teens together. He is really gifted in this area and the kids just eat up all of his antics. He makes every single aspect fun and extra silly while still remaining firm when needed. They naturally flock to him and he keeps them giggling. Heck, he taught himself how to make balloon animals by watching free videos online and then practiced all year just to be able to make them for the kids in Guatemala last year. I think we make a perfect team and really compliment each other well when we teach kids.

I have to share one funny story. I absolutely LOVED our prayer time with the kids. It was so sweet and every single night it was so hard to lead them in a prayer without cracking up. Their little prayer requests were too funny. Sure we always prayed for families and the typical stuff but we also prayed for Mickey Mouse, Dora and Nintendo DS and for the dolphins in the ocean. One cutie little boy prayed very faithfully every single night for “Don-gee-as” pronounced just how I spelled it. I repeated it each night about 3 times and he would correct me sounding frustrated and I never knew exactly what it was I was praying for or saying. Finally, the last night while putting together a puzzle I heard him exclaim “DONGEAS!” and I realized it was a tractor. I asked his mom for clarification and she confirmed. He is a touch obsessed with tractors so we had been praying for John Deere each night without even realizing it! Gotta love him!

Sammy has asked every single morning since VBS ended if we can go to VBS that night. He says he misses his “new VBS pecial buddies”. The theme this year was Saddleback Ranch so our church was transformed into a ranch for the week with hay bales and horses, saddles, and all kind of decorations everywhere. The first time he saw the freshly decorated stage he exclaimed “Oh that’s Jesus’s tractor up dere?” and said he wanted to pray that he could ride on it.

He also loves dressing up in his “VBS clothes” . He made a cowboy vest (from a paper bag) that he was very proud of and binoculars (from toilet paper rolls) and they all got cowboy hats and bandanas too. Now if only I had jumped in the pics below with my VBS tshirt and matching tote bag (thanks again April!) we would have been quite the pair!

Sammy went on a cart ride with my friend Jill and her daughters Claire and Kate, he talked about it all night

…..and they’re off! actually a more appropriate caption would be “blast off”.. that cart went super fast, I was so glad Jill was on there holding on to them!

Jill’s other daughter Gracie chose to do the actual pony ride. She loved every moment of it and grinned from ear to ear the whole ride!