Kelly's Morning Muse

School has begun, soccer has begun, Girl Scouts has begun, the Small Group is meeting again, and Mom alone time has begun once again too. This leaves me time to muse about my family, my life and this journey that God has placed me on.

First, I must tell you that Eric received an email yesterday from one of our interpreters in Africa from the Nazareen Church, Julius. Here was his email:

"Pastor Eric and Kelly,
I have tried many times to send you my greetings but messages failed. I will never forget the good time we had together at Nazarene Church. I also believe that the ministry goes well. We always talk about you. My young daughter chose to be called Kelly. We miss you a lot, we hope to see u in the future. May God bless you. Your Interpreter Jules."

I cried when I read this message because it's obvious from the email that we touched them as much as they touched us. His daughter decided to be called my name! What a huge compliment and testimony to just showing up! Also... Pastor Eric! :) funny huh!

In other news, my computer died a violent death and was resurrected once again. This time I tried the "Make It Work" service and it was fantastic! If you want to use them... just tell them I referred you (Referral ID: 789932).

Our small group is doing "40 Days of Love" based wholly on the Great Commandment and Commission. "Love the Lord with all your heart & Love your neighbor as yourself." As we break down these instructions and try to make them practical in every day life I realize that I'm not always very lovable and other people can be EGR's (extra Grace required), but maybe I'm an EGR to them! In any case, it's part of the journey. Not everyone has to be my best friend, but I also don't have to be disagreeable to those that are not my friends. We can all disagree without being disagreeable, yes?

On a separate note, the Burton Family is high on politics these days. We openly discuss the candidates and their positions. We watched both primaries and we're eagerly awaiting the debates (the VP debate is next week.) It's fun to get the girls to think about our country - especially when they've been out of the country and know that we're not all perceived the same way in other parts of the world.

Enough musing for now... thanks for following the Burton Family journey. We love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Kelly

School is IN!

Finally, our countdown to grades 5 and 2 are over and the girls have started back to school. The realization that Taylor is in her final year of Elementary School has hit us all and really, Taylor is more excited than you can imagine. Do you remember what it was like to want to be older, but still hold on to the comfort of younger things? Like wanting to look like a teen, but liking to play with your little sister and some of her toys at the same time. This is our home!

Taylor has a teacher that is new to our school, however Mrs. Heuer has been in our district for 11 years. The BIG bonus is that Mrs. Heuer has taught middle school math and T really wants to learn some big-time algebra, so she's excited to have this teacher! She only wishes a few more of her good friends were in there too.

Sammie is already in love with her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Robbins. She has her best friend Abby in the class too, so all is good in Sammie-land.

Soccer games begin this Saturday and it's going to be awesome to see our girls in action on the field once again!

Shaved the Cats! Yes, you read it correctly...

OK, before I talk about the cats...
Dad is doing great! He's home and the kidney is working great. He's keeping his follow-up appointments at UCLA and he sounded downright giddy when I spoke with him yesterday. So far so good. Thank you everyone for the prayers, and the notes, and the concern. We ALL appreciate it more than you could know.

Now, the cats! While Taylor and Eric were away this week, I took the cat hair problem into my own hands - or hand! I called the mobile groomer and had him make our two longgggg hair kitties look like well groomed mini lions (or poodles). Sammie was upset with me after the first cat re-entered the house. She screamed and blocked the door. Later, she calmed down and liked the look. They're much softer now and are really acting pretty happy too! When I told Eric over the phone (he was in NY at the time) he said "Wow, Taylor is going to be so mad at you!" Well, he was right and I knew that she would be too. When I picked her up from camp today, I chose my moment very carefully before returning home. I told her, and she screamed. (Maybe I underestimated the value of cat hair?) After calmly reassuring her that she had every right to be upset, and that it was OK. I reassured her that the boys (that's what we call Odie and Howie) were very happy and acted like they like the lack of hair! She calmed down and really was just fine. I don't know if I'll ever do it again, but I do know... next time I'll make sure she knows ahead of time!

Kidney's and other "Parts" of our life...

Life never seams to slow down, it just changes to different paces throughout each day. Each days brings new challenges, laughter, thoughts, and most of all blessings. The latest blessing comes in the form of a new kidney for my Dad. At this time, he's at UCLA in the ICU with a newly given kidney. The kidney comes from a tragedy another family experienced (car accident from 19 year old), and they brought life to my Dad from it. This selfless acts reminds me that we could all stand to be more selfless each day. It's not about me right? Dad is doing great and is happy to not only have the kidney, but the stuffed "Papa Bear" build-a-bear that Taylor and Sammie gave to him that has a recorded voice of them saying "Get well soon Papa. We love you!."



On another note, Eric is preparing to run a 1/2 marathon in San Diego this weekend, and I'm preparing to start coaching soccer Today!!! I'm looking forward to seeing what name they pick for our little team (dressed in pink/blue) uniforms.

Next week Taylor will embark on a journey that will take her away from home for 5 days to learn more about the Lord with our church at camp. As she's packing right now, I'm reminded just how much she is growing up - I wish this pace would slow down. I'm missing the coloring at my side days (as Sammie is doing as I type this!).

So wherever you are today in your journey, I'm hoping your pace is just right and that you recognize the blessings in front of you - however great or small. I know mine are all around me, and for that I'm so very thankful!

Spectacular!

This past week (or should I say blur) we've been headed off to church every morning for our annual VBS - Vacation Bible School! This high energy event pairs 3000+ kids with willing adult leaders (like me) to teach them about Jesus in a fun and exciting way. We have a loud and vibrant band, water games, theatre and a minimum of 10 kids per adult to care for. Well, having read about our past month you can imagine how tired we all are already, and Taylor did get sick and miss the last 2 days of the camp. However, Sammie and I persevered, along with Ellysa Lim (from our Rwanda trip) to lead our group all week.

I think we're all looking forward to slowing down in the coming month to bask in the sun & do nothing. We're hoping so spend some time in my parents pool, lay in the sand at the beach, and connect with a few friends in a very LOW key way.

For now, we're glad to have been a part of VBS, but we're also glad we have a non-packed month ahead of us.

Part Bob Villa, part Martha Stewart, part Taxi Driver!

That's exactly how Eric and I are feeling these days. After an exhaustive process to make Taylor's room "her own" it's now finished! Eric hand-made the bookshelf hutch that's proudly sitting on her desk (the desk and walls and freshly painted too.) I made her duvet cover since we couldn't find anything that matched her decor choice of pink/brown that wasn't too "surfer", "little kid", or "old lady." The result... a pink and brown extravaganza that any tweenager would love. What's a tween? Any little lady who's too big to hang with her little sister's friends, and too young to hang out with parents and teenagers. Yes, we're officially in the land of limbo with Taylor. Some days we're cool parents, and other days we're the weirdest people in the world!

In addition to the redecorating this summer, the kids are enjoying camps... which means I'm driving all over the OC. But the smiles on their faces are very worth it. Sammie loved her camp last week which incorporated the "Magic Tree House" book series into a series of crafts and things that kids could cook themselves. She did this class with her friend Lucy and loved it! This week Taylor is taking a robotics class at the Discovery Science Center. (http://www.discoverycube.org/) You should know from the getgo that Taylor is a harsh critic of anything camplike... especially if it's educational too. AND... she's loving it! Each day she's talked for about 10 minutes straight about what they've done in class and what they're going to do the next day. So it looks like we've found the right kind of camp to interest Taylor and I'll be searching out more options like this next year.

Next week we'll be at our church every day for Vacation Bible School, and I'll be leading a Crew of 10 kids along with one student leader the whole week. My student leader is Elyssa, which is the middle daughter of the Lim family (we traveled to Africa with them this past April.) It's going to be great fun to share this experience with her as well.

So for now I'll get back to my reading (book 5 of the Harry Potter series) and relax in the midst of my Taxi driver summer. But don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade it for anything! However, it would only be better to share this week and next with Eric, but he's traveling for work (next week to Hawaii... bummer huh!)

July has arrived!

Yes, July is here and our summer is in full swing. Lot's of SO's (sleep overs), late nights where we just cannot stay on a schedule, and fun for everyone. July 4th was very eventful in that Taylor and Eric got up EARLY and went to do the YMCA "Run in the Park." It was the first 10K that Taylor had ever run and she did it in 1 hour & 23 min & 22 seconds - very impressive for a 10 year old! Later that weekend she was complaining that her legs hurt, and good Mom that I am... I said you're young - how could you possibly be sore? She said "Um, Mom... 10K? Remember?" Good Point T - good point!

We spent July 4th and 5th with friends in Simi Valley, lounging in the front yard, absorbing the misters that were very nicely setup for every ones enjoyment. Fireworks for the kids were viewed by climbing the rock across the street and looking out over the vast valley below. These are memories that just cannot be replaced (even if our children never remember living there).

This past Tuesday Eric and I celebrated our 13th Wedding Anniversary at a very exclusive club in Disneyland called "Club 33." I didn't realize what a treat this was until we arrived at Guest Services to find 2 free park hopper tix waiting for us and a dinner reservation as well! We rode everything that the girls would never want to ride in each park, including the roller coaster at California Adventure. Unfortunately though... my body thinks I'm getting older and immediately informed me to never do that again, too bad my head thinks I'm 18! After settling down on more comforting rides, we got ready for dinner (jeans and flip flops are not allowed) and made our way to the club. The only way to find it is by the "33" placard on the wall in New Orleans Square - with a private buzzer that questions you first before allowing you to enter. To make it short, it was an incredible meal, with a perfect view of "Fantasmic" and fireworks. I know why Disney fans are so enamored with this special place. We're so thankful that our friend Mike got us a reservation there!

Speaking of Mike, he and his wife (Kellyann) are bringing a new baby into the world today... Tristan Daniel. This little bundle of joy is scheduled to be delivered at Noon today, so the girls and I are off to meet this new little person right now.

Thanks for checking in on us Burton's! I hope to hear from you soon!