My Man Surprised Me!!!

Next Thursday is our 10 anniversary and John surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas! We went early since he will be working this week. He didn't tell me we were going until a few hours before we had to go to the airport (which is probably good since I would have spent a lot of money shopping for new clothes if I had known!). He did take me the night before to buy a new dress for somewhere special we were going to go, but that was all he told me at the time.

We flew first class and then got to choose which car we wanted when we got there. We decided on an orangy red convertable - which is NOT close to Longhorn orange at all, John would want me to add! It was so much fun just to drive around with the top down and the sun shining down on us. And then going down the strip at night was great! We got to see three shows while we were there - two Cirque De Soile shows and The Blue Man Group. First night was "Ka". Our seats weren't the best and I was super tired so this wasn't my favorite, but it was still amazing. The next night was "O". All I can say about this one is WOW!!! It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen and words cannot describe it! I don't have any pictures since we weren't allowed to take any. =(

We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, hence the sign in the background.....

Look who we ran into while we were there!

And then there was good ol' George W.

I had such a nice visit with him. I think he really appreciated all of my brilliant political insight.

Not to be outdone, John had a little sit down with Abe.

Can you feel the love tonight???

Can you believe how lucky we were to meet all of these people?

Tiger thought John really has potential.

This picture showcases my husband's amazing photography skills.

Here's another examply of his skill. According to him, when the flash is too bright you just reach up and cover it up with your hands. Impressive, huh?

He better be glad he took one more shot of this one! This really is one of the guys from the Blue Man Group! We loved their show - if you ever get a chance to go, GO! It's so unique and entertaining and funny. It was worth staying up late for.

This is John purchasing the Blue Man tickets. I was standing off to the side hyperventilating.

See, I told you - they're exciting!

Those eyes are a little disturbing at first.

John David was impressed with this next one.

I refused to do this picture, so John jumped right in. Funny man.

They could pass for twins, don't you think?!? =)

Thanks, Baby, for such a fun trip! I'll always remember all the fun and, more importantly, all the years of togetherness this trip was in honor of. I love you! I love being with you when we're all together, but I especially adore spending time with just you. You will always be my bestest and favoritist friend! Love from your La.......

Catch Up With Pictures

I don't want to get too behind on picture posting, so here is a very random assortment of pictures from the last couple of months.....

Did everyone go to Chickfila on Friday night dressed as a cow to get some free chicken? We sure did! Our cow get-ups may have been ghetto (uh, we used duck tape), but we had fun and got free food. Works for me!

These were some friends we went with. Sorry, but these cows wish to remain anonymous. =)

Here's Daddy Cow along with two Kid Cows.

Aulora was not a very happy cow when this picture was taken. Can't remember why. I'm sure we were mistreating her in some way or another.

Julia was especially proud of her rainbow cow.

And then there was our Fourth of July celebration. The day started out very rainy and I thought my plans were ruined. The kids thought it was great fun, however, to play in the mud and the puddles out back (I've got funny pictures for that but they're on my other camera.) and then later on Daddy put out the new slip'n'slide. They all had SO much fun, but it did mean that we got cleaned up just in time for fireworks. All that to say, please excuse the messy hair. The kids were fresh out of the tub!

I was showing Aulora how to do a Sparkler. It was dropping hot ashes on me though - ouch!

Here's the drama queen in one of her favorite poses. (crud - I chose the thumbnail with her eyes closed. arghhhh.)

Those two monkeys raced over and over again.

Ummmm, hello? Can anyone look at the camera???

I just think this picture is hilarious. Sorry.

Joshua was the judge - check out that big diaper! Pretty soon after this picture was taken, we just took it off. Much cuter that way.

This is the back of the valentine's mailbox John David made.

And here's the front of his robot box. I loved it and thought he was so creative! Hopefully, his romantic side will kick in better one day. =)

This is one of the last breakfasts I made at our house in WF. It was good! I actually brought this to John in bed. He told me I should take a picture. You don't have to tell me twice!

I know I posted video of Joshua's first haircut, but I never put any of the pictures up.

It was apparently a horrendous thing to endure.

This is our family (minus Joshua who was with a sitter) when we went to see The Lion King in Oklahoma City. We had seen it before when John David was almost 2 and we wanted the other kids to see it! We went with Clay, Sandy, and Mimi.

This picture should be framed to go over the new mantel. For sure.

This is the best picture I have to show Julia's missing two bottom teeth. Her big teeth have already come in a lot now so it's hardly even noticeable. I'm glad I got this shot when I did.

Julia and Gran at dinner before the show.

Julia's preschool class hosted a special Mother's Day breakfast for the moms. It was really sweet!

Later tonight I'll be posting about the surprise I got for our 10th anniversary! =)

Same Song, Second Verse, Could Get Better.....

.....but it's getting worse!

Obviously, my kids are competing in some contest I know not of. I'm actually wondering what the name of the competion might be.

I'm sure Aulora's cocktail drink is still fresh on everyone's mind, but Joshua was not to be outdone.

The next day, as we were playing in the backyard, he must have gotten hungry. He picked up dog poop (the ONE piece I managed to miss when I de-pooped the yard!) and stuck the whole thing in his mouth! He didn't seem to mind the taste too much. I wonder if he thought it tasted like cheesecake?

Surely my kids aren't the only ones doing this stuff. ARE THEY???

Sonic (UN)-Happy Hour

I drove up to the Tulsa area a couple of days ago with just John David. My in-laws already had the other three kids and John was to join us later. So me and my boy hit the road and Momma didn't want to stop.

But then John David had to go to the bathroom. And he's not really one to give much notice. Plus, we were in the middle of nowhere. Plus, there was road construction. Plus, there were no exits.

And he really had to go.

So, being the Momma that I am, I handed him my mostly empty Sonic cup with careful instructions of what to do while I slowed to about 50 on the highway.

All went well and life was good. We arrived at the grandparents' house and had a happy reunion with the younger three. We hugged and played in the front yard and we were all smiles.

But then John David needed somthing out of the car.

(Can you see where this is going already???)

He opened the door and while he was getting whatever he needed, Aulora decided she too needed to get in the van. Now, I promise I was watching my kids - really I was, but my brain was obviously not operating at full capicity. I was a little too slow to stop her as she lifted the very "used" Sonic cup to her lips and took a swig from the straw.

Oh the horror. So. Totally. GROSS!!!

I was grabbing the cup away by now, but that poor baby had the worst look on her face and was gagging and couging and saying in the most pathetic way - "I don't like it!"

You know what though? The next day we went to The Cheesecake Factory and she asked for a bite of my turtle cheesecake. I gave her a bite and she had the exact same reaction as when she drank pee. Seriously.

That made me feel a little better at least. =)

Pictures of our New House

I just can't say how happy I am about our new house! Is it a dream in every possible way? No. But it is perfect for us and I'm so thankful for God's blessing every step of the way in getting it! 

The owners, who we got to visit with quite a bit, received multiple other offers - higher than our offer even! - and decided to sell the house to us. If we had taken our trip to Indiana when we originally planned to, this house wouldn't have been available. Any earlier and it wouldn't have been listed. Any later and it would have been sold. Everything lined up perfectly and there's no doubt in our minds who arranged all of it. =)

The house, ahem, our home has four bedrooms that are all upstairs along with two bathrooms. Downstairs has a half bath plus all the living areas. The basement is large and we will finish it out to make a family room, and an office area. A third of the basement will be left unfinished for the laundry area and storage. I'm excited about how we will make a long wall with two levels of hanging space for clothes! This was a must since the bedrooms all have pretty small closets. All in all we will have over 2500 square feet of finished living space. 

At the end of our street are two really nice parks, a big community swimming pool with slides and all, and even a small zoo! There's a farmer's market within walking distance too. It's just a really neat area and everyone we've talked to agrees. 

We're having fun thinking about paint colors and furniture arrangement, but we'll mostly concentrate on that once we're done here in Texas with everything. So on that note, I better get back to packing! =)

Moving On

We just returned from a week in Indiana where we searched high and low for the perfect house to buy. I'm happy to say we were successful! God certainly blessed us and guided us. We just happened to check listings one last time before heading out to see the last couple of choices with our realtor and a new listing popped up. It had been listed just then and didn't even have all the photos, but our realtor knew the neighborhood and said it was a great area and immediately set up a showing for us.

We were the first ones to see it and we loved it! Even so, we decided to sleep on it and go back to see one other house before making a decision. Not so smart to wait (we didn't realize just how great the deal was at the time) but even so, we got our offer in just minutes before several other offers started coming in. One offer was even $10,000 more than ours but the owners liked us and the kids and they wanted our family to have the house. They are a super sweet older couple who are downsizing to an apartment.

I'm not so sad to leave my home now, because I really love our new house. Thank you, Jesus, for helping us find something we love!

By the way, if you have a blog that I normally comment on and you haven't heard from me in a while, it may be because I no longer have your blog address on the computer I'm having to use for now. Or it might just be because I'm busy packing boxes. Either way, in a month or so I'll have my own computer again and my comment love will resume. ;)

The Boy's First Pimples

It seems our 8 year old is growing up even faster than I thought. (sniffle, sniffle) He has been proudly sporting his first pimples over the past couple of months. (Why in the world do I not have a picture of this???)

At first I thought it was just a flukey thing, but he's now had about 4 of them all together. He's not as fond of the idea now as he was at first. Even so, I still think he feels kind of cool and grown up. 

 

On one of my last trips to Walmart, I wandered up and down the face wash isle trying to figure out what to buy him. I've experienced many moments that have made me feel old, but never a moment like this one. I was picking out "acne wash" for my son! 

The good news is that his pimple friend is gone. 

I suppose a nightly armpit hair inspection will need to be added to the bedtime routine....

Blessed

Blessed.

That really sums up how I feel today. I find my eyes watering throughout the day just thinking about it. 

This morning I was out pretty early driving around for garage sales. (I haven't enjoyed this hobby in quite awhile! It was great and I think I may go back out tomorrow morning!) Everywhere I went there were for sale signs in yards. For sale by owner. For sale by a realtor. It's all the same and they were everywhere. 

In exactly two weeks our house had a contract on it. For a good price. The option period ended today and I stopped holding my breath. It's as good as done now. Blessed, I tell you. 

How silly of me to worry about things - all the millions of things that go along with moving far away - when every single time God works it out. 

Another reason I feel so blessed today is our roof. The roof we're going to have, anyway. 

We had to have the roof replaced in order for the contract on the house to go through. (VA loans require a good roof and apparently ours is not so great.) The only question was who was going to pay for the roof - us or our insurance. 

The adjuster came out this morning. I know the roof was old when we got the house so I could only hope that there was enough storm damage to justify totaling it. I wasn't very hopeful. 

That insurance adjuster was so nice though and he said he knew how hard it was when you're selling your house and he was going to go ahead and total it! The check they are sending us is more than enough to replace the roof and have money leftover. (Leftover money is a good thing right now - it's expensive to move!!!) 

I'm telling you - blessed!