We are moved and back on line!

We are officially moved in to our new home and got back on line this past Monday. We were without internet for 12 days which seemed like an eternity for me and John.

It's been a wild ride filled with much laughter and many tears! I hope you enjoy reading about our journey this past month.

The kids have made a few neighborhood friends. I've found my way to the local Walmart. I got my hair cut locally, and so did Isaac. His first professional hair cut! The other two were by me. He did really well.

We have a Chik-Fil-A next to Walmart. Not good for the budget or the figure, but really exciting. I think I am about 7 minutes from Walmart. Much better than my 25 minutes, especially if you forgot something that was or wasn't on the list.

The school room and the kitchen are fully unpacked, but as for everything else ... well, let's just say everyone has a bed to sleep in and we can find our clothes, at least the ones we packed in the suitcase. But, the garage currently does not have vehicles in it due to the amount of boxes that are still waiting to be unpacked.

At my last count, I have unpacked 102 boxes. Yes, I am counting the boxes. I had plans to do the counting as they went on the truck, but everyone was too quick for me to keep up.

Thanks for your prayers! Keep them coming!

And we miss all of you more than you can imagine!

Loading Day - October 14th

John arrived on Friday evening just in time for our loading day on Sunday, October 14th.

We started at 9am. There were last minute boxes to fill of the things that we needed up until the last minute, furniture to wrap, floors to sweep, counters to wipe and then the obvious, loading everything into the truck.

We rented a 28' truck and thought we might use about 24'. But, we ended up using EVERY square inch of the truck. Our truck and suburban were filled to the brim also. And thanks to some careful organizing by the loaders, we didn't have to rent a U-haul and nothing got left behind. Well, almost nothing. I wanted to take our plants, but in the end, they got divied (sp?) out to the last remaining souls that stayed to the bitter end.

I say bitter end, but from the very first arrival (9am) to the very last thing on the truck, we were finished at 2pm (5 hours). And that included a wonderful lunch that the Kerley family prepared for us! We had BBQ beef sandwiches, homemade slaw, chips, drinks, and several homemade desserts from both the Kerley and Cook families including my favorite, brownies!

Melissa made a comment during the day that watching all the people that came to help us load the truck was a testament to how much we are loved. And, while it didn't come to the forefront of my mind, she is exactly right! We had friends from Morristown, Knoxville, Crossville, Livingston, and even one friend was moving his father in Lewisburg and came after he finished there to share a meal with us that evening. Altogether, we had 23 adults and children that helped move, yes the children helped move also. And even more came by to say farewell!

So, yes, we are truly blessed with the most wonderful friends anyone could ask for.

We will miss all of you so very much! We have lived here for 9 1/2 years and it seems like our friendships blossomed so much more in the last 1 1/2 years.

My husband said something to me while I was crying and saying the last farewells, "You have been touched by so many lives and they have been touched by you. Now you will go and touch and be touched by some more lives." He's right. I have been touched by so many lives. And I hope they have been touched by me.

Thank ya'll for your friendship and continued prayers for God's will in our lives.

Thanks to:

Kerley family: Anthony, Melissa, Miranda, Will & Andrew (we missed you!)

Cook family: Earnie, Leila, Hannah, Casey, Sophia, Taylor

Klett family: Reinhard, Emilee, David, Daniel

Fleming family: Glenn, Noni

Hinds family: Pat, Jeannie, Hannah, Abigail, Eli

Wade family: Tracey, Dominic

Blackwood family: Victoria, Jett, Raven

Brad Dunn and Tyree

Much Laughter, Many Tears - Our Going Away Week!

We have packed in as much as we can possibly pack in this week since we know, in some cases, we won't see some of our friends again. We left Florida on Friday, October 5th and returned to Crossville to wrap up our close. We will be leaving on Monday, October 15th. So these 10 days were jam packed. Daddy didn't come home with us. He left Florida and went to Texas to wrap up the close on our new home. What did we do these last 10 days?

A better question might be - what didn't we do? :o)

Sleepovers, sleepovers and more sleepovers! Thankfully, the public schools were out this week, so Dominic basically lived with us the entire 10 days. We also had Alex spend the night.

We went Autumn Acres for what might be our last corn maze.

We won't see many fields like this where we're going.

We had to make one last trip to Chuckles and use those last few coins and tickets we've kept.

We went to the fun night that the Cornwell's host.

And Renee and family hosted a meal for us there. Janine and kiddos came for our last visit together.

And how could we forget one last trip to storytime with Miss Patty.

We will miss her very much!

We went to Chess class for the last time. Thank you Dr. Brindisi for all of your hard work and dedication to the homeschool families of Crossville. Our family really appreciated your time and effort!

And then there were the many lunchs that we shared with friends like Miss Elsa.

It was a really fun week.

And it was filled with much laughter and many tears!

We hope to see as many of you that can come to see us as soon as you can possibly come!

Creative Homeschooling

While packing an entire house in 2 weeks is in full swing, making last minute appointments with familiar doctors and dentists; trying to squeeze in all those visits and playdates that should have been occurring all along, and wanting to see as much of Tennessee before we leave it, homeschooling is going to be very creative, to say the least!

Yesterday was no exception. While I love spontaneity, I would classify myself as a person who thrives in a scheduled oriented atmosphere. Homeschooling for our family pretty much has a routine. It gets changed up a lot. How can it not when there are younger siblings! But, when we're all in a groove, it's pretty routine around here.

So, what I'm about to tell you may occur in your homeschool everyday. And it probably occurs in our homeschool more than I recognize, but yesterday was an epiphany for me.

We just returned from a week long trip to buy a house in Texas. You all know how trips go. No one sleeps in their own bed. The long trip (13 hours) home trying to sleep upright. Well, we rolled into the driveway about 930pm on Sunday night. We had to be home by Monday morning for a series of dental appointments on Monday morning.

The kids woke up the same time they do every morning. I was in hopes that the long, tiring day would help them sleep later, but not a chance! They wanted to watch some TV, something we don't do on school days until all school is finished. I said my usual no and informed them all that it was a school day and we were getting back into our routine. Micah scans the playroom and tells me that the school table is a mess. I turned to look and saw boxes on top of the school table, and various school books everywhere on top. It was discouraging to see the table and realize we had to leave the house in an hour for dental appts. Okay, it wasn't going to be routine today! I wasn't even sure, at this point, that school was going to happen at all. But, I was not going to tell the kids that!

With only minor frenzies, we made it to our dental appointments on time with clean clothes on and brushed teeth (very important if going to the dentist is why you're leaving the house) :o). It was a new dentist for our family and to top it off it was Sarah's first time to the dentist. She was very familiar with our old dentist's office, but now she was going to be the patient and it was a new dentist on top of that. This little tidbit is not part of the story, but I added it for a little more drama!

We waited, and waited and waited for our names to be called. We were there for over an hour before they called any of our names. The funny thing is, we really didn't even notice how long it had been. This is why. Right when we got there, we found a magazine on the chair next to where we were sitting. It was the only magazine (or so I thought) in the waiting room. It was a Town and Country. If you aren't familiar with this magazine, it is very thick. It was a travel edition. Sarah and I proceeded to look at the magazine from front to back, looking at each page carefully. I would ask her questions about what was on each page. After about 15 minutes or so, both boys (Isaac stayed home with daddy) started to get interested in what we were doing and wanting to contribute their observations and answers. Then I started to notice the people around us in the waiting room. I could here a few giggles from some of the teens that were listening to our conversation when one of the kids would make a comment about something on the page. We continued to look through each page and talking about where this or that was located, where do you think such and such is, would you want to go there. You get the idea. I continued to occasionally look up or around and noticed that we had become the center of attention in that entire waiting room. It was a long, somewhat narrow waiting room with about 10 people or so. Mostly younger teenagers with a parent here and there. These people had obvious facial expressions that told me there utter amazement at all the things my children were discussing and answering. I even heard one girl say to her friend when Micah answered what continent a certain country was located, "I didn't know where that was."

It finally came time for the 2 boys to go back for their appts. Sarah and I found the magazine rack which we did not see at first and looked through several more magazines before her turn finally came.

I don't know about you, but it really made me feel good to observe people observing us. I feel as if we may have positively affected some of those people in that waiting room. Maybe those parents will go home and read more with their kids. Maybe it will inspire some of those teens to want to learn more in school. I don't know! I do know one thing. I left the house thinking that the school day was already shot! But when I returned home, we had already had a full day of school! All from just a few magazines in a waiting room.

Now THAT'S the beauty of homeschooling!

BTW, Sarah did fantastic at her first dental appt.! A few gags trying to get the film in her mouth to take mouth pictures. But she didn't panic and was very brave. She had her teeth poked, polished and shined! And no cavities! Yeah! Both boys had a "no cavity" day also!

Back in Tennessee

We made it back from Texas safe and sound! I've had a coke and a chocolate bar, so I don't think I'll be going to bed anytime soon. I took care of the checking account (love that Quicken), and the snail mail (thanks to Miranda, Will and Andrew) and now I'm just catching up on emails! We will start packing tomorrow. I'm probably starting too early, but for all those that know me, I'm pretty much an organizational freak and do not have a procrastinating bone in my body! That's been very helpful in my marriage since my loving husband has many procrastinating bones in his body! :o)

Thanks so much for the response regarding our loving dog, Mitzi. She will have a new home with Jessica Whitehead and family! We will keep her until our trip to Florida, and then she will have a new home. We will miss her VERY, VERY much! I hope Jessica will keep us updated on how she is doing. (a few tears at the moment).

Lots of change coming around the corner. I want to say thank you to all of you that have continued to keep our family in your prayers. And thank you for your continued friendship. Hard times bring out the true friends! And I might add, moving brings out the true friends also. We 've had a double dose of both, and and found a double dose of friends!

Forney, Texas will be our new home as of October 12th. Come see us! We would love to have all of you come. Maybe not at the same time, but if it works out that way, we'll make room! The more the merrier!

And my motto through all of this has been

"Lots to think about, but nothin' to worry about"

From Tennesse to Texas

Well, it has been a whirl wind visit in Texas. We physically looked at 13 houses, but as many of you know, my husband has been viewing homes online for six months. He has literally looked at close to a thousand homes, if not more. But I am glad to tell you all (ya'll) that we signed a contract on a home in Forney, Texas (new construction) this week. It will be ready the second week in October. The home was at the drywall stage and no flooring or counters had been selected, so we were able to pick what we wanted. That was a lot of fun. It's a smaller home (2,800 sq ft) than what we have in Tennessee, but laid out very well with an open floor plan. Now the packing fun begins! If you have a free moment and care to come visit and fill a few boxes with me, I would really appreciate it! We will close on our Tennessee home on October 8th and are allowed to remain in the home up to 14 days after that. So, the physical part of loading the truck to move won't happen until the week of October 8th provided the home is finished. Yes, the timing may get tricky, but we know it will all work out.

Also, if you know of anyone that would like a wonderful, 9 year old, blonde, lab dog who LOVES to play fetch, please let me know. Her name is Mitzi and she is an awesome kid dog! We are moving from 25 acres to almost no yard. We will have to give her to a lab rescue if we can't find her a home on our own. That is if the rescue is accepting new dogs. I know that between all our efforts, we will find her a home.

Please take a moment and see if you can think of anyone that would like to have her.

September is Here!

It's hard to believe it is already September. The Fall Feast days are upon us! This final month of the civil calendar, Elul, which is a traditional intensification of a period of repentance begun in Av (the 11th month) and continues through Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). We should approach Yom Kippur with a lot of forethought.

And, boy, do I have a lot for which to reflect and be repentant. It's been a trying several months with John continuing to seek work since the middle of March, selling our home in Tennessee which as I type this we have a contract on it, and moving back to Texas. I have felt very weak at times and while my heart knows that God IS taking care of us and will continue to take care of us, I have had a hard time convincing my head! It's been an amazing learning experience, that, admittedly, I have not always been grateful for, but one that continues as I write this. I haven't always understood God's timing, but I will always trust that timing and pray for continued strength and continued mercy as I learn to put all of my trust in Him and none of my trust in this world.

I am grateful, thankful and humbled by the continued blessings that are bestowed on me even as I fail to trust and serve God in the way that I should. The mercy of God's grace for me is so "Awe"some!!! Praise be to our Heavenly Father for not treating us the way we deserve to be treated.

And praise be to God for His MERCY endures FOREVER!

We Sold Our Home

Well, technically, we have a signed contract. And the home and termite inspection were approved. So, it looks like all is a go and our closing should be at the end of September or the beginning of October.

We have also been approved for financing. So, the hunt begins for our finding a new home in Texas! We have a top 10 and hope to have a signed contract by the end of next week!