Pray for us

We are having some issues that need to be resolved in the next couple of days.

Praise God for answered prayers!! Michael called and everything is sorted out!

3 weeks

The goodbyes begin.

I think I will need LOTS of chocolate to make it through. And maybe an industrial size box of tissues.

Prayer Request

We found out today, after waiting to see if Miss E's eye would improve, that Miss E has pink eye. Conjunctivitis for all you formal types. In both eyes.

Please pray that enough of the medication gets into her eyes to fight the infection.

Medicating a cat has nothing on trying to put eye drops into a 9 month old's eyes. (love ya Hanes!)

Also, when the doctor was doing the normal "listen to the heart/ lungs" check, he heard a murmur. He had another pediatrician listen as well and since there is no record of a murmur except for a short time after birth, they believe it is an innocent murmur. However, they both said that with the way it sounded that it was in the gray area between innocent and not so innocent. We will be asking Miss E's new doctor at her 1 year appointment to check for a murmur. If the murmur is not heard, then most likely it is the innocent type. If it is heard, then we may need to investigate further.

N had the innocent type of murmur that she outgrew by the time she was in Kindergarten, so I am not too concerned at this point. But we would still appreciate the prayers.

Countdown

21 Days until our house hold goods are picked up.

28 Days until our final inspection on the house.

31 Days until we arrive at Rachel's. (We can still stay with you right?!?)

Ought to be loads of fun!

Summer Camp

And N certainly was looking forward to it.

We have the camp schedule posted and she had completed several of the items before I got out of bed a half hour late. In my defense, I have been sick and spent yesterday in bed dealing with the illness and the late night the night before. (we had an ER run because A's ankle was at least twice the size it should be and we couldn't figure out what had happened. turned out to be a reaction to a bug bite)

We are trying to sort through things as well as clean the house in preparation for our move. So, we have a 3 hour Cabin CleanUP in the morning followed by Chow Time and Kitchen Duty.

Today, we got the living room, dining room, and kitchen back into an ordered state.

Tomorrow, the goal, after grocery shopping, will be to rearrange some furniture. We will be combining the girls beds into one room and everything else into the other room. I hope it will allow us the opportunity to sort through things easier than trying to work around nap schedules.

Now, it is off for some Quiet Time followed by Rec Time!

Enjoy your day!

Practice, practice, practice

WARNING: This post will contain a small rant about practice.

Ok. When you get a band together, what do you do?

You practice.

When you have a choir or singing group, what do you do?

You practice.

There is soccer practice, drill team practice, piano practice, basketball, baseball, you name it practice.

What is practice for?

To help a team or individual gain the necessary skill or knowledge to achieve the desired results.

Makes sense, right?

I like our Praise Team. We have come a long way since we first started.

Tonight we did a mini- concert for the youth group's party to celebrate the end of school.

Did we practice before we played & sang?

Nope.

Am I irritated that our leaders CHOSE not to practice?

Yep!

Or that they didn't even get a song list together before we showed up tonight so we could practice on our own?

Yep. Irritated.

But, I read on another blog something that struck me about attitude. This young woman found out she had an aggressive cancer shortly before her 1st wedding anniversary. She & her husband just celebrated their 4th anniversary this year. Anyway, she said that when people ask about her attitude that it doesn't matter if she is upset or happy. Either way, she still has cancer. So she chooses to be as happy as she can be.

So, even though I am irritated about the lack of practice, and all the mistakes and issues we had tonight, I will still choose to be happy. God is moving in the lives of our youth. It doesn't matter that the music was awful and the sound system was out of balance. God is changing hearts.

7 Down

Since May 6th, I have lost a total of 7 pounds.

Ummmm... quite a few more to go. I don't think I'm ready to share just how many to go quite yet.

And that time period included 2 family visits at our home and one whirlwind trip to Texas.

There have been several days where I have gone to bed wondering if I would even be able to walk the next morning. And some days were worse than others when I got out of bed. But I can now walk the 2 cul-de-sacs just down the road from us in about 5 minutes. I know it does not sound like much, but it feels like a great accomplishment.

Now I'm gonna have to buy some new pants... I think I'll deal with the loose jeans though until I can fit into my pre-baby jeans. I only have one more size to go for those!

Catching up on Canoeing

Back to the catch up posts!

After Laura & her family left, we left for a camping trip with our church. There were about 30 kids and 12 adults. Miss E was the youngest and I'm not entirely sure which teen was the oldest, but we also had a few of our older adults as well. (definitely into the 60+ age range)

The girls and I arrived on Tuesday a few hours after everyone else got there. I'd been up quite late and decided that sleep was much more important than following the bus.

We set up camp and I immediately needed to make a trip to Walmart for some water shoes and a couple of other things I had forgotten. While I was at Walmart, I saw another of our group there. She had gone canoeing that day with her family since they had arrived on Monday.

Lisa mentioned that she was going to stay at the camp on Wednesday because she was extremely sore from the canoe trip that day. I asked if she would be willing to watch Miss E for us so I could go canoeing on Wednesday. That was the one part of the trip I was really wanting to do. Lisa agreed & I added a bottle and some formula for the little one to the cart.

Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early and arrived at the launch point only a few minutes late. Michael, A, and I were in a canoe together and N was with a couple of the youth. After a few confusing minutes of instructions and directions, we pushed off.

Before launching, we obtained another child to ride along. A & A sat very well together on the bottom of the canoe while Michael & I shouted at each other as we tried to figure out how to steer. We had several mishaps during the course of the trip, but we never ended up capsizing! Though we did get upset with each other several times as a result of the mishaps.

That night one of the adults received the news about Jenny's mom. We told Jenny and I went to get some sleep in the hopes of being able to drive her to the hospital where her mom was.

Today's praises

#1 - Michael mowed most of the yard this evening.

#2 - Date night tomorrow!!

#3 - House showing went well and we even got a compliment on the house. The realtor said that our walls looked great. Michael & I looked at each other and then she said that with little ones she usually sees handprints all over the place. We just smiled & said thanks.

#4 - If this couple decides to rent the place, then we never have to crisis clean again while we are here!

#5 - I had a good visit with my counselor today

Our notice...

I gave our (new) property management company our 30ish day notice.

Our last definite day here will be July 16th. Michael's new unit has requested that he check in to the unit earlier. We are still waiting to hear if the current unit will play nice with others.

Even though things are all up in the air, we at least know where we will be going and that we will have family very close by.

So, the praises have to begin. Otherwise I think I'll lose my mind.

Praise #1 - See above statement. (paragraph 3)

Praise #2 - the Spanakopita turned out well, even if the butter was a bit overwhelming.

Praise #3 - Michael went to pick the girls up from church and the house is quiet with Miss E sleeping.

Praise #4 - I walked for almost 30 minutes today. And got a shower while I was at it!

Praise #5 - The drop-off location for our trash & recycling was open today.