This week, we are at the beach with our dear friends, the Hales. The Sullivans are also in town for a few days as well!

It has been a blast so far!

The kids have truly done amazing. They traveled 10 hours, played for hours on the beach, been in public with little or no sleep and have been such troopers.

Who would have thought 6 kids, 6 and under would do so well??

We have had great weather, in the low 80′s and the water has been a little chilly, but still fun.

I caught a great wave today on the boogie board and rode about 3o feet and it took me back to my younger days! Great fun!

Here are some other great, and not so great, memories:

- Elderly, sunburned gentleman in a speedo. (need I say more?)
- Blue Bell Banana Split ice cream
- The Sullivans walking 4 miles on the beach looking for us, and finding us at the last place, before they were turning around!
- Sitting by the ocean, talking, drinking diet coke, and reading a little
- Teaching Parker, Emery and Evan to play Go Fish, and then getting beat by the same girls!
- No major fights amongst the kids- the biggest has been who gets to push the buttons on the elevator.
- Watching the kids ride the waves, play in the sand, and run in the lazy river!

I will post pictures and hopefully video sooner than later!

Our friends are bringing home a sibling for thier sweet baby, Norah.

They have 48 hours to raise $12,000!

God is all over this family and I know that He is going to do mighty things to bring this baby home!

Check out their story here.

I am so excited for them. It brings back sweet memories of when I had 2 under 17 months.

Not to mention that Norah is Bradley’s sweet betrothed. He claimed her as his own when she was 4 months old and he laid a big, wet kiss on her. He has great taste!
Go check them out, NOW!!

Here was all the fun things the kids did before 10 am this morning:

The babies taking naps on discarded moving boxes (notice the dare you to move logo from our
last series!)

I wonder who won the above confrontation!

Hopscotch gone wild!

The almost done playset!

Parker, aka, the evangelist, trying to write LOVE GOD backwards for our
neighbors to see when they come by the house! Or dogevol if you prefer!

The girls are on Fall Break this week and we are so thankful for a little time off!

Today, I went to the Y for the first time in over a month. I did some cardio and then took off to Target with some friends to grab some 75% off summer clearance for the girls. I scored on some deals. I also needed to grab Bradley some fall, play type clothes and found them 30% off! I love a deal and rarely pay full price. I just can’t do it. I will sometimes do it, but only for certain items. I did pay full price for these at Target because I am fascinated/obsessed with this color.

Can I say that we are loving our new yard. The kids are loving being outside. LOVING IT, I tell you. Besides the craziness of a move and unpacking, I feel relaxed here. I know that this was the right choice for our family. I may be living without a master bathroom or a CLOSET in my room right now, but it is worth the sacrifice (but not for a long time, Jason, when you read this!).

I thought Iwould share a few of the websites I visit to learn about a good deal:
www.moneysavingmom.com
www.thebargainshopperlady.com
www.southernsavers.com
www.slickdeals.net
www.thegrocerygame.com

Blessings!

I haven’t taken any more pictures, but I have made some more progress. We are now trying to figure out where to hang things on the wall and put accessories. That is the fun part!

We are going to start painting after we get back from the beach in a few weeks.

Yes, we are returning to the beach with some dear friends and I am so thankful. The Lord knew when we made reservations that time away would be a great break for us! I love that His sovereignty!

Some interesting facts about moving:

1. I have a garden. I was going to put pictures up of our garden, but the battery is dead and I have not uncovered the extra one! If you knew me, you would be laughing now, at the thought of me, with a garden. I may have Mississippi roots, but my parents became citified when we moved and I have never grown any type of vegetable. Which leads to another reason you may be laughing. Vegetables are not our strength. I try, I really do, but I just don’t like a lot of veggies, nor does my husband. We are doing better, but it still makes me laugh to think that we have a garden. The previous owners planted the garden and then moved before the veggies came in. We are reaping their harvest! (I am sure there is application in that example!)

2. Bradley is my little shadow. Especially in the mornings when I am trying to shower and get ready. He asks “Where r you, Mommy?” and is very clingy. I guess moving is disconcerting on little ones. He isn’t secure in this new home, so he can be my shadow, as long as he likes. Just understand that I may be late to meet you somewhere in the morning.

3. Cardboard boxes are truly the best thing when you are a kid. They are at this moment, painting one, on our front sidewalk! They have climbed, jumped in and frolicked all around with those boxes!

4. Organization is easier to set up with a clean slate. I have tried to think through where things are going and I have burned up my label maker. This is especially crucial because we are less about 500 square feet and have fewer closets. But, amazingly, it feels more spacious than our old house because it is one level.

5. It was so worth it! Our kids are loving the yard. Knox is amazing. He loves to roam in our yard and play with the kids. We all seem a little more relaxed. I am so thankful that we found this home and I am excited to make it our own.

I promise to stop boring you with moving, new home posts, soon!

Since I have not stopped talking about it, you all must know we are moving.

Friday is the day.

I feel pretty good about all that we have accomplished, but I know that Wednesday through Friday are going to be insane. That is just the nature of moving yourselves. I think I have most details ironed out, but I am sure something will come up.

Kinda like last Thursday.

Jason had left for his annual Staff Golf Trip and my mom had come into town the night before, to look for her and my dad a home. She was planning on leaving that afternoon.

To make a long story, short, both girls ended up with high fevers, headaches, and sore throats.
They had to be gotten from school, on two separate occasions and I immediately took them to see our wonderful pediatrician. I didn’t want it to be strep and wait, so we basically spent our co-pay to find out it was viral. She went ahead and had mercy on me, in case, and prescribed Amoxicillen. ( I took them to CVS and got 2 $30 gift cards by using the Rite Aid coupons you can print online.) Anyways, we had a rough afternoon and my mom ended up staying the night with us.

Much to our surprise, she slipped coming down the steps for the 3am motrin dosage and we will find out tomorrow if she has broke her hand.

I had planned on having all day last Friday to pack, all by myself. Our sweet friend, Kathy, was going to play with Bradley, while the girls were at school, but alas, it was not to be.

Did I mention, my husband was gone on an annual trip, planned last spring, before we knew we would be moving, the next weekend??

I was most assuredly calling out to Jesus for divine intervention. He is the still in the rush, the calm in the crazy, the rock in the shifting, the constant in the motion, the simple in the complex. He has provided some great blessings through this process and I just wanted to highlight some of the ways we have seen Him in the last few weeks:
1. We sold a house in 2 months.
2. We found a house in a week. A house that we can grow in and make our own. And a big back yard. With trees.
3. We reconnected with some old friends through the mortgage process. Our interest rate has drop .4% since we started the process.
4. Friends and Family who have offered in big and small ways to help us in all of this. From taking time off of work to help us move, to sonic drinks and gift cards, to offers to watch the kids, to packing, to listening to me talk about the move, to praying for us. We are so blessed. Truly, God has blessed us with amazing people around us. I am so thankful, more than you could ever know.
5. Knowing people who can assist us in the renovation of our new home.

Lastly, I am so thankful for this home that has been ours these past four and a half years. It has provided us many opportunities to share Jesus with those around us. It provided shelter in the amazing and hard times of 2 kids under 2, a miscarriage, the difficulties of ministry, a third baby, beginning our first small group and launching into our second and third, many hours of Tennessee Athletics and countless dinners with friends. I have enjoyed living here, but I am so excited to see my family grow in our new place. I truly feel that we have been obedient in this move, so I can’t wait to see what this next phase holds!

Yesterday was a good day. It started off a little strange, for reasons I do not quite understand.
Let me set the stage…

Meet Knox. Our yellow lab. Our first “baby” who taught me more than you can imagine about Jesus, sacrifice, choosing to love, and how I was not quite ready to parent.

Look at that distinguished gray hair!

He came to us, as a gift, as a puppy, a month after we moved into a brand new house, in the dead of winter, with dirt for a backyard. This was almost 8 years ago.
Let’s just say he was feisty, high spirited, and down right stubborn. He fit in well with our family!

He brought me to tears, often. There were days, I would have taken him to the pound, if not for the fact, that we are incredibly competitive and refuse to give up. We would defeat this dog became our motto. We took him to an amazing trainer, who informed us that Knox was stubborn and not the “sharpest crayon in the box.” He refused to bow down.
What you may ask, was the source of a great deal of angst?
THE CRATE.

He absolutely hated that thing and no treat, coaxing or love would get him in. We resorted to having to push, pull, use a choke collar and beg him to go in.
After moving here, we got an invisible fence (for stubborn dogs) and Knox leanred quickly where his boundaries are. He still hates the crate.

SO IMAGINE MY SURPRISE WHEN I FOUND HIM IN IT YESTERDAY MORNING.

We had put it back up when we put our house on the market. I called J because I was so shocked. My first thought was, he’s gone in there to die. Seriously, I am somewhat deluded, but he has never gone in that thing willingly, much less volunteered.

Later, Bradley was out on our deck, playing with Knox. The two were wrestling, playing and having all kinds of fun. I look out and Bradley is sitting in the crate. Knox is shedding ALOT so Bradley ended up in the bath. He needed to get some testosterone out, so he went to be with the other male who was available!

Knox is still high spirited, he jumps and licks like a maniac. He’s mellowed, but not much.
But, he is ours, and he has become a good dog. Bless him, he doesn’t get much interaction, but we still love ole Knox.

If you check out Jason’s blog, you will see the list of things facing us in the next 6 weeks!

Basically, he is going to be gone 20 of the next 44 days.

Now, in and of itself, not a big deal. But, add to that, moving, preparing to move with all the details that come with, children, major women’s outreach (come to GNO, it is going to be awesome), soccer 3 times a week, dance once a week, hosting small group, a little work, and all things school and it feels just a little overwhelming.

So, I have developed a few techniques for coping for the crazy:

1. Lots of Sonic runs for my favorite beverage.
2. Taking it one day at a time. My head gets too messed up if I seek to do more.
3. Unexplained fits of laughter. Or crying. Or both. Please forgive me ahead of time, if you are around for this!
4. Denial.
5. Lots of Sonic runs for my favorite beverage.
6.Calling upon the Name of the LORD, repeatedly, throughout the day. Deliver me, sweet Jesus.
7. Blank stare when asked simple questions. Or complex ones.
8. Taking friends up on any offer they give. Whether it be to help pack, watch kids, take our
prized possessions off our hands… not so much the last one, but you may see #7, if asked.
Trying to be better at this one!
9. Prayer for sanity. And to be organized.
10. Lots of Sonic runs or my favorite beverage.

So, you can see how completely simple I am in my thinking and coping skills. I have learned that life is what it is, the good, the bad, the really crazy. I am just taking it one moment as it comes, seeking to focus more on what God desires through this season, instead of how it effects me. At least that is what I am praying to do!
Please feel free to share ways you cope!

Poor Parker!

She is back in a cast after 3 months of being castless.

She is such a trooper, though.

Apparently, she was being quite the competitor on Friday at practice and got tangled up in a teammates feet. She ended up landing on her elbow. HARD.

Needless to say after much pain, swelling, inability to straighten her arm, we ended up at the Saturday clinic hours for our pediatrician. We tried to go straight to the Orthopaedics’s office, but they were closed, due to the holiday. We have become quite the customers for them this year.
Might have to add an envelope for the budget for Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance.

They took x-rays and the on call pediatrician did not see anything, but I could tell, she wasn’t sold. She informed us the Radiologist would look at it Tuesday.

So, Tuesday, i get the call and the Radiologist has seen a suspicious spot and of course we end up at TOA. I had to go get Parker from school and bless her she cried when I told her where we were headed. I felt so heartbroken for her. She did not want to be back in a cast and who can really blame her. We prayed and talked through what we can do when we don’t like our circumstances. We talked about the fact that God is with us and strengthens us when we are scared.

At TOA, the took more x-rays and we saw the same doctor from her broken wrist. I learned that they don’t really mess around with elbows, due to a growth plate being in the elbow. The elbow also has a not of cartilage which can makes it hard to tell on an x-ray if there is a break, fracture or cartilage damage. So, they go the safe route and cast it. UP HER ENTIRE ARM.

When he said, cast, Parker just turned into me and started silently crying. So hard, as a mom, to see her be sad and discouraged. He did say it would be for 4 weeks and we got to get the waterproof cast to start out. Praise in the midst of crumminess.

After she got her cast, she was such a trooper. She pointed out the pros to her situation. She smiled and laughed and got to have some ice cream. I have been so proud of her. She made lemonade out of lemons. She went to soccer practice last night, by her own choice. She took her Sharpie to school and had all her friends sign it. She has yet to complain.

I am amazed by this little girl. I feel the need to record who she is at this phase and capture a little of who she is.

Over the last few weeks, I have had several moms tell me what a sweet girl Parker is. They have shared with me how she has shown kindness to their daughters. It makes me so aware of how God is at work in her, even as a 6 year old. He is working to bring about righteousness in her. He is drawing her. She negotiates a different set of school friends and church friends and is growing in her ability to be comfortable with that. She is also showing her need for down time, a time to withdraw and recoup. This is a new one, but one I understand, not necessarily because I am that way, but because I see that need played out in so many different ways.

Today, she told me she had prayed for a friend because, “I don’t think she knows God, Mommy and I prayed that she would know God more.”

Sweety, that is my prayer, everyday.

Well, my house looks down right depressing, now.

My mom and dad were able to be here a couple of days and we packed a great deal. So, if you come to my house anytime in the next few weeks, just know that we will be eating mac n cheese out of the one pot I still have unpacked, on paper plates and drinking out of plastic cups. We are talking barren cupboards, people. Jason kept asking me, “Do we have any cups?” to which I replied, “Yes, we have two and they are currently in the dishwasher.” Progress, we have made.

Today, we had a decent family day, interspersed with some cleaning and straightening. I don’t do well with a lot of clutter and things out of place. I make my bed everyday, as do the children, the kitchen is clean before bed at night and the kids’ rooms are clean. So, boxes and things everywhere does not go over well with me. So, today I was able to clean up some and vacuum. I feel much better! Just trying to embrace this season because with all we still have to do at the new house, it is life for us now.

We also had our first Kindergarten project due. They make a city, called Kindergartenville, and each student is assigned a store, restaurant, church… Last year, we had the church, and being newbies, let’s just say, we didn’t bring our A game. When we walked in with our painted It was very obvious that their was some friendly competition to be had amongst the parents. We were initiated into the art of school projects very quickly. So, needless to say, we brought it hard this year! Emery’s Kville Cafe will not disappoint and I won’t feel like our child won’t get into college at this rate, this year! We did have fun, picking the stuff out and Jason and Emery did a great job. I also let Parker play with all the scrapbook stickers and papers that I have not used since 2002. She had a blast!

Lastly, big props to Chick-fil-A today! Our family all got free chicken strips just for sporting a UT shirt! Loved it!