New job, no sleep,long couple of weeks

If the title of this doesn't give away that the last 2 weeks have been really hard.... :-)
The puppy is of course a puppy, so he is keeping us sleep free as well as adding a pleasant animal aroma to our duplex, which is still falling apart. Along with that, Chris working nights adds to the chaos. He is sleeping from 7am-4pm and getting up and hanging out with us from 4-6, which pretty much means watching the news and eating supper before he has to go to work. They have been recieving 2 trucks at night, in preparation for spring reset. He has 3 other guys to help his recieve and process the 2 trucks at night for the entire store. Because they have been getting 2 trucks, they have been getting there at 6:30 at night recieve the 7 o'clock truck and have it gone before they get the huge 9 oclock truck. Needless to say, he isn't much help around here because he is so tired all the time, which has caused some issues in our marriage.
Along with that, since the cost of living here is so high, I needed to get a job. I was going to sub at the school, but when I got on their website, I saw they were hiring special tutors to work from 10am to 1pm for $10 an hour helping autistic kindergartners. It is a really rewarding job so far as yesterday i worked with a boy who is really severe. At their play time, he was lookiing in a mirror and then ran over to me and gave me a huge hug and said, " I really love you!!" and got up and ran back to the mirror. For being with the kids less than a week, that really made my day. the ladies I work with are really neat. Michelle is in charge and is really knowledgeable about autism and is great with getting them to meet their goals for the week. Shaiesta is from pakistan and as worked with the kids the longest. There is Susanne, who has been there a couple of months and then Lacy and i are the newest. I like it, but being gone from home 3 hours makes enough time for the puppy to get into trouble. that or he sleeps all day and then at night when i would like to sleep, he wants to play.
We are getting ready to file out taxes and looking at cost of living here is amazing. An example of how much more it cost in Oklahoma. We lived in Missouri in 2007 for 10 months and state taxes were around $300. We lived in Oklahoma in 2007 for 2 months and state taxes were more than twice that. Nothing changed except that we live in a different state. That blew my mind. I thought, no wonder we are drowning here.
one last thing. Chris' job has several possiblities now. He can either do sales manager and stay in Norman, or go to Mustang with is new friend chad, or he can stay permanent at nights or he can go with Chad to mustang as a zone 1 manager, or he can go to days here and be in lumber.
He is struggling with which option to take as they need to know his intentions in about 2-3 weeks. You can just be praying for that as well as everything else.
Tired and falling apart is how it feels here. We are back to feeling like all was happier and more normal when we were in st. joe.
thats about it. sums up the last few weeks for us.
hope all of you are doing well. Will post again soon.

Meet Ben

Meet Ben, the newest member of the Crosswhite family.

Ben was Chris' idea. He saw that a lady had 9 puppies she needed to find homes for and knew how much Nathan has always wanted one, so there you go. I am guessing he is maybe part cocker spaniel park lab or something bigger. He Loves Nathan, as you can see. He is really sweet. In the day we have had him, he shows good signs of being a good potty dog as well as a good retriever. He is really sweet and gentle and loves to run, jump in leaves and play with socks.

So, that is one change in our home. Another is that Chris got switched to nights. He is going in at 8pm and working until 6am. This is a temporary change until nights get caught up on some major cleaning, restocking and shelving issues. Joe thought Chris would be the best to get the job done, however, Chad, the administration manager is upset because as he says, "Chris is customer focused so he is being wasted at nights". WE will see.

And for my last set of picts, Hannah and I went on a girl date out for coffee. WE got dressed up and wore "make up" and got coffee. We went to starbucks and Hannah got a child's hot chocolate and I got a carmel machiano. WE wrote a horse story and played tic-tac-toe. Afterwards, we went to Penny's and tried on clothes. It was fun! WE had a great time.

This is Hannah's favorite. Her "mermaid" dress. She had me try on a pink shirt that the boys said looked like a ninja shirt. Who knows?

While we were on our "date" , the boys went to Bass Pro. They had a great time too.

Otherwise, all is back to some sort of normal. I thought I had some luck in a job with Home Instead senior care, which offers companion assistance to elderly people, however, after my first orientation and training, I found out that I need to be willing to work some overnights as well as be able to clear my DMV driving Oklahoma history, which is still unresolved with the Nebraska ticket thing. I had prayed for an open door or a closed one, and right now it looks like this is a shut door. So, I am praying that God opens an availablity for me and if He wants me to stay right at home, that He will make that available as well.

So, that is is from Norman. I am studying God's promises to start this new year and hope that all of you know how much He really loves you. I am beginning to discover that:-)

In His arms at all times!!