The Lonesome August Post

Lots to write about, but I need to start with my near heart attack today.

It was time for Emma to eat and take a nap so I told Alice to stay downstairs and play while mommy put Emma to bed. Of course, she climbed the stairs after 10 minutes or so, right when Emma was starting to nod off. Once she reached the top step I started shaking my head "no" so she wouldn't come in and make a bunch of noise to distract Emma and wake her up. At that moment I blinked and saw her feet fly up into the air...

It didn't matter that Emma was almost asleep or in the middle of eating. I gently threw her into the center of our bed and RAN to the stairs to see what had become of my firstborn. All of this probably only took seconds, but it felt like I was moving in slow motion. When I got to the top of the stairs I saw Alice only 4 or 5 stairs from the top, clutching the stair she'd grabbed mid-fall and screaming. She was, apparently, freaked out by the ordeal as well. After a quick inspection I found no blood or bumps and held her until she calmed down, reminding her to be careful on the stairs.

My heart didn't stop racing for at least 15 minutes. In fact, writing the experience out has made it start racing again... and she didn't even get hurt!

...breathe...

Before today's excitement came vacation excitement. We spent 4 nights camping with Andrew's family (sans his youngest brother who couldn't get off work... as John would say, "bummah"). After camping we stayed a week at a friend's lake house at Bass Lake during a serious heat wave, followed by two nights in Santa Maria visiting family. I'll attempt some summaries of each leg of the trip:

Camping: First time with all four of us in a tent. By the second morning wasn't sure I'd make it another two nights. Third morning proved that it was possible. Was really hot during the day and pleasantly cold at night. Slightly concerned with keeping warm the babies who don't stay under their covers.

Bass Lake: Since Alice & Emma were forced to sleep "in the same room" camping, we kept it going. Kind of awesome. Spent lots of time at the lake. Over 100 degrees EVERY DAY. Alice & Emma both loved the water. Started a "Gilmore Buoy Swim" tradition. Yeah, we're that cool.

Santa Maria: Introduced Emma to her second cousin, Miles, for the first time. He's 18 days older and ridiculously cute. Lots of photos (which haven't made it off the camera) were taken. Ate much delicious food.

And now we're home and Andrew started school this morning at 8AM, with his LAST semester of Hebrew. No, not his last semester of seminary, but (Lord-willing) only three more semesters and an anticipated graduation date of December 2013.

Can't. Wait.

The girls have been sleeping in Alice's room since we returned and yesterday we finally determined how we could get all things baby-related into their room. Okay, most things baby-related. It's sort of impossible to contain all things baby in one place. You understand if you have a baby. Even more so if you have a toddler. I spent a good three hours this morning re-organizing clothing: boxing up clothes that Emma has grown out of (I think she's FINALLY past her three month clothes... yeah, she's seven months old), boxing up clothes that Alice has grown out of, getting out clothes that now fit each girl, sorting, folding, sorting, folding again after one of them grabbed a stack and dumped it. But they've both been pretty excellent in allowing me to get things done while they play "together."

Alice had her first real explosion at Emma yesterday. There was lots of screaming (on Alice's part) and a toy was thrown (at Emma). No one was seriously injured. Apparently Emma had shown interest in sucking the wheel of Alice's doll stroller. Not. Okay. I think it was a small taste of what is to come. Ah sisters.

There's probably more to write about. Losing brain power. Pictures might come soon, but they will come eventually. It was kind of nice being away from all technology for two weeks.

Stay-at-Home-Mom Life

Happy Independence Day!!!

Andrew is back and we're in full-blown fireworks stand mode. Actually, that has just meant a few more phone calls than normal and making trips from the stand back to church with money so we don't have too much at the stand at one time. It's wonderful having him back home, though he seems to have some residual effects of Guatemala still bothering him. Fun fun fun.

This morning Alice & I went for a walk around the "lake" at the park down the street. It was HOT, but Alice was smothered with sunscreen and wearing her sunhat (which she is getting better at leaving ON her head) in her nice shaded stroller. If you haven't seen it already, Alice likes to wave at just about everyone who walks by. When we go to the grocery store, the doctor's office, Costco, to get the mail, she waves and smiles at anyone she sees whether they're looking or not. Today in the park there were a number of people running/walking around the lake. Some received a smile and cheerful wave while others elicited the coveted giggle. Only a select few were privileged to witness her overjoyed exclamations combined with all-over-body-wiggles and leg kicks. Those are my personal favorites.

As we made our way back home and I anticipated a dip in the pool I couldn't help but marvel at the blessing it is to be home with my daughter. I feel like I'm finally getting to know her better and seeing her personality blossom. Then again, it could just be the age she's in where things are easier to see now. Either way, I'M LOVING IT!!! Though I will say that the dip in the pool was less than pleasant with a squirmy almost 14 month old wanting to get in and out of the pool and run around and "jump" in and sit in her floating boat thing and get out of the boat thing and... well, you get the idea.

This week we're preparing for the college/F.I.T.(career) camping trip from Friday to Monday and then we'll take the rest of the week as a family vacation at Bass Lake at a friend's cabin. SO wonderful! My goals this week are to make an extensive packing list, have the first meeting of the girls' bible study (SO exciting!), get all the laundry done, and clean everything before we head out at a ridiculous hour on Friday morning. Hoping that Alice will transfer and fall back asleep in her car seat :-)

Almost time for Alice to wake up! The picture is from my sister's visit when we went to Disneyland (THANK YOU JACQUELYN!!!). Alice loved the merry-go-round. Have a lovely 4th of July!

I Can't Come Up With A Good Title For This Post, So This Rambling Explanation Will Have To Do

To begin with, here is a link to our second web album. You'll also notice it's been added to the sidebar on the right side of the screen. There's a whole bunch of pictures from our camping trip to Santa Rosa Island. Also, the first web album has had its last update. Take a look here.

Yes, we have a frog, and his name is Fred. Amy has taken tons of pictures of him, so take a look in both web albums. A lady at Pan-Pacific inherited the frog from a neighbor (I might be butchering this story!) and asked if anyone at work was interested. Amy jumped at the opportunity because she'd always wanted a frog, and a free frog sounded even better. So we now have an aquarium on top of our entertainment center. He eats mealworms and crickets three times a week. A few weeks ago he ate a rock and we were very concerned, but we're assuming he passed the rock since he's still croaking.

I'm in the library at Biola University as I write this and am supposed to be studying, so I'll get back to Greek and try to update sooner rather than later.

Ciao.

A Whole New World

I know when you read the title that you were hoping that there'd be a video of me singing the Aladdin song, so I'm sorry to disappoint. What I meant by that title is that on Thursday morning at 8:00am, I'll officially be back to school. Graduate school. Seminary. It's a daunting task, but Amy and I are both very excited about it. Last night, we went to Talbot New Student Banquet. It was a great time of being introduced to Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.(notice the guy in the brown shirt on the right side of the first picture that pops up on Biola's site. He's wearing a Hotchkiss shirt! That's the dorm I lived in at TMC!)

There was good food and cheesecake for dessert, but the best part of the evening was being able to sit at the same table with two professors. Dr. Garry DeWeese and Dr. Clint Arnold were very friendly and curious hosts at our table. We talked about how we got to Talbot, where we were from (lots and lots of questions about Amy being from New Hampshire, which she very much enjoyed!), what program we're in, etc.

Toward the end of the night, a microphone was passed around to all the faculty present. They introduced themselves, what department they teach in and several - sometimes very funny - interesting facts about themselves or their spouses. It was very helpful for Amy and I to be there together and meet and see who I will be learning under for the next several years.

This semester, I'm in five classes:
Beginning Greek I
Personal Foundations of Ministry
Theological Research Methodologies
Theology III
Hermeneutics and Bible Study

In other news, Amy and I are looking forward to a mini-vacation this Labor Day weekend with our newly married friends, Travis and Katy. They invited us to go camping with them on Santa Rosa Island, an island in the Channel Islands chain off the coast of California. We're jumping on a boat that takes off at 8:00am Friday morning from Ventura Harbor and hoping to return sometime in the afternoon on Monday. We'll be roughing it, since we have to hike a mile and a half from the shore to our campsite and nothing that we bring can weigh more than 45 pounds. It should be a blast! We'll post pictures and our experiences when we get back.

Adieu

Our First Camping Trip!

Happy and I went on our first camping trip this weekend and got home last night!! We went to Montana de Oro State Park and had a wonderful and relaxing time. Obviously we have lots to share, but I have a monstrous stack of invoices waiting for me. For now I wanted to mention that I added our pictures to the Web Album. Enjoy!