A Good Time in Redding

A few weeks ago, Danika and I went up to Redding for my best friend, Jaimie's graduation! Things went well on the way there, we only had to stop once, and it was only 10 minutes away from Jaimie's apartment. So that was really nice!

The graduation was great and the weather was perfect! There were clear skies and a nice breeze to keep things from getting too hot. I was very happy to get to introduce Danika to some of my friends from Simpson, whom I had not seen since I went there.

Danika 13 Months Old "Draft"

I still cannot believe that Danika is 13 months old. It seems like yesterday that I was holding her in my arms for the first time. Memories come to me in flashes, and I laugh so much thinking about them. Like how I somehow got out of changing Danika's diaper until she was about 2 weeks old. Mom and Jamie just took over and volunteered all the time. My mistake was mentioning it and joking about it, lol!

Or the time when we took Danika to get her one month pictures at JCPenny's and she had the worst diaper she ever had. Her tights were full and we had to wash her dress in the sink! And she didn't even crack a smile until after everything was done. I tried so hard to be mad at her, but with that little smile how can anyone stay mad?

Then the time that Jamie and I freaked out because we thought that Danika had rolled over onto her side at only three weeks old! It ended up that Danika was laying on the couch sleeping, and my sitting next to her made the cushion go down and roll her. Lol! We had been so excited haha!

And now here she is walking a little and talking like crazy. Making faces and making us all laugh so much.

(OK. In reviewing my blog I found drafts and thought I would  post this one anyways. 12/27/12)

I Pledge Allegiance...

Today at Danika's school's chapel Danika lead everyone in the pledges. Because I am the only employee at work I could not be there. My heart was breaking on the way to work knowing that I was going to miss this big moment. I called around and coordinated with family to get it as documented as possible. Thank goodness for digital cameras that can record videos!

My heart is so full right now with pride. I am soo proud of Danika for being selected from her class to do something so important. I hope she understands the importance of the pledges to the American and Christian flag. Even if she does not now, I hope that she learns and recognizes it as she grow older.

Our country was founded by godly men to give us freedom to worship God. We can't even begin to understand the type of oppression that other countries have about religion and worship of God. Some lose their lives over it. But we can stand together and publicly worship Him and thank Him for this country and our freedoms.  Danika helped her school do that today.

So, so proud of my little girl. As Claire Huxtable would say from Cosby Show, "My baby! My baby!!"

Will post the video soon.

A Great Start

I realize I have not posted in a very long time. With working full time and then trying to give Danika as much face time as I can (and sometimes being selfish of "me-time") I do not get to blog as much as I would like sometimes.

But yesterday Danika and I had a conversation that I knew I would regret not writing down and sharing.

I have been reading Elisabeth George's Raising a Daughter After God's Own Heart. One of the "tasks" she greatly encourages is preaching/teaching your daughter. That we should be the farmer casting out seeds of salvation to our children and praying daily that a seed would land on good soil and grow to a desire to know and love Him. She continues to calm down those worried about preaching and encourages us to just talk. She even said how easy is that to ask women to talk! :)

Yesterday after I got home from work Danika and I were snuggling on my bed. As we laid there and she told me about school I felt like I really should try to turn the conversation towards God. So I asked her what her favorite thing about God was. In the past I have asked her this and her answer would be "He plays with me" or some other cute answer. But this day she said "I love how He takes care of us". Just this answer alone fills me with joy knowing that at 4 she knows that God watches over us and protects us.

As we talked more about how God protects us and that He does so because He loves us so much, she turns the conversation over to how He died for us and His blood covers our hearts and makes them white. I had taught her class at church for Valentines Day a version of the wordless bible using hearts and the colors (black=sin, red=Jesus' blood, etc.).

While we laid there on my bed we went through what each heart meant again and talked about sin and heaven and Christ's blood. I told her that Jesus would clean a person's heart if they asked and believed that He died for them and rose again. Danika sat up, looked up (towards the ceiling) and said "Jesus, clean my heart."

I have to admit I was rather surprised. I was not expecting such a reaction from my squirrelly little girl. She turned to me and said, "Mommy, now you need to ask Jesus to clean your heart." I laughed and told her that I had asked Jesus to clean my heart and long time ago and that He lives in me. Not know how she would respond, or if she truly understood I asked her if she believed that Jesus died for her and rose again, that He cleaned her heart and made a place for her in heaven. To all these questions she answered yes. We prayed together quietly and talked about how angels would be cheering and singing. Danika pointed to different parts of the ceiling and said "angels over there are cheering, and angels over there are singing to Jesus!"

Such a sweet, sweet moment. I do now know how much she truly comprehends or if her prayer for Jesus to live in her heart was sincere or if she was just going along, but as my mom told me it is a great start, and I'll take it. :D

I look forward to more great conversations with her and will continue to pray fervently that Danika comes to know God and desires to grow closer to Him everyday.

Reeling

Today was a nonstop day at work. I feel "dizzy" and exhausted.

Too many calls and interruptions when there is deadline and today didn't start that great anyways. Not to mention I forgot my glasses at home. Yay me! Haha!

Truly it wasn't that horrible, I've had worse, but such a tight deadline takes so much out of you. At least tonight is Dani's swimming lessons so that will be relaxing and fun. :)

Thirty-Day Blog Challange: "Day" 6: A Blog

Recently I have found that I am loving more and more fashion. I have the fashion bug. I want to buy new clothes quite frequently and I have to say this blog is partly to blame: College Fashion.


This blog shows great ways to make outfits, sometimes with one main piece (i.e. a summer dress) or just different looks and styles. What hooked me to this blog was a series they did on the Disney Princesses. I was googling "Tangled" for Dani, looking for the soundtrack online and found this blog post.

Fabulous right? I love it! I could spend hours on this blog going through their archives and finding new ideas! Gotta find good pieces from Salvation Army or Ross or somewhere cheaper than the actual items they list!

http://www.collegefashion.net/inspiration/fashion-inspiration-walt-disneys-tangled/

30 Day Blog Challege: Day 5: A Person I Miss

This didn't take me long to figure out. Right away a name popped into my head: Jaimie.


Jaimie is one of my best friends. We met at college and became fast and close friends. We had a tradition of a certain day of the week we would study, watch Alias and have goldfish and Dr. Pepper (and sometimes jerky). *sigh* Wonderful times. We both love movies, though her collection far surpasses mine. Probably by 500 or some crazy number like that. I remember once she sent me a list of all her movies. It was at least 3 pages long single spaced! I want to buy her movies all the time, but who knows if she already has them!


After I went home from college we talked almost everyday on the phone. And we kept that up for a very long time. Things slowed down a lot after Dani was born. Eventually it slowed down to nothing sadly (phone-wise). We email back and forth occasionally, but it isn't the same, and we both know it.


I keep hoping that I can save up money and see her during the summer, since she lives down south. So far it hasn't worked out. I saw her for an afternoon when my family was driving back home from Disneyland, but it wasn't enough. I think the main problem is that I am not taking enough time to keep in contact. I get too distracted by other things. I keep on trying though and I don't think I will ever give up staying in touch with her. She just means too much to me.

Thirty-Day Blog Challange: "Day" 4: A Goal

OK. This is going to sound so silly, but it is a goal.

I will bring lunch from home for a straight week.

Sounds kind of anticlimactic right? Yeah, I know. But I tried to think of a goal that isn't too huge, but one that I can get off my checklist as it were.

Working Downtown is fabulous. Love the area, but it also comes with a gazillion restaurants. Let me name a few for you: Flavor Bistro, Mary's Pizza Shack, 4th Street Market, Thai House, Tex Wasabi, Mac's Deli, Mom & Pop's Shop (Formerly Mr. Pickles), Sift (though that is dessert), Starbucks (they have more food now), and La Vera's.

Plus there are other taqueria's, chinese food, indian food, pubs, and the Plaza is a block over so there is the food court there too. It is crazy hard not to eat out at lunch! Even if I bring lunch from home I have a hard time not thinking about what other food I could get. Especially since I know Flavor's sandwich days and Mondays, Wednesday, and Thursdays have my favorite sandwiches. *sigh*

The problem is that these all add up. I am doing alright with it financially, but then I think about the type of money I could save if I didn't buy lunch so often. Grumble.

So what I really need to do is plan my meals, make stuff ahead of time and just stick with it. I might even lose some weight if I brought my own meals from home!

So there you have it. My all exciting goal. Hopefully it will get easier after I complete a week and then I can go for weeks....and maybe treat myself once a month or something....maybe. :)

Stuck

I am stuck in a rut. I am tired all the time. I want to be at home. I want to sleep or just play with Dani. I'm really glad it is Friday, but I don't think my weekend is going to be slow enough for me. *sigh* Can I just take Dani and go off for a week? I would love to take her to the beach or on some sort of mini-hike. I would also like to do some crafy/artsy projects.

Time is not my friend, and it is taking a toll on my shoulders.

Photo from http://sophisticated-simplicities.tumblr.com/post/8819214602

"You and Me Makes We"

Dani and I at the Lavender Festival in Kenwood 2011

30 "Day" Challenge: Day 3: On My Mind

Something on my mind. Sometimes this is hard to pin-point because my mind runs around all over the place, it even makes me have a hard time going to sleep at night because it is so active. I picture my mind having all these files and it is as if my brain thinks I have to look at each file before letting me relax.

Anyways. Today, and lately, I have been thinking about getting debt-free. My sister and I took the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class together a little over a year ago at my church. I highly recommend the class to everyone! Great class, great habits to form. During the class I remember being so discouraged because I had only a 10-hour a week job and didn't know how I could possibly pay off my loans, be able to send Danika to private school, etc., etc. Regardless I started working on my budget and staring my emergency fund.

Later I got my current full-time job. This enabled me to fully fund my emergency fund and start the "Debt Snowball" process of paying off my loans. I have worked hard to keep up with it and through God's provision have paid off all but one loan in a year. This is my biggest loan of $9,000 from school but because of my living situation I am able to pay rather large chunks at a time.

Here is the biggest thing on my mind: I like to calculate how long it would take me to afford/pay off something to decide how much I should allocate my budget. With the way things are right now, and if no emergencies come up (which I know can), I can pay off my last and final loan in...drum roll please......

Fifteen months. If I paid the regular base payment it would take me 9 1/2 years! I am so excited and passionate even about paying this off. That way I can save for a house or whatever else we need. It feels like such a huge step to me and it has taken a lot of work. God has blessed me very much. I'm praying that I can keep on this path and then when I am debt free to not go on a big shopping spree (a big temptation, lol!)

30 Day Challenge: Day Two - A Hobby

Disclaimer: Obviously, consecutive days are out of the question. I try my hardest not to use the computer at home and I always want pictures to go with my blog posts, so both of those make my posting much much slower.

A hobby.

As I mentioned in my Day One entry, I love art. Painting is one of my outlets and most definitely one of my hobbies. I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. When I was in elementary school I remember I made an "art class" with a few of my friends and "taught" them how to draw some of my pictures. One was a cartoon horse if I remember correctly. :)

In Junior High/High School I was tutored by RVC's art teacher, Laurie Reynolds. She taught my friend Shannon and I. I have two favorite art pieces that I did from those sessions. One was a transitional art piece where a paint brush turned into a California Poppie. I'll have to take a picture of it and include it in this post. I love how whimsical it is. My second favorite piece was a self portrait that I did. What was really fun about it is that I covered the entire page with charcoal and then removed it with an eraser to create the image. Very messy, very fun.

Lately my paintings have been landscape and floral. I'll have to take pictures of some and include them as well. My most recent painting I did a month ago or so. It is an old tree with the four seasons on it in sections. My mom asked if the painting was for her and I told her that I wasn't sure if I would be giving it to anybody because I like it so much, haha!

I hope to continue painting and to be able to give them to friends and family. I just have to allow myself to make mistakes in them and incorporate the mistakes to make something beautiful. It is my way of recognizing how God works, we make mistakes and mess up, but God uses it to make something beautiful.

30 Day Challenge: Day One

Me.

I am a single mother of a beautiful 3 year old little girl. She is the love of my life. She also has made me remember the simple joys in life and to live not only for myself but for others as well. I have found that I live my life through my heart more than my head. Sometimes this causes troubles, and yes heartache, but I wouldn't change that about myself. I have to work very hard to keep my balance of head-and-heart thinking. I love the Arts. Art and music have been an outlet of mine to express how I am feeling when words cannot suffice. Some of my best paintings have been done when I am overwhelmed and even upset. Sounds kind of odd, but I think the slow movement of composing the piece calms my spirit and slows down the many thoughts in my head. Despite my love of art and my emotional self, I work in a law firm. I never thought of myself as a highly analytical person, like the people who work in the legal area, but I have actually found a good fit in this law firm. I tend to be the buffer, for the clients as well as the attorneys. I have had to learn to have tougher skin when people get upset. Given that one of the attorneys I work with does bankruptcy, we can have upset and anxious clients (and rightly so). Its not easy working full time. I find myself wishing I could be home more with Danika, even wonder if I am being a good mom by working full time, but I know that God provided this job for me. So I try to just trust that this is the right thing for now and wait and see what comes next. Knowing that God goes being my expectations and the joy and love of my daughter, I know that it will be great wherever we are lead.

Thirty-Day Blog Challange Introduction

I cannot believe it has been a over a year since I last posted! Wow. So much has happened and I feel like I need to devote a whole post to just that. ...Unfortunately, that post will not be this one. I will have to set aside a specific time for that later.

My sister and I have been talking about doing a blog challenge for a while now...probably over a month and she started hers so I thought I probably should start mine. The challenge is as follows:

Day 1: Yourself.
Day 2: A hobby.
Day 3: A thing that is on your mind.
Day 4: A goal.
Day 5: A person you miss.
Day 6: A blog.
Day 7: A picture of you when you were little.
Day 8: A pet peeve.
Day 9: A show.
Day 10: An insecurity.
Day 11: An actor.
Day 12: A thing that worries you.
Day 13: A list of favorite memories.
Day 14: A bad habit.
Day 15: A wish.
Day 16: A picture you took.
Day 17: A secret.
Day 18: A thing you are afraid of.
Day 19: A recipe.
Day 20: A picture of your "crew".
Day 21: A dream you had recently.
Day 22: A think you do everyday.
Day 23: A "meme".
Day 24: A topic that makes you think.
Day 25: A song.
Day 26: A think you want to do before you die.
Day 27: A think that makes you mad.
Day 28: A quote.
Day 29: A place that gives you wanderlust.
Day 30: A future.

For each day I will write at least one paragraph about the topic. Should be interesting!

Wow...been a while!

Oops....my bad! Actually, I think my writing went down a bit when I got back on facebook...heh. So! Lots going on! Biggest news right now....drum roll please....I GOT A JOB! Can you hear the angels singing? Yes, I got a job finally. It is this perfect little part-time job in Cotati for a sole practitioner (meaning one attorney for their own firm) in Trusts and Estates. It is 10 hours a week, three days a week, from 4-6:30ish. We haven't set in stone what my schedule will be yet, we are doing that tomorrow during my FIRST DAY! This attorney is so sweet and understanding! She knows that I can't stay forever since it is such few hours, but she wanted to hire me anyways! God knew this would be the perfect job for me because it is extra income yet it doesn't take away from my precious time with Danika! Plus, OK BIG plus, because I start at 4, it means that Grandma and Papa will babysit so I don't have to spend the extra money on childcare! There go those angels singing again! Can you tell I am a tad excited yet? Anyways, can't wait to start tomorrow. I feel so at ease with this attorney and if I do my job correctly and efficiently, then she can get more clients and give me more hours eventually. That was my biggest news. I have more stuff that I can tell you about, but I want the pictures to get with them and my sister has them on her computer. Need to get them! Danika is doing great, the little stinker keeps testing me and we are working on obeying and sharing, but she is very happy and makes me smile quite often. I'll try to put up a post just on her soon, for now I should get some sleep since I'm working tomorrow!! :D

Blast from the Past

Summer of 08 in the Cleveland, Ohio Airport. She looks so little!

Silly Danika

Going...



Going...
Gone.

Bouncy, bouncy!

Danika found out that she loves it when Auntie bounces her on the exercise ball. She didn't want to stop, but Auntie got tired!

I love her face near the end! And how her hair flies, lol.

How Danika get's Our Attention

When any member of the family is watching TV, eventually Danika comes to the conclusion that she should be receiving the attention instead of the TV. Logical conclusion, no doubt. So, she has the special way of getting it. She will stand in front of the TV, put her arms behind her back and say "gee? gee?" (No idea what she is saying exactly, but it is specific sound she only makes for this game) And this is what it turns into...

A Beautiful Day at the Beach

So on Saturday, Mary Rotman, Ember (Rotman), Jamie, Danika and I went the beach for the morning/afternoon. We actually started out at the Farmer's Market at the Vets Building. We had a nice time looking around at the great food and produce there, and we bought some AMAZING white nectarines! Wow, they were good. Danika kept on calling them apples, but to her credit they looked similar to apples (not to mention that any type of fruit is either an apple or bananna to her).

After the Market, we went and got Ember and packed up everything into my car and headed out. Thank goodness Danika fell asleep on the way there. Her head slumped over to the side, into that unnatural and uncomfortable position right when we hit Sebastopol. We ended up at Schoolhouse Beach. The weather was heavenly, no clouds or anything! The one problem was that this particular beach has pebbles instead of sand. Usually I love those pebbles, they are quite pretty, but they were insanely hot! I am kind of a wimp, so maybe some of you could have handled it, but I had a hard time!

Danika immediately wanted to go to the water! I was rather surprised at how brave she was during the whole time. Especially after what happened with one of the first waves. see in this picture, we went up to the water, and waited for a wave to come get our feet wet. Danika is giggling and so excited, and as I see a wave come up, I begin to realize how big it is.When I realized this, there was only a moment before the wave was going to hit us, so I scooped her up and tried to get out of the way. I am so glad that I got her up in time, because it was so strong, that it could have taken her with it! It was such a terrible thought, I had to purposefully push that out of my mind. In the picture, I have my red flip-flops on. When that wave hit, it dragged off one of

my shoes, and since I had Danika, I couldn't run and get it. So Mary, being wonderful, runs to get it. However, she has Ember on his leash, and Ember is terrified of this water! So she was literally dragging Ember into the water to save my shoe. Then, Danika drops her pacifier, and luckily I grabbed that in time So as you time. So in the end, we all were fine, just a bit of excitement to start the afternoon. The rest of the time that we were by the water, I had my hands around her stomach with my fingers laced just in case I needed to scoop her up fast again, which I did!

Well, we had a wonderful time! I will have all the pictures up from the trip on my Shutterfly photo site! Feel free to check them out!