A Young Girl Reading

A Young Girl Reading
Jean-Honore Fragonard

I love this painting!

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

Leah

This is our new puppy, Leah. She is an English Mastiff and is expected to be around 150 pounds when she is full grown. That is more than twice the weight of Hannah. Dan is super excited because he has always wanted a Mastiff. These pics were taken soon after we got her. She is now 3 1/2 months old and weighs over 30 pounds. She has a really sweet disposition and has been really good about potty training. She learns quickly. Leah has really fit in well with our family and even Hannah is getting used to her.

Bradley-isms

Our church meets in a movie theater. A couple of Sundays ago Bradley approached me with something important to say. He looked me in the eye and said, "Mom, look at that poster. See how it says stuff under each thing? See what it says under PG-13? It says 'See it with your kids'." Then he looked at me earnestly waiting for my response. He figured the poster was telling all parents to see PG-13 movies with their kids. Finally someone was telling me to let him see all these movies I kept saying "no" to. I had to laugh. I explained to him that the PG stood for Parental Guidance and that I was the Parental and I was Guiding him away from these movies. I informed him that the "See it with your kids" meant that your kids shouldn't see it alone, if they saw it at all. Too cute.

When Dan was deployed last year I spent a lot of time with my friend Jessica. It was really great to have someone there to go through a deployment with. It was also great to have her witness first hand some of Bradley's Bradley-isms. One of my favorites and I think hers too was the toothbrush incident. Both of my kids had one of those automatic toothbrushes that you put batteries in and the brush spins. I was sitting on the couch with Jessica, having just sent my kids to "get ready for bed." Bradley came out into the living room and informed me that his toothbrush was out of batteries and therefore he couldn't brush his teeth. I smiled and replied that while the brush was no longer spinning it was still capable of cleaning his teeth and that he would have to brush the old fashioned way--moving the brush himself.

My last story is more recent. We rented a movie called Pan's Labyrinth. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film. It was very imaginative and had great costumes. So, Bradley wanted to see it. Because of it's rating I said "no". I also explained that he really wouldn't enjoy watching the movie because, "you can't understand anything that anyone is saying and you have to read all of the words at the bottom of the screen." Bradley just shook his head and said, "Why would anyone make a movie like that?"

O Praise Him

Amazing!

Inca Dove

This is an Inca Dove that Dan photographed in the aviary at The Desert Museum.

For the Birds

The kids and I have been studying birds in science this year. Well, all flying creatures of the fifth day. (Exploring Creation With Zoology vol. 1). It's been really fun. When we first moved to Tucson the newspaper here ran an article on the most popular birds of the area. So we cut them all out and taped them to index cards. The kids had to learn all of the birds before we could go on our first field trip here, The Desert Museum. It was awesome to have my children identifying birds for everyone in the aviary. We have discovered that even if you don't really get into birds, once you start to learn more about them it becomes more exciting. We also have started putting bird seed out in our back yard. This has been the most fun! We've been able to watch and identify all the various birds that hang out in our yard now. We have a family of Rock Doves and several Mourning Doves. A couple of families of House Sparrows with babies, and two families of House Finch. We keep hoping that eventually we will attract some new and interesting birds. We are dying to see some warblers or cardinals. It's been a blast to learn with my kids.

Family

Bradley

Bethany

Miss Bailey

This is Miss Bailey Adams. We had a great time watching her while her parents were away.

Before We Left Alaska

This was taken on the highway on our way out of Alaska.

These were taken in Haines. The city where we boarded the ferry.

Phoenix Zoo

We stopped in Fresno to hang out with Dan's parents and my Dad. It was fun getting to see his new house and just spend time with everyone. Dan's sisters Julie and Charla came to Fresno to see us. We even did a little Christmas with them. Then we headed out and intended to see the Grand Canyon on our way to Tucson. But as is the truest irony for an Alaskan family, it was snowing the day we were supposed to go. So, we decided to stop in Phoenix for a couple of days instead and check out the Phoenix Zoo.
The beginning. This was a really awesome zoo. We had tons of fun!
It was raining off and on. We had just visited the petting zoo but some of the animals were inside where it was dry.

My gator wrangling children. They are so brave.

More Phoenix Zoo Pics

Yay! I can't believe they got me Kettle Corn!

This is the Bradley that I know and love!

Santa Rosa

Our first stop in the states was in Oregon to visit with Dan's Uncle Ken and Aunt Cheryl. It was really super to see them and get a chance to visit their camp. Then we headed down to Santa Rosa. Most of Dan's family lives there. I love spending time with all of them. They are so neat!
Dan's Aunt Rozanne was moving to D.C. to take a new position with the FBI and his cousin Jolene was home from China. So we were coming through at just the right time. It was a great excuse for a big Kinser party. It was so great to see Jolene. What a sweet person she is. It was a lot of fun catching up with her. I'm really glad that we got a chance to see Rozanne as well. It was a fun time.
What a blast it was to see everyone!

Ferry

We made it out of Alaska. The roads were quite iffy the week leading up to our departure. So, we decided to drive all the way to Haines in one day. This proved to be very smart on our part since they ended up closing the roads. It was a trip to drive down streets that had snow walls that were taller than me. The ferry ride was great. No one threw up this time. It was nice to get a chance to read and hang out. I was able to do school with the kids which was great.

The ferry boat we had this time around was much nicer than the one we had on our last trip.

We got to get off the boat and walk Hannah whenever we were in port. This is a pic of Hannah and me in Sitka.

Poor Hannah had to spend the entire trip locked away in the car. She handled it like a pro. What a great and wonderful puppy she is. This is a pic of me and the kids feeding her.

Update May 07

It's been three months now. I haven't posted anything--not a single story or update, not a picture. I'm sure that I've lost even those who were hanging in just to make sure my blog was dead. A lot has happened in three months. We lost our foster son on Dec. 12, had Christmas on Dec. 25 (duh), had movers come out to pack us up on Dec. 27, left Alaska on Jan. 6. For those who have never moved or done Christmas with two kids or lived in Alaska or lost a son, each of these things is very difficult (OK Christmas isn't very difficult but it is stressful when it happens in the midst of a tornado). Doing all of them together would have killed me if I didn't have Christ to carry me through it. It wasn't over, yet. We still had to travel from Alaska to Arizona with two kids, luggage and our floppy eared dog. We didn't get to Tucson until Jan. 31. Then we had to find a place to live--and move our stuff in. So, we are really just starting to feel settled in an unsettled way. Because there wasn't any time--not even a breath--between losing our baby and leaving Alaska I didn't really have time to process it or deal with it or really to grieve in any way. It's sort of a stunted way to have to deal with something. The despair could have killed me, if it weren't for Christ. If I didn't KNOW that God would look after him for me. If I didn't KNOW that God loves him more than me. If I couldn't pray for him constantly. If I couldn't give God my wound and have him clean it, it would have become infected.
Now I am just in mourning. Mourning the loss of his smiling face and the way he would dance to music in the car. I'm begging God to help me to remember it all.
We have added to our family since arriving here. Bethany has gotten a gerbil named Aja (Asia). She is cute and fluffy with a pink nose. Bethany is over the top excited about it! I'm getting bored of typing now, so I'm just going to post this. Hopefully I will be able to blog more in the next months.