Easter Fun

Ok, so it has been a few days since Easter. I was all hot to post these pictures right away - say maybe Monday or Tuesday. Then I got hit with what we now believe to be a gall bladder attack. Been almost flat on my back since Monday night. I am soooo wiped out so I don't have much to say. But these pics are cool. I soooo want to share!

We started with Good Friday. Grandma came over to help decorate eggs and fill the baskets. She is wrought with dementia but I tell, this woman thought it was a hoot to dye eggs. On a separate note, notice the "Gulp" from 7-11? It was hot that day so when I got my refill, I got her a baby diet coke. She gasped when she saw hers and declared, "I will never finish this." She did. She's hooked. She has come to the dark side with me!

Remember how mad I was at myself for not getting Jacob's hair cut for Rhonda's wedding. Two weeks later..still not cut. But the next morning, off we went. He is now tidy lookin'.One of the fun things about having Grandma come over is that she brings her fun toys.

Resurrection Day. Oh my gosh, I love celebrating on this day. To think that Christ lives after a gruesome crucifixion. Wooooaah. He was born for us, he died for us and now he lives for us. What an incredible display of his amazing power and love for us. I have always ALWAYS believed that if everyone would just hear the story of his death and resurrection with their whole heart and mind, they would want him. Why wouldn't they?

Off to church.Aunt Karen's pool later that afternoon. What a great day. My family is a bit, uhmmm, unconventional. Most of them don't really care for turkey at Thanksgiving - although we do have it, we have Mexican food at Christmas and now this year for Easter, fish tacos. Go figure. But man, these peeps are fun!

Lenny's still got it! Looking for eggs. That's my bro-in law, Bob. Notice is shirt says "SpongeBob?" Jacob and Kyle. Jacob is a mini-me personality of Kyle. Kyle is NUTS! Seriously he is not afraid of anything at all. And Jacob is just like him. Everytime I look at this pic of Sarah and my niece Shelby, I think of Sharpay from High School Musical and start humming "Fabulous".

Kyle's new underwater camera photos. I want this camera.
See ya!

I Love Lenny!

There are many reasons why I love and adore my hottie husband. I could exhaust the list and bore you with all of the reasons, but for now, I will share just one of them.

He takes excellent care of me. Let me explain.

On Monday night/Tuesday morning at midnight, I woke up with excruciating pain in my back, my right side, and my abdomen. While all of the areas were unbearable, there was one particular spot right under my right rib cage that was even more substantial.

I could not breathe, I could not move, and I could not even think straight to decide if I should call 9-11. I have never, ever contemplated calling 9-11 in my life. Somehow, I managed to bear it through the night until he came home from work the next morning. He rubbed out the spasms in my back, got a heating pad, brought water, all of the usual things one might do.

By noon, I could not stand it anymore. I was going to urgent care. But then he had a brilliant idea. He called our friend, Chloe, who is a house call P.A. She prescribed a muscle relaxer. He immediately had it filled and raced home to give me the prescribed ONE pill. I took another making it TWO pills at once. People, seriously at this point I did not care if my heart stopped. I needed relief - although I vaguely remember being a bit anxious as to if my bladder or bowel muscles would relax too much.

At 2pm on Tuesday, I fell asleep. I woke up this morning, Wednesday at 9:30am. I slept for 19.5 hours. Holy cow.

Here is the the mushy lovin' stuff. He never once got impatient with me or my groaning. He lovingly took care of me and my needs. And not just my physical needs, he took care of my need to care for the kids. He just swooped right in, took over, never bothered me, just knew what to do. He went to Blockbuster and rented movies and a Wii game for Jacob. He did it all. Laundry, dinner, everything.

I woke up this morning, still very much in pain but not as acute as before. He put in a movie for me and went out to mow the lawn. He finished the laundry, let me sleep here and there and just was the man that he is.

This is in no way whatsoever foreign behavior. He is always like this. He is a doer, a giver, a servant and a pleaser. He is like this all of the time. But when push comes to shove, he shines even more.

It is 1am right now. I can not sleep. He can not stay awake. I look at him, exhausted and resting. I love him soooo much my heart aches sometimes at how lucky I am. Ok, luck has nothing to do with it, but golly, I have a long list of reasons why I do not deserve this man.

I guess the reason why I say this publicly is because too often I don't build him up with my words of affirmation. I think it is a sin. After all, look at this passage from Proverbs.

Proverbs 15:23 (The Message)
Congenial conversation—what a pleasure! The right word at the right time—beautiful!

Proverbs 15:23 (New International Version)
A man finds joy in giving an apt reply— and how good is a timely word!

I love you, Lenny Gisbert with all of my heart.

I spoke too soon!

Remember how I said it was going to be a great day. I think I should have waited before declaring such wonderous news.

On the way to the store guess what happened?

Another stray. Can you stinkin' believe that?

After the Skittles fiasco yesterday, I thought that I would never pick up another dog. Sarah wailed and moaned all day, all evening and even cried herself to sleep last night. "Please call the owner and ask her if she really wants her dog." "It is not fair, she should just let us keep him." "I would give up everything in my room to keep him." WWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa boooooo hooooooooo.

I am not at all a dog lover. I mean I love our dog but some people are just animal lovers. Not me. Dogs are cool but if we didn't have one, ok. No biggie. But something is going on inside of me because right now as we speak, in our backyard, this is happening....

and it is just so darn cute. Jack has yet another playmate. This dog, however, is extemely dirty and is in desperate need of a bath and the skilled scissors, especially around his bangs.

While I was downloading the pics of the new mutt, I get a phone call. It is Bobbie, Skittles mom. She wants to bring something to Sarah to say thanks for rescuing her dog. She gave her a beautiful Easter basket and a Trader Joe's bag full of goodies as a sign of her appreciation.

This is Bobbie and Sarah.

It was so great that she came over because Sarah saw just how much Skittles is loved by his owner and what a great thing she did. We talked a lot last night about doing the right thing even when it hurts. We may never be thanked or rewarded but Jesus always sees what we do. This was a fantastic life experience for her. And, to make it even better, she actually got a reward!

UPDATE* Just looked through the basket with Sarah. She got a bag of Skittles!

SECOND UPDATE! I just looked through the Trader Joe's bag and found Kettle Korn, Lobster Ravioli, Meatballs, and other goodies only found there. Also a card saying thank you with - drumroll please- an It's A Grind gift card and a McDonald's gift card! Holy Smokes.

Bobbie, I know you are going to read this. Really, thank you for the incredibly thoughtful gift. Clearly you put a lot of time and effort into both the basket and the TJ's goodies. Then to go to McD's and It's A Grind. Wow. We are going to have a great Easter Vacation! It was a pleasure meeting you yesterday and again this morning. Thank you for being a part of this life lesson for our daughter.

Good Morning

What a wonderful start to the day I am having.

First of all, I went to bed super early last night. My allergies are out of control so I just gave up fighting them and collapsed into bed at 9pm. I must have done me good because I bounded out of bed this morning 45 minutes earlier than normal.

Then when I came out of the bathroom, thinking that all three kids (our houseguest, remember) were still snoozing, I see the kitchen light on. I see Jacob in there, UP and DRESSED FOR SCHOOL, making breakfast for him and his pal. Most mornings I would have to drag him out of bed. He was bright-eyed and eager to get going.

Both boys are completely ready for school, teeth brushed, backpacks ready, outside playing basketball. They have about an hour before we have to leave. What a great way to get the wiggles out before buckling in front of the books.

I am ready for the day. I have already read a great devotional on Passion Week, read quite a bit in the Bible and now I get to talk to you fine folks.

It is going to be a great day!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Lucy, Jack and Skittles

This week has been a plethora of dog activity for us. And, in usual Gisbert form, one of the stories is quite comical.


First of all, our neighbor just got the most adorable Golden Retriever. Her name is Lucy and she is a doll. Sarah is in LOVE with this animal. Nothing too exciting about this anecdote other than Lucy crawled all over Sarah's head.

The story that you will chuckle over but me, I fumed while it was all in progress. Jack sleeps in a crate in the front bedroom in a corner. That room is also the room where we do most of our schooling. It is filled with a mountain of clothes, closet and bathroom items and all of the other things that normally go in there. We are remodeling the back bathroom right now so it seems as though EVERYTHING is piled in there. I will show pics in the next post.


Anyhoo, back to Jack. Yesterday morning, I went in there to let him outside and to feed him. As soon as I opened the door, I was overwhelmed by the enormous stench of dog poop. But this wasn't just normal poo, I knew something was up.



I had to navigate through the Home Depot ladder that is housing all of my clothes to find the crate to let the poo poo dog out. As I look over at him, he and his bedding are covered in dog diarrhea. "Oh noooooo." I pick him up, get it all over me, crawl back through my clothes and literally ban him from my presence. Then I go back to get his crate. Lenny comes in to help but he and I can not both fit in that tiny area with the ladder. So I hand him the crate over the ladder and my clothes. It is heavy so I drop it on top of the ladder. And wouldn't you know it? There was poo poo juice on the side of the crate and guess where it plops down??? My blue suede jacket.


One of my friends is on a missions trip with her middle schooler daughter. Her son is staying with us this week. He comes into the room, takes a huge breath and his eyes glaze over with disgust. He plugs his nose and lets out a huge "Ewwwwwwwweeeeeeee, Mrs. Gisbert did you pass gas?" I told him what happened and he starts laughing uncontrollably. He thinks Jack having diarrhea is the funniest thing ever. He goes outside, examines the crate and violated bedding and declares, "yep that is diarrhea alright."


I was sooooo disgusted by the sight of it all, that I took advantage of trash day being on Tuesday. I bagged it all up and put it out at the curb. Didn't wash any of it. Just tossed it. I could not take it. I just hosed off the crate, sprayed it with bleach and took a deep breath of fresh air.

What does Jack do while we are disinfecting the house??? Just soaks up the sun and enjoys his lazy life.

Then this morning on the way to school, I almost hit a runaway dog. This tiny dog just took off running through a very busy intersection. Sarah begged me to stop and pick it up but we were on our way to school. And, I am always a bit leary of picking up a stray with kids in the car. How would I know that the dog wouldn't bite Sarah? We get the kids to school, I stop at 7-11 for a refill and we head home.

Sarah says that I should have stopped for the dog. I agreed but by now, 15 minutes later, the likelihood of the dog being around is nil. As soon as I said that, we see the tiny canine flying through the intersection again in the opposite direction. We follow it, find it, catch and call the owner. We see that his name is Skittles. We left a message and decide to take him home until we hear from the owner.

Of course my 7 year old girl falls in love with the dog. She thanks me profusely for stopping, reminds me to keep my cell with me to get the call from the owner, and just reassures the dog that "mom" will come soon for him.The phone rings and Sarah FLIPS out. It is the owner, hysterical because she was shopping and had left the dog in the car. When she came out, she found her car door open and the dog gone. She thought someone had let it go.

She came to pick up Skittles and Sarah lost it. The lady is crying, Sarah is unconsolable, and Jack is howling at the top of his lungs because he wants some of the dog humping action with this stranger. I am giggling because I just can not comprehend what is happening. I feel bad for Sarah but she is carrying like the world has stopped. She moans, "I hate this day. Why, why, why was I ever born?" She sounds like Job crying out.

Here is the part that sent me over the edge. The lady thanks me over and over and over for taking care of Skittles and being a dog lover. Oh lady, you should be thanking Sarah. I wanted to just keep driving.

Sarah's Recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup

I had mentioned to Sarah this morning that I wanted to try a new recipe for Tortilla Soup with Chipotle Shrimp. She merrily agreed and went off on her own. She skips back in to tell me that she would prefer Chicken Noodle Soup but only if it were her recipe. Here it is.

Noodles
Chicken
Powder
More chicken
Rock salt
Regular salt
Sugar Powder
More chicken
"What is it? It goes with Salt," she asks. "Pepper", I reply. "Yeah, that's right, pepper, you need pepper."
Broth
More noodles
Sugar
carrots

"First you put the broth and then you put the chicken and the noodles in. Then the rock salt then the sugar then the regular salt. Carrots and whatever else I forgot on the list, you just dump it in. Cook it for however long you usually cook other things."

Hmmm. Looks like a science project to me.

More Wedding pics

Just a couple of shots from the big flowergirl day (Rhonda and Dan's wedding).

I love love love this picture. I am kicking myself for not getting Jacob a haircut beforehand. Oooooh I am mad at myself.
Doesn't she look sweet and so innocent? She really tried to hold it together. But....after several hours of being patient and poised, she cracked. Yep, that's right, you can dress her up and put some flowers in her hair, but all in all, she is still a firecracker! Rhonda throwing her bouquet........
and Sarah, age 7, catching it!
Rockin' out!

This one just makes me giggle. Her parents, however, probably were not giggling. This is Dan looking for Rhonda's garter WITH NO HANDS just TEETH!

Lost Lenny

This cracks me up. It is one of the "slides" on the monitor while waiting in line at the Autopia. We were there on Thursday. Everytime I see it, I tell myself that next time I will capture it. I did!

It is so eerily similar to the Lenny that I know. Maybe that is why it cracks me up.

The Love Boat

Two weeks ago Lenny and I went on our very first cruise. Our church has a couple's retreat every year or so, but this year, it was a couple's cruise. It was fantastic. That is Ron in the background being a goofball.

We did the Royal Caribbean Fri-Mon Ensenada cruise. It was so much fun. Pastor George is an awesome speaker, he is quite candid and so approachable. What a great weekend he planned for us all.

All weekend long everyone was being goofy and silly, the the last meeting comes and it is about S E X. It is so funny to see a group of adults all become so quiet and nervous. One man (initials RC) raises his hand when George asked for questions. His wife (PC) all of sudden grabs his hand, tells him not to say anything and then starts sweating. He asked a very innocent question but man we were all waiting for something good. I have to admit that it wasn't as, uhmm, interesting and detailed as maybe I would have hoped for. If you know me, you know that I was READY for something juicy to chat about.

I was concerned about getting seasick. I bought the Bonine, the wristbands and had a patch all ready if needed. Come to find out, I didn't get sick at all. But, I thought I was going to fall over from the rocking of the ship. I felt more dizzy than sick.

25 super fun, very vibrant and most entertaining couples came along with us. It was a great mix of people, a wonderful salad bowl of wisdom, wit and insight. It was just wonderful.

Us with the Fesslers at the Bufadora.

Pastor George attempting the Makarena.

After dinner on Sunday night, we came back to our room to find this monkey hanging around. Our room attendant made it when she came in to turn down the bed.

The weekend was just what we needed. A nice and easy getaway, a great sitter to take care of the kids and fabulous company. I am so grateful for opportunities like this to spend with my husband.

Sonya, Eric and Lenny all climbed the rock wall on the 11th deck. Very cool view. I want to grab those buns when I see this pic. I should have photshopped it and zoomed right in there!

Our last morning, having breakfast. Everyone was quiet. No one wanted to leave. Whhaaaa. Oh well, just wait until Alaska!

Hello, anyone still here?

I know, I know. It has been a while. I don't know why I get into these blog funks for weeks at a time. Especially considering that I have mountains of things to blog about. Winter Camp, Couple's Cruise, Sarah as a flowergirl, numerous husband stories, dyslexia battles and victories galore, and of course, there is always me to share.

I will start with the latest.

On Saturday, Sarah was the flower girl in Rhonda's much anticipated wedding.

The wedding was beautiful, the bride was magazine-cover stunning and the littlest one there, well she was adorable too.

The wedding was at The Neighborhood Church in Palos Verdes Estates. It was absolutely a stunning place to hold a ceremony. The church is on a hilltop overlooking the ocean. It was one of those clear sunny days that you would imagine to be a gift from God. Everything was perfect. A bride's dream, a photographer's dream and a nice treat for the guests.

I will let the Cherryholmes tell you all about the big day. For now, I am just gonna post some pics of my flowergirl.

*SIDE NOTE* For the past 10 minutes I have been trying to upload more pics of Sarah. Wouldn't you know that the only one that will post has Rhonda in it???? Hmmmmm. That makes me laugh because on Saturday, Sarah was getting irritated with the photographer because "he doesn't really want that many of me, he justs wants Rhonda. She has to be in all of them." How appropriate that this is the only one that will upload. I am gonna go tell her right now about this. How much do you want to bet that she will have a cow over this?