OH MYLANTA

What in the world has happened in the past 2 weeks?  I posted 2 weeks ago today and our lives have flipped, flopped, and cartwheeled away!

First of all, I got really, really sick.  It is quite possibly the sickest I have ever been in my married life.  I had high fevers, debilitating body aches, the worst shakes that I have EVER had, and upper respiratory junk including a bad cough.  Conrey caught it, but not nearly as badly, thank the Lord.  He only got the fevers and aches.  My poor boy.  :(

So, we are living in a rental house, as you all know.  Said rental house has been trying to be sold for about 10 years off and on with no success.  We noticed a huge increase in showings over the past month, much to our annoyance.  Showings are no fun, but when you've got a less-than-enthusiastic attitude towards them, they are a drag.  Anyway, we were getting nervous about all of these showings.  One lady looked at the house for 52 minutes.  People, this house is tiny!  How can you look at it for 52 minutes?  Well, apparently, you can, because she did...TWICE!  Once someone spent that much time in this house, we knew what that probably meant and we started looking for living space B.

A house was advertised in the paper Wednesday.  I've told you how quickly houses go here, so we looked at it and applied for it, though it is certainly  not somewhere I ever imagined myself living.  *ahem*  But, as I said, you gotta take what you can get here, so we applied.  We were told that we were one of at least 3 that were applying.  So, we get a call on Thursday saying that our house we're living in got a contract and we had about 45 days to vacate.  Yipee.....  Friday morning, we get a call saying that we have been selected to rent the new house!  YIPEE!  I was so, so, so sick, but got myself dressed and headed to sign the contracts, as Mark had to get to work.

So, we now are the proud renters of a house built in 1977 w/ every 70's finish you can imagine including paneling, green and orange shag carpet, and some lovely wood shingling INSIDE the house in the kitchen.  Weird.  There is also a bidet.  No dirty behinds in our house!  :)

There are some definite positives, though I like to mention the "lovlies" first.  :)  We have a 2-car garage that is ATTACHED, for one thing.  Major plus in the tundra up here.  ;)  Secondly, there is a ton more space.  We are very thankful for that.  Also, a fully fenced yard and we're no longer on a busy road.  So, we're thankful for how QUICKLY God answered prayers!

Saturday, we loaded up and headed back to do the final removal of our stuff in our non-selling house back home.  We got a U-Haul and brought it all up with us.  Then, yesterday, Mark and two of his friends unloaded all of that @ the new house and then did some other loads while they still had the uhaul.  They made a great dent in our stuff to move,  so that was good. 

So, things are a bit crazy around here, but when are they not?  We're thankful, thankful, thankful for the God's provisions this past week (and always, but we're talking about this week).

NOW, our house is back on the market as of Tues and we've already had 1 showing and have 1 more scheduled.  It's all yours, God.  Get 'er GONE!

Keater's Stats

Well, folks, it is official.  I've got a giant baby.  :)  He checked out A-OK @ his well baby visit yesterday.  We will start his shots @ his 6-month visit.  I wanted to hold off a bit, so we're starting them late and we'll go @ a slow pace.  I just am not sure how I feel about shots and so we'll be very conservative about the rate @ which he gets them.

Anyway, without further ado: His weight clocked in @ 18 lbs, 10.5 oz.  Height: 26.5 inches.  Head: 48 cm.  ALL THREE are over the 97th percentile.  This is the new way of saying biggest kids there are.  They told me that Conrey was over the 100th percentile every time.  That makes no sense.  They now say <97th.  Dumb.  Anyway, if Conrey was over the 100th %tile when he was 4 months and 18 lbs even, then Keaton must be over the 120th %tile, being 10.5 oz more!!!

Needless to say, he's a big, tall boy with a giant head, though I do not believe that it is disproportionate to the rest of his body.

One thing that I wanted to be sure that I wrote down about this sweet boy is the sweet connection that occurs whenever he is eating.  He will not eat without holding my hand.  He won't breastfeed without holding my hand and he won't eat cereal/baby food without holding my hand.  It is so sweet that he searches for my hand when he's nursing no matter how hungry he is, before he'll eat.  I already believe that, like his brother, his love language is going to be physical touch.  That's just fine with this mommy, since that is mine too!  :)  Conrey has to have his hand in my hair at all times and loves to have his hair played with, back rubbed, etc.  Right now, he is laying against me, has his head on my shoulder, has his hand on my leg, and is playing with my hair off and on.  I'm just sayin...

Anyway, that's it.  I don't know if anyone out there is reading my exciting blog (sarcasm), give me some comment love.  I did have one comment recently on here and one via email, so thanks...just curious if I still have readers besides the 3 that I know of.  :)  Come one, feed my ego!!!  :)

OK...it is nearing bedtime.  We have to have an early bed time tonight, as we are going on a mini vacation this weekend.  I will write all about it when we get back!  Have a great weekend everyone and be thankful for the many blessing that we have!!!

Much Ado About Nothing

I don't really have much to say, but felt like blogging random things.

As I said yesterday, we are disappointed about Mark being denied transfer.

BUT, we are looking forward to one very big "plus" of being here a while longer.  Getting out of DEBT!  That is our goal.  We are making our plan to start snowballing that debt right out of the atmosphere!  Once our house is off our backs, we should be able to put an extra $400-500/month towards our debt!  WOO-HOO!  How do we have a bunch of debt?  My student loans (which were for nothing) and Mark's business loan (which was a grave mistake).  Then, we have a small amount of cc debt because of the times that we were trying to make ends meet throughout Mark's business time and then unemployment.  We're very excited to get out from under it.

I also wanted to blog a bit about my Mr. Keaton.  His 4-mo appt is tomorrow, so I'll have more to say about his stats then.  For now, I just wanted to say that he is LOVING puffies.  I break them up and he goes to town!  Also, he is learning to sit alone.  So far, it is only for 7-8 seconds before he slumps forward, but he's on his way.  He plays with toys a lot and loves music.  He laughs really easily and talks quite a bit.  He is still so, so sweet.  He really is the joy and sunlight to all 4 of us.  He still hasn't gotten any teeth in, but we're working on it.  Cassie had 2 teeth by now, but Con didn't get his in until 5 months, so we'll see.  We've eaten some food, too, but it seems like we have rough nights if he eats food.  He just wants to eat every 2 hours throughout the night if he has food that day.  SO, we're holding off on that for awhile.  We'll try again when he's older.  I was only doing it because he gets so, so angry when we're all eating.  That's why we started the puffies.

Well, Keaton is mad at me for leaving him on his own too long for his liking, so I will end this.  Look tomorrow for our vital stats with Keaton and we'll catch on the flip side.

The waiting has commenced

...and the answer was "not yet."  Mark's bosses have denied his request to transfer.  We're disappointed, but I was prepared for it.  Mark, not so much.  We're just going to get rid of our house ASAP and work towards becoming debt free.  Then, perhaps, we'll be ready to move along at that point.  So, if anyone wants a super cheap house that is only a few years old, 5-bedroom, 3 full ball, 3 car garage, let me know.  It's a great house and someone is going to get a steal, thanks to our situation.  I just pray that it will be a blessing to someone since it cannot be to us.  I sure loved that house.

Anyway, enough of that.  This town will be "home" for now.  God has work for us to do here and we're going to go about the business of finding out what that is!

A Lesson in Parenting

I had one of those lightbulb moments.  An epiphany, if you will.  It actually happened a few weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to blog it.

Now, the story I have to tell is about a friend of mine.  I'm not writing this to pat her on the back or glorify her.  I don't want to make her head swell.  *grin*  She wouldn't want me to anyway.  Therefore, I'm not going to even put a name.  I will simply call her "friend."  She probably has no clue how she and her sweet daughter impacted me today, but I suppose she will now.

So, I was spending time with this friend when I was in ta-town.  She is a very close friend of mine and we were both desperate to get some time to catch up.  Our kids usually love being together, as well, so it was win-win.

You see, my friend had one of those "teachable moments" and she took advantage of it in a way that I had never thought of and it was powerful for me, as an observer and fellow parent, to witness an area that I had been struggling with be handled so gracefully, so quietly, so thoroughly.

Her daughter is one of the sweetest.  They had one of those moments when the child defiance comes out and rears its ugly head.  My friend asked her daughter to do something and she stubbornly stared her mommy down.  I thought to myself, "Uh-oh."

What my friend did next was what amazed me, but the reaction she got amazed me more.  "Little Girl (though she used her first and middle name), what does Ephesians 6:1 say?  The little girl looked at her with big eyes.  "What does it say?"

"Children obey your parents in the Lord."  She responded with eyes lowered.

"Okay, then" my friend said.

Here's the amazing part: That sweet girl began completing the required task.  I nearly dropped my baby from shock at how seemlessly that event occurred. 

Now, I know that my friend would assure you that things do not always go that way.  However, I noted several things in this exchange.

1.  That little girl KNOWS the love of God and of her parents.  There was no question in her little mind that if the Bible says it, then it is important.

2.  It is never too young to start instilling the Word in the hearts of our children.  I've worked on things here and there (mostly songs) with my children.  However, take it to heart, dear readers, that when it says that it is useful for training and rebuking...it is TRUE!  (2 Tim 3:16)

3.  By simply asking a calm, even-toned question, that mommy got the desired response and used it as an object lesson for Biblical principles.

4.  That sweet girl learned a bit about grace that day, as well.  Her mother could have spanked at the first sign of defiance.  I think that we've all had our days when we'd like to swat them if they sneeze at the wrong time.  However, instead of an instant swat, she had the opportunity to recite scripture and then make a better choice.

I had more items at the time, but as I said, it was a few weeks ago and I've lost them.

However, the point of this post is this: We have ~12 hours a day to be teaching our children.  What ARE we teaching them in that time?  Respect and obedience?  How to turn the channel on the TV?  Love and sharing?  How to turn on their own DVD?  If they can learn their numbers, colors, letters, and shapes, surely they can learn the most important words ever penned.

We have GOT to be teaching our children the IMPORTANT things.

So, my friend, I know that I was not going to 'pat you on the back,' but thank you for teaching ME while teaching your daughter.  It is a lesson that I hope to take with me throughout this journey we call motherhood.

I'm just an ordinary momma trying to be more like Christ...

Waiting...

We are waiting.  Patiently at times.  Less-than-patiently at others.

We still know nothing concrete about our transfer request.  We know that things are in progress.  It seems as though things are headed towards Mark being approved for the transfer.  We have had good feedback from people involved in the situation. 

What we haven't had is confirmation. 

What we haven't had is a "yes" or a "no."

What we haven't had is any kind of information that tells us if we should unpack (the toys that the kids have been begging for) or start re-packing (everything).

What we HAVE had, however, is peace.  We know that whatever decision is made, we will adapt and make the best of it.

It is tough to be in a waiting game.  We feel like we've been in one after another after another after another over the past several years.  Obviously, during Cassie's pregnancy, I was waiting anxiously to meet my baby girl.  However, that was nothing compared to what was to come starting with waiting for Conrey's birth. His pregnancy was so hard and such a drain to me that it was just trying to get to that point.  Then, we waited for jobs in Wichita.  We waited for our house in KC to sell while living at my parents' house with a 2-y-o and baby, we waited to find a house.  We waited for 15 months while Mark was laid off...waited and waited for God to prepare the right job for him.  We waited in 2 separate states for Keaton to be born.  We waited for recovery from delivery and for Mark to find us a place before we moved here.  We've waited for 7.5 months for our house back home to sell (still waiting...).  Now, we're waiting to find out about this.

We've learned a LOT throughout our waiting games.  We've learned to be content with little (compared to what we had previously...we're still incomparibly rich to most of the world).  We've learned to be better stewards of our money (though we have a loooong way to go on that one).  We've learned to rely on each other.  We've learned that it is OK to let people help you out in your time of need.  We've learned that God will provide in ways that you never dreamed possible.  {I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this on here or not, but one day during our struggle, completely out of the blue, my aunt and uncle sent us some much needed money...at just the right time.  They knew that things were tough, but they had no idea what we were going through in that week.  God uses people for His work to His glory and they were open to His prompting.}  We've learned that we can help other people even in our times of need.  We've learned that when you give from your heart, what you sow far surpasses what you reaped.  We've learned to be thankful for what we have.  We've learned that we need far less entertainment than we thought.  We've learned that "stuff" is more of a hassle than not.  {Have you ever tried to fit 2400 sq ft of stuff into 1500 sq ft?  It really teaches you that you have TOO MUCH JUNK and that it is sinful in some ways!}

I could continue with my list, but I won't.  I am rather rambly (as usual), so I will just end with this thought:

Every day is an opportunity for learning how to be more like Christ.  Every situation that you go through is for teaching and/or showing you where you need to improve.  God doesn't let things happen "just because."  He has known every situation that you'll go through since time began.  He knows the choices you'll make and the paths you'll take.  Therefore, He has already planned out how HE will use that situation for growth.  He is 100 steps ahead of us and has prepared the way for the lessons we must learn from the events in our lives. 

So, my questions are these:  What situation(s) have you come through recently that you need to find the lesson that God needed you to learn?  What situation(s) have you come through that have taught you valuable lessons and what did you learn?

Those are more rhetorical, but if you'd like to share, feel free!  Learning from each other is a valuable way to grow, as well!  Let's be sure we're all growing together!

My dad has always said a little phrase that I believe applies:

We need to be here after what we are here after so that we're not here after He's gone!