Brief Update

So, I am finally writing another post on this blog. I think that I may not be posting too many more on this site and try to stick to my other one now. It's harder than I thought to keep up with two and I think that everyone who reads this one (all 3 of you!! j/k) doesn't ever look at the other one. I really would love the support on my other blog, too, so those two of you that are followers on this site, I would love for you to follow my journey on the other site as well. And please do share my sites with anyone you know that could be encouraged by my writings. Anyhow, back to the update.

A couple of weeks ago, we moved to a new place. We are still trying to get adjusted to this place which is a little bit difficult right now. There are definite positives and negatives about being here but I won't go in to too much detail about that since we may not be here as long as we originally planned.

In addition I was bamboozeled in to coaching Tyler's Upward soccer team this season. At first I was SO hesistant but now I am so glad that I signed up. The kids on my team are so awesome and they are improving every week! Here is our team picture with Tyler's individual picture.

There has not really been that much exciting stuff - just mostly busyness. However, please keep us in your prayers with the adoption process. It is very draining and often times discouraging.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day and have a blessed week. Check out my other site to see My First Mother's Day.

It's been SO long....

since I have written a post!! For a long time my internet has been acting up and I have not been able to write any posts. Blah! But now that everything is up and running, hopefully I will be able to update everyone on what's been going on (not that it's THAT exciting) and hopefully keep up with the posting.

Look for an update soon!

Newsboys Concert

So, tonight I was able to go to a Newsboys concert at my church! It was AWESOME! Recently the lead singer of the Newsboys, Peter Fuller, stepped down and over the past few weeks has been integrating a new lead singer in to the band. Can you believe that is the former lead singer of DC Talk, Michael Tait?!?!? Well, tonight was so amazing to hear the Newsboys with Michael Tait as the lead singer! And it was also cool because they played Newsboys songs and DC Talk songs. It was like seeing TWO concerts in one night! And everyone loved the show.

Unfortunately, I was a LAME-O once again and I forgot my camera. I have been forgetting that A LOT lately! Grr.. And there were some great pics to be taken. Well, during part of one of the songs, the drummers platform was raised and while he was doing his solo, the platform tilted forward and started spinning. It was great! Lucky for me, lots of other people have recorded it at other concerts so I'm just gonna show you what they captured. Same thing as our show.

Newsboys Drummer in Concert


In addition to that, this concert was so AMAZING because the TRUTH was spoken throughout the whole concert! I'm really going to have to start using some of these concerts as a ministry to my unbelieving friends. The music is GREAT which can attract an unbeliever, but then once they are there, they will hear God's truths!! Wonderful!!!

This may have been one of my favorite concerts ever!! Although I still think the Barlow Girls concerts were pretty great, too. They also made sure to preach God's truths throughout their concerts. I love to see these artists using their talent to reach people for God's Kingdom! AMEN!!!

Only A Christian Entertainer...

would think to put himself inside of a balloon to make kids laugh!! :-) We had this great entertainer at our Upward Basketball Award Night. He was hilarious. I just want to leave you with this video to show you what we saw. This is not the exact footage from our award night on Friday but it is the exact same thing that he did for us except for the toilet paper. Enjoy!



**Edited: I finally figured out how to post a YouTube video! Yay Me!**

For some reason I just can't seem to figure out how to post videos from You Tube. I must be a lame-o but please do check out the video and please feel free to share how to post videos from You Tube as well. I hope you all have a great start to your week. :-)

Continuance

So, we had our court date for Tyler's birth parents' rights to be terminated. Well, it didn't happen. :-( Blah. They had a continuance. This is pretty ridiculous. Well, then on Thursday we had a meeting with all the social workers involved with our case and basically THEY asked for a continuance. I was pretty upset. They gave us this list of reasons why they had a continuance and it was SO discouraging. Basically, they have this list of things that they want us to do in order for us to move forward, including changing our therapist. This DOES NOT make me happy because our therapist is a pastor at a church and he has been making so much progress with Tyler and he keeps the center on what God wants. I don't want to change therapists but they say we have to or else we can not move forward with adoption. Some other things that they want Taylor and I to do is go to counseling ourselves so that we can discuss our frustrations with having Tyler here and the frustrations with going through this process. That, I do think is a good idea but I think that we could have still moved forward and got in to therapy at the same time. I'm just so frustrated with this whole situation and it seems pretty ridiculous that they would bring us this far and now I feel like they are just tearing us down. They had some other things to say - some valid and some not- which I don't really care to post just because I don't feel like re-hashing all of their put-downs all over again. So, from here our next court date is not until June 30, 2009. So, please pray for us as we continue this ridiculous process.

Being A Single Mom

So, Taylor has officially been in Texas for two weeks. I have gotten just a small dose of what it would be like to be a single mom. I must say that I am truly exhausted. I never get a break. And I know that I will deal with it because it is only for two weeks. To me that seems like a really long time but in reality it's not. I am definitely left in awe of anyone who is a single parent. That is just such a HUGE responsibility and committment. I, at least, got to do with a 9-year old who I could send to school and who could keep himself occupied with LEGOs. For those parents that have younger children who need constant attention, I am thoroughly impressed. I don't know what I would do if I had to be a single paretn.

I just wanted to say that I have much admiration for ALL the wonderful single parents out there and also that I can't wait for Taylor to come home tomorrow so I can actually have a moment of a break. Single parents are AMAZING!!

A Journey To Share

I just wanted to let you all know that I have decided to change my lifestyle a bit and get healthier. I guess I should just say "get healthy" as I am not one of the healthiest people I know. Anyhow, I have started another blog that will be about my journey to a healthier me. It is called A Journey To Share. Please feel free to check it whenever you want. Please leave comments or share the site with other people you know as I can use all the encouragement that I can get in order to stay healthy. I am a bit of a junk food junkie and I need all the help I can get in moderating that. Check out my site!

I WIN

Hey everyone!
I just wanted to share that I just won a contest on my friend, Bobbi's blog. It's called N Her Shoes. She is always writing healthy lifestyle choices. I always find her blog to be encouraging. So, she's always having contests for free give aways and I actually won one for some laundry detergent, called WIN. So, as you can see, I "WIN"!! Anyhow, I just thought I'd share a little about her blog. And anyone can enter her contests. She alwasy cool goodies to give away, usually having to do with health and exercise. So, check out her blog!!

Some Random Things For the Past Month

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. There have been many ups and downs in the past month or so, that I don't know where to start.

As you all know, Tyler has been acting up A LOT in the past month and half. He got in trouble majorly at school one day (the day before my birthday) and since then has been acting up non-stop just refusing to do his consequences. In the last post you read about the police coming because of his tantrums. In addition to that Tyler has been stealing some stuff and lying A LOT. Tyler tried to get out of his homework so he told me that he threw it away. He didn't think that I would make him go get it but... I did. And he actually started digging through the trash can as if to prove it to me which I don't understand cause he would have to tell me the truth once he was at the bottom. But he went through the trash can. Here is a picture of this:

As you can see, he's already almost to the bottom and STILL has not admitted that he is lying.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was able to do a couple of babysitting jobs. This is a picture of one of the boys that I baby sat. His name is Jacob. He was so cute and SO good. He cried a little when his dad walked out the door but then he was absolutely fine for the rest of the day.



In addition, we've had some interesting weather in the past couple of weeks. I've noticed in the most when I take Tyler to school.

When you look to the north, you see this, snowy mountains:
And when you look to the south, you see this, rolling green hills:I just thought that was kind of cool to share just because it seemed interesting to me to look at both of the things on the same day. Yeah, it's these little things that keep me going everyday. :-)

Sorry about the next few parts of this post because I think it's just going to me jumping from random subject to random subject. They all seem important to me but there is no rhyme or reason to them. So, bear with me.

So, in addition to all of this, I have started going to school to become a Medical Assistant. But first I have to take these ridiculous pre-requisites. I could pass every test without ever going to class or reading the material. But it's good because I have started and there's no stress with it.

As of last night at midnight, Tyler finally finished his final assignment from his consequences (which started on Jan. 12). That is how stubborn Tyler is. He refused for such a long time and amazingly I didn't 'give in. But I do see lots of changes in Tyler (and myself) since this all began. I actually do feel like he is going to try to make a better effort to make the right choices. So, I am so thankful that this battle is completely over. Now, we can have some fun together again. Woo hoo!!

Taylor left for Texas on Sunday (Feb. 15) to help his brother with his business. He is going to be gone for two weeks. That's a REALLY long time. :-( Well, on Tuesday (Feb. 17), I had to call Taylor and tell him that his truck was stolen right out of our car port in our apartment complex!!! Can you believe it?? Amazingly (by God) the truck was found the next day. So, it is at a tow yard. However, since Taylor is out of town, and the truck is registered under his name, then I couldn't get his truck without a notarized letter from Taylor saying it is okay for me to pick up his truck. Ridiculous! And on top of that I have to pay the tow yard to get the truck back!! Not even sure exactly how much that will be.... but I'm sure it will put a dent in the money that we already don't have. So, I finally got the letter from Taylor yesterday after the Police Traffic Office was closed so now I can go get the truck today. I'm kind of scared of this because I don't know if it's okay or if all of Taylor's tools are still inside. So, that I will be doing today. But definitely, Thank You GOD for getting it back!!

Another praise is that I have a job now. It is a part time job in Redlands, shipping small parts for a vintage car shop type of Business. They kind of make re-wiring systems for old cars. It seems pretty cool. I won't be doing any of the re-wiring. And the boss seems really great and he's working around my school and my family. Amazing!!!

And as far as the adoption is concerned, all of our stuff in this phase is complete. There is a court date on March 2nd for the termination of parental rights for Tyler's birth mother. Please pray for that day because it may (or may not) be a rough day for Tyler. Then after that date, I'm not totally sure what else we will have to do.

I think that is all for now. I will try to keep this more update so that I don't have to try to think of everything all in one post because I'm sure that I forgot something. Anyhow, thank you all for your support and prayers.

2 AM Visitors

That's right! At about 2am we received a knock at our door. Who could possibly knocking on our door at two in the morning!?!?!?! Well, believe it or not, it was the Redlands Police Department! Someone in our apartment complex called the police because there was a HUGE disturbance coming from our apartment. What was that disturbance, you ask? Well, that would be a little 9-year old boy that goes by the name of Tyler.

So, here's the story....
If you can believe it, this ALL started on Monday morning. I dropped Tyler off at school at 7:40am (school starts at 7:45am) and Tyler did not finally get to his class until almost 8:30am!! What was Tyler doing during this whole time, you may be asking? Well, he went throughout the campus running in and out of other teachers' classes, he lied to pretty much everyone he came across that morning, he pushed a kid down on the way to the cafeteria, he went and disturbed the librarian, was seen briefly going in to the custodian's closet, and when his teacher caught up with him finally he was in the nurse's office with an ice pack on his wrist "claiming" that his wrist was hurting (totally a lie). And that is the short version of that morning. As a result of this morning, Tyler has had a massive amount of homework. Included in the homework assignments were about eight apology letters that Tyler had to write for everyone that he disrupted that morning. Well, all week Tyler has been absolutely refusing to write these apology letters. So, when we got to the weekend, he has not been able to do anything except sit at his desk writing his letters. The only time he was allowed to come out of his room was to eat meals or go to the bathroom. He had this plan that he would just sit there not working until about 7pm every night and hope that he could just ask to go to sleep and and then he would be done with it. Well, every night (since Friday) we have told him that he can not go to sleep until he finishes the letter that he was working on. Well, that's when the screaming would start. He would scream and yell and tantrum that we would just eventually let him go to sleep. On Friday night, he was so loud that people were actually yelling at him through the window to "Shut Up!!". He fought it until about 10:30 that night and then wrote his letter. On Saturday we didn't hear anything from the neighbors even though he was just as loud. This time he fought it until about midnight before writing his letter. Then last night (Sunday) Tyler battled until 2am. And the ONLY reason he stopped at that time was because the police knocked on our door. I guess the neighbors skipped telling him to "Shut up" and just went straight to calling the police. But for the rest of the time he did not make a noise and just finished his letter. So, that is pretty much how our night went. The sad part is that all the screaming and crying was absolutely fake. I video taped it but have debated about putting it on my blog because it's pretty sad how far he will go to get what he wants. So, PLEASE keep us in your prayers! We NEED it!!

Is There A Moose In Your Marriage?

That probably sounds pretty weird, doesn't it? Did she really write "a moose"? Yes I did! "Is There A Moose In Your Marriage?" is the title of a book that I have started reading. It was given to me by one of the ladies in my Bible Study group this past Wednesday. I just started reading it last night and I already see why God has impressed it upon her heart to give this book to me - the short version.... I'm selfish in my marriage! I've only read through the first chapter and I already have that feeling that i DO NOT want to keep reading this book. Why? Because it is convicting!!!! I'm pretty scared of the chapters to come. Here are the chapter titles just so that you have an idea of what I am in store for:

PART 1: A Wife's Role
Chapter 1: Given By God
Chapter 2: Choices

PART 2: Laying The Foundation
Chapter 3: Forgiveness
Chapter 4: Abiding in Christ

PART 3: The Job Description
Chapter 5: Order in the Home
Chapter 6: Godly Behavior
Chapter 7: Holy Beauty

PART 4: Family Relationships
Chapter 8: Reclaiming Your Priorities

PART 5: The Motiviation
Chapter 9: Marriage is a Ministry

PART 6: The Results
Chapter 10: Triumphs and Testimonies
Chapter 11: A Speechless Husband Speaks

So, I am in PART 1, Chapter 1. A wife's role given by God. That already sounds pretty brutal, right? Well, I would say that I am not fulfilling my role that God has given me. God's job description of a wife is to be a helper. Being a helper is not supposed to be something we DO; It's supposed to be who we ARE. "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.' " Genesis 2:18. How do you feel knowing that you are called to be a helper to your husband? My selfish flesh says "Why do I have to be a helper to him. Why can't he be a helper to me?!?!?!?" See! I told you guys that I am selfish! It's so sad, isn't it? Some of you thought I was this person that is alwsys wanting to serve and help others and today I am shattering that image and letting you all know now that I am a SELFISH person. (Some of you already knew that). But a very interesting thing is that I DO like to help people. When people call me and tell me they need help doing something, I am almost always ready to help if it is at all in my ability. But sometimes when Taylor, MY OWN HUSBAND, asks me to do something (that is usually really simple), the first thought that goes through my head is "Why can't you do it?" And then I begrudginly do it for him but keep track in my head and compare the difference of how many times I have helped him and how many times he has helped me. How horrible am I?!?!?!? (Feel free to answer how horrible I am). Well, this book is about the road blocks (the moose) in your marriage. In chapter one it talks about how if the wife (ME!!!) has not embraced her (MY) role as the helper, then she (ME again!!!) IS the road block in her marriage. "Would your husband say that because of you, your life is more pleasant and bearable? OR Would your husband shy away from making even the simplest requests fearing your reaction?" My husband would more than likely be in the second category. I am not AT ALL writing to convict any of you in your marriage as I have seen you all be servants and helpers to your husbands. This is purely sharing my convictions from reading this book so far. I am re-learning my role as a wife and God has called us wives to be a helper to our husbands.
"What a challenge....
What a privelage...
WHAT A CREATOR!!!!"

Blessings,
Terecita

My Birthday

So, yesterday was my birthday. Most of this day was pretty rough until my little birthday gathering. In the morning Tyler was having a huge fit because he was tired in the morning and didn't want to get up. That was a result of him having TONS of homework because of his HORRIBLE behavior at school on Monday. Then during the day Taylor and I did a lot of running around meeting with social workers and such. Then after school, Tyler and I went to his therapy session, where Tyler was absolutely disrespectful to me and his therapist. Then after therapy Tyler was having a huge attitude refusing to do his homework (massive amounts leftover from Monday and still continuing today). So, I then had to make Tyler take a shower SUPER early and sit through our basketball practice (I'm his coach for Upward Basketball at Immanuel Baptist Church) in his pajamas just doing his homework and not participating in his practice. After we got home from practice (6:15) I had Tyler eat and then go straight to bed (6:30). He cried and screamed for a little while but thankfully stopped before any of my friends came over for my birthday game night party.

So, then that's when my birthday gets better. I had a few friends come over which included Ms. Grace, Ms. Veronica, Mr. & Mrs. Becker, and Mr. & Mrs. McCormick. Now, if it was not for these people coming over, I really would have had one of my worst birthdays. I was extremely upset with Tyler and I almost cancelled the party but once they showed up I felt much better. We played this game that is basically mix between Pictionary and Telephone. We shall it Pictephone. Anyhow, it was hilarious. You basically start out with everyone writing a phrase or saying or whatever. Everyone passes their stack of papers to the left and then you have to draw what the phrase that the other person wrote. Then the next person has to interpret your drawing and write the phrase that they think that you drew. And then so on and so on. Here a couple of pictures that were drawn. The first one is supposed to be "Born in the U.S.A." and the second one is supposed to be "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water." They got pretty funny after a while.

This picture was interpreted as "I'm having a baby"


This picture was interpreted as "Don't throw out the baby with the bath tub water" "(Good Job Matt!!)

Here are some pics of us at the party (more like a small gathering) We had a good time and my friends being there really made my birthday good.

Me and Bobbi. She's awesome! As a matter of fact I wouldn't even have this picture if she didn't bring her camera cause I was a lame-o and only took a couple of pics. She is one of the most amazing people I know and I truly feel blessed to know her.

Here is Mr. and Mrs. Becker (Beth and Derek). Derek was working really hard on the Pictephone game. Everyone thought it was hilarious.

This is Grace & Veronica. Grace and I have been celebrating birthdays together for 11 years!! Mine is Jan. 13 (yesterday) and hers in Jan. 14 (today). All three of us went to high school together but I did not hang out with Veronica until after high school as we became friends through Grace. Man I was totally missing out on her friendship in high school. She is SO cool and everything is always funny to her so she thought this game was HILARIOUS!!!

Everyone was so gracious with their gifts. I truly am blessed. This was from my hubby. He made this flower arrangement for me. I hope it doesn't die cause I'm not too good with taking care of plants.

So, that was my birthday. We almost played a game of Cut-Throat Uno (mostly for Grace because she is so competitive and Pictephone is not a game where somebody acutally wins) but everybody had to get up early so we talked for a bit and called it a night. I kinda wanted to hang out more but when I got up this morning I was definitely thankful that I didn't stay up any later than I did. So, all in all, I had a truly blessed birthday! Thank you to everyone that made that happen!!

Tyler's Birthday

So, yesterday (Jan. 6) was Tyler's birthday. We decided to have a little get together in honor of it. We weren't sure if we were going to do it at first (at least not actually on the 6th) because it was a school night and the absolute earliest that we could do it was 6:30 because we had our first basketball practice that did not end until 6:00pm. So, we had to rush back and get everything together before anyone else showed up. But everything turned out fine. My parents told me that they would barbecue some hamburgers and hot dogs and bring them over so that i wouldn't have to worry about making/getting any food. And we had chips and sodas... and of course a birthday cake, which I made! :-) Here are a couple of pics from the party. I would have took more but the batteries in my camera died very early in the evening. (** Sidenote: Do not buy batteries from the 99 cent store. They don't last for very long. **)

Here's a pic of the cake that I made. You would not believe how much it hurts your hands when you write on someone's cake!!
Here's a couple of the presents I wrapped. Just wanted to share that cause sometimes I love to wrap presents (when they are perfect squares or rectangles - NO odd shapes) more than gift bags.
Here's a couple of gifts that Tyler got. The first one is a scarf that my mom made for him which I thought was pretty cool. The second one is a "Learn to Speak Spanish Kit" - Can you believe that he actually asked for this for Christmas? The third one is a NERF crossbow (I was definitely not thrilled to see that when he opened it) that he probably won't ever get to use because he has not learned yet not to point it at people. He also got some clothes, a soccer ball, a football, a Lakers jersey, some books, a board game and a few other things. I got all the boring stuff since I knew other people were getting the toys and stuff.
And this is a picture of our friend's daughter, Jasmine. She's 2 years old. All the kids were playing in Tyler's room and when we called them all to eat, somehow she got left behind. Well, while she was by herself she got in to Tyler's markers and did this to her face. :-)

And that's a glimpse of Tyler's birthday! Have a great day everyone! :-)

Picnic in the Park

Yesterday we had a family day and decided to have a picnic at Sylvan Park. Only in California would you think to have a picnic in January! :-) We just got a $5 pizza from Little Caesar's and some chips and had some good family time. We played horseshoes, frisbee, and soccer. Anyhow, here are a few pics of the family at the park. Enjoy!

This is just a view of the park. This is one our favorite parks to go to.

Here's some of the three of us.