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. :)