Livin' in the Southwest!!

It has been a long great while since I have updated here. Now that I am so far away from family I should get back on the horse and start capturing these moments by blogging.

Right now I am waiting for the water heater to warm by shower water up. One more thing we need to fix on our LONG list of to-dos for this house. The pilot light seems to only go out when it is my turn to take a shower, go figure.

The past month has truly been a whirlwind. The movers came to to get our things May 10th, Followed by Nate's graduation from Medical School on the 15th...that included a trip to Kirksville. I loved to see Nate graduate, I am so proud of him. Really, he is truly amazing and totally smart.

Although, it took all of about 1 minute to realize that I truly do not miss that place. So many hard memories, so many I have worked through, and yet it hits me like a brick to go back. As we roll into the town the first word that pop out are..."Now what do we do, well I have to go to Walmart." HA!

One of the other highlights of that trip was seeing my good friend Tasheena, it seems that the emotion of being back in the 'ville all came forward when I finally got to hug her after 2 years. I never realized just how much I missed our friendship. She is a real life saver, a tride and true friend and I cherish the journey we shared together through 2 of the hardest years of my life. Thanks girl!

On the 17th of May we closed on our house in Normal, Il and headed up to the frozen tundra of Sheboygen, WI to spend a week visiting Nate's side of the family. We were officially homeless, with only an "estimated" closing date...which ended up being the worst nightmare of a closing experience we have ever had. We took 3 days and drove down to San Antonio fully expecting to close Friday the 28th. To make a long and stressful story short we were hung out to dry for another week by the bank. Spent the days hotel hopping not knowing if today will be the day we close...or NOT. We "unofficially" closed on Thursday June 3rd. Kaden got to spend the day before, his birthday, being toted all over San Antonio finally to end up at a Chuck-E-Cheese all hot and sweaty. Happy Birthday little dude, let me have a big scary mouse bring you a cake!

Even though we did not "officially" even own the house on Thursday....we moved in!! Technically we should not have because it was owned by the bank. So until Friday morning we "untechnically" owned the house. Main reason for moving in early, the movers were scheduled to arrive early Friday morning with all of our belongings. There was NO WAY I was going to reschedule that, it could push it back weeks!

YAY!!! Our long and tiring homeless experience was OVER!! I did not care that the air conditioning didn't work, I was living out of a cooler, and had no place to wash my clothes...I WAS FINALLY HOME!! Yes, the air was fixed, the washer and dryer arrived, as did my fridge a week later.

What a journey!

Random Thoughts

I have so many random thoughts throughout the day. Right now I know I should be folding laundry to keep up, because I have a HUGE pile to fold..ugh...but this sounds like more fun.

Here are a few I had today...

...the best thing that pampered chef makes are the little brown scrapers they give away with the stones. I use mine everyday, but I don't use anything else pampered chef...HA!

...what if we pooped a different shape, I mean then the plumbing and toilets would be different right?

....I love rain but not cold rain, just warm rain.

....how come every time I blow my nose the snot I just blew out is immediately replaced with new fresh snot to clog my sinuses.

....the worst part about a cold is the first day or two when all you taste is snot and all food tastes like snot ( the drainage stage), at least if you are just congested food tastes like nothing...but not snot.


...would Nate be mad if I just ripped the carpet out of my dining room. Maybe? ...surely not...just do it....no not today!

Well, that is it for now, but I have only been up for 4 hours, so I think that is pretty impressive :)

...

Not MY kid...

Kaden has been playing like he is a cat lately. Addison calls him "kitty" and they really get into this. Although, Kitty gets punched a lot... Kaden will even not talk to me and then say "Kitty's don't talk" Anyway the other day they were doing this while Nate was home and I too was calling Kaden "kitty". And then Nate said, "I don't want to have the kid who acts like a cat all the time, so please don't encourage this." It just made me laugh because I know the kind of kid Nate is talking about only they are 10 and completely lost in the fantasy of being a cat. One girl I knew just went around hissing at people all the time, HA HA. I hardly think Kaden, at 3 falls into that catagory, BUT I think it is hilarious because most things bother me more than Nate.

How do I let go of the guilt?

Guilt! Nate says I am the most guilty person in the whole world. Meaning, that I feel guilt for everything. How can I sit here and eat this McDonald's hamburger when children all over the world are dying of starvation. Why is it I have my entire family here with me when others lose theirs? I hardly ever spend money on myself, when I do I can't help but think it is not necessary and better spent on something else. What do I do with that? Do I let it go, or is that just who I am. I think of countless families whom I have seen struggle with the loss of a child or who's children have a very serious illness. It isn't that I am afraid of that happening to me, but I feel guilty that it is them and not me. Do I bear the weight of the world on my shoulders? Why do I do that? This world is not my home, I anxiously await the day when there will be no tears, when I stand the the presence of my God and sing his praise without ceasing. Right now I am trying to lay it all at Jesus' feet, to let it go and live a life surrendered to Him. That is all I know how to do. I can't save the world, I can't heal someone's pain, but Jesus can. He can save our souls, and maybe through me he can change the world! Is it guilt or is it the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart to soften it to the needs of those around me? I am WAY too emotional, and I think WAY too much...

I thought we were past this!

Ok here is an entertaining story. Kaden asked me to help him find his Superman hat. I said to wait a minute and promptly forgot to help him. I go to take a shower and enter my closet to get my clothes and find Kaden sitting on top of a PILE of Nates work clothes. Shirts/jackets/sweaters/BDU's/pants. Thrown from the hangers flooding out the closet door. I did not yell...I did not scream...I said "what are you doing!" with a bit of shock in my voice. Kaden fell apart crying "I can't find my hat" I kept my cool, I held him and apologized for forgetting to help. He only took matters into his own hands, and looked. Only he took the entire closet down in the process - I thought we were past these big messes. I did not take a photo, because I made him help me clean it all up right away. I did not want to humiliate him. Anyway, we never found the hat, but we both learned how to handle the situation -

Kaden- don't tear Mom and Dad's closet apart - NOT COOL.

MOM- find out the reason behind the behavior even if he just tore your closet apart and made a BIG mess for you to clean up. GO MOM!!!

What is going ON!!!

What is going on with this blog....apparently nothing. I could tell you that three kids is really hard and I work all the time on cleaning the house and cooking. BUT really I am just lazy. My life isn't really that hard. I have three great, healthy kids...a loving husband...enough money to not only survive but enjoy life...a savior who died for my sins so I can spend eternity with him. So I really have nothing to complain about.

So hmmm....no complaining....what do I write about....

Ok, I can't resist writing about the kids. Juliana ate little cooked apple pieces yesterday and my chicken and stuffing dinner. I know you are thinking, big deal. But for her it is!! She usually acts like she gags on any chunky food. We still have not mastered Cheeerio's. I finally got her to eat the Gerber puffs. I was feeling like she would be on baby food FOREVER. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Kaden is getting sick, with what I had for over 2 weeks. YUCK! He loves preschool and is sad because he can't go today. He tells me that Jesus is in his heart all the time, Jesus and blood (Dad had to pull the WELL ACTUALLY, you have blood in your heart too because blah blah blah). Oh the faith of a child!

Addison is into video games. Yes, my 4 year old can almost play the Wii better than I can. Now, please don't think he spends all day playing. He looks forward to Saturday when he gets to play with Dad. That is right....only a few hours/one day a week. But he always askes me how many days until Saturday. He is also a collecter, collect rocks, toys, buzz lightyears, you name it!

It was a LONG and Short summer. Nate was gone a total of 12 weeks. We made it!! Now he has interviews and the Military match in December. Come on San Antonio!!! Anyway. I think that wraps it up. I will try not to wait so long for my next post!

Nothing NEW!

So, really I have very little new and exciting things going on right now. I thought I would just post an update. Juliana is getting BIG, she is in 6-9 month clothes even though she is only 4 months. The funny thing is that she is pretty "average" so do they make girls clothes smaller? Kaden is potty trained ....YEAH!!! He has accidents occasionally, but hey I can handle those. Addison told me he was 8 today because he knows how to use scissors. Oh yeah and did you know that there are such things as day AND night pants. Yes...you get to wear them both day and night. Thank you Addison for enlightening me about these special pants that I never knew existed. I learn something new everyday! Now I just need to figure out where to get me a pair.

We were at goodwill the other day and Addison picked up this beat up broken Buzz Lightyear toy. It was a BLUE one, we have a green one at home. The thing is WELL USED. I was going to make him put it back, but I just couldn't bear it, so I forked over the $1.99 for the piece of junk. And would you believe that it is his favorite toy? Yes, he plays with it about everyday, he doesn't even care that the helmet is broken. Who would have thought?

Kaden's newest gimmick is that he pretends to eat you when he gets mad at you. No, not biting, but playfully pretending to EAT you. complete with pretend chewing.

Now Addison is laying in bed singing "Come on lets do the poopy dance, come on...come on...come on."

Oh I have about a million things to laugh at every day!