And here it is!

Rec. Rozelle, Kendrick
2nd RTBN Golf Company
Platoon 2155
39011 Midway Ave.
San Diego, CA
92140-1021

According to his letter he is still in good health=) He asks NOT to receive anything like alcohol, gambling devices, tobacco products, or combustibles....also along those lines he is NOT to be sent any packages with cookies, candy, money, socks, or underwear - I'm just quoting the letter!! It was a form letter but he signed his name at the bottom which is good enough for me right now. Later today I'll send him the letter/book I've been working on daily - hope he's a fast reader=)

Happy Birthday, Helaine!

Happy Birthday sister of mine! Hope you had a wonderful day and I hope your cream puff was yummy=) Someday soon you and I will get to celebrate something, anything, together!
I miss you and love you mucho - your nieces and nephews say "Hello!" By the way, whether you are having the best day of your life, or the worst one, I am proud of you and who you are and the stands that you have made. God enriched my life by adding you to it!

Change....and whining

I convinced myself that change would be a good thing....but I was wrong! I've been unsuccessfully trying to give our blog a new look. What I thought would be a simple download of a new template erased all the customized things I had on our blog! And (since I was trying to be spiritual) I picked a background with a verse on it, which, when you put it on the blog YOU COULDN'T EVEN SEE all of it! Ahhh! So back to the same old one.....

Anyway - I was able to step back and look at the bigger picture of life and realize that my blog template doesn't really matter....not one bit=) So, now that I've done my whining, I'll end on a positive note and post a picture of Monica. It was taken yesterday while she was at work with the Couch's.

October Videos

I just came across these videos and pictures from several months ago - Monica was in the church nursery watching our little ones during the evening service, I believe. She had her camera on hand and I thought I'd post these. They're not real current but they are still cute=)

The kids playing around~

Here's the first video of our resident theatrical one~

And here is Jesse, our resident clown, so he's trying to imitate Alana....again!~

Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!

A Quilting Bee

When my Mom was here, not only did we have fun, we got a lot accomplished as well. Several, several months ago Monica and I began working on a quilt for her. The long-term idea was for her to have a homemade quilt to take with her to college and, although we had never made one before, we started on the project. The plan was to make a denim rag quilt - easy according to veteran quilters, but Monica and I have ZERO experience - I don't sew, the extent of my experience was hemming curtains.... The first part wasn't too bad, we measured out and cut jeans into squares...150 to be exact. Then we did the same thing with some flannel material, Monica's choice was 2 shades of purple.

Well, when my Mom came earlier this month, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take it to the next level and start the sewing! Here's our project in pictures!

First we laid it out on the floor to get the denim pattern Monica wanted....Then we tried to set up our sewing machine - 45 minutes later we called Ann Powers, who just opened a new quilt shop in town, and cried for help. Thanks to Heartsong Quilts, we sat down later that day to a much nicer borrowed machine and the work began! From here on out Monica and I were not much help - Mom spent the next couple days sewing while we handed her squares and did any non-skilled labor that was required.Here was the very first completed row - 1o squares across - only 15 more rows to go=)About at the half-way mark...And the almost-finished product on the flannel side.Needless to say Monica loves her quilt! We're calling it the three generation quilt=)And the finished product - here it is making a rare appearance on her bed as it is soon to be packed away into a bin labeled "Northland Baptist Bible College - Fall 2010".

New Haircut Photoshoot

Spur of the moment, on Tuesday afternoon, I cut Alana's hair. She had been asking me off and on and I thought, "Why not?" So, she described to me just how she wanted it, which was just what I'd been thinking, and I proceeded to try and cut it. As far as haircuts go, it's a pretty rough job as most of mine usually are. But, despite that, she looks absolutely adorable!! Here's the proof.

Fresh out of the chair.... After Mommy fixed it up....Jesse trying to imitate his sister and look cute, too.... The little duo...
So there you have it, Grammy!

Thank You!

To Jared and Sarah Berg - you guys are just about as crazy as they come! We enjoyed having you here this last visit and are thankful for good, Christian, friends we can talk to and be open and transparent with...sometimes too much so=) Anyway, your latest STUNT - while also crazy and uneccesary - is much appreciated! Thank you so much for such an incredible gift!

A Late Night Phone Call

At exactly midnight last night, 11pm California time, our phone rang. Matthew answered and this is almost exactly what we heard,

"This is Kendrick Rozelle. I have safely arrived at MCRD in San Diego where I will be until April 24th. The next time you hear from me will be by mail in about 2 to 3 weeks. I am in good health. This is Kendrick Rozelle."

That was it! Barked out loud and clear we heard him for less than 30 seconds and he hung up the phone. No chance to ask him if he was OK, no chance to tell him we had been praying and would continue to do so.....It took Matthew a while to calm me down after that! But let me say I wouldn't have it any other way. The Marine Corps has been doing things their way for over 200 years and it has worked - these are our front line boys and the training they receive over the next three months is what makes them the very best! It sure is going to be a long wait at the mailbox....

Brothers

I grew up with one brother, Chad, but just after I graduated from college God saw fit to add two more to my life - how lucky can one girl be=) Today is a big day for both of them! Lincoln, who lives far away in Scotland - celebrates his birthday today.....Having missed all his birthdays thus far, I hope to one day be around to help celebrate. But since that is not likely to happen any time in the near future I'll just have to settle for a birthday wish across the pond!

"Happy Birthday, Lincoln, from the seven of us - Kendrick said to say Happy Birthday as well since he won't be able to call"

Speaking of Kendrick.....Today he shipped out to boot camp. Tomorrow evening he we arrive at the Marine Corps training grounds in San Diego, CA to begin his 3 month 'initiation' into the Corps. As I dropped him off at the recruiting center in Rapid City he emptied his pockets, gave me his cell phone, took off his watch and walked away with just the clothes he was wearing, his wallet, and his Bible. Stripped of all things personal these are the only things that will remain with him for the next 12 weeks! We, as a family, have been fortunate to have him around for the last 3 1/2 years....living close by and being around for every thing from Sunday dinners, to birthday parties, to babysitting. He is going to be sooooo missed! So, Kendrick, on this day we say to you, "We love you, we are proud of you, and we will pray for you!"

I will post his address as soon as he writes....it may be a while=)

Watiki....Worth the Wait!

Well, yesterday afternoon we finally made it to the Watiki Water Park!!! The kids and I arrived at 4:30, just half an hour after it opened, and then Matthew and Chad met us there after they finished work. Our friends, Tod and Tarin, also came with their crew and we enjoyed our time together - especially getting to meet their new arrival for the first time! Graysen Slade was just 1 week old yesterday=)

As for our crew - they had a blast! We were there for quite a while before Matthew came and, as usual, Monica helped quite a bit with the younger two. I stuck sort of close to our table with all our stuff, purse, phone, camera, etc. so the kids were on their own for a bit but did very well. The boys spent the majority of their time on the big water slides....none of my kids have any fear of the water or the slides so they were running from one thing to the next at full-speed most of the time! (Zach is currently in a phase of making a ridiculous face any time the camera is pointed in his direction....please tell me it passes!)

The only thing that was a bit scary for Alana was a HUGE bucket of water the would slowly fill and periodically dump tons of water on the whole kids play area. But she did brave some of the little slides on her own, her biggest problem was getting cold and having to come back and warm up quite often.Those are her pink sandals you see sticking up over the edge of the slide=)Jesse's favorite thing was definitely the river...you climbed into an intertube and floated around a watery path. He went with Monica, Zach, and Daddy for a total of who knows how many trips!Here are both the daddies with their respective 2 year old's and 4 year olds - Tod with Tori and Truen, and up ahead Matthew with Jesse and Alana. "Hey, you wanna come with us next time?"

Back to Lican

Today, Lican is on my mind. Not unusual, I know....but here's the reason this time. Today is the first day of the annual Gospel Mission of South America missionary conference and it is being held, as it is most often, in Lican Ray. As most of you probably remember this was the camp we spent 6 weeks at a couple months ago. This week of the year is the worst for me as far as "Chile homesickness" goes. And although that is as true this time around as many years before, it feels a little better this time. For one thing, Kristi is down there! And although I am extremely jealous I can't help but be sooo excited for her to be there at her first conference as an official missionary=) Then, also, Dan and Liz have continued to keep us updated on the work at the camp and specifically on the house we helped them get started when we were there. They have continued faithfully to put their time, energy, and finances into this project while maintaining a VERY busy camp schedule that is now in full swing. So it seemed like a good time to re-visit the camp. Here are some pictures to update you all....

The main room (kitchen, living room, and dining room)

~the sheet rock being finished up~the windows being installed~a big picture of the whole roomThe downstairs bathroom....

~Liz mudding the sheet rock~the shower area~Danny laying the tile and then preparing it for the grout~Morgan helping wash down the shower walls The bedrooms (guest and kids)
~the boys helping paint ~the floor being laid (Interesting Note: the man in the blue shirt is a missionary by the name of Daryl Thompson who once lived in the original house that was taken down; in the green is the Chilean gentleman who came and helped us for several days when we were there, Ramon. These 2 men once worked together many years ago building a near by church!)~the finished productSo keep Dan and Liz in your prayers as they serve their Lord in Lican Ray, Chile!

"Have fun you guys! Give our saludos to everybody. Wish we were there to enjoy this with you but know we are thinking of you all and we haven't stopped praying!"

-Matt, Alisha and family

A Dumb Day

OK, so this whole getting to the Watiki has been quite an undertaking. I'm not a good one at making decisions and choices when it comes to organizing events for several people - I feel like I'm deciding for them and I just don't like doing that. But anyway, we finally picked a time to go that was convenient for most of us and that was this morning. My parents flight was scheduled to leave at 4pm so we just decided to make one trip and kill 2 birds with one stone - or at least one tank of gas. So on Monday, being the skeptic that I am, I called the water park to confirm this whole ordeal. I was told that yes, we could get in free and the times were 8am to 9pm (although at the game they said 10am to 4pm). So, we packed up all our swimming stuff, as well as all the luggage, and away we went. Right at 10:30 we made our grand entrance, pleased to see only a small number of cars in the parking lot....

And things went down hill from there! The park was closed! The man at the desk informed us it didn't open until 4pm!!!!!!! You've got to be kidding me!!!!!! Well, there was nothing we could do except pack up 5 disappointed children, one quite annoyed and dis-believing mother, and two sympathetic grandparents. We hung out at the mall for a while, ate lunch together, dropped my parents off at the airport, and came home. Tomorrow is the last day of the promotion - we'll keep you posted on whether or not we make another attempt!

But back to my parents - it was sooo good to have them here again. It is just so fun to hang out with my mom and spend time with her just around the house, cooking, talking, whatever we may do - it's just fun to do it together. And Uncle Dave, my dad, is so encouraging to both Matthew and I and his advice is always welcomed. The kids love spending time with Grammy and Grampy! So, despite the annoying Watiki incident, we have had such an enjoyable last few days=)

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Happy belated birthday, Matthew! Our internet was down for a couple days and didn't come on until late Tuesday night, so I missed posting something about Matthew's birthday on Monday, January 19th. I guess it is just as well, maybe since we kept this one low key he will forgive me when I make a BIG deal out of the next one....=)

We love you, Daddy, and want you to know how thankful we are that you take such good care of us. No matter how this world may measure success to us you are at the very top of the ladder! Your love for us - me and all your kiddos - is what makes you the very best of all! Thanks, honey! =)