"There is no friendship, no love like that of the mother for her child."

My mom, Saiah and Me

We celebrated Mother's Day with a nice BBQ dinner at our house on Friday night. Mom, Saiah and I started our day with an annual trip to the Ashland Greenhouse to buy the flowers we needed to beautify our yards! I always find myself wanting to buy more than I really should. It is amazing how fast it all adds up!! I came home this year with an assortment of impatiens, fuchsias, petunias, snapdragons, alysum, verbena, columbine, and geraniums. As a general rule of thumb here in the valley, it is generally considered "safe" to plant flowers outside after Mother's Day weekend. It is sometimes hard to wait that long to start adding color to my yard and pots!! I'm thankful that my mom has instilled in me the desire to plant flowers. I've still got such a long way to go before my pots and yard look anything like her creations!

Jason did a perfect job grilling chicken and veggie shish kabobs that were delicious! We ended the evening with a game of Apples to Apples. I truly enjoyed my day. I am blessed with an amazing mother and wonderful daughter.

Saiah and Grandma

Me and my Scooterbug

Saiah's Mother's Day artwork

Hanging with Grandma and Grandpa Magallanes

Open House

Hard to believe Saiah is just about finished with Kindergarten! Wow. I've recently found myself asking Saiah if she'll always be our "little girl" and my "Scooterbug", which she always responds with a reassuring yes. Truly hard to swallow that she is a "big" girl.

I cannot believe she is about to enter First grade. She has done so well this year. She likes to do "Blue book" and most enjoys the Science lessons Ms. McDonald presents so well. Her favorite was by far on Whales. She has a good handle on math, is reading well and all around enjoys her time at school. She now is enthusiastically keeping (almost) daily, entries into her new journal.

Recess is overall the funnest of course, where she is perfecting her future WNBA career. Seriously. She is quite the hoop girl. I know..I'm her mom...but she is able to make basket after basket withe a regular basketball and regulation height basketball hoop. I always said I didn't want my child to play basketball (I really have never liked the sport), but it looks like I might just have to start liking it!! Oh, and if you need a perfected siren sound, give Saiah a call. She's got it down to a T.

Saiah holding up one of her writing samples!

With Ms. McDonald

Goofing around with Daddy

Cousins

Kylie and Saiah

10 years...say it isn't so!

Me, Sheri, Lacey, Casandra...10 years

I had the opportunity a couple of weeks back to spend a weekend together with my college roomies. It has been...10 years since we were roommies!! It doesn't seem possible.

I'm blessed to be live close to two of them, one being my sister in law now and the other being my daughter's Kindergarten teacher!! Nonetheless, the time we spent together along with Sheri was invaluable. I had a blast and truly enjoyed the time together with these girls. We ate, shopped, laughed, talked, prayed, hugged, encouraged and cried together for three days at a beautiful beach house at Bella Beach.

This was my first getaway without my wonderful husband and daughter. I truly love being with my family, but this girls getaway was indeed good for my soul! We all agreed that a yearly get together is necessary from now on.

Thanks girls for a terrific weekend. I appreciate you all so much!!

Dinner at Tidal Raves in Depoe Bay

Bella Breeze

Just in case you were wondering...

Picture of my reflection in the light at the top of the Lighthouse at Yaquina Bay

Sheri..enjoying her drink!

The view looking South towards Newport
My roommie Sheri

"What's said in the hot tub...stays in the hot tub!"
Talking to Saiah my first time walking on the beach...
Missing my Scooterbug

Hunger and Thirst

Quiet time. Sounds so easy, right? Time set aside to be quiet and ponder. Why is it such a struggle as a believer to set aside a portion of our day to read the most important words ever written? I don't know. But it is. Especially for me. I am T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E about spending time in the Word. Perhaps that is in direct correlation with how miserable I feel as a believer. I'm always telling myself I'm such a failure as a Christian. I was reminded tonight that we are expected to be failures. We are not perfect, nor will anything we do be perfect down here. Isn't that why we have God's grace and forgiveness through Jesus? We should strive to become perfect, just as God is perfect, but we won't attain it down here. Nope.

I tend to convince myself that it's no use in trying, I'll just mess up. I'm realizing that is pretty selfish. God gave us his Son and grace so that we could keep striving to please and glorify Him.

If I just give up and stop trying, I am like the foolish man. I should strive to be the wise man. "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Matt 7:24) Right there. Jesus himself said it wouldn't be easy, "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matt 7:14)

Well, even if it is hard, it is a good thing to keep striving towards what God has called us. The entire Sermon on the Mount has so many, many things that God expects of us, straight from Jesus' mouth. Of course we will fail at all of them. But Jesus didn't speak these things to discourage us. No, rather "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."(Matt 5:6) Bingo. I can't just give up because I know I will fail. Rather, if I hunger and thirst for Christ, then I will be satisfied.

What a concept! I've been so dissatisfied with my life lately. And why? Because I've not hunger and thirsted for Him. Rather, I confuse desiring to be a "good" Christian with what is really our purpose..desiring God.

Rockstar

Saiah was in her room rocking out today on her guitar. Her choice of lyrics were hilarious, so I was able to only catch the tale end. She started with singing to Jesus and wanting everyone to "rock with Jesus". She then somehow went down a different track, and well the last lyrics are completely inappropriate, so I do apologize for what you are about to hear. She did try to redeem herself by saying the song was for our friend Bill. Funny.

Run your toes through the sand

Kylie, Annie, Jonah, Saiah, Jed, Brianna, Casandra, Elizabeth, Joel, Heather and Jason

On our last day

The kiddos on their Easter Egg hunt

Saiah and I went down on the beach together for some special Mommy/Daughter time

Hearing the waves, smelling the salt air, feeling the sand, dipping your toes into the very cold Oregon ocean and seeing the beauty that God has created - what could be better?

We had our annual Merrihew/Walsh Oregon Coast gathering this year during Spring Break. It is always the most looked forward to trip on our calendar. Great times are always to be had as we all come together in one magnificent beach front house to spend three nights together. We all come from different towns, so it's just a great time of fun, friendship, family, food and SAND!!

This year we stayed at a house that truly had the best beach front location of any we've stayed. We were just several easy steps from the sand and surf, which turned out to be a great thing since we often had to race up the hill into our house to evade the hail and blowing winds at times!! Despite the crazy weather this year, we had a few times that we were able to enjoy the beach. Saturday afternoon gave us a good couple of hours of sunshine (minus the 10 minute storm we waited out!).

My sisters and I spent a few hours hitting the Lincoln City Outlets together doing what we do best..spending money! We enjoyed our time out together, as always. I am blessed to have sisters-in-law that I consider true sisters and even better than that, true friends. An only child couldn't ask for more.

The cousins had a blast in their own semi-private bunk room (many thanks to Uncle Joel and Aunt Lizzie for sharing that playroom with them - we owe you!!). Brianna, the youngest of the bunch did her best at being a big girl with the rest of them. Jonah...the only guy has no problem standing his ground either!

Jed, Joel and Elizabeth turned out to be quite the Guitar Hero rockers - ask them if they are addicted ;) The grandkids all had their annual last night slumber party with Grammy and Grampy with food, games, stories and a movie. Even Jonah joined in this year until the middle of the night.Our time there always goes by too quick. The draw of the majestic waves and glorious sound are often too hard to part from. I love watching the kids run around in the sand, scamper away from the incoming waves and shout with glee (ok, some shrieks) as they play. I couldn't help this year but think it won't always be that way. They are growing up so quick.

Precious are these years and special are the moments we have. I truly thank God for the family he has blessed us with, the times we have and the beauty He has created.