Whittaker Woman

25 more days

I MISS HIM!

Uhh, I miss him bad today! 25 more days until we get to be a family and not have to think about leaving again!

Good-bye

My sis came out this Saturday to have one final family time. We used andrea's great camera cover again. It was great!

Snap

What will I do with out my personal Photographer? Check out Sunday!

What I look forward to...

Carlos asked me if I was only sad about moving to Atlanta. I had to tell him that yeah this week is rough. I don't want to leave my church, friends, family and most importantly my comfort zone. But on the other hand, God was faithful and answered my prayer of clarity. And he has made it super clear to me that this is his call. So I go. However there are some things I am very excited about. The first is called weather. I know you So- Calers don't know I am talking about. But weather is when these things called clouds  come in the sky and sometimes it gets really cold and sometimes water drops from them. Its really fun!
No for real if you know me you know I love my seasons and I cant wait for them again. I am also thrilled that I will live near water and maybe one day own a boat to ski with. I am also thrilled that I finally will get a grown- up house. I cant wait to get what our money can buy out there!  I am excited to explore another side of the country. I am excited that I already have close friends there.  But most of all I cant wait to be with my man again!

The start

It begins, the start of the good-byes

Amy and Dylan came over for Lunch and Janie is here tonight. Oh is this really happening? H

Public Tears

If you know me you will know that I dont cry much. I used to but I realized that I did it to manipulate things, and so now that I have stopped I just don't cry much. Until today. Yep the tears were rollin. I am in love with Sandals. It has made me me. And it hurts to walk away. It breaks me to leave my "family" and all those who have loved us through everything. I hope everyone feels this kind of love, I am full and broken all at the same time.  Oh the tears were tears of being so loved! Thanks guys.

The first 5 minutes of our hike up Whitney.

We saw a bear and then a minute later this sign. Now that is cleaver  advertising.   

I met the mayor, got losiah's court date and ran 4 miles all before 9am!

Thats right you heard me I met the mayor, I went to court and finally have Losiah's court date and ran 4 miles all before 9 am! And if you know me you know I am usually not out of bed before 9. So how did it happen? Well I am glad you asked. I run with my friends Bogie and Eddie once a week up this hill in Riverside they call a mountain. Its a 4 mile round trip run. It good and challenging. Well I got there at 6:30 am and when the guys did not show up by 6:50 I decided to run myself. So I am almost to the top. I have one more turn and then I am there. I look up the side of the hill and saw a man walking then it clicked. That looks like the mayor. (There is rumor he walks Rubidoux (the hill) but in my 100's of times up I have never seen him.)  Ok I am not one to know much about politics, I know I need to care but honestly it's not the season for me.  But our pastor asked the church on Sunday to  email our Mayor and pretty much beg him for his help to find Sandals piece of land. Well Sandals stepped up and  on Monday Sandals got a call from the mayor's office setting up an appointment with us. Talk about efficiency. So knowing all of this I wanted to catch him so I could say thank you. I would never have anything personal to say to a city official and I did that day. So I book it, I run past him, because it does not look like him once I got up close, But then I just asked are you the mayor. Once he looked up I could tell it was. I then introduced my self, told him that my husband is a pastor at Sandals Church,  in which He replied "oh, yes"  He continued to tell me how there is someone in the city working on it, but its going to be very hard  and I just told him that we know its hard and that is why we had to come to him. Here is the email he sent out as his reply to our letters.

Thank you for your e-mails.

I respect and value the ministry of Sandals. I will commit my best attention and resources to identifying possible sites. I have scheduled a meeting with senior pastor/staff members of Sandals. It is not an easy process. We need to begin as soon as possible. God speed in finding a location.

Ron Loveridge

Mayor

Molars

How's your day?

Teething is mine. Do I need to say more?

Camera fun

My friend Amber and her three kids came  from Michigan to spend the weekend with us. We have had fun juggling 6 kids. Tonight we had fun with Andrea's  underwater camera cover.

A Weekend of a lifetime!

Wow, I am still in shock over this past week. It was one of those moments that are absolutely life changing.  It was one of those times in life where you see Gods hand so clear, its so evident that it is sucks the air out of you.
The mountain climb was so magnificant.  The feeling I got when I accomplished one of my harder life goals on my list was exhilarating. But the hand of God was in the company. God brought Randy, Carlos, and I together and the company and  friendship was beautiful. Here are some of our picts. You can check out Randy's blog so to see a big photo album.

I was in so much pain. I climbed to the top of the mountain, no problem. It was actually a lot easier than I thought. But for heavens sake on the way down my head felt like it was going to explode.  I had  a 25 lb pack on and the worst part was having to  keep taking pounding steps down the mountain. This was how I looked.

Catch up Day 7

This group woke up at 5am to drive back to the high sierra's (which is an hour back into the mountains from Shaver). It was so great to watch the sunrise come up over the sierra's.

Thats my Pa. My parents never put me in swimming or softball they put me at a base of a mountain and  said climb. You can see where I get some of me from. I was not even crazy enough to climb that rock.

NO thanks.

These are my mountains. I will miss them dearly. I miss them dearly and I live in So Cal. I grew up here and have many memories.

I am pretty conscious about what I put in my body. I would NEVER eat this at home. But it sure did taste good at 8 am  at the end of the road deep in the heart of the back country at Edison Lake.

When we got back we went to the lake  and enjoyed our last afternoon there.

Then the Hales came back to visit us at the mountains. The girls got in the boat and went to jump off the "Rock" as they called it this week. I did not want to do it because the lake was so cold, but Jacinda was actually thinking about it. And you  have to know that SHE DOES NOT DO HIGH THINGS so when she began to contemplate it I did it too. It took a couple of tries to get up the rock but finally we made it.

We made my brother jump first just to make sure he would come back up. :)

Then we went!

I can't believe she did it!

Then my Pa went!  It was great fun. The boys went after us but they were not smart enough to bring a camera to capture the event. We had a great time!

Catch up Day 6

Today we tried to focus on playing at the lake all day. Sohaila was a water baby. If the thing went fast Sohaila was all about it!

But only wanted to go "SLOOOOW"  that is all we heard all week.

Catch up Day 3,4 and 5

We just played at the lake

At good food

And spent time with Family!

Mt. Whitney here we come!

AHHH! I am so excited. I hope I make it to the top. 1 in every 3 don't make it due to altitude sickness. Which is something you can not prevent. I am physically ready, I cant wait to cross another thing off my list! Here we come!

Catch up Day 2

Day two was Melania's first b-day party.

These are the things I am going to miss like crazy when we are in GA. I want to be a part of their lives, and not being apart of the simple things like their birthdays kills me.

After the party we headed up to shaver to begin the family reunion. The girls got into it within minutes!

Catch up Day 1

 

Our week off started by the Whittaker's and Hale's spending some family time together. Brian and Jacinda
always come down and visit us but we never go and visit them so we planned a few days with them and  we worked Fresno. We went to Dog House for lunch ( you all know that is my favorite!) Then we drove to clovis and walked around in the 108* heat and went to the farmers market.

 

We got some of my Sister's Boyfriends Great Kettle Corn!

Then the grown ups went out on a date! Yep I think it was the second time in our friendship that we actually went out. It was fun. I will keep you posted on Day two tomorrow!

Pick your battles

would not take her socks off. I chose not to battle it!

Catch up

Wow, it was so great not to have a computer these past 9 days. I am sure many of you want to know how I am doing and my side of the Georgia Move story but it will come in time. Not now. Today I am simply here to tell you that I am alive and well. I have taken a vacations and enjoyed my family and chose not to blog and it was so good. Thank you for all of your prayers we desperately need to be covered in them. I am doing well. I am a bundle of emotions, like tonight I walked out of Miguels after ordering a shredded beef taco and began to cry. Its fun moments like that, but they are good because they are happy tears. Over all I am great. My heart is so ready and I am thrilled at this new step. I will get into it later but for now I wanted you all to know I am well. I have set up "Catch up" days that I will be blogging this week. Carlos and I will be hiking Mt Whitney with Randy this week so again I will have no computer so I thought i could just set up some catch up posts for you. Thanks again for all your love and support! H

I HATE ADOPTIONS!!!

Ok, I'm dramatic. I don't hate what I get when I adopt but I hate the forms, paperwork, and phone calls. It never fails, they say to do one thing and then you wait three months and then they say no you needed to do this instead. Oh this is a never ending story. I cant wait until he is ours and we are done!