Rent House- Before

Welp. I have some before shots of the rental house. It's ok if you shudder because you can take comfort in the fact that the house does not look anything like these pictures now. It's all pretty and shiny and very soon will be clean.

We had to replace some of the ceiling tiles in what will be the schoolroom. I was going to paint this room but my stamina has run out and really, the walls will be mostly covered by bookshelves and maps.

This picture is from the back of the hallway looking in towards the kitchen and dining room.

This is the living room. We painted it a nice non-color called Night Mist. It's purdy.

This is the bathroom. Ha! Just seeing if you were paying attention. This is the kitchen and those green cabinets will be a fresh white eventually. The paneling in this area will be painted white, also. The lower cabinets will stay unpainted. And the attic stairs won't stay down. :)

This is the fun screen door that leads from the dining room to the laundry room. Jason and Lyndol put new walls in here and Alisa painted the floor.

AAAHHHHHHHH!!!! That's all I have to say about this color.

This is the back bathroom and I won't do much in here besides give the walls a coat of white paint.

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Sorry. I can't help it. This is the girls' bedroom. It is a beautiful, crisp, lovely, white color now.

There was some old paisley wallpaper on this wall. Right now, it's just white but I have some wallpaper picked out to purchase at a much later date.

Welcome to the front bathroom. I'm going to take the door off the cabinet so it's just shelves and paint it white. The paneling will also be painted white.

This is an inside shot of the laundry room, halfway through construction.

Lyndol and Alisa had the wood floors refinished and they are BEAUTIFUL. They look brand new.

We've made a lot of progress since these photos were taken and I'm getting really excited to be able to show you after pictures! The plan is for some of the moving in to take place next week. Hooray!

A Story

I stopped by Grandma's house on the way home from picking up the girls, and filled her in on all the details of the day. She told me that when she started first grade, she was five and her sister, Eloise, was in the eleventh grade. Grandma was really nervous and kept telling the teacher she was sick and that she needed her sister, so someone would go find Aunt Eloise and bring her to Grandma or vice versa. After the fourth day of this, instead of taking her to Aunt Eloise, they took her to the nurse and gave her baking soda to help with the sickness. Grandma said she was never "sick" again. 

First day of school 2013-2014

Oh my goodness. Another year of school has started and will be behind us before we know it. I was originally planning on homeschooling this year. I had bought the books, printed the schedules and prepped myself as much as possible. 

And then our house sold. 

And I'm certainly not complaining about our house selling; that's an answered prayer. It just really threw a wrench in my planning and quite honestly, my sanity. I've really been struggling this past month to keep my head above water, to parent as I ought, to stay on top of the banking and bills, and still smile and have a nice disposition. 

Last night was especially horrible and I finally just started bawling. Thank goodness it happened at my parent's house and not in our old house where I would have just been alone with the girls. Mom and Dad quickly took over (I think they saw it coming and were just waiting in the shadows for the bell to go off) and got the older three girls in bed. Dad walked me out of the bedroom and Mom started rocking Nora. I just cried and cried and Dad comforted me in the way he has since I was a tiny little thing. Because he fathered four daughters, ol' Dad has had a lot of practice in comforting wailing women. 

And then he went to Sonic and brought back ice cream. See? He knows what he's doing.

Anyway, today was a new day and not just any old day. It was the first day of school at a new school in a new town! Did I forget to mention that we decided to send the girls to public school for a year? Oh, sorry. Well, due to a lot of factors, we did. I'm excited for them to have this experience, but I can't wait to get to be their teacher again and get back into our regular curriculum. I'm already making plans for next year. 

So...back to today. Everyone was so excited. There was a little drama this morning with the what to wear/how shall I fix my hair scenarios, but we made it out the door right on time. 

Elaina (7) Second Grade
Claire(6) First Grade
Eily(5) Kindergarten

Claire complained of a stomach ache on the way to school and was convinced it was NOT due to nerves, but rather, a result of her breakfast. Funny thing though, as soon as started towards the school building, that stomach ache vanished. Elaina was also feeling a little nauseous but she was pretty sure it was all nerve related. I agreed.  I walked with each girl to her classroom and took a picture of her at her desk. Elaina was nervous but her teacher knew where Renee, one of Elaina's best friends, was and walked Elaina to meet her so that they could visit before the bell rang. I really appreciated Mrs. Pickartz effort to make her feel at ease. 

By the time I got Elaina settled, Claire had already left for her own classroom down the hallway and was busy at her desk. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Young and she seems very kind and very friendly. The boy beside Claire is Jacob, and Claire said he is very nice.

My last stop was to deliver little Eily to her classroom. She is in Mrs. Means class. When Eily first heard this information, she was terribly upset. She calmed down once she learned that a person's name does not describe their personality. She was so nervous at first and just stayed balled up in her chair until her cousin, Clayton, walked in. As soon as she saw his familiar face, she hopped right up and began unloading her backpack. I snuck out while she was distracted but I wanted so bad to stay and be a fly on the wall. 

The day flew by. Jessica (Clayton's mama), came over and we peeled and cut up a lot of fresh peaches that we had picked on Saturday. Then I made a peach pie and it by the time it was baking, it was already time to go get the girls. 

They each had a great day. They took turns in the car telling me every detail they could remember about their day and their little voices kept getting more and more animated. Eily got to go to the library and watch a Clifford movie; Claire got to go to Art class today; Elaina also went to the library and was one of the few students chosen as the most well-behaved for the day. Eily said her nap felt like it lasted five seconds. All three said their PE was just a play day since it was the first day of school. Elaina broke her pencil in half and was embarrassed for a little while. Claire made a friend named Brooklyn. Elaina made a friend named Zion. Eily made a friend but she doesn't know what her name is. 

When we got home, we went through each backpack and I signed all the paperwork and we worked on Elaina's homework and spelling words. So far, easy peasy. Eily had homework, too. She was supposed to work on learning the circle shape, the number one and the words AM and I. I didn't even bother quizzing her. She's got this. I did go over Elaina's spelling words with her and she just messed up on one word so I feel confident that by Friday, she'll know them all just fine. 

It was a good day and I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings!

Independence Day 2013

Yes, I know, these are a little late. I have several posts yet to come that are from this past summer. Sometimes it takes a while to get around to uploading the pictures. And really, I have more pictures from this day on the big camera but it's in a box somewhere. Maybe that post will show up sometime around Thanksgiving. 

Fun fact: We no longer live in this house. Woo Hoo!

It proved very hard to get a nice picture of Nora.

Even though her eyes are closed, this is my favorite picture of Elaina.

After I had fulfilled my picture taking urges, we loaded up and headed for Aunt Leah and Uncle David's house. Once we got there, the girls started getting very hyper and silly and begged me to take photos of their crazy poses. 

I'm pretty sure I have another picture of Claire from a few years ago making this same face and pose. 

We had a big day going to the water park (and freezing!) and then out to eat for supper. Finally, it was just an our or so from dark so we set off a few of the daytime fireworks. 

This was just too cute. I'm pretty sure we were laughing at the  chicken that lays an egg. They've changed it since I was a lass. 

I mean, look at that egg. Yowza!

Leah and David live in a cul-de-sac and it was the perfect spot. There were fireworks in the sky all around us. We ended the night with a popsicle and a bath. It was a great 4th of July!

You're welcome, boys.

Our Temporary Home

So, I don't know if I ever posted about where we are living now. We are staying with my parents while the house we are going to rent is getting all spruced up for our arrival. We have taken over the back two bedrooms and just this morning, I feel like we are basically settled in and there are places for all the things. And that's an important for me; I need things to have places. This was the first morning since we have been here that I could just take my time after waking up. We didn't have any chiro appointments, we didn't have any dentist appointments, we didn't have any doctor appointments, we didn't have boxes to unpack, we didn't have items piled up to take to the storage unit, and there wasn't laundry piled up waiting on me to wash, fold, etc... I unhurriedly dressed the girls and cleaned the kitchen. I unhurriedly folded a load of laundry with Mom. I'm unhurriedly eating breakfast while typing this post and in a few minutes, I'll unhurriedly make my way to the  shower. It's been a nice, calm, quiet morning. Hooray!

It took five years but we are out!

The first day:
Well, we made it. We packed and packed and packed and loaded and loaded and loaded and then unloaded and unloaded and unloaded. Apparently the theme of this summer is It Shall Not Happen Easily or Without Drama. During the course of moving everything from the house to the storage unit, Jason hurt his ankle very, very badly. By supper time, he was in some intense pain and was unable to walk at all. He's now in a brace and using crutches to get around.

Bedtime:
It took a good hour or more of crying and discipline, but we finally convinced Nora that she had to stay in her bed and go to sleep. Then, I got the three other girls to settle down and drifted off myself. And then around three or four, Claire woke up with a stomach virus and that's what we did for the rest of the morning.

I still have to go back and clean out the pantry and the fridge. And I still need to vacuum, clean the bathrooms, etc... But then we are finished with the ol' house on Christy Lane. Blogging might be a little spotty this week because we have a lot of appointments but I promise I'm going to try to get back to it as soon as I can.

Jacob, Audrey, Michael and Allison

Look how my oldest brother, Adam's, kids have changed in ten years. Time just keeps going faster and faster. 

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

These posts are going to start sounding redundant. We woke up, we packed and unloaded and we fell into bed. Yesterday, Joshua and my cousin, Seth, came and moved the trampoline, swing set, picnic table, hammock and then helped me finish loading all of the items from the barn into the trailer and the explorer.  That was a major one to cross off my list. Today's agenda includes unloading all that stuff and then going home and showering. Ahh, showering. Then I need to cook some food for church tonight. A night off from all this moving stuff sounds very nice. Comment and tell me what's been going on with you? I could use some distraction.

Daily Life

I didn't really get much packing done yesterday. I packed up one of the three hall closets. This packing thing is stressful. I don't think it's stressful for me in the same way that it's stressful for others. My stress comes from the mess and clutter that is EVERYWHERE.  For some reason, I feel like I should be keeping my house just as picked up and normal looking as it was before and it's proving to be very difficult. You can't even see the top of the dining room table. As I'm going through the rooms, I'm looking for odds and ends and then categorizing them in piles on the table. And while that will be nice for unpacking, it's making me go crazy right now. And I can't bring myself to put things in a box that don't make sense together.  For example, I went around collecting candles, candlesticks, etc... and there was still a lot of room in the box. I had plenty of items that were on the table that needed to be packed, but I spent five minutes walking around until I decided that lamps would be appropriate to pack with candles. So I packed up most of the lamps. See? I'm crazy.

In other news, the girls have been finishing up the last week of their swimming lessons. The older three can now all do the breaststroke, freestyle, the backstroke and sort of dive. Eily is hilarious to watch do the freestyle. She swishes her arms around as fast as she possibly can and kicks and pumps her little legs with all the energy and strength she can muster, but she moves across the water at a pace that is just barely faster than not moving at all. She's just so tiny that she doesn't go anywhere. The teacher always grabs the top of her swimsuit and pulls her along the pool and when Eily gets to the other side, she pops that head up, grins from ear to ear and says, "I did it, Mama! The whole way!!" It's adorable.

Night before last, Claire had her retainer on the dresser beside her bed, and was taking a drink of water. As she put her metal thermos-type-thing back down on the dresser, she slammed it on top of the retainer.  SNAP.  So today we will spend some time and money at the dentist have new molds and a new retainer made.

Babies are starting to stir so I need to get off here. I hope you all have a fantastic day!

I'm back!

Good morning!
We got in from San Antonio around ten-thirty last night and I'm so thankful that no one started waking up until nine this morning. While we were in Texas, the inspection passed and the appraisal was approved and sent through. We move out in 13 days and all I have packed is two blankets. I had a mini panic attack this morning as I realized what all is ahead of me in the next two weeks, but Mom calmed me down and I rolled up my sleeves and dove in.  First thing on my list is to go get the Explorer and trailer and then go to Magazine and empty the boxes in the trailer into Jason's studio. Then I'm driving back and I'm going to start loading things from the barn. Then, it's just going to be back and forth all week between the house and the storage unit, which is unfortunately a 45 minute drive. But later on, we will be glad we stored so close to the house we will be moving in to.

We had a wonderful time in SA with our friends and I have a post and pictures coming about that, but right now I'm going to go get busy!

Being Real

Let's be honest. There's some things that are happening/have happened that have left me a little dry when it comes to happy, pointless posting. I'll resume posting soon, but unless something changes, I'll be taking a break for the rest of this week and all of next week.

I will tell you that we had a family put in an offer on our house and we have accepted the offer. The inspection is next week and then we will be waiting on the appraisal. I hear those can take a while. In the meantime, I'll be finalizing moving plans and packing a few boxes of things we aren't using right now.

Let's keep our chins up and pray for comfort for those who are going through hard times right now. 

Happy Independence Day!!

The week that kept on giving

I keep putting off writing this post because there are a lot of pictures and sometimes I don't like having to mess with posting pictures.  But I'm making myself get to it because if I don't, I'll forget everything.

First off, we went to Harmony Hill. I know I posted some pictures during the week but I think I have a few more on my phone and later on, I'll post the ones from the big camera.

It was really nice on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then on Thursday afternoon, as several of us were sitting around enjoying a fresh lime sorbet (courtesy of Ryan and his Vitamixer),  we suddenly got to witness Nora lose her lunch. In my lap. All over everywhere.
So that was fun.
And the poor baby kept throwing up and throwing up and throwing up until she finally fell asleep that evening. The next day was Friday and by this time there were quite a few sickies around the property. By Friday afternoon, the drama with Nora was over but the whole morning I was on the phone with Jason because his car had decided to basically die and somehow, he had to get to Texas and then on to Colorado. Of course, he couldn't take the Explorer because I had it with with me. So Friday morning was chaos while I tried to figure out a plan for Jason's travels and teach the preschool class. There are two teachers for every class, but during the first class, one of Barbara's children's tummy was feeling a bit iffy and she had to go deal with that scenario. We managed to figure out a plan to get Jason to Texas (thank you Adam and Ashlie!) and then, through of the generosity of others, a way for him to go on to Colorado. Friday evening, as we were supposed to be getting ready for the end-of-the-week performance, Jason came running down towards our tent with Elaina draped over his arms. She had ran into another little girl during supper and had a fork in her mouth at the time. We took her over to the ER in the nearby town, while other extended family members had to stay behind and bathe and dress our remaining children for the performance. Nothing like putting all kinds of people out in one day.

The hole opened up into her sinus cavity so they gave her some pain meds and put her on an antibiotic and sent us on our way.  On Saturday, I packed up the campsite and we headed for Dallas. The original plan was to stay until Monday morning with my cousin, Molly, and her husband, Daniel. Sunday night, the Sacrans started dropping like flies. So poor Molly and Daniel had our entire family of sickies plus two other guests, Eleanor and Ryan. (Ryan with the Vitamixer.) Those poor people. There is only one bathroom at Molly's house so they just had to share the germs, whether they liked it or not. Slowly we all started to get better. Claire was the first to mend.

And then Eily perked up a little. 

Poor Jason, though. He just got worse and worse. For some reason, Jason's body will sometimes get to a point where it stops working for him and starts working against him. It happened the night before our wedding, again on our first anniversary, and then again one other time. I could tell pretty quickly that he was headed to that place and so once again, I dumped my children off on someone and took him to the ER for fluids and Zofran.  We were finally able to leave on Tuesday. It was a long trip home. We were all tired and exhausted and didn't like having to say goodbye to Jason.

So the next couple of days were filled with Mom having to make trips to our house to help me take Jason's car to the mechanic, pick up Jason's car from the mechanic and take me back and forth. Oh yeah, I forgot to say that on Tuesday, I came home to Adam and Jacob mowing and weed-eating my yard. It was literally as high as Jacob's knees. I tell you, my family- they're hard to beat. 

Thursday evening, Eily and Nora were playing some kind of jumping game where they were jumping from the couch to the coffee table but they would push each other as they jumped. Had I known exactly what was going on, I would have stopped it, but I didn't and therefore....

this happened.

Ouch.

Warning: there is some blood in the next several pictures. For the third time in a week, I had to call on someone to watch my kids so I could take someone else in the family to the ER. Adam and Audrey quickly came over and I left with Nora. It was seven o'clock when we arrived at the hospital. Around ten-thirty Nora rubbed her little band-aid off her chin and I had one of the nurses at the front desk help me re-bandage the cut. About thirst minutes later, at eleven, I asked that same nurse if it was going to be anytime soon that we were going to be called back. He said it could easily be several more hours. I had been second guessing this whole time if it were even necessary for me to be at the ER. Maybe a butterfly band-aid would be sufficient. I asked him what he thought and he said it definitely need stitches. So, after waiting three hours,  I did what I should have done in the first place; I packed up our things and drove 45 minutes to the town where I grew up and registered Nora at the nice, clean, new-ish ER.  There was only one other person there and within 15 minutes they had us back in a room.  Let me tell you, the next hour or so was not fun. Watching your daughter, strapped in a straight jacket type of contraption, screaming in a way you could never imagine her capable of screaming, begging you to make them stop and asking you to hold her , is a horrible feeling and something I wish on no parent. Even with her strapped down, it took four of us to hold her still. The doctor and the nurses were amazing. They tried to comfort her with soothing voices. They sang to her. They were as gentle and as kind as they could be in that type of situation. Unless my children are literally about to die, I will always skip the local ER's and just go straight to the Booneville hospital.  After it was all over, they talked to her and visited with her and gave her stickers and loved on her. I am just so appreciative of their attitudes, the way they made us feel, and the care they gave us.

Before the stitches

The nightmare is over

At nine, I had called Sarah to come relieve Adam and since we didn't get home until two in the morning, she just slept on the couch. I felt so bad because she was supposed to be back at my house by six in the morning that coming Saturday. I'm telling you, it has been very hard to have to ask someone to come watch your kids over and over and over again. The guilt starts to pile up pretty quickly. On Friday, I babysat Rachel's kids while she went to a doctor appointment and then she came back to my house and told me to just go. Take a break. Spend some time by myself. So I went and bought a van. And it really was that simple and that easy. And I'm so thankful for that. By this time, we knew we weren't going to fix Jason's van so we had to find another vehicle but I didn't expect it to be so easy and quick. 

Big Blessing.

Around two or three on Saturday morning, Eily started throwing up.  I texted Sarah because, so far, she hadn't been exposed to the virus, and instead I asked Mom to come. Leah had been sick at her house earlier in the week so I knew at least I wouldn't be contaminating her. Or at least, I would be the first to contaminate her. She arrived around eight-thirty and I had to run to Fort Smith first to fill Nora's prescription. I finally was able to leave Fort Smith around eleven. I had to take the Explorer to Dallas so that Jason would have a vehicle to take to Colorado once he flew in from Maryland. I drove up there, waited a couple of hours, met my brother-in-law and niece who happened to be traveling home from a singing school in San Antonio, and came back home. I made it home around midnight. 

Sunday was church. 

Monday, Elaina started her tennis day camp. 

One day this past week, I took Nora to get her stitches removed. I don't know what day it was. I'm losing track of it all. 

It took some help from Benadrly, but we were able to get the stitches out with much less drama.

Saturday, the poor child had a migraine that was so bad that she threw up from the pain. She's had a rough couple of weeks.  But we are all good and settled in a routine of sorts. The girls are in the middle of swimming lessons, the house is clean, the laundry is caught up, life is moving along.

These are a few pictures from Harmony Hill that I found on my phone.

Claire, Catherine and a couple of boys leading a song

Claire showing off Eli's masterpiece

A posing Eily

Eily with flowers in her hair during class

I don't have many pictures of Elaina from Harmony Hill because the girl was never around. She was too busy socializing.

These two pictures are just some random pictures that were on my phone that I though were cute.

Nora swinging on the best kind of swing there is

Eating ice cream sandwiches on Nanny's porch swing 

I want to say thank you to Adam, Ashlie, Mom, Dad, Sarah, Dan, Caitlin, Molly, Daniel, Eleanor and Ryan. There is no way I could have mentally made it through the past two/three weeks without your help, kind words, patient attitudes and love. 

I also want to say that I realize that even though it was a rough couple of weeks, it was in no way near as bad as some other people's situations. I have a brother-in-law and sister-in-law who are having to deal with the upcoming surgery of their newborn baby boy. I have a friend who has a one year old little girl that was recently diagnosed with cancer and is in the middle of chemotherapy. I have many other friends and family who have things going on in their lives that are much more serious and important than my little boo-boo episodes and car trouble. I am blessed with four healthy girls. I have a supportive, loving husband. I have a roof over my head. I am very blessed and I know it. And I thank God for these blessings. They are not to be taken lightly.