Some picts and an update!

Well, in the midst of my sadness last time, I forgot to mention one excitement for the week. Hannah lost her first tooth. She was sure it was ready to come out, but was a little worried it would hurt. I assured her that it would be fine, so we "lasso"ed it and I let her hold the string. She asked if we could pray that it wouldn't hurt. So, we did. Then she refused to pull the string. I said, "you just give it a little tug like this." and didn't mean to pull the string, but I bumped it and the tooth just fell on the floor. She laughed and then called her daddy.

He got her an Ariel barbie doll, since she LOVES Ariel and you "just can't find her". She was glad. She is nervous about the next one because it is really close too. The permanent teeth are not coming in under these. They are coming in behind, so I am concerned. I would like to take her to the dentist, but I learned after posting my last blog that the kids had lost their insurance coverage over the summer and were mad at me for not knowing about it. I am still working on all that.

The kids get enrolled for school bright and early tomorrow. We need to be there at 8am to get their paperwork filed. I figure the sooner I get them in, the better chances they have for good classes and I am pretty sure they will need plenty of time to get Norman to cooperate when it comes to transfer papers.

On a high note, we got our insurance settlement check on Friday, same day as Dacia came over to play. She and the kids had a great time and it was nice to have her over. I am really enjoying my friendship with her and Misty and Josh!! They are such a God-send.

Anyways, we went shopping for mattresses yesterday and found a great deal on a box and pillowtop mattress for us, as well as great deals for the kids. So, as of tonight, everyone will sleep on REAL beds!!! Yeah!!

We even have a little leftover, so we are planning on replacing the vacuum, which sounds like an aircraft carrier firing up as well as stick some in savings. The beds were the biggy to replace. We thought it would be nice to let everyone sleep on real beds the week before school starts!!

We are also looking into fixing the ac in our car. it was out of freon at the beginning of the summer but we didn't have the $ to do anything with it. Mom and Dad recharged it as an anniversary gift, but it lost it's cool within about a week and a half. we just stuck with being warm, but this week the highs are in the 100+ with heat indexes reaching 115-120. We figured with the increase of running around in the car due to the kids and school, it was worth seeing what was actually wrong. There is a guy who will look at it tomorrow in Newcastle, so hopefully it will be something simple.

I think that is about it. My week has gotten better. The kids are adjusting better, as they realize that home is different. I did a visual to help them understand that we (Chris and I) aren't made of cash. i took our change jar, which is pretty much toll money for us if we ever need to go to town, and gave them a dollars worth of change. Then I charged them for living at the house and utilties and gas and food and in the end of their "paychecks", they only had like a dime or a nickel left. I told them that they could save it for something fun for next check or go ahead and spend it on something small. That worked. Nathaniel was like, "You can't buy anything for a nickel.". My response was, "Thats right. You have to save several nickels until you get enough to do something really good." And then I said, "And sometimes emergencies come up like the car doesn't work, or someone gets sick and then the "fun" money gets used up." The rest of the week they have started to get that. That Chris and I want to spend time with them, not all of the resources that we don't have. i hope that sticks in their minds for a few more years. :-)

Thats about it. I am tired and hot and trying to enjoy this last week that we have together. I thank you all for your input and prayers from last time. I just thought that most of the time I do activity updates, but hardly let the thoughts of my heart shine through. I thought what i was feeling was good to share. I am glad that it struck some of you too!! Good to know I am not alone in my humanity sometimes.:-)

Well, will wait for the rest of these picts to load!! Enjoy! (Ok, and apparently I can't remember how to make the pictures rotate on here, so I apologize!!)

A taste of my own medicine

As I struggled today not to be in a complete state of depression, I thought about my current situation. We picked up the kids Sunday at the concert and enjoyed bringing them home. When we got here, they said it was like Home makeover, since they had yet to see their new rooms. That was kind of fun. They were really thrilled that the house was nice and both said that it made them feel like "They belonged here". We spent monday going over some new rules, unloading the car and just hanging out together. Yesterday we had to do some regular chores and back to normal things and by today, the attitude from them was one of either, "we wish we were in school already", or "we wish we were still at Grandmas". All the special planning to do fun stuff these next 2 weeks together look "boring" to them. And it crushed my heart and my spirit. As I shuffled through tears all day long, realizing that they didn't want to have anything to do with me and my "neat ideas", my heart ached in pain. My own children didn't want to have anything to do with me. And that is when it hit me. I am getting a taste of my own medicine.
I am a child of God. How many days to I think His ideas are "neat"? How many days do I want to just "hang" with Him? Or would I rather do something else with someone else?
That made me even more sad. How much my heart was breaking was only a small amount to the pain I make God suffer everyday with my selfish motives and thoughts and plans.
As I try to muster my disappointment again, I am going to try to chew on that thought and I just wanted to share it with you all.

A week without my identity

Since I last wrote, I have lost my identity.
Now, if you have been a mother for very long, you can totally identify with what I mean.
When I last wrote, the kids and i were headed to Bridge Creek. We did that, and met someone there. Lorna. She had needed to come back to Oklahoma to take Grandma home due to medical issues and wondered if she could take the kids with her. They had talked all year about the possibility of going alone to Texas, but it came sooner than I had expected. However, with so much left to do to make the house livable and with the kids growing more and more bored with my having to do all the yuck stuff, we decided it would be good for everyone. The kids would get to spend some time with their grandparents doing fun things and I could focus on finishing up the house so that when they get back, there will be no more cardboard and I can actually enjoy their company.
However, it has been almost a week, and I don't know if I can make it much longer. The house is way too quiet and not getting to tuck them in every night and kiss their little faces hurts. I feel like only part of a person. I know people laugh about when they become parents they lose their first names. They become "so-& so's mom", but I take great pride and honor in bearing my kids names, so when they are gone and I don't hear "mom", but instead I hear, "meow, and bark", I feel a little missing.
I have called them every night since they got to Texas and they are having a lot of fun, but I am counting the days until they get back and I can hold them in my arms again. I realize how fast they grow up and it has crossed my mind several times about when they are 18, what in the world will I do when they are old enough to leave?
Being blessed to be a mother is more of an honor than I ever knew and I can only hope that I do them justice when they return and we have 2 weeks until school starts.
Speaking of, I am going to have to resign my position at Norman Public schools this fall. I thought that maybe I could still do it, but with the rising price of fuel, we will save a lot more money if I just stay home and maybe sub at the kids school a few days a week. I am looking forward to that and yet a little bit sad because I loved the ladies I worked with. I am sure they will understand.
Anyways, just feeling a little lost this week, but allowing my motivation to be that there will be nothing left to do when the kids are back so that we can enjoy each other's company. We will pick them up in Dallas on Saturday when we all meet at the Ernie Haase concert. I hope Noel and Lorna are enjoying them because I sure am missing them!!
Will write again when I get a chance. Until then, I hope you all are keeping cool!!

Thankful!!

That is the best word I am feeling at this point in July. I know that seems to completely contradict what my last post was about, however, when I fill you in, you will understand. I wrote that post and as I am aware, God knows our thoughts and the deepest pain in our heart.
So, I woke up the following morning, hoping that God would speak to me in church with words from someone else who had actually listened to Him that week, and what I got was a double.
In sunday school class, which by the way, I love!!!, we started a new section and it was about acknowledging Jesus for who He is. We, of all things, took a look at one chapter in Revelation and didn't talk about end times. We talked about the fact that it says who He is and what He is worthy of. And that He is the answer for all of our situations. That was a softener for what Bruce had to say. His focus was on the fact that Satan is a thief and Jesus is our shepherd. That Satan wants to distract us from hearing what God wants to speak in our lives. If we are going through a difficult time, God is closer than ever to guide us, but we have to chose to listen to his voice. Satan knows that if he can distract us with all the little things that we will lose our joy and not be able to hear what God is saying because we are tuning Him out by seeing all the things Satan is pointing out to keep us away from the message of love that God speaks in all circumstances. It was an awesome morning. I walked away feeling like a new person, like everyone had made Jesus a little more real to me and that my situation isn't more than God can see and that actually, He has a message to teach me, if I would just look to see it and not all the inconveniences.
We then got a call from Chris' parents that they were in the area and wanted to do lunch and help us however we needed. In the process of that day, Lorna had written a very heartfelt note about her past and how she had struggled with keeping focused on Jesus when things dont go the way you wish. It was a good visit with them. Chris and his dad worked until really late on the storage shed. Then, Monday, Misty offered to take the kids for the afternoon so that I could do some more work and the kids could get a break. I was truly grateful for that. She also invited Chris and I over for hot dogs for supper. It was a wonderful day and Chris and I got 2 more loads from storage. Our fellowship with them that evening was a God-send.
On Wednesday, I woke up to hear about my cousin who had her second baby at home. I couldn't imagine the fear and uncomfortablity of going through that, but to hear that she and her new daughter were fine was a true blessing. My goal that day was to send something to her and to get my shower gift to Tim and Heidi out in the mail, as well as the insurance claim. However, on the way, our tire blew. Here was my big chance to see how I was going to handle inconvenience this week. :-) At first, my thought was of frustration. I couldn't remember the last time I had changed a tire, but it had been a while. Also, I was seeing Nathaniel turning green before my eyes due to the extreme heat. I muttered that if anyone came by and offered us $100 for our car, I would gladly take it. Then it occured to me that I needed to ask God for his help. Genius, I know. So, to keep the kids distracted, I asked them to tell me some memory verses they knew to help me get the lugnuts off. As they quoted some Psalms, I managed to get 4 of the 5 off. By the second set of verses, a man wearing an apron and military pants walked up and offered some help. In about 15 seconds, he had pulled the tire and put on the donut. He also suggested a good way to get to a place where I could buy a new tire. I thanked him and the kids crawled into the car. I told them we should thank God for sending help and as we did, I was glad I hadn't blown up. When we were done praying, the man had mysteriously disappeared, just as he had just walked up, he walked away. I am not for sure where he came from, but the kids are sure he was an angel sent by God.
Anyways, we got the tire replaced and spent the afternoon with Clyde, Violet, Noel and Lorna before they headed back to Texas. Another good day. And I did get my mail sent!! (Tim and Heidi, I hope you were showered with mail last week. That was the goal us sisters had anyways!!)
Thursday I visited with Karen and that was a great time. We, the kids and I, did some more storage work. When we woke up Friday morning, Mom and Dad arrived to help finish up our move. Dad and Chris looked at how to repair the uneven, unshingled storage shed and made a list of supplies. Mom and I set it in our minds we would hit storage as best as we could. So, a trip to Norman and 3 vehicles full of stuff later, we all were very busy. The roof and building were secured thanks to my Dad's wonderful knowledge and patience, and many items and my kids were taken care of thanks to my Mom, including a really nice pork dinner!!
Friday night, unknown to us until Saturday, my mom had an episode where she thought a blood clot was moving up her leg toward her heart. My dad said he hadn't seen her in that much pain ever. She took 4 asprin and made a turnique(sp?) out of Dad's belt and waited it out. Now, a little history, she has had clots before and her father passed away with something to do with that kind of history, so it wasn't just an oh well thing. She made some phone calls Saturday morning to decide what she wanted to do, since she felt better, but didn't want to get up and do a lot and have something bad happen, so dad and I worked on the storage shed for a while and the kids watched tv. Then we all headed to Norman to take her to the ER to get her leg checked. We loaded up more storage and it was found that the clot had dissolved and that she needed to continue asprin until she could see her regular physician and to "be a good girl".
We blew up fire works and watched tv that night.
Sunday, we went to church and then got back to work. The shed was completely finished by 6:30pm and it was set in Dad's mind that there would be no big items in storage by the time they went home, so one more trip left, we took care of that and they headed back, leaving us with a much more at-home feeling, and very thankful that Mom was alright and that Dad had given so much of himself.
Today we took the last of the boxes out of storage and met Misty in Newcastle for storytime. After a great visit, we met Chris at Cici's for supper and came home to finish up cleaning up the yard from the debris of storage dump:-)
We are headed to Bridge Creek tomorrow morning to let the kids play on the playground and to see when they need to get registered for school. I am just so thankful that in all things, God is in control and on the throne, just like I know He is all the time!! He truly is so good!!!
Living in His wonderful care until next time...!

Missing old friends!

Well, since I last wrote, it has been nothing but sort, sort and sort in storage. In addition to that, it is hot here. I really have been struggling. The kids are bored out of their mind and have been really good at doing all the boring things with me. I am tired of pulling boxes out of the 100+ storage to sort it in the hot sun and throw the moldy stuff away and wipe the salvagable stuff down with bleach wipes and squeeze as much as I can in the car.
I am exhausted because at night, when I really need to be asleep, I am overwhelmed with all the stuff still to do. This week I really struggled with just wishing we could have gone back in time and still lived at "home" in St. Joe. I miss Brett, Amy, Abram and Sophie more than ever. Living with them was "home". We could be ourselves and have a good time and there was someone to confide in and lean on and share cleaning advice and fireworks with and we all could sit outside and enjoy the racoons. :-).
I miss them more this week than ever. As much as I am thankful God has given us a nice place, I am so exhausted from the trials that He has allowed to come our way. I thought it would bring our family closer together, but in actuality, once again, it is me doing all the hard work and feeling frustrated that I am the only one interested in making this a place where people can come and hang out. I think at this point, I would buy the lot next to us and buy a house to put there if I could have Brett, Amy and their family here with us. I guess they were so much like family to us than anything we have ever experienced with friends. And with all that has happened so far this summer, I don't know when we will see them again. We had hoped to see them this summer and spend more time together than we did over spring break.
Anyways, please be praying for us, especially me. I am afraid of what my exhaustion and overwhelmed feelings will do to my family. We are still eating on the floor and sitting in lawn chairs. I need help checking the huge furniture over to either toss it or wipe it down but I can't do it alone. I tried to tip the couch over the last time the kids and I were in storage and I about flipped it on myself.
I wanted to do something fun with the kids yesterday to reward them for being so patient in all this. We were going to spend the entire day at the Tuttle ice cream festival. We went to the parade and saw it with Josh and Misty and Dacia. Then we headed to the festival. Nathaniel entered the ice cream eating contest for the boys 6-8 category and won 4th place. He was really proud. Then they played in a huge pile of sand they had there and we rode on a little train for free and they both dunked a police officer in the dunk tank. Then we watched the turtle races, which was really cool. Off and on during this we kept getting phone calls from Chris that his truck tires were popping. First one, then another. We had the debit card, so we rushed to Norman to "save him". After that, there was nothing to do before the huge fireworks, so we came home and did more stuff around here, which was a bummer, considering we were hoping to goof off all day and do nothing that had to do with the house. By the evening, I was horribly depressed.
My parents have volunteered their time this coming weekend to help out, which I will really appreciate. I am looking forward to their being here, even though they have done so much. They always seem to be there when I really need them. Maybe we can do something fun with them too!!
Well, I need to get some laundry done. Please keep us in prayer and Brett and Amy, if you guys check this, WE MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Till next time!!

1st blog from the new house!

So, incase you haven't noticed, it has been like a month and I am way behind on posting.
Well, if I remember right, when I left off we were hoping to close on the house the 30th. Everything was a go until a short little problem. We were headed to the zoo thursday when it dawns on the people going over our final paperwork that where we live now is in Bridge Creek, which was declared a federal disaster area when the 99 tornado came through, which brough up a whole new set of inspections. They tried to get it done, but that put all the paperwork for that into June, which required a new payoff amount on the existing loan being foreclosed on. We decided to head to Grove a little earlier than planned and just veg. it was so nice being there and away from everything. We drove up to Joplin one day to see the Bond family. That was a great time. Way too short, but a lot of fun!! Chris got in some fishing at grand lake and the kids and I got a lot of swimming in. Actually, Hannah came back brown and the rest of us were burnt to a crisp.
We then headed back to the city on the hope that we would close on our house, but still a no, so the kids and I headed to kansas to stay with mom and dad and go to my cousin's wedding and wait until Chris told us to come back. He stayed in an extended stay hotel and then a guy from the church we have been going to offered him a rental under construction to stay in. It was a nice offer and he took it. I signed power of attorney over to Chris so that just incase he needed to, he could sign for me on the loan.
We celebrated my mom's birthday while we were up in Kansas as well as got a fun surprize. My uncle dave had made it back for the wedding and was staying with my grandma. We spent a couple of days there. One helping her clean out her garage and playing dominos, another helping her roll silverware and taking shelter in her basement from a tornado. We also went to topeka with my mom to shop for wedding shoes, and played pin the tail on the donkey for her birthday. We went to the dairy farm twice also. One time we went with mom and I spent most of that time visiting with Joy. The other we played with my cousin's little boy Caleb and helped with some chores, mostly the bottle calves. We were hoping to go back and spend an entire day.
Another fun surprize was that we had supper with my aunt Liz one night. She brought the kids some goody riding boxes. They used those the next few days, drawing pictures and stuff. She had her book of pictures and so it was really nice to catch up with her on her family. We had supper and played Pass the pig. It was pretty funny as her and my dad got to telling some fun stories. Aunt Liz won the game too!! As for the wedding weekend, it was really nice.
We went up for rehearsal and the kids did really well practicing. We got to see Rowdy and boy is he growing up. Lorrie was only about 10 days away from her due date and looking great. Erin was there with little Katherine, who was 2 months old, and they were doing well also.
Then a horrible thing happened. As Karen and the kids and I were leaving the church to go home, I was holding Hannah's hand and we went to step off the curb. My ankle, the one I broke my first year in college, gave out on me and I fell, dragging Hannah with me. She landed face first into the concrete, scarring up her nose, her lip and her chin. Blood was pouring out all over and she was sobbing, my face really hurts. I was trying not to pass out from my own pain to help her out and I didn't know whether or not to take her to the ER. Karen went to go get mom and I helped Hannah to the bathroom to see if we could see where the biggest hurt was. She didn't knock her front 2 teeth out, but the blood was pouring from her mouth. She swelled up pretty bad and all I could think of was how much she had looked forward to being the flower girl. She kept looking in the mirror and crying, "I look like a monster". I felt so awful. It was my fault.
The day of the wedding the swelling had gone down a little, so that helped, and she was in a good mood, so that was nice. She looked beautiful to me, but I was so worried about what someone might say to her. The bigger of a deal people made it, the more sensative she would be. She seemed to do ok. She was a sweet flower girl and the photographer told her that she would make the owies go away in the pictures.
As for Nathaniel, he got to carry the actual rings, so he did a great job too. And earlier in the day, he hung out with Alex' s brother, Stephen while they did guy pictures. When Alex and Leah were doing their own picts, the guys were playing cards. Nathaniel was so honored to be a part of the group. He earned the nickname, Nathaniel cash-only Crosswhite.
The wedding was really nice and their reception was a lot of fun. It was the only one the kids and I have gotten to stay for, so that was fun. A super sweet moment was when we were watching Alex and Leah dance their 1st, and then they did the father daughter dance. AFter that it was free dance. Nathaniel took my hand and said, lets go mom. We got out there and he was honestly trying to lead me in one of his own dances. I tried my best because the moment was so sweet, but my ankle was killing me. After a while and my not being able to do his dance right, he got embarrassed and walked away. I was sad a little because if it hadn't been for my silly ankle, Hannah wouldn't have gotten injured and I would have been able to enjoy dancing with my son. He is the only one who has danced with me or asked me to dance in over 10 years.

Anyways, we went to grandmas church sunday after the wedding and then had a father's day dinner only to rush away to Erin's baby shower. It was really laid back, so that was nice, even though in all the chaos of the weekend, I don't think I got a good visit in with Erin. I am sure she felt like she didn't get to talk to everyone either! We surprized Lorrie with a bunch of diapers, though and that was nice. She wasn't expecting it, so that was fun. The week following the wedding we helped mom in the yard, mowing and cutting down limbs and the kids played in the swimming pool. We ran to emporia one day and then had grandma and uncle dave up another to have supper and play games. By Thursday, we got word that we would absolutely close on the house friday. if we didn't, we would lose the interest rate and the county was posting it up for auction effective July 8th. That got the ball rolling.
Then it was deciding whether to make myself a nutcase and rush everything and make it to close to sign my own name or not. I had settled in and had unpacked everything and had made it like home. I had planned on going back over to the farm for a whole day and attending Grandma's dinner with a side dish. That morning about 9 am I realized i wasn't going to get it all done to make it in time to close, but Chris was still expecting us to show. So, after Dad got done at the farm, we loaded up thecar with our stuff and the van with our dog and headed to OK. We set up a temp. pen for him when we got here and slept on the floor.
We headed to storage Saturday to get out our mattresses only to find out that while I was gone, it had rained and the mattresses along with a bunch of other stuff was damaged. We brought the mattresses and box springs out to the house to dry in the yard. Mom and dad went home after debating whether or not to get the washer and dryer.
Monday our storage shed was delivered and I went to storage to file an insurance claim since we had invested in a $5000 policy. Brent came out to help Chris build the shed as well as Matt from Chris' work. They worked all day and got the floor, the front and the back done. I planted all our trees and some bushes. The kids were really good about playing to themselves. They got paid to make sure rocks and bricks weren't in the yard for anyone to hit with the mower. Tuesday I got up and mowed some. Matt came back over and they did a little more on the shed but decided they really weren't in themood to mess with it anymore so we went to storage and got the washer and dryer, which are now up and running.
Today, the internet was installed and I spent the day running around norman trying to find out who sells closeline poles. I had NO luck!! We brought a bunch of toys from storage home and cleaned them up and got them in the kids rooms, along with the pictures to decorate the house. It is beginning to take shape, and we are getting more done in the yard that we thought we would at first. I am supposed to talk to the insurance adjuster tomorrow about how much we can get, if anything for our damaged furniture. We are hoping as bad as the mattresses are and the warped wood on all our bookshelves, and dressers that we can get something and replace them. That brings it to today.
WE are looking forward to plugging into our church. WE went tonight and Nathaniel loved it. Hannah was hesitant, but after all she has been through this last year, I don't blame her. I am just praying she gets an awesome teacher and makes some great friends so she can be the wonderful girl I know is hiding sometimes under a lot of insecurity.
I will post pictures when I get a chance to. My camera was busted by the old neighbor kids, so when I get another one or mine fixed, I will upload picts of the house and some of our trips.
I hope you all are well. We are doing ok. Just living on the verse in 1 Peter that says that perseverance develops character and character develops hope. We are trusting that God is developing alot of deeper spiritual character in all 4 of us. We have appreciated all the prayer, as without it I am sure we would have lost our minds. I will post again later.
Until then, I hope my month long synopsis was understandable!! All our love!

Self storage and other stuff

Well, last week was just so long!! The kids last week of school went great. My last week of school went great. I will really miss the kids!
As for Chris, things were stressful, as big Memorial day weekend was approaching. He lost his days off to go in and assemble grills and mowers. That means he worked 11 10 hour days in a row. He was staying in until 3 am helping them unload the trucks and then going in 2 hours early to get more done. When memorial weekend came and went, he got a phone call from the CEO of the company telling him that thanks to his hard work, the Norman store placed 9 in all the stores for record sales in his zone alone over the weekend. That compliment will go in his folder for records. I think it made him feel like his hard work paid off and that he earned his 2 week vacation.
Originally when he asked for it, we had planned on moving into the house the 1st week and vacation the second, however, it hasn't quite been that. This week has been moving all our belongings into self storage, minus a suitcase for everyone and a paper grocery sack for everyone with fun toys and books. It is after midnight, so later on today he goes to court to fight the landlords about their neglect to care for our apartment. We prepared three folders with pictures and letters and print offs of our responsiblities as tenants vs. them. I am worried about it, but I also know we have a stack of things proving that we aren't just joking with them.
We are prepared that if they ask us to leave the premisis tomorrow, we will be ready to go; but with everyone being sick that one week, i realized I only have one utility shutting down here, so if they offer a few days to get out, we can do that and just camp out in the living room.
Mom and Dad came down this weekend to help out and to take Ben and Percy home with them. We were so grateful for their help. if it wasn't for both of them, we wouldn't be nearly as ready as we are. And their support and encouragement with prayer was really good for me. I talked to Mom today and it sounds like the pets are doing well. She said that Ben got to meet Pooh and Grover and he and Grover went running into some water. They look to have a good time together.
We talked with Kay today. She is the one handling our finances with this thing. She said she got information today from the lenders that they had approved the changes to the sale, since the sellers had gone into foreclosure while we were in the process of buying it. The bank that now owns the house had to approve our offer and in a foreclosure, they are only allowed to pay so much at closing. Since we had offered more in order to get help, they offered their max and took the rest of what was promised in help off the amount of the loan, but that changed all the paperwork. She said that all the changes had been approved. There were a couple of questions that the lenders had for the appraiser that would work the kinks out, but she said that as far as she knew, the sale of the home to us was a green for go on Friday at 2pm. I sure hope so. If not, Chris and I are going to call it a fail and pray for another opportunity to open up. We sure are hoping God just makes it so clear, because this seemed so clear and now it just seems like it is surrounded with problems. so, be praying for us. After the court hearing tomorrow, we are planning on just doing some fun things here in the city. We talked about going to the OKC zoo for a day and hitting Incredible pizza another night. If closing still is a go, we will do that Friday and then at 7pm is our friend's daughter, Dacia's , birthday party. Hannah has been invited to go and spend the night too, so we will go to Jump zone to share in the fun and then we will head to the new house to sleep the night. Saturday we are heading to Grove, Ok for our anniversary trip. We will be there until Tuesday and then we will head to Mom and Dad's. Chris will stick around until Friday and then he will head home with Percy so he can get some essentials ready before he has to head to work on Monday. The kids and I will stay in Kansas until after Leah's wedding and Erin's shower and then Mom said she would take us and Ben back and help move things in if we needed her to.
I am just so thankful that when we need help, they (mom and dad) are always around with so much support. I may not talk to them a whole lot any other time, but when there is a need, they are always the first offer their help. They drop all their plans and come to the rescue. it is such a relief to know they are always there. I am excited about being in Kansas for a while. i can get some time in with Grandma as well as hopefully see all the cousins and the farm before the wedding. We pulled a big pile of board games we are taking with us to play in Grove and at Mom and Dad's.
Well, I need to get to bed. I thought i would post before I disconnect the internet here tomorrow. i have been out in the backyard cleaning up Ben's mess so that the landlords won't have that against us. My thought and it always has been is that no matter how awful or great the landlords are to us, this apartment belongs to God and so He deserves to have it in better condition than when we found it so He can use it for His glory!
Will post again when i get the chance. until then I hope your summer's are starting off nice and easy, like I thought ours was going to. :-)
Love to you all and will post again later!!

Heartbroken and sick!

Ok, so the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. The following week of my writing, Hannah had her birthday party, which was a great time. We had the appraisers look at the house and the home inspection came out great. Only a few shingles to repair. it was set to close the 16th. We took another go through the house the weekend of mother's day. Then Nathaniel went down with a stomach bug. Then Chris went down, then Hannah and I fought it all week. it was horrible. 4 days of nothing but throwing up and having diahrea along with dizziness, i am assuming due to the fact that dehydration was inevitable. it was horrible. We ate chicken noodle soup for Hannah's actual birthday and have promised to make it up to her shortly. In the process of all that, we heard nothing from Cheryl, so we gave her a hollar Thursday afternoon, wondering about closing Friday. She said they were going to postpone it because there were still issues to be worked out. We were sick, so we didn't ask many questions. That is, until today. We wondered, since we have given our 30 days notice and we have to be out of this place in 10 days what the plan was. We found out today that instead of $1800 like we had figured on taking to closing (our tax rebate), they were expecting us to bring over $4000. We said, there is no way. Also, they have no idea. it is "very unlikely" we will close on it this week, let alone by the end of the month. Their suggestion was to get a storage area to rent. Chris came unglued. he told them if they didn't have a plan by the end of the week, he wasn't going to put up with it anymore. Our hearts are smashed because we were under the assumption that everything was a quick go, and now it feels like the whole time they were lying to us, or that they are now to get more $ out of us. Luckily Chris has worked with loans before and so he told them that what we signed to agree to pay at closing is what we are paying. paperwork validates that. So, anyways, if you would keep us in your prayers. WE have trees and shrubs and stuff that are sitting here waiting and we have hardly boxed anything because we thought we were just going to take it over there and put it away, but now it looks like maybe we wiill be homeless for a while.
And the kicker is this, our current landlords are taking us to small claims court for the lack of rent we paid, however, I have pictures of our sleeping arrangements as well as the flooding and the black mold that is growing on the ceilings. In looking online for a quick place to live, they have our aparment listed to rent as a 2 bedroom with an office, so it looks like they aren't planning on fixing it but rather covering their tracks to make it look like something else.
if you could be praying for us, we are rather panicked. WE are trusting God to be in charge of this but having peace about it is a whole other issue.
we dont' know what to do. That is about it. Everyones last week of school and then we move to wherever to head to a family vacation and a wedding in kansas before figuring out what's next.
Our phone numbers are going to stay the cell phones for now. As for mail, we will determine that here soon. Will keep you posted.
Hope all in you all's world is less crazy. till later, in His care!!

So much going on and its only Monday!!

Ok, so last week was a rough one for me, as I was just struggling with waiting on the house and situations at work and the kids school and then sleeping on the floor for a month is annoying. Bless my family's hearts, they put up with me. Well, after yesterday at church and God giving me a good spanking, I had decided that I really need to be better at being a good steward with the situations and relationships he has already given me and not worry about the rest.
So, we were going to sit down and talk tonight about how we could be better about praying for one another and holding each other accountable as a family for honoring God.
We had that planned last night. Well, we woke up and I started sewing for Hannah's birthday outfits and talked to Cheryl, our house helper, and she had some paper work for us to figure out who we wanted our home insurance with and who we wanted to inspect the house when we finally got the word from the bank.
Well, I went to work and after getting off, I had a message from her to call her back. She said when she answered, "So, how about one week from Friday?" i said , 'for..." She then proceeded to say that she had gotten word from the seller's that the bank had gotten to their file and had finally given the thumbs up for the sale. i started to cry. Just remembering that God does care about the desires of my heart, even when i am stupid. :-)
Upon a full afternoon of phone calls, the appraiser is going out in the morning to officially make sure the place is of value and the home inspector will pay it a visit Wednesday at noon, which chris has off, so he is looking forward to seeing where everything is and how it all rates. if all that turns out ok, we are set to take ownership the 16th of may. Hannah is so happy. For her birthday, she is getting a house where she can make a beautiful flower garden. Well, after all that excitement, we are sitting around the table talking about our lives and how we can be better at being available for one another and the conversation about Nathaniel and baptism came up again. He said, I really want to be baptized. i really want to be what God wants. " After Chris asking him some basic questions of faith, we are very sure he is ready. so, it looks like this week just keeps getting fuller. Nathaniel wants Chris to baptize him, because, "they are best buds, and he knows his dad is always there for him". so, it looks like our week runs as follows. Home inspection Wednesday, thursday and friday are birthday party prep, for hannah's party on saturday for her and her little friends, followed by our one last walk through of the house Saturday afternoon and mother's day supper at aunt glendas, which will follow with Nathaniel getting baptized Sunday maybe. We are still working out all the details on that. We thought it might be neat to do it at Brent and Sarah's church, since that is available to us, but we just don't know. Chris hasn't gotten ahold of Brent yet. Then the following week will be Hannah's actual birthday and we will take over the house in blanchard. That saturday is Leah's college graduation, followed by a wedding shower for her and Alex, followed by the kids and I's last week of school and moving into the house. Chris took off the last week of may and the first week of June. he is hoping to get us settled into the house and out of here by then. Then we are off to Grand lake for our anniversary and hopefully to make a jaunt to Joplin to see the Bonds and the Hill family. Upon coming home from that trip, we will have a few days until we need to turn around and head back to Kansas where the kiddos will be ring bearer and flower girl in Leah and Alex's wedding. After that, our lives should come to a stop. So, if I don't get on in the next few, that is what is going on here. it is only Monday and wow, so much has happened and so much is going to take place!! I am so thrilled!! God is good all the time and he is SO worthy of our praise. I hope that you agree!! Miss all of you and will write again soon!!

To be continued...

I meant to put pictures up of our flooded apartment as many of you have asked about. The picture of the pool tells you how much rain we got that night. It was empty in the yard before the rain. This is the morning after.

Landlords have never come by to check it out, so we wrote them a letter telling them that we were disappointed in their lack of response as we had been more than kind and that we would no longer be living here as of May 31st. We can't for everyones health sake. And we wrote another letter last night with our half months rent, stating that since we no longer rent a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage apartment but instead rent a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, no car garage and our kids are on higher doses of medicine due to their neglegence, we feel we are being fair.

We will see. We are still waiting on a go ahead from the seller's bank to forgive them of their back payments in accepting the offer we made on the house. Our lady thinks it shouldn't be an issue, since the bank set the price for the house and we are actually offering alittle more than they need so that they can help us out at closing. She said when the bank give the green light, it should only take about a week to do appraisal and home inspection and then we are set to close on it. so we are just hoping for a May 21st closiing date still, so we have a place to live when we are out of here. Please pray for us as we are a little nervous about the timing being so close. We have many people who have offered to take us in, but it would just be so nice to just move into a house and not 3 or 4 different places. We will see. God is in control.

Ok, back to the race. here is a picture of the kids in their gear waiting in our seats. and the other picture is the view of the track from our seats.

These pictures are from the souvenier trucks and the one Lowes had that offered the kids the chance to build. We also saw Mr. Sparkplug. yahoo!!

Lets see, after the trucks took the drivers around the track, they were dropped off near their car and a few minutes of checking with their pit crew leader before the "gentlemen, start your engines." I have video of that too that i will post when I learn how. then they took one slow lap around the track before the green flag. Once the green flag dropped, it was so fast and loud. I wore a white Lowes shirt and at first, when I noticed the little bits of black, I thought it was just dust. Upon further lookiing, it was bits of tire from the cars going by.

Jimmie did really well in the race, finishing 2nd and Kyle did really good by finishing 3rd. Carl Edwards won it and he is the guy who does the backflip off his car after winning the race. Watching the pit stops was cool as well as the victory spin out. It was something I think we all agree we would do again!! Here are more picts of the race. Enjoy!!

A list of the guys in order of appearance:

Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. , Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer (from Emporia, Ks), and Jimmie drinking a gatorade along with my messed up picture of him in his truck!

Pit stop!! And Nathaniel listening to Jimmie and his crew chief, Chad, talk on a special headset we rented. They seem to be pretty good friends! At one point they were joking about how Jimmie needed some of those fuzzy dice in his car. :-)

The race cars and the kids half way through going to get dippin dots. as well as the finish and our family picture that someone took for us!!

Thats about it. This week is both of the kids field trips to the OKC zoo. Chris' corporate day off is Tuesday, so he is going with the 1st graders and I will be accompanying the kindergartners on their trip. Then, the 10th is Hannah's party with her school friends. Her actual birthday will be friday the 16th. then we will be making a trip home to Kansas to see leah graduate from college and attend her and Alex's wedding shower. When we get home, we will hopefully close on the house and it will be the kids last week of school. I am sure the month will fly by!!
Until I get a chance to write again, love you all and hope to see you soon!!

finally getting around to it!

Hi all! Am so sorry about the delay. Our desktop is still in the garage, but with some assistance, i was able to put some of the pictures I wanted to share on this laptop, so I will start from the most recent of events. Nathaniel's first grade program went off without a hitch. if I knew how to put video on like some of you have (hint: send me a how to on it, ok:-), i would let you hear him do his line during the program!! We went out for ice cream afterwards. the program was on Tuesday. monday we took Nathaniel to the eye doctor as he was complaining of his sight being blurry and having headaches. He needed to get reading glasses. His eyes werent' too bad, but the doctor said that if it helped and gave him more confidence in his reading, it was worth the investment.

That friday, both of the kids were in a ceremony for TERRIFIC kids. It is an award given to kids who fulfill the acrostic of Terrific. Terrific stands for: Thoughtful, Enthusiastic, Respectful, Responsible, Inclusive, Friendly, Inquisitive, and Capable.

As for before that!, Our trip to Dallas that I have yet to post about! What a blast!! We headed to Dallas after school on Friday and went to our hotel. it was brand new and really nice. It reminded me a lot of mom and dad's trendwest. it was candlewood suites! We will definately stay with them again. Great price for a lot of room. We went out for supper that night at Chipolte. Chris and I were glad to eat there again. The kids had never been. They did't like it, but we had gotten chick-fil-a chicken, just in case, so they didn't starve. :-)

the next morning we woke up and the kids and i went downstairs to their gym. We tried a little of all the machines. it is kind of a routine we always have when we stay at a hotel that has an exercise room. We love it. Chris slept in, since it was kind of a last vacation for him before going from night shift to day shift. upon getting up, we decided to go to this Enormous flea market called Traders village. It was awesome. We saw so much stuff. there were little rides for the kids and I found the most gorgeous rose tree. WE spent most of the afternoon there. i had made sandwiches so we just picnicked it for lunch. We went back to the hotel later and had some dinner. We went to bed early, since we were leaving early to head to the track.

We got up sunday morning and read our bibles and loaded up the car and then headed out. i had made a bunch of muffins, so we ate breakfast on our way up. The traffic really wasnt' too bad.

We parked way off, so that we could get a good head start out after the race. We walked about a half mile to the stadium, but on the way you could see all the stars trucks. it was pretty cool. Inside, there were booths with souveniers and all kind of stuff.Lowes had a really neat one set up where kids could build little nascars. Nathaniel and Hannah made one. We wandered around there and then went to find our seats. The awesome thing about Texas motor speedway is that they display the cars on the track before the race. We were in row 6 and had awesome seats. And you'll never guess who's car was parked right in front of us!! JIMMIE!!!

After all the cars were out, these huge trucks with nascar numbers come out and you hear the announcers say they are going to introduce the drivers. Each driver climbed into the back of his truck and took a ride around the track waving to the fans. it was cool! however, I didn't get a good picture of jimmie. When I snapped the pict. of him, all I ended up getting was his face behind one of the gate poles. However, since he was right in front of us, i got a good picture of him drinking a gatorade. i did get pictures of dale earnhardt jr, jeff gordon, kurt and kyle busch, casey kahne, and matt kenseth.

And i am going to have to pause here with my story. i have to get ready for work! And the laptop needs to be plugged in again. So, to be continued......:-)

A delay!

Hey. This is going to have to be short. I was going to get on and post pictures of our weekend last week when we got about 3 inches of rain really fast. The backyard flooded into our room and we had to move everything into the garage. So, needless to say, the computer with all the pictures on it had to be unplugged. We are waiting for the landlords to come out and fix it all. We already shop vacced all we could, but our room smells like a dead animal. We moved our mattress into the living room and are airing out the room as we can, but we are so ready to move. Anyways, so i will write again when things get back to some sort of normal and i have better access to the computer and all is better.
Till then, hope all is well where you are.
The most exciting thing about this week was that we got word my cousin and her husband had their first baby. They are doing well and the baby girl is healthy and sweet!! We are so thankful for them and the newest blessing in their lives!!
ok, off to finish some laundry and dishes!!
more later!!

So much going on this week!!

Hi! Am on to post picts of my birthday, but also to let you know of a few things going on and some changes that will be taking place soon!

First, on my actual birthday, we got up and the kids finished decorating my birthday cake. We ate a piece of it for breakfast and then got ready to head to the Omniplex, which is Oklahoma City's space museum. We had a lot of fun. Exporing all kinds of science.

The kids loved the maze of mirrors,

the planetarium,

(I hadn't been into a planetarium since grade school. It was neat. The guy narrating it obviously thought some of the consellations were a little funny as he turned the "little bear" into a giant squirrel asking the "shepherd of the sky" for acorns. And he also called the "little dog" a hot dog. It made everyone laugh.)

the giant mouth that had a little game where you zapped the plaque,

"discover space",

a model train area,

a kids play area with water and bubbles,

and this thing called the "gadget trees"

which had all kinds of machines, like levers and pulleys and such worked into this enormous tree house. It was neat to see where in the Oklahoma sky you can locate Mars and Saturn at this time of year. We also went to the Dome theater and watches, "Rivers are running out", which was a guy taking a trip down the Colorado river through the grand canyon. Afterwards, we went to Cracker Barrel for supper to have some comfort food before heading home and to bed.

It was a really nice birthday. Just spending time with the family:-)

I think in the last blog I told you about the possiblity of buying a house. Well, last week, a lady told us about the one in Bridge Creek area that seemed a perfect fit for us. Well, after church, we went to look at it and see what was next. It was AWESOME!! WE fell in love with it and after talking with Cheryl more, we made an offer, as someone else was interested in it too. It is a pre-foreclosure, so we did some figures and gave an offer on it. Then we prayed that if it was God's will for us to have a home, he would allow this to work out and if it was his will for us to wait a little longer, he would allow the house to go to the other people who were interested . We prayed, as we truly have believed for years that our time would come when it was just right, where God would open a door and it would just work out. Believing in this and trusting in it, we knew we wouldn't hear any results until later this week. So, we have been focusing on our Nascar/Dallas trip. Well, I got a phone call from Cheryl today and she said that the people had chosen.................... US!!! After getting off the phone with her, I did a little dance and then it hit me that God is so good to me, and always hears me when I pray, knowing that in His perfect time, he grants his blessings. I fell on my face and wept, thanking him for being so good to us and for this wonderful blessing. I am posting pictures I took Sunday of the place. WE will know some final details as to when we close on it and stuff tomorrow, but when we made the offer, we suggested the 21st of May as closing. So, by the beginning of summer, we will be there, unless there is something that comes up with financing. The greatest things about this are: All electric, so it will be money saving, and fire hazard of gas heating gone, a wonderful storm shelter!!, well water (no water bill), and 1.2 acres of land with it too, a patio, close to the hwy, yet far enough away that it is so in the country!!! We figured that we will saving in housing expenses about $500 a month. We are so looking forward to seeing how we can bless God with that extra!! So, here are the picts for that...

The living room from the kitchen, looking at the front door

The kitchen looking from the living room towards the back door and the wash room

The master bathroom (Chris is so excited about the size of the tub!!)

The kids bathroom, with a little neat window

One of the kids bedrooms

And our room!

And finally, just some regular, I need to post these pictures just because I said I would, pictures

First off, my autistic kiddos: T.J, Bryce, Cody, Issac and Angie

Second, the ladies I work with! Michelle, Laci, Suzanne and Shaista

Thirdly, our trip to see Brent and Sarah the first weekend of March. Aren't they silly?

The Truman after school thing at Skateland, where Hannah let the Norman North high schoolers turn her hair pink and give her a face paint. :-)

Max Atchley's 6th birthday party!!

The kids student-led parent teacher conferences:-)

I can't remember if I posted easter picts, but here are some of that and of the day Hannah and I went up and spent the day with Grandma C.

I think that is about it. Will post next week of our trip to Dallas and the Nascar!! We are so excited!! I am making the kids special shirts, because they want to. Nathan wants a shirt with 48 on the front and Jimmy's name on the back. Hannah wants a shirt with a number 18 on it and Kyle Busch's name on the back. We are staying in a suite, so we are planning on bringing some groceries from home so we can just chill Friday evening and Saturday evening. WE are planning on going to the Dallas zoo Saturday and to Chipolte grill for supper on Friday. It will be a nice get away. April is already filling up as Nathaniel will be in a 1st grade play the 15th of April with a speaking part. April 29th is his field trip to the OKC zoo. Chris goes back to working days as of April 7th and there you have it. Hope this finds everyone doing well. Will write more later, but am getting tired, so I am going to bed!! In His hands!