Mr. Badger got a JOB!!!

Keith just interviewed for a middle school English teaching position at 11am today! At 3:15 he got a call from the principal who offered him the job and asked if he was still interested in teaching 7th graders....and of course Keith said "Yes!" He starts tomorrow getting all the official paperwork done and prepping for teaching--classes start next Monday morning (1/4)!

It feels so good to see the fruit of following the Lord's leading. Thank you to everyone who has prayed and written letters and helped us along in so many ways to get us to this point.

Well, there is a lot to do in a short amount of time! Pray for Keith Monday morning at 8:30....he will start his new career as Mr. B....and with a bunch of junior highers..he's a brave man :)!!!

Five Years Ago...

Five years ago, I fought back the tears as I watched my bride walk down the aisle towards me. What a day that was, and we've had so many unbelievable highs and lows since then. We've welcomed two jaw-droppingly beautiful girls into our family and fought through a cancer diagnosis, a career change, and several moves. What I would LOVE is if you, our friends and family, would post a comment with your favorite memory of Cara and I as a couple. Or even a wish for us in the future. It would mean so much to us, plus serve as a surprise for Cara, who doesn't know I'm posting this.

Cara,

You and I have been through the gauntlet. I love thinking of our story together, that first night we hugged out at Avila, the night in the parking lot of Mustang Village I finally got up the courage to ask you out, the saturday afternoon you said yes, and five months later when we said I do and then I attack-kissed you. As amazing as all those moments are, the moments I love most are now--and our future is brighter than ever. You deserve so much more than I can ever give you, and I'm in awe of your courage, your commitment, and your ever-growing beauty. Happy Anniversary! I love you so much!

Selma update

So we're here in Selma and we have a few initial thoughts:

*Love the house; warm, cozy, just the perfect size, amazing oranges in the side yard!

*Neighbors are incredibly friendly

*Foggy!

*Distinct lack of coffeeshops everywhere

*ATT phone lines to the house don't work, so no home phone or internet until Saturday (I'm at Starbucks in Kingsburg). Cara and I have developed a no-internet twitch.

*Sadie was freaked out at first when she realized all her familiar stuff was in an unfamiliar house. Now she's fine, though.

*Christmas decorations everywhere!! I've never seen so many lawn Santas and Snowpeople.

*We can see the snowcapped Sierras! Love it.

*Miss our SLO friends and family!

There is so much to write, but overall we are excited about our new location! We'll try to have pictures by the weekend!

He Is DONE!

Keith is at school right now finishing up grades and then we'll be off to Selma (trying to beat the storm). I've been working since 6 this morning cleaning, packing and last minute errands so we can leave with my wonderful husband gets home. We are taking the next week for family time and I'm so excited I feel a child going to Disneyland!

So...
Selma here we come!

Our newest adventure is about to start...I hope we are ready :)
And I hope the girls love their new home.

Tomorrow we are going to try to get a Christmas tree and maybe even make a gingerbread house!

All Better...I Hope

Well, I think we are all better from the never ending flu! And I got a call from my dr. yesterday about my CT scan...all clear!!! Yay :)

only 1 more day!

It's starting to hit me a little that we are actually moving.
The girls and I are going to take Keith lunch at school tomorrow to celebrate his last day of student teaching. I wonder what we should bring?

Flu Flu go AWAY

And don't come back another day!!!

We have been sick for almost a week now with the stomach flu...yucky

I started feeling the churning stomach on Thursday early morning, went back to bed and lost "it" later that morning.

Sadie lost "it" a few times Thursday evening and when I got up with her Friday morning she lost "it" on me a few times...but then acted fine later that day

Keith came home Monday night feeling odd, lost "it" at midnight and had to go to school this morning since he used his last sick day staying home to take care of me and the girls on Friday.

And then Bekah. I was hoping she dodged the barf bullet but this afternoon when I got home from my CT scan she greeted me with a snuggle hug and proceeded to loose "it" (and I mean all over it) all over me. Poor thing is still not able to keep even water down but she just fell asleep, hopefully for the night.

Ever since our horrible experience last year with the flu (it hit us all really hard) I get anxious anytime the girls are sick so this week has been a struggle. This dang flu just wont go away.

At least we only have 3 more days until my husband will be a graduate of Cal Poly...for the second time :)

5 days and counting

Keith is about to start his last week of student teaching! Friday night we will be celebrating his HUGE accomplishment. We've almost made it, it's within our grasp!!! We are so very ready to move forward and discover what the Lord has for us in this new stage of life (hopefully it involves less moving around, less doctors, less stress and much much more family time :).

And for the record...I was able to get my hair to look like it's "old" self today. YAY!!! I should probably take a picture. Oh..and this weekend marks the one year completion of my cancer treatment! I have a CT scan on Tuesday and a dr. appt on Wed...hopefully I'm still in remission :).

A Few Pictures of Our New Home

Well...this is it :). The front of the house could use a little color....but nothing a few flower bushes can't do!

This is the front porch! I'm so excited to have one....I've always wanted a place to relax outside. Now I just need some furniture for the summer time. I think I want white wicker to soften up the dark brown of the house....any other ideas?

And our living room! (btw the front door is 4ft wide - it made moving in really easy). The valence came with the house so I'd like to replace them with a not so gold/fluffy style or I'm going to make some....I just need to decide what color to bring in.

Our bedroom. We have the loving brown wall in but at least it's kinda hidden behind the furniture and drapes...every old house needs one ugly wall right.

This is the girls room. They have their own "walk" in closet and bathroom! So fun! Sadie's crib is on the wall you can't see but her stuff is in there too.

The dinning room. Our table ended up fitting really nicely in this spot and I started doing a little Christmas decorating before we left so those are ornaments hanging from the light.

This is one of the sides of the beautiful built in hutch...I'm finally able to display my china :)

I love this hutch!!! I've always wanted one and right when you walk in our front door your eye automatically goes to this beauty....I wanted to rent this house the moment I saw it :)

"The Nook". I decided to put the girls table in the kitchen nook so that we could do projects and play dough over tile and not carpet....it turned out fitting really well.

This is one of our craigslist find! The house didn't come with a kitchen and our landlords said if we wanted to find one they would take off a week of rent...this stove saved us $152...very cool!

And this is my cute little kitchen. It's small but I think it will be very functional. There is a dishwasher to the left of the sink and cabinets lining the walls above the counters. All of the wood and tile look new and so clean! The house also has central heat and air, fans in every room, a big backyard, a large laundry/service porch off the kitchen -we found our washer and dryer off of craigs list too and I'm so excited to see what if's like to have laundy in my oun home...I'm sure it's great!!!

So we are pretty much all moved in and in a few weeks Keith will be done with scholl and we will take our girls to their new home for the fist time since moving in. We are very excited to settle in and make our first house a home!

So Much To Do...and so little time!!!

Well needless to say we have been VERY busy these past few weeks!
Keith turned the big 26 years old
Bekah turned the big 3 years old
Keith has 4 weeks left of his student teaching...Yay!!!
and
We finally sat down and talked about what our next step is after Keith get's his teaching credential. After many months of discussing, praying and avoiding the topic we finally made a decision.
WE ARE MOVING....to the valley
And we are actually looking forward to it...and least mostly. We always knew we would most likely need to move out of SLO after Keith graduated but we finally decided to go the Fresno area. My sister - Katie - lives in Kingsburg with her family and loves it. Our good friends just moved to Visalia for teaching jobs. There are about 4 or 5 job openings that Keith has applied for in the area and plenty of subbing opportunities if the jobs don't work out. The rent is lower and the jobs pay more.....and most importantly we both felt led to take this step and go....so we are.
I went up with my mom and the girls this past weekend and after a lot of searching I found a cute little older house that has 2 small bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a big back yard!!! and laundry hook ups!!!! (Keith and I have been married for almost 5 years and we have never had laundry in our home). It's on a quiet street in Selma (8 minutes away from my sister) and our landlords are really sweet... and they live right next door. They offered the house to me a few minutes after we met and hugged me when I left! Oh and it's month to month rent!

Keith and I are moving all of our stuff up the weekend before Thanksgiving (I have sooooo much packing to do!) so that I have a few days to clean our appartment and maybe have a garage sale before Dec. 1st. Then we will spend the first two weeks of Dec. living back at my mom's house while she and Bill are out of town so that Keith can finish school and then it's up to our new home in Selma.

I can't belive I'm actually going to be leaving San Luis - this is a first for me - but I'm ready for the next step in this journy we call life and I'm excited to see the blessings that come from it.

Surgery Update

Thanks for all who have been praying for my Dad (see previous post). The update is that the doctor said the prostate surgery went "perfect" and the outlook is excellent. I know he so appreciates your prayers, so thank you! Keep em coming!

In other news, I am slightly over the half-way point at my student teaching down at Lopez High School in Arroyo Grande. I just submitted grades for my first term and continue to be alternately inspired and, yes, sometimes infuriated by my students. Some are fighting to get an education despite already having babies or dealing with crippling life circumstances while others lose more and more of themselves through drugs and alcohol. And I get to walk in there every day and do my best to empower them. I love this profession.

Thanks Cara for being so understanding, loving, and just all around amazing!! She is making sacrifices every day to allow me to follow my dream.

Surgery for my Dad tomorrow

Around two months ago now, my Dad (Mike Badger) was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer. I'm humbled to remember that he was diagnosed just after Cara and I were reflecting back on the last year and asking Why did God have us go through all that? The answers to the question are unfathomable, but it left us realizing that God has a plan, however cliche that may sound--it is absolutely true.

So tomorrow my Dad goes up to Mountain View to have surgery. Since they caught it early, the chances for full recovery are extremely high and he won't need chemo or radiation, phew! He's in good spirits tonight and looking for how God can most be glorified through this latest trial, but he needs prayer for tomorrow morning and the subsequent recovery. So take a moment just as you're reading this to stop and pray for him--thank you!

Wherever you are tonight, here's hoping that your afflictions are being eclipsed by glory.

Is there such thing as an EEA group!!!

I've been eating left over pizza and mini cinnamon rolls all day and I need to stop but I can't...I keep telling myself that my diet starts up again tomorrow but part of me really doesn't want it to...and as I'm typing this post all I want to do is go eat more junk food! I think I may need to join
Emotional Eaters Anonymous

Why does bad food have to be so stinkin yummy?

Our Sadie Lady

icecream anyone

these pictures are from our summer vacation but they make me smile...

Cole Robert

is here! My sister Katie and her hubby Rob are new parents as of last night at 11:05! Cole is 7lbs 6oz and 21 inches long!

I can't wait to meet my new nephew and my girls are just as excited. When I showed Bekah (I was sent his picture on the phone) she held it like a baby in her hands and started swaying and whispering, when I showed Sadie the picture she leaned in for a kiss and now they are working on an art project to give him....they already love him....cousin love is so cute.

First Day Of School....Again

Keith is off to school!

11 weeks

to go!!!

Doesn't he look excited....I'm so glad he found what he loves to do. I've always known that I married a special man but I think he's extra special now....he has such a gift for teaching and a huge heart for his students...it makes me wish I had him for a teacher growing up...

Counting Down

I'm officially starting my count down 'till Keith is done with school!

12
weeks left

This week we are practicing getting him out of the house by 8am or earlier so that next week we don't go into shock (he's teaching at Lopez Continuation High School so he's going to need to be out of the house around 7am starting next week)....he'll be gone all day at the Cal Poly library working on lesson plans and job applications...so exciting!!!

He has 10 weeks of full-time student teaching..and 1 week off for Thanksgiving so December 4th he will be "real" TEACHER!!!!

Yay husband we've almost made it!

I'm am SOsoSO proud of you!!! and I love you even more!

We're Back! Pt. 2

On to Hume Lake! That place is amazing. 8 days up there were just what we needed since, honestly, we had been feeling so frazzled and completely drained. Up there, we tried not to worry about what we ate. We didn't think twice about what to wear. We ate an insane amount of ice cream (and one delicious peppermint Hume shake). We tried to be spontaneous. We canoed, swam, biked, read, made new friends, and dug lots of holes in the sand. We had a vacation. Or a "cation" as Bekah called it.

Sure, it was still stressful and tiring many times because that's what life with two active little girls is. But there seemed to be more moments of clarity, moments where we could watch the girls play and think, "What a gift they are."

We're Back! Pt. 1

What a trip it was! As mentioned before, we loaded up our little Corolla and headed first up to Cara's Dad's place near Bass Lake. Our friends Jen and Brennan met us up there, and then the next day Scott and Annette were awesome enough to watch the girls all day while we went into Yosemite. I completely lost track of how many times I uttered words like ridiculous, crazy, and WOW! Most of the time, my mouth was agape as I stared across the valley from Glacier Point and later stood looking up as two speck-like climbers ascended El Capitan.






For one day, we saw quite a bit of the park, even pushing each other up the Vernal Falls hike (I have never seen so many steps in my life). There really are no words to describe that place.



Our heart-felt gratitude goes to Papa Scott and Nana Netty for giving us a girls free day. And then we get back at the end of the day, and the girls had a blast. Bekah's toes were even painted, a fact she was exceedingly proud of. Another bonus: they were tired. Bekah fell asleep the next day mid-coloring. Hilarious!

2 more days!!!

We leave for our first family vacation since Bekah was 6 months old!!!...and half of it will be with just our family of four....so technically this is our FIRST family vacation with just our family since Keith and I went on our honeymoon.

Wednesday evening we head up to my dads in Bass lake and meet up with some friends of ours (my old roommate and her hubby).

Thursday we (me, Keith, Jen, Brennan) go into Yosemite for the day (Keith has never been) and we get to leave the girls with Papa Scott and Nana Netty!

Friday we drive down to Kingsburg to spend the night at my sisters and...

Saturday we head up to HUME LAKE! We have friends up there who have opened up their home for us to stay at until the end of the month while they are on their own family get away!

Sunday we plan to wake up slow, have fun, relax, talk to my husband, relax, play with my girls, read, take bike rides, relax, go to the snack shop, eat ice cream, play in the water, relax, stay away from our emails, take naps, run around in the sun and pretend real life doesn't exist....and then we plan to repeat this for 7 days!!!

We are so very excited to get out of town! I don't want to pack, work, prep for being gone. I just want to be there!

Eecho Jello

Last night, we had a family dinner date at the Laity's and had a great time! During our fun, Bekah decided to name one of Caedra's naked baby dolls Eecho...she came running up to the table where we were sitting and said "look Eecho's naked!!!" We all laughed and wondered where that name came from. She talked about Eecho throughout the night, and then on our late night ride home she said "Eecho's name is Jello". I have no idea where that name came from either but when Keith and I said to Bekah..."so, the baby's name is Eecho Jello," Bekah said "Yeah!" We started cracking up! Good times!!! :)

She's still talking about him this morning!

One Year Ago...

I found out I officially had Hodgkins Lymphoma...I had become a cancer patient. Yikes!

I remember thinking about my life, my new born baby, my then 1 year old, my husband who I had only been married to for 3 1/2 years and Iwondered if I would live through the next year. I tried to think possitively - having thoughts like....I've always wanted to buzz my hair and now I have a good reason too, I hope I lose all my baby weight since I'm going to need chemo...at least if I get sick from it I'll get thin in the process (that didn't happen at all), and..ok...I'm just getting all the "downs" out of the way early in my life (2 hard pregnancys, cancer and husband going back to school).

Now I'm ready for the "UPS"!

My baby girl is now 1 yr old and is walking all over the place! My big girl wants to go to preschool and told me today that I'm cute :). My husband and I will be celebrating out 5 year anniversary in December and he will be done with his teaching cradential in 4 months! And best of all I'm still in remission!!!

I often wonder why God chose me and my family to go through this journey. I hope one day I'll realize the purpose for it all. For now I'm just grateful that He kept me on this earth so that I could see my little girls grow up. I feel like I've been given a second chance to be a mom and wife and I'm so thankful for that!

Thanks you to everyone who helped us survive this past year! We couldn't have done it with out so much support!!!

What's New With Us You Ask???

Keith is done teaching for the Summer, and he just found out he passed the PACT (big test of his teaching skills)
Cara has started going on "happy jogs" almost daily....instead of going on 'happy meds'
Bekah loves going on bike rides and can go quite fast now
Sadie is walking!!! and trying to run...she wants to be like big sister
Keith is amazing as usual and gave Bekah a manicure and pedicure this afternoon!
Cara is trying to find the balance between being a mommy, wife, employee, and friend...any suggestions?
Bekah tries to sneak out of bed at night like Cara did as a kid...she lays at the top of the stairs playing until we hear her
Sadie likes to walk through Bekahs block towers like Godzilla and pretend she doesn't know what she's doing :)
Keith has dicovered he is addicted to coffee just like me...we started drinking 1/3 caf. and it doesn't work quite as well
Cara has 15lbs to go before making her goal weight..bring on the veggies
Bekah loves to sing songs...it's so sweet
Sadie loves blueberries...we call them madames after the Veggie Tales movie 'Madame Blueberry'
We all went to the Santa Barbara Zoo last weekend and has a GREAT time together! The girls love seeing all the animals and Keith and I love the drive time....we use it as a date while the girls sleep

What's new with you???

I thought this only happened in movies...

Keith got up with Bekah around 6am and got started on the dishes....and they got the dishwasher going.....when I got up around 6:45am with Sadie I walk into the kitchen to find Keith and Bekah looking very confused at a pile of suds on the floor...after taking in the foaming dishwasher and growing pile of suds I asked Keith what kind of dishwashing soap he used...the dishwasher by this time is making some weird groaning noises and for good reason......on the back of a very large liquid dish soap container that Keith and the girls bought from Costco it says:
"do not use in automatic dishwashers"...

Oh my two big helpers...daddy and oldest daughter...who could ask for more.......at least Bekah had a lot of fun helping clean up all the bubbles....and part of my kitchen floor got a good cleaning :)

why did i check lara's blog today????

this is why there is a big picture of me, myself and i on this post....thanks lara!!!

"So I guess these are the rules.. [Lara Laity] tagged me for this. I think the rules are that you have to take a photo of yourself as soon as you see you've been tagged and you're not allowed to primp or get all dolled up...."

...although i have to admit....i did lick my lips just to help myself out a little...was that against the rules...oh well...happy wednesday

...oh and olivia, carrie, and summer....you are tagged! :)

Our Busy Summer

So I thought once we reached summer our schedule would be less crazy....I think I was wrong. The past few weeks have been insane with work and life but I'm making it my personal goal to figure out a way to have some much needed fun family time...and maybe some alone time too. Last week the girls and I met Keith in AG (one of his jobs is close to the village) and we all went to Klondikes Pizza and then to Bernardo's for one scoop (shared by all of us :) of peach ice cream (flavor picked by Bekah- I would have gone for chocolate). It was such a wonderful fun family date - I can't wait to splurge like that again....we all needed it and it was so so worth it.
Yay for Family Dates!!!

Say Cheese!!!

Friday night movie night has become a tradition in our home, we...make "sugar popcorn" (air-popped popcorn with melted butter and brown sugar sprinkled over the top, netflix a fun kid movie (tonight it's The Brave Little Toaster), push the ottoman up to the couch so it's like a big bed and cover it with a quilt. Tonight Bekah's best friend came over to join us - they each had their own bowl of sugar popcorn, juice cup, blanket and pillow....sounds pretty relaxing to me :)

Today the girls wresled for the first time and it didn't end in tears! They were so cute to watch...they loved rolling around on the floor with eachother screaming and giggling :)

I think Sadie Won!!!

Last week I took the girls for a Bali's yogurt and they loved it. I love this yogurt shop because you serve yourself - I get them each a squirt of yogurt in their own cup and it costs under a $1....pritty good huh!

Oh these girls are so cute...at least I think they are but that might just be because I'm their mommy :)

Have a great weekend!

Growing Girls

My girls are growing up...

BEKAH
can sing the ABC'c only missing 2 letters
can count up to 17
wears big girl panties all the time except when she sleeps
washes her little sister's back with soap during bath time
likes to put real puzzles together (the ones with big pieces and with a little help)
wants to pick out her outfit everyday and do everything by herself
and
I just sent in an application for her to attend Tiny Tigers pre-school in the fall!

SADIE
is eating real food...she loves green peas, beets and strawberries
can stand up all by herself from sitting
can take one solid step before dropping to her knees to crawl
loves to scream with excitement when she and her big sis are playing
loves to "read" books, speed crawl for the stairs when I haven't yet put up the gate
and
she has bangs now....making her look like a real little girl

wow...time goes by so fast!

my "Mommy's Helper"

I'm so excited....my cousin Leanna is coming over tomorrow morning to play with my girls so that I can get some house work done!!! Keith has been gone so much and I've been working close to 30hrs a week the past few weeks (during nap time and after I get the girls to bed I might add) so I've had no time to get any good cleaning done....and it's getting kinda nasty! The girls always want to "help" every time I try to get anything done...the most popular ways are by sitting on my hip while I try to work and by trying to climb up my legs if I stand in one place for more that a few seconds (yes Sadie is the worst culprit - and she does this even if I'm not cleaning!) Oh and by needing to nuggle...you know who makes this request :)

Monday is just a day away...hopefully I can get some good sleep tonight so I can clean to my hearts content tomorrow morning! Is it sad that I'm so excited to get cleaning done?

I miss my husband

yes...that's all there is to it...I just really miss having my best friend around. I don't know why today is so hard...maybe because it's Friday and I'm tired...or because the girls and I were able to have some real family time with him for a few hours yesterday evening and it left me wanting more..a lot more...or maybe it's just because I have no motivation to do anything and I wish I could just sit down with a cup of coffee and have a long conversation with the man I love

...only a few more weeks until he's off for summer break and hopefully then the missing will go away....

well, I kinda sound like a love sick pup, oh well...sometimes I just need to let myself feel pathetic

Mommy I wanna nuggle!

This has been a very frequent request from Bekah lately...she is becoming a very good snuggler. Every morning, nap time and bed time she needs to be nuggled and I can never seam to hold her tight enough or long enough...if it was up to her we'd probaly lay in bed all day watching movies and nuggling.

Well I better go....I'm being asked to nuggle... :)

Bed Head and Coffee!

These two go hand in hand for me...especially when the girls are waking up around 5:30 every morning :).
Happy Monday!