Freshour Frenzy

Ok, the very best things happened to me today. My friend Melanie called and said she and her family were coming over to visit. They are in town from N.C. for her sister's wedding so they decided to come by and plop down for a bit.

It was wonderful, I mean absolutely great to spend the day with her and her family, her cool husband. I met her at church in 1995 working in the nursery. In 1999, I was in her wedding and watched her leave the next week for the East Coast. She hasn't moved back - YET. (I'm working on that one. By the way, Melanie, tell Jeff that a Wachovia is opened on the corner of South and Woodruff. He should be able to find a job here :)

She has a great husband, Jeff and three fun and very nice children - Carter, Griffin, and Peyton.

I got some pics but not many.

Roberta and Melanie

Pam and MelanieYou have no idea how hard it was to get all five of these kids to sit still. I told them that if they would take a nice picture, then they could take a picture like.........this one!!!!!Sarah and who she thinks is her little cousin. Peyton is the most petite little girl - just perfect for Sarah to carry around and love on. And she has reeeeeeed hair. She looks like her dad but with her mom's hair color.

Jeff and Melanie - thank you for coming by. I know this week is crazy for you with all of the family stuff. I loved seeing your kids and spending time with you. You have a beautiful family and I am blessed to have shared time with you all.

Love ya, Donna

PS... go for the fourth. Quickly!

Melanie Bustrum Freshour

Melanie Freshour!

Email me donnagisbert@yahoo.com or call Life Center to get my phone number. It is the same as it was wayyyyy back when!

I want to see you this week!

Donna

Why We Love Camping at the Beach!

We really love to camp. We love our trailer and getting away. We don't take fancy vacations because of money, or lack thereof, but mostly because we are camping type people. We have found more pleasure in our trips in the trailer than almost any other type of getaway that we have had. Our trip to Paris is the only exception. That and any opportunity I get to go away by myself.

Big Sur is awesome. It is foresty, lots of trees, hikes, campfires, and no hookups. Full on camping. By far, it is my most favorite place to be with my family.

But, Bolsa Chica State Beach - well we love that too but for different reasons. It is close to home, close to a grocery store, friends can come visit, electricity, no dirt and oh, the ocean. The magnificent ocean.

There is something about being at the beach at 6am, drinking a great cup of coffee, dressed in jammies and just watching the morning waves. I love to take my chair close to the water and just watch. I might bring my Bible but I find that the stillness and calm won't last for long there, so I wind up just letting myself be amazed with God's glory.

Oh there is glory everywhere in the world, if we would just take the time to see it. But, what is it about the vast body of water that seemingly never ends? How it makes you feel soooo very small surrounded by something enormous, that feeling thrills me. Why is it that when I see a dolphin's fin break the surface of the water, I sit up a bit higher?

And sunsets, ohhhhh a sunset over the ocean is MAGNIFICENT.

And what I really love the most about camping at the beach - what it does to my family. My husband is quite a happy camper at the beach. He could sit all day and just watch the water, or he is in the water, or he is burying the kids in the sand, or he is going for a bike ride on the bike path. He absolutely loves the beach. The kids too.

Here are some of my favorite pics of our recent trip.

This is a friend of the kids. She was heading into the water late in the day. I absolutely love this photo.

A typical sighting of Lenny. This is probably about 6:30am. He has taken his chair, coffee and Bible down close the water. This is from the front step of our trailer - hence the canopy and awning in the foreground.

Sarah, still in her jammies, looking for shells. Probably about 7:30ish am. Late in the day. The surf was rough. Really rough. Just the way my boy likes to surf. He is crazy.

Now, don't think for a moment that our trips are all fun and games. We take our time seriously with the kids. Lenny tries to take any and all opportunities to impart some wisdom, some skill or some truth into their little hearts.

Here is what he passed on to Jacob this trip.

Those are cheese ball puff thingys. Really, my husband should be in the circus or do stand up or be committed to a mental ward. It is like having three children around here.

Hope you all are enjoying the summer and getting to spend wonderful times with the family.

The Fireman and the Fireworks

We love the 4th of July around here. Most of all, we love what happens after the last firework has fizzled out.

My husband is a fireman. A hottie fireman at that. He is pretty good about practicing safety, he goes to schools and teaches children all about fire safety. He is our Neighborhood Watch Block Captain, he is in our city's public service announcements regarding the Fourth of July and illegal fireworks.

He is all over it.

But something happens to him when our friends are around on the 4th. A few years ago, they prodded him to do a crazy stunt with some sparklers. 2008 marked his third year of this crazy, yet much anticipated stunt.

Here he is bringing out the ladder which will turn out to be his starting point.

Next he takes our huge rake that all of the other men taped sparkler to and proceeds to have them lit.He then rides up and down the street on his unicycle parading around like he is the Grand Marshall of Patriotism.It is quite a sight to behold. Really I could not have asked for a more comical husband than this guy. Maybe we should call him Old Glory!

Welcome New Blogger

I am so excited about this announcement. I have one very adorable niece. Her name is Kristin and she is married to my nephew Steve. She has the cutest personality and the funniest stories.

She has now started her own blog. She hasn't posted anything yet, but it's coming!!! I am so thrilled. She is a doll. Stop by and welcome her.

Koldham.blogspot.com

That's her, the tiny little first grade teacher, the third one in!

We were shakin'

Did you feel the earthquake??? I was outside hosing down the leaves off of the driveway when it started. I thought that I was going into Low Blood Sugar mode and starting to shake. Seriously, I thought I was having a diabetes moment.

Nope, it was an earthquake. Jacob, Sarah and two friends were up high in the treehouse with Jack the dog. They quickly scrambled down and ran into the open. In the malay, Jacob stepped on a nail. Not a rusty nail, but a nail nonetheless. We thought he might have to get a tetanus shot but it seems to be ok.

I went to Pavilions to get a prescription filled. The whole store REEKED of wine on the left side and pickles and vinegar on the other. Bottles of wine fell and crashed to the floor. Vinegar never smells good to me. This was nauseating to say the least. Bottles of it and pickles, mustard, and oil had broken. EWeeeeewwwhhhh.

Hope you are all ok.

Meet the Aunt and Uncle

One of the weeks that I was gone was spent at the beach camping with the fam.

My sister, Karenand her family came up and spent Saturday with us. Now it was fun, loads of fun to spend the day with them. We sat by the water, watched the guys surf, BBQ'ed, laughed, all of that. Flew kites and goofed ALL DAY! Buried Jacob in the sand. It was awesome.

BUT what made this day memorable was meeting my niece's boyfriend. Now you have to know something about me as an aunt. I LOVE TO EMBARRASS MY NIECES AND NEPHEWS.

This is Shelby right before Justin showed up. She told me that I had better not do anything to her. Yeah, right.

So we are all at the trailer making dinner while Shelby, Jacob and Sarah are sitting on the sand. We can see them and we are all waiting expectantly for Shelby's boyfriend Justin to come. All day long I have been planning my first impression.

My sister tells me that he is walking up to Shelby and that I have my chance. Now you have to picture me. I hate to make you do this, but in order for you to "get it", you have to visualize me in, ahhhheeemmmm a bathing suit. Eeehhhwwwww. I am sorry to do this to you, but just do it.

I take a deep breath and I start RUNNING. I am imagining that I am Pamela Anderson in Baywatch running in the shows opening credits toward Justin. I am ALL OVER THE SAND making the biggest commotion I can, trying to make this guy NEVER FORGET AUNT DONNA. I run to him with arms open wide, screaming his name in a breathless way-past-her-prime kind of way. He looks up at me, puzzled. Shelby turns around, groans and looks away. Jacob jumps up and says, "I'm outta here". And Sarah starts laughing like there is no tomorrow.

Justin stands up, not knowing what to do and holds his arms out to me, mostly in bewilderment. I run into him LITERALLY and nearly knock him off his feet. I introduce myself as Aunt Donna and tell him "welcome to the beach."

It was great!

Then he comes up to the trailer to meet Uncle Lenny. Lenny was hiding on the other side of the trailer. He had tucked his shirt in his shorts, pulled his shorts all the way to his chest in a Steve Erkle kind of way, and comes out skipping. He thrusts his hand out to shake hands with Justin and declares in a retarded voice that he is indeed, Uncle Lenny.

Again, one of our finer moments of adulthood. Justin doesn't look too traumatized, does he?

Anyone still care???/

Of the past 6 weeks of summer vacation, I have been home for about 2 of them. Since June 13th, I have been away from my home for the equivalent of one month. So really, I have only been on summer vacation for two weeks now. I have been busy, I have been running like a crazy woman. I have been out of it!

Some of my "busyness" comes from physically being gone, some of my weariness comes from the mental tasks that have been taking place, and lots of my head spinning comes from church stuff. Not bad stuff, but dealing with something taking place.

I am presently in the midst of a major God thing right now.

For more than a year now, there has been something at my church, but more so in my heart, that has been troubling/consuming/encouraging/pruning me in a way that I would never be able to explain in a blog. It is far too lengthy and much to personal to put into type, but ask me in person and I may confess my heart to you.

Anyhoo, this scenario came to a pinnacle for me last week. I was having a conversation with someone at Kids Camp (it was great at camp and I will post about it next) when all of a sudden the lightbulb came on, the bells started ringing, the angels sang and I "GOT IT". This was late one evening and after our chat I went to my cabin to sleep. Sleep did not come but what did take place was a conversation with God that was out of this world. I heard from God in a way that looking back now I see the steps of progression, but at the moment I was saying "A-ha!"

I came back to church on Sunday and spoke with the wife of one of our pastors. She again confirmed what God was telling me but I was trying to squash.

I love how God uses ordinary people in the most ordinary moments to show us his plan. It is those seconds that a seemingly plain word comes out of the mouth of someone trusted that hits us like a brick. God is awesome and I am so excited to be in the fast track right now of something groovy.

I will keep you posted.


POST NOTE: I have had a few comments/emails/phone calls from people asking me about the Pastor's position in Kids Church. Oh Lordy lordy lordy NO. Besides, well, I know something, well, I can not say, but next week everyone will know about Kids Church.

My Family

Note: Not sure what is up with the washed outness of this photo.

(Because I have been an absentee blogger and I am desperately trying to cram in all of my happenings over the past 6 weeks, this post and subsequent posts are going to be lackluster in imagination and humor. My sister is having a cow because I have not posted in a while.)

June 8, 2008

I have a fun family.

My husband and my kids = tons of fun. But I am blessed to have a super fun extended family. My aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and sooooo on are a blast to spend time with.

But, for some reason that I can not quite comprehend, I don't see them as much as I should or as much as I would like. Why is that, I wonder. That one has me scratching my head.

Anyhoo, a few weeks ago, Jacob turned 10. So I thought we would have a family party, everyone would come, blah blah blah. But as I was planning it, I realized that not only did Jacob have a milestone birthday, but many people in the fam did as well this year. Karen is 50, Cecil is 75, Nick is 50, Kristen 45, Steven 35, Brandan 5, and I well, I turned 39. Is that a milestone?? So we decided to have an all-family birthday party.

This is my uncle Cecil. He is the Patriarch of this motley crew of people. He celebrated his 75th birthday.
My cousin, Jody and my sister Karen. (Karen is the one that was having a cow). And by the way, good thing she looks great on this day because she is in a lot of pics!

Now it would have been more fun with loads of presents and pin the tail on the oldest family member but we nonetheless celebrated being together.

Kristin my niece, Karen, and me

Shelby, her mother Karen and Aunt Sandra.
Uncle Don and his grandsons, Michael and Daniel.

Julie and Aunt Carol.

Shelby, Karen and Kristen.

Jacqueline (Lenny's sister), my cousin Kristen, Lenny, Cousins Jody and Julie. Shelby and Sarah

Steve my nephew and Karen.

Here is the cool part. My sister Brenda, (the mom of Steve above) who lives in South Carolina, had 4 of her 5 kids and grandkids (yes I have a sister who is a grandmother, ohhhhh), my brother and his family for a family birthday party too that day. So we all kind of celebrated together in a weird long distance kind of way.

Rich (he's a hunk) and Karen.

Another shot of Karen and Nick.

Karen (we used to call her Baby Karen because my older sister is also named Karen), me and Kristen.

My cousin Julie, me, and my other cousin's son, Brandan. He is in commercials! I knew him when......
Cecil, Bob and Sandra
Laughing. Yes, there was wine.

My mother's brother, Don and her sister, Sandra.

Something quirky about my family. There are:

• three Roberts. One has passed away, one goes by the name Bob, and the other is my brother who goes by Steve.


• two Steves. One is my brother and one is my nephew, who is also my brother's nephew, not his son, so not carrying on his name. Weird, huh?


• two Karens. My sister and my cousin


• two Krist e/i ns. One is my cousin and one is Steve my nephew's wife. Different spellings thankfully.


• two Brand e/a ns. One is my nephew and one is my cousin Karen's son. Another blessing of different spellings.


• two Daniels. Both are cousins. One goes by Dan and the other goes by Daniel.

Thankfully, though, there is only one Donna and only one Lenny!