Speech Therapy

Malachi has started speech therapy. He had a session last week and second one today. He LOVES it! He loves his speech therapist, Loren. Such a blessing, since he is going once a week! This is our special time together, and time for him to get someone focused just on him. He said he likes being the only kid getting all the attention, but he really wants to invite his brothers to join him to play the games today. Such a generous spirit, wanting to share good things with his brothers.

We are meeting in Loren's home, which Malachi and I like. Very comfortable feeling. Loren, the speech therapist, asked if I wanted to stay, instead of me having to tell her I was staying, and giving my litany of reasons.....I was welcomed! The main office is much more corporate, and the therapist there begrudgingly said, we'd try it for a time to see if Malachi was too distracted, and if so, I'd have to stay outside during therapy.

I had been praying about a best personality match for Malachi, and God is faithful, and giver of all good things, not only is Loren gentle with her speech, but very attentive and patient. Malachi is having so much fun playing games and is doing well with his sounds too.

Cardinals and Red Socks

We are now a few weeks into the baseball season. I was late to Malachi's practice, and I had Malachi, I was so encouraged and had to share. There were so many parents out on the field. It looked like workshops going on. Since I had complained, it was important to share. Some of you must be praying!! I happily watched for a short time, then went over to Caleb's game and cheered him on. I'll take some pictures and you can see the evolution of his stance. He takes his batting stance very seriously now. Caleb's coach is so high energy......he yells out randomly, "Red Socks ______" and the kids and parents yell, "Rock". He also yell/asks the kids, "WHO ARE WE?" and they mumble back "Red Socks". The kids are getting a little louder. I don't know which is more amusing, the coach or the kids.

Dry skin solution!

Something I found while looking through my pictures. I thought You'd get a kick out of it. I have mentioned before that I wished Lawrence would take pictures of the things that happen on his watch so I can enjoy later:) Well, looks like he did.....

If you look closely at the picture below, you can find the answer to the question, 'WHAT is that stuff anyway?'

Baseball Mania

I seem to have fallen into baseball land. Lawrence's friend Joel convinced him to do an easy job, be team manager for Malachi's T-ball team. Call the list of parents and tell them what team they are on, coordinate jerseys, general team start-up stuff. Remember this is from my perspective, so actual factual conversations are just hearsay.

Fast forward to now.......Lawrence is coaching the team alone! Think about this, Lawrence who tends to prefer people not interrupting him at work with 'pointless' conversation, is in charge of 9-12 T-ball players, their MOMS!! and dads. His laid back style has already caused quite a non-laid back reaction, however at present, no one wants to be coach. I am hoping and praying that some of the parents afraid of commitment, but willing to help where they can, will, in essence be the coach. I must mention, we have a great team mom.

I have encouraged those whom I have heard making suggestions under their breath to participate. Please pray that I am gracious and kind as I continue. I have lots of scenarios of conversations rattling around in my head, some less uniting than others, I know you know what I mean. I really do want this to be a fun experience for the kids and not torture for Me and the other parents, so please pray for harmony, team unity, gentle spirits, and an openness for any ministry opportunities. Our church is a 10 minute walk from the field.

Caleb has a very HIGH energy coach. He used to be a pro baseball player and he has a plan and is teaching those boys a lot. This team was just formed and there are no parent volunteers on this team yet.

15 year anniversary

Lawrence and I had our 15 year anniversary yesterday. We celebrated with the kids by going out for sushi. We've been happily married for 8 years now! God is good and miracles really do happen. We are so blessed.

Gary Eugene Boyd 1941-2008

He died early this morning. His heart failed, they shocked him and gave him medicine but once the medicine wore off, he coded again. He had been unresponsive for some time before this. He was unable to breathe on his own, and once he was taken off of the respirator, he didn’t even take his second breath. His wife released my dad from his suffering to go be with Jesus, where there is no pain or suffering. I am happy for this peace he has now. Caleb said he wasn't sad because he knew Grandpa was having a party in heaven with Jesus.

Dad was loved by his wife, whom he has been married to for the last 5 years. She saw his heart and enjoyed being with him.

My dad was born to cousins during WWII, left in an orphanage in Nebraska until he was 2, then adopted by evil people. He had a damaging, to put it in vague terms, childhood. He was acquainted with suffering, but he also came to know Christ. To know where he came from, you can see how Christ worked in his life.

Growing up, my most vivid memory of my dad was his absence. Although along the road there were some moments.

As a young child I remember my dad singing in a barber-shop quartet. He loved to sing bass, as low as he possibly could. He would sing strains and pieces of songs. On the occasion when he would come into my room at night, I’d ask him to sing “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you, all the days of your life...” He’d sing it a few times. We sang together in church once, I’m not sure how old I was. 10? I’m thinking it may have been, “They will know we are Christians by our love”.

My dad could give the best bear hugs. I knew he loved me as a child because of those hugs. I give those hugs to my boys, who eat them up and can't wait to squeeze the air out of me!

On Sundays, my dad would crank up the Gaithers as he made pancakes, the other Sunday morning rituals don’t bear mentioning.

He loved apricots fresh and ripe from the backyard tree. I remember him cutting up cantaloupe and later on lots of canned peaches.

We enjoyed stolen moments with the TV on occasional weekends where we'd watch shows like Barnaby Jones, Rockford files, Quincy, and Star Trek. As a family, we did watch Star Trek The Next Generation, possibly the only sanctioned TV outside of the Olympics. We’d watch that Saturday nights and eat air-popped popcorn with stove melted butter.

My dad spent much of his at-home-time enjoying sci-fi novels, in the living room on the couch. I remember this large book of ‘The Hobbit’ he’d read to us. It had pictures, plastic overlays.
A couple of times he read books after dinner. I remember a couple missionary stories.

When I was 14 my dad gave me 3 pairs of cloisonné earrings, and when I was 18 he gave everyone in the family scarfs.

I lived alone with my dad for about 5 months in 1990. We didn’t see each other often, but he left a sticky note on my door that said “I love you”. He made turkey burgers with frozen mixed vegetables, the kind with lima beans:-0 served with a side of BBQ sauce. Did I mention this was every meal he ate at home. Perhaps breakfast was different, I don’t remember that.

Whenever I said goodbye to my dad, as an adult, he’d always say, “Love you kiddo”. I love you too dad.

My Dad

My dad had a stroke last Friday, he is in the hospital. Things aren't looking too good. My sister and I drove down to SoCal to see him Tuesday. We saw him that night around 10p, which under normal circumstances is the middle of the night for him. We woke him up just enough to see an eyeball, and came back the next morning. He was still very groggy, although he did nod that he remembered seeing us the night before. He woke up more and more the longer we were there. By the time we left he was making faces as Elizabeth and I cracked many jokes at his expense, mostly his dangerous, aka, bad driving. He wasn't able to move his limbs more than a couple of times, and speaking was such a challenge, I didn't think he could do it, until he set the record straight on something once. His twin has a daughter, not a son. Speaking seemed to be very difficult, sometimes his mouth moved like he was working on speaking, but gave up. One time, it was completely garbled.

After we left to go back to the Bay Area, my dad took a turn for the worse. He was transferred to the CCU(critical care unit) where they shocked his heart because his rhythm was off. He was put on meds to maintain the proper heart rhythm. He is now off those meds. He wasn't oxygenating his blood properly, so he was also intabated. This means he's on a breathing maschine.

He already has total kidney failure, hence the dialysis. He has a sinus infection, pneumonia in both lungs and now a staph infection. He is also on blood pressure medication. I don't know if this is new or he was already on prior to this hospital experience.

Driving down, Elizabeth and I were cracking inappropriate jokes, laughing. On the way back, I felt strangely better, however tired, and quiet. Now, I feel sad. I know I'll see my father in heaven, maybe then I can know him whole and undamaged.

A move to Fremont

I am praying we move to Fremont, to a neighborhood called Glenmore. This move makes sense on many levels. 2 weeks ago today I began to share this desire with my family group, aka bible study. Friday after that I met a new friend Janna, via a growing friendship with Amy. I mentioned in passing this desire. At the end of our park day Janna said let's pray we all live in the same neighborhood! Knock me over! A strong desire of mine is to be in community, to raise my children with other similar minded people. To have run into someone with a similar desire and willing to pray together right here and now! So we joined hands and prayed we end up in the same neighborhood. I'm so excited. When God moves, it is always immeasurably more than we can imagine, ask for, or our mind can conceive.

Those joining our prayer for this move, that it add to our testimony, for a blessing in finding a home with the Lords fingerprints all over it. The caveat, I only want this move if it truly is best for our family. Seems like it will be. Lawrence will cut 1 hour a day off of his commute. My prayer for the house itself: an eat-in kitchen, a space for homeschooling, a climbing tree in the yard, a yard big enough for a trampoline, a dog run?, dirt area, grass area

mudman returns

I should have known I'd have another opportunity sometime to show you my mudman. Silas covered himself in (ajax), yikes. I ran and grabbed the camera, then cleaned him up. I recognized the smell, but it didn't click that it was ajax until I found the evidence. I haven't used it for cleaning in a while, have moved to natural stuff so kids won't have problems with toxic exposure! Ironic I know!



Too much work to download the camera now, will add another time.



We are praying God will bless our family with a move to Fremont. We are looking to rent in the Glenmore area. This would cut 1 hour off of lawrence's daily commute, and bring us closer to a hopeschool, church community. We are in a great commuting location now to anywhere in the bay area, but that also means, not too much community right here.

Please join us in prayer that the Lord will reveal the best for us, beyond what we could have asked for, conceived in our mind or heard of. When the Lord moves and blesses, he gives so much, for our ability to bless others, build our testimony and whatever I can't even think of.



A home with a kitchen as the heart, a yard big enough for a large trampaline, a place for homeschooling base, it's own room.

Silas spitting?!?! Malachi

Under the boardwalk

Uncle Joey and Autnie E - aka EJoe with Isabella.

See, here is the sea anemone, and the sea star.

Caleb

The Crows landed and snacked on fresh seaweed.This one is just so cute.... Silas, putting up the tent.
out of time sequence, but I'm sure you've guessed that.

Caleb Silas

Silas Malachi

We visited 'Starfish City' this winter on one of the coldest days of the year! As many times as we've visited Santa Cruz, we've never seen this vast treasure trove of sea life. There were anemones, muscles, barnacles - huge and small, crabs, snails, misc. crustaceans. Sooo cool. I'll post other pics. I thought I'd named them so they'd be easier to find, but only 'Starfish City', so named by Caleb.
Silas making a sand pile

Happy 40th Birthday Lawrence!

The new girl in Uncle Lawrence's life.

Isabella practicing her Sumo stance! She's just turned 10 months and is taking her first few steps on her vacation in the Bay Area. She's visiting from Austin TX!
Tiger shark at Hayward Shoreline interpretive center.
Uncle Lawrence and his niece Isabella!



Today Lawrence turned 40. We celebrated by going to Gerry's Grill, a nice Filipino restaraunt. We got to spend dinner and dessert with E Joe and Isabella. Isabella is 10 months

A book worm team

This morning, Silas woke up, climbed out of our bed and climbed in bed with Malachi who began "reading" The Little Red Hen. Such a beautiful thing! Silas was laying next to Malachi with rapt attention. His appetite for books has recently become apparent, his attention span increasing. He has joined the ranks of reading books over and over.

Back at the villiage, life as normal?

We babysat Cheyenne, our favorite dog overnight last week.

Silas playing with magnets.
Starting vacuuming early. Disguises optional.

I had to make this entry to share my newly permanent markered baby. Malachi found Silas with a permanent marker and thought he'd be the teacher of how to mark as much visible body parts as possible. The picture here doesn't do the artwork justice. Much is covered up. He was careful to include the large circles around the eyes. A picture is worth a thousand words....

Malachi's doing well with his cast. It is not nearly as bothersome to him as the splint from the ER was. This is lighter.

While Lawrence was away........Yay, he's back!!

Malachi broke his arm Sunday night! An accident involving a little assistance off a slide ended in a couple fractures on this brave kid. We spent 5 hours of 1 on 1 time. We got to read several books and talk with a 6 year old who fell off a slide and seamed to have broke his arm also.

Malachi was so calm not whimpering or even complaining that the nurse at the ER really didn't think he broke his arm. The worst part was when they put the splint on after 4 ½ hours of waiting. Malachi was groggy and crying, he kept saying the split was too tight and hurt him. The fiberglass was poking into his skin. His arm was hot and itchy. I felt so helpless. This was only a short period though, so it could have been much harder. My mom spent the night, since I got back home at 1a.

Silas woke up about around 2:30a or so. I was just going to bed. He was positively giddy to see me. Very smiley and content and giggly. Hospital departures too fresh.

And now........Lawrence is home.........Halleluja!!!!

Up up and away

Lawrence has been itching to get on a plane and fly over an ocean. He is getting this opportunity on the 26th of October. He is flying to the Philippines with his brother Sherwin. Sherwin is being deported.

Coincidentally, AKA providentially, our business is at a point where I just thought Lawrence needed to go to the Philippines to usher us into our next phase. Lots of paperwork, lease, etc... needs doing. Lawrence mentioned wanting to go to the Philippines the day I realized he needed to go for the business. He broached the subject cautiously and much to Lawrence's relief, thanks to the Lords prompting I was on board.

A whole week without Lawrence coming home at night is barrelling toward me. I am feeling the awesomeness of a weeks length right now. We have such a full schedule, it is just so daunting to not have Lawrence coming home, and 2 Saturdays, 1 Sunday, not counting the Sunday Lawrence will need to rest from his trip... here's to hoping the flight, like his long commute is the rest he needs:-o I wish I was joking.

Lot's of prayer coverage needed for us.

For those of you who don't know. We have a drafting business. Please pray for Gods best with this business. If it is to be, it will be full of blessings that will overflow and bless all that come into contact with it, employees, clients, and anyone in between. This business can only succeed if the Lord blesses it, and we want to be in the center of His will. Please pray doors clearly close or clearly swing open. Pray for Lawrence to have wisdom and discernment as he interviews and meets with architect schools to create relationships.

Please pray for Lawrence's safety, and also for Sherwin. This is a new beginning, and pretty scary. He moved to the US in 7th grade and before that lived in Papua New Guinea. He was born in the Philippines, but hasn't' been back since leaving as a young child. I don't know how old, but Lawrence left in 2nd grade to move to PNG, Sherwin stayed till he was 5 I think, with his Nanai(sp?)Grandma, before moving to PNG to join his parents.

Back from Radio Silence

Ok, this next story is almost too much, but this is my life. I went to drop off library materials, and was just getting back in the car when I received a call from Lawrence asking how soon I was going to be home. My littlest angel had cut his penis with scissors, and there was blood. We're seriously low on band-aids.

If you haven't heard about liquid glue, I can't say enough about it. Great for the very young children when you really need the band aid to stay on, and for the more delicate areas of the body.... Thanks to liquid glue, we all slept happily and comfortably through the night. For those of you who have no idea why I'm talking about that, just think urine=acid, cut in delicate places.

On to other things. I've been quite busy, and am in a constant state of near overload, or actual overload. My body is at about 20 years more aged than my age. While I am cured of any diseases, tumors or really life threatening things, I'm not recovered. I held Silas for about an hour or less last Thursday, and on Friday my lower back/Sacrum started hurting. By Saturday, I was immobile. It took a while to connect the dots to figure out the sources, it had crept up so slowly, seemingly unrelated. It will take me a while to get back to a robust life, for lack of better word.

It is so frustrating, I don't have the energy to keep my house clean, cook meals daily, put laundry back into dressers. For most moms, women even I think, having a messy home, makes your mind messy. How have we been living your wondering now? Lawrence washes the laundry, the dishes pile up until Lawrence or I clean them up. Vacuuming......... well, it could be done more often, shoes help so you don't feel the crunch! For meals, I started making oatmeal for breakfast everyday in the microwave, lunch and dinner tend to be 50% pre-made meals from ??

It's not really a depressed place, but I don't have the energy to get up from the chair, the energy to move, to think. I'm maxed out. It is a physical taxation. I'm depleted. I am trying to think of how to fill the void, to gain strides forward. Lawrence is so generous with giving me time to do things without kids in evenings and weekends, so I will crawl out of this void with time and more importantly, the Lords help.

The mere fact I've made an entry in the blog shows a spurt of energy. We are going to see Andre Cole, a magician, tonight. This should be a fun outing. I've been living as if I'm not teetering on the edge of total exhaustion. Staying at home with kids all day is not relaxing. They get cabin fever and then fight more. Let me tell you, bickering children is one of the biggest energy drains I can think of. So we've been doing school most days until quiet time, then going out. This week, Wed, Thurs, and today, I have limited school to whatever Caleb can do with minimal input from me. This is usually a page of math. And today, a page of writing.

We've been enjoying books on CD, and this week, have enjoyed Lunch Money, a new book, 2005. Very good actually. Long, 5 hour or so. I count that as read aloud, I am grateful for skilled narrators to fill our minds with the written word with much less energy than it takes me to read.

We started listening to CS Lewis's The silver Chair. I'm surprised, Caleb is enthralled with the fantasy. With the Classical education philosophy, you are supposed to read books below your reading level for entertainment, shear fun, books at your reading level and books above your reading level, to challenge you and push/pull you along. Caleb really enjoys reading books multiple times, so books on CD is great for that, those readers never get too tired, or have other kids that are hungry, tired or thirsty:)

ABC 7 news link.

Effective Ways To Avoid Breathing Bad Air (9/6)

This is the correct link to view when I was on the news on my first day out alone with kids. Already a lifetime ago.

Papua new Guinea Mud men Visit

I had to substitute for actual picture since Lawrence didn't take a picture. While I was out, Silas and Malachi played in the flour and Lawrence's best description of how they looked, is well, see the picture:) He didn't know whether to laugh or be mad, so he pursed his lips to keep them in place and moved through the clean up process. What a great husband he is!

Hemotology results back in. I'm cured! -read bottom of this entry for more on that.

Since my last update, I've had toothpaste on my bathroom scale, and I mean about 1/4 a tube of it spread evenly:) Lipstick on my wall, that may be a repeat, a spider bite on Silas' leg, which as a side note I've found out if you shred a red potato, skin on and pack in on an infected site, works for blood poisoning and streaking too, it pulls the poison out. So I seran wrapped Silas' leg the next night to keep the potato shreds in place. They stayed neatly in place all night(next to the wound, not on it, argh, but it did help). Silas also got a burn on his arm, looks like a frying pan mark, sounds bad, the idea of it is worse than the burn. Lawrence doesn't remember any incident, and I don't either, so that's even scarier. The only good thing about burns is they are great teachers about listening and staying back when told "This is hot, stay back". Poor guy.

OK that's all for now. The blood from falls ranks at honorable mention.

Home school is going well, though I thought I was quite clever getting a tape player for Caleb and Malachi to go listen to books on tape somewhere to increase quiet in the house and education. Well, our lovely 2 year old has un-strung 2 audio tapes and 1 video tape from the library, quite possibly making this one of our more expensive memberships. As of now, tapes are no longer allowed in any way shape or form from the library. I am planning to get a microphone and read books myself, that way, if Silas ruins them, it will be frustrating, but not as expensive. We are working on the anti-2 year-old-defense-system, but have not perfected it yet.

So for the curious amongst you, I have been settling into homeschooling, gaining my own philosophy and style. For someone like myself, this had to happen. Me not having an opinion is like a fish living out of water. Although, opinion is not really accurate. I have been learning about finding what works for me and each kid as I go without expecting this is best for everyone, and this, my friends is new and fabulous.

I loosely subscribe to classical education as follows:

Classical Education is based on 3 stages of learning, the first stage is the Grammar Stage when you input facts into the sponge AKA child. This stage is K-4th grade. The other 2 stages aren't important to me yet, so I can't remember them. With classical education, most subjects are taught by reading, reading, reading relevant material. History taught by historically accurate fiction, or non-fiction in story format as much as possible(at this point anyhow). Math, not done by reading:) Writing, we are doing Sing, Spell Read and Write, although we are at an impasse at this point and have wandered into working at our own pace on vocabulary for a while. Caleb's handwriting has improved considerably since last year, although, writing is far from his favorite thing to do.

We will be doing science with a few friends, and will be doing Mandarin with another friend. I'm looking forward to leading science but will not be teaching any Mandarin, shock and amazement, I know.

We are learning a memory verse a week, reading Emigmeyers Bible daily, read alouds (what ever books they choose from a bin I have set out). Doing math, vocabulary, which means I sound out a word ie. mmmmm aaaaaa nnnnnnn. Caleb/Malachi figure out the word and write it down. They know the phonics, so write the sounds. I write it down and then compare, making corrections. Ok, that may be interesting to 1 of you, so enough tedium.

I'm tired, and just realized I never mentioned the results of my hemotology appt. For any of you who made it this far.......... I'm healed!! That's what the Oncologist said after 4 hours of wating around. I took a blood test when I arrived for my 1230p appt. After that I waited for hours.......then my blood results came back normal, my white cell counts back to normal. Must have been off due to Castlemans, which was cured when they removed the lymph node 'tumor'. Not enough research on Castlemans, so who's to know, but seems to be the case for me. No, they don't want to use me as a study case, too few people to make it worth studying.

Congratulations if you made it to the end of this entry. This serves as 2 weeks worth!

A photo journal for today

Paparazzi catch an exclusive look at this falls latest footwear fashions. As seen in this early photo of Spidy, he has always been concerned with oral hygiene.

It's good to be loved.

Taking a break from all that fun and fun and running around with friends.

You've heard of horseback riding, riding camels, even elephants, well, now you've heard of and seen auntie EB back riding!

How serious are you about your fiber? You could take a lesson here. Malachi checking the underside of auntie EB's pedicure.

Labeled for future cataloging, if you look closely you'll see Malachi in Red on right cheek(your left) Aquino on forehead, and Philip on left cheek. Yes, he is missing a tooth.

Artist or Work of Art? That is the question.
Window art as a sport for 2008 Olympics?

washing windows is more fun than making the artwork sometimes.