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..."