haiti

i know that everyone is talking about haiti right now and how terrible the devastation is and what we can do to help. so i'm gonna just jump on my soapbox for a moment and say my piece. don't worry... it's not gonna be like this guy. first of all. i'm sick to my stomach over what has happened in that country. just thinking about all the loss makes my heart break and my stomach flip.

so i watched this sermon that one of our pastors gave a couple weeks ago. we missed it because the brockhaus weren't at church to make the pastor call us... but then amy came home and told me to watch it here (it's the 1/3/10 sermon, holla!).

i was in tears for most of it. it was filmed, i believe, two sundays before this earthquake in haiti and it showed chris brown (our pastor) walking around haiti and showing the poverty that abounds there. at the end he asked the congregation to please consider sponsoring a child from haiti (side note: it turns out that our church ended up sponsoring something like 700 children that weekend).

so then about a week later this earthquake came and wrecked havoc in haiti. tearing it apart from it's very roots. and reading or listening to the news makes it seem like they (haiti) are falling off a cliff into a pit of awfulness with no safety net. and in the end i thought:

God obviously knew what was going to happen. and although thousands of people are still unaccounted for and we still don't know the full extent of the devastation... God knew this was coming. and he set up a foundation of people that couldn't be torn down. and a network that won't lose service or connection that weekend at our church. all of these people got onboard to help that country just before this disaster - and now they already are connected to help. right?

so i don't know. i guess i just wanted to write and say... how awesome is God? that even though it seems like the horrible news from haiti won't stop - it will. eventually. because He knew what was coming and He started to pull together the threads of that safety net.

brunch with the mitches

here at the mitches house we celebrated the new year by ... watching a movie and barely making it to midnight. =) matt pooped out at 11:45 and i stayed up with ryan seacrest and the saddest dick clark. poor man. =( we woke up at our usual 6:30 the next morning and i stayed under the covers as long as matt and jack would let me (per usual) but then we had our first annual "brunch with the mitches". i have to say it was a success! the starks came over and so did the ups' and lenny beh made it late but i think everyone had a good time! i made these jalapeno and cheddar scones, french toast, and home fries and matt fried up some bacon for us all. it was yummy and great. i hope to see you all next year.

on another note, scoob has decided to start opening doors on his own. God help us all. i'm not really sure what to do about this... suck it up and hope for the best? change the door handles to round knobs? attach butter to his hands? (thus making them too slippery to open doors?) we shall see.

as for the new year. 2009 was pretty good to me. not going to complain. we were able to buy our first house. got our big dog, greco. scoob turned one. all good stuff. that being said. i can't wait for 2010 to be even better to us. ima try to take it slow and steady. ima try to take better care of myself. and maybe do a little bit more movin' and shakin'. and some more home cookin'. in the words of matthew wilder:

"Ain't nothin' gonna breaka my stride

Nobody gonna slow me down
Oh no, I got to keep on moving"

rainy days

our fence fell down during all the rain we've been getting... so now we have an AMAZING view of our neighbor's yard. and consequently, since we have no curtains... well, you know. so... we decided to build a new fence! scoob is channeling his inner carpenter (from the beckman side of the family) and is feeling confident that we can get this done quickly. we went to home depot with joel, maria, papa, gramma, grampa, and our neighbor with her 4 kids (wow...) and i think we got everything. here goes nothing!

thankfulness

i am thankful for...

god. actually, sorry... God. he has blessed my little family so much over the past year and i really couldn't be thankful for the rest of this list without him. sorry. Him.

my boys. all of them. matt, jack, pepe, and greco. mostly the first two though. these guys make everything worth it. they brighten every one of my days. then maybe they destroy everything in the garage or play in the toilet water - but then they look at me with a sweet sweet face and everything is okay again.

my beautiful house! it is always a work in progress (especially the yard right now) but i love it. being able to turn off all the lights and lock the doors at night in my house is wonderful. and then to walk down the hall and check on my sleeping scoob is even better. but then squishing under the covers with my hubby and my little dog and knowing that the house is OURS (not the landlord's) is the best part of all.

our families. free babysitting 20 minutes in either direction is priceless. lemme tell you. it was ROUGH going back to work last year when the boy was only 4 weeks old. but knowing he was going up to papa and kimma's house made it so much easier. we are so blessed to have family close by to help us with jack and the house.

a job. as hard as it is to say it... "i am thankful for a job". this is definitely not the best year so far... i would even say that this could be in the running for "hardest year yet". but with the economy the way it is and the profession the way it is in the district that we work in.... "i am thankful for a job".

our friends. most of them. =) man, when i'm having a rough day, i can always count on someone to call me up for poor man's noodles, or someone to come over and coax me into watching three hours of baltimore's best, or my favorite elf to come over and get crafty with me. or even, just when i'm about to murderize someone, one of our friend's will call up with an invitation for my hubby to go to vegas. our friends really lift me up and keep me on my toes.

now. i would be remiss not to include a pic or two of jack so for anyone who made it through to the end of this post... enjoy.

the hair and the turtle

went down to the salon and got our hairs did the other night. cousin alisa mia gave jack his first haircut and he looked soooo handsome!

we also set up the mr. turtle pool that we finally found on craigslist (thanks klimas' for picking it up!) and let jack go wild. it's been so hot that he was totally stoked to splash around for a bit. here's some pics of our goings ons...

news

after a few awful job offers (mostly middle school) i was offered a long term sub position (second grade) at reidy creek today. this means i take over this classroom until one of two things happens:

1. the teacher comes back from whatever she's doing or

2. a permanent position opens up somewhere for me

hopefully #2 happens sooner rather than later since long term subs don't get benefits.

also. kind of bummer news that we need some prayers for. our good dog, greco, has something wrong. basically his stomach has swelled up with "fluid" (we don't know what it is) and we don't know why. so we had bloodwork done yesterday and tomorrow we are getting an ultrasound to see if he has a heart condition (not uncommon for boxers, apparently). it also could be a liver problem which is just s bad if not worse than a heart condition. so, we would appreciate prayers for greco's health. =)

more updates as news develops.

jack's first birthday!

so in true simmons fashion we celebrated jack's birthday with not one but two parties, a trip to disneyland, and a dinner out with mommy and daddy. weeklong? just about. so here are links to pics of the parties (if they work):

Family Dinner

Birthday Beach Bash

both parties were super fun and there was only one incident involving a party hat...

i'm working on pics of disneyland too. although if you can - imagine an adorable cherub straight from heaven. in a boat. surrounded by small animatronic children singing in harmony.

that's what it was like. for reals.