a great start to the week

I know I shouldn't be surprised by God's grace,

but I just can't help it.

He's providing so much for us right now, it's just amazing.

Not only has David already had a promising interview, some GREAT job referrals and peace beyond our human understanding - he was just offered a temporary job at the oil change place up the road.

They are closing in a month and need workers to stay until the store closes.

It'll be full time work for a decent amount of money per hour.

It's not quite enough to cover all of our bills

but 1. it's better than nothing

2.  it's lifted his spirits

and

3.  it's another GREAT reason to praise God!

Nothing like a little good news to get the week started off right.

Oh, and I'm going to start being a crazy coupon lady again - I'm gathering all of my supplies now.

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew

This is how I'm feeling right about now...

I'm going to have the house to myself all

weekend long and have already planned to

make a ton of things

and

CLEAN EVERYTHING

men and boys usually have their grubby hands all over.

I'm not kidding.

It all starts tonight with the Laundry Wasteland

that is the master bedroom.

It's bad, guys.

Real bad.

Then bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room, shampooing carpets, cleaning vertical blinds (have I mentioned how much I HATE vertical blinds?), dusting air vents and ceiling fans, cleaning out kitchen cabinets and wiping down the insides, purging things we don't need/love... the list goes on and on.

All this on top of reading an entire book and making dinner for a friend.

I have a feeling I'm going to get a few loads of laundry done, read a couple of chapters of a book, do a general clean up of the house and start a crafting project (notice I didn't say finish).

Sometimes I just get too excited and forget that I'm only human and only have so much time a day.

It's all good though - I'm going to have a great weekend either way!

Hope you all have a great weekend too!!!

Currently

I am currently:

FREEZING!

This 20 degree weather is

not suiting this girl - AT ALL.

Reading

I am officially on the last chapter of Radical

and have Don't Waste Your Life on deck.

I am running a bit behind schedule but it should be ok

considering I have the whole house to myself Saturday and Sunday!

Planning

While the the men are away I have a few things planned:

1.  sleep in

2.  read

3.  go thrifting

4.  possibly pick up $10 bookcase from craigslist seller

5.  crafting this

6. and this

7. and this!

8.  oh, and this one too!

Hoping

The lead we have on a job for David pulls through.

My toes don't freeze off.

My men take a deer this weekend.

My girlfriends can come over for games on Saturday.

That I remember to wear rubber gloves for #8 up there.

Juror #29

I had the privilege of reporting for jury duty yesterday.

It was weird, I don't know if I was just delirious from all of the waiting and questions but just about

everyone looked like someone from the movies.

The defendant's lawyer looked just like

Dana Delany from Tombstone.

The plaintiff's lawyer looked just like the character Eric Gordon from Billy Madison.

(not adam sandler's character)

And the plaintiff looked just like Lawrence Fishburne.

Needless to say, I was a bit distracted.

BUT

I didn't get picked.

They told us that if we talked a lot we would most likely be passed over for the jury.

If there's one thing I can do, it's talk.

So I talked.

A lot.

As much as I possibly could.

Apparently, it worked.



October Wrap Up

Since I'm a bad blogger I'm going to wrap up the month of October.

Ethan wrapped up his first season of baseball.

David's on the far left in this picture and Ethan is the second kid from the left.

He had a rough couple of weeks once the season ended.

He definitely went through many stages of grief:  denial, anger, sadness.

Not long after the season ended, we had Fall Festival to distract him.

Take it from me,

nothing distracts children quite like sugar and costume.

Except maybe bounce houses.

I know you've seen it before but here's Abraham Ethan.

(as i like to call him)

Here he is again with his two best friends - Darth Vader and UPS guy.

UPS guy looks pretty sad in this picture because he was

just informed that after the picture

he was heading home. 

It's not often you see a president, evil over lord and an average joe hanging out.

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

We also celebrated Ethan's 7th birthday.

Studied the book of Ruth.

Went to the True Woman Conference.

Celebrated Aunt Lexi's 10th birthday.

Celebrated cousin Arick's 20th birthday.

-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

On a totally different topic...

Tonight I'm going to do Jillian's 30 Day Shred.

I promise.

Hold me accountable.

K?

Busy busy busy...

'Tis the season for me to lose my mind with busyness.

I'm sure you all feel the same way around this time of the year.

I'm really excited that Christmas is around the corner.  Ethan really does make all the insanity and shopping worth it - though, he's not the main reason for the season.

I just love how my friends and family gather together to worship our King.

I also love the Black Friday festivities.

It's just not Christmas until Kate and I have dragged ourselves around

town in the middle of the night and to spend more

money than we probably should.

We're kidnapping her sister, Ham, this year.

Mwuahahahhhaa!!!

Pictures to come on Monday, I'm sure!

This is how I've started weighing myself.

The good news is that I've lost like 220 lbs this way!!

Haha.

Really though, I'm down 10lbs and have started going through caffeine withdrawals so bad that I had to drink a coke today to make my headache go away.

I just need to be more disciplined with eating right and working out.

I'm doing ok so far but I know these are the key.

On a more random note - I saw this picture on the new failblog.org site: Win!

Haha - it says to Call 911 to buy it!

It's funny because that cop car is from Arlington, TX - where I went to high school.

Arlington PD always sets out decoy cop cars off of I-30.

People who aren't from our neck of the woods always slam on the breaks thinking

there's really a cop in there.  The rest of us know better and continue speeding down the highway.

(totally just told on myself)

In more relevant news...

I'm starting an etsy shop!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's what I'm thinking for my banner and name.

What do you guys think?

(totally open to suggestions!)

I'm going to start selling some of my antiques and vintage finds.

I'll also sell some of my embroidered goods and other crafty creations.

It's Procrastination's Fault!

Wow.

I am the worst blogger in all of history.

I can only blame this on procrastination.

In all honesty, I've been so busy my head's still spinning.

We wrapped the Ruth Bible study (AMAZING!), visited Ethan's new doctor, threw a baby shower, cared for a sick kid and watched the office around me buzz with excitement for our Annual Meeting and Bible Conference - our biggest event of the year.

It honestly feels like it's been weeks since my last blog post.

Since every one's gone to the conference I hope to catch up on my all of my blogging.

Posts to keep an eye out for:

True Woman Conference

weigh loss update

Ethan Speaks

Book Review

thankfulness

Christmas Wish List

Vintage Finds

home inspirations

Your Opinion Please

Fall Love

etsy store?

Not too shabby, eh?

Looks like I'm going to be busy posting this week and next.

It helps that we have a computer at home now.

Now, please enjoy the following photo I found on Awkward Family Photos.

Ethan and Hermine

Guys, I'm so proud!

Ethan is doing SO WELL in school!

Despite bringing home lots of homework, he's really enjoying himself.

He's working really hard on reading, writing and math - the best part is that he's really doing well!

You guys have no idea how much of a blessing it is that he likes school and homework. We've prayed and prayed that he'd have a love for school that would help him succeed and it seems, so far, that our prayers have been answered.

The LDs and behavioral disorders he has could make school a real beating for all of us but the last couple of years have been such a joy. He's had some amazing teachers and Mrs. Rich is no exception. The Lord provided Ethan a teacher who's masters degree is in special education!!!

Oh a sad note, though, Ethan's first baseball practice has been cancelled do to Tropical Depression Hermine. Baseball practice is a minor disappointment since Hermine's dumped about 7ish inches in DFW since yesterday and has caused some major flooding; even our church sanctuary and Sunday school hallway are flooded (again).

Anyway, Saturday is Ethan's first baseball game.

It should be hilarious since he's never played baseball before and the only practice before the game has been scrapped. You know I'll be blogging about that!!!

Hope you all are having a GREAT week so far!

I hope you like random pictures...

Ethan's been gone for 7 days now and

I'm pretty much ready to have him

back home.

He went to a pretty awesome lodge in Arkansas with

one set of grandparents then

made a switch and is now staying with my dad and step mom

in Oklahoma.

I even dreamed last night that he was lost in a GIGANTIC fun house type place

and I had to go find him but couldn't. When

I finally did find him he was just fine, tired and his shirt was ripped.

When I asked why he said "Oh, Tristan and I got into a spitting fight."

Hahaha.

I am so ready to have my little boy back.

On another Ethan related note:

I am supposed to sign him up for soccer today

but I

{mom of the year here}

cannot find his birth certificate to save my life.

I've looked EVERYWHERE!

I did find his original birth certificates from before the adoption.

I wonder if those paired with our adoption papers will work...

Our church has hit it rough over the last couple of weeks.

We have been burglarized to the tune of $10,000.

{thankfully it's been recovered and the perps are in jail}

Giving has declined sharply - it's bad.

Very bad.

Oh, and the baptistery flooded.

Our sanctuary was 3 inches deep in water.

Pray for us.

We need the help.

We still haven't heard anything about the new job David's going for.

His current job is getting harder and harder.

If they're not working him 19 hours a day they're working him 5 or 6 which

means a drastic cut in pay.

Which means fewer antiques, garage sales and Starbucks for me.

Oh, and money for bills but whatever...

Anyway...

David and I really hope he gets this job but we're open to

whatever job the Lord wants Him to have.

We're praying for a job that will allow David to have

set hours so that we can actually plan family time

and also that the job would provide exactly what we need

to live on as a family.

We're leaving my dream of being a stay at home mom in His hands.

He knows my heart is to serve my family

in my home full time.

Right now though, as my husband's helper, the best way I can serve him

is by working to help support our family.

Out of all of these crazy random pictures this one is my favorite.

He's like an Uncle Rico/Unibomber mix.

It's kinda awesome.

Fun of the Fourth!

What a GREAT Fourth of July we had!

We literally woke up on Sunday morning with no plans

other than to go to church and

the cookout following

then be lazy around the house and watch

fireworks on tv.

Thankfully, some dear friends of ours invited us to their family's

4th of July get together so we got to swim, shoot off fireworks and celebrate with some

AWESOME people!

These two girlies were lighting off fireworks with the best of the big boys!

They were quite impressive!

Even when they decided that this was a GREAT time

to play a few pranks on their Sunday School teacher

(me) by lighting fireworks (just loud ones, not the dangerous ones) behind me all night.

I told them they'll have homework next Sunday!

Bwahahaha!

Here's my wild man with his very first sparkler EVER!

He loved it!

Once the big stuff started going off

E and his best bud, Andrew,

stood like this for 90% of the night.

The rest of the night they were asking

various grown ups to get them

ice cream.

They probably had 8 scoops a piece by the end of the night!

Sunday morning our pastor preached a fantastic sermon about the founding

of this nation and he quoted Patrick Henry a couple of times.

This was my FAVORITE quote from his sermon...

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." - Patrick Henry Speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses, May, 1765

One Of Those Days

I haven't been sleeping well lately.

The guy in the picture above has the right idea...

I can't tell you how often I am tempted to just sprawl out at work

between phone calls and take a cat nap.

Seriously.

Hubs has been working really really late lately. To make matters worse, he always gets up and is out of the house before I'm even awake. I can't tell you how often I find myself staying up until midnight {even 2am sometimes} just to get in some quality time or even talk about all those fun things married people talk about: bills, calendars and daily updates.

Seriously, how do you keep the spark when your hubby works 80ish hours a week and you run yourself ragged everyday? I'm so thankful for his job but I cannot wait for this season to pass!

Sneaky Little Sneaker!

Things are still running full steam in our crazy little family.

Ethan's finally finished kindergarten and I officially have a 1st grader.

Really, where did the years go!?

Seems like yesterday I was changing his diapers and mixing up bottles.

Now that he's getting older and a little more mature {as mature as a 6 year old can be} we've decided to sign him up for soccer! Registration's in July and everything starts in September. He's beyond excited! I'm so glad we've found something he's shown a great interest in.

It's not the only thing he's intersted in either...

Apparently, he's taken an interest in photography too.

Here are a couple of photos I found on my camera after I confiscated it from him.

{all photos compliments of a sneaky little 6 year old}

You'll never guess what the little turkey did!

I'm kind of embarrassed to tell you all!

...but since I tell you all everything...

This little turkey busted into my bedroom just after I'd gotten out of the shower. He took a glorious picture of me in my birthday suit, bent over, towel drying my hair!

I tell ya... that boy's lucky to be living!

After I threw on a robe and wrangled the camera away from my son's death grip I deleted the photo and then discovered he'd been snapping away for days.

{that little sneaker}

Before I wrap this post up I wanted to update you on
E's biploar/conduct disorders and his ADHD issues.


We met with his Child Study Center doctor a little over a week ago and she is THRILLED with our results. Not only did he make it through kindergarten without any major incidents (he sent a teacher to the hospital in pre-k with a pretty ugly bite on the arm) he actually flourished!!!!


He will get an hour and a half of resource classes next year and will continue to take his anti psychotics in addition to meeting with a new psychiatrist. We got word this week that he was accepted into Cook's Childrens' psychiatric program as well as MHMR!


We've got appointments set up at both places and hopefully by December (Cook's couldn't get us in for our first appointment until November) we'll be able to decide which program/doctor we want to stick with!


Whew, I'm exhausted just thinking about all this!

Randoms

• I don't like to complain about my husband AT ALL but I am pretty sick of his alarm clock going off 2 and a half hours before he actually needs to wake up.
  
  
• That poor guy is also battling poison ivy on his forearms. Every night (to protect me) he wraps his arms in ace bandages. He's so uncomfortable like that but puts my needs above his comfort. I've got a keeper!
  
  
• I am beyond excited to visit my good buddy Marge next month! She's a hard working, wildly hilarious woman and I can't wait to spend a few days with her!
  
  
• I'm in prayer about an opportunity that's come my way to spend some time doing Disaster Relief work in Chile. I'd be gone for one week in June. More to come on this front, for sure...
  
  
• I'm pretty much in love with NBC's comedy Community.
  
  
• I'm super disappointed in the weather... What was supposed to be a beautiful day of garage sales and antique malls has turned into a nasty rainy and even SNOWY day! That's right - snow in Texas on the first day of Spring!
  
  
  
  

Snow Days

Two weeks ago, Dallas/Fort Worth got the most snow

it's every gotten in one day.

12.5 inches.

For you Northerners, that's nothin', but for us - it'll stop the world!

David didn't feel comfortable driving a truck on the ice and Ethan's daycare was closed due to a power outage so we both decided to stay home with our little man and enjoy the day.

Here are some pictures I took of our record snowfall.

The sidewalk through the garden where I work. This picture was taken on Thursday morning, snow had been falling for 8 hours at this point.

Friday was when we peaked at 12.5 and the roads iced over.

This is the scene from just outside our patio on Friday.

Outside of the few years I lived in NW Arkansas (Whoo Pig!), this is the most snow I've ever seen.

Ethan enjoying his first BIG snow storm!


My men and their first snowman.
That's right, it was my husband's first snowman too.


We named him Gus and gave him blue gumdrops for eyes.


...and to think, more snow is forecasted for today!




Spring, come quickly!

Just a Little EEC for ya...

This week was the Empower Evangelism Conference.

...and boy was it GOOD!

Powerful preaching... Beautiful music... AMAZING testimonies...

And then there was Fake Jesus.

At least that's what we called him.

Come to find out, he's nearly 60.

If you're interested, I know how you can get in touch with him.

He offered me $1000 to find him a wife....

and he wasn't kidding!

Seriously...who wouldn't want a long haired man who wears leopard print clogs.

Seriously.

On a much cooler note...

WE MET TIM HAWKINS!!!

He had a whole joke about how people use their hands to try to tell you where they are from in whatever state their from. This is the sign for Oklahoma...you had to be there! HA!

Here's a song about Chick-Fil-A. AWESOME!

All Is Well....

Well, David will probably not be promoted to driver (grrr...) but he definitely has some job security. He's now paired with a man who doesn't speak English. So, David gets to be the one who deals directly with customers.

He loves dealing directly with the customers but I feel bad for him - now he'll be stuck on a truck for hours and hours and hours and will only be able to communicate on a basic level. He's going to get SO bored.

But anyway....

We have already found and are planning for the college classes David is going to take. Lord willing, he will be read to enlist in January. We're still very flexible because we know it's the Lord who makes our path despite our plans.

He's also looked up a physical training plan that is based on

the Marines' regimen and plans to start that soon.

Still, I'm amazed by how excited he is about all of this.

In other news...

I'm ready for Spring and garage sale season!

Snow Day

School is already cancelled for tomorrow.

Work may try to open at 10:00 - but I really doubt it!

6.2 inches of snow at DFW Airport (which is across the street from where I work) and we're expected to get 2-5 more inches before tomorrow morning.

This is NOTHING compared to what the north eastern states are getting

but for us this is unheard of!

What will the future hold?

Tomorrow is a big day for our family.

We will find out a teeny tiny glimpse into what our future may look like.

Please pray for the Lord to be gracious with out family and for things to go well. Pray that David and I will ask the right questions and make the right decisions.

Pray for my nerves...I think I might be going a little batty with all this.

I can't wait till I can tell you all what's going on!

Dear Internet...

• Conan was amazing on Friday night. As a devoted fan I made sure to tune into this one and I have to say how impressed I was by not only his mad guitar skills but also how gracious he was during his last episode.

• I was very excited to see Beck, one of the ZZ Top guys and Ben Harper playing in the All Star Band. I was not excited to see Will Farrell and his wife making out so much - seriously - way to try to steal the spot light!

• I cried. I'm not afraid to admit it, either. I shed a few tears as he was speaking to the audience. I especially loved his call for us all not to be cynical:

"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere," he concluded. "Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."

• At my WW weigh in on Saturday I found out that I lost 3 lbs!!! I am SO excited! Nothing like some good weight loss to keep you motivated! This week my goals are to work out three times and drink more water.

• We had to cancel the movie night we had planned with a couple of Ethan's friends. As we were heading to a birthday party Ethan decided it was a good time to lose his lunch all over himself and the seat he was sitting on. My little trooper didn't cry or anything but, rather, announced proudly when he was finished "Man! I feel MUCH better!"

• Speaking of Ethan - HE LOST HIS FRONT TOOTH! It's so cute! He's missing two at the moment - one of the bottom teeth on the right and then his front left tooth.

• I would take a picture but I think I've lost my camera. Let's not tell my husband until I have time to turn the house upside down looking for it! Ok?

• I literally just got a call to bring Ethan a change of clothes up to the school because he is covered head to toe in mud! Good gravy - headin' out now!

Finally...the Black Friday Post

Christmas doesn't officially start for me until Black Friday.

4:15 am: Kate and I arrive at Kohl's.

4:30 am: We leave Kohl's because we REFUSE to wait in a 2 hour line to buy 2 things.

6:30 am: Bought out Old Navy and was frightened away from Toy's R Us.

7:00 am: Read a status update by Kate's sister (below, in yellow) about how she's still up and not even shopping.

7:30 am - Kate and I arrive and kidnap her sister (Han) after she'd gotten only 30 minutes of sleep. We forced her to shop with us.

She was quite the trooper (especially for a 19 year old college student being paraded around Hobby Lobby).

10:00 am - Dropped Han off at home and stopped by Sonic for some drinks.

10:15 am - Decided to talk our friends into going to a crazy restaurant for lunch.

10:30 - Stopped by the "Largest Christmas Store in Texas" to waste some time.

The shortest Christmas tree in the pic is over 6' tall. yeah.

They had lots of homeless Santa's for sale...kinda made me sad.

11:15 am - FINALLY we arrived at Campo Verde with our victims, I mean friends.

They were afraid to even step through the door.

But once you did...you got to experience all it's glitz and glory.

A bull skull covered in gold glitter...

I mean, if this doesn't say classy, I don't know what does.


One thing can be said about Black Friday:

From getting up at an ungodly hour, standing in long lines, elbowing and being elbowed, trying to order food in a state of delirium...

It is NEVER dull.