Catch-up Time...

So moving....was incredibly emotional. My parents helped load up our U-haul, and then we spent that last night in town at my parents' house. Hubby and I drove our car (with the dog in the crate in the back) and my dad drove the Uhaul. My mom and the kids followed later. (There's a funny story there about Dramamine, but I'll share later.)

We arrived at the house, and it is huge!! Almost 700 sq ft more than our previous house, and like I said before, because God is good, almost 1000 sq ft bigger than the first rent house we thought we would live in. (and cheaper still - how amazing is that?!?) It took a while to get things unloaded and what not, but we finally got settled.

Then the next thing was getting everyone ready for school - the older two started school 3 days after we moved. That was done on purpose, because that way they were not sitting around all summer wondering who they could play with. It also helped force us all into a routine quickly. The 2 pictures are from the first day of 3rd grade (sigh!) and the first day of Kindergarten. (yes I cried!) Lil Miss Kindergarten only goes a half-day, but that's what I did, and it works well for our schedule. Az5 goes to a local PDO 5 days a week while I'm working, and she loves it - she has adjusted very well to the new surroundings and schedule too.

A few thoughts about moving...

So let me just confess before I start any updates that this move has been the biggest emotional wrenching thing I've done in my whole life. It has been harder on me than anyone else in my family - living in the same town almost 30 years (the only place I'd ever known) and then leaving is awful. Hard. And there's just no other way to say it - I think I probably went through a bout of depression over it. Yes, I'll admit to that - there were days when I didn't care what was going on in the world and didn't care to be part of it either. Please understand - I've been through incredibly difficult/hard times in my life before, but I still had my family (extended) around; I still lived in the same place - still walked into the grocery store and knew almost everyone, still went to the same church, still knew how to get any where in town by shortcuts, etc. I still drove by my high school and college on a regular basis. These were all things that comforted me.

Now the Lord had shaken me to the core of who I was, and all I had to lean on was Him and the beautiful family He had provided. While it is a scary thing to have everything in life turned topsy-turvy, the blessing is that HE is enough - He is sufficient! Praise God that He loves me (and my family) enough to not just provide for my salvation but also for my mental well-being. And more than enough for our physical needs and even some wants too! More to come on all of that in future posts...but rest assured, I am now back towards feeling like the "normal" me, a more wholesome me, but wanted you to understand what a life-changing event this move has been for me, more so than anyone else.

Howdy! Happy New Year!

Been a while since I posted, huh? That's just how life goes I guess... well, I'm going to take the next 15 minutes and see how much I can catch you up on before the muchachos wake up from their naps. :)

WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!!

I talked to Hubby earlier, and he has house keys!!! (And yes it is the big/cheaper house!) Thank goodness! Now we can go ahead and start moving - moving utilities, moving mail, and moving us! The Uhaul comes on Friday morning.... :)

Update on our Housing (or lack thereof...)

Good morning! So here's where we stand - the first rent house we had secured we are considering gone. The owners will not return Az1's phone calls, so we have no idea whether or not the other party got them the deposit. At this point we refuse to do business with them anyways. He went over the weekend and saw 3 potentials: 1 duplex that has a small backyard, a small house with a decent backyard, and then a huge house (the one that is double the size) with a huge backyard. We talked a lot over the phone about the pros and cons of this - the huge house requires a year lease. I was not happy - at first. But then I realized this hasn't been my plan to begin with, but His, and I am trusting Him to provide the best for us. So we decided to go ahead and apply for the big rent house. We are waiting for the owner to call us back at this point - he received our application yesterday. (It's just verifying employment, etc, that I think we're waiting on - very standard stuff.) I'm at peace with the year lease, for several reasons. One, we won't be moving the kids around during the school year, which will be very good for them. Also, it totally takes the pressure off of us selling our current house - we can let it sit and just wait. If it doesn't sell until January, we'll be okay. (Obviously not our preference, but we can just wait and hopefully get the price we want.) Also it gives us a huge amount of time to find a new house to buy - we don't have to go with whatever's available either. So I think it really is a good option - I'd just like to hear asap from the owner so we can start switching utilities and forwarding addresses....sigh..... :)

Update...

Daddy called the rent house people yesterday, and they will not answer his calls now. So we've decided to take that option off the table to keep from getting burned any further. He is going to see a rent duplex today and then a house tomorrow, so hopefully we have something to go with on Monday. At this point, we don't have a place to live still once we get up there, but I'm just trusting God that He will work it out for us. (The place Daddy's going to look at on Sunday would be double the size of the first house as well as cheaper - how funny would that be?!?) I'll keep you posted - the Uhaul is still coming on Friday, and we've still got to get up there next weekend. School starts for the older two on Wednesday 8/20.

Plans, Schmans....

We have planned to move next Friday (8/15) and have a u-haul reserved, electricity switched over, etc, to a rent house we found via an acquaintance up there. However, Hubby received a call today from the rent house owners' stating that they have another person interested, and that second party has until 5pm today to get them a deposit. If that happens, we do not have a place to move to. If the second party does not get a deposit to the owners, then they will accept a rent check from us and we can move in. We have no back-ups, as this has been in place for weeks now. Please pray for us! I'm nervous, but at peace - God has brought us too far not to have this already taken care of. This did not surprise Him, and I will trust in His perfect plan. (However, that does not mean it's going to be easy for us to work around this...and we have 7 days to figure out what His plan is.

The Moving Plan

So here's the plan: Daddy will drive a rent car down here on Thursday 8/14 and return it here. Then on Friday, he, GranDaddy, and I will load the U-haul and drive that and the Explorer up there to the rent house. (It is our realtor's mother's house - what a blessing!) We will then unload that night as well as Saturday, plus moving Daddy out of his apartment. The kids will stay Friday night with GrandMommy here, and then they will all come up on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully we will have at least their rooms/beds/things set up by the time they get there...or as much as we can without supervision! ;)

The older 2 will start school on the next Wednesday. I am supposed to return to work that day, but if I don't have anything set up from home, I don't know that it will happen. We have found a PDO for Az5 to attend, but it starts the week after the kids start school. I'm still not sure how it will all work out, but I know that God will take care of all the details! :)

A Dress-Up Tea Party

Somebody turned 5 at our house last week - can you believe it?!? She wanted a "grown-up" tea party, so we invited her friends from her preschool class as well as good friends from church. It was a BLAST!! (even us Moms had fun!) We asked everyone to dress up and started out with a hot potato game. Then we had teaspoon races - boys vs girls - where they had to put the spoon in their mouth and carry a chicken bouillion cube over to a bowl. The boys won the first time but then it was a tie. We moved to high tea then - you'll notice that we are using REAL china tea cups and saucers in the picture! Everyone had perfect manners, and loved the real china (no, didn't chip or break a thing!). We had pb&j sandwiches, fruit, and animal crackers with tea. Then, instead of a big cake, I used the mix to make individual chocolate cupcakes. We turned them upside down, spread on the frosting, used twizzlers and m&m's for decorations, and added a sour ring for a tea cup handle - too cute!! After that we opened presents, and her highness received several new Barbies, which have been the talk of the house ever since. It was good to see all of her friends again - especially to have one last chance to play with her preschool friends! (BTW the purple dress is special to me - it was my flower girl dress in a wedding when I was around 5... ;) )

From Buffalo to Fishes...

After we saw the buffalo, it was so hot in the middle of the afternoon, we just HAD to go swimming and eat supper at the Grandparents' house! ;) The kids have been swimming almost every other day at Summer camp, and boy did it show this time. They both did not hesitate a second to jump in without help, and Az3 is even swimming! (okay, not totally, but he puts his head UNDER the water and kicks off to wherever he wants to go, and can even come up for a breath and then keep going!) Az4 will dog paddle to get where she wants, and doesn't always stop to think about the depth of the water. Even Az5 has lost some of her fear of the water, and is a riot with her floatie tube - she puts it under her arms and kicks furiously under the water to motorboat her way around - "I walking..."

Yep. No floaties. In the deep end.

Where the buffalo roam....

A couple of weekends ago, we had the pleasure of heading out to one of GranDaddy and GrandMommy's friends' place, to see their buffalo! Yes, real live buffalo - not more than 30 minutes from my house! It was amazing. They have a small ranch south of town, and a herd of around 170 head. (I LOVED their bunk house there - very simple but elegant - decorated in the stuffed animals he has shot on various hunting trips all around the world!) So we headed out to the pens and fields, and the first thing we saw was their longhorn - named Double T!! :) Then we saw the buffalo - several monsters of 2500+ lbs were the men, and the smaller, less shaggier ones were the females. The best part was getting to see the calves - they have been having calves for several weeks now, so we saw them in age from 3 days old (so sweet! and still shaky on her legs) up to several months. One mama was very fat (preggers) and started walking up and down the fence rubbing her sides there - our host pointed out that last time that happened, they had a calf the next morning. The buffalo do not give birth in front of humans, and our friends don't offer assistance. They are perfectly capable of handling that - the closest our friends have come to seeing a birth is walking out and finding a wet calf on the ground, with mama still cleaning it up. God in His wisdom... ;)

Listing Link Updated

The online listing link for the house is updated with lots of good interior pictures! Hurray! Let me know if you need the link again. :)

Chatterboxes!

BTW, we now have a sign in our yard - hurray! I'll let you know when the listing is updated with more inside pictures - email me if you need the link again.

Have I mentioned that I'm surrounded by chatterboxes?? Az4 never stops talking. Never. If a thought pops into her little head, then it's out through her mouth. Today I heard all about how she could do this if that, and if not, then she could do this, or if something else happened, then she had to do that. (All about clearing the table....)

Az5 has become a talker in her own right too recently - just in the last few weeks. She has moved from single/two-word ideas ("more milk, no!mine!, I can) to complete sentences. Today's prounouncement was right before dinner - I hungry, eat crackers please? She is not only stringing together full sentences, but starting to talk about herself and others, including actions and feelings. The word "because" is also showing up lately. It's really cute to watch a 2.5-yr-old try and be deadly serious about her toys or her siblings.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a blast - the kids and I went up to see Daddy and look for a new house. We got started with the realtor, and I think she has a good idea of what we want now. (So do we....4 bedrms, 2 bath, at least same square feet as now, plus a big backyard). We did find a couple that if we were able to make an offer on, we would have. Plus we have had our house here shown a few times, so we're trusting on God to work all the details and timing out for us. (I am praying it is soon!)

We went to see a fireworks display at a huge park in a town just 2 minutes away from Daddy's apt - billed as the biggest choreographed display in the state. We had a blast walking around beforehand, looking at all the vendors and rides and of course, sampling some funnel cake! The show was great - the kids loved it, the music was wonderful, and I got teary as usual. I truly am proud to be an American, and proud that my children are being raised in a country founded on Christian morals and the idea that all people are created by God with rights and freedoms.

Looking For After Pictures?

Here they are....now you can understand why I've been a "house hermit" the last few weeks....praying it will go quickly and without fuss or much trouble. :)

So very sad....

Our house was broken into on Thursday. We were robbed, in between my going to work and Daddy and the kids getting home. Our laptop, printer, all our cameras and video cameras are gone. They are just things, so we are very very thankful that no one was hurt. However, the only things we can't replace now are the videos and the pictures - some going back as far as 2005. Homeowners' insurance will cover replacing most of the electronics, so we honestly don't have much to complain about. However, would you pray with us that God would return the pictures and videos? We know He can work miracles, and He did return our honeymoon pictures to us that we just "knew" were lost after EIGHT years. I know He can do this. :)

Hello from Cincinnati!

Hey there Yogi Bear! Howdy from Cinci! I've had a blast here, and have been here all week for work. It's my first ever work trip, and I've never been away from hubby and the kids for this long. (Confession: it was a great working vacation! Seriously....when else have I had a bathroom all to myself for a week?) I have never worked or played so hard in a long time. I'll fill you in more later, but the highlights of the week were getting to go to my company's corporate offices and meeting the "big" people, personal freedom, getting to make new friends from all over the US/Canada, plus from the Phillippines and India. Way cool! Also, I have to confess - we stayed out last night forever - I finally got to my hotel room at 5:30am!!!! (Understanding too that I was with a Director over all of North America and we were in several hotel rooms for a long time talking...) Anyways, I need to finish up some work stuff and catch my flight - I am soooooooo ready to get home and see my husband and my babies!!!

Happy New Year!

Our prayer is that 2008 finds all of our friends and family knowing how high, how long, how wide, and how deep is the love of God. Blessings to you all!

The Polar Express

Grammy and Papa had gotten us all tickets to ride the Polar Express the Thursday after Christmas, to take Santa back to the North Pole. We didn't tell the kids until we got there, otherwise they would have been jumping out of their skins. It was SOOOOOOO COOL!!!! (And I'm not 8 years old, and it was soooo COOOL!!!) I was really impressed, as was everyone else, since the only thing missing from the movie was Tom Hanks himself. We all waited out on the platform for the train, and it pulled up, larger than life, bleching out black smoke and hissing steam just like in the movie. We boarded car 6, and each car had their own hot chocolate chef as well (ours was Dylan.) We all sang Christmas carols to start off, complete with songbooks, and the best part was the chefs dancing to the Twelve Days of Christmas. (If I can figure out how to add video on here I'll post it - Az5 still does the partridge in a pear tree one.) Then Santa came in, and of course had a bell for each kiddo. The trip to the North Pole was a bit shorter than we expected, but it was gorgeous - no lights anywhere, and it had snowed the night before - PERFECT! Plus, Santa had it all lit up with beautiful blue and white lights. He hopped off, and we backed down to the train station, enjoying hot chocolate and the storybook of the Polar Express. The kids really seemed to enjoy it all, and I think all of us adults enjoyed watching them enjoy it as well!

Merry Christmas!

I hope yours was as nice as ours. We started the Saturday before Christmas with my parents, opening gifts from us to them and to the kids. It was lots of fun, and very homey - Mom made her homemade soup, we had way too much to eat with snacks, and the kids had a blast opening presents then. Then on Sunday, we drove the 500 miles to Grammy and Papa's house. Gran and Codfish (Hubby's grandparents) were there as well, and we hadn't seen them since an April family wedding. Christmas Eve, we all sang carols (Grammy played the piano and Codfish played his clarinet), plus we read the Christmas story with a neat twist - we all had a piece of a nativity set, and each put their person in at the appropriate time in the story. It was fun for the kids to see how it all came together. Santa Claus came and brought everyone what they had asked for - a pink digital camera for Az4 and a Nintendo DS game for Az3. Plus Grammy and Papa gave the kids their own bikes, which will be so much fun when it warms up. The big surprise for Christmas was the Wii at Grammy and Papa's house - everyone could play, and it was almost more fun to watch people trying to run/jump than actually playing!