Thursday, December 16, 2010

Christmas Preparations

I'm going to decorate for Christmas. Eventually. I have a wonderful husband who has commented a few times that he's going to go to storage to get all 7 boxes of Christmas decorations... But so far, life has intervened. One day it was raining. The next, he was exhausted and just needed to take the day off. And then we're fighting the clock with moving out of our other house and needing to load up the dumpster at the new house... They're coming on Wednesday the 20th to pick it up. There is still sooo much to do.
I hate moving.
Back to Christmas, Lowell and I had a great family moment a few days ago where we sat down and taught the kids how to make snowflakes. They folded the paper and learned how to make the cuts and shapes and were sooo excited when they opened up their masterpieces! We made big snowflakes, little snowflakes, snowflakes with only hearts cut into them and a whole bunch more. We're going to hang them from the ceiling. We also have a calendar Chloe made at school and some reindeer food that we're supposed to spread on the ground Christmas Eve. Jillian also made a glittery snowflake out of popsicle sticks that has a little picture of her face in the middle of it.
We've done a little bit of Christmas shopping but nothing is wrapped yet. And honestly, I don't know what I'd do with it if it were because we don't have tree to put anything under!! :)
We did make one major family Christmas present purchase. We bought a new TV. We got a flat screen that only weighs about 40 lbs. I mention the weight because the TV that we had weighed almost 200 lbs. It was big, but it was impossible to move and sooooooo cumbersome.
Our church is having Christmas Eve services on both the 23rd and 24th. We are attending the service on the 23rd at 5pm and then we're going to stay and work the toddler room for the 7pm service. Christmas Day will be dinner - we've invited our neighbors from the old house over. I'm looking forward to it because it really doesn't seem like Christmas to me unless the house is full of people. Our neighbors don't like turkey so I'm going to have to adjust my menu a little... I'm thinking either ham or green-chile chicken enchiladas.
I still have family presents to make and mail too. Really hoping that gets done tonight. Just sooo much to do.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Our Move

Its Ugly Christmas Sweater Day at work tomorrow... I'm going to go to Goodwill sometime this afternoon and see if I can get appropriately outfitted. I'll have to post pictures of the event! :)

We took possession of the house we're leasing (possibly buying - its a lease/purchase option) yesterday. Very exciting day. I suppose I need to take pictures of it too! But I'll clean it up some first. We're going to be moving over the next couple of weeks. The kids are sooooo excited! They saw it for the first time yesterday and got to pick out their rooms and play in the huge yard. When we got back home, they set about drawing sketches of how they want their rooms to be painted and decorated. So far, I have a Star Wars themed room, (bet you can't guess who that is!) an underwater room (Chloe) and a garden room with flowers, bugs and rainbows (Boogie). I have my work cut out for me and I think I'm going to get very familiar with the paint/stencil section of Lowes!! :)
Lowell is taking the next couple of days off work so that he can help with the major cleaning and moving and then I'll be able to move in car loads over the next week or so. We have to be out of our current house by the 3rd. Christmas is a strange time to be moving, but I've very excited about having a nice clean, new house and getting to decorate it!!!! :) Yipee!
More than anything, I'm soooo thankful for the outdoor space. I can't wait for you to see it! There are chicken coops in the backyard because the previous owner raised fighting chickens. Nathan is very excited about tearing them down. He and Daddy starting working on them, and Nathan is showing a lot of skill at using a hammer and screwdriver... :) And he just likes to destroy things.
While moving, we're downsizing our belongings and we're going to buy furniture that fits our new space over time. This will be exciting.. Lowell said we can go yard sale-ing together and search for deals. I love that kind of shopping! :) And we're going to be looking for artwork and decorations to fill up wall space instead of using a lot of furniture.
We will definitely need a sectional and book cases. We have a TON of books. The house has a family room and living room so we're going to use the living room as a computer room/library. :) I am really looking forward to having all our books in one place and displayed and accessible!! Our bedroom also has a sitting area where I'll be able to have a scrapbooking room!!! Yipee!!! That will be AWESOME!
Some of our belongings have been stored since we left California - non-essentials like tschotskes and scrapbooking stuff. It will be almost like Christmas to unpack all of our things finally!
While there are a ton of exciting thing happening, and while I'm soooo thankful for our new house - - I hate moving. I'm soooo ready to be stable and stuck and plant roots. Lowell and I have joked that even though this house is a modular, we might buy it just so we don't have to move again!!!! :) Either that or we're paying someone to move us next time.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Blessings

Last night was my last class. As in, last. Final. No more. Complete.
And its sooo not real. I have finished all of my coursework for my masters. All I have left is 700 hours of practicum. And I have a couple of leads about sites.. Now I just have to secure on within the next week or so. Then my counselor's exam is in April and well.... I'll have my masters! :) It seems soooooo unreal! And there's more!!
Yesterday was one of good news! I also learned that we have secured a house to rent!! Yeah! :) It is a larger house - with a huge fenced yard!!!!!! I am soooooooooo thankful!

In our life there is another hurdle that we're struggling with currently that God has been showing Himself so faithful.. I am thankful each day for how His hand is moving in our lives and I am soo thankful for my husband. I love his dedication to taking care of us. I love his sense of humor and his commitment to having a house full of laughter. I love how responsible he is about going to work every day, even if he's only slept 1 hour. (fyi - I could NOT do that! and he does it almost weekly.) I love his words of encouragement and how much he appreciates and loves his family. He really, really loves us. And that is about the most wonderful thing in the world.
I'm just thankful. I'm blessed and I'm grateful.