Ladybugs & Stinkbugs

Sunday:
Woke up at 9am and went down to the lobby for breakfast. Mom and Dad had made it during the night so they were down having breakfast, and to hear the kids, they hadn't seen Granny in about 2 years. They were so surprised and excited! Sandy and Katie, and Nanny were also there. This is a big treat. =)

So we had breakfast, then the kids begged and begged and finally got to go swimming in the pool. We've had a relaxing morning and now we're looking towards lunch, and I think that today will be restful. I'm glad for emotional and physical peace, because it's very hard not knowing what's going to be happening in the next few days.

It's a very strange feeling when you leave your home and not know what you will be coming back to. Part of you does not really believe that anything bad could happen while you're gone. I mean, even though you're making all of these plans, there's part of you in the back of your mind that is sure everyone is overreacting and that it is silly to get so worried about it.

But then you remember the last time, and you realize that it's possible that everyone is overreacting, but it's just as likely that they are not. Since you don't know (and by the time you DO know, it's too late), you just go ahead and get everything ready. And in the middle of packing baby books and birth certificates, you realize that you might come home to nothing. You don't expect it, but once that possibility truly enters your mind, it is a very frightening thing.

This faith and trust deal is hard. It's really easy to say "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away" whenever you're at the "giving" part. When you're facing the "takes away" part it's a totally different story. Still, as Jeremy & I drove away, we both said, "Blessed be the name of the Lord." Whatever happens, we know he is in control. We are following him, wherever this leads. And, as Steven Curtis Chapman says, this is the Great Adventure.

Friday night:
Up until 1am trying to make reservations and decide when to leave. We finally decided on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning:
Jeremy let me sleep late (isn't he wonderful), then I had to run to Walmart to get contacts and diapers. (Jake said thank you.) Traffic wasn't that bad on the way to Walmart, but you could tell on the way home that is was getting heavier.

Got back, and did the FASTEST packing job I have ever done. (Side note: I am ANAL about packing. I like to get out everything we are taking and put it in special piles, then pack it very neatly and organized so that we can find everything. Of course, as soon as we get to our destination, one of the kids rummages through to find something and all that hard work is down the drain, but at least I make sure I have everything...well, at least It try my best!)

We got on the road about 1pm. We ended up stuck on Hwy 69 in stop and go traffic all the way through Kountze, which is about 30 miles north. It stayed pretty heavy until we got off the main hwy and headed over towards 45. From there it totally cleared out.

We got to eat at Long John Silvers!!!! This is my favorite restaurant, and I make Jeremy stop at every one that we pass. So, that was a treat. By that time, Jacob was just starting to get cranky, so he got to get out for a while and that helped him. He slept most of the way until we got to I45, and then started to get a little fussy again.

Matthew and Andrew rode in Jeremy's car, and Annie and Jacob rode with me. I had the QUIETEST drive!! Annie just sat back in the back and played and sang quietly, every once in a while asking a question, but mostly keeping to herself. Jeremy, on the other hand, had chatterbox #1 and chatterbox #2, and they kept him quite entertained. We had FRS radios so we could talk to each other as we drove, and that was nice. The kids thought that was pretty cool, too.

We finally made it to the hotel (after what Annie called the "longest trip ever") about 10pm. the kids got to explore our suite and put up their clothes in the drawers, and then we finally got to sleep about midnight. Everyone crashed until 9am!

Our Evacuation Saga began on Friday night trying to decide what to do. We had initially decided to put off making a decision until the city called for an evacuation, but the more we thought about that, the more we realized that by the time they did that, traffic would be horrible and tension would be high. With four small children, we did NOT want to go through that again. So we decided to start looking for hotels.

Everyone else had the same idea.

The closest hotel we could find in a major city was Wichita Falls. Of course, we passed plenty on the way here, but we just decided to go with it and once we had made the decision, it was kind of nice not to have to second-guess ourselves every 15 minutes. There were lots of different things we could have done, but from experience, we knew that they all had their downsides.

#1 - STay put. Reason against: If they called for a mandatory evac., we knew we would go. AT that point, it would take 10 hours to get where we wanted to go, instead of 6 or 7.

#2 - Go to family. Reason against: This is nothing against any of our family. PROMISE. But it's HARD with a bunch of little kids to invade someone's home, especially when you don't know how long it will be for. We remembered that from Rita. It's not that the family would mind. It's just really hard emotionally. We were looking for easy. =) Also, the close family we had was already taking in relatives, and everyone else is a good bit away. This is closer.

#3 - Hotel somewhere. This is what we decided. Partially because it feels more like a vacation to the kids, and less like a "we are fleeing for our lives" situation. They are having a blast. Evidently, hotels are exotic buildings filled with all the worlds mysteries and secrets, and if you are just allowed to explore, you will become a master of all of these special secrets. That's from the perspective of a child. How sweet!

So, that's how we made our decision. More later on how that worked out.

Getting Ready:




Go!




The kids thought that was awesome!

This video is very powerful. Watch it when you can listen (aka, when children aren't hollering in the room! lol).

This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced.

The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.

The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma ;, Illinois , and Colorado . This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Check it out here:http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

And here :http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

1. Matthew lost another tooth:



2. Sweet Boy sleeping:



3. Two Troublemakers (they are buddies):

Tell me this guy isn't cute:



When our a/c was out, we toughed it out ONE NIGHT - that's all we could stand. The older kids were at Granny's, but Little Man was here with us, so he got to sit in his high chair and play in water. He had sooo much fun. Jeremy also spent that night putting up new curtains!



This is Jakey making silly faces:

Birthday parties are a lot of fun. We went to one last week at the new Miniature Golf course in town. The kids had a BLAST! Here are some fun moments from that excursion:

Annie rocked out on the bumper cars - she really had a blast:



Matthew, of course, thought he was the BOMB when it came to driving around. The only disappointing part about the bumper cars is that Andrew (our NASCAR guy) wasn't tall enough to drive them...=(



Paddle boats were fun! The kids (even Andrew) all had fun paddling around the lake...but of course Mommy did most of the paddling! You might not realize it, but it's hard work! lol This video is Annie with some of her friends:



It was HOT! Andrew's favorite thing was hitting the ball with his own, personal-sized golf club (or "glof cub", as he says it).



And I carried Jakey around in his purple (but NOT LSU-purple, Fay) sling. Jeremy got out of yet another birthday party...which would have been fine, but it was so hot I thought Jake and I would BOTH suffocate before the evening was over!

This may not apply to a lot of my regular readers, but this is a very...thorough...discourse on what teenage guys think about teenage girls. I think it's worth watching...plus, it's hilarious.

These are the WMBC guys:

Week before last we visited Illinois for a week. We were taking my nephew and niece home (they spent about a month with us), and got to visit my sister and see their new house. A couple of moments from that trip:

Dad watched the baby while I took the older ones swimming. Here's what we saw when we got back:


Andrew just LOVED Leanne and Jerry, both. And, of course, "TJ" and Brandon.


Everytime we got finished swimming or playing at the park, the kids wanted snow cones - picking out their favorite flavor was the highlight of the trip!



It was really a joy to be able to visit and take a break for a few days. And then, as soon as we got home, our A/C broke, so we got another "mini-vacation" at Ma's & Pa's house! =) Fun times.

The Wii is the latest craze in our house. Andrew especially is hilarious to watch because he gets so INTO it. The game he's playing in this clip is Super Mario Smash Brothers - where all the different Nintendo characters beat each other up! =)

If you are a fan of the fantasy genre at all, you have GOT to read these books. I have been reading the series since I was about 14. There are 11 books total right now, and the last one will be released next year. Just as exciting, Universal Studios has purchased the rights to create a movie based on the books. The article linked to here has a description of the series, and probably explains it better than I could. But let me just say, if you liked Lord of the Rings, you will probably like this series as well!

(By the way, I was literally SO EXCITED about the movie possibility that I was squealing! I guess when you've invested 14 years of your life in something, you get excited about it...Jeremy doesn't get it...but oh well.)

Anyone who knows Matthew knows that he is obsessed with baseball. He is sure that he will be a professional Astro by the time he graduates from high school. (And who knows - he might be!)

What you may not know is that he is addicted to any sport with a ball. Here he is practicing his basketball "skillz":

We were "live" earlier in the day. Here is what we broadcasted. (Note: this is not anything exciting! lol It's just a "normal" afternoon around here. We just want to be able to give all of our friends and family a glimpse of our lives around here. In the future, I may be posting some more "random" days, or important events. Enjoy - and comment!)

Live video chat by Ustream

If it asks for a password, it is my oldest son's name plus "1".

It has been one year since we moved into our new house!! We absolutely still love it, and would not want to be anywhere else. I love the kitchen, the tile floor and the extra game room for the kids to play. I love it that we are in between TWO corners – you can’t to our house without slowing down enough to turn – and the kids can ride their bikes on the street. I enjoy the big backyard with the privacy fence that lets the kids be outside all day long…they all have tan lines like you wouldn’t believe. I even enjoy the coziness of our three bedrooms (when we could really use four). It keeps us all close! Even if we could afford a bigger “better” house, we wouldn’t move! I will remodel and make changes for years before I’ll give up my house.

Now that you all know how much we love our home, it’s time for the bad news…we’re completely OUT of our home right now! Our a/c is broken…again…for the third time this summer. They finally decided to put in a whole new unit. However, they don’t know when that will happen. They are having it delivered…best case is tomorrow…worst case is early next week…AFTER the weekend, of course. This is NOT fun!

Jeremy’s parents have graciously allowed us to stay with them. It’s not unpleasant; the kids are having a great time. We’re just not at OUR home, you know? We’re ready to be back there, back in OUR routine, especially since we had JUST resumed school.

All that said, we are “practicing” being patient (as I tell the kids all the time). I don’t know that God has some grand “purpose” for all of this, but I do know He uses our circumstances to change us…if we allow Him to. So please pray for us that:
- This will be over soon!
- That we will have patience and allow God’s work to be done in us…even if the work isn’t done outside of us as quickly as we would like. =)

***Mobile Blog***
I am sick! This is NOT fun. Prayers would be appreciated!

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.