Fun in Arizona

This is the view as we drive from my parents' home in Sonoita, AZ into town (Tucson).

A month ago we visited my parents in Arizona (and I'm just now blogging about it :-0) We had a great time despite the storm early on in the trip. Here are a few highlights....

There is a theater in Tucson called the Gaslight Theater. They perform original comedies and the night we went we saw "Space Wars" which was a spoof of Star Wars. This was a lot of fun and we still quote lines from the play. Here is a picture of the kids w/ some of the actors dressed up as characters from Beauty and the Beast since they had a third act of the show that included different scenes from different children's stories.

Another fun thing we did was take a tour of an underground copper mine. The Queen Mine is located in Bisbee, AZ. Once you're dressed the part, there is a mine train that takes you into the middle of the mountain where there underground tunnels dug out to mine for copper. There are over 200 miles of tunnels in Bisbee.

This is a picture of the mountain in which the Queen Mine is inside.

This is our tour guide who used to work in this mine. He had a lot of interesting stories. Here he is showing how they would put sticks of dynamite into the rock to dig further on. If you're ever in Bisbee, I would highly recommend this tour. It doesn't hurt that its also 47 degrees in the mine year-round. I think that's a big selling point during the summer months.

This is a picture of an open-pit copper mine in Bisbee. When I was a kid, my dad worked in a mine like this before he entered college/seminary in good ol' Dallas.


We were blessed to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Larkin, my mom's parents, while we were in town. Grandpa looked really good and we thought it was funny that he was convinced that he knew Ozzie from some sports team they were on together. He told Ozzie "you had a lot of potential!" Grandma is still amazing and we enjoyed visiting with her. How many people can see they are Facebook Friends with their grandma - she's the greatest!

The kids had turns driving the riding mower. Kailee especially enjoyed her turn behind the wheel and found it more special when it dark enough to need the headlight.
Below are pictures of each of the kids driving the boat we rented at the lake. Let's just say this was definitely not a speed boat and rumor has it that it ate the dust of the paddle boat we also rented.

Ozzie and the kids had a blast in the water. They invented new ways of splashing each other such as the Texas Tornado and Hawaii Hurricane.

If you've already read my previous post, then you know that there was a huge hail storm on the second night we were there. Ozzie got a great shot of the lightning once the 45 minute barrage of hail was over.

The following are some pictures showing the effects of the storm. The one below is a before picture of my parents' garden. You can see it blooming in the background behind Benjamin.

Here is the garden after the storm. The other day when Benjamin was reading about the plague of hailstones, I had a new respect for the damage that hail can do especially to vegetation. There was really nothing left of their garden.

We're not sure why, but after the storm most of the fish/frogs/tadpoles in the pond died. We know that the pond became more of a rushing river the night of the storm, so we're not sure if something from upstream came in and killed everything or if it was just the power of the water upsetting the little ecosystem of the pond. Whatever the cause, we found this huge dead frog the first morning after the storm.

Below is what was left of the frog the next day after the vultures had their little snack. I think its neat that God thought of everything when He created animals and how these ugly birds are really a vital help to man since they dispose of carrion that would otherwise be a breeding ground for disease.

Below is a picture of "Turtle Mountain" (the little peak shaped like a turtle on the left side of the picture). Whenever the kids see Turtle Mountain, they know we are getting close to Nana's and Tata's house.

I guess there is treasure at the end of the rainbow: wonderful time with our family. Even our dog had fun!

Blessings in Disguise

"See I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 11:26-27



A 45 minute hail storm is more likely to make you think of a Biblical plague rather than a blessing from God, but God works for His good purpose for those who love Him in ALL things (Romans 8:28) even damaging hail storms.
We traveled to Arizona to visit my parents last month, August (boy am I far behind on blog updates). We had a great vacation which I will share in the next post, but this post is about the hail storm we experienced on Sunday evening, August 15th.
We could see the clouds coming in, but in a matter of moments the quiet skies were emptying themselves of hail in various sizes from dimes to golfballs. The size may not have been that remarkable, but the fact that the hail did not let up for at least 40 minutes is what was astonishing to us. It was so loud as it bounced off the metal roof on my parents' home. They have big windows which let you take in the beautiful surroundings of Sonoita, AZ, but these windows became targets for the hail stones.
As the storm moved in from the east, we stood at the west facing window to see the hail bounce off all 4 vehicles parked in front of the house, our minivan among them. As I stood staring at our van being pelted by chunks of ice, I wasn't worried about the van, but I did think that surely we would lose a window or two on it. Once the storm passed, I was surprised to find all windows on the vehicles were intact. The darkness, however, concealed the rest of the damage.
The next morning we were able to more closely inspect the dents on the vehicles. Our hood looked like it was covered with dimples along with the passenger side of the van, but overall we didn't think it was really that bad.
My brother works for an insurance company, so we gave him a call to get his advice on what to do next. He said it would be best if our van was paid off. Paying it off has been a goal we have been diligently working towards for months and we were so close to our goal and were going to meet it in two months.
Let me back track a moment to my last blog post in which I stated our goal was to be out of debt before we started fostering or the process of adopting. However, we felt God wanted us to go ahead and start on this journey as we continued to meet the debt-free goal. So when my brother mentioned having it paid off, Ozzie started doing the math with our pay-off amount and the money we had saved up in various emergency/Christmas accounts. Wouldn't you know that these amounts matched up almost exactly, so my wonderful, financially and technologically gifted husband transferred over all our funds to pay off the van, not knowing what to expect next.
Fast forward a couple weeks to when we have the lien released on the van, we called out the adjuster from our insurance company. Upon his arrival, he said it would just take about 10 minutes to inspect the van and give us the damage estimate. About 40 minutes later, he said that was one of the worst hail cases he had seen. He told me that in all likelihood our van was "totaled." I really was surprised to hear that, but had peace knowing we were prepared. Here is the good news part - after negotiating with the insurance company, we were blessed to receive a payout from them that is more than 3 times what we took out from all of our accounts. So we will now have a bigger emergency fund, we are out of debt, and we have some extra money for wiggle room to buy those things we'll need for having another little one in the house.
This long detailed story is really meant to share what an amazing thing that God has done. My life-verse is 2 Corinthians 2:9 which states that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. My eyes and ears have never witnessed a storm like that night and mind never conceived that God could use that storm to bring such an unexpected blessing to us. I am excited to see what else He has prepared for us!

"But I'm comfortable"

Ozzie and I are about to enter a new season of life. We are being licensed to become foster/adoptive parents. We are excited to see what God is going to do, but also at the same time unsure of what is ahead of us. How did we get here?
We have always had a deep down desire to adopt, but left it at just that. I had always thought that we would adopt internationally, but Ozzie was open to adopting through the foster care system. I thought that was too risky because the kids might be taken away or it would have to be an open adoption where the birth families are involved. As time went by, God began to change my heart and I gave up those excuses. Ozzie then was waiting for the right time to start the process. You know just like before having kids you want to have all your financial ducks in a row. God also changed his heart so that even though our "ducks" weren't completely lined up, we needed to be obedient and take the step of faith of starting the process.
We anticipated the process of being licensed would take about a year, but so far it has gone faster and easier than we expected.
As things began to come together, my anxiety began to kick in. I began to wonder all the "what ifs" that might happen, all the practical "what ifs" of bringing a new child into our home. As I began to pray more and get to the bottom of my fears and excuses, it all boiled down to the reason that I kept repeating to myself, "But I'm comfortable"
It was as if God was asking me to open my home, my life, my family to minister to a child who needs a home, love, a family and my response was But I'M comfortable. What a pitiful excuse for not being obedient to my Savior who gave up His throne in heaven to live a life of serving and giving on earth and then give His life for me.
I know that we all will have to make sacrifices on this path, but as Romans 12:1 says we are living sacrifices. The remainder of the chapter spells out for me what this means: let love be genuine, love one another, show hospitality, contribute to the needs of others. I can't be comfortable and sacrifice at the same time. But I also have all His promise that His divine power will give me everything I need to do His will (2 Pe. 1:3). So is there any place more "comfortable" than being in the center of His will - absolutely not!

Summer of projects

This has been the summer for projects. A break from homeschool means I have more time to get some "stuff" done around the house. We've been busy both indoors and out. Here are the projects we have taken off our to-do list.
1) Painting exterior of our house - most of it is done in the front at least. Once the heat hit full steam, I chose to work on indoor projects. We painted our front door a dark brown color and we have been pleased with how that turned out.

2.) Scraping popcorn ceiling in family room - We spent Memorial Day weekend on a project that has been at the top of our list for quite a while. We scraped the ugly "popcorn" texture off the ceiling in our high-ceiling family room. We then painted and learned an important lesson that caulking before painting is not necessary, nor should it be rushed. At least we were done by Memorial Day, so we could go swimming with the kids.

3.) Glazing kitchen walls- I have never really liked the color of the walls in the kitchen. They were a little too yellowy for the texture of the walls. I had this perfect glaze left over from the countertops/hutch, so I thought I would try it in the kitchen. I was very pleased with how it turned out and it cost me nothing and only took a couple hours.

4.) Laundry room - Our old laundry room was boring. I have to walk through it all the time to go between kitchen/school room (computer) not counting the hours of laundry. It was plain white with dinged molding, very yucky and sterile. I wanted a laundry room with personality, something that inspired me to be better about laundry (hopefully :-)). I serarched the internet and found some inspiration - with inspiration.
These are "sheets" with verses hanging on a clothesline. My painted version is no where as professional as my inspiration room, but at least it gets the same idea across. I also painted a message center on the main wall. It is a magnetic chalkboard which will hopefully help keep us organized. I took down the old paper measuring "sticks" and put up real wood ones. Lots of paint was involved in this little room, but I am pleased with the outcome.

5.) Garage shelves- Not a smart time to take on a garage project, but we took it on anyways and now have an organized garage. It's nice to have organization greeting us when we come home. This was also a fun wood-working project for Ozzie and I. Which encouraged us to take on the next, prettier one.

6.) Ketchup's loft bed - We wanted to have an extra bed in Kailee's room and she picked a loft bed from my new favorite website www.knock-offwood.com
It took a week and it is really sturdy. Not bad for only $115 on supplies (not including mattress). The hard part was having to rearrange the whole room after the ladder was too close to the ceiling fan. Here is the pretty new loft bed with a reading area below. When it was finished, Kailee made sure that Benjamin knew that when she was at her desk that she was having her "quiet time" and he should leave her alone.

So why all the rush to finish projects......you'll have to find out in the next post.

Summer camps

Kailee and Benjamin were allowed to pick one summer camp to participate in this summer. Benjamin chose Superhero Camp and Kailee chose Creative Arts Camp.


Superhero Camp came first and Benjamin had a lot of fun as they learned about staying fit and healthy. His favorite part was the "fun bus" which was a gymnastics class in a green polka-dot school bus. The last day they could dress up like a superhero and then they performed a couple songs they learned for all the parents. I had wanted him to wear his Ironman costume (which is red), but he opted for Wolverine instead. It's a good think because he would have been really hard to find in the middle of all those red t-shirts if he wasn't wearing the bright yellow Wolverine get-up.


Kailee had auditioned for a role in the musical they were doing for creative arts camp, "Music Man Jr." She was able to be an Iowa townsperson, performing in the song "Iowa Stubborn." This was our first experience with CAC and I am so impressed with all the talent these kids have and what they were able to do in just 2 weeks, which is amount of time they practiced and presented in.

Here is a picture of her on "Wacky Wednesday" when she could dress up wacky and crazy. She went into her closet the night before and came out 5 minutes later dressed like this. Reminded me of a hot pink 80's version of Madonna.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday, Ozzie had a birthday celebrated with a birthday rap and followed by cake and a baseball game. We have been blessed with a wonderful daddy for the kids, husband and best friend for me, and man of integrity to lead our family.

Summer is here!

Wow has it been a while since my last post. We've been up to more house projects indoors and out. Ozzie and I celebrated our 10+ years of marriage by enjoying a wonderful trip to Mexico. Hopefully that will be another post. Today with the kids' help we are going to share about our vacation to Brownsville last week.
We were able to go bowling with our family one rainy day (our dolphin watch trip was cancelled because of the weather). We found that we all preferred bowling on the Wii to bowling in real life.

Here is Ozzie's Dad, "Buelito," bowling with us. He is almost 75 and still has enough energy to bowl with the best of us.

Benjamin and his cousin Paul. Paul is a "miracle baby" who was born with his intestines outside of his body. After months in the hospital, years on a feeding tube, and numerous surgeries, he is a very strong and active 11-year old.


We also had our annual trip to the beach at S. Padre Island. We enjoyed a warm, sunny day in the cool Gulf water.

We took along Ozzie's nephews and niece. His nephews Frank and Oziel spent quite a bit of time digging a deep, deep hole in the sand. They reached water eventually.
Ozzie and his niece Abby pretended the hole was made just for them to dive into, their own personal pool.

The oil spill is still in the Gulf of Mexico although we did not see any tar or oil on the beach, we did see this huge Coast Guard ship right off the beach. I was amazed at how close the ship came (right up to the buoy) and it stayed there for quite a while. We think they were testing the water for oil.

More time was spent outdoors as we all gathered at the park for a family picnic. It was fun as the cousins played soccer (in honor of the world cup of course) and the adults chatted.
Here is the first great-grandchild. Joseph is now the life of the party and enjoys all the attention he gets as being the youngest member of the extended family.

Our trip would not have been complete without eating a meal at Buelito and Buelita's favorite restaurant. They eat there every day; no seriously, every day. We didn't join them every day, but we did join them two times. They know all the waitresses and have their own area they always sit at. It's like Cheers, Brownsville style!