Summer Yum!

The blackberry bushes are ripe and ready to be picked on part of the route where the gals and I walk each morning. After we walked our 5 miles, we grabbed our containers and bags and started picking. We picked about 4 quarts of yummy sweet juicy berries, got a few scratches, have purple fingers and the makings for some delicious food.

When I got home I made gluten free blackberry pancakes for breakfast. In fact, I was so excited about the blackberry pancakes, I forgot to brew my coffee. Quickly I discovered my loss and got some brewing.

For lunch, I had the rest of the berries with some milk. One of my favorite meals in summertime is fresh fruit with milk. I eat it like cereal and I can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack, or for dessert.

God has been so creative in the foods He has created for us to enjoy in California.

YUMAHUH!

Briones- Getting Closer

Last Friday, Suzy and I, took on another chunk of our goal to finish all the trails in Broines Regional Park by 11/11/10. By far, this was our longest and most time consuming hike we have done. We parked the car at the last staging area that we had not started a trail at, the Lafayette Ridge Staging Area. By the mileage on the trail map we did 7.03 miles and took a few wrong turns adding about .50 miles. Our feet hiked the Lafayette Ridge Trail, Buckeye Ranch Trail, Springhill Trail and back to the Lafayette Ridge Trail.

The first major chunk of the trail seemed to not be scale according to the map. The map has it at 2.85 miles but it seriously took us over two hours. The ridge trail was the first ridge trail we have taken in the park, and I now understand better why it was a ridge trail. Most of the trail was up and down, up and down, steep downhills on either side. The trail was very deceiving, when you got to the top of one hill, you thought you were done with uphill for awhile, but you saw a down and then up again.

Both Suzanne and I were tired and did not think we could make it up another hill top. We must have done 20 hill tops and it was taking a very long time compared to other hikes we had taken. Finally, we saw a trail marker that gave us good news, we did not have to hike up the next hill top which was big and steep. "Oh we are blessed, blessed indeed", was all we could utter.

At one point, we decided to change the Law of Newton to, "what goes down must go up" and called it Newton's Reverse Law of Gravity. The trail looped at the end of our time on the ridge and we knew that we had to go back the way we came to get to the car. On the side of the hill we saw distinct deer trails that cut off the top of the hill and kinda leveled out the up and downs, so we decided to take the deer trails. NOTE TO SELF: Don't take the deer trail again, scratched legs and a tiny bit of poison oak is not worth it.

The last point of worth noting about this hike was confusing guideposts or missing all together guide posts. There were several trails we took, thinking we were going the right direction because the sign said so or we guessed when there was no real clear sign. The sign here to the left is one such example of the confusion, every side of the sign had different arrows point which way to go. So, we know for next time but it was trial by error this time.

Got a blister on my right heel bone again this time. Need to get some new socks I think.

Another great hike. Think we have about 6 left, maybe we will hike a small one to tie up loose ends in the morning.

I'm loving exploring God's amazing and beautiful creation.

Papa's Birthday Weekend

For the last 4 year's, since there have been grandkids, Papa's birthday has been celebrated over a weekend with the entire family. There is a BBQ swim party at my house and Dad takes all of us to a Giant's ball game(this year there were 10 of us, 11 if you count Baby F., from my 95 year old grandma to my 2 year old nephew). Papa had a great time in the kids lot helping Joey bat, run the bases and play the outfield with the kids. Dad really enjoyed himself. I love the first picture, Trinity has her hand on his leg for security. Joey a little bit later had to play right where the outfielder is on the painted wall. It was pretty cute. When my sister passes along a photo of all of us, I will post it up.

At the swimming party, Trinity showed off her new skill of swimming and jumping off the diving board. Actually, we could not keep her off the diving board, she was so excited to jump off my diving board. Mom, grandma, Amy and Jen cooked up some yummy food for the party. Yumahuh food indeed! In my family, yumahuh and good times go hand in hand.

Before the game got started we were able to go down to field level right by the Giant's dugout and look around and take some pictures. Me and my loves!

The only thing missing was a win. Funny has it, everytime we have all gone, the G's have not won. This time we should have won but the ump blew a call in the bottom of the 9th. We'll try again next year.

A Teacher's Dread, A Parent's Excitement

Two more days until I turn my calendars to August. Every teacher's longing is to keep the calendar in July, every parent can't wait for August to arrive. August 1st marks the final countdown of the days left on summer vacation.

Not exactly sure, but I think I have to be back August 18th and the students a few days later.

I am excited for my new job, my new mission field but I do like my summer vacations.

Job Placement

Waiting on the Lord has great reward. I don't think in this lifetime I will truly understand the fullness and complexity of waiting on God's perfect timing for a perfect answer to my prayers. He is faithful to give me glimpses of the rewards in this life. Last week I found out my job placement for this upcoming school year. To my great surprise, I actually had a choice of 2 jobs. Option 1 was being at 3 separate schools each work week, 2 days, 2 days, 1 day. Option 2 was being at a single site, a site that is going through major overhaul to improve test scores. My choice- option 2! What an honor to be offered option 2, to be part of the rebuilding process, to Lord willing, assist a struggling school to become a successful school. God gave me a little reward for causing me to wait upon Him.

For me, waiting on the Lord is not so easy. Daily I need to go to Him, begging Him to help me wait on Him, to trust in the sovereign plan He has for my life. The duration of the wait this time on the Lord was short compared to other things I am waiting on the Lord for (20+ years). There is still much waiting on Him with this job, there are so many unknowns at this point. And then there is the science test.

Waiting and trusting. He is so good all the time.

Psalm 100

Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with
gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the LORD Himself is
God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the
sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with
praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the LORD is good; His
lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all
generations.

The Kids

I have not updated pictures of my "loves" recently. Trinity is 4 3/4 and Joey is 2! They grow up so fast. I love them so much . Children are a blessing from the Lord.

















I already love this little "love". Baby F is due on Feb 2, 2011. I'm going to call this embryo "little scoop". At almost 10 weeks, it has a strong heart beat, and 10 toes! God is amazing!



Trin Trin played on a little "hit, catch and run" team in her home town. Guess what team she was put on? You got it, the Giants!
















Joe Joe loves his doggy Harley Jean.

Kids, water and fountains. There is something that is so fascinating to them.

Having fun at the zoo!

Bucket List- check

CHECK

One of the items I was able to check as completed on my "Bucket List", was Opening Day with the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Everything lined up this year for me to attend, I was on spring break from work, I actually was able to purchase tickets the first day tickets went on sale (part of checking off this item on my list), they were not expensive and my dad was able to go with me.

What a beautiful day in the city. The weather was perfect, perfect baseball weather. There was something special in the air this day, the Giant's won!

Dad and I took BART in and walked by the waterway to the ballpark.

It was pretty incredible to see the huge American flag at the start of the game.

Dad loves his fish and chips and tradition has it about 9/10 that we get fish and chips from the Irish Pub on the 3rd level. We walked out to the seats to hear the national anthem and to see the fly over. From our vantage point, we saw the fighter jets come in through the Golden Gate Bridge and under the Bay Bridge.

Something special about the feel at the yard on Opening Day.

On an exciting side note, my mom has really taken to the Giant's this year. She has enjoyed the Giant's but she is really getting into the games this year. She listens to all the games and is following how well the individual players are doing. On a regular basis she either calls me or I call her to talk about something that just happened in the game or to talk about the game afterwards. Both of us are on a first name basis with the players. By far, without a blink of an eye, her favorite player is Andres Torres. He is "her boy" and the best player on the whole team. The "boys" are even getting nicknames in her book, and mine too, there's Huff Daddy, Buster Boy, UuuuuRibe, Whitey, Eye Candy, Panda, Ichy, Freddy Boy, and Boch. I'm having fun talking baseball, mostly Giant's baseball with my mom. Love her dearly.

Next weekend we are celebrating my dads birthday and he is taking the whole family to the game. We have done this for the last 4 years. Fun time.

Briones Goal Update

Even though I have been behind on my blogging, I still have been keeping up with finishing all the trails in Briones Regional Park. Suzy and I have walked 3 separate hikes since my last trail update, Kim and Freddy, her American Bulldog, joined us on our last venture. From my estimation of the map, 2/3 of the trials have been completed.

Part of the enjoyment of the hikes is to see how the scenery and landscape changes with each passing month and season. The first hikes were in late fall, the weather was turning cooler, the hills and trees were going into dormant state, then we hiked in the cold and fog, to bright and vibrant hillsides in the early spring (early spring here is late winter in anywhere but California), to a few months later- California's golden hills, to our last hike, dry, dusty and hot.

Each hike has brought some new sighting of wildlife and changes in the oak trees.

Another thing that has increased is the amount of mileage hiked on each hike. The hikes started out smaller and now are getting progressively longer (just a head's up Suzy, the next few I have planned are in the 6-8 mile range).

The three above pictures were taken on 3/7/10 on a 4.7 mile hike. I love this picture right above. On an earlier post, I have this same tree and fence post in the fog. This day the sky was mostly clear and you could see Mt. Diablo in the background from the top of our hike.

The below three photos were taken on 5/30/10. More critters. I think this fat lizard just ate it's breakfast, he was just sunning and taking in a little Vitamin D. The snake was seriously in the middle of the trail and I almost stepped right on him. I think I let out a little yelp. My curiosity won the best of me and I had to poke him with a stick. Somehow he had just died recently, don't know how but he was soft and not moving. When we got back to the trail head there was a sign telling the difference between a rattle snake and another snake (I think it was a whippet snake). The snake we encountered did not have a diamond shaped head so it was not a rattle snake.

The hills were turning golden or as my sister says, "brown". She and I have had the debate of the color of the hills in California for some time now. I insist since California is called Golden State(that comes from the color of the hills) that even though the hills are brown, they are golden. This hike started on the Bear Creek Trail Head, a side we had not hiked before and was about 3.71 miles (2nd shortest hike)

The last hike we did was 7/7/10 and I did not have my camera. Not sure what I was thinking because I have been taking pictures each time out. I think the reason was because we did this hike as part of the normal morning walking routine. Thankfully, almost each week day morning a group of ladies from church have been getting up and walking 4.5-6.5 miles each time. A month into my summer vacation and we have already put in some serious miles, getting close to 80-100 miles if I was to count them up.

Thankfully, the weather was cooler and there was some fog off on the coast, which traveled up to the hill tops we climbed. The first 30-45 minutes was pretty much all up hill and my heart was jumping out of my heart. We ascended about 1000' getting close to the highest peak which we climbed on another previous hike. Of the 5 trial heads, the Gloria Terrace is by far the steepest uphill at the beginning and the steepest downhill at the end. I actually prefer the steep uphill to the steep downhill. My knees and feet take a beating on the steep downhill. There was a little extra unplanned chunk of trail that we also did so that we would not have to come back to it later to finish the goal. When all was said and we got back to the car, we hiked about 7.25 miles. The hills were really dry now and the wooded areas on the west side of the hills were lush and green.

Maybe we'll get another hike in this week, if not this week, maybe next week. The adventure and hiking goal continues. Thank you Suzanne for the challenge, thank God for His beautiful creation to be able to explore.

And For the Exciting News

Amy, my sister, is 9 weeks pregnant! Amy and Eric are going to have their 1st baby and making me an Auntie for the 3rd time. We are excited for a new baby and this little one is already in my prayers.

Jammin'

Soon as a cool and free day comes around, I'll be making jam, jelly, and syrup. My freezer is packed full of prepared strawberries, apricots and plums. Not all the frozen fruit will be used for jam and such but will kept frozen to make a crisp or pie. YUMMY! In this picture you can not even see the 3 gallon bags full of strawberries, they are behind the apriocots.

It's A Post!

So, I guess I can say that I am a fair weather blogger. My last post was on March 3rd, quite a long while ago. March 3rd started "Operation Trust in the Lord". The Lord has been so gracious to me, as He always is gracious, to lead and direct my way. God has faithfully brought trials my way to refine and perfect me, to make me more like Christ. My trials have been light in comparison to what others have been through. I am grateful for the trials and thankful that God is faithfully always by my side. God so faithfully worked to prepare me for the future.

Here is a mere glimpse into some of what God has revealed to me since March 3rd.

• March 3- my PE department plans a meeting with school administration to talk about master calendar issues that relate to PE and the school. To our huge surprise, the administration notified the five of us that the district was eliminating one whole PE position out of the next year's master calendar line. Class size would go from starting at 40 students/class to 55. The administration told one of our dear male PE teachers that he would be placed at another site for the next school year, because he was lowest seniority with 9 years in the district. This would leave us with 3 female teachers and just one male teacher. God started to work in my heart that very moment that I thought I might be the one who would be placed in another school (even with 11 years at the same school, I was the lowest seniority female in my PE department). The issue is that the locker rooms have to be supervised and one male teacher can not possible watch, supervise and be free from possible accusations with over 100 middle school boys in one small area at a time. Will I trust God?
• End of March- my district is in the process of doing massive cut backs to balance the horrible state budget. The decision was made to lay off PE teacher up to 8 years 10 month seniority in the district. Next year's anticipated cuts look to be even more harsh on physical education for the students. God starts the process in my heart to prepare for possible cut backs in the future that would cause me to be without a job. My mind starts thinking of all the possible routes that I can take to help insure I have a job next year. Crazy times. God is faithful.
• Mid April- pink slips are given out to some 20 PE teachers. I have decided that I want to pursue a science teaching credential, since the district is not laying off science teachers. Not sure if I want to take college courses or take the CSET test. God is sovereign and He is in control.
• April- May- refinement period. God brings on smaller trials, but trials no the less to continually cause me to go back and rest in my faithful God. Even when my heart was weak, He encouraged my soul. Here is a list of a few of the trials: Easter Sunday my beloved Bible was misplaced and has yet to be found, a roommate situation was not working out the way I had hoped, my grandfather clock (made by my grandfather), earth quake strapped to the wall and all, crashed to the ground and sustained some damage, one of my cats decided to start marking his territory on my carpet and wall and my back completely "went out". It is well with my soul and God is good.
• June- I am called into the principals office and told what I felt deep down in my heart since March 3rd, that truly it was I that was leaving the school and being placed at another school(s) due to cutbacks and needing to equalize the locker rooms. My co-workers, myself and the entire school are saddened. Praise the Lord, I have worked hard at this school for 11 years and this has been my mission field. It was hard to go but God has been yet again so faithful and so good to me. He alone is my rock, my fortress and my deliver.
• To this point- the district is a little overwhelmed, if I can say, with all of the massive cut backs that they have done, they have not figured out the placement of everyone yet. The Lord knows where my new mission field will be, looks like it will be elementary PE. The last 15 years have been teaching middle school and now I will start elementary. As to the science credential, honestly- it is not something I want to pursue but I still feel God wants me to be faithful in this area. By His grace alone, I am studying to take the CSET exam in either September or November. I am having a hard time sitting down and studying, for now it is chemistry, it will get to physics, astronomy, biology, earth science, genetics and evolution. The test material is like getting 6 BS in the different science areas. The test and how I do is in God's hands. He knows, He is sovereign, He moves the way He wants. All of my days, I will trust in the Lord.

Thanks for your patience, I'll try to keep you updated but from my history as a blogger, I know better. There's more I want to share but that will be for later posts. Hope all is well with you and that you can say with me, "It is well with my soul".