Beth's Surgery

Well, Beth's surgery is over and she has been resting comfor... ah,
doing well?.... hmmmm,
let's just say she's in a lot of pain, but the drugs are doing the job well enough to let her sleep!

She did let me take a picture of her feet, but that's about it. Brianna calls them the BIG! bandaids! But Beth is really glad that today is so much better than yesterday, she's cut her pain meds in half, and the healing process is slowly but surely coming right along.



Now, since Grandma Clay is with us, we've been eating some VERY delicious meals, she has been such a great help with the kids and just plain helping out. We had some fine italian fetuccine (tasted just like Johnny Carino's) , some fresh salad, with just the hard pieces of course.


Not to mention a TON of cheesy breadsticks! They were piping hot, I'll be honest, I just couldn't eat any more, (we had to throw a few of them away, she made so many!)



But we thank you for your prayers for Beth, God is good!

Nathan

Cute Kids & Prayer Requests

This first picture is just a cute picture of Baby Nate the other day. He was walking around the house with the little ax from his fire truck, and we thought that it looked like he was smoking a pipe. A bad habit we know, but it was really cute.

This next picture was taken last night. I had a doctor's appointment Thursday afternoon, so the kids spent the afternoon at our friend's home. So, Brianna never got a nap, and Nicole said that she played hard the entire time she was there. So, when we got home, we were eating dinner, and she just fell asleep at the table. We just took her to bed, and she slept all night, until we woke her up at 8am Friday morning.

Other notes: Life has been very hectic this week. I have been trying to get everything settled for me to be off my feet for 2-3 weeks, after having surgery on both of my feet. Plus, I have had to go to the lab for blood work and then to my Pre-Op appointment. Today, I spent the entire day running errands. The kids made it about half way through the day before they got sick of it. I called my babysitter, and she came and put the kids down for their naps and stayed home with them while I went to pick up prescriptions and crutches and just a few more things. I think that I am now pretty ready for my surgery on Monday. Please pray that the Lord will guide the doctor's hands and that my recovery will go as smoothly as possible. My mother will also be flying up here on Tuesday to take care of my children, so please pray that she has a safe flight. And, we are starting Radically Married at our church this Sunday, so please pray that the Lord will bring the right couples to the study and that He will be glorified through this study.

We will keep you posted on both Radically Married and on how the surgery goes.

Definitely!!!

Tonight was our date night. We went to this great little Italian restaurant a few miles down the road in Peters Creek. It was a really great atmosphere, and really great food.

We then went to see the movie, Definitely, Maybe. We decided that we would not recommend this movie to anyone to go see. You see, the movie was all about a Pagan view of what relationships and marriage are all about. It was very sad in a lot of ways. First, I always feel terrible for child actors and actresses who are subjected to knowing way more than they should because of the movies that they are in. There was a part of this movie where there were several children talking about sex like it was no big deal because they were taught about "sex education" in school. Those poor children whose innocence is taken away from them in part because of the roles they play in these movies.

The second thing about this movie is that an overwhelming theme was that the sexual aspect of a relationship is where happiness lies. This is a total lie that becomes ingrained into our minds through the advertising industry. Nathan leaned over near the end of the movie and said, "This is going to be one of the saddest, happy endings ever." And I totally agree. We sat there at the end of the movie almost in shock because of the message that was just given to hundreds of people in our movie theater, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people across the world. The thing is, as bad as this movie was, it was real. There are really people in this world who think like this and are genuinely misguided and lost.

But, we as Christians know the WAY, we know the TRUTH, and we know how to have LIFE abundantly. There is so much against us in this world, but we need to be a beacon of hope for those who are lost. We have got to share God's love with this lost world. Definitely!!! No maybe about it.

Happy Valentine's Day

So, I know it is the day after Valentine's Day, but I still wish you all happiness and God's love. We have had a great week around here. My Valentine's started on Wednesday. That day I had gone to Jazzercise in the morning, and then I stayed home and made my homemade bread and pie crust (for apple pie) because my husband requested that I do so. So, I had been on my feet all day. About five o'clock, I finally sat down, with my feet absolutely killing me, and Nathan walked in with red and white roses for me. They are absolutely beautiful. But, I was like, Valentine's Day isn't until tomorrow. But he said, "This way, you can enjoy them for all of Valentine's Day." I thought that was so sweet. Then, Thursday, I just had a very busy day. I went to Jazz again, and then I had to go set up for MOPS at the church. Then, I wanted to get the house clean for Nathan, and our bedroom. Now, my bedroom had not been cleaned well in quite a while. And, it is very important for me to have our bedroom clean. I feel that our room is an escape from the children and the business of this life, so I desire for it to be a haven for us to go to when we need to relax. But, it had not been that way for awhile. So, I worked hard to return my room to this relaxing state. Then, had to go to the store to by a few groceries. So, again by the time Nathan came home, I hadn't sat down all day and my feet were again killing me. So, I sat for a short time, and then I made this awesome Grilled Pesto Salmon recipe for our dinner. Then, Brianna and I made Valentine cookies for the MOPS meeting, which was today. I then got a foot massage from Nathan, so I felt extremely spoiled and refreshed afterwards. So, while our Valentine's Day was not glamorous in any way, we had a good time and got a lot accomplished. And, we had a good time together as a family, which is what love is all about.

Two notes:
First, our Sunday School class had desired for some time to do a different study during the Sunday School hour a church. The Lord had opened the door for us to do the Radically Married curriculum both for Sunday School and for Discipleship Training time at our church. Nathan is going to be the teacher for this class, starting February 24th. Please pray for us during this time. We know that when we do what God wants us to do, Satan will attack. We are praying that the Lord will strengthen our marriage and allow us to encourage others during this time.

Second, Brianna is sick. She came down with something during MOPS this morning. Please pray for her as she doesn't feel well at all right now.

This Week

This week has been a pretty busy week. We will start with last Saturday, when we had Nate's first birthday party with all of his (or our) friends here in Alaska. We had a football themed party, and since we are Cowboys fans, we all wore our jerseys. Overall, we just had a good time fellowshipping with our friends.
Nate really enjoyed his cake. I wish I had taken a picture of him after he had eaten some of it. He was covered in blue icing. He was so messy, he was taken straight to the bath tub. After his bath, we opened presents. Nate got an airplane, a fire truck, a tractor, and two really cute outfits. I tell you, we do not need any more toys in this household. And, just so you know, the bottom picture here is of Nate and his friend from church, Aubry.
On Sunday, we went to church and then went to some friends house to watch the Super Bowl. We had to leave early because Nate wasn't feeling very well (probably all the icing the night before). But, we weren't really into the game, we just wanted the Patriots to lose, so we were pretty pleased with the outcome.
The rest of this week has just been busy doing all sorts of things. And, to make it worse, we have been in the negative temperatures all week. Not once has it even been ZERO. Now, when it gets this cold, I usually try to only get out of the house when I have to, but I had a full week planned. Monday, I had a meeting. Tuesday, we went grocery shopping. Wednesday, we went shopping with Candance at the mall...and yes, it was important to do so. And, Thursday, we had ladies day at my friend Nicole's house. Not to mentions, Jazzercise every morning. So, we have been enduring the bad temps all week. Today, I had to take the trash out, and I nearly froze, just in the two or three minutes it took me to get the trash from the garage to the curb. Hopefully, it will get warmer soon...at least in the positive numbers.

We had a GREAT Vacation!!!

Well, we started out with a pretty rocky vacation, but it turned out great! We actually had the red eye out of Anchorage to Seattle, WA early on Wednesday morning. Now, you would think with the flight being in the middle of the night, that my children would sleep. But, no...we were THOSE people on the flight with the baby who screamed almost the entire flight. We tried everything we could to calm him down, and Nathan actually got him to sleep for about 45 minutes, but other than that, he pretty much screamed the whole time. I did calm him down at the very end by feeding him a blueberry muffin. Anyway, we got there and then drove to Portland. We stopped for breakfast at one of our favorite little places, Shari's. While we were there, the baby promptly threw up everything he had eaten. He then threw up in the car, and Aunt Anne's house, and at the mall. He was going through clothes faster than I could buy them. But, he never ran a temp, and by the evening, he was much better. Maybe it was the muffin. Anyway, Wednesday evening, we went to see Nathan's parents and brothers.

This was the first time they had seen Brianna in two years, and the first time ever for them to see Baby Nate. So, while the time that evening was short, it was fun to see them all! The next day, we had planned to hike up Multnomah Falls, which is where Nathan proposed to me. But, the weather just did not cooperate. It was much to cold and windy for us to hike up there with our children. So, we just went and took pictures at the bottom of the Falls, and bought T-shirts for the kids at the gift shop. It is always lots of fun to go back to where Nathan proposed to me. We spent Thursday evening with Nathan's best friend and his wife Kelly and their son Tanner. Friday morning, Nathan went fishing with Rob and he caught a Steelhead. I, on the other hand, stayed at the house and did laundry and repacked for the rest of the trip. Loads of fun!!!

We left Friday afternoon to go to Canon Beach, OR where we stayed until Sunday. Nathan's whole family was able to come to the beach as well, and we had so much fun just hanging out with them. The grandparents really enjoyed spoiling the grandchildren, and we all had a lot of fun playing Catch Phrase and Pinochle. That Saturday was Baby Nate's first birthday, so we had a little party for him at the beach. Grandma Hendricks had a fun project for Brianna, making jello clouds with stars on them, which we had with the airplane cake. Durning naptime, I went shopping with my sister-in-law Anne, and we had a good time visiting all kinds of fun shops. I never did find a picture of the two rocks though. :) (Shout out to Nathan Lucia!!!)

Sunday, we left the beach and drove back to Portland. I did a little more laundry at Anne's house, and then Nathan and I left the kids with their Aunt Anne and Uncle Nathan and went out for the night. I was a little apprehensive about leaving my children overnight for the first time, but it was not as bad as I thought it would be. We had a very relaxing evening going to dinner at a nice restaurant on the river front.

The next day, Nathan and his brother Jon, Ben and brother-in-law Nathan went to see Rambo, and then we went to lunch at a great restaurant called Claim Jumper. We then headed back to Seattle to catch our flight that evening. And, again, we were THOSE people. What do you do??? Overall, it was a wonderful trip and we thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with family and friends.

Beth, Nathan Lucia, Brianna, Anne, Baby Nate, and Nathan...we were trying to find another Nathan for the picture, but we already had all the ones in the restaurant.