A Day in the Snow

This past weekend, Grant had his first trip to Mt. Ashland. Mt. Ashland is one of Daddy's favorite places! He has been skiing there since he was young. He can't wait until next year when Grant is old enough to start skiing. He was really excited to take Grant up there this year anyway. We had planned on taking a family trip up the mountain on Saturday to play in the snow. Mommy got sick though, and couldn't go :( So Grant went with Daddy and Grandma. They had a blast playing in the snow, sliding down the hill, and hanging out in the lodge. And Mommy loved hearing all about it when they got back :)

My Love

I hate to brag...but I have the best, most absolutely perfect husband (for me). Paul is the love of my life, and I feel so blessed that the Lord has given him to me. Here are some things I love about Paul.

-He makes me laugh all the time

-He knows my love languages, and truly tries to love me in those ways

-He works hard to provide for our family so I can stay home

-He lets me warm my cold feet on his legs at night

-He plays games with me

-He tolerates my passion for decorating our house for every holiday

Those are just a few, obviously, I couldn't list them all! He is taking me out for dinner tonight :)

My Morning Blessing

I came upon a blog series the other day titled 31 Days to a Better Photo. I would LOVE to be better at taking pictures (not the actual taking of them...because we all know I take enough, but the quality of them), so I started reading. The first day encouraged you to "take the photo". You can read it for yourself, but basically it said that the first step is to take the photos of the moments you want to remember. If you don't take the picture, you might not ever get a second chance. Right after reading that, I heard Grant waking up. One of the best moments of my day is going into Grant's room to get him out of his crib. He is (usually) so happy to see me and so cute! I thought I would "take the photo" and give you all a glimpse into the blessing that I get to enjoy every day. Mind you...I have not completed reading the rest of the 31 days, so my photography has not improved a bit.

Smiles first thing in the morning...what a sweet boy :) The first thing he does is hand me all of his implements...puppy, blankie, and whatever else he took to bed with him.

Then he gathers all his binkies (three to be exact) and puts them to the side of his bed for the next "nigh-night".

Another smile :)

And then we get his "milk-uh" and read "book-uhs".

He likes to put his "milk-uh" on the "tabee", but it must always be on the coaster.

When we're done, he puts his puppy and blankie "back in" and says "bye-bye".

San Francisco

This past weekend I had an amazing opportunity to travel to San Francisco with our church youth group. They went on a missions trip to minister to the people on the streets of the Tenderloin, and I got to go along as a leader. The Tenderloin is the worst part of San Francisco. It got its name because they had to pay policemen extra to patrol the area, thus the policemen could afford the most expensive cut of meat...the tenderloin. It was quite an interesting place to take 32 middle and high schoolers. We had some great activities that introduced the kids to the life of the homeless.

We stayed in a hostel in the middle of the Tenderloin. It was actually a really nice place. It had comfy common areas where the students were able to hang out, and we were able to do a lot of our team meetings there.

We did a lot of walking around the downtown area. Some of the activities were to ask the people on the streets questions about where we could get a free meal, where there was shelter, where the bathrooms were, etc.... The point was to get the kids talking to people and hopefully open doors for sharing the love of Jesus. My eyes were really opened to the horrible way in which these people live. I had an idea of how they slept on the streets, wandered around with shopping carts, and basically scared me to death with their desperation and different way of life. What I wasn't prepared for was the terrible smell that lingered along every street. I was constantly watching my footsteps to make sure that I didn't step in the small "rivers" that ran across the sidewalks. And the compassion that I started to feel as I stepped out of my shell and started conversations with them. I realized that they smell and look the way they do because they have no choice at this point in their lives. I've known this, but being out there and experiencing it really made it real.

One day we packed a sack lunch for ourselves and one for a homeless person. Then we went to the Civic Center, where many homeless people hang out, to hand out lunch and start conversations with people. Some of the people took the lunch and ran, but others hung around to talk and listen to some music.

One of my favorite activities was the "Homeless Plunge". They sent us out onto the streets for 6 hours without any food or money. We were supposed to find a place to eat a free lunch, maybe find a church to attend, find shelter if it rained, and basically see how it felt (sort of) to be homeless. My group ended up going to the Rescue Mission for church, then to Glide (a homeless shelter) for lunch. We stood in a line that wound around the block for about 45 minutes. As I stood in line I saw a sign across the street...Pizza...oh how I wanted some pizza! I suddenly realized that on any day of the week I can have pizza...these people are stuck with whatever they are serving in the soup kitchen. It was a really humbling moment for me. Here I was wishing for pizza on the one single day that I couldn't have it, and these people all around me have probably wished for pizza hundreds of times throughout their lives always knowing that they probably won't get it.

Our last day there we got to do some sightseeing. We took the famous cable cars all the way across San Francisco to the Fisherman's Wharf. I was so bummed once we got to the Wharf and I realized that we had passed Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world, and I hadn't even noticed. When I went back to look through my pictures, I realized that at one point when I thought I was just taking a picture of a cool city view it was actually Lombard Street! I was really excited :)

It was a great trip with many memories made!