MOVE

Last week, I attended a MOVE Conference with 7 of our highschool students. I love, love CIY (MOVE). I figured out that I have attended 17 conferences!(I think. Sometimes years start to run together.) I went without my kids and the ONLY reason that I did was that my parents came from Iowa to watch them. Not only that, my brother Tom and his family came as well. We had the weekend together and then Kirk and I left for CIY's MOVE conference at Biola University. I would love to show you pictures, but I have recently discovered that in the rush of everything, I deleted all the family pictures that I took. I am hoping that my mom and sister-in-law will share!

Being gone at MOVE was the longest that I have ever been away from my children. I have been away from them overnight - and that is it. Even though I about cried on the morning that we left, I really was okay the rest of the week. I am really thankful that I had the week to not be a mom and just be Rebecca again. I read 2 books, I didn't have to clean or cook, and I spent time with my husband. PLUS, there were a few times that I actually became a kid again. It was a blessing.

It is interesting that this summer's VBS was about the story of Exodus, our Sunday School Lessons are on the story of Exodus, and MOVE was about the story of Exodus. Just maybe, there is a lesson that we need to learn. MMMM. I am still reflecting on some of the lessons and I hope to fill you in on more of them later. If you ever get the chance to go to a MOVE conference, even as a sponsor, I recommend that you do it. It can be very challenging, if your heart is in the right place.

Not only was it nice to be away for the week, but it was nice to come home. My kids needed the interaction with the extended family without the parents around. I can see how they have grown and changed. And I think it has made our relationship better all around. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! You blessed us!

The Palo Alto

When we went to the beach on Tuesday, we went to Seacliff State Park. Once we got to the beach, we couldn't help but notice a shipwrecked-looking ship attached to the pier. In the above picture you can see it in the distance. I love a good story and I needed to figure out the history of this ship.

The Palo Alto is a concrete ship that was built as a tanker to be used in WWI. It was built by the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company in Oakland, CA for $1,500,000. She was launched on May 19, 1918 - too late to be used in the War and so she just set. She was bought by the Seacliff Amusement Corporation and taken to Seacliff State Beach a few years later. A pier was built leading to the ship and she was fitted as an amusement ship. It had a dance floor, heated swimming pool, and a cafe.

I am sure it was quite a sight to behold and many glamorous people found their way to this ship, but after just 2 seasons, the company went broke because of the Great Depression. That winter, after a big storm, the ship cracked at it's midsection. The ship was stripped of all its finery and sold to the State of California for $1. It became a fishing pier. As the ship deteriorated, she became unsafe and closed to the public. Now, she remains and serves as an artificial reef for marine life.


If you are into humanizing non-living objects like I am, what a sad life for this ship. To only be used for it's intended purpose for a short while, to live a glamorous life for a couple more years and then for the rest of the time not be used at all. I wonder if there are people who feel that way. They have had a couple glamorous years, but the rest of the time they have been used and abused by people and now they feel ugly, harsh and cruel. Fear not! God loves you no matter where you have been. 1 John 4:9-11 says, "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

Obviously, this ship is not human. One day it will all be swept away. It is just a thing. Just think of all the money that went into building this great ship and now look at it. It is not worth anything. Thankfully it is not the same for those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior, we were bought at a price and now we are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

If you are ever at Sea Cliff State Park. Take a look at the ship. Remember the cost.

The Beach, A Picnic, A Sandcastle, and Sunburns

We have been extra busy the last few weeks, so Kirk decided to take a break and take us to the beach. We went to Sea Cliff, a state park. It was a very enjoyable day. It was sunny, but at first cool enough for me to wear my jacket. As soon as we got there we had our picnic lunch.
Then they started to work on the sand castle. My oldest and my youngest didn't stay at it the whole time.

My youngest got cold.

My daughter loves to look for shells. Notice that she is wearing her sweater with her swimming suit.
It was really easy to hang out at the beach all day! Kirk and the kids also flew a kite and played with a soccer ball. Earlier in the day I put sunscreen on the kids and wiped the excess on my arms, but the weather was cool and we were having so much fun that Kirk and I didn't put sunscreen on ourselves. It was at the end of the day that we realized that we were burned and it wasn't until we got home that we realize how burned we were. I didn't have it as bad because at least I wiped the kids' excess on my arms. Of course Kirk took his shirt off, so his whole torso is red - poor guy. We are just now feeling better. We knew better this time, but next time we will for sure not underestimate the sun. Other than the burn, we had a great day at the beach!

The 4th!

We went from the busy-ness of VBS to the busy-ness of moving the church nursery and the fireworks booth. Last week was a little stressful on my husband and I, but it is over and now we are moving on to new and better stresses! Kirk and I didn't celebrate the 4th until the 5th and the 6th because we worked in the fireworks booth - one of our main fundraisers for our youth group. On the 5th, our church had a big circle of celebration and on the 6th, we as a family did some fireworks. All in all, we had a great weekend.
This is the caramel apple pie that I entered into the auction. It went for $40!

We sold fireworks at the circle of celebration and as a joke someone put this sign on my kids.

The kids enjoyed having their bikes there to ride around.

What is it about dunking the pastor? The VBS kids got to dunk Kirk because they raised $1000 for the weekly mission. Steve also took his turn in the dunk tank. I think he got the raw end of the deal because the breeze came up and the sun went down and it got cool.

The fireworks show!
Hundreds of dollars gone in an instant.
I hope you had a happy fourth as well!

We Had Fun At Crocodile Dock VBS!

Kirk is great at doing the back drop for VBS. Here he is fishing off of the dock!

This is the crocodile puppet I made. I couldn't have done it without my friend Paula. She showed me how to build it. She was the mastermind of it. She built one for the preschool VBS, so we did ours together.

Every year I think that I like that year's VBS the best, but I really liked this year's VBS. The lessons were good, although I had some technical difficulty. (We liked the Tuesday's lesson about the plagues, Wednesday's lesson about the Passover made for a lot of questions for parents on the way home, and Friday's lesson about the crossing of the Red Sea was easy and fun) Of course the songs were fun.

Birthdays Part 2

This is the cake that I made for my middle child. He just turned 5. I drove all over to find this pan, so I don't know if it was worth it, but he was impressed.

My daughter just turned 7. She wanted a High School Musical cake and since they don't make pans for that, I came up with this on my own. A new thing I tried was a new cake recipe - a chocolate cake. The Car cake was yellow and the HSM cake was chocolate. They are both box cakes, but I add other ingredients to make them firmer and easier to work with. They were both yummy. My next cake I hope to add filling! I also hope that I can take a cake decorating class sometime before the next birthday. I have a lot to learn.

I can't believe that they are 5 an 7! We had some friends from New Zealand that made the birthday party extra special! The Brooks family!