Medicine of Immortality "It's a cold, and it's a broken, 'Hallelujah!'"

Happy Birthday, Antonio!Posted by Rachel on December 11th, 2011

These last four years have been a blast! Keep growing, learning, and making our lives so much fun, little man!

We’re BackPosted by Rachel on March 9th, 2010

We’ve been away for a while due to blog problems but we’re hoping to wake up things a little around here. Life has been crazy for the past several months. There’s been good crazy and bad crazy. I don’t even know where to begin and I know that at least for now, I can’t get into all of it. But God is always there, and I’m always trying my best to listen.

In September, I went through some trials that left me feeling very down and very self-absorbed with my problems. As the months have passed, I’ve found that in moments, I am able to rise above the pain, and in others, I’ve succumbed to my own weakness. God continues to be gracious and I continue to wrestle with my own sin and pray for the healing of relationships.

My family has been, as always, amazing. Rick is a constant source of comfort and encouragement, and Kyrie and Antonio fill my life with joy and moments of being as carefree as I remember being as a child. Sometimes there is no better description for my children than little angels. And goodness knows they’re not really angels—their behaviour can be exhausting and infuriating—but the love and the innocence that they display from their sweet spirits really help to lift mine. It’s such a joy to be a mom, even though I have those moments when I wonder if I really am called to be a mom. Sometimes I’m just really truly not good at it. At all.

God has been kind enough to open my eyes to friendships that have always been there, waiting for me—and introduce new friends into my life. He has never abandoned me, even when I think that He has.

It’s been difficult for me to enter into the season of Lent this year. Antonio was sick on Ash Wednesday, so I wasn’t able to attend a service. Being able to hear the words “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” while the cross is drawn in ashes on my forehead by the thumb of the priest is something that is so profound to me that I can hardly articulate my feelings about it. It helps to set the tone for the entire season. I have not chosen to give up anything specifically, nor have I conscientiously added any particular disciplines. However, I do find myself returning to the Lord, and drawing closer to Him, and seeing the sickness of my own soul and the desperation with which my whole body aches for salvation.

Mini-CapezzaismsPosted by Rachel on August 9th, 2009

Earlier today, while we were headed to the store, Rick and I were talking about how fun it would be to go to Hawaii (yeah, we often talk of exotic vacation spots, we can’t help it) and Kyrie said, “Hawaii?? That’s the place where they dance.” “Oh, really? What kind of dancing?” we asked her, and she said, “The kind where you wiggle. You wiggle your body. I’ll show you when we get to the store.” Once we got there, she started rocking her hips back and forth in the parking lot and said, “See? That’s the kind of dancing they do in Hawaii.”

Tonight, during Compline, Antonio looked at the eighth notes on the page and kept saying they looked like cars (the ones that were grouped together—I can kinda see it). I explained that it was music, so after Compline ended, he flipped through the LBW to various hymns, singing “Lord, Lord, Loooord!”

And I’m blanking on several other cute things that were said by the kiddos this evening. Maybe it’ll come to me later.

A few RecentsPosted by Rachel on August 7th, 2009

Just thought I’d share a few photos from the past few weeks.

And there was rain.Posted by Rachel on August 7th, 2009

Rain, glorious rain! I’ve hoped for some for quite a while, mostly just so our water bill would not be so high from watering our enormous and rather yellowish lawn, but also just for a change of scenery, and the smell of water on hot pavement and dust that I’d been craving. I love hot, sunny days in summer, but welcome are breaks like these, complete with thunder and lightning. (It even feels like we have air-conditioning in our house right now!)

I have taken lots of pictures that haven’t made their way onto the computer yet. The heat has mostly been to blame for this, since the desktop computer is upstairs, where it is too stifling to stay for more than two minutes at a time, and the laptop doesn’t have Photoshop. And I’m pretty much helpless without my Photoshop. If tomorrow is as mild as this evening, though, I might have some new photos up and ready to share. We’ll see.

I made a cake with marshmallow fondant icing today. It was a ridiculous thing to do with a 3-year-old and 1-year-old wanting to involve themselves in the process, but it was done, not without lots of powdered sugar getting all over everything and everybody. I think everyone has reached their monthly sugar quota as well. The cake turned out just all right for a first attempt. If it had been done by someone about 15 years younger, it might be impressive. As it is, I need practice.

We watched “Enchanted” tonight as a family. I was surprised to see Antonio watching so intently, as he usually completely ignores the TV unless it’s Backyardigans or Blue’s Clues, which will keep about 1 minute of his attention. At the end of the movie, I asked Kyrie, “So, did you like it?” She answered, “No…I loved it!” And so they both continue to grow up at alarmingly fast rates.

Kids are asleep, house is half-messy, half-clean, Rick’s clothes for tomorrow are in the washer, and the fan is blowing the fresh, cool night air over to me. I’m debating between picking up The Jungle and reading from where I left off, or going to bed. I will probably regret it if I start to read, because I have a hard time stopping, especially when there are no cries or pleas coming from little people who always surround me. And then I’ll stay up too late, and pay for it in the morning. But…just one more chapter.

Antonio = very busy, talkative, crazy, little boyPosted by Rachel on July 22nd, 2009

Antonio loves to repeat everything he hears. He also loves to bring me a story, have a story for himself, and then pretend to read his aloud while I read the one he handed me. But sometimes he’ll actually sit in my lap and listen to the book he brought me, like today. He walked over and handed me “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” which I happily began to read to both kids. “In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.” For the next couple pages, Antonio yelled, “LEAF! LEEEAAF! LEEEEEAAAAAAAF!” until I got to the “On Monday, he ate through one apple…” and then he yelled, “APPLE! AAAAAAAAAAAPPLE! AAAAAPPLE” pointing to every fruit on the book after the initial, actual apple. Then, of course, he closed the book before we got to the end, so the poor fat caterpillar never turned into a butterfly.

This kid…he wears me out. He just broke a quart-sized glass measuring container. Must go.

My Little Talking BoyPosted by Rachel on June 30th, 2009

Antonio has really taken off with his vocabulary. He surprises me every day with new words, and is starting to put sentences together. His enunciation is impressive, too! I can’t believe my little baby is talking!

Some recents:

This morning, he picked up a dime and said, “Money!” (Yeah, he was a little overly excited about it, too.)
The other day, he was standing on the back porch, waving to all the cars, and saying, “Hi, cars! (tars)” and when he came inside, he waved and said, “Bye, cars!” and shut the door.
Last week, going to Auntie Bekah’s house, he said, “Bekah’s house!” (sounded like Betah’s house.)
One of his favorite things to ask is “Is this Papa’s?” or “Is this Mama’s?” Or, “Is this Kyrie’s?” when holding up an object like car keys or a toy. Awhile back, he looked at our old Buick before we sold it but after it broke down, and very slowly but surely got out the sentence, “Is this Papa’s car?”
He’s also enthralled with animals and will shout “Bird!” at the seagulls and “Puppies” at any furry creature that walks by. He loves pointing out everyone’s nose, and very clearly says “button” for his belly button (which he was calling a nose, too, until I corrected him).

I don’t know if I could even write an exhaustive list of all the words he uses because he adds onto them every single day. He loves to ask to play at the park (“Play park?”) and to go outside (“Side?”). He also asks politely to nurse now…sometimes. He knows how to, anyway. Four of his favorite things are balloons, puppies, babies, and balls, so I hear those words a lot. He’s well on his way to being chatty just like his sister! I’m in for an earful from both sides pretty soon!

Our Trip to FloridaPosted by Rachel on June 22nd, 2009

It has been embarrassingly long since I’ve updated the ol’ blog. Facebook is to blame, I’m afraid. But I’ll try to do better in the future.

We recently took a trip to Florida and had a wonderful time. Rick has been attending Robbert E. Webber’s Institute for Worship Studies in Orange Park, FL for the past 3 years, spending the past year working on his doctoral thesis, and finishing it up last winter, earning the title of Dr. Capezza. The official graduation ceremony was 8 days ago in Florida, so we decided to plan a family vacation around that time so we could kill two birds with one stone.

We arrived on Wednesday, June 10th, in time for the convocation. The worship was beautiful, and the enthusiasm and love for God was felt in everyone around me as we sang our praises to God without reserve or hesitation. After the service, we drove down to Daytona Beach, where we’d spend the next three days soaking up sun, splashing in the waves, building sandcastles, and relaxing in the pool. We had an oceanfront hotel, which was really just perfect for us. We were able to spend lots of time on the beach, which is mostly what I wanted to do. The kids absolutely loved the pool, and were very brave and confident in the water. Antonio was too afraid of the waves at the beach to get near the water, but liked digging in the sand. Kyrie was thrilled with the waves and also loved looking for pretty seashells along the shore.

On Saturday morning, we left Daytona and drove back into Jacksonville to pick up Rick’s mom from the airport. We spent some time at the mall until our hotel was ready for us to check-in. We had a nice evening at the home of the Creeches, the couple that hosted Rick every time he traveled to Florida for classes throughout his schooling.

The next morning we attended a Russian Orthodox Church in the area. I would have probably enjoyed it more if Antonio hadn’t decided to be a screamer that day. The singing was beautiful. There are definitely aspects of Orthodox worship that I would love to see recovered in Western liturgy. There were other things about the service that I didn’t find particularly appealing, but overall I thought it was a lovely service.

We had to kill some time before the graduation, so we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s to get some energy out (the beach wasn’t an option because we had already checked out of our hotel and didn’t want to come to the ceremony all sandy and salty). They had fun, and to our surprise, we killed all the time we needed and were ready to head over to the church. Rick went to rehearsal and Rick’s mom and I spent some time with the kids in the nursery. I also had the chance to take a few pictures of Rick before the ceremony.

The ceremony was great. Some of the music was a little weird for my taste, but some of it was just beautiful. And the people sang with all their hearts, so the sanctuary was filled with noises of praise to God. After taking lots of pictures following the ceremony (visible on facebook if you’re my friend), we headed to Palm Coast, where we’d spend the remainder of our vacation in a 2-bedroom condo along with Rick’s mom.

It was really cute, spacious, and relaxing. The pool there was huge, and we made sure to get plenty of use out of it. We also managed to make it to the beach, although sadly, the beach there wasn’t as nice as Daytona beach. We had lots of fun anyway, though.

On Wednesday morning, we packed up and headed back to Jacksonville. No trip to the South is complete without a visit to the Cracker Barrel, so that was where we ate lunch. Soon after, we dropped Rick’s mom off at the airport, and then went to a few stores to kill some time before our flight. It was beastly hot, so we found a Chick-fil-A with an indoor play place and let the kids get some energy out before the long flight home. We stayed there until it was time to get to the airport, return the rental car, and check-in for our flight. Other than the long, 4 hour flight in the middle, it was all relatively smooth travel on the way back. Our vacation was just what we needed, but it was really good to be home.

How I’ve been occupying my timePosted by Rachel on March 11th, 2009

It’s been FREEZING for March here in Spokane. We’ve set a couple new records for coldest lows and highs the past couple days. So, when it’s too chilly to enjoy the outdoors, I’ve been crafty in the house!

I made a fitted diaper for Antonio, which is super cute, but sadly needs a cover if I don’t want him to leak onto something like the furniture. I think I am going to wait until I have some PUL (waterproof fabric) before I use up the rest of this material, and then make an AIO (all-in-one) diaper next time. That way, I won’t have to cover up the cute fabric! Still, I love how this turned out.

Then, I made a dress for Kyrie, using my own pattern. She loves it, and I’m pretty happy with the results, although there were a couple things I wished I’d done just a bit differently.

Kids in CamoPosted by Rachel on March 10th, 2009