Disneyworld, here we come!!

I just printed our boarding passes for the morning. We leave at 7am. You can't even imagine how thrilled Nathan and Hannah are. They got up this morning singing, "tomorrow we will be in disneyworld, tomorrow we will be in disneyworld".
We all recovered from the virus. After I rested all weekend, I was ready to tackle this week. Between packing and making sure we had everything we needed and prepping a sub for my preschool class, I think we are ready to go. Suitcases are in the car and carry-ons are waiting on the couch. Even the refrigerator is cleared out except for supper tonight.
This past Tuesday night was the kids Back to school night. It was fun for them to get to show us everything they get to do in their room. I love both of the kids teachers so much!! I have some pictures to post, but they will have to wait.
Yesterday was my last day at the preschool before this trip and it was a long, long day. It makes me really ready for this vacation. For a time, I was really dredding this trip, mostly because of the nerves about the other families going on the trip with us, but I have made my focus that this is Chris sharing something from his childhood with me and the kids, and with that, I am excited to see the kids reactions to the princesses, and all the stuff. I am worrying only about my own 3. It really struck last night when I was talking to Lorna and she was just beginning to see if she had the right t-shirts and that Brent and Sarah hadn't even begun to think about packing. I thought to myself, "I am not worrying about them. They have known about this trip for 9 months now." So, we are going to make this a good time enjoying Chris before he leaves us for 2 months.
In regards to that, Tuesday Chris was having doubts because he still hadn't heard from them about relocation. I told him to call Joe, the store manager there, and voice his concerns. To be honest with him about how he felt. He did, and said that he didn't want to go to disney still carrying this on his shoulders. He wanted it to be resolved.
Joe said he totally understood and apologized for the lack of communication. He then got Chris all the info he needed. They are still waiting on an amount from corporate, but Joe told him they would do anything to get him there. He even offered Chris an extra paid week's vacation to move us if that helped. Chris really felt confindent after talking to joe. So then we talked about what was real.
Since corporate still hasn't decided an amount on cost of living move, aiming for the 1st of November is unrealistic for the fact that if we want our deposit back from our landlord, we need to give her 30 days, and we would barely be doing that. It seemed to rushed, so instead, we are aiming to move the last week of November. The kids and I will work on boxing stuff up and storing it in our storage area. Then the Tuesday before thanksgiving, will be all our last days at school. We will enjoy dinner somewhere with a family and then Chris will come to St. joe to help with finishing touches and get us settled. That will give him time to look for a place for us too.
The kids had a day off the 26th of October, so we are planning on heading down then to look at schools and housing and stuff. And Chris and I can be saving for deposits and all. Lowes will move us, but doesn't cover the deposits on things, which we don't have the $ for right now.
Several friends down there have offered Chris a place to stay, so he figures if he rotates around, he won't overstay his welcome to anyone and it will cover him till we get there.
Just keep praying for it all. We are getting more excited about what God has in store. I wrote a letter to mail out to friends here and to give to the church and to the school and read it to Nathan. He was really comforted that I was going to go to so much effort to keep in contact with everybody.
Which, speaking of our church, we got a letter this week that Rodney has resigned his position at Central. he was due to come back from his sabbatical the 1st weekend of October. He wrote that he thought it was time for the church to have someone else lead them. Chris and I talked about how it could only be God's timing for this to happen and for us to be leaving. It just works out well.
Anyways, I need to get back to finishing things up around here. brett and amy will be taking care of our apt. while we will be gone. I don't want them to feel obligated to wash any dishes or stuff like that:-)
Will post picts from Disney if I get the chance. Till then, all our love!

week ended not so well

Hey! I am up writing because I am to nauseous to sleep.
Went to pick up kids wednesday from school and nathan was pale. got to the parkiing lot of the school and he threw up. he came home and slept for 2 hours, waking up with a fever. it spiked that evening at 103.7. took him to the doctor on his birthday to find that it was a virus that has been going on. Well, we celebrated in style, with chicken noodle soup. thursday night, Chris and hannah went down too. so everyone stayed home and watched movies and ate soup. Well, needless to say, we canceled our trip to norman. come yesterday, everyone got up feeling chipper except me. seeing that everyone was well had me going, "Ahhh!" Oh, yeah, now you've got it. I don't know if it is that or I am just exhausted from the last 4 days of no sleep.
anyways, so i slept yesterday while the kids and Chris played. We took them down to the southside festival to ride Dave (a friend from Lowes) ponies. We all needed the fresh air. We met my parents in lawerence so they could give Nathan his birthday gift, since we weren't going to be seeing them. We visited at the burger king and then headed home.
i imagine it will take me a couple of days to catch up on sleep. i was feeling alittle nauseous, so i got up to drink something hot and write on here and then see if i can go back to bed.
will keep you posted this week as we prep for disney.
hope all of you are well and enjoying the cooler air!!

Well, 2 weeks and so much to catch up on

Oh where do i start?

I wrote the first of September, not having started preschool and Chris had just had 2 great interviews for zone jobs.

Well, i had better start with Chris. He found out after Labor day that the company is downsizing. due to lower housing sales and stuff that affects their company, they need to cut expenses and the best way to do that is staff. You cut one person, there is 30,000 back into your budget. Anyways, so there became a crunch to place their manager candidates. that way they could have them in place and see where they need to cut. Well, the Norman store is growing and the day he had his interview, their district manager was there to determine staff. he told the HR manager to hire one more zone as it looked like they could make budget and the company would allow them one more hire. So, their store manger emailed chris and said, "call me tuesday. we want to offer you a postition"

upon a phone call, this is the deal in Norman. he will be a "zone manager" in electrical and plumbing until February, when Lowes fiscal year starts. At that point, the Norman store is projected to move up in status and will be allowed to have one more zone on staff. At that point, they will move their current zone 1 manager to night stocking and Chris to zone 1. the reason they are placing him in P/E is because that is the part of zone 1 he is least familiar with. he already knows inside and outside garden well.

We are waiting on relocation information. That has been our fleece all along. As of yesterday, he got a email from the area HR manager down there that his relocation had been approved and an amount and paper work on it will be here in the next few days. A friend of his at the store who has already gone through this said that "paperwork" means a check. We were surprized to hear that since Chris has signed no agreement that he will even come. they want him really badly, though. If he agrees to all this, his first day there will be Octobe 6th.

Luckily, due to God's timing, Clay and Jenn Atchley were placed there about 2 months ago. Clay and Chris were really good friends growing up and he and jenn can be credited to setting Chris and i up. We are very grateful to them and look forward to catching up and drawing close to them again. And Clay and Chris have hearts for inner city people, so it will be neat to see what God has in store.

So, in short, it looks like we are moving to Norman Oklahoma!

i am excited about that, and I am sad about that. so many great people here in St. joe and nathan is having a really hard time with this. hannah, on the other hand, still is surprising me. last night when we were all having a heart to heart about it, she said," I am looking forward to Norman because we can get a house. I will miss my kindergarten friends, but (and then she threw up her arms and said) I trust in God!" it was a good reminder to me that I need to place all my concerns in His hands. If my daughter who has struggled so much with security can be excited about change and "trust in God" then so can I.

We have talked about Chris will go down the 5th of October and either live with some friends, or borrow his parents 5th wheel and do that until I can settle everything here and get a school transfer in place. We have talked about either the end of the kids 9 weeks, which is the 2nd week of November, or at the end of their semester, which is the 2nd week of December. Relocation will probably determine that as well as Norman school district.

As for Danville, you might ask. he never heard back from them. So.....

He is really going to miss the guys and we are plannng on having a thank you picnic with all of them the sunday before chris leaves.

Now would be a good time to pause and mention, Did you see I posted pictures? -) First day of school picts finally!!!

I am also posting pictures of Nathans birthday party that we had Saturday the 8th. He invited 5 first grade friends to bowl. Everyone had a code name. Aka: Nathan = Jimmy Johnson, Will= Kyle busch, etc...

They had a blast!! It was really good for him because he rarely gets to see these kids because they aren't in the same class this year and they are the ones he will miss so dearly. so to get them all together and be silly was a really good memory for him. Notice the goofy pictures!!

Now, a back track to the first week of september.

Labor day weekend, Chris worked of course, so the kids and I played at home all day. Nathan decided during this time that he wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels, so we went over to the little lake across the trees from us and in 2 days, he got it. he was so proud and so were we. tuesday I started my first day at the preschool. I have 9 in my class. One who about made my hair come out and one who just blew me away with her sweetness. i have all girls. Not one boy in the bunch. Shallon was the one who was quite a challenge. she didn't want to listen and on thursday, she thought it would be funny to have the class hide when i was in the bathroom and they were supposed to be standing quietly in the hall. 4 girls, one of them Emmaleigh, who I will talk about later, did not go anywhere. i walked down to our room, pointed my finger and said "the 5 of you are in so much trouble with me. Get back in the hall" One little girl, Vada, tried to reason with me, but i reminded her, good choices have good consequences, which means, the 4 who stayed will get a surprize at the end of the day for obedience. Whoooooo boy, she did not like that. She worked hard the rest of the day to earn back something. She did, i gave Vada a special helper sticker because I wanted her to know that even when we do something wrong, we can still earn redemption. Now, this girl Emmaleigh, i had circle time at the beginning of the day to talk about the weather and day of the week and rules of the class. She raises her hand and says she knows something we should all remember to have a good day. She stands up and folds her hands and says,, "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you o Lord my redeemer, my strength." and she sits down. it was so cool!!! I told her I wanted to say that everyday because I thought she was right, we should all know that. she said, that means we should do good things and think good thoughts.

Each and every one of them is precious and I am really enjoying my time there. Like yesterday, we started talking about the letter A and I read the story of Adam and Eve and we talked again about good choices. they were so attentive and even Shallon worked hard on her worksheet of the letter A. probably did the best job of anyone!! i was surprized. She had a good morning.

chris was off so he went down to the Kansas speedway to give blood. they were having a NASCAR blood drive and so he was planning on giving anyways. Well, he calls from there to me during center time and says, "hey, today is my gallon donation. they said I get something special. havent found out yet what it is, but I got a hat and a shirt and a lanyard to wear. i think I might get to ride in the pace truck around the track." cool, I think. Then about 30 minutes later, he calls just animated on the phone. Nope, no pace truck. that was for the regular donators. he got to ride in Jeff Gordons promo car. they took him on the track, all suited up and helmeted and everything and took him out there at 170 miles an hour. he just couldn't talk slow enough on the phone. it was the best day for him. And he got to go to Cabelas. they were having a major sale, so he got himself a $3 polo shirt to wear for his first day as zone manager.

Nathan was so excited for him when he heard about it all. i sure wish I had been there with my camera. What an experience. I guess all the "special" donors were going to get a ride either in Jeff's promo car, Tony Stewart's promo car, or just a regular track car. Still, pretty cool. now nathan is motivated to give blood when he is old enough.

other than that, fall kick off was last Wednesday night, so our first small group meeting is tonight. Really looking forward to that. They will probably be my support system when Chris is gone. and last night we spent the evening fishing with Brett and Abram. Caught 2 enormous catfish. One actually took Chris' pole underwater. he and brett had to follow the waves and wait for it to spit his pole out. His best pole and reel.

tomorrow is Nathan's 7th birthday. After school we are planning on taking Brett, Amy and Abram with us to Cicis and then having cake and stuff after that. Friday we are headed to Norman after chris gets off work and we head to the southside festival to see Dave and Charlie and ride their ponies. We will go to mom and dads first and spend the night and then on to Norman Saturday morning. We thought that maybe going into the store as customers we could get a feel for it and let the kids see where we are going. Look at apartments and the area. On sunday, go to church with Clay and jenn and then head home for work and school.

We leave next saturday for disney with Chris' family. kids are really excited about that too!!!

well, going to get off here and fold laundry. Highs this week only in the mid 70s upper 60s, so I got out all the winter barrells to sort and wash warm clothes. Mary, I have a huge pile for haley!!

anyways, and the kids have an early out today, so lots of work in little time. Hopefullly it wont be as long next time. I thought about getting on here several times but was just so exhausted.

Hope everyone is well and keeping healthy!

All our love!!

our first week of school

Hi all! The kids first week was a success. Nathan said, "School gets better everyday because, 1, I am making new friends and 2, I am learning new stuff." As for Hannah, she actually cried tonight because she missed her new friends from kindergarten and she wished she had school tomorrow. Imagine that.
As for me, I spent the entire day Thursday in my classroom, getting it prepared for my 4 year olds that will come Tuesday. I hope I am ready to do this. With all that, Chris is the one who has had the busiest week. He has had 3 interviews this week, 2 on the same day. He interviewed with Glenwood springs, colorado; Norman, Oklahoma; and Danville, Illinois. Glenwood couldn't offer him a relocation package and wondered if that was important. He said that he couldnt make the move without it, so they are a no. The other two were super great interviews and he is anxiously looking to hearing back from them. Danville was a really fun interview. He said they mostly talked about teamwork and how being a hands-on manager was a necessity in their store. They only have 2 zone managers in their store, it is smaller and more laid back. Norman is bigger and more crazy, but since Chris is familiar with the area, they liked his heart and knowledge for the people there. The guy from Norman said he wished he didn't have to interview any other candidates after Chris' interview. WE are just praying that since both interviews went so well, that God will continue to do what he has so far; definate yes or no. So if you could be praying. Chris is assuming he will hear from them after the holiday, as Labor day is a huge one for them at the company.
Other than that, those were the big things this week. Tomorrow is church and I start teaching int he 2's and 3's. I am only doing it for September because Alisha needed someone to cover while she looked for replacements. I told her with all the unsurity of Chris and taking on a job outside of the home, I needed a break for my family's sake. It will be just me tomorrow, since my regular helper, Rebecca, has taken on 3 jobs for the sake of her family. I will miss her help, but totally understand her situation!! I just wish in a lot of ways that there was more support from the children's department or something. Seems like they are always begging for help and with no one stepping up to help, the workers who are involved get burnt out really fast. I know it is that way with just about every other church in america.
Anyways, Monday the kids and I are just hanging out. Tuesday is my first day with the preschoolers and Wednesday is small group kickoff. I am a little nervous about it since we haven't gotten a phone call about whether or not we got into a group. I would like to go to the kick off, but am a little anxious because it will be the kids and I going alone since Chris has to close all week.
Well, need to fold laundry, wash some dishes and finish some of my lesson for tomorrow. Hope all is well in your world and will post later this next week. Till then, all Gods blessings to you all!