Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Let the Packing Begin!

Well we are still not 100% sure where we are going to live yet, but as of May 12th we will be out of this house.  That leaves us only 2 weekends before we will walk away from this house for the last time.  This was our first house where so many firsts happend for us, but that is another post.  Today I can't stop and reflect because I have to GET TO PACKING!  Last night I could not sleep.  I am not sure why.  Was it the caffne I had at dinner? the anxiety of moving? the burden on my heart for Chrissie and her family?  I don't know for sure.  I used my unexpected awake time to pray and start to pack.  I finally was able to fall asleep at 4:15am!  I am not feeling too tired this morning.  I hope that is true for the rest of the day, and I hope tonight i can fall asleep.  Otherwise, I might have the whole house packed up by the end of the week.


Monday, April 26, 2010

The Zoo

A little know fact about me:  I have a Commercial Drivers License.  I had to take a written test all about how to drive a 18 wheeler and what to do with emergency flares if you have a blow-out.  I failed it the first time.  That kinda hurts because I haven't failed many test in my life, especially ones I have studied for, but it's good for me to fail test every once in a while.  Anyway I took it again and passed!  Then I had to do the drivng test.  I was going to be driving our church's bus, so I drove that for the test.  It is a 26 passenger bus, so not the big full-blown school bus, but big for sure.  It is really not hard to drive.  If you can drive a truck with a trailer attached, which I am very good at, you can drive a 26 passenger bus.  The hardest thing about the test is you have to parallel park the bus!  I did it,thanks to a guy from our church who was patiently worked with me on it, but let me assure you I would walk 5 miles before I parallel parked the bus.  Seriously!  So what does all this have to do with the zoo?  I am glad you asked.

Our kids choir at church called KidzPraiz had a field trip scheduled for Saturday to the Austin Zoo, but had to bus driver to drive them.  My husband was going to be out of town so I did not volunteer because Little Britches's carseat can't go on the bus very well.  But no one else volunteered.  I didn't want the kids to NOT get to go to the zoo, so I volunteered and had a friend who works with the kids choir follow along behind the bus in our car with the carseat safely buckled in the backseat.  The trip was a little rushed since the choir kids were not that interested in really observing the animals.  They mostly wanted to run by each cage to say they saw each animal and then quickly get to the petting zoo where they could give away their animal feed.  We had a good time and got to practice some baby sign language.  I was wondering if Little Britches's thought her mommy was crazy for doing the pig sign at the thing we saw on Saturday and the cute stuffed animal she has.  I mean if I was a baby I would be thinking, "You have got to be kidding!  Those two things don't look anything alike!" 

Here are a few picturs from our trip:

Look at these guys!  They are bigger than Little Britches!
Little Britches and Momma, having a good time!
Me and my monkey, Mortimer.  I brought him along see he could meet his cousins.
Look at this big kitty cat with the pretty spots!
My best bud likes ducks, so I took a picture of a real one for her.  Here ya go, Annie.
Whew a day at the zoo is tiring!  I need a nap!
 

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Bluebell Fun Run


This time last Saturday I was in the middle of running the Blue Bell Fun Run 10K through the beautiful Brenham, Texas countryside.  The whole family participated in the race.  It was our first family race.  My husband decided to run with me instead of at his usual 8 minute a mile pace or faster.  These days I hang between the 9 and 10 minute a mile pace.  It was fun to run a race together!  I hope we do fun races like that.  My goal was to finish in an hour, but I finished in 1 hour, 1 minute, and 7 seconds.  Close so close!  I have my sights set on racing next weekend, but will it be another 10K or a 5K?  I am not sure yet.  We will see.  Anyway...here are a few pictures from race day.

The whole gang from left to right: Josie with Mayzie, Elisabeth with Annie, me, Cameron, Andrea, Nathan, and Kenzie.  We all ran except Josie who so kindly babysat Annie so Elisabeth could run without having to push the stoller. 

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Heart is a Precious Thing

We have a family in our church whose ministry is adoption.  They are such a picture of Christ to our body.  Last year they adopted a little girl with heart problems they knew would require surgery.  Yesterday was the surgery and it did not go smoothly.  Chrissie, the little girl, is on machines to keep her alive right now.  Would you join me in praying for her and her family?  You can follow her story here.  I have posted a picture of her precious face so when you pray you can have her sweet smile in mind. 

Monday, April 19, 2010

What a week!

Last week was quite the week!  We had people come look at our house twice on Monday!  They were the same people looking and they offered us a contract by Tuesday!  Our house was on the market exactly one week!  On Tuesday our realtor, Burt, came and discussed the offer with us.  We felt it was a bit low, so we counter offered and it was accepted!  Burt lead us through the process like the pro that he is.  He asked us if we were surprised that the house had gotten a contract so fast.  We said we were not surprised because we had specifically prayed that the house would sell fast as confirmation that we needed to sell our house.  But on the other had we hadn't COUNTED on it getting a contract so fast.  We had mentally prepared for 59 days, which is the average days on the market for our neighborhood.  Why do we do that?  Pray for one thing but prepare ourselves as if God will not answer?  Anyway by the time Burt called us to say the counter off had been accepted Cameron and I were having an adventure of a different kind.

On Tuesday evening Cameron's mom came over to keep Little Britches while we went out.  It just so happened it was the day we got a contract on the house so we were going to sit down, enjoy dinner, and discuss our future plans.  But before any of that could happen life took over.  Cameron had come home from work not feeling well, so he made a doctor's appoitment for Wednesday morning, but by the time our realtor left our house and I had given grandma instructions about bed time Cameron had called the after hours clinic because he was feeling worse.  Our appointment was at 6:20 and every minute that went by saw an increase in pain.  It was heart-wrenching to see your beloved in so much pain but unable to do anything.  Cameron did some labs, talked to the doctor, did some more labs, an x-ray, and talked to the doctor some more.  All the while his pain was intensifying and then, after using the bathroom, subsiding until finally it did not intensify as much.  We were sent home with a diagnosis of kidney stone and possible infection.  It turned out to be both.  Cameron came right home and went to bed with the help of some Vicodin.  He stayed home from work the next day because he wasn't feeling great yet.  However, miracle of miracles, he was feeling so good on the second day he was able to eat a KFC Double Down.  See his post about it here.  Now we are looking at houses trying to think about packing up and movin' out.  What a week, I say!

Monday, April 12, 2010

The Easter Dress

Around Valentine's Day I posted this post about Little Britches' dress.  Well, I did get the dress transformed for Easter, so I thought I would give you a little peek. 
Daddy bought her the headband, so I made the sash to match
Ready to go to church! 
Enjoying time with her Aunt after church!

Now this weekend is the wedding we are attending.  I might leave the dress or switch it again to match the weddign colors.  We will see what the week brings.

What are Shoes For Anyway?

Two weeks ago our next door neighbor was over watching Little Britches while I did some house work.  After playing with a basket full of toys the neighbor came to me and said, "There were a pair of shoes in the toy basket.  I didn't know if you had lost them."  At anyone else's house that would be a likely assumption, but at our house shoes are toys.  Little Britches LOVES shoes.  She wants to put them in her mouth.  I refuse to let her put our shoes in her mouth; they are dirty and gross.   So I decided that she could put her shoes in her mouth.  I mean she doesn't really walk anywhere.  That has been a happy compromise until now.  On Saturday Little Britches took her first "walk" outside, so now she has one pair of shoes that are no longer for chewing.  I am going to have to clean out the toy basket soon.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Bluebonnets Abound!

Here are some pictures of Little Britches enjoying the Texas wildflowers.  We have had a beautiful spring!
Beautiful flowers, Beautiful girl!
Happy days in the sun!

A little bonneted baby in the blue bonnets
 Holding on to each day
Falling over and staying there as if she just came out of an egg
With her best bud, Annie

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The House is for Sale



After much hard work the house went on the market on Tuesday morning at midnight or so.  We had a few more things left to do like touch up nail holes, caulk baseboards, clean outside windows etc so my husband stayed home from work on Tuesday to get a lot of those things done.  Our realtor told us that we might get some lookers this weekend, but not to worry if it was not until next weekend.  With this in mind, we came to a stopping point on Tuesday and felt a little break and celebration was in order.  Though we were not quite finished we were close and it felt good.  We went out for lunch and then let Little Britches play on the playground a little.  We were all smiles!  On the way home we decided a family nap time would be in order since we had spend most of the last two weeks working past midnight.  I was looking forward to a good 'ol fashioned nap when the phone rang.  It was a realtor who wanted to show our property at 4:30!  We arrived home at 2:30 Little Britches down for her nap and got to work again.  We were in a working frenzy.  At 4:20 we called it quits and made sure everything was in its place.  We took Little Britches and the dogs for a walk.  We made some loops in our neighborhood, seeing the cars as we passed by a place we could look down the street several times.  They stayed about 30 minutes or so.  I would not let us walk by our house because I felt like that was spying.  Plus I knew that it wouldn't be too hard to figure out we were the owners.  Both our cars were in the driveway, so a family pushing a baby and walking two dogs that passed by 7 times in a half hour might stick out in someone's mind.  I was thankful we had a showing even though there were still some little things to do. The harder we work on the house the more we see that we could do to fix it, but that is a never-ending cycle.  Anyway, here are some pictures of our house.