thanks for all your prayers it over!

you can tell how tired i was and am from all the spell mistakes in the last post. but it is all over and we helped 1259 children or something like that just tonight. we will also be able to help some other children in mexico and other organizations so the total will be over 1300 this year. about 300 to 400 more then last year. i will write more later but right now i must sleep. thanks for all your prayers. and merry christmas!

i am amazed but i am not sure why

I am amazed at how God comes through all the time is whys you never expect and more then you ever imagined but i am not sure why i am amazed at this because He does it over and over and over again.

I am working on a toy giveaway and we had less day then ever before to set up but the first day we set up more in half a day then we have ever set up in two whole days because of the amazing amount of volunteers.

Because of the economy we have had less toys and donations come in but at the last min and i mean the last min that has started to over flow too. Today is the giveaway and even this morning i am picking up donations i did not know i would get until just last night. And the toy giveaway is today.

I have had more peace the about this year then ever before too!!!!

God is so good. If you are reading this today please pray for the familes that will be coming. That is will be a way for them to see how much God loves them, that it could be a way of connecting with them, that Jesus light would shine through.

children, toys, and Christmas

right now is the really fun time of the season where i get to help buy toys and find donations for needy families. Last year we helped about a 1000 kids and well every year it has grown a couple hundred so i don't even know what this year will look like. getting donations seems to be a little harder this year but it is not easy any year. The Lord always provides and comes through with amazing miracles. I love to see how he works. I just spoke to a woman that attended the event with her children last year. She is homeless and has been in and out of shelters or living out of her car for the past year. This year she is still in need but is also asking how she can help and volunteer. these are the reason i love doing it. really seeing it touch lives. please keep me in prayer as we are still trying to get enough donations and buy the last part of the toys and clothing we need.

pictures

I just loved my nephew's hat
My sister Chrissy and her baby Lexy

I got up for a run and this was the sunrise that morning

Some pictures from my last trip to New Mexico. Sorry i have not written more this is such a crazy time of year for me. I am in charge of a toy giveaway for needy families in my neighborhood and this is crunch time. But it is the time of year that i really like because of all the anticipation. about two more weeks until the big event. I was thinking back on this past year and I am amazed at how much has happened. It seems like it has been longer then just a year, and yet it has gone so fast at the same time.

my grandpa

My Grandpa went to be with the Lord last Wednesday morning.
I thought it would not be this hard or hurt this
much because he had been sick for a while and knows the Lord and is in now with the Lord. He was ready to go home and now is in no more pain and is
worshiping with the Lord like never before. But it still hurts so much. There is such a
huge loss in my life and my whole families life. Please keep my
Grandma in your prayers too. They would have been married 66 years
last Friday. He was a man so tough he always told us he ate nails for
breakfast, he was so on fire for the Lord you could not help but see
his joy and the light of Christ in his life, and he was the best
example of a prayer warrior I have ever known. i don't want to think
about not having him here and in my life but i know he was ready to be
with the Lord. He was a man that never stopped praising the Lord and
is now doing that all the more.



You could always hear and see the love he had for my grandma. The picture above he is reading her letters while he was stationed in Germany during World War II. He was stationed there during the invasion of Normandy and he lived in fox holes for 11 months during the years he was there. He later got the medal of honor for his heroic acts.

Even in his 80's he was riding his bike with his grandchildren, competing in the senior Olympics (where he won lots of medals) and serving with his church. He was always sharing about the love and grace of God. He was a hero in so many ways!

rain

There is something so relaxing about rain. It is raining tonight, and i love it. ok so i would not love it if i was driving because LA drivers and rain are..... well lets just say not something you want to experience. But i am not driving, i am at home under a large quilt, getting ready to go to sleep to the sound of rain. it also makes it feel more like fall or winter instead of the 90 degree weather we have been having. i love the rain! it rains so rarely in LA it's nice to have these times as long as you don't have to go out. if you have to drive you need to add twice as much time to your travel time because LA drivers get crazy and scared with just a water on the road. kind of funny if you are not out there in it. walking in the rain is another thing all together. one of the things i like to do the most is walk in the rain. it reminds me of college. i went on so many walks in the rain in college, getting soaked but loving it.

fires

The sky had this very strange orange glow all day. The sky that should be blue was full of smoke and you could barely see the sun. When I went out there was ash all over my car and it has been hard to breath even where I live.

The Fire Department reports "Around 800 residences -- ranging from multi-million-dollar mansions to modest prefabricated mobile homes -- have been razed by a series of wind-whipped fires that have erupted through the region since Thursday.

At least 50,000 evacuation orders have been issued and more than 35,600 acres (14,400 hectares) have been destroyed in the blazes, which have stretched from Santa Barbara to southeast of Los Angeles."

LA is always having fires but this time it seems worse then before because its more peoples homes then in the past fires. I don't remember it being this hard to breath before either. It has been very warm all weekend too in the late 80's and 90's. It was just a strange day.

Quilt

i wanted a new quilt so i decided to make one. i have never made one before but thought it would be fun. i had some friends that were going to the fabric district downtown one day so i went with them and got the fabric and started on it. i learned a lot and am pretty happy with my first quilt. it is simple but fun. i think i am going to have to do this more and maybe get a little more crazy with the designs. i have some fun ideas just not the time or money to do it yet. but i really enjoyed seeing a project like this come together. I am going to sleep so good tonight!

My Family is Exploding

So currently I have two beautiful Nieces and two very tough and handsome Nephews. But I am soon going to have many, many more.

My youngest brother Daniel and his wife Beth are expecting a baby girl in January.

My oldest brother Aaron and his wife Sarah are adopting two children from Ethiopian, prayerfully in the spring before the fall of next year.

Two weeks ago I found out that another one of my brothers Lucas and his wife Angela are due in July.

And last week my brother Cisco and his wife Jen called me and said they are due in June.

I also heard my sister Chrissy and her husband Daryl are going to start trying again soon.

Lots and Lots of babies! Crazy!

update on my Grandpa

I just spoke with my dad today and he said my grandpa is still in the hospital but he is not going to have surgery. they just have him on medication and are doing physical therapy with him. hopefully he will come home soon. He fought cancer before so I know he can do it again. He is the toughest man i know. i think it is just good for him to know why he has been so sick. just keep him in your prayers. Thanks

please be in prayer

I just found out my Grandpa Sanchez has gallbladder cancer. He had prostate cancer about 10 years ago but had been total healed from that. But for the past couple of years he has been having a lot of health problems. The doctors gave him a test about a year ago and found out he had gallbladder cancer but for some reason we are not sure why, did not tell him and did not start him on treatment. So he was having more problems this week and went in again to the doctor and that is when they told him about the cancer. They are going to have surgery possible on Monday to take out the tumor. They think he may also have some type of bone cancer but they are not sure and will find out more after the surgery. Please be in prayer for wisdom for the doctors and strength for my Grandpa and Grandma. He is the most amazing man I know. A man that loves the Lord and his family in inspiring ways. I know the Lord has him in his hands what ever might happen.

Zion turns 2

Jenn a friend of mines son Zion turned 2 yesterday and I made the cake for his birthday party. I really had fun making it. He loved it too which was great. It was hard to keep the little kids out of it until it was time to eat it. I should make theme cakes more often, so next time someone turns 3 or 35 let me know and I will create a dinosaur cake or something special like that. :)

bowling

I went bowling with the girls a couple of weeks ago. It was not meant to be a girls night out but I guess the boys were intimidated by our amazing bowling skills. Ok well that may not be totally true. I got more gutter balls that night then I had ever gotten before BUT I was really tired. It was a fun night out I am going to have to do it again, maybe when I am not so tired. :)

amanda and justin's wedding

So here are some pictures from the wedding i did flowers for last weekend. It was a lot of fun, hard long week but a lot of fun.

flowers, weddings, and sunrises

for the last couple of weeks there have been some very beautiful sunrises. I don't mind getting up early so much, when this is what you see. I think it is the clouds that make all the difference. this picture was taken from my camera phone so it is not the greatest but it gives you an idea of the beauty that wakes me.

I am helping with a wedding for a house mate this week so life is kind of every where but i love helping with weddings. this is at least the 8th or 9th wedding i have done the flowers for. going to the flower market downtown is something that words can not even describe. i don't usually have a reason to buy mass quantities of flowers but it is an experience everyone should have at least once. going to a wearhouse filled with flowers from the typical rose to the very rare kinds i don't even know the names for. I am not very good at bargaining for prices but i still love it and the prices you do get, even if you are not good at bargaining are amazing. i love the feel of downtown and i think that is one thing i would miss the most about not being in the city.

grandma nick

i took this picture of my grandma nick this summer.
there is just something i love about it.

Another beautiful Sunrise this morning. Maybe tomorrow I will try to take pictures even if they don't do it justice.

God moments

I have been having some nice little God moments here in the city the past couple of days. Where God does something and you know He is speaking to your heart.

For the past couple of weeks we have been having the normal haze that takes over LA so much of the year in the mornings. Kind of gloomy but it usually burns off by the afternoon. This morning it was different. There was a beautiful sunrise with great cloud formations to show it off. Very different from the grayness it has been lately. I kept wishing I had my camera but I am sure it would not have done it justice. It almost seemed out of character for the city.

Another one of those God moments happened to me last Friday. I wrote a little in my journal about it.

"I am taking the day off today. It is wonderful! Starting with times of silents with God and now I am at the observatory looking out over a foggy city sea. I love the mix of Griffith Park, you are in nature but the city is all around you. You can still hear and even see it if you want but you can also get lost in all of it. It is not like the streams of Colorado, but it has a different beauty all of its own. I am sitting by this amazing tree. I hear all the sounds of the city but it seems far off and the sounds of the bird above me seems to take over."

deep cleanning

There is something satisfying about cleaning. Yesterday I spent 5 hours deep cleaning my kitchen. De greasing and much much more. Somethings no one would notice but I know and it makes me feel a funny kind of joy.

I think I have been afraid of things because I have not been willing to give up what I think things should be like. God seems to try to teach me the same lessons over and over again. But I am ready to step out and be fully here and decide to trust God with what ever that means.

New blog title??

So i don't really like my new title but I had to change it because I am no longer in Colorado. Any one have a good title that would fit me?

Ok so thanks to Christy I think I like my title now

the wide open sky

I miss the big beautiful sky of New Mexico and Colorado. It just does not compare to any other place I have been. That is one thing I miss a lot about living in the city. Sitting outside watching the summer lightning storms. The sunsets that take your breath away every time. It is just something you don't get tired of.

weekend

Mountains

Cabin

Rain

Family

Cards
...........The perfect weekend

road tripping it

Idella and me

Idella's little girl

my little niece Alexys which by the way is a little dare devil

My Grandpa Sanchez

Riding Grandpa's bike with my nephew Nathan

Last week I started road tripping it back to LA with a couple of stops along the way. I left Estes Park on Sunday and stayed the night with my brother and sister in law in Denver and then went to Colorado Spring to visit an old college friend Idella. She is living there with her husband (also a college friend) and two beautiful children. It was an amazing time, the last time I saw her was maybe 8 years ago and yet it seem like not that long ago and also lifetimes apart.

I then went to New Mexico and spent some time with family. It was very restful and I was able to do a little more processing helping me get ready to come back to LA.

I started the trip from NM back to LA on Friday. I think road tripping is such a great way to transition. I love the adventure of starting off even if it is only across the dessert of NM, mountains of AZ and the dessert of CA it seems like an adventure. My air conditioning broke in my car so it was a very hot rude awakening from the cool mountain air I have been use to. It was a good time to think and talk to God and see some amazing beauties of the dessert. I just loved thinking about the changes I have come through from the mountain to the dessert and now back to the ocean.