First Day of School... Ever!

Our little boy started school last Tuesday (8/19).  I cannot even believe it.  When I woke up that morning all I was thinking about was getting Zech up, dressed, fed, and getting him to school on time.  It didn’t sink in until we actually got him in his classroom and saw him with his classmates and his teachers.  He looked so grown up and when the teacher looked at Nick she made a comment about not getting emotional and that’s when the next 16-20 years of Zech’s life flashed before my eyes.  I started thinking about all the friends and enemies that are going to enter his school life and all the influences (good and bad) that are going to appear as well.  Wow, I got really deep there, sorry… Zech walked right in the classroom and started playing with the toys and the other kids like it was no big deal.  I wish I could have done that.  Anyway, after class I asked his teacher how he did and she told me that he is a good boy, we all knew that, and that he was always ready to move to the next thing before it was time.  But she said he wasn’t annoying about it, he simply asked if he could do the next thing and she would say not yet and he would say okay and that was that.  I thought that was pretty funny.  He does that at home too. 

Well, he survived the first 3 hours of his school career and I didn’t do that bad either… and so it begins.  It’ll be okay!

Our son the wise guy!

So the other day Nick and Zech had some time together and out of the blue Zech asks Nick why he can't go on roller coasters.  Nick said "It's not that I can't go on roller coasters it's just they make me sick feeling and I choose not to go on them. I could if I wanted to I just don't want to". Zech looks at him and says, "Huh, like me and swimming". ( Here's a little back story to that comment) Last year we got Zech to go swimming with out his floaties (water wings) for most of the summer, this year he backslid and put up quite a fight to have his floaties back on, for one reason or another he would not go swimming without them... that should make me feel safe knowing he's got them on but I would feel much safer if I knew he knew how to swim if he fell in the pool without them.  So anyway, he makes that comment to Nick and Nick just looks at him and says "You think your so smart don't you? I tell you what, I'll make a deal with you. Every time you actually swim without your floaties, I have to go on a roller coaster ride at Disneyland when we go in three weeks. Deal? " Zech took the deal. Later that night we went to Nick's parent's house for some family time and swimming.  Zech was excited to show daddy he could swim, until he got to the second step and he started to revert back to being afraid.  But then he saw his older cousins swimming and having a good time in the pool and a bit of courage came his way and all he needed was the reminder of dad and the roller coaster and he was diving off the side of the pool before we knew it.  He did it about 8 or 9 time.  So Nick has to ride about 10 rides at the Magic Kingdom.  I bet he's sorry he made that bet... well it worked anyway. 

A girl's weekend

I'm not a groupie, but...

The past 48 hours have given me a glimpse at what it's like to be on tour with a band.  Ever Stays Red(ESR) and This Great Escape did a concert at our church and it was Awesome!  Sunday night we housed ESR.  I was so impressed with those guys.  I was fully prepared to have our Xbox up and going or something like that.  When they came over instantly they went to work.  They all had their laptops and were updating their Myspace page and responding to fan emails and working on tshirt designs etc. It was so neat to see what this job of theirs means to them.  We had a chance to talk with them and get to know them a little better. The next day we just hung out.  At around 2 o'clock a group of people and the band went to Library Park to hand out socks to the homeless.  (Their tour is called "The Clean Sock Tour") Kayla and Kelsey, from what I hear, did a fantastic job at putting together lunches to give as well. {Good job, Girls!}  

That night we met up with the guys again at Pancho's Coffee Shop in the Shasta Outlets.  It was for the grand opening of our friend's sho

p.  ESR did an acoustic set that was just as incredible as there plugged in concerts. Zech really took a liking to them.  They were so cool with him.  You can't tell in the picture, but he walked up to them and squeezed himself in between them like he's known them for years.   

Later that night we housed This Great Escape.  They were ESR's opening band.  Nice guys as well.   I have never actually seen a groupie with my own eyes but there were two girls who showed up to the coffee house that fit the bill.  Two girls I know I would remember if I saw them around, that's beside the point...  they were over at our place the next morning.  Really nice, but extremely talkative.  From the moment they came in our house, it was non stop talking.  To make it even more interesting, they sounded like they were from the Valley... like, you know?  It took them three hours to get here and they slept in their car last night.  They have been to almost every concert of ESR's within 4 hours of their house.  So that was pretty crazy.  After they left, it was back to reality. I pray God blesses their tour.  Who knows maybe Zech will do this some day.  :) 

D.W.S. Camp '08

We had such a great weekend.  We spent it in Dunsmuir, CA at the Railroad Park Resort. This weekend was a gift from Nick's aunt and uncle for the whole family.  The "D" stands for Dorsey, the "W" stands for Welch and the "S" stands for Swain, all the families who participate.  It's become an annual thing.  This year was the 3rd annual.  The itinerary for the weekend consisted of several rounds at a shooting range in Mt Shasta and the annual fishing tournament on Lake Siskyou and surrounding rivers, oh, yeah and food, lot and lots of fabulous food.  I was really concerned about how the weather was going to treat us when we were up there.  I had heard those people in the mountain areas would probably be seeing some thunder storms.  But we really were blessed.  Not a threatening cloud to be seen.  The only real issue was the smoke but even that was nothing compared to what Redding was experiencing.  We stayed inside old train cars that had been redone as hotel rooms.  Zech got a kick out of staying in one.  Speaking of Zech, he got to shoot his first real gun while we were up there.  At first I was a little apprehensive at the thought of my little boy shooting something that real live bullets came out of ( I was having flashbacks of when I shot a 308 single shot from a few years ago, it still makes my shoulder hurt thinking about it.), but I was reassured that they had the perfect gun for Zech, with no kick.  Nick's uncle is a pro and wouldn't put Zech in any danger.  So I said alright and Zech was more than excited to give it a shot.  He didn't do too bad a job.  He just wished he didn't have to keep his earphones on all the time, they made him a little sweaty. 

Nick was sad he missed that 1st time ex

perience, he was on his way up to camp from a Mexico missions trip.  He had been gone for a week and had to fly up from San Diego to make it to any part of our family outing.  He was exhausted but he made it up late that evening.  I had taken maybe 2 dozen pictures

of Zech with the 22. So that helped ease some of Nick's disappointment.  

The next day was the fishing tournament and we took a patio boat on Lake Siskyou, some to catch a fish or two, some to catch some sun, and some to catch some Z's. It was extremely relaxing. Nick was the winner of the tournament, only because he was the only one to catch a fish.  It was fun anyway!

Thanks Dan and Sue for the weekend, it was great!

Almost a Hand Full.

So Zech is 4 years old today. (I say almost a hand full because next year he will be five and then he really will be a whole hand full, although he is now...Oh, well you know what I mean.)  

We threw him a party on Saturday with all his friends.  This year he went with a Batman theme and we had the party at Nick's parent's house.  The pool, the bounce house and the slip-n-slide were all hits.  And the weather was perfect, it was probably high 90's or just at 100 degrees, but there was a nice cool breeze, that made it very pleasant.  Zech had been doing so good last year with swimming, he was feeling left out because all the other kids had life jackets and floaties, so he decided that he absolutely needed his floaties. No matter how much we argued with him he had to have them.  As Zech was backsliding

, Cru, one of the little boys, had been having issues with swimming, but seeing the other kids in the pool, he became more courageous.  So that was pretty neat.  Anyway, enough talk, here are the pictures...

I made this. (I know, I even wowed myself !)

Cake Time!

(Josie, Uriah, Joshua, Evan, Cru, and Zech... Rachael w/ cake and Kristen w/ Sid)

Make a wish, Zech!  

(Uriah and Josie in this picture)

In the center: Brandon, Joshua ( on diving board), and Evan

On left side: Uriah, Nick, and Zech

Zech and his friends, Curtis and Joshua, catching some rays.

Can you DDR?

I have never done this before, but Nick and I bought something off of Craigslist.  We bought an Xbox and a few games, but the kicker part of our purchase is Dance, Dance Revolution.  If you are not familiar with Dance Dance Revolution (or DDR), let me fill you in on an amazing game of skill, endurance, and talent.  All of which I have not... Nick is better than me, not the greatest, but better. Okay, so it comes with 4 floor mats ( for 4 players),  the music begins and on the TV there are arrows that appear, they match the arrows on your mat.  On the beat you step on the arrow that corresponds with the arrow on the screen.  Confusing?  Well, I'm also not the best communicator.  All this to say I have a new workout routine and it includes video games.   Yeeeahhh! So if you are interested in showing off your sweet moves, come on over and show us what you got!  We are pretty pumped.

It's a nice day to ride a horse.

Nick spoke at a Youth For Christ function today. It was for their Horse Camp.  They take young students, with or without experience of horses, and introduce them each to one and for a week, with a wrangler,  learn to take care of it.  The students loved it.  At the end of the week there is an award ceremony, and each student is given a Bible and a picture with them and their horse.  The leaders of YFC asked Nick to give a gospel presentation today.  And at the end he asked if anyone had said the sinner's prayer with him for the first time, and a young man raised his hand and said he had accepted Christ as his personal Savior. AMEN!!!  He didn't even go to the camp this week, he was a family member of one of the student's.  And immediately he asked how he could volunteer  ( because, he said, aren't I suppose to do that, as a Christian?)  Good man.  So this next week he is going to be helping with new students. Praise the Lord! 

We aren't horse people, but those students sure looked like they were having a blast, even if it was raining and cold.  Next Saturday, Nick is speaking again and we were told that Zech will be able to ride on one of the horses.  He's pretty excited about that.

Are you connected? We are!

So it is about time we became a part of this century.  We now have internet and it feels great. So drop us a line,  we can check it regularly now.  

Mother's Day was last week.  Now I have been a mother for 4 years now and I still forget that this day is for me too. I get so wrapped up in making sure we are taking care of our own moms that I forget this day includes me.  When that day came, I don't know why, but I was surprised when Nick and Zech came in with a present and card for me. And you know the best part,  I got a shop vac for Mom's Day and it is one of my favorite gifts.  That rocked!

More pics of Coos Bay, OR

Zech flying a kite at the beach

   

Ah, Amore!

Trust me, there are a bunches of seals out there

Rachael, Nick, and Zech

That is seaweed, that is disgusting!

still no internet :(

I know it has been a month since our last blog... sorry everyone.  We are loving our new home.  We have been trying to figure the best way to go wireless in our home at the best price... any ideas?  In the meantime we have found someone else's signal if we sit on the front porch, only it's hard to see the screen in the daytime and it is flippin' cold in the evening (not to mention bugs, big bugs, love any light source)  All that to say I found some time to update today.  We are doing well,  especially since Zech is no longer closet boy.  He loves his own room... Thank You Jesus!  It has been a bit of an adjustment for him but he likes to have a place to put his toys and blankets and things.

We went on a little vacation at the end of March and it was so relaxing.  Coos Bay, OR, a little harbor town west of Roseburg.  A couple from our church had a house out there and let my folks stay there and we tagged along.  It was a mix of weather, rain, hail, wind, sun, and cold!  

Anyway,  what's going on now?  We're getting settled in to our house and feeling like adults and all and we got Zech signed up for school next year.  He's going to Country Christian to start preschool in the Fall.  Yeahhh!  He's only going 2 days a week, but it's a start. We're excited to see how he does.

Pray that we will be able to buy our house and stop renting.  Our friends, who we rent from, have blessed us amazingly (if that's a word?).  We are praying we can help them by buying this place from them, so they won't have the burden of their mortgage anymore.  It would be great for both parties.  

I'll try to keep up on our blog as we are in the process of wireless internet hunting.  Peace Out!

Drum Roll Please....

I have been wanting to write this blog for the last 2 weeks, but we couldn't because things weren't official. Now it is... Introducing Redding Christian Fellowship's new youth pastor.... NICK WELCH!
I am so proud of him. We still have to announce it to the congregation this Sunday morning at the end of the services, but this past Wednesday, it was announced to the youth group. Of course it wasn't announced like normal people would tell things... no, Jeff (the current youth pastor) told the kids that the elder board had been doing a lot of meeting and praying with a specific candidate and they finally hired a new guy. The kids looked excited. Most of them figured it would be Nick, but then Jeff asked for Josh Ferrer (another staff member) to come up and started to tell the kids the elders really think Josh would be a great fit. Crickets... the students looked so confused, they didn't make a sound. Jeff put his arm around Josh and said, "So are you going to tell them?" Josh, with a smile on his face, yelled, "Nick Welch, Come on down!" The students went wild with excitement. After they settled down, Jeff told the group he really didn't need to introduce Nick, because the kids already knew him and trusted him. Then the kids and staff laid hands on Nick and prayed for him and our family. Nick said it was an amazing feeling.
I am so happy to see that glow in his eyes again after a year and a half of not knowing where God wanted him (us). Along with that, Jeff and Kara are letting us rent their house while they are trying to sell it. It could only be a month or it could be 6 months. Anyway, we'll be able to look for our own house while renting theirs. So we're just so excited. Nick's first day at work is April 1st and that's no joke. And we move into Jeff and Kara's house the day before. Thank You Lord!

I spoke too soon

Tonight is a guys night out. Zech and Nick went out to pizza and video games. Something they both needed, since Zech had an ear infection earlier this week and he got "the cough" everyone has. Zech has been itching to get out. I was in the ER earlier this week with a very high fever. Turns out I was at the beginning stages of pneumonia. After gallons of cough medicine and a handful of antibiotics, I still have a cough but I'm feeling much better and a bright side to going to the ER (I know that sounds sickningly "glass half full" of me) is that when they took my blood pressure even being sick it was still low. So next time I talk about someone else going to the ER remind me about this little incident. I'm not a fan of that place.

No Changes...yet!

I figured I should type something so people wouldn't have to wonder what's going on, but that's just it, not much. Still house hunting, we have to get our finances figured out first so we can nail down a price to go for, but that seems to take some time. We don't want to mess this up. And as you can tell we think God is directing us to stay in Redding, for the time being at least.

In other news, our nephew (who is about a year and a half old) has decided to make the Guiness Book of World Records for the most amount of ER visits in one month... not really, but if it wasn't so serious, it'd be comical the reasons he's gone in there for. Example: Rota virus, where he throws up all the time, Staph infection, allergic reaction to the antibiotics (twice) etc.. and to top it all off his mother, Nick's sister, is a hypochondriac. Crazy. Anyway, Uriah is doing better now then yesterday. Praise the Lord!

Our little money maker

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law got Zech a mini skateboard.  He's all about it.  No fear either. I was taking these pictures and thinking to myself, "When he becomes famous for his sweet boarding skills, these pictures will be the ones on TV as his first introduction to skateboarding" Maybe it's a little early to be day dreaming that he'll take care of his parents with all the money he is going to make as a famous skateboarder,  but dreams have to start somewhere.  He takes his board to youth group to show the big kids his awesome moves and then he watches what they do on their boards. It's pretty cute! 

An update on Portland, No Go.  They emailed Nick and said they are looking at other candidates who have different qualifications.  We were kind of sad and happy at the same time.  Sad because it would have been a great adventure in a beautiful part of the country and yet happy because it means that is a door God is closing. So we can't be too upset about that. 

P.S.  Changed our title for you Kayla, don't go all anal retentive on our account.

Winter Camp 2008

High school winter camp was this last weekend and we couldn't have asked for better weather, well maybe a little less slush, but all in all not that bad. The last couple years have had very little snow, if any at all. This year there was a nice 2 foot blanket over the camp ground (Mountain Meadows). RCF partnered with a church from Anderson, CA. There was probably about 75 people total (students and leaders). Zech and I didn't stay at the campgrounds, instead we stayed at my parent's home about 5 miles from the camp. It made nap time easier. Anyway, we visited camp on Saturday. Nick said the guys in his cabin were fantastic. The questions some of them were asking were so deep and honest after the night's speaker. He said they had a great time of prayer, each of them praying over the other. Praise the Lord!

As I said before, we visited on Saturday and Zech was excited. He wanted to try snowboarding so bad. Nick had his board there, so Zech stood between his legs as a few of the kids pulled them with a rope. So cute. Not so cute was watching Nick try to grind one of the rails that was there on site. He was one of the few to try and it has been a couple years since he last did it and he is older than the students , so I think that is enough excuses. Sorry honey.

Then we went to a hill on the other side of the camp where they had a whole bunch of tubes and a few kids had snowboards. Zech went down the very long and tall hill all by himself on one of the smaller tubes. And as he was going down Nick forgot about the little jump at the bottom of the hill and before he knew it there was a good foot between the tube and the mountain and another foot between Zech and the tube. And he landed it. When he got to the bottom he stood up and said "That was Awesome!" Oh, boy are we in for it now?! Remember he's only 3 years old.

I felt so bad for the girl's cabin from RCF. Both leaders got the flu, my sister being one of them. It was kinda funny because, Esther was saying how she had many memories of Mountain Meadows as a young girl, but one memory stuck out above all the others. When she was in grade school, puking her guts out in the staff cabin. Who would have guessed that after telling us that the next day she would be doing the very same thing. Irony?! I guess she didn't think it to be as funny as me.

New Year, New Beginnings

So as I posted in our last blog (the wax incident) we thought we were going to have to shave our poor lumpy headed kid's hair off... I did a little research before we took to extreme measures and found that by rubbing olive oil on it, the wax dissolved away. Although Zech looked like a grease monkey, we didn't have to worry about shaving his hair off. Yeahhh!
We have been keeping our options open when it comes to listening to what the Lord has for our family. In our last blog I mentioned we are looking into buying a house (and the answer is yes, Kayla, on painting said house, free labor... we won't argue!) So we've been super stoked about that. It has felt as though God has been saying stay in Redding. Then a couple weeks ago we get an email from a church up in Portland,Oregon saying they saw Nick's application on the Youth Specialties website and would he mind sending them his resume. We didn't think much of it at first, because we have had some very interesting churches respond to his app before. We checked out their website anyway and were very impressed. Long story short, we are currently going through the interview process with them. We don't know which direction God wants us to go in, but we'll continue to go through the doors and He'll let us know when He closes them. It's worked so far. We haven't stopped house hunting here in Redding either, so we'll see. All I know is Nick's desire to work with youth has not changed.

Christmas was good for us this year. Very relaxing. We spent Christmas Eve with the Welch side of the family and Christmas Day with the Mapes side. For the first time in a while we felt we could really give back to our friends and family like they have done for us in year's past and are still doing for us today. This past year has been tough but as a family we have never been closer. And Zech is old enough now I hope he still remembers this time in his life and can learn from it.

I don't know how many of you were affected by the storm this last week, but we lost power for three days and it was rough, but three days is nothing in comparison to what so many others are going through across the nation. It just made me think... and pray. Sorry to end this blog on a serious note. Have a happy new year!

A house for a home

Merry Christmas!
Time for my monthly blog. So in my last blog I mentioned our disappointment in not getting the apartment at Shadowbrook (low income housing). We still haven't heard from them yet, but we know we're first on the list. Anyway, we have actually decided to pursue buying a house. With Nick no longer in ministry the possibilities are greater for us to get a loan or two or three (at a fixed rate!)... on top of that my sister, Esther, would move in with us and put her name on a third of the title. So she would get equity in the house and it would help us by making us a two income house. We are currently talking to a broker and we'll see what we can afford. Nick has a friend whom he's known since junior high/high school who's a real estate agent. She's going to look out for us. We're ready!

Anyway, the three of us are at church now and before I began typing this, Zech was playing around one of the lit candles and accidently hit it. At first he didn't scream, so I didn't think the wax got him. But then it came, a scream that told me otherwise. The wax hit the back of his head and top of his back. A parent, or anyone for that matter, never wants to hear that scream. It wasn't bad enough to take him to the hospital, but an ice pack and a movie seem to be doing fine. I think we're going to have to shave Zech's hair off. Unfortunately, Zech has Nick's head shape, lumpy...! Oh well, hair grows back right!?

I hope everyone is doing well this Christmas season. Nick, Zech, and I have had a roller coaster of a year and God has been nothing but evident to us the whole time. As Morgan Freeman, in Evan Almighty, stated in a scene as God..." If you asked God for patience, does He give you patience or an opportunity to be patient?" I think he has given us several opportunities to be patient.

Still Learning Patience

We have had some amazing things happen this last month. For one my Bell's Palsy is gone. Yeah!!! The only reminder I have of it is our church directory photo, where it looks like I'm a smart allic because the right side of my face is not quite right. Oh well.
We were told that Youth For Christ didn't get their grant for the abstinence program. Well it was a good thing Nick took his promotion at the mortuary. Then we found that we got into the low income housing that we had applied for last July. We were so excited. We were excited... the very next day, we got a call that the owner of the apartment complex over rode the managers decision to evict the current tenant. Which means we are again on hold in vacating the parental units household. Good news though we are next on the list for the apartments. We don't know when a spot will become available. Prayerfully soon. We are going to be putting a deposit down so the next available unit will, by law, be ours. We know God has a plan for us, we just don't know what it is yet.

Bell's Palsey, What Bell's Palsey?

We're housesitting a couple's house this week. We've housesat for them before. It's pretty nice having this space to ourselves for a bit.
Anyway, for those who have been praying for me this last month over my Bell's Palsey, Thank you! My face is 90% better and the pain in my neck and face is very subtle. I go to the doctor on Thursday for a checkup. I know my doctor will be pleased. So, thanks for your prayers.
Nick got a promotion at his job last week, and had we not been waiting to hear from Youth For Christ about the grant for the Abstinence program we would have been more excited. Nick accepted the promotion anyway, because we felt that even though we were waiting on something else this was a way God would provide for our family now. He is just not excited about all the important paperwork that has to be done right in this position as an arranger at the funeral home. But it has a pay raise and after 3 months we'll all be covered with insurance. So that's awesome.
We got back from Eureka on Sunday. Nick surprised me with a trip to the coast for my birthday. We have some friends who just recently moved there and since one of them works at the Red Lion hotel, we got hooked up with an amazing room at a great price. We went to the Ferndale ( where "The Majestic" was filmed), and the beach, which technically was Zech's 2nd time at the beach... it was his first time actually seeing the ocean in the daytime. He loved it. Nick and I have always loved the beach. Anyway, it was great spending time with our friends and just getting away. Right before we left Eureka we went to the zoo. Zech loved to see all the different animals (he calls them ammimals). We all got a little souviner from the coast though...a cold! Oh, well it was still a blast. And we'll get over being sick. It was still relaxing.