Last Weekend

This past weekend we went on a little trip - College Station Wednesday night through Friday, and then Houston for the rest of the weekend. It was fun - good to just be away for a few days.

We got to the hotel so late that the kids crashed and we transferred them.

It was a really nice little hotel in College Station - brand new and modern. We spent a little time in the indoor pool - perfect since it rained the whole time there.

Neat thing at the alumni building. We all got new A&M shirts too. Fun looking around campus and showing the kids where Daddy used to go to school, live, etc. I'd be proud if my boys were there someday!

Out of curiosity we went to the Bush Library and walked through the museum. It was really interesting for me and Andy but the boys could only take so much. We had to rush through a bit.

Max and George H. Bush

"how you doin' today?"

Friday afternoon we drove to Houston and ate dinner with Grandpa Clay that night. Max started being silly and then we all took turns taking silly face pics...

Oh my...

LOTS of tickling and wrestling

Grandpa holding him back

Saturday afternoon we went to the park with Aunt Erin and cousins Elysa and Emily

Andy's signature trick

Elysa rocked on the monkey bars!

Chris, Erin and Andy trying to knock each other off

all the cousins - make a silly face!

Erin and I agreed - probably the best picture ever taken of all 4 - they're looking and smiling!

Andy brought some crab fishing stuff to the park...here watching the nets in the water

Uncle Chris finally caught one!

Oh my goodness...we were on the fishing dock and someone spotted this guy from WAY off, coming pretty steadily toward the dock. Crazy how comfortable he was coming up to us. He was probably about 4-5 feet long, and the fisherman on the dock kept saying how they could jump straight out of the water 4 feet or so! He probably was coming after our crab bait - chicken gizzards. He came a little close for comfort...

See his head in the water near Jake's head?

See you later, alligator!
(sorry)

Finally...pics of the new house

So sorry it's been 5000 years since my last post. I've just put it on the back burner with everything going on, and then (do you do this?) I feel overwhelmed when I think of all I haven't blogged, so I avoid it...

But this is our new house. We are loving it and the lack of maintenance it requires! Below are the different views from our front porch. We're on a bit of a hill, which feels nice.



This is a mystery bush right near our front door. There are just a few of these white flowers and they smell like Gardenia - beautiful, strong smell.


My heaven-on-earth bathroom. :) Andy and I have wanted a garden tub for a long time - happy.
closet
living room/kitchen... can't figure out how to get more seating in our living room. that glider chair looks weird there - will probably move it to another room.
also so excited about a fireplace - ready for Christmas stockings!
also LOVING the kitchen. tons of cabinet space and we love how it's open to the living room


my pantry! been without this most of our marriage! so nice...
like the easy clean stove and DRAWERS for pans
our dumping grounds for now. this is the formal dining, which might turn into a game room, but right now it's full of what will end up in the attic once Andy puts decking up there.
other little weird room right near the front door - formal living? we'll eventually put our office here.
guest bath
front door

table we got at Sam's; expands with butterfly leaf and came with 8 chairs - perfect for putting the other 4 around our bar area.

So anyway, it's nice to be a bit more settled in. We feel so blessed by the way everything worked out with this house. And Wylie is nice too... Thank you Father!

Miss...

Our move should be about a month away (if everything goes well with both closings) and I've been thinking a lot about our lives in this house. It was our first house - Andy and I moved here when we had been married for 1 1/2 years. We had TWO BABIES here! These walls saw them as newborns. They crawled (or hiney-scooted) around on these floors and then learned to walk (on the cold, hard tile). So many memories here. Several Christmases here, lots of growth in our marriage here, and we've seen God work in our family and around us lots here.

We've changed the house too. I can't find pictures from when we first moved in (taken with an old camera that maybe I didn't upload? can't remember) but WOOEEE you should have seen what it used to look like. We had a rainbow of lovely colors throughout - peach living room, teal and yellow kids' rooms (looked like they let the kids do it), forest green master bedroom and seafoam green kitchen cabinets! And there were too many repairs to even list. My husband is wonderful - so great about fixing everything. But because the house is a smaller 1980's house, we only repaired/updated to a point. Replacing countertops or putting in hardwood floors would be, as Andy would say, "putting lipstick on a pig." So just as there are things about this house that I will miss, there's plenty that I look forward to leaving!

I won't miss:

this mirrored back splash in the whole kitchen! so 80's! kind of novel at first and everyone says it makes the kitchen look bigger...but it's jut weird! and I won't miss the fake butcher block counters, or lack of a pantry...

or having to fit our "office" in our bedroom. when Max was born we turned our office into his room and went to Ikea to get this teeny desk. notice the desk chair (on which I now sit) - for home showing only - not so comfy. before we had a comfier but BIG chair that made us do acrobatics in order to get between the chair and bed.

I won't miss this ceiling (80's thing again) or the very high electricity bills we have because it's NOT an efficient house.

On the other hand, I will miss:

the trucks we painted in Jake's room before he was born. i have pics of me huge and prego 5 years ago sitting in a chair painting this. Andy did most of the pencil drawing, then we both filled in the colors. Things you do with your first child and have time. My favorite:

this was all Andy - his Tacoma in scale with the other trucks. and Gabe and Maurice (our former pets) riding in the back... I'm sure the next family will paint right over it...sniff, sniff. and I'll miss the big trees. trees just give a neighborhood character, you know? And I will miss the few neighbors that we got to know - some really sweet, good people. Will try to keep in touch. and Jake always climbs this one crepe myrtle in our front yard. Max saying, "up high!"

and I'll definitely miss this established St. Augustine grass. pretty, thick, doesn't brown easily. a lot of it died one year (major drought year I think) and Andy sodded a lot. of course, most newer homes have Bermuda - fine, but not as nice in my opinion.

So, I'm excited about the new house. But wanting to keep in perspective that only eternal things matter. And the only eternal things are the Lord and people... Thankful for how God provided both houses and mostly, the people I love in them!

Water Guns and Sprinklers Last Night

"hold still, Daddy, so I can squirt up your nostrils"

love this



fun...

All Praise, Glory and Thanks to God!

Just want to share how good God is. He's such a blesser and good-gift-giver! Long story short, we found a house (it was a HUD so you have to blindly bid online, hoping you're the highest - we were the 9th bid and won by a really small margin!!) and as I reflect on it all, God's fingerprints are just so evident throughout this whole process. We praise you Lord!

For about a week, I've been really focusing on Proverbs 3:5-6 (and NOT coincidentally, Andy's Sunday school lesson covered this verse after I had been thinking about it):

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Since high school, this has been my life verse. I really cling to this and God always fulfills this promise (imagine that!) in different ways. With home selling/shopping I had plenty of different worries and what-if thoughts, but when I could get my head on straight I would remember this and have peace. He owns every property on the planet! And He's not bound by time. ("will we find something before ours closes?" "will we have to buy one contingent on the sale of our house?") Looking at this past week (that's how much time it's taken to get a contract on our house and put a contract on a new one - praise God!), our paths have been so straight! God blesses us all the time, and sometimes the blessings are crystal-clear and HUGE - that's how I feel this week.

I've also been focusing on Matthew 6, when Jesus tells us not to worry about what we'll eat, drink or wear (or where we'll live!),

^32"For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

So I want to seek Him first and trust that God will arrange it how He sees best - because He loves us and owns the cattle on a thousand hills!

Also, one that I continually have to remind myself of is:

¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

I DON'T want my treasure to be on earth. I want my heart to be sold out for the Lord and seeking His kingdom, and just thankful for material blessings without my heart being focused on them. Is that a balancing act for anyone but me? I can so easily get wrapped up in decorating, furniture choices (not that we're buying any yet, but), appliances - my thinking gets so worldly so quickly. Want to be wrapped up in His work...change me Lord.

Anyway, I feel so blessed the way things worked out on selling and buying. Of course closing on both isn't for a few weeks and things could fall through, so we'll see. Our new house (as far as we know now) is in Wylie:


It's NOT a fixer-upper like we had set out for, but definitely was a great price. Every little thing I had hoped for (can't tell you how excited I am about a jetted garden tub - NEVER had that! and the kitchen over-looking the living room). Andy has such amazing home renovating skills, but we agree that it will be so nice to have more family weekend time. Even on a new house there's always a project anyway, right? So we're beyond thankful.

¹ We give thanks to you, O God,
we give thanks, for your Name is near;
men tell of your wonderful deeds.
Ps. 75:1

Wow!

Contract on the house...closing in 6 weeks, unless something happens. Now trying to find a house!

YAY!

Our house is on the market! Want it? ;)

My Underwear Overfloweth!

This was the exclamation from Andy's mouth the other day. Why? I'm ADDICTED to doing laundry now!! We got a new front loading set

similar to this one - LG brand, at an awesome price, thanks to my price shopping hubby. (Not our house, but we have them stacked like this, making much more space in our laundry room.)

THEY ROCK! It's amazing how much laundry I can get done in few hours. It zips through the loads, sings a little happy song (really!) to me when they're done, and I can't get everything folded fast enough. With the glass doors you can see how fast the washer is in the spin cycle - 1100 RPMs in the fastest setting - thrilling to Andy and Jake. (I have a picture of them sitting in our laundry room watching in amazement!)

With our old set (Andy's from before we were married - 10 years old) it took FOREVER for a big load to dry. I seriously could get about 3 loads a day in and that's it.

Now that we're about to have our house on the market (this week, we hope) I try to not let laundry pile up. It's just fun! Our drawers are full and we don't have enough hangers when everything's clean! Thus, my thankful hubby's underwear excitement!

Can You Do It???

This was in an email my mom sent me. I was laughing hysterically at myself.

"HOW SMART IS YOUR RIGHT FOOT?

You have to try this please, it takes 2 seconds. I could not believe this!!! It is from an orthopedic surgeon.............. This will boggle your mind and you will keep trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but, you can't.. It's pre-programmed in your brain!

1. Without anyone watching you (they will think you are GOOFY......) and while sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.

I told you so!!"

So, CAN YOU DO IT???