In between

Okay who knew this many years would go by before a new post was submitted. I guess facebook became our new way of communicating. Let's see....what's been missed? Well two babies born and a move to North Carolina. I guess life was a little traumatic to write about for awhile. It has been a stressful few years, but life seems to be settling down again and I think it's time to get back to sharing our lives with everyone.

So I decided to sit down and calaborate some memories from the past few years before all is forgotten. Here's the lists we came up with:

2010

1. We bought our first house! After spending time looking for a new rental (because I was tired of so many critters and being so far away from the church) our realtor suggested we try and buy. We doubted the possibility, but decided to go for it. Everything came together and we moved in just before Christmas.
2. Stacy was asked to become the National Coordinator for Catch the Fire USA. Just days before he would recieve a promotion at AFLAC, Duncan called him for a meeting. It was an impossible request to say no to. He began in September.
3. In October we took a trip with Eagen to Bosnia. We flew into Budapest, stayed at a YWAM base, and took a train to Zenica. It was a whirlwind trip trying to see everyone and also going through all the things that had been left behind. Half of the trip was spent in Montenegro for Zoran's Wedding where Stacy was the best man and I had to try and act normal even though I had recently learned I was pregnant again. Eagen had a lot of fun visiting all the places his brothers had been before he was born. The train was his favorite and mommy's least favorite because I almost lost Stacy at one of the stations and he had to run and jump back on the train.
4. Our trip to Canada was also very memorable. We hiked, swam in one of the Great Lakes, went to a ribfest, saw lots of Amish at the farmer's market, went to a water park, and saw Niagra Falls for the first time. We enjoyed our visit with our good friends, The Remley's. Oh and we had a serious flat tire checking out Allen's job site.
5. A traumatic event that won't easily be forgotten was when we first moved into the new church building. The kids were playing on the playground equipment and one of the girls jumped on top of Gage and broke his femur. So off to the ER again, surgery, and rehab for him. And Eagen broke his femur again shortly after. I still don't know how. We think he tried to step on an apple and slipped and fell. Another Spika cast moment in our life. Yuck!
6. We signed up Braden for baseball in 2010. It was such a fun experience watching the games as a family. We really felt like country folk for the first time as we sat in the warm spring air cheering for The Twins. They lost more games than they won, but we enjoyed every minute of it.
7. Stacy went to South America for the first time with the School of Revival. They spent their time healing and delivering people in Peru. He'll have to fill you in on this fun event since I was at home taking care of the kiddos.
8. We joined a homeschool group that really helped all the boys make some good friends. They have classes in the spring and fall. The boys love learning all kinds of fun things like juggling, medieval warfare, music, finance, and science.
9. Our most amazing testimony of the year was Stacy's trip to Elizabeth City. He went for a weekend conference with a few guys from the church. I had a dream where a man came up to me and told me that Stacy just healed a deaf person so I texted him to pray for the deaf. Two people with that were deaf in one ear were healed! Yeah God! )
10. Stacy also traveled to Nepal to be a part of an ILSOM (International Leaders School of Ministry). It was an amazing trip full of salvations, healings, and great connections. And it was right when he returned home that he learned we were pregnant with baby number 6! It was a shock to all of us. The boys still remember being told at the dinner table. They all laughed and thought we were kidding.

2009

1. It's hard to remember anything before our move to North Carolina. It was such a major event and took up many months of 2009. It was May that we decided to move and we were on our way at the end of July.
2. Our trip over was a big highlight. We got to spend some time in Arizona with Grandma Helen, Joan, Kim, and Jason. And who can forget that Eagen broke his leg the first morning we were there slipping on her very slippery wet cement by the pool. Ouch! We were off to New Mexico next to visit my Dad and Leslie where we had so much fun visiting Carlsbad Caverns and shooting brand new airsoft guns into the dessert. We then drove through Texas, stayed in a hotel in Louisiana, and made it to Georgia the next day. I stayed with my sisters in Georgia while Stacy drove all our belongings to North Carolina to find us a home. When he filled up the U-Haul truck with gas to return it, we had 78 cents left in the bank. We is crazy!
3. Nick turning 13 was a big event of the year. We celebrated before the move and gave him a sword just like we had done for Gage. It was an emotional moment for me especially knowing we were headed out of California and our new church family was really an awesome bunch.
4. But with a move comes a meeting of an entire new church family. We were welcomed by the Smith family, staying at their house until we got the keys to our new house. And our first Sunday was a special one. It was a great service. I'll never forget the boys meeting all the kids their age. They were all girls and all gorgeous! We loved everything about it and were relieved since we had no idea we would like the church when we packed up all our belongings and headed east.
5. There are many events I can sum up in one. All of the many bug/snake/turtle/frog/etc... experiences are very memorable. There was the first week picking tiny chiggers or ticks off of Gage's entire body and then having him react to something all over his hands and feet. He bubbled up all over. We had to buy a snake book just so we could figure out which snakes were safe in our backyard. There were so many! It was boy heaven and mommy nightmare time. A great adventure all around.
6. Early on we visited a farm in the country and came back with a puppy. She followed us all over the farm. Even Stacy was smitten. Moka joined our family for good. She's a smart one that loves people a little too much.
7. Stacy started working for Aflac selling insurance part time. It turned into a full time job in 2010 and it brought some unexpected things into our lives for a short time. Being a part of the rest of society for once was refreshing. We've been world traveling wild missionaries for so long, this job reminded us that we can survive in the regular work force. Stacy is actually a very good salesman and quickly caught the attention of leaders in the company.
8. In 2009 we were privelaged to spend our first ever Christmas with the Elonens. We all met in Georgia and had Christmas with 16 children and 6 adults. It wasn't nearly as wild as expected. The kids get along so well and they all cleaned up after our big Christmas dinner.
9. We also had Grandma, Grandpa, Lindsay, Josiah, and the Skelly's at our house for Christmas after our trip to Georgia. Both events were stressful and wonderful all at the same time. Family is like Chocolate Chip cookies. Too many will make you sick, but when they're not around, you really crave them because you love them so much.
10. I'll end this list with the trauma list... Eagen broke his femur slipping in my bathroom. And Nick fell on the skating rink, passing out because he hit the ice so hard. He couldn't see for awhile and didn't know what was going on. We went to the ER, had a tense 24 hours, and thanked God he was okay days later. Now if you wonder why I avoid ice and all things slippery, you can understand where I'm coming from.....trauma, trauma, and more trauma.