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!!