The Ice Storm...

We are currently in our first real ice storm here. The temperature hasn't risen above 25 degrees since yesterday, and it started drizzling and then raining today. More expected tonight, and we got the call today at 4:30pm that school is cancelled tomorrow. Woo-hoo!! :) We stocked up on firewood and water, just in case. (You know that means we won't lose power at all now...) The kids are excited - Az5 is at Grammy and Papa's house this week, so they can play games tomorrow without any interruptions.

Update on the house

The Lord has been so good and gracious to us. We have accepted the offer, even while it was lower than our asking price. The couple has since waived their option period as well as their right to terminate the contract. They have also accepted our inspection of the property, and the house passed the termite inspection.

What does this mean? It means that they are more than likely not going to ask for us to make any repairs and the big thing is that.....


WE MAY CLOSE NEXT FRIDAY. Can you believe this?!? I have prayed that God would allow our house to be a blessing to the buyers, and in this case it is. The gentlemen's first wife died several years ago, and then he remarried four years ago. He and his second wife have been living in the house he lived in for 40 years with his first wife, and our house will be their new start. They are so excited! Also, the Lord has answered our prayers that the negotiation period and closing would go smoothly - can it be any smoother than not negotiating anything? And to close 9 days after the offer?!?

I continue to be amazed at His goodness and mercy and wisdom and perfect planning! :)

WE HAVE AN OFFER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our realtor just called and we have an OFFER!!!!! on the house we're trying to sell!!!!!! It hasn't even been listed with the new realtor for a full 3 weeks yet - PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!

Keep us in your prayers - both for wisdom as well as for the Lord to smooth out all bumps and details along the way. I am THRILLED!!!!!!! :)

To Keep Catching Up....

We have discovered the zoo here. We've only been once so far, but we all loved it and spent the whole day there! It is a really nice zoo, not terribly huge, but with a really good variety of animals - both local as well as exotic. The zoo had just started letting their new snow leopard cubs out for the public to see when we were there, and got to see them as they napped. The zoo doesn't have an aquarium but does have an aquatic area with dolphins and sea lions that we were able to feed that day. The zoo isn't very far from our house - only about 20 minutes - and so our New Year's present to ourselves was a year-long family membership. Now we can all go whenever we want, and it is very nice to be able to go walk around outside and enjoy God's amazing creation! (The first picture is the oldest snow leopard cub, snoozing the day away - you can't see Mama in the picture, but she is on the ledge just above the cub - she wasn't too sure about all the people coming to see her babies.)

My Favorite Upward Moment so far....

And a few notes for clarification - 1. Az3's in the green jersey on both videos, and the only kid on the court with glasses. 2. The lady in the blue shirt is ref #2 - the other ref is wearing zebra stripes. 3. The court behind Daddy is where our pastor and his oldest son's team is playing (he is the coach), and we play them in a few weeks.

Upward Video #1

Sorry, but I didn't want to overload the last post. Enjoy! (And these were taken with my digital camera.)

Upward Bound Basketball

So Az3 is playing Upward Bound basketball this year, and Daddy is his coach. He was sooooooooo excited about this as soon as we found out! We have played two games so far, and the team has done really well.

(For those of you that are unfamiliar with UB bball, here's how it works - it is run through local churches, with parents as referees and coaches. No one keeps score and there are no team rankings. The emphasis is on players learning skill basics as well as how to be a team player. The logo is "every child a winner" - b/c they will win when they realize that God loves them, has made them special, sent Jesus to save them from their sins, and has a wonderful plan for their lives. WE LOVE IT!!)

We're in the 3rd/4th grade division, and only have 7 on the team. We started with 9, but one kid moved and another broke his foot and is out all season. It has been so much fun so far - practice on Thursdays, games on Saturdays. The boys all have memory verses to work on during the week, and then there is a devotion time for everyone during half time of the games.

Pictures are from our first 2 games, so you can see the two jerseys we have. and the videos are to get an idea of what the games are like, as well as our favorite moment so far! :)

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to you!

For my new year, I have several big things I want to accomplish this year - the first is reading through the whole Bible this year (and I have a devotional to help keep me on track), as well as memorizing 2 verses a month. (This is from the LPM blog - let me know if you want more info...) :)