House Update Again

Hi. It's me again. I'm a little paranoid that I have misspelled its/it's so forgive me if I have.


Our first official morning in the house and the girls had donuts for breakfast. Yummy. This was not yesterday but last Saturday, before everything was moved in.
That same day Sarah lost her first tooth. Okay, I pulled it out. But in my defense both of her bottom adult teeth are already growing in and the tooth had to go. I'm currently trying daily to pull the other baby tooth to make room for the adult tooth that's already growing in.
And now on to progress. Del is working like a dog. Or something. Our bedroom is nearly finished. It just needs to be organized basically. But all the furniture is in, drapes are up. I think it looks nice. We're thinking about putting a rug in. I really like the floors. Oh darn, I forgot about the missing bed skirt...I wonder where it is.

Toys. Sigh. They take over your life. I feel about children's toys the way I feel about TV. I mean, how many boxes and plastic dishes and stuff like that do your kids play with and not the gobs of toys. These guys play with some dolls, Legos and maybe the Little People but other than that they make the rest of it up. I want to down size our toy collection. This is supposed to be half a school room and it's totally taken over by toys.

Ahhhhhh, what a lovely sight. Except for the ugly wall color, which I will have to live with until we actually have time to paint. But isn't it a fabulous sewing room already? I want to put a long table in it for scrapbooking. And eventually I might have to share the room with a guest. Sheesh, friends...always taking up your space. LOL. I'm just kidding, you can come take up my sewing room any time you want to.

And here's Del's office. Obviously not very made up yet. We don't have a desk. There's never been room for a desk in any place we've lived in so we don't own a desk. It will be sssssoooooooooo nice to get all the Star Wars paraphernalia out of my bedroom and into his office. Not that I don't have an ever-loving fondness for all...okay, a lot of things Star Wars but it's just not so relaxing and romantic in my bedroom. Know what I mean?

So there you go. It's been quite a productive day. I should go put away all my plastics.

Finally, an Update

Hi. I'm alive. Isn't that great! Who knew that moving into a house would be so much work. It's different moving into a house instead of an apartment where all you do is move in and live. In a house you have to fix it up...or whatever; it's different. I have to sit on the floor to type this up so I'm just going to post some pictures and then get my poor tailbone on a couch for a little while.

Here are three of our new appliances. Man what a horrible picture! Sorry, I'll try to get a better one. I'm desperately trying to get the kitchen in order because I feel that once I can have order there, the chaos in the rest of the house won't bother me as much.

Here is what I dig about having a house. Look at them. Doesn't it look like they're having a lot of fun. Okay, maybe that looks boring but man you should hear them giggling and having a blast out in the sunshine. The "grass" is mostly weeds and there is one particular weed called a dollar weed that they really like making "salad" out of. They've been using an old, dead palm frond for an oar and sailing about to who knows where in that turtle sandbox. You know, the one that's been in storage for 4 years. I am just so grateful to have this back yard so the kids can play out there.

Here are three of the girls at the empty apartment. We took pictures of them in all the rooms and Ella almost cried because we lived here longer than any other place we've lived as a family. Del got sort of sentimental over it because the only place he ever lived longer was Boy's Hope and that was by less than one month. Not me. I said good riddance. LOL. We did pray over the apartment though and thanked God for providing that humble little home for us.

I've spent the better part of two days lining cabinets with that cool green contact paper. What a pain!!! I'm finally done with the kitchen. I might do the bathrooms next.

The good news is that my washer that has been in storage since...June of 2002 works. The bad news is that the dryer doesn't. So we have a clothes line in the kitchen. It's very funny. We just got finished putting it up before I posted this so the kids haven't seen in because they're in bed. I can't wait to see how they'll react to their clothes hanging up in the kitchen. It's going to be funny.

Anyway, we're having fun and surviving. I'll try to get better pictures.

Voting

I just got home from casting my ballot in early voting. I was encouraged to see the lines were long even mid-morning on a Thursday. I had heard that the lines were long all day, and at times were out the doors! It will be interesting to see if they are long because everyone is voting early, or if they will be long on Tuesday as well! If you haven't voted yet, get out there and vote!

My main reason for voting early is an irrational hope that Andrew will be born before Tuesday, preventing me from voting on election day! I am pretty sure that is only wishful thinking... I even went out of my way since early voting was at a neighboring suburb's library, and my regular polling location is at my church, where I will already be for Bible study on Tuesday morning! :) Like I said, wishful thinking.

Speaking of thinking, I seem to be unable to think or blog about anything but baby these days. I guess that is understandable, but it makes for a boring blog...sorry about that! I did get tagged for another meme, which I'll put up soon. I'll try not to make it all about baby, too!

Tag, Belly, and a Contest!!

Well, Joanna tagged me, which I'm not sure is totally kosher since we are here on the same blog, but I've never been tagged before and it seems kind of fun, so I'll do it.

10 years ago: I was married just a year and a half, living in a tiny town in Ohio and teaching PE in one Christian school, piano in a montessori school, and running my own piano studio out of our home. I had just been in a car accident that left me with nerve damage and stuck in bed on disability for an entire month, unable to use my hands at all or feel my hands or feet. Sometime, I'll have to blog the whole story, because God healed me miraculously when I went to the elders of my church and they prayed over me and annointed me with oil. An amazing testimony to God's power and his faithfulness to do what he says he will do when we do what he tells us to do. (Did that make any sense at all??)

Things on today's to do list:

• school
• finish the four embroidered blankets I started yesterday
• Do some heavy cleaning in my kitchen (a friend is coiming over to help me with this!)
• get milk from store (very ambitious, I know. But hey, I'm 9 months pregnant - it is ambitious!)
• Put feet up at some point

Snacks I enjoy:

• clementine tangerines
• milkshakes
• cereal
• guacamole

Five things I'd do if I were a millionaire:

• Tithe (I put this because others are mentioning it, but I do it now, so is it really something that fits this category??)
• Pay off my house
• Invest more
• Set up a trust to better fund our favorite charities
• Make sure my children never have college debt

Places I have lived: Woodstock, IL; Oak Cliff, TX; Cedar Hill, TX; Duncanville, TX; Upland, IN; West Milton, OH; Arlington, TX; DeSoto, TX. Lots of Texas in there.

Jobs I've had:

• Babysitting - lots and lots of babysitting.
• Hand solderer and inspector at a printed circuit board manufacturing plant
• Retail clerk at department store
• teacher (piano, pe, music, computer, jr. high science & Bible, jr. high & high school English, speech, creative writing.)
• Mom

I think I am only going to tag one other person - Shannon. She is a great friend of mine and new to blogging.

In other news, I'm going to have a baby soon. Yeah, yeah, you already knew that. I know, but it is on my mind since I cannot escape the looming reality. I think I finally snapped out of my denial that this little boy is coming soon last weekend. I hit 36 weeks, had a baby shower, and had my doctor chastize me for not being more prepared, since he found that I was dilating. Hmmm. Okay. So I came home and ordered a car seat, packed my bag, and got the nursery together. Oh, yeah, and pulled a ligament in my stomach because I did that all in about 24 hours. Fortunately, I had a prescription filled the day before for some great, strong pain medication that I need to sleep at night now that this boy's huge head is resting very, very low in my pelvis. (I know, too much information.) Even with narcotics, I could barely walk Tuesday. Ouch! Much better now, though.

To help you all understand the last post better, where I said I was suddenly getting many comments on my size, I give you this picture, taken at exactly 36 weeks. The day after I took this picture, I dropped significantly, and I think I've grown even more. At some point, this has to stop!

I'm officially huge. Actually, I think now is a great time to have a contest. I think we should all predict a few things here:

• What day will this baby be born? (I am officially due Nov. 16)
• How big will he be? (My others were 8lb. 14oz. and 8lb. 12oz. and both were 21 3/4 inches long.)

What do you think?? Leave your comments here and after he is born, I'll pick the person who came closest! I'll come up with a nifty prize for the winner soon and add it in. Right now, I cannot think clearly because my kids are loud. Maybe when they nap, I'll think again!

ETA: I have come up with a prize! I will go today and purchase the rest of the items I need for it and then post a picture, but here it is: The prize will be a collection of things that I am looking forward to enjoying once again after Andrew is born. Included will be

• Bath salts: representing being able to sit (or in this case soak in the tub) for more than five minutes at a time without my backside falling asleep.
• Nail polish: representing being able to paint my own toenails again! I normally keep them painted all the time...
• Starbucks Gift Card ($5): the last time I tried to drink coffee (an iced coffee from Starbucks with dulce de leche syrup added - yum, yum) I got heartburn that lasted hours and hours and resisted all medication I threw at it! Needless to say, I haven't tried again.
• White Chocolate Coconut bar: these are my absolute favorite indulgence. As a general rule, I don't eat sugar, but when I did (and occasionally now when I do) these are amazing. This bar will represent all the foods I currently am avoiding due to heartburn, which are mostly tomato based or spicy, but how fun is it to mail you a jar of spaghetti sauce?? :)

There it is! Worth playing for? Tell your friends - I love seeing your predictions! I will write down my prediction too, and photograph it for proof to see how well I can gauge my own growing belly! I won't post it until afterwards though. With my other two, I guessed more accurately than even the nurse who assisted with the delivery. As she was walking to the scale, she and the doctor both made guesses, then I did too. I was the closest by a good 8 oz!

Two Thoughts

Before I must finish my coffee, get dressed and get to packing.

1) Granny's post today on why she voted the way she did is an important read. Her reasons for voting they way she did are nearly exactly why I will be voting they way I will here in the near future.

2) We've been on a frenzied pace since we closed on the house. Del has been at the house every day fixing something up and still going to work. He gets up in the morning and heads over to the house until about 3, comes home, showers and goes to work until midnight and then sometimes goes back to the house. Last night he was there until about 2 A.M. I got up with him for my nightly snack and he told me that in one of the drawers he cleaned out he found the paperwork the bank filed for eviction of the last "owners." He said it was very sad and gut-wrenching to read, considering that this was their home and now...

The bank that owned the loan was Countrywide. Interesting indeed. Apparently this lady (no husband and several kids) had an ARM and was paying $2900 a month for her mortgage. When her ARM adjusted her payment went up from $2900 to $3700. Del said he found Section 8 paperwork and documents trying to get child support from...someone. To top it all off, she had $31,000 in unpaid taxes for two previous years. He said that from what he could tell, they were in the house as late as May of this year.

Very sad. It's interesting to be in the middle of this. I sort of feel bad for having their house. On the other hand Del and I avoided an ARM like the plague because we knew it was a horrible idea; it wasn't that hard to be just a little bit savvy about that (thank you God). She was alone though, with her kids. Scared, angry and probably a bit desperate.

I have so many thoughts about these people running about in my head. Like, why didn't they take care of the house better? The stove has obviously not been cleaned in a very long time and it's a flat top stove so it's not hard to clean. There are holes in the walls, sticky, icky stuff on the beautiful bamboo flooring and carpeting indescribably filthy. I don't get it.

Anyway, it's interesting to see the results of all the questionable lending in real life vs. hearing about it in the news.

Now, I have to go to work. My grandma is coming over to take care of me today. We have almost no food in the house so we don't have to move it and she's bringing lunch and dinner and will help pack up the kitchen. She's a real go-getter at 82. Maybe her two weeks in Maui shed some years. :)

Only Grace

Ephesians 2: 4-10 (NIV)

“4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Over the past two years, God has been teaching me about his grace. He has given me many opportunities to see my own sin and to recognize that it is only by his grace that I am able to come to him at all. I have learned the amazing freedom that comes by confession and true repentance. The amazing thing is that not only does God show me grace when I come to him and ask for his forgiveness, he continues to give me grace as I then attempt to truly change my ways. He helps me change by giving me the Holy Spirit to teach me and point out the areas that still need work. I do not deserve any of this, yet he gives it to me freely!

After God began to teach me about his gift of grace toward me, he also began to teach me about how to show grace to others. He taught me that he shows the same grace to others as he shows to me. That should change how I view them, too. All of us who have come to know God as our savior were once dead in transgressions. None of us could have come to God on our own. None of us has a corner on “being good,” just as none of us has the corner on being the “worst sinner.” We were all dead, and have all been made alive! God showed me that this should affect how I treat my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is so easy to point a finger at someone else, or to judge either openly or in my heart. But the family of God should be a place of grace.

Yesterday I had an experience where I heard a song that I have heard countless times before, but this time I really heard the words. They said just what has been in my heart. The song is “Only Grace” by Matthew West. Look at some of the words:

There is no guilt here
There is no shame
No pointing fingers
There
is no blame
What happened yesterday...has disappeared
The dirt has
washed away
And now it's clear

There's only grace
There's only
love
There's only mercy and believe me it's enough
Your sins are gone
Without a trace
And there's nothing left here
There's only grace

What a great look at what god has done for each one of us! There is also encouragement later in the song. I know I can get discouraged when I struggle with a sin over and over. I take it to god, and he forgives me; but then after a while, I find myself struggling again. But God does not give up on me, and I cannot give up working to be more like Christ even after I fall again! The song goes on to say:

And if you should fall again
Get back up, get back up
Reach out and take
my hand
Get back up, get back up again

His grace and mercy are enough! I can get up again and continue to run the race before me because his grace and mercy are enough.

Can I Quit Yet?

It occurred to me just a few minutes ago that I was definitely not cut out to be a military wife. The insanity of packing and moving with only four kids is driving me batty. My patience level hasn't seen this much of a low in years. I can hardly imagine if I had to do this every two or three years.
Once again I count my many blessings. Thank you God , for providing a good, stable job for Del outside of the Army .

I shall now cease and desist with the whining. Tomorrow the whining will resume.