…welcome home Lloyd family, welcome home…

I have learned a very important lesson this past week: never say never. I am eating my words. I was wrong. And I can’t believe I am about to say this…

We’re moving back to Fresno/Clovis.

Yeah, I know. You can say “I told you so.” I deserve it. Matt, on the other hand, knew better. And believe or not we are SO VERY excited to move home. Ahhh… HOME. Family. Friends. Affordable housing. Yodigity. Dog House. Bubba-Lu’s… Ok so here’s the story:

Matt and I have been trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing/where we’re supposed to be living, working, ministering, etc for the past 7-8ish months. It has been a very trying and difficult time for us. I have screamed, cried, pouted and shaken my fists at both Matt and God. I said I would NEVER move back to Fresno. I was wrong. This past weekend I started to realize (and God started to reveal) what life would be like in both Fresno and LA. In LA we’d be permanent renters. We would both have to work full time. I would not get to stay home with Jackson and his future sibling(s). And this did not sit well with my heart. I started to ask Matt “what’s keeping us here?” And he didn’t really have an answer—except Aunt Debbie and Marisa. (It is going to be the hardest thing, to leave them. That just breaks my heart.) From here my heart really started to change. If we moved to Fresno we could own a house sooner than later. We wouldn’t be living from paycheck to paycheck. Our family and friends live in Fresno/Clovis (or the surrounding areas.) So Matt and I talked about what it would be like to come home and it just started to make sense. Things started to fall into place.  And within a week we could see and feel and hear God say “Yes. Fresno. Do it.”  I am sad to leave LA, especially Pasadena. I will miss my girlfriends from Wives. I will miss La Canada Volleyball.  I will miss the farmers markets, the closeness to the beach, the shopping, the weather, New Moon (the restaurant), but especially Marisa and Aunt Deb.

Pray for us as we transition back. LA and Fresno, although close in proximity, are two very different worlds. One not better than the other. Just different. Matt and I have learned a lot here at Fuller and are excited to bring what we learned back home and somehow apply it…? For those of you who have supported us and prayed for us and kept in contact with us (despite my inability to keep in contact with you)… THANK YOU! We are excited for this next journey in our life.

GO DOGS!!

A Few Snap Shots of our busy life since… February?!?

♥FEBRUARY♥

Jackson had a photo shoot with the famous photographer B. Davis

Sara’s birthday celebration

SMOOCH!!

the Group!

*MARCH*

Jackson on his actual BDay 3/19/09

Jackson's birthday party. He didn't like his hat.

CUPCAKE!

Matt, Steve and Dad/Opa at spring training in AZ watching the Dodgers

APRIL

Jackson and Auntie Lyndsey on the tram to Disneyland!!

DUMBO!

Jackson's Fresno birthday party at Oma and Opa's

Easter Basket!!

Paco and Grandma with Jackson on Easter

Opa and Oma with Jackson

(wow April was a busy month!)

~MAY~

not sure if this is in May... but had to add it in here. Jackson wearing Daddy's shoes

For Mother's Day, Matt got awesome Dodger tickets for us--it was a beautiful day AND the Dodger's won! (and we could be seen on TV)

me and my hubs

For our anniversary, I surprised Matt with a trip to the beach and stayed in a fancy beach house. this is us walking to the beach

the beach was a 10 minute walk from the house. too bad the sun didn't come out all weekend.

I’m sure I’m missing some events and have forgotten some pictures. But you get the idea. It’s been a busy past couple of months and summer is right around the corner. Hopefully I’ll update the blog more… hopefully. Happy Memorial Day!

Matt’s lament…

It is almost 10:30pm on a Sunday night and Matt has yet to finish his homework and post it online. (It’s due by midnight.) This sums up his feelings about his homework:

Homework! Oh, Homework!
by Jack Prelutsky

============

	Homework! Oh, homework! I hate you! You stink! I wish I could wash you away in the sink. If only a bomb would explode you to bits. Homework! Oh, homework! You’re giving me fits.
	I’d rather take baths with a man-eating shark, or wrestle a lion alone in the dark, eat spinach and liver, pet ten porcupines, than tackle the homework my teacher assigns.
	Homework! Oh, homework! You’re last on my list. I simply can’t see why you even exist. If you just disappeared it would tickle me pink. Homework! Oh, homework! I hate you! You stink!

It’s about time!!

I have been meaning to blog for the past month and a half now and am finally getting around to it. FINALLY!! We had a great holiday traveling all over… we visited our friends in snowy Portland, OR. Which was fabulous!! Jackson got to meet Reid, who is about 7 months young and almost the same size as Jackson. It was really good to see our friends and we miss them dearly.  a few pictures for your enjoyment:

 

matt excited to SEE his breath

 

sara talking with Reid

 

The Lloyds and the Lails in the snow

 there are so many more pictures of this trip, including a really cute one of me and anna, but this is already gonna be a very long post—i can feel it. 

 

Next was our trip to the ‘No to visit family for Christmas. Man, it seems like so long ago…. It was  a great time of hanging out with friends and seeing family. It was nice for Jackson to get to hangout with all his cousins. Let’s see… do I have some pictures? Yes, yes I think I do: 

 

jackson in a santa hat that is a bit too big for him

 

Matt and Sara by the Christmas tree

 

Missy playing with our camera... and our son.

 

Jackson on Christmas morning, after being up 1/2 the night with a fever

 

Christmas dinner at Oma and Opa's. mmmmmmmmm

As I’m going through my pictures, I am realizing that we don’t have any family pictures on Christmas. Which is LAME! I know we took family pictures… I just don’t have them on this computer. BLAST! Oh well–maybe family that does have those pictures will send them to us. (hint hint Oma and Opa and maybe Joni?)  

Since I’m having such a hard time remembering the going-ons of our lives, I’ll do updates by family member. Starting with… MATT

MATT: Ended his internship at MBCP with an amazing retreat in Glen Oak. He lead a workshop called “God and the media” or something to that affect, which went over quite well with the kids. *Jackson and I stayed home, unfortunetley, since J was sick.* Matt has 2 1/2 more quarters at Fuller. Which is both exciting and pretty freakin’ scary. He is enjoying this quarter with lots of Wii, free time (until he gets a J.O.B.) and hanging out with one of his BFF’s who recently moved with his family to attend Fuller. 

 

SARA: is really tired right now. I have recently become a distributor for Juice Plus+ and am very excited about the opportunities it has already given me. *I’ll post a link to my JP website soon* I am hoping to interpret a class or two at the local city college this spring semester. I will also be helping out a friend of mine start up a Young Life ministry called “Caperneum” I’m really excited about that!! Hopefully this Spring/Summer my best friend, Lyndsey and I will enter a beach volleyball tourney–more motivation to get in shape. I am enjoying going to my Fuller Wives Support group on Wednesday mornings. And now I get to walk with my good friend Gia who is married to Matt’s BFF that recently moved to Fuller. That kinda worked out nicely. 

JACKSON: is a very busy little man. He is cruising around the furniture and standing on his own for a few seconds at a time. Matt actually tricked him into taking his first steps the other day. I just about freaked out… in a good way. Jackson says ‘Ma ma ma’ and ‘Da da da’ and today he actually started saying ‘uh oh’. He thinks he’s a comedian and likes to dance. And thinks it’s funny to spit at you. He is growing and changing faster that I’d like him to. I can’t believe he is 10 mos already and will be a year this March.

I think I’ll end this post with some more pictures… and here’s to hoping I blog more often than I have been.

 

our last friday night with youth alive *tear*

 

Jackson and Santa

 

swinging at the playgroud

My very good, awesomely productive, fabulously wonderful day

Slept in this morning and missed the gym.

Did a little Wii Fit.

Shopped in the afternoon with my little man.

Bought my little man an exersaucer (which he LOVES, btw.)

Made an amazing dinner with my hubby! AND pumpkin pie for dessert.

Now… watching Fresno State football.

Could it get any better?!

How was your day?

san diego

shamu! shamu!

family photo

timmy and mercy getting ready to swim with dolphins

fam at the beach... good times

My encouragement today…

So I’m in the process of losing some of my pregnancy weight… and today on MyFoodDiary.com this was the quote:

Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.

~ Earl Nightingale

Yeah, I agree.

duck, duck, duck… GOOSE!

My lovely sister-in-law, Joni, tagged me in a recent blog. (check her out at Lloyd Mountain–she’s pretty amazing.) So… here it goes

But first, the rules.

1. link back to the person who tagged you. (Joni)

2. post these rules on your blog.

3. share six unimportant things about yourself.

4. tag people at the end of your entry.

Let’s see, what’s interesting yet unimportant about me… hmmmm

one: I’m a butt slapper. sounds odd, but it really isn’t. it’s from playing umpteen years of sports (especially volleyball). and i don’t slap random butts. just people i love. so, if i love you, you’ll get a love pat-pat. those of you who know me, know what i’m talking about.

two-my nick-name during my freshman year of high school was “spaz” given to me by my freshman volleyball coach.

three>i hate the word “kinky”. hate.

four–my new favorite artist is Brooke Fraser. check her out!!

five: i have to have the clothes i am going to wear picked out before i get into the shower. and yes, the shower is warming up while i pick out my outfit.

six… i am absolutely a water snob. i don’t like tap water. i prefer bottled. and even then, i prefer arrowhead.

Okay now I am supposed to tag some more people, but I’m not sure who reads this blog. SO i tag two of my girls: Anna and Mara. That’s all.

ps So our Mac is still getting fixed. UGH!! Matt will have that blog… And I am just dying to put up pictures.

Days like these make me miss Fresno…

So Jackson is 12 weeks old now…. and you would think by now that he’d have his social security card. I mean, here in LA it takes like 3 weeks to get it. Although we were told that it could take up to 8 weeks. Well, how ’bout it, he’s 12 weeks old and still nothin’. So I decided to call social security, just to make sure they had got the information right, and what not. That was mistake number one. Have you ever tried to call the social security office?? HA! It’s the biggest joke. I had to go through this automatic system and at the very end–I didn’t even get to talk to anyone! Oooohhhh I am SO frustrated! So I called again to state my plea and again, nothing. I wish I could go into great detail about my phone call but it would just exacerbate my frustration. I went to the website and found out that I have to GO INTO the social security office (which isn’t far) to pick up Jackson’s card. *sigh* When did the internet become more user friendly than the telephone?

OH— so then I decided to call about my son’s birth certificate… but, much like the previous incident, I have to DRIVE to NORWALK to obtain my child’s birth certificate. It’s a 1/2 hour drive without traffic… Lord knows that it’ll be like when we go. At least when I called (and still never “talked” to anyone) the information was plan and simple and easy to obtain.

See, if we were still in Fresno and trying to get these things, it’d be much easier. Or at least I’d like to think so. I know where the social security office is (in fact, I know someone who works there!) AND–I know where to get my son’s birth certificate. And I wouldn’t have to worry about traffic as much as I do here. AAAAANNNDD housing is cheaper. But that’s a different story.

I’d vent to my dear, sweet husband, but some of our friends are over watching soccer. So he’s kind of unavailable. And that’s where blogging comes in. Sorry, no pictures for this post. Just me. Venting. *sigh* okay, I’m going to go play with that sweet, adorable son of mine.

We love the beach!

As most of you know, Matt and I love the beach! When we get the chance to go, we take it! So when our friend, Jordan, asked us if we’d be interested to go today (Tuesday, May 20th) we said HECK YEAH! It’s been an adventure preparing for this day.  You wouldn’t believe how crazy I’ve made myself trying to find something that provided shade for my little one–I didn’t want to expose his delicate skin to the sun… at least not yet. So I have been searching and thought I found one thing that would work. But when I went to Sports Chalet, they didn’t have it. *sigh* I decided to settle for a beach umbrella. It will do for now.

This morning, amidst the semi-chaos, I got Jackson ready for his first adventure at the beach. Board shorts, rash guard–he was set to go!

Too cute for words!! We got out to Manhattan around 11:30am and the marine layer was still hanging around. But it let up around 12:30p when Jordan and Matt went to get subway for lunch. Mmmmm! Since the sun came out it was time to put up the umbrella to shade our little man.

Looks great, right? Yeah I thought so too, until Matt and Jordan went for a walk without their phones!! And wouldn’t you know it, the wind picked up, clouds came back and umbrella went flying!! So I had to chase it down, bring it back, fix it from being inverted–twice! And where were the boys this whole time? Walking… just relaxing on the beach. Oh and by this time our parking meter had expired it’s 3 hour limit. So needless to say, when the boys got back we packed up and headed home.

It was a nice relaxing time. I didn’t get sunburn. Matt has a few red spots where the we didn’t get sunscreen. And Jordan… well Jordan decided he wanted lobster legs, so he didn’t put any sunscreen on them when we got there. Silly Jordan

We love the beach and can’t wait to go back!