They are getting so big!

This weekend I finally took the kids to Sears and got their pictures taken. When they were babies I used to be so good about taking them every couple months and then every year to get their pictures taken. I don 't know what happened, but I have stopped being so faithful. The current pictures on my wall have Stephie as 11, Ethan as 9, Nicholas 6, and Lexi 5! Shame on me! So, I thought it was about time I get some updated photos...even if Stephie and Ethans are about 2 months late! Here are the photo proofs, enjoy! :-)

I've been putting off this blog.....

A lot of the time I look forward to blogging. I enjoy writing about my family and fun things we have done or how we are growing and changing. This blog, however, I have been putting off for about month now....

Everyone knows that my husband likes to move around, change jobs, keep things interesting and fun. Even though Greenville was a great location for his last job, Jason was not sure Greenville was where he really wanted to be. So, of course, he always keeps his eyes and ears open. Well, it just so happened, that his ears heard about a good opportunity back in Little Rock. We talked and prayed about it and finally decided it was worth it to at least look into the job. Long story short, Jason got the job offer and the job. Yay!

Today Jason left to go start working in Little Rock. It is so hard having him gone again. I don't know why I'm getting all depressed today, it's just like any other weekend....actually, if he was still in Greenville he woulnd't have left until tomorrow morning. Anyway, I am just sort of depressed and I guess I haven't wanted to post this blog because I didn't want to face the questions or the laughter.

I hated Little Rock, I mean really hated Little Rock. The MOPS group there was not what I was looking for at all. I was home schooling the kids and I hated that. Jason worked a lot of long hours which I hated. We were still close but far from Silom which was hard. It was supposed to be a city and Little Rock...well it just wasn't. The whole time we were in Little Rock, I begged Jason to find another job, anywhere but there. That is how we ended up in Savannah. Now we are in Savannah and the whole family loves it. I could live here the rest of my life and be totally content and happy.

But now Jason is back in Little Rock.....Not as far away as he was in Dallas but not near as close as he was in Greenville. Sigh! I guess you could just pray for us. I am excited for Jason and the job and what it is going to allow for our family financially but I am sad that he has to be so far away. Since Jason is a contractor and the housing market sucks we can't afford to move the whole family at this time. Not to mention, it is Stephie's 8th grade year, so we don't want to move her in the middle of her 8th grade year! We are trying to find a balance, trying to figure out when and if the family is going to move. It's just so hard! We probably make it harder on ourselves than it has to be. Right now we are hoping that by December Jason will have a feel for the area and the job there. If we need to move we will move in December, in between semesters. But for now December is a long ways away and I have to take life one day at a time!

Morning talk

This morning I went into the boys room, turned the light on and told them it was time to get up and ready for school. I then proceeded into the kitchen to make myself some coffee. While in the kitchen this is what I heard Nicholas say:

Nicholas: Mom? If you come turn our light off then we will get up and get dressed
Mom: Okay but you are going to have to wait a minute, I am in the middle of making my coffee
Nicholas: I was in the middle of trying to sleep!

Hehehe! Pretty cute for a 7 year old, no? :-)

Have a GREAT day!

Where is all the water coming from?

I have been so busy this week. Nothing major going on just running errands, doing some shopping, normal stuff to keep me busy.
Today was my first day to just stay home after taking the kids to school. I needed to do some cleaning and get things picked up while the kids were at school.
Everything started off great, just cleaning away....I walked down the hallway once and the floor felt a little wet. I figured someone had forgotten to dry off before getting out of the shower or maybe a wet towel had been on the floor, I didn't think too much of it.
Kept on cleaning, walked down the hall and felt that the floor was really wet, not just damp. Hmmmm. Not wanting to KNOW what was on the carpet, I threw a towel down, stepped all over it and figured my job was done.
A little bit later I walk down the hall again and this time my foot goes, "splish, splosh"! Not a good thing to hear in the middle of your hallway.
I quickly called Jason and he told me to go ahead and pull up the carpet to see what was going on. I pulled back the carpet and found that my carpet was very wet, my padding was soaked and the cement almost had puddles! YIKES!
I got out more towels, wiped everything up and then waited. I needed to see where the water was coming from. Long story short, I now have a plumber coming to my house tomorrow. I have to keep the water turned off (with 4 kids in the house...haha!). I have to take everything out of the bathroom cabinet and have it ready to be pulled out by 8:30am tomorrow.
I have a hair appointment at 11am tomorrow so I am just going ot have to trust the plumber to do his job and leave him in the house. You don't understand, my stylist books up 6-8 weeks in advance. I can't just call and re-schedule! It would not be very good for my roots!
I am tired and I haven't even started empyting the bathroom cabinet!
Pray everything goes smoothly and that he can find the leak and get it taken care of. Pray that the homeowners insurance guy comes quickly and will pay for the damaged carpet, damaged linolium, and wood flooring!

It Works!

Nicholas has been having a little bit of trouble adjusting to being back in Public School. The days are long, the work is hard and most importantly, he misses his mama! Yesterday he got in a little tiff with one of the other students and had to miss recess as punishment. He did not want to go to school today and was so sad about everything that had happened yesterday at school.
I told him that he would have a great day and that he needs to remember that even though mommy is not there with him, God is. I reminded him that he has Jesus in his heart so if he wants to, he can pray to Jesus right there at school, even with his eyes open. I honestly was not sure he was even listening to me until I picked him up from school this afternoon.

ME: Hey! How was your day?
Nicholas: It works!
Me: What works?
Nicholas: What you told me about this morning
Me: Which thing that I told you about this morning?
Nicholas: The praying to Jesus.....I prayed today that I would not cry in school today and that I would be a good boy all day long and it worked!
Me: Of course it worked, I am so proud of you!

Ahhhh, the prayers of a child! He is such a good kid and now I just need to remember, that even though mommy is not there with him all day long, Jesus is!

Thawing Tips 101

I shared a tip with one of my friends the other day and she in turn has shared it with many of her friends so now I am thinking I should share it with all of you!

How many times do you come home, haven't thought too much about dinner, need to make something but all your meat is frozen? Taking chicken or ground beef out of the freezer and putting into the microwave on defrost just gets to be a mess. Thawed chicken juice gets all over the plate and sometimes the microwave. Ground beef never thaws evenly and then you have part cold, part frozen, part cooked meat! Ewwwww! Well, with Bekah's new quick thawing tip, microwave mess will be a thing of the past! Simply place any frozen meat or sauce into a resealable ziploc bag. Fill your sink with warm water, place the bag into the sink and let it thaw. No mess in the microwave and all juices are contained inside the ziploc bag! This works well with any type of frozen meat and I use it to thaw left over sauces as well. So next time you need to thaw meat or sauce, forget about the microwave and remember Bekah's quick thawing tip! :-)

Back to School

So today starts the kids first day back to school! WOW!

Stephanie is in 8th grade now, Ethan is in 5th, Nicholas is in 2nd, and baby Lexi is not a baby anymore and in the 1rst grade! After a year of homeschooling we decided to put the kids back into public school. Lexi and Nicholas had already been pushing to go back since about February of this year. Ethan didn't seem to care one way or the other. Even though home schooling last year was not that bad, with Jason working out of town it was just too much for me! I think it will be good to have the kids back in school and give all of us a little time away.

Today was really hard for me to send the kids to school. I was excited for them, I think they all have great teachers, but I was not ready to say goodbye to summer and send them off to school again. A lot of my friends think I am crazy for missing them or wanting the summer to be longer....but I can't help it. I was thinking about it today and realized that a lot of my parenting ideologies were learned back in the small town of Siloam Springs. I was reading a blog from one my "Siloam Friends" talking about how sad she was for the families who can't wait to be apart from each other and back in school again. I know that she put a lot more eloquently than I am and I am not trying to bash anyone here....I was just thinking that I agree with her 100%! My children are still so small (even though my 11 year old would not kiss or hug me goodbye today) and having them in school all day long with the influence of some other person....I really sort of hate it! I know how great my kids are and how smart they are, I just pray the teacher will see those same qualities and help them reach beyond themselves to achieve more than they thought they could! You know? No one believes me when I say I miss the kids already but I really do. I am already looking forward to 2:30 when I can go pick up the younger three from school and hear all about their day!

I have gotten a lot done today and I will admit that it is nice to mop the floor and not have little footprints making it dirty again as soon as I turn around....but then again, I know that those days are quickly slipping away and it makes me sad! They are growing up so fast and having them back in school again after having them home for a year...it makes me want to scoop them back in closer and just have them home a little while longer!

This post is almost sounding depressing and I don't mean for it to be! I know that they will have a good year and God has a plan for them this year in school and I know they will be fine! Of course I had to take multiple pictures this morning before they headed off to school. Stephie went to school with her friend this morning so I did not get any pictures of her all ready to go but I still managed to snap a couple bathroom shots (since this is where she spends more and more of her time anyway) The primping of a teenager!

So enjoy the pictures and hopefully I will do better at updating my blog now that I have so much FREE time with all 4 kids back in school! :-)