Home Again, Home Again

We've returned to the East Coast, but have yet to return to the time zone here. I'm still wide awake in the evenings and horribly dragging in the mornings, but hopefully it won't last for long. Brighton is totally wacked out from all the changes in the past two weeks. He's been crankier that usual and frustratingly stubborn to fall asleep. But thankfully I am working from home today and Monday, so I can at least be around him instead of adding to his confusion with me gone all day.

We've got a slew of fun pictures to upload from our Cali trip, but I think I'll do a few at a time since we're also in the middle of unpacking, taking down Christmas decorations and trying to wade through loads of laundry to do. I'll start with the beginning of our trip and add posts after with more pictures after that.

Matthew is also in the process of redesigning my blog to add to his portfolio of web design that he's gotten into. Fun! I'm willing to be a guinea pig for those kinds of things! It should be up and running in a little bit. If you REALLY like it, you can hire him to do one for you...ha, ha ;0)

Packing the day before...sleepyhead B

Downtown Santa Cruz with our boyz

Daddy Devon enjoying life

Goofing off at the cliffs of New BRIGHTON Beach!

Having fun in the FREEZING Pacific waves

Brighton enjoying his "salt lick", as Devon called it

Scaling the cliffs as the tide came in

Our dear Cali friends

Saying goodbye to their new found buddy

We miss you guys already!

Los Osos

Merry Christmas Eve all. We finally got internet access again, probably one of the last times before we return to the East Coast. We'll have to wait until then to fix my blog as well. It looks as if the picture and patterns have been messed with on our server, so we'll get those up and running next week. The Mull/Hall family has reunited and has found possibly every taco shack this side of the country in the past few days. We now have an expansive knowledge of all the different ways to serve up a fish taco. Yum.

It's been beautiful, wonderfully un-Philly weather out here. Yesterday we all sat out in the grass soaking up the warm rays. We hiked along the coast and saw the sea lions surfing the huge waves. Supposedly the biggest they've had in years from some unusual storms off the coast. We also decided to buy a "christmas tree" yesterday since we couldn't do Christmas without one. But since we're staying in someone elses home, we opted for a Christmas "shrubbery" instead :0) Hey, white lights can make any thing festive.

B has been pretty rocked by all this change and has resorted to waking up every hour or so and being WIDE awake at that. Something he's never done before. So instead of eating and crashing, he's eating and talking to us until we get up with him. Four nights of that are starting to wear on us. Last night my sweet parents took turns with him and gave Matthew and I the best Christmas present ever.... 5 1/2 hours of sleep. Wow. I haven't slept that long in 5 months! If you think about it, please pray for us that B settles down and doesn't keep this up the rest of our time here. Or we'll be shot and he'll be a mess when we come home.

We have so many amazing pictures to share, but no internet access for Matthew's computer, so we'll have to share them when we return. Here in Los Osos, we feel as if we're in Hawaii each morning as the sun burns the fog off the lush green mountains. We're staying in an amazing home that overlooks the bay and the surrounding mountians. It really is breathtaking. So Matthew has been storing up the memories on his camera for you all to see.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve and day!

5am Cali time

Well Brighton is trying his hardest to adjust to this 3 hour time change and he's been a trooper. We've been keeping him up 3 hours more than usual...6pm CA time, 9pm PA time. But he's still ready to romp at 3:30am...this morning he pushed that to 5am. Maybe he'll get the hang of it before we drag him back home in a little over a week...poor guy.

There are so many stories and funny moments to share already, but I doubt B wil stay entertained here on the floor next to me for long. Just a quick recap, we had a wonderful time at the office holiday party. Not only was the food and wine amazing, but everyone made us feel so welcomed, even with our tiny babe. They even THANKED us for making the effort to come out and join them?! What a great group. Last week flew by and suddenly it was Friday night and our bags still weren't packed, the dishes were piled high in a sink that wouldn't drain, there was no gas in the car, and no food to pack for the plane. So Matthew used our other borrowed car and head out to the seedy gas station with a container to get a gallon or two of gas for the Subaru so we wouldn't be stranded the morning we arrived. Then went and got us dinner and groceries at 8pm, while I fought to get B to sleep. Then he scooped out the bleach/Drano-filled kitchen sink so the water wouldn't be standing there for two weeks, while I tried to quietly wash all the dishes in the bathtub, trying not to wake B. Then we were up at 3:45am ready to head out the door for our flight. Our "chauffeaur", Geoff, rising just as early to get us to the airport ON HIS BIRTHDAY! Thanks Geoff...and Maria, for letting us steal him so early :0)

B did an AMAZING job on the plane. Never really fussed at all. Just played, fell asleep, ate and did the whole routine over again. Considering the fact that we were held up on the second plane for over and hour before it took off and then it was almost a 4 hour flight, that really is amazing. We'll post some pictures of the adventure when we get the camera out. We made a make-shift mobile for him on the plane using my belt draped between the seats and some of his toys.

Now we're here staying in the attached apartment of our friend's home. We already feel ourselves relaxing and enjoying being away from "life" for awhile. We've seen the stormy Pacific ocean, smelled the fragrant eucalyptus trees and eaten some incredible mexican food. Ah California, now I know why my mom gets teary-eyed every time she talks about her home state :0) I think we're going to enjoy this Christmas on the west coast thing. I will try to get some pictures up before we leave, but it's been nice to be away from computers and email and all those pulls.

Hope you all are enjoying your Christmas season. We already miss our Philly friends and wish we were there celebrating with you guys! We'll be headed home ready to celebrate New Year's Day with some soccer at Allen's Lane though :0) Below are some of the older pictures I kept promising...

Our cheapskate home decorations, nothing says "Christmas" like a brown paper bag :0)

WeeB suited up for Xmas tree shopping...

The beautiful spread for baby Clara's baptism celebration...

Baby Clara and her loving mama...

The hustle and bustle of getting out the door on time. And the adorable big brothers, Manny (getting layered up by Maria's dad in the background), and Benicio...

Schwanky Affair...

Tonight is B's first formal dining experience. We're all three off to our annual office holiday part-eh at the Barclay Prime, another amazing Steven Starr restaurant. He's the chic restaurant owner of 9 hip places around Philadelphia. Last year we frequented Tangerine, I guess that was with B too, but he was barely the size of a jelly bean at that point. We were going to skip the event due to lack of babysitters available late into Monday evening, but the guys at work convinved me to come and bring along the little weeB, as Matthew has so fondly started calling him. So it should be a fun night. As one friend said, "Martini in one hand, baby in the other".

And the countdown has begun for our adventure west. Only 5 more days until we head out to beautiful, sunny 60 degree CA!! We cannot WAIT to see Allison & Devon and explore their coastal villa of Santa Cruz. Matthew is pumped about squeezing into his wee little wet suit and hitting the waves with Devon. I'm pumped for the babysitter lined up and our wild night out we're all four planning :0) And then heading down to Los Osos for some time with the West Coast relatives. Now if we could only be assured of surviving the two 3+hr. flights and one layover with Brighton. This is truly when I wish they invented baby sleeping pills...ha, ha.

Of all stages, I think this one is the best for travel though. B has been laughing and smiling and melting his parent's hearts these past few days. As annoying as the whole sleep thing has been, he's probably the most chilled out babe I've met. Life just doesn't seem to phase him. He's content just to hang out in anyone's arms for a good stretch and just soak in the sites around him. He hates to be changed, but that's about the only time I've heard him really cry. Guess every baby has their issues and their perks. But the sleeping IS getting better. Last night he slept for a 6 hour stretch and then I HAD to wake him him because of these annoying rock-solid boulders growing on my chest just wouldn't take it any more. Thank you Jesus for sleep! And for this precious boy we keep falling more and more in love with.

I promise pictures are coming soon. The camera has been floating around, so I haven't had a chance to download any yet. We've got some great ones of B's godparents, the Beatty's, baptism of their little girl, Clara. And other fun ones of the house, our goofy boy, this crazy couple. I'll try and get them up before we head out this weekend.

Redemption

One of the very few comforts in life to me is that there are silver threads of redemption woven into the "burlap cloths" of living in a fallen world. A friend of ours often says that "God didn't do a half-assed job of cursing the world, it's a shitty place to live". And it's been so for a long, long time. Just read the Old Testament or the New Testament. Brokenness is the backdrop, but redeption weaves it's way throughout the story...in pretty big obvious ways and in lots of small ways that we don't get to read about. Like God probably providing Mary & Joseph with strength to get up once again when baby Jesus would cry during the night those first early months. Or when He'd most likely give them grace to love & serve each other when they really just felt like ripping each others heads off they were so tired and weirded out by all the adjustments of becoming parents.

Matthew and I were able to drop off Brighton at a friend's house this morning (Thank you Hasses!!) and go spend two hours at a coffee shop just talking and hashing out life. We asked for prayers for this time and Christ heard and was right there with us. We were able to really LISTEN to each other and share about what this transition has been like and really repent for how we've failed each other in the midst of it. It was beautifully raw and achingly rich. For the first time in awhile, we really felt alive together...not just surviving. We reminded each other of why we fell in love with one another, what our passions are in life, where we long to go as a couple, and how we just want to be in the lives of more broken people and share this Gentle Healer Christ with them. Through our time we felt honored to be partnering in this life together. We felt humbled by Christ in each other again. Ah, sweet redemption.

We both realized how resistant we are to accept the reality that this life is not perfection. That we will feel betrayed by our circumstances, rejected by our friends, hurt by our spouse. And that is living in a cursed world. But as much as we "head-know" that, we still manage find ourselves face down in the dirt with the rug just pulled out from under us by a variety of stinky circumstances we didn't ask for...and we're yet again, shocked. As our idols - of having an easy life, faithful friends, adoring spouse, choose you're thing - are ripped away we find our tongue searching for the missing tooth and only find a bloody, empty hole. What I tend to do when I find that emptiness is hole up and get pissed. What Christ is teaching me to do instead is not ignore the emptiness and try to put on a happy face, like I grew up thinking (that's being a really GOOD Christian, right?!), but instead take that emptiness and stumble to Him...knowing He's the only one who can fill it. So why do I keep wanting to find that dead tooth and shove it back in??

At our wedding, Matthew and I danced to these words:

A page is turned in this life, he's making her his wife
And there is no secret to the source of this much life
When the grace that falls like rain is washing them again
Just a chance to somehow rise above this land

Where the God of second chance
Will pick them up and he'll let them dance
Through a world that is not kind
And all this time, they're sharing with the one
That holds them up when they come undone
Beneath the storm, beneath the sun

Little did we know that the grace that would fall like rain would be showering us daily as we learn, through our failures, to return to each other, repent and find Christ leading our partnership again...not our lame attempts. And little did we know how much marriage, becoming parents, walking through a cursed world together would show us even more vividly how we tend to trudge, but are called to dance through a world that is not kind. I'd say even more explicitly, in a world that reeks of death, a world that groans as in the hellish panges of natural childbirth (Hmm, that comes home more than ever now). Not dance with some sort of chipper Christian facade, but dance because we're on our Daddy's feet, our Truest Lover, and every other lover has broken our heart. We can't hold onto his hands as we dance AND our other lovers/idols of having an easy, perfect life. I'm pretty sure I'll always be trying to cling on to both, but thankfully the Spirit is prying my sticky hands loose from the one and pressing me closer to the Other.

Thankfully He's not just a God of second chance, but a God who runs to scoop up his prodigals over and over and over. O the deep, deep love of Jesus. Vast, UNMEASURED, boundless, free.

Bad Smiths...

I'm sure we would get a rebuking from our support-raising coach who has been harping on us to sleep, sleep, sleep as early as we can in the evening, especially for last night. The last season of 24 was just released Tuesday and we held on to our last Netflix and put it in the mail on Saturday to make sure it arrive just in time for us to get the first disc of the new season. Which arrived as planned on Tuesday afternoon. So last night we sat down to watch one of the four episodes. Ha, RIIIIGHT. When have we ever been able to watch just one episode when the other three are waiting there taunting us. Last fall (when the previous season had come out) we must have watched 12 episodes in a row at one point since we had the 3 disc Netflix deal. We're ridiculous. We have no resolve when it comes to 24. Or maybe I have no resolve and Matthew just goes along with it. Either way, it was dumb move. I wasn't able to fall asleep for almost an hour after I went to bed because my mind and heart was racing. And every time I woke up throughout the night I immediately tried to figure out different things that had happened in that last episode. Ugh. It was like binging on Christmas candy or something. But thankfully B had a GREAT night last night, only waking up twice so I still got some good sleep. And hey, we've gotta have some fun amidst the craziness of this season of life we're in, right?? (Hmm, okay justification-Amy)

more snow, more sleep

Maybe it's the bear in him, but with this snow, B has been in hibernation mode (well, for a baby and for Brighton in particular). He's left his restlessness behind for the time being and sleeping a little more peacefully, giving his mom some much needed ZZZ's herself, at least more than an hour at a time like it had been the past week. I guess we can blaim that bout of restless sleep on the 4 month growth spurt and all the changes he's going through lately. Pushing up on his arms, almost rolling over, standing for longer, being way more vocal, and all out laughing these days when Matthew blows on his neck.
And the 4 inches of new snow was beautiful yesterday morning, even though it wasn't enough to keep me in my pj's working from home, like I'd hoped. But we were able to have our dear friends all over for chili, warm cornbread, and some good wine last evening, making it an almost perfect winter day.

The picture I posted earlier about being Home Alone was more telling than I anticipated. Last night we must have had an unexpected snow storm blow through Philly...or maybe it was expected, I just didn't pay attention to the news. It's that perfect kind of first snow that's not enough to disrupt your life, but enough to cover the grass and coat the trees.

Having been up since 5am this morning, B & I decided to get bundled up and headed down to our neighborhood coffee shop. I stuffed him in his bear bunting and had to keep shoving his little thumbs back in the whole walk, that he always managed to creep out, making him look like some kind of funky lobster/bear boy.

We love this city neighborhood we live in with it's historic twin homes, the growing business community just a few blocks away that just opened a tiny little bookstore, the Wissahickon park that creeps into the streets with its huge ancient tree limbs. But I loved it even more this morning with the fresh layer of snow. I know I'll regret saying that come March when the 20th snow of the year has hit, but the first snow of the season always has this romanticised quality to it.

Being as early as it was, we had the fun of being the first ones out and therefore getting to make the first footprints on the sidewalk. Well, besides the hoards of squirrels who joined us. What are they doing out in snow anyhow? If food wasn't an incentive, I'd be curled up in a warm nest somewhere. But they didn't make much of a dent in the snow, gliding around chasing each other like they had on miniture ice skates or something. One over zealous guy slide right into the bottom of the tree. I wished Brighton had been old enough to enjoy that site with me.

I think he enjoyed his first snow, seeing as he was exhausted and ready for his nap when we headed out, but his eyes stayed wide open the whole walk, staring around at blanketted neighborhood, or maybe it was the noise of my feet crunching along. He's now snoozing in his crib...argh, why can't he do that at 2am? We had a pretty restless night, with his stuffy nose and missing his dad. I know you might think I'm nuts, but I really think he can sense it.

I'm off to make the most of this opportunity and going to go scraped down the car and get ready for church. We're going to attempt the feat of getting our Christmas tree this afternoon before Matthew gets home. Hmm, should of done that BEFORE the snow decided to drench all the trees, but ah well. The drive home with probably shake it free of any extra snow. Hopefully. I had fun getting the rest of house decorated yesterday, for these two short weeks we have left here before heading west. When Matthew returns with the camera, we'll get some pictures of Brighton's first "Christmas home decorations", that he'll only appreciate when he's older going through these pictures. Or maybe he won't. But it was fun for me, none the less.

For those of you willing to own up to the qwerkiness of stereotypical Christianity and who aren't afraid to laugh at it, you'll totally dig this site Lark News. Check it out. No, God won't strike you down for it. He'll probably be laughing along with you. And if you haven't watched the Jesus films I mentioned over there on the right from the Vintage 21 site...get on it!! Number 4 is well worth your time.

Home Alone

Today B & I took Matthew to the train station at 6am and started our three day/two night adventure together. Matthew will be in Charlotte, NC for WHM recruiting at my parent's London EG informational weekend. Along with my best friend/roomate from college :0( Yes, I'm totally bummed I'm not there right now. I feel a strange mix of being sad to say goodbye to Matthew for the next few days and a sense of excitement about conquering the next few days alone. Weird, right!? Guess it's fun to have a challenge every now and then to be independent and do this baby thing alone. No, I'm not crazy, I've just spent the past few days being scared about this weekend, and now I guess I'm on the flip-side.

We were going to get our Christmas tree all together as a family last night, but one thing lead to another and it didn't happen. Matthew did drag up all the decorations from the basement though, so B and I will be able to tackle the house ourselves this weekend. Since we only have two weeks to enjoy any decorations before we head to California, I think B and I are going to go get the tree today as well. Guess I'll have to settle for a 5 or 6 footer so I can get it in the house myself. That'll be an interesting experience. Probably a humorous story as well. For those of my friends who laughed at me as I frantically re-arranged my dorm room/house...you can probably picture it now :0)

Well B just crashed, and since that's my cue to get back to work, I'll have to keep this post short. Thankfully I was able to get a good chunk of work done early this a.m. before we headed to the train station to spare some of my late afternoon hours. Stayed tuned for stories from the 2/3rds of the Smith family this weekend. Pictures will have to wait since Matthew took the camera.