Kristen’s Blog

We are in the midst of moving back “home.”  Technically, we’ve already arrived but we are waiting to get into our house to fix it up how we’d like it to be before moving in.  We are living with family in the short-term.  Isaac told me the other day that he wanted to move back to SJ.  I asked, “Why?”  He said he misses the brown couches.  Not me.  I am scheming how I can get new ones… Ha! 

It is good to be back.  I feel I have a renewed sense of purpose and a sense that God has us here for a reason.  Sometimes I think I may know what that reason is, but other times I am surprised to find out how far off I was in my thinking.  I only know that I am along for the ride, His child and His disciple.  Life’s lessons aren’t always clear as I am learning.  I’d like to know the why’s and reasons why things turn out the way they do, but I know I may never know this side of heaven. 

Can’t wait to get into our own house!  Since being married 11 years ago, this will be the first time we have lived in a house- not a condo or apartment!  Again, not how I thought life would work out but I wouldn’t change a thing. 

Two days after Valentines’ Day we found out we were expecting a new little bundle of joy.  We were excited and I started getting sick with all day nausea right away.  I have been on Facebook often posting updates to the pregnancy and just trying to lay low with coping with nausea and heartburn. 
Last week, I went in for my 18 week ultrasound and found out we were having another boy!  Oh boy!  At the same appointment, we found out there were problems with the pregnancy.  Baby Blake died Monday, June 1.  He was 18 wks, 6 days.  We are so sad and heartbroken.  You can follow me on Facebook, I’m still there.  I can’t say more, the pain is overwhelming.

How sad that I haven’t posted since Christmas!  I think it is because I am always on Facebook that I haven’t been posting on this blog in a while.
I have been stuck in Santa Maria since yesterday and I am hoping to leave to go home in an hour.  At least we will be home for Valentine’s Day.  Jeff was traveling back east this week so Isaac and I came to Santa Maria.  It was so good to catch up on many things and get some good visits in with family and friends.  It was a very productive and busy week and while I didn’t accomplish everything I needed to do, I know that there will be more opportunites in the future. 
We just returned from our Caribbean Cruise vacation and it was wonderful!  We had a great time of R&R.  Little did I know that there would be so many activities geared around the “older” generation that there wasn’t much that held our interest on the great big ship.  We enjoyed watching movies under the stars nearly every night. I even fell asleep one night while laying on a lounge chair.  The tropical breezes were so warm and comfortable that I hardly wanted to miss a minute being outside on the sun deck, day or night. 
We visited 4 islands- Princess Cays, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Grand Turk.  St. Thomas was great!  I want to go back here and also visit St. John the next time.  We loved our time on Grand Turk although there wasn’t much to do except swim in the ocean and enjoy a “cheeseburger in paradise” with ultimate margaritas on the rocks.  That’s all I needed.  Nothing else.  I could do it everyday and I don’t think it would get old.  We stayed in the water for hours and were nearly the last people to get back on the boat that day.  Ahhh… 

Formal Night on the ship

Our ship, the Crown Princess.  It was HUGE!  Even for a cruise ship.

Jeff and I in St. Maarten

We had a nice Christmas this year.  It was good to see family from near and far at home and on Skype!  Here’s a few picts of our Christmas.

We celebrated Christmas with Jeff’s family before his parents left for the Philippines.  Lego’s were the hit!

We stayed home for Christmas this year, which was really great!  Isaac was excited for Santa to come and we put out the cookies and milk for him.

Santa came!  All Isaac asked for was Lego’s (Yay-dos).


He also received a tennis racket, soccer ball, and some fun school things including a cute blue doggie pencil sharpener.

Nana, Papa, Kara, and Phil came for Christmas dinner and opened more presents with us.  This one was Isaac’s favorite: a play tent with a tunnel and sleeping bag.  Who knew?

This one is Kara’s favorite… the Kwanzaa box.  Don’t ask.

After Christmas, we went with my family to visit my aunts, uncles, and cousins in Redding and Lake Shasta.  It didn’t take us long to find snow.  It was Isaac’s first time in the snow.  He liked it, but didn’t like wearing his gloves.  He would take the gloves off, touch the snow, then complain his hands were cold.  It will be better, I am sure, when he can wear snow gloves that fit.

So I am finally starting to feel settled in our new home.  It is coming together, and I am enjoying my new rhythm of life.  Isaac and I went Trick or Treating at a local mall on Tuesday.  There were easily a couple thousand people there.  Here are some cute picts of our little astronaut.

Another adventure that we have embarked on is potty training.  We wanted to wait on starting this training with Isaac since we have been under so much stress with moving and such this year as we have heard it is really hard on kids to train and have so much upheaval at the same time.  We started with the training 2 weeks ago and I thought that since we waited so long to start training, Isaac should pick it right up.  He had been showing signs of readiness for a little while and I thought that since I was going to be able to be home with him without a lot of extra things going on it would go very well.  While I wouldn’t say it is going very well, I would say Isaac is doing great and I am learning a LOT of patience.  Here’s a pict of Isaac enjoying one of his “rewards” of potty training.

Love this little boy!

For some reason, I wasn’t able to post for a while to my blog due to a software issue.  Never thinking to ask Jeff about it when we were home together, I just thought he would fix it when I remembered to ask and life settled.  What do you know, I can post all on my own again without Jeff working his magic!

We are settling into our new apartment and we are enjoying being in a new area, new sights, and new things to explore.  Among some of the new places is the Children’s Discovery Museum.  It is INCREDIBLE!  The first day we went we spent 3 1/2 hours exploring.  Isaac loves it! 

He is getting so big.  We were at a playground this week and Isaac was playing with a little boy who is almost 4.  Isaac was taller than this little boy!  I think he is 38-39″ now.  I forgot what the doctor’s office said he weighs at his last appointment.

We took him to my parents’ church last weekend and the kid’s staff let him go in with the 3 year olds.  He will be 3 next month and we knew he would enjoy the class.  He did!  The only problem is that he isn’t potty trained yet.  This will continue to be an ongoing problem as there are more opportunities for him as a 3 year old if only he would be potty trained.  So it has been my mission this week to get him trained.  Jeff and I have been sick so it has worked out well to lay low and focus on sitting him down on his chair often.  It will go great some days and then other days we have accident after accident.  It is never his idea to sit down and I am hoping that I will not have to be dragging him to the bathroom forever.  Will this ever end?  To be continued…

We are signing rental agreements tomorrow for our new apartment home. We are excited about the new space and new start. It is a really nice complex and it is a single story unit! Yippee! I don’t have to go down a flight of stairs in the middle of the night when Isaac falls out of his bed anymore. (Yeah, I know. Poor guy.) We will move the end of September and everything until then is sheer madness. I forgot how many details there is to moving! Ugh! At least I won’t be working soon and I can focus on the urgent and pressing until we get where we are going.

Isaac had a bloody nose this evening. I am sure he was picking his nose when it started, but I was a little worried. He seemed really hot after that, but I checked his temperature and it was fine. (It *was* a hot and humid day, though). Then he fell asleep at 8pm in the car on our way home from Costco. He was OUT! I had to brush his teeth before I would let him sleep because the one time Jeff gives him a sucker, he falls asleep with all that sugar on his teeth. You know we just can’t have any of that!

Isaac and I drove past the cemetery in town the other day and he asked me what “all that stuff” was in the cemetery. So I went into explaining how when people die, their bodies are buried there. The part of the body that is alive and well as we know it will live forever and either go to be with Jesus in Heaven or Satan in hell. He asked, “What is Jesus doing in heaven?” I said, “He is getting ready for us to come and be with him. He is going to come back to earth and get us some day.” Then Isaac puts his hands up to his eyes like binoculars and starts looking around. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, “Looking for Jesus.” Hah!

A couple days after this conversation, he asked if Jesus will share his toys when we go to heaven.

We have spent a bit of time narrowing down our search options in our house hunt. Thankfully, we have decided to narrow our search to (about) a 2 block radius. There are approximately 3-4,000 apartments in the area we are thinking of renting and I don’t know how many townhouse/condos. So, outlook is good we will be able to find something.

I am deciding what will be best for me to do regarding work. Plan A: not work at all. Plan B: work 1-2 days a month. I know that one of my offices should be flexible enough to accommodate this, but I am not convinced I want to work when we move. It will be enough to keep things going at home with Jeff traveling a bit, but I would like to keep up with my skills and keep my hands in my work. Dilemma. Gotta pray about this one.

Our house still hasn’t sold. Phooey.

We said goodbye to Jeff’s brother, his wife, and their little baby girl today. It was sad. The baby will be about 3-4 years old the next time we see her. I am hoping to get Skype installed on my computer so I can keep in touch with them… Jeff and his brother aren’t very good about keeping in touch so at least I think we girls can do better than that. We’ll see.

Jeff was told he would be receiving an offer letter for the position he really wanted in San Jose! Yay! It will be a challenging role for him with great responsibility. I know he is looking forward to a new challenge. So we are beginning the search for a new home…