We're Out of Here!!!!!

Yes, it is what it sounds like. We are putting a for sale sign on our house and adds on the Internet and are first going to try and sell it ourselves. We'll let it go, too. Anyone want to buy our house?? We want out of Garland as soon as possible. No, we don't know where we are going, but it will be un-incorporated and unrestricted and will have a few acres and storage. The kids will get a puppy (Byron will get a puppy) and eventually, Mommy will get a horse ( BIG SMILE). They animals are a bit down the road, but the move is imminent.

There was a time when I had a huge opinion about where we live, location, house, etc. Now I just don't care. We just need to get away from the evil woman three doors down and the city code compliance harassment. We are not suited to city life. I do hope we can find a place where the nearest neighbor is at least 200+ yards away. That would be heaven to me.

I'm beginning to pack everything we don't need. Every time I get a box I fill it up, label it and stack it in the corner. All boxes must be relatively small because when it comes to moving day we very well may be doing it all by ourselves. Whee!! I don't care, though. We may have to find some help with some of the bigger furniture items, but really, I think we can do most if not all of it alone. I'm actually strangely excited about this whole prospect. I never thought I would feel this way.

It's just a matter or time now. If you read this please pray that everything will fall into place quickly and that God will lead us clearly so that we know exactly what we should do each step of the way.

Just a Note

The Christmas tree is down. Dad helped me take it down when he and Mom brought the kids home last eve. I have so much open space in my living room now, YAY! The kids love the space for spinning in circles and making themselves dizzy. I remember when my brothers and I used to make ourselves dizzy and then lay down on the floor to watch the room spin. It was such fun. If I tried that now I think I'd get sick.

Now I'm going to see if I can sneak in a short nap before we have to leave for church again.

Always Busy

A couple of days ago I was out front helping Byron with some stuff and our next door neighbor came over for a few minutes. She came to talk to Byron, but when she was through she and I stood there talking for awhile. I ended up feeling quite encouraged after our talk. She said she tells her friends about me and tells them I'm super woman (WOW!). She's just amazed at me having 4 children and all so young and well behaved. She just goes on and on about how good my kids are. Now I know she doesn't see everything, but she has seen them misbehave before and still thinks they are wonderful children. She said a lot more than that, but this was a summation of our conversation. I came back in the house with my heart just swelling with joy that our efforts and prayer are producing a result in our children that is recognized by others.

My in-laws have even commented several times lately about how certain behaviors in certain ones of the children have been greatly improved. Believe me, to get encouraging words from them is a huge thing. They also know to always tell us if they see, hear or experience anything involving one of our children that needs our attention. They have been getting better and better about doing just that and at the same time have had less instances where they have needed to "tell on the kids".

I've been so busy lately, there just seems to be no end in sight. I can hardly wait until the kids can help more with chores. Everyone has their little jobs that they do, but I either have to stand over them while it's done, or come back later and redo the job. They are learning, though, and once jobs are mastered I think my load will get easier. For now...we just keep plugging away.

I'm doing load after load of laundry today. I have to get everything clean before tonight and my couch is barely visible below the piles of clean clothes. I despise folding and putting away clothes. It has to be done, but is so boring and time consuming.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. My mom is keeping my three older kids Fri. night and most of the day Sat. I'll be able to spend all day Sat. focusing on getting our tax info together. I have loads of receipts and medical statements and other things to get in order and recorded. That way when our W-2's and 1099's arrive, I can get our taxes filed. It's so hard to get paper work done when there are constant interruptions. I can hardly express to the full extent how grateful I am for the day and evening I'm getting to get all these things in order.

Here's a laugh...my Christmas tree is still up. All the decorations are put away, but I can't get the the tree box by myself and Byron has been so busy that he hasn't gotten around to helping me. Hope I get it down before too long.

Christmas etc...

Here are just a few random pictures from 3 of our 4 Christmas celebrations. They are in no particular order.

Let's see...first I have to record something funny I witnessed. Austin was "teaching" Leah how to play Duck, Duck, Goose and was using Samuel as a player in the game. First, he explained to Leah that Samuel had to be a duck because he can't run yet. Then as Leah was going back and forth, "duck, duck, duck, duck" Austin said, "Alright, already, now goose me!" I busted out laughing and they both couldn't figure out what was so funny. Of course, I didn't want to explain, so I just told them I was glad they were having so much fun playing together.

The year has started off better than it ended for me. My spirits are on the rise and we are making plans to "get out of Dodge". Don't really know when it will happen, but at least making plans gives me hope. I used to have dreams of my kids getting to grow up close to cousins and them all being best friends/buds, but everyone is already so spread out and contact is going to be even less now that some things have changed logistically. I would be tempted to try and move to a place closer to where some of the cousins are, but we can't live our lives chasing family around just to keep our kids near relatives. I wish we could. I'm missing everyone already and my kids play pretend that they are getting to be with cousins. Unfortunately, the direction we will be more likely to afford property and housing is the opposite direction of where everyone else lives. I don't know what is going to happen or where we will end up, but we have each other and can be happy with that.

There are still holidays, birthdays and the occasional "just because" to get together. I'm figuring we'll see family about once every 4 to 6 weeks.

I'm back to riding my recumbent bike every night. I've worked back up to 30 min. and my goal is an hour a day. If I get to an hour a day and am careful what I eat, I expect to start seeing a difference in my weight and size soon.

My Christmas tree is on it's way down. The ornaments and tree skirt are boxed up and going to their closet tonight. Hopefully, Byron can give me a hand to get the tree pulled apart and packed tomorrow. I put it up myself, but I just don't think I can get this monster torn down on my own.

Boy is this ever a random group of thoughts. Is there anything else I can throw in here? Guess not, at least not right now. I've come back to this post about ten times trying to get it finished. Maybe that should be my hint that I'm just too busy right now and need to stop.