House Update

All is good. The inspections showed several things that need attention but we sorta figured that. The black mold came back clean. That's good. We'll have a lifetime of new projects to keep us busy and to learn from. Looks like we may be able to close on the 9th. That's Jes's b-day, so it'll be a special day for 2 reasons.

I haven't seen it yet but here's what I've been told...
5 bedrooms, 3 baths.
Not much of a kitchen...yet.
Raised garden in the backyard with a little shed.
Not much storage space. That'll help keep life simple.
3 living areas (!) Maybe one could be another bdrm or storage????
2 miles from Honey's office.
Small neighborhood with only one entrance. No through traffic at all.

I can't wait to see it!!

There is never a shortage of things to do when you're a 4yo boy. Hmmm, what can you do with a dog bowl, water hose, and broken plastic container? Let me tell you.

First you turn on the hose and get your brothers all wet. Funny for you, but not for the 3yo. He was only wearing his underwear, but had to change right away. He comes back out and decides to take charge of the situation and turn off the hose. Jess sees what's about to happen and takes one last chance to drench him before he makes it to the faucet. New underwear again.

He dumps out the dog's water and fills it back up. Here's where the broken plastic container with a hole in the bottom comes in handy. He uses it to scoop out some water and exclaims, "Look, it's peeing!" as the water pours out the hole. Now his brothers think this is simply hilarious.

He catches the water in his mouth and decides to spit it on whoever is closest. That would be 3yo. Not so funny now, unless you're the 6yo who wasn't standing quite so close. He throws his head back and laughs the big belly laugh.

We're running out of clean underwear.

Happy Birthday LB!

Ten years old today! Here's some fun stuff about my 4th born.....



She lost 2 teeth yesterday!

She has my hair color.

She loves everything but is very hard to buy for.

She's not afraid of bugs.

She has 8 siblings!

She likes giving pedicures....I like being on the receiving end!

She likes pretty clothes and shoes.

She's a good girl.

She likes movies.

She is a very well-rounded type....she can be rough and tumble or soft and sweet.

She's barefooted all the time.

She gets a different flavor snow cone every time.

She likes big kids stuff but still enjoys playing little kid stuff with her little brothers.

She always has a smile on her face, and never has a shortage of things to say.

She could eat chicken ramen noodles everyday of the week.



Her meals:

Breakfast: donuts

Lunch: Quiznos

Dinner: Lasagna



Tonight we're having a big celebration with lots of family. It'll be a great time. Only one person missing....her Daddy. When we get to CO, we're going to have another party so he can still be involved. During all this move and separation this is the first b-day he's had to miss. Sniff....



Happy Birthday LB! We LOVE you bunches!!

Fun On The Farm

Dad got 3 week old calves for us bottle feed. AWWW....you should see these big round watery-looking eyes.

We're waiting for guinea eggs to hatch in the incubator.

Boys are making traps out of tape. So far they caught Joey.

G'ma took LB shopping for her b-day.

Today Nana, Gram, and the girls are shopping.

We caught a baby raccoon in the trap.

A stray dog is visiting. They named him Pinwheel b/c he wags his tail in a circle.

The boys gave some crickets a bath in the dog's water.

We're looking forward to finding the new library.

B-day party tomorrow for LB.

CT finished his math book.

We got a new game! It's a card game called BLINK. Super fun.

Nana beat CT at Risk. He beat her at Phase 10.

Mally had her first sucker.

The little boys tried to stick their suckers in each other's hair. It didn't work though 'cause G'pa buzzed all their heads.

Nana's a good cook.

Visited Great G'ma in Longview. We had lunch at Olive Garden. Then Mom and I worked on a neat project that I'll blog about later.

Lane killed 2 scorpions.

More later.....

Listen....

Here at Dad's I share a big bedroom with 7 of my 9 kids. I kinda like it in a way I didn't expect. In the morning I hear my little boys whisper "Are you up? Can I get up?" I pretend I don't hear. They whisper but might as well be talking as loud as they whisper. Then they start giggling and playing before they even touch their toes to the floor. It's cute.

At night I lay in bed and listen to the rhythmic breathing of everyone soundly sleeping. So healthy, so sweet, so quiet and peaceful after their long busy day.

In the middle of the night I hear somebody talking in their sleep. I can't understand a word of it. I hear my baby sucking his hand. And I hear my 4yo call out, "Where's my blankey?" So I whisper back..."I don't know, but come share mine." He skips over his sleeping sisters and snuggles in close to me. Mmmmm......

Friday night and homemade pizza. Dad has a freezer full of food for us....what an added blessing, huh? So I go pull out a bag of shredded mozzarella to thaw. I decorate the pizzas liberally and push them into the oven. When I check on them I noticed right away that the cheese wasn't melting. I'm thinking "well, maybe it was old. Dad said it had been in there awhile." That shouldn't make a difference though. Maybe it wasn't fully thawed. That shouldn't make a difference either. So I look at #1 and say, "That was cheese right? The bag wasn't labeled." She says "What else could it be, soap flakes?" I pull the pizza out a little and get a bit of cheese to taste.

HASHBROWN pizza anyone??

Life on the farm

The kids are living it up! It's like vacation 24/7 around here with so much to do. Here goes....

The dog killed a chicken. Bad dog.
We caught a mouse on a sticky trap and G'pa let everyone pet it!
Boys caught fish yesterday.
Jes caught J-Man on the side of the head with a fish hook.
Joey swims in the pond.
A very long driveway to ride bikes and scooters.
Grandpa, Nana, and Gram.....need I say more?
Grandma and PawPaw to visit too....how much better could it get?
Crochet lessons.
Hummingbirds.
Feeding fish, cats, cows, horses, spiders, chickens, and kids.
Bugs of every size and shape to catch.
Trash to burn.
Dirty kiddos at the end of the day.
Pirate movies.
Oreos.

Future plans:
Catch a raccoon in the trap.
Breakfast outside.
A trip to Longview to see Great G'ma.
An auction.
Quilting lessons with Gram.

House update: Looks like it might be ours but no official word yet. We have the highest offer and they've taken it off the market. Honey showed it his family yesterday. They weren't too impressed, and when I talked to my MIL this morning she said, "You're going to be busy Hon!" HA! I don't care, Honey likes it and I trust him. I'm glad it wasn't me having to pick.

I'm eager to get to CO, but still having a great time with my family here in TX.

Anybody ever tried those space bags? Ya know those bags that you stuff with stuff then suck out the air with a vacuum? They seem like such a nifty idea but they get terrible reviews. I would like to hear from someone that I know whether they work or not.

Chicken Pox!

Round 3 has begun. My poor little Zekey. He's even too little to enjoy a chicken party.

Cookout Fun

G'pa and Nana took us down to the barn last night for a big cookout. Hotdogs, s'mores, chips, and a great time. Cows everywhere, the dog running around, kids and Gram and fun company too. Great great time.

This morning we went to the cowboy church. Boy, these folks really love Jesus. The body seems to love each other too. A good Sunday.

Dad has the biggest spiders here! Huge ugly yucky ones. One of them was parked under my pile of laundry and I thought it was a baby tarantula! Dad came over and killed it and told me it was just a "good" spider. No such thing to my way of thinking.

The kids are having a great time in the country. The boys are feeding the spiders by catching grasshoppers, pulling their legs off, and throwing them in the webs. The spiders have never had it so good.

A huge thank you to G'pa and Nana for being so hospitable and understanding. Hopefully we won't be here long.

We made another offer on a house but found out that the bank probably won't loan $$ on a house that is in such disrepair. No appliances, no doors, hole in the ceiling, cabinets torn out, the list goes on. Great neighborhood though if you can believe it.
I guess we'll know something next week.

Update

The mechanic fixed the truck the next morning and Honey made it to CO last night. He went to unload it at the UHaul storage place and they wouldn't take it at the place that they told us to go to. It was after 5pm and he couldn't get ahold of the lady that set the whole thing up. They directed him somewhere else. When he got there, they were closing in 10 minutes and wouldn't let him unload after closing. He took the whole thing to his cousin's house to wait till morning. This morning he goes outside to see that someone broke out the back window of his Escape and stole 4 laptops. Oh boy. He called the 800 number and worked it out with the UHaul place so at least he has a place to unload this morning. He was supposed to work today. Yep, someday we'll look back on this and laugh. Right now, he sums it up with one word.....UNBELIEVABLE!

Today we leave here and go to Dad's. We'll spend the day unpacking and settling in. Honey is cleaning up glass from the street, unloading the UHaul, and looking at houses if he has time.

Everybody is healthy, no chicken pox, God is good.

In 15 years of parenting I've never had a kid get something stuck up their nose. Until today. Leave it to Jes. He's playing with a tiny little wheel that goes to a little skateboard. Now it's up his nose and won't come out. It's about the size of a little bead. He can't blow it. I can't see it or feel it. Air still passes through. We're hoping it just went down his throat.

Why in the world would he want to stick it up his NOSE? Boys.

We're officially homeless!

Saying goodbye was so hard! I have cried a flood of tears. I cried telling all of my friends goodbye and cried at the closing. Right when I thought I would cry no more, I passed a red suburban on the road....just like my friend drives. Ok, well NOW I don't think I'll cry anymore. At least not today. Goodbye Arkansas.

Now I'm in TX at my in-laws for a couple of days then I head to my parents until Honey finds us something in CO.

My dad came to get a load of stuff for us yesterday. He had a blow out on the way home, had to leave the stuff and go back and get it today. Honey drove the U Haul and made it to Kansas before it broke down on the side of the road. Now he's waiting for the mechanic to get a part and fix it tonight. He still has about 12 hours to go.

Enough of the depressing stuff.....The good news is:

~Yes, we sold the house! We are on our way to being together again.
~I am looking forward to CO so much. Even during the short time there I felt at home.
~I get to spend some time with my parents and in-laws that I wouldn't have gotten to otherwise.
~We're moving closer to family.
~CT has a great soccer team that is already looking forward to his return.
~Honey has a job that has been wonderful so far. They even pay him to play football! How good is that?

I learned something neat. When you are in a situation where you really need help you have the opportunity to see how the body of Christ really works. If everyone brought food, it would be too much, if everyone loaded furniture they would be in the way. But my friends and family worked together, all in different ways to help with every little thing that was needed. Even the few friends we have in CO are working together and helping us. Just as the hands of the body do their job and the organs of the body do their job, the body of Christ works together beautifully to serve. I wish I had my Bible with me now and I would post a verse that goes with that. Maybe later.

A HUGE GIGANTIC thank you to my friends and family who prayed for us, cried with us, loaded furniture, brought food, packed, babysat, searched the internet for housing, ran errands, brought gifts, and loved us. I love you all so much!!

PS>
JA, as her mom I thank you for letting #1 leave AR on a "winning" note. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but thank you. You're a sweet man. She's looking forward to a re-match.

Update

We didn't get the house. Someone else did. Gotta keep looking.

Truck #2 comes tomorrow. That'll be our BIG moving day. We'll sleep good tomorrow night.

We really have no idea what we'll do next.

Dinner with Wingmen tonight.

Dinner with neighbors tomorrow.

Lunch with friends Sunday. I can't tell you how helpful it all is!

MIL is here holding babies for us.

Kitchen is packed. So is everything else.

Most of us think this is fun. Everyone is still smiling.

Signing off for a couple of days!

So LB comes to me with this story:

When she was 6 or 7 she went to the mall with G'ma. They were in the candy store and when no one was looking, LB snuck a piece of candy and ate it. She's never forgotten it (she's almost 10) and would like to pay for it.

She asked if I would take her to the store and let her buy some candy and let the lady keep the change as a way to pay it back. I told her it didn't really work like that. I also knew that we were on the verge of something very unpleasant. So, Honey and I talked it over and agreed that she should just confess it and get it over with and make it right.

I knew she wouldn't like that idea....neither did I, but what to do? "The end of a matter is better than its beginning" so we decided to set off right after breakfast to get it over with. Her siblings took her place with the morning kitchen work so that hopefully she would be the first one there and it wouldn't be a big show. Really, who buys a bag of candy at 10:00 in the morning anyway?

Well somebody does b/c somebody was already there. So we pretend to look around till the somebody leaves and LB showed me the candy she took. It was the tiniest piece of candy in the whole store! Smaller than an m&m! Well Somebody wouldn't leave so we decided to just get it done. We looked around for the cashier, when out of the back room comes the grouchiest looking lady you've ever seen! Poor LB.

We prayed before we got out of the car, but I was really praying at that point! This lady looked like she'd call the police or something.

So we make our way to her and LB tells her the story and offers her 50 cents. Immediately her face softened and she smiled and told her all was forgiven. whew!
It was quite an emotional thing at that point. LB was crying, I was crying, and I thought that the grouchy lady was going to cry too.

So glad that was over. We make our way through the mall to head to the car. I hadn't had a very good morning. And while I was so happy that that was done with, it didn't help to make the day any better. I just wanted to get home.

Someone grabbed my arm as I'm walking by. It was a sweet man from our church. He's one of the door opener/greeter guys. He talked and hugged us and talked and hugged us some more. He was definitely a breath of fresh air. He didn't know we were moving and we talked about it a minute. He hugged me so tight you would've thought I was his own daughter moving off. Then he said over and over again, "God bless you. God bless you real good!"

Yes, I did feel blessed. And I thanked God over and over for sending him right then. That one guy was able to just turn it all around with his love and friendliness and make the day much better.

Today

#1 went to G'ma's with Bird and Mafee so we could do some more work. We miss them. They'll be home in a day or 2.

Honey is working from home. It's going pretty well and we're trying to leave him alone.

Went walking this morning and my mp3 batteries died. I think the new ones are packed. hmmm....which box could that be??

Tomorrow the moving van comes!

Got our offer in on our house today. Hopefully we'll know something by the end of the week.

Soccer practice tonight.

Trying to eat up all the food in the fridge.

Sword fighting with Wingmen later.

Last story time. All books are turned in, all late fines paid. I guess we're leaving now for sure.

I'm getting excited!

Reading this week, I came across a new phrase. "God is the source of my ability".
It has stuck with me and I've been thinking on it all week. I know that God is my strength and has given me every good thing but to think of Him as the source of my ability really takes it a step further.

It applies to everyone all the time. Not just super talented types. God gives us different abilities and without Him, we'd be nothing. There is no use in trying to do anything on our own. It is wasted effort.

Honey and I talked about it last night to teach our son. For him, athletically speaking, there is always some new skill or goal to work on. Right now he needs to work on winning 50/50 balls and beating his man to the goal. We want him to understand that while practice is important, his success is in the Lord. His footwork is impressive but it is not of his own doing. It is God who has granted him ability, skill, and strength.

As though it wasn't enough that our Lord came to save us, He also made Himself our source of ability. He has made it so we can serve Him and love others and help each other, all in different ways. There is no way that we can be proud of ourselves or have a reason to be jealous of others. My neighbor has one ability, I have another. We work together as the body of Christ, drawing from our Source.

Here's the site that spurred on my musings...

http://www.crosswalk.com:80/spirituallife/women/11552208/page1/

Chicken Party

I forgot to post about the chicken party.

#1 organized the whole affair. She asked me to rent a movie as part of the fun. I wanted the Jungle Book (cartoon one) but they didn't have it on dvd. I know my little boys would've loved the bear. So I settled for Robin Hood. They hadn't seen that one either.

She made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. All homemade. Yum!

Homemade games too. I won the bowling one. The chickens got to win a prize from the prize bag....little goodies from her room. Let's see, there was a credit card type hotel key that Mafee won. He was so proud he slept with it. J-man got an address book. I don't remember the rest. Everyone's name went into a bag for a drawing. I was the drawer and picked .....ta da! J-man! He's lucky at those things. She gave him ten dollars as a grand prize.

She's a sweet big sister.

We did oatmeal baths, pink stuff, teeth, and settled down to Robin Hood.
Fun party night.

My in-laws are here visiting and helping. They just bought a huge brand new fancy motor home. Fancy fancy. It's parked in front of my house now. The neighbors have all come by for a tour. We're going to start charging admission. The kids are taking turns sleeping in there with them and watching a movie on the big screen.

Honey took #1 driving in her car today. She's decided it is harder than it looks.

He's HOME!!

Big long HAPPY sigh.............