Lots of Blessings

We've had some great occurances here lately. For one thing, the return of our cat. We also finally got the results from Lowell's test. He did very well. And he's on the list for the position with the City of Phoenix. He isn't very opptomistic about his liklihood of getting the job because he thinks the job will go to someone already employed by the city, but I'm just glad that he got a good score and so will, hopefully, feel more confident in his hire-ability. A third big event was that I got my diploma in the mail. :) I actually feel like I've accomplished something now! I graduated Cum Laude!!! Woo Hooo!! I also had the last meeting of my first class. And, while I don't have my official grade, yet, I will definitely get an A in my first Masters class! :) Also, we got 2 ferrets for the girls. Their names are Creepy and Honey. One is brown and the other is, well, honey colored. The kids love them. Our next door neighbor loves them too! Instead of Nathan going over there every day, our doorbell has been ringing every morning at 8 on the nose. Cody loves to come over and play with the ferrets. His mom, however, hates them! :) She's completely grossed out by the little babies and thinks they are too rat-like.

Another wonderful thing, my sister-in-law, Linda, had her baby! She had a beautiful little girl named Kate Emily. Mother and baby are both fine. Lowell has also just recently made another trip up to California to get more of our things and our second car. It will be fabulous to have a second car! We went to MVD (DMV for you CA people) and got our AZ licenses and registered the car. It passed smog without a hitch and, for everything, licenses and registration, it was under $100!!! It feels a little more real - that we're living in Arizona permenantly - now that we have Arizona licenses.

I have been working more on the house. I've decorated Nathan's room and I've finally gotten our books set up. Before, I had our huge tv shelf stacked three deep with books and movies. Now, I've gotten everything organized and set up. Lowell thinks I'm nuts, but I saw one of those tv decorating shows and got the idea to put my books on the shelf by color... I know, nuts, but it really looks pretty cool. :) I made a couple of exceptions, like putting all of one or two authors together and sorting them independently. All in all, I'm really happy with it. Nathan is thrilled with his room and I also hung up some curtains in my bedroom.

The job market is still slow but Lowell hasn't really been looking. That will start this week, so please be praying. I've been struggling with the logistics of finding a job because my schedule is limited both by my school schedule and by the kids. Of course in the summer, the kids are home and so someone has to be here with them. The during the school year, the charter school doesn't have school on Fridays and they want to charge for Preschool for Jillian. I haven't been able to find a state program that offers free pre-school yet.. I'm still looking. Otherwise, I'll be working just to pay for day care and pre-school. The only way that I could work and not pay for those things would be if Lowell worked graveyard and watched the kids while sleeping... I really don't want him to have to do that.. But we will probably need the extra income. Also, he's worried, and I admit, I am too, a little, about when I start doubling up on my classes in the fall. Starting in September, I'll be taking two classes at a time. That will require a lot of work with homework and research... So, I'm really praying for wisdom about what I should do. Lowell could stay on unemployment, be a stay at home dad and let me work, but he doesn't like that idea. He wants to work. In an ideal world, I want to be able to be a scrapbooking consultant and work from home. I'd like to make scrapbooks for people, so long as I can find people and I can get over charging what I need to charge in order to make it worthwile. I've been doing research from others who've done the same thing. The spectrum goes all the way from $10 a page to $30 an hour to $300 or $500 a book. So, I'm not sure what I want to do... And Lowell is pretty sure that he wants me to work a real job first and ease my way into the consultant job. It makes sense because I need to have more contacts and know more people in order to make the scrap thing work but I don't know how getting a real job will work either... So, I'm praying, applying and waiting. And being thankful for the big and the little blessings that we experience so frequently.

The Great Return

There have been quite a few interesting happenings around here lately! For example, about 3 weeks ago, we lost one of our cats. It was very sad... I walked around the neighborhood calling him two nights in a row and we always watched for him as we drove around. After he was gone about 4 days, we finally had to accept that he was gone. The girls have been suffering because Nathan has so many friends and fun things to do, so on a lark one day, we looked on Craig'slist for ferrets and found two of them for sale alone with a huge, expensive cage for less than the price of the ferrets! So, we called and then went out and got them. There was a little bit of buyers remorse afterwards because we didn't pray about it first and because it wasn't the smartest use of our resources... But we really wanted to get something for the girls to have especially for them. That's not the point of my story however, the point of my story is that, yesterday after being pestered by Checkers, my cat, for about a half an hour, I finally got up and let her out the back door. As soon as I opened the door, Indy, our missing cat, came flying in the house!!! It was a shock and the kids are thrilled!! He hasn't walked anywhere for the last 48 hours, he's been carried everywhere and he's has been petted to sleep at least 5 or 6 times. So now, Nathan has his cat back and the girls each have a ferret.
I also want to share a story about Chloe... I was standing in our walk-in closet looking for a new shirt because the one I was wearing was covered in Indy hair. I had my shirt folded up on itself so that the hair wouldn't get on all the clean clothes in the closet and I said "I need..." I was going to say I need a clean shirt but before I could finish my sentence, Chloe said, "I know what you think you need, but I think you're good just how you are." There are times when I pull up my shirt and pat my stomach and complain about how I need to lose weight. Apparently, that's what Chloe thought I was going t0 say. How very sweet and mature of her. :)

Likeness

I'm big on taking pictures today apparently. So, I'm trying to set the record straight. The camps are split about 50/50 with people who think Chloe looks like me and those who think Jillian looks like me. I personally can't see any resemblance between myself and either of them.. I do, however, look like my mom in one of these pictures. (Lord, help!) I'll let you form your own opinions on who more closely resembles their mother...

I'm just so happy to be blessed with beautiful girls who love Jesus. Chloe is very thoughtful and loves to organize things. Jillian has the leadership thing buttoned down! They are both sooo smart. Chloe is so logical and reasonable. Jillian is already doing addition and subtraction problems. And they both want to read so badly. Its so exciting to see them grow up and yet I cling longlingly to each glimpse of them as my babies... Not for much longer I'm afriad.

Justifiable Bias

I know that all parents are baised about their kids... I happily admit that my children are the smartest and most beautiful kids in the world. I will, however, say that while they sometimes need some help in the behavior department, they are still much more well behaved than most of the kids they play with! That said, I have to use this forum to display just how beautiful my kids are... So, here is a picture I took this morning.
As I've mentioned before, the girls love Taylor Swift. In this picture, Jillie really looks like Taylor Swift; that is her favorite part of the picture. I am planning on blowing this up because I just love it... :) We recently got Nathan and Chloe's school pictures in the mail, so now I'll have great new pictures of all three of the most wonderful kids in the world. Man, I'm lucky! :) Lowell says that we could make a fortune being surrogate parents or sperm and egg donors because we create such gorgeous kids! I know he's just kidding, but I think he's right! You can't argue with a picture! Especially one this beautiful!

Picasa Pictures

I've uploaded a couple more pictures on Picasa so I thought I'd share the link again. :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/jesuslovesgiraffes/Buckeye#
Enjoy! Love you all and I so so so appreaciate all the comments you make on my blog. I love knowing that people are actually reading it!!! :)

Emotionally Throwing Up

I'm up late tonight. Not really a good idea because tomorrow is a really big day but, not much I can do about it. When I lay down, my tongue starts to swell up and I get butterflies in my stomach. I get hot flashes and start to 'freak out'. If anyone has had an anxiety attack, this is what mine start out like. They go downhill from there.

I've learned in the past year or so, as I've begun to study my attacks, that they don't often coincide directly with periods of great stress. They are often the day or two after I've been completely overwhelmed. Today follows that pattern. I was on emotional overload both Sunday and Monday for a few different reasons that I won't go into here, but now I am suffering the effects. I won't have a seizure tonight both because of my medication and also because of my CBT. (Cognitive behavioral therapy) I'm teaching myself to get control of the anxiety and dissapate it. I'm learning - the art is not perfected yet by any means but I feel more in control of my epilepsy as I get better at controlling this early stage of the seizures.

Normally, when this feeling begins, I eat something because the tongue thing really freaks me out. I remember laying in bed growing up in Copperopolis, feeling my tongue swell and wondering what was wrong with me. I would chew on my tongue and try to get it back to its regular size but it never seemed to work. I remember getting up nights and trying to read in order to think of something other than my mouth. Usually I could read myself to sleep but sometimes it was too much to ignore and then I would get sick. These nights, I now know were seizure nights. Interesting the things you learn as you educate yourself. :)

I hate knowing all the fear and stress that I felt, even so young, but I'm coming to grips with the fact that I was not in control then and, honestly, I'm not now either. God is the one who holds the world in His hand, and He is the One orchestrating this play called life. In a way, its terrifying to let go of the false sense of control that I feel but on the other hand, its freeing to know that the huge responsibility of trying to protect and control all the people I love is not mine after all. I want to protect my children and I want to keep them from pain, but I can't do that. They are in God's hand and I just have to do my best and leave the rest up to Him.

Anyway, the circumstances that have led me to begin learning these hard lessons were a huge portion of the stresses in the past few days, but they are all working for my good, aren't they? Because I love Him and because He loves me. :) What was my point? Oh yeah, through all of this, I've been "emotionally throwing up" on my computer. I've written quite a bit of raw material that I'm going to use for my book. I've begun the process... Startling, I know. I don't know how long I'll stick to it before I become totally freaked out and stop working on it altogether, but for now, the writing of my feelings and thoughts, dreams and fears has been very theraputic.

We've been talking a lot in class about how the issues that we have as individuals will come up in our sessions with our clients if we don't deal with them now... The therapist will need counseling! :) So, I've been praying for the strength and opportunity to deal with some of my issues.. (Stupid prayer, I know! :)) But God is being completely faithful and answering them. I am using His power, because it is made perfect in my weakness (and Lord knows I'm weak after some of these dreams...) and because my own power to deal with the depth of some of my pain is woefully inadequate. I need Him and that's the way its supposed to be. So, Lord, here I am, on my knees, knowing that whatever You need me to go through in order to be the servant that I was created for may be painful, but I am willing. I stand on Your promise that You will not give me more than I can handle and that You will freely give of Your unending reserve of power so that I can deal with my struggles and weaknesses. I only wish to bring You glory, Lord. It is only because of Your grace that I am here, working to help others. Lord, it is my prayer that You continue to teach me the lessons that I need to learn in order to be an effective witness of Your grace and mercy and that I can be freed from the emotional entanglements that may be a hinderance to my ability to counsel. I love you and I thank you for the trials that I've endured as I know they will enable me to empathize with so many. Thank you for using me.

An Apology

I received an unexpected package in the mail yesterday. Well, had I remembered, it would've been expected, but since I didn't, I was ever so surprised! :) Aren't unexpected packages the best??? Anyway, this was from my great-grandma, or as my children call her, "Mamoo". I've called her Mamie my entire life, so I'll continue to do so here. :) Anyway, Mamie has recently been learning how to make jewelry. Yes, I know what you're thinking.. My great-grandma. She's going to be 86 this summer, she still drives, works, scrapbooks, sews, lives alone, and yes, makes jewelry. She's awesome. So, anyway, she made me a pair of earrings to match a pair of new shorts I got shortly before moving and she made the girls each a bracelet! Also, she sent me earrings in the shape of a scrapbook, complete with a very tiny pencil and, my new favorite thing, a pair of earrings shaped like giraffes!! :) The front of the earrings have the giraffe's front, and the back shows their little tushies! :) I'm so blessed! And, the important thing to mention, is that I haven't been very thankful toward her lately. Awhile ago, I was a little hurt by some things that she had to say and I'll allowed that hurt to stay with me instead of really forgiving and letting it go. In class, we've been talking about trying to look at the intention of what people are saying instead of the words themselves because often, we can misspeak, but it is infrequent that we really mean for our words to hurt another person. We've also been talking about unconditional positive regard. It is therapist talk for teaching yourself to be supportive of a person whether you agree with them or not. It is crucial for us to show our clients that we will not judge them and that we won't abandon them or be angry with them because of their decisions. We've also discussed how important it is to have boundaries in place so that we are able to do the right things, teach our clients and encourage them and then let go of our attachment to the outcome. Our job is to guide - but we are not responsible of the choices our clients make. (This applies to all relationships in life) Well, because of all these different topics that we've discussed, along with a lot of prayer, I want to apologize to my great-grandma for forgetting how important she is to me and for letting myself hold onto my anger. There are always going to be times when we don't exactly get along with some of the people we are close to but it is crucial to remember how important these relationships are and to work at mending them when needed. So, Mamie, I hope that you can forgive me. You mean a lot to me and I appreciate all the sacrifices that you've made on my behalf and just how much you've always loved me.

Oh, and thank you for the earrings! :)

Banking Blessings

I am here in my kitchen, sort of watching Wheel of Fortune and cooking dinner while Nathan is creating a pirate ship out of Imaginex while waiting for his friend Cody to finish dinner so that he can come over to play. Nathan and I just got back from a bicycle ride. It was great. He said I wiped him out. :) I ate some cake and ice cream today and I wasn't feeling very good, so I was excited about riding. :) Lowell is currently at the park with the girls. We went yard sale-ing this weekend and found - get this - a scooter for Chloe and a bicycle for Jillian. Now we only need to find Chloe a bike and we're set. Well, and something for me. Also at the yard sales, we found two futons. We have decided that futons would be the best way to go in the kids' rooms because of the lack of floor space. Whenever they want to play with their toys, they tend to venture out into the living room or into our bedroom because there is more space. While this is ok, sometimes, having them out here all the time has gotten old - fast! So, I'll have to take new pictures and post them... If they ever get their rooms clean again. :)
We went to get a checking account yesterday and discovered that their is something showing up on our credit that shouldn't be there. I don't know what it could possibly be and apparently, we can't find out until they send us a letter in the mail... So, we were money-less for awhile... I have some checks, including a refund check from Grand Canyon, but no way to cash them.. Since the Grand Canyon check was written from BofA, we decided to go to a BofA to see if they would cash it without us having an account. It turns out that, in order to do this, I need two forms of ID. Ok, drivers license and either social security card or birth certificate, right? Nope. Actually, they wanted another credit card that had my name on it... Well, we don't use credit. And I don't have my ATM card from our other account... Its in Calaveras County in case we need access to that account... So, what to do.. Well, I prayed about it and then I waited. The banker said that I needed to talk to the manager. Well, the manager wanted to leave early, so she said, "Just go ahead and do it". :) Isn't God funny? He used someone else's impatience to bless me. :) Gotta love those moments when we can tangibly see His hand move. :)
I have homework due tonight. It is an easy assignment. I have felt very blessed about my class. I haven't really struggled with my first Masters class and I am feeling like I may not be as in over my head as I first feared. I am getting to know some of the girls in my class and they are encouraging about the ability to double up with classes. My professor is also very open about which classes are just too difficult to double up with. With this class, I have three assignments a week, so I'm assuming that I'll have the same with another class. That means 6 assignments a week, 2 days in class and working... I'm going to be VERY busy. I don't have a job yet... And I'm feeling a little stress but I've just really begun to look... Some of the other girls in my class said that they applied for 3 months before finding a job... I'm confident that we are where God wants us, and so I'm standing on the promise that He'll provide. It would be silly of me to doubt Him after all the confirmations that He's shown us... So, I'm just waiting to see what job He has picked out for me. :)

MHR

I have kind of gotten away from doing My Husband Rocks posts on Fridays so I want to tell you all about how wonderful he is! Between yesterday and today, he painted our little girls fingernails and toenails. He got out the newspaper and the nail polish remover, the cotton balls and the polishes and set to work. He did a base coat, a color of their choice and a top coat of glitter. :) Now, if that isn't special, I don't know what is?!?! Also, he shared with me that he wants to continue to have this alone time with them about once a week because if he can get into the habit, that will mean that as they get older, they will have dedicated time with Daddy where they can talk about their lives for at least a half an hour or so. I love that he's already setting goals and making plans on how to stay involved in their lives as they grow! :) I just love how good of a father he is. I know that when we are with other families, we often hear comments about how strict we are with our kids, but I our kids also know that they are adored. I hope that we are finding the proper balance between discipline and freedom. We want them to know that within certain boundaries, they are free to have all the fun they want. And that when they step out of those boundaries, we will still love them. We're also trying to show them, on the times when they do step over the lines, that the rules we've set in place are often there because we are trying to protect them. Its a work in progress, for sure, but Lowell is pretty darn good at it... And for this, and many other reasons, my husband rocks!!

Brunch and A Bicycle

Today is another beautiful day in Arizona. Its supposed to be around 100 degrees again and, honestly, it really isn't that bad! :) One of Nathan's new friends, the one who is moving on Wednesday, Matthew, just knocked on the door and had a surprise for Nathan. It was an old bike that needs some work. But he really wanted Nathan to be able to ride with the other boys on the street. It was really thoughtful. And Nathan was really excited. And the next thing he knew, Lowell had a garage full of boys wondering if he was going to fix it up today. :) Now Nathan is over at his friends house watching Ghostbusters. The girls, on the other hand, are feeling quite left out. I'm not sure what we're going to do about getting them some friends... I think we may try the rec center in town but Lowell is a little concerned about getting involved in anything until we get an income. Also, Sunday we're going to try a church. I don't know which one, but we need to start the yucky process of church hopping so that we can meet some new friends for these little girls. Its getting pretty sad around here.
Yesterday we went to brunch with two of my favorite people. We got together with Abby, Matt, Jason and Diggie! :) It has been about 8 years since I've seen Diggie and, my how I've missed her! The wonderful thing was that she hasn't changed a bit. She's definitely a little wiser now, but she is still the same fabulous Digila that we all know and love! She is the mother of a beautiful 14 month old who Lowell immediately fell in love with! And she's the proud wife of a 'techie' named Jason who is obviously in love with her! :) We had a great time and visited for most of the morning. We're hopefully going to get together Thursday night before my class so that I can show her around the new and improved GCU. And then we're all going to have fun Friday night at Abby's 29th birthday! :) Oh, and Diggie, I completely agree. I have a panic attack every time I think about turning 30 too!!

Picasa

A Ha! Finally... Well, not completely. I've only taken pictures of home.. Not of Buckeye but I'm really getting anxious about posting this so, here is the beginning of my picasa album and I'll post a new link when its done. :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/jesuslovesgiraffes/Buckeye# Let me know what you think! :)

Nathan and Cody

Our next door neighbors are quite the social-ites. One of the neighborhood boys is moving at the end of the month and so Beth threw a going-away swim party for him on Saturday. The kids had a great time in the morning swimming and playing at her house and then she treated us all to hot dogs and cupcakes. Then she took six of the boys (I went along to help chaperone) to the laser tag arena in Mesa. They played video games until it was time for their group to begin their laser tag game. The arena is huge - two stories! The boys had a ton of fun and after we got back, 4 of them came to our house to play in the sand with their trucks. It was a busy, fun day! And a great way to get initiated into the local group of parents! :)

Also, we promised Nathan a pair of heelies for his birthday. On Wednesday last week, when I was doing homework, Lowell took the kids to the mall to kill time... There he found a pair of heelies for $20!!! Actual, legitimate, name brand heelies!! They were on Super-sale! And so he got them. Nathan is still a little hesitant on them and Lowell is petrified that he's going to break something! Come to find out, Cody has a pair as well and he needs practice too... So I think Cody and Dennis are going to go out with Lowell and Nathan to have heelie lessons soon! I'll keep you posted on the progress!

In addition, Lowell got himself a bicycle. He's been going riding just about every morning. Its great exercise and he's also learning the lay of the land. And its cool at 5 in the morning! :) Its been over 100 degrees for over a week now, but it really isn't that bad. Lowell and I aren't sweltering and the kids like it too! I've unpacked my scrapbooking stuff and set up my 'office' area. Lowell was really thoughtful in coming up with a place where I could have my own space. My plan was just to leave all the scrap stuff in the garage because I just couldn't see where we could possibly fit it in the house! I guess he really didn't want all that stuff in his garage! :) So now, we've moved our bed over against the wall and I have the other half of our bedroom... Its quite an efficient little space I must say, although I haven't done anything scrapbooking-ish in it yet. Only homework. Scary as it is to say out loud.. I've also made some progress on my book... I've come up with a game plan - a plan of attack for it. I couldn't ever seem to get started on it because I didn't have a direction. But now, I think I'm more ready to get started because I feel like I have a point to make... That doesn't mean I feel any more qualified to write a book, or any more gung ho about the idea.. But it is something that I really want to do... And something that Lowell keeps encouraging me to do. A lot of my hesitation comes from wondering what I could possibly have to say that anyone would want to read. (IRONY: I say this as I'm writing other inconsequential parts of my life on the web in hopes that other people will read it...) Maybe the solution is thinking that I should write a book for myself, without the intent of making it public. That's a possibility. Now t0 find the time and the self-disipline!

The First Week

Well, today is Sunday and I've yet to create my Picasso album. That isn't to say that we've been completely unproductive this week. We've almost got the garage emptied and the only boxes I have left to unpack are those associated with my scrapbooking and my office. I'm in need of quite a few office things, so I will be digging into those boxes shortly. We've also made some friends. Our next door neighbors have a pool and a seven year old boy. Nathan is in heaven. To make things even better, I get along great with Beth, the mom, and Lowell is having fun spending time with Dennis, the dad! Also, to show what a small world we live in, Dennis has family who live in Arnold and spent quite a few summers in Bishop!!! We take it as more confirmation that we are where God wants us to be! School is good... I'm still nervous and trying hard not to get overwhelmed. It isn't so much that the work is super difficult - I just feel that because this is a whole other level of learning, the quality of the work needs to be superior to what I'm used to doing. I just got my first grade back - my first paper got a 92%. Honestly, it could've been better but I made a few silly mistakes with spelling and grammer and I didn't take the time to proof read my paper before I submitted it. This week I have to do the weekly journal entry, create a table on the paradigms of five different cultures and interview a person of a different culture. Next week, I have to write a cultural autobiography and do an indepth study of the cultural competence of a local business in addition to the weekly journal.
I applied for a couple of jobs today; one at Grand Canyon. Lowell needs to make a few more trips up to California to help his dad get the house ready to sell. I think he's still going to be job hunting because he won't be able to go without a job for long.. He just can't ride it for that long. :) We've also managed to turn the cat blue... Our back patio is a little slab of concrete and the girls have been tagging it with chalk. Indy's new favorite place to lay in on that concrete slab in the shade... And so, now he comes into the house all different shades of pretty... And the girls love it! :) Can you see how the side of his face is blue? And this is after a bath! (Yes, I'm crazy, I bathe my cats - but you should see how much they shed!!!) I'll update again soon!

Our New Life

This post will most likely be a short one. I am currently in the library at school (Bottom Easters - you have GOT to come back to Canyon and see how this place has changed!!!) working on my homework for the first week in my MASTERS program... I have to say that I've spent a lot of this week being afraid of this class. I am not sure of how the grading will be different from my bachelors classes. I did notice, however, that anything lower than a 76% is a failing grade! Not that I've even gotten a 76 anyway, but just how hard am I going to have to work in order to get my normal 90 and 95s??
We are moving in and getting settled. I've almost unpacked everything except the scrapbooking stuff. We're having Abby and Matt over for dinner on Saturday and I'm really looking forward to that! The kids are adjusting almost seamlessly. They haven't once cried or even really complained about being so far away from the only home they've really known. They are thrilled that we live about a block away from two parks and just yesterday we discovered the town swimming pool with a huge water slide! We have visited the library and today we're going to the elementary school that the kids will be attending. It is a K-8 and has about 800 students.
Much of our time is spent trying to organize things and get things put away but we have made time each night this week to go to the park and we've been trying for three nights in a row to catch the ice cream truck man! :) We've made frequent trips to Wal-Mart because there are two within a 10 mile radius of the house and we're been enjoying the fun of exploring our new home. Nathan still hasn't met the boy next door, mainly because he's still in school and we're just exhausted come night time.
Our internet is going to be hooked up at the house on Friday and I will finally be back in the land of the living! I knew I was addicted to the internet and communicating with people, but I had no idea just how addicted! :) I am desperately awaiting Friday!!!! We are going to drive around and take pictures of our neighborhood and house and I'm going to make a Picasso album so that you'll be able to see our little corner of the world. I'll post a link here ASAP. :)
Thank you to everyone who prayed for our trip down here. There were a couple of incidents, but both times, God made His presence known and He took care of us! I was blessed with an unnatural amount of faith and was able to experience my own peace while sharing some with Lowell too! I attribute it to all the sermons and worship music I was listening to to help keep me awake while driving all night long... :) That is a long story, however, and will have to wait until later. So, until Friday...

Off We Go....

Its been awhile since I've posted.. And in my defense, I've been extremely busy. Nevertheless, I like keeping current on my postings and I just haven't been lately! I've even missed some opportunities to tell the world how wonderful my husband is!! Today is Sunday... Sunday the 3rd.. And today is my graduation day! I finally have a bachelors degree. It seems strange and a little anti-climatic because I feel like everyone has a bachelors so its about time I got one! Lowell is convinced that its a big deal and so he's trying to make a big deal out it. And I really do appreciate him for it! I'd hate to think that I worked this hard for almost two years and it wasn't a big deal! :) We are still in the thick of moving... Our date has gotten pushed back a couple of times... I went ahead and took the kids out of school on the appointed day even though we didn't leave when planned so they've been home for the past week. We've been doing "homeschool" and they've done pretty well. Jillie, of course, doesn't have homework and so the first day I just worked with Nathan and Chloe. She was very disappointed and so, the second day I found some work for her to do too. At the end of the lesson, when it was time for "recess", she came up to me, very serious, and said "Thank you for giving me homework, Mommy". It was soo adorable! :) Nathan and Chloe are each flying through their homework. Its easy to see why they get bored in school. They have three weeks worth of work and we've done at least 2/3 of it in three days. Chloe is almost completely done and Nathan only has one math chapter left. We're going to continue working throughout the summer - especially on writing. I'm hoping to get into the habit of having the kids write their grandmas. I know the grandmas would appreciate it, and it would be great practice for the kids. Nathan's teacher gave me a 2nd/3rd grade math book so that I can keep Nathan interested and I'm going to use Nathan's 1st grade book with Chloe.
I start my Masters class on Thursday... Its a night class, once a week for 8 weeks. My first class is about ethics and ethnics while the 2nd 8 week class is about pharmacology. :) I'm sure that sounds fascinating to all of you, but I'm excited! :) I'm just hoping that I am not too overwhelmed! I'm relying on the fact that Jesus assures me that He'll be there with me.. In my weakness, He makes me strong! :)
So, right now we're looking at leaving tomorrow. Lowell is outside right now working on the car that I'm going to be driving and I'm praying that it will be an easy fix. My daddy came over three days in a row and helped me load the trailer. Steve, Lowell's friend came yesterday and helped us clean up the yard... And then Jordan, my brother came with Daddy today and helped too. We've been very blessed! We still aren't going to be able to bring every little thing with us, Lowell will have to make another trip in a couple of weeks but that is good in a way. He needs to get some stuff for his dad.
Speaking of dads... I had to say goodbye to mine today... I didn't feel the surge of emotions that I thought I would... But then again, none of this seems real yet... I'm really going to miss him... And Jordan. And Justin. I'm just starting to know them and now we're leaving. Jordan wants to be a firefighter. I'm trying to convince them that they need to move to Arizona too. We'll see if that's what God has planned. Ultimately, I just want them to follow God's will. But I really do want them in Arizona with us! :)
I'm sure there are many people that we'll miss. The kids will miss their friends. Thankfully, they will have school, and will meet a lot of new people. I'm praying that Lowell and I can get plugged into a new church soon and can start putting down roots. I can't wait to be there and be settled. Its always the unknown that is so much scarier than the known... But God knows, doesn't He? And we're just following Him. Shouldn't be scared if you're following the only One who has the directions, right!? :)
Off we go...