big girl panties- check!

i woke up this a.m. "put my big girl panties on, and got on with it."

surprise the kids with the annual first day of school breakfast- check!

read scripture and pray with the kids- check!

model new converse (or "congers" as josie likes to refer to them)- check!

get first day of school photos taken with the school photographer (a.k.a daddy)- check!

take the boy to school-check!

think about him when he had his first day of preschool-check! (probably should have sterred clear of this one).  

(i give you permission to laugh at my BIG hair and the what-was-i-thinking outfit!)

waterproof mascara-check!

sunglasses-check!

swim-goggles (in case sunglasses aren't enough)-check!

GINORMOUS chocolate bar (if swim-goggles aren't enough)-check!


ready or not let him go, and trust the One who goes before him-check, check, CHECK!

 

ready or not, here HE comes

noah starts school in 2 days.

i'm not ready.

i cry to God, " i'm not ready."

He tenderly reminds me of other times i said i wasn't ready...

i wasn't ready to leave my hometown and move to these mountains for what i though was one summer 17 years ago (i met michael that summer, and have been here ever since)

i wasn't ready 1 month before our 1st wedding anniversary, 23 years old, holding a positive pregnancy test,  

when noah was 14 months old, i was absolutely NOT ready for his new baby sister to join our family (and on top of that 7 weeks early).

i wasn't ready when each of my children took their first steps, slept in big beds, began kindergarten, stayed with g-ma for a weekend, swam in the deep end, went to camp for two weeks...

and i will in NO WAY  be ready when they go to high school, drive, graduate, go to college, leave my nest. 

God gently points out that i may never be ready, and that is okay, because HE is.

"Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it IS GOD who determines his steps."

God asked me to look back, and hope forward...

to look back and see His faithfulness (i could not write enough blog posts to share all the ways He has been faithful), and to hope forward, trusting His plan...

because ready or not, here He comes.

in 2 days noah WILL GO to school.  he will walk away from me, into a class of 30 jr. highers, and into his (HIS) future.
 

It's only for a moment you are mine to hold

The plans that heaven has for you

will all too soon unfold

So many different prayers I'll pray

For all that you might do

But most of all I'll want to know

You're walking in the Truth

And if I never told you

I want you to know

As I watch you grow

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams

And that faith gives you the courage

To dare to do great things

I'm here for you whatever this life brings

So let my love give you roots

And help you find your wings

May passion be the wind

That leads you through your days

And may conviction keep you strong

Guide you on your way

May there be many moments

That make your life so sweet

Oh, but more than memories

I pray that God will fill your heart with dreams

And that faith gives you the courage

To dare to do great things

I'm here for you whatever this life brings

So let my love give you roots

And help you find your wings

It's not living if you don't reach for the sky

I'll have tears as you take off

But I'll cheer as you fly

I pray that God would fill your heart with dreams

And that faith gives you the courage

To dare to do great things

I'm here for you whatever this life brings

So let my love give you roots

And help you find your wings

By Mark Harris

beach play & a bit of "porkacheese"

if reading from facebook, visit here to see complete post with videos.

message

We interrupt the regular scheduled vlogging to announce this message: 

roller coaster of love

after camping in san simeon for two nights we headed north along the pacific ocean to our next camp sight, new brighton beach (near santa cruz, and the santa cruz beach boardwalk). 

WARNING! 

wear earplugs while watching the following videos. failure to wear earplugs may result in one of the following symptoms: hearing change or loss, general discomfort, vertigo, an intense need to purchase me a life time supply of ear plugs, an urgency to pray for my sanity, uncontrollable laughter (second video), and incontinence (from the uncontrollable laughter as a result of watching the second video). 

after watching the second video josie asked me if that's what i looked like when i was in labor? i'm guessing, yes, and i'm sure i shouted "i want off, i want off, i want off!"

f.y.i.  during the summer, on monday and tuesday evenings after 5:00, the santa cruz beach boardwalk's rides, hot dogs, soda, and cotton candy can each be purchased for $1.

camping corniness

i miss you blog friends.

i survived our camping trip.  i battled the frizzy hair blues, tent living, campfire smoke smelling, and 30 degree below zero temps (i might be exaggerating a tad), by inhaling  2 s'mores per day (i might be under exaggerating a tad).

time away from everyday luxuries- hairdryer (i hugged it when i got home. really), non coin operated showers, my cozy bed, internet, t.v., wii, work, and daily responsibilities (which right now are a lot as we are gearing up for a busy school year which begins next week) gave us much time to take each other in.

soaking each other up and making memories is the only part of camping that i enjoyed more than s'mores (i'm not exaggerating at all this time).

now go pop yourself some jiffy-pop popcorn, and enjoy these pix and clips from the first two days of our trip.

josie modeling the latest in camping wear

baby love'n

this week i got to spend time with her baby, imogen crutchfield.

this sweet girl, fresh from heaven, has made me one happy God-auntie.

she is absolutely delicious!  it took every ounce of self-control i had to keep from chewing on her.  

it's been 8 1/2 years since i've had a baby,  and i was surprised to discover that i still had my tender-speak-to-baby-voice (since i typically sound like one of these moms).   while soaking up  3 month old imogen- baby songs, baby games, and all that i use to spend countless hours doing surfaced from my mommy memory.  my three (now full fledged KIDS) sat around me, and participate in the baby love'n.

we enjoyed imogen so much that at one point josie told me she would like a baby sister (GASP!).  "good luck with that" i laughed. 
 
here is a bit of video, that may not be entertaining to anyone but me, but i'm going to post it anyway, cause it's my blog and i can post what i want to. 

i couldn't get enough of imogen (and i've really missed my "mel, mel"), so we met them in town the following day to squeeze in some more time with the crutchfield family during their short trip here.

and keep an eye out for imogen's emmy award winning daddy! uh huh.  i'm the friend of an emmy award winner.  i know you're jealous.

now another extremely short-film, which was not nominated for an emmy. 

F.Y.I.

Victory Rd. will be on vacation again this week.  look forward to some fun vlogging footage when i return... how does me, on a ROLLER COASTER, after eating a corn dog and cotton candy sound for blogertainment? 

around the house

i was visiting lisa leonard's blog today where she was sharing pix of her new home.
her home has an ocean theme throughout. she asked the reader what the theme of their home was.

this was my answer.

the theme of our home, hmmm... "us." i think our home looks like us, like our little family. i think the style of our home is uniquely tailored to fit our family's personalities. it can't be duplicated, and can never be outdated. i love it. it is my favorite place to be.

does your home have a theme?

do you have a favorite spot in your home?

what does this mean?

haven't had enough of double rainbow guy? listen to the double rainbow song here.

wiww

i'm link'n up with my s.i.l. lindsey, over at the pleated poppy for w.i.w.w.

#1. top- forever 21, capris-maurices, shoes- handmeover from my sister, necklace- lisa leonard (gift from kristen)

#2. hair cut- hairway 41 (the Steel Magnolias beauty salon of oakhurst), dress- ross,  tank- target, shoes- marshalls (i had a date with my favorite little girl to see Ramona & Beezus). 

#3. top- kohls, capris- sears, flops- flojo's at some skater store (picked up the kids from camp).

#4. top- h&m, capris -maurices, shoes- from sis, petal pusher- from s.i.l.

#5. top-target, shorts- target (i think i need to shorten them), shoes- target (given to me from a friend who didn't want them), necklace- lisa leonard.

"sharon stone" and other randomness

put on your seat-belt and hold on, cause this post is going to be one crazy (random) ride!

first, i know your all (okay maybe two of you) dieing to know about my kidney boulder (who we are now referring to as "sharon").  i was scheduled last wednesday for surgery.  however, i hadn't had symptoms for a week, so i asked for an x-ray.  the x-ray was inconclusive.  the dr. told me he believed sharon was still there because he's certain i would have felt such a ginormous boulder pass (my translation of dr. talk).  he told me i had a decision to make.  my "basic instinct" was to not have surgery.
i won't lie, my tummy was gurgling because i hadn't eaten for 16 hours.  in addition i hadn't seen my husband for 3 days (he'd been hiking mt. shasta with summit adventure), plus we were kidless for the first time in weeks!  i didn't want to waste another minuet of this time together in a hospital, i wanted a lunch date!
so i could or could not be expecting sharon stone???  i may never know.

as i type my son is in his p.j's walking around the house in his new pair of converse.  yesterday he walked around the house wearing his new backpack.  he is breaking in his new shoes and backpack which were purchased for him for school... traditional school!
i still don't want him to go to school, i want to keep home and mine for.ev.er...but i know God wants him to go.
i grab him and hug him for long periods of time, and tell him i miss him already.  i'm trying to break myself in for the 180 days of school ahead of us.

thankfully we still have 20 more days left of summer vacation.

we are going to get every ounce of enjoyment we can out of this summer vacation.  we have to since noah will be gone so much during the school year, and we won't have the flexibility of homeschooling.

last week we vacationed on bass lake.

we spent the week with the in-laws and their oldest and dearest friends.  we also spent the week with my s.i.l. and her kids.  the week was spent eating yummy vacation food, playing games, making memories together, and perfecting the art of tanning.

the kids and i took time out of our busy vacationing schedule to throw a little breakfast birthday party for a handsome 3 year old.  junk cereal and sprinkle donuts are the way to a 3 year olds heart. 

we didn't spend our entire week on the shore, some of it was spent on the lake where emilie learned to water ski. she is a go-getter (i love this about her). she was up on the third try! after watching emilie succeed noah gave it a try. i like that sometimes the younger sibling leads the older.

at one point we were on the boat and noah was preparing to go inter-tubing.  gramps asked noah if i was going to go with him.  noah responded, "oh no, my mom won't go in the water because she doesn't like to get her hair wet."  yes, i'm one of those moms.  i dislike my undone frizzy lake water hair, but not as much as i dislike being that mom.  so as soon as i heard the words come out of his mouth i grabbed a life jacket and jumped in (fell in really).  noah and i had a great time tubing together.  he smiled a lot and said, "thank you mommy."  he told me, i "earned a lot of cool mommy points for going tubing" with him.  cha ching!

(note to self; do not wear a  tankini two piece when tubing.  thankfully noah was still hanging onto his tube as i fought to keep the bottom portion of my suit on). 

noah has now filled his school backpack with his binder. he is walking around our 1650 sq ft house with it on.

have i mentioned our house is for sale? it has been for sale since february.  if you want to buy a cute house for under $200 thousand in california than this is the house to buy!

before we were at bass lake, noah and emilie were at yosemite sierra summer camp for two weeks. josie did some fun stuff while they were away too.  i'll save that for another post.

we're going camping next week (told you we were going to suck all the enjoyment out of summer we can).  i loath camping.  it is my least favorite thing to do.  in addition we are going camping at a couple of beaches.  i hate myself in a bathing suit as much as i hate camping.  my family loves sleeping in a tent, smelling like smoke, and parading around in their bathing suits, so i'm going to take one for the team.  their dirty smiling faces, and 2 s'mores a day will make it all worth it.

speaking of s'mores, have i mentioned that i love s'mores.  gooey marshmallow, chocolate, and graham crackers.  when noah and emilie were at y.s.s.c.,  josie and i had s'mores for lunch one day... maybe i wouldn't dislike myself in a bathing suit if i ate something other than s'mores for lunch.

it's 10:08 a.m., is that too early for a s'more?

well that is enough randomness for now.  i'm off to spend the next two hours picniking and loading the videos for this post... and probably to eat a s'more or two.

happy tuesday!

vacation, have to get away

victory rd. is on vacation this week.

until next week enjoy this blast from the past from the go-go's!