December?

It's 85 degrees today, December 7th and it's 85! It's just strange to me... I want to bundle up the kids in their jammas and blankets and go out looking at Christmas lights with Michael and the kids drinking our hot chocolate and feeling so warm and cozy in the van. It's just a bit hard to get into what I know as the Christmas mentality in shorts and a t-shirt. Even in Charlotte it was never this warm. Oh well, we will be bringing our coats with us when we go to Charlotte for Christmas. Then maybe we will be loving the weather here when we get back.

It's finals week next week. I have a research paper and 2 finals on Tuesday, then it's freedom! Actually, the mountains of clean yet unfolded laundry, stacks of papers to be filed, and general underlying disorder that has built up over the last few weeks needs to be addressed, but at least that can be done in my jammas with Christmas music playing and without too much thought.

November

Update on us:

We are going to Charlotte for Christmas! We are excited about being in NC again. We have only really had 24 hours total in Charlotte in the last year. I can't believe it's been a year and yet we feel like we have been here for a very long time. We have had a lot happen in the last year, moved twice (sort of 3 times actually!), job changes, life changes, school changes, man! Anyway, we are having a great time living so close to campus in our little townhouse.

Some new things to consider. I had Megan's first parent teacher meeting which went very well. Her teacher recommended that Megan go into kindergarden next year. SUPRISE! She said she thought Megan would be bored in pre-school, I happen to agree. Megan has asked me "when are you going to teach me how to read?" almost everyday for over a week now. So I researched some books and ordered "teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons". She checks the mail everyday now in antisipation of the book getting here. "Hungry to learn" is also something her teacher expressed. Anyway, we have now started the task of figuring out where she should go to school next year. Public school in this area are really bad so that is out, private schools are super expensive, and I don't think I am ready to homeschool right now. We have found a school called Christian Life Preparatory that is a university style school. Basicly it is a private school/homeschool hybrid. They go to class 2 days a week and are sent home with lots of homework for the other days, and it's about 1/3 the cost of full time private school. I really want this school to work out. We know that if it's Gods will for us He will make it work.

Jacob is turning 3 years old next week. I can't believe that my baby is going to be 3. He doesn't like me to call him my baby anymore, he insists that he is a big boy. Of course he is, but he is still MY baby!!! Anyway, he is having a Thomas the Train Birthday party tomorrow, he has been planning it since Megans Birthday in June. He knows exactly what he wants, presents and all. He has been asking for a Thomas the Train laptop for months now (Grandma Cherry is making sure he gets it!) and even had the guest list set all up. We are going to do our best to make sure his day is very special. Grandma Donna is even making him a Thomas the Train cake! He is going to be so excited.

I have applied for a job at a local pre-school as a sub teacher while Megan is at her school. Jacob will get to go for free and I will get to make some extra income for us. I have registered for classes for next semester, 7 hours this time! We shall see if I can do it. God keeps providing for us even when we think we can't make it work. It's almost like going back to when we first got married, except we have 2 kids along for the ride. Makes life fun! Today when I went to the free food line here on campus they were giving away frozen turkeys and all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner. Never would have thought a year ago that I would have even been in a free food line, but most of all that I would be so incredibly greatful for a free turkey and fixings for Thanksgiving. God has changed our perspectives on a lot of things.

This week we went through everything in our storage unit to attempt to move into a smaller less expensive one. We ended up taking about 5 big boxes of clothes, toys, household goods and some furniture home with us to give away. We set all the stuff out in front of our townhouse and put signs up letting everyone know that it was all free. There were so many people looking through everything and thanking me for giving it all away. I want to thank those of you who have given us so much. There are now lots of little Korean and American seminary kids running around with clothes that say "Greek" on the tag, or with things from various Charlotte,NC botiques, the Schuler exer-saucer (a little worn out now but still usable) went to a Chinese family across the street, my parents old kitchen table went to a family with 5 kids to use as a homechool desk, it really is so much fun to give it all away. The rest went to the seminary ministry called the Helping Hands House. Seminary students can go there and get any thing they want for free. Lots of international students have nothing when they get here and are able to furnish their appartments for free.

Okay, I will stop rambling now! I hope you all have an incredible Thanksgiving Holiday. We are Thankful for all of you, Rebecca

Keeping busy

So, with my classes (2 papers due soon), Megan's school events, teaching jake and keeping track of all Michael's stuff I am keeping very busy. Today Michael is going to the race with his brothers and I have the entire morning to chill out at home before the day starts rolling. We have a class get together for Megan at Chuck-E-Cheese then it's off to N. Richland for Dinner with my Grandpa who is in from Charlotte for a few days. Yesterday we had a Birthday party at the Zoo in the morning and one 30 minutes away after lunch. I know it is my choice to go or not, or to pick one but I have a hard time with that. But I was exhausted by the time 4pm came around. I had been accidentally bitten, Jake fell from who knows where at the playground at party #2 and got a huge welt on his head (the debate on whether or not to go to urgent care ensued), and Megan had scraped both knees and bumped her head. Good things though were that I met a new friend and have playdates with her and her son to look forward to, Jake ended up being okay (I was up several time during the night to check on him though), and the kids were just as tired as I was and went to bed without a fight. I have to keep perspective!

Here's a fun note, we are going to Charlotte for Christmas! We will be flying in on the 21st, Michael will be going home on the 26th and I will go home with the kids on the 28th. We are excited to see family and friends and check out what's new in town. It's been a year almost since we moved and we have only been back one time for about 24 hours. If anyone wants to schedule a get together let me know.

Megan's first ER visit

So we just got back from the ER at Cooks Childrens hospital. Megan and I were home having a girls night (actually I have a stomach bug and sent Michael and Jacob to dinner at his brothers while Megan and I stayed here to watch movies). Megan was doing crafts and I was doing some paper work at the kitchen table. All the sudden Megan screamed that she had cut her finger, in a moments time I realized that while I was absorbed in my papers she had begun to cut pipe cleaners into small pieces in order to bind her book together. She had been trying to cut through a big pipe cleaner, obviously using a good amount of force, and instead had cut into her finger. Turns out she took a good little piece out of the side of the tip of her index finger, about the size of 2 small grains of rice. After lots of blood and screaming I determined that the ER was in order. Michael was 30 min away but eventually got there, we went to the ER and in 10 min Megan was smiling and we were heading home. We walked in, I quietly told them the situation, they looked, called a wound specialist, 30 seconds later 2 showed up, they said stitches were not necissary (thank you God!!! I already had an upset stomach and Megan was hoarse from crying so much), cleaned it (by far the worst part!) Michael cried because it was painful to watch Megan being hurt and being so brave about it, neosporin, 2 band-aids, 3 stickers and we were out the door to go get Jacob from Grants house and on to Mcdonalds for cookies for bravery! By far the best ER visit I have ever had! Thank you Cooks Childrens Hospital! No wonder everyone says they are the best. Mommy will be paying a lot more attention when Megan has the scissors (safety or not!) and I think Megans pipe cleaner cutting days are over:)

October already!!!

I can't believe we are this far into the semester all ready! Megan is loving her new preschool, she is learning alot and is making some great friends, she is pretty worn out at the end of the day when I go to pick her up. We are currently trying to decide what do do for school next year for her. She is old enough for kindergarden, and plenty ready academicaly (the girl can sound out and write all kinds of things. She has started in on writting letters, full sentences and all to me. Mostly little "I love you" notes and the like.) but she is a little girl. Anyway, big decisions to be mede on that front!

Michael is doing great in school as usual, I wish I had the speed reading and retention skills that he has! His job is going great as well, he is the Assistant Director of Marketing and Production in the Communications group at the seminary. He has to wear a suit every day and I must say he looks pretty sharp! He would however love to have a little more time to go cycling. He has quite a passion for it but alas his bike is gathering dust at the moment.

Jacob is such a lovey little guy, I can't tell you how many times I have to tell him "no kissing Jacob!". We rode the train to Dallas for the Texas state fair yesterday and he befriended a little girl who would have been given many kisses if Michael had not interveened! He is FULL of energy and is one of our main sources of entertainment. A few weeks ago my parents treated us all to a 7 day stay at Disney resort. We went to all the parks and at every opportunity Jacob was either on the stage, in the parade or in front of the crowd dancing with the performers or bands on the street. He is such a ham!!! He danced with Woody and Bullseye in the "Woody's round up" parade and charmed all the princesses, he even told Ariel (from the Little Mermaid) that he liked her fin and then looked into her face and told her she was beautiful. She rewarded him with a big red lipstick kiss on the forehead and a great hug. He was THE only boy walking around the Magic Kingdom with a big red Ariel kiss on his forehead.

The Disney trip was incredible and We would recommend going there to anyone interested! We had such a great time, the kids were treated so special, the service and cleanliness were impecable, we have no complaints. Thank you again to Grandma and Grandpa Cherry, we have so many memories we wil cherish forever! Not to mention about 500+ pictures as proof!

I am doing well also, school is still so uch fun. I am so glad God has given me the opportunity to go back to school and learn new things. I am getting a bit overwhelmed at times trying to keep up with everything, everyones schedules, the house, laundry, church, friends, health etc. I may cut my hours back next semester, it is something I am praying about. On a VERY personal note, I did have another miscarriage o our way back from Disney. I am doing better now, my energy is back and I feel like I am starting to even out again. We would really like to have more kids so I have done some testing. So far everything is normal so they have no explainations for two miscarriages in 10 months. Everyone here has been incredible giving us meals and help even when I said I didn't need it. I guess I did need it thinking back on it. I think a lot of us moms tend to think we can do it all on our own, God has slowly been teaching me that I am not superwoman, I do need help from others and from Him. I get overwhelmed and tend to think... what do I need to do to make it better...I am working on getting to the point where my first responce to pressure or stress is to go to God. He has in fact asked us to do that, to cast it all on Him. I think there is a vast amount of peace and "help" that He has there waiting for us all we have to do is ask for it!!!

A second chance

We are back online! After a brief time of limited access to the internet and no cable we are back! It was interesting how much time I had to fill in without the tv or internet to distract me. I actually sat down one day... and thought to myself "I have nothing to do!" A rarity these days.

This week has been a big week for us. I moved everything from Mansfield to the townhouse all day Friday and then Michael and I moved all our furniture in after Michael got off work. We stayed here that night and got up early to start moving things from the storage unit. Michael's mom watched the kids (she has been so much help to us!) and his Dad helped us move our things from the storage unit to the truck and then to the townhouse. I do have to admit that I have had to push myself pretty hard these past few weeks. On several occasions I have felt like I didn't physically have the strength to move another box, but with Gods help I kept on trucking. My arms are still sore! Theres nothing like moving 3+ times in 7 months to keep you in shape!
The townhouse is cozy, when we bought the extra large bookcase from Ikea and the overstuffed couches back in Charlotte we didn't plan on living in a small space like this, but it is cozy. I spent a better part of Saturday evening (until 2am) cleaning the kitchen. No one ever told me how hard shelf paper is to put down! I wrestled and conquered that as well! While I was doing that, Michael was setting up our room...he even hung my NC photography for me:) Oh and of course the first thing that was set up was the kids room. I had made a bedroom-in-a-box for both kids so it made it easy. The special blankets, pillows, their rugs, and favorite toys were all set up for them in there room. They were so excited! They play well in their room together, I think they are just glad that they have their toys again AND also glad that we are staying here for a while (LORD WILLING...I've learned my lesson about being too certain of what lies ahead.).

We went to Megan's orientation for her preschool yesterday. She is going to love it! You should see her in her uniform, it is green plaid skorts or jumper with a light blue collered dress shirt. With her strawberry blond hair and fair complexion she couldn't be a cuter little school girl!

My big day (actually its pretty hard to rate what day so far has been the big day;) ) was today. I went to orientation for college!!! I am so excited. I registered for 6 hours/2 classes: Reasoning and Old Test. Survey. I will be taking OTS on Tue nights and Reasoning on Wed and Friday at 8am (yikes!). Again the Lord has blessed me with such a great friend in Donella tat she and I are going to swap childcare each week. She will take care of Megan and Jacob while I have class and then I will watch her 2 while she studies at the library. I am amazed at God's goodness to me through all this.

I have to tell you, Michael and I get comments on how faithful we are being and how sacrificial and "wow that must have been hard". But to tell you the truth Michael and I feel like this was in fact the path we were to have taken and the blessings we were to recieve 7 months ago, we just took a detour. We can convince ourselves pretty easily that we are in-fact following God's will and that this is the plan God has set for us if it is something we want bad enough. We can turn a deaf ear to the doubts and blame them on satan when it is the Spirit leading us elsewhere. I still don't have it figured out how we are to discriminate between doubts that satan plants about the plans God has for us and God leading us in a different direction than WE planned. I guess I will just have to start listening a lot better. I am just greatful that my God is a God of second chances. Michael and I feel so much more at peace than we have felt in a long time.

FYI

All is well in the world for the Griggs family. Just wanted to let you all know. Today we go to the house for one last clean up session then our tenents move in on Saturday. Michael is loving his job, it seems like it is a perfect fit. Again, God gave us something even better then we could even imagine. Who would have thought Michael would be working in marketing and production or at the seminary? He is very happy! I am getting back to "normal" with the kids even though we aren't in the townhome yet. Just sort of getting back to a semi-normal schedule is comforting. Oh, one more thing... I got accepted into the College at Southwestern!!! I an pretty excited about it.

God is truly good all of the time!

So here’s the update! The past few days and weeks have been a rollercoaster ride for the Griggs family. There have been so many questions and uncertainties that we have been feeling very fragile. But through it all God has shown Himself to be more than faithful. Tomorrow our renters are going to sign the final paperwork to lease our house. They are the family who showed interest within 45 minutes of listing the house. No one else has even gotten past initial inquiry on it. God certainly knows what he is doing. They are moving in on the 12th of August so it’s a very good thing that we got everything out already. Michael and I worked our selves sick getting all our stuff out and the place clean in a week and a half. I never would have thought we could do it. We do still have to empty the stuff from our garage. We were keeping the furniture there until we have to move it. We have had several people offer their garages for temporary storage until we move to our townhouse and we have no shortage of friends here with trucks☺.

Also tomorrow is Michael’s second interview at the seminary. They have already said he is hired but they need to still go over the logistics. They have actually already sent work to Michael to see what he is capable of doing. He will be the marketing director and content manager for the communications dept. That involves media liaison, school paper, advertisement, vendor relations etc. Michael is so thrilled about it. He can’t wait to get in there and start working. His classes start the same day as Megan’s classes. I am still working on getting myself enrolled in the college at Southwestern. I called today for an update and they informed me that I needed high school transcripts as well as all my college ones. I’m going to have to work at a fast pace to meet the admissions deadline now.

After a tense weekend of dealing with a housing assignment error, we have been assigned to our townhouse. It is amazing how exciting it is to us to be moving to a 995 sq ft townhouse. We have been driving by to check on the progress maintenance is making on it. They needed to redo a lot after the previous tenants moved out. It is going to be 5 minutes to Michael’s office, 5 minutes to the pool, gym, workout facility, park, fishpond and right next to loads and loads of kids. It seems like having lots of kids is pretty popular with the seminary types☺.

August will be a tight month for us but we know for certain that God will provide for all of our needs. We are currently staying with friends who are gracious enough to let us crash their place for a few weeks. They live on some property 30 minutes from our “old” house. They have 2 homes on the property, one for them and one for their parents. Their parents are away on missions until August 17th…perfect again eh? So we can move right from here to our new place. Now we are just praying that the townhouse gets finished on time and even…maybe…if it’s not pushing it to much…early!

Thanks for all your prayers!!!

Just a reminder - Rebecca would kill me if she knew that I was posting this, but PLEASE do not forget that tomorrow, August 1st is her birthday. I think she would love a bunch of phone calls since access to email is limited. Again, thanks for all of your support. Michael

Again!!!

Yes again! God is so Good to us. We have had an insane few days with some minor glitches (like me being terribly sick yesterday...I am feeling much better today though.). The house is empty for the most part, we have some misc. stuff to box up. Everything is either in the garage or in storage. We had a VERY successful garage sale. We sold lots of our furniture that we knew we wouldn't need for a while and sold tons and tons of clothes. In fact the clothes were the main attraction here, we sold hardly any in Charlotte when we had yard sales.

The big news for today is that we listed our house for rent about an hour ago. We aren't showing it until tomorrow but the lease sign is in the yard! Even bigger news is that 5 minutes ago we got a call letting us know that there is someone interested in it already! They are building a massive house a few minutes from here (multi-mil neighborhood just down the highway) and need a place for a year. I can't even begin to tell you how good that makes us feel. It is unreal how God blesses you when you truly follow His will. Please keep praying for us! Thanks so much for all your support!!!

Also, please keep my parents in your thoughts and prayers. They will be in Kenya for almost a months on mission work

~Mom and Dad-I hope you are accomplishing great things in Kenya!!! I love you and hope you have a safe journey!!!~

Ahhhhhhh!

Okay, the clock is ticking and we are feeling the pressure! The yard sale is in the morning. We have a lot to do still and will be up pretty late. We just finished our meeting with the property management company lady and it went well. There are lots of fees involved in renting your house out so please pray that God provides for that. The seminary still hasn't gotten back to us on the job. They told Michael to not accept any other positions anywhere but have since left us hanging! After all that has happened over the last few days we know that God has something great in store for us. We just sort of thought it was the seminary job. Anyway, I am off to work again. For those of you who have called/e-mailed thanks so much! Sorry I havent gotten back to some of you but I hope you understand. Today we had to back-track on the packing it seemed for the mngt. co to come take a tour. They had said even pictures might get taken today! Imagine my stress level trying to make a house that has every level of disarray in every corner, presentable! Some wonderful friends took the kids for the day so that we could get things done. Now we have to go to Megan's swimming lessons at the seminary to get the kids and take them to Grandma's so we can get more done tonight. By the way, Megan has turned into quite the fish! she puts on her floaties and swims all over the big pool. I accidentaly saved her yesterday when I thought she needed help in the pool. she was thrashing around and looked like she was having trouble. I quickly grabbed her only to be pushed away. She said, "mommy what are you doing? I am trying to swim!". I found out that she had learned "arms" last lesson and was practicing. Sure looked like frantic thrashing to me:)

God is so incredible!!!

Wow! That can sum up today for you! The day started out not so good. I had guys come to my door (ringing the doorbell about 15 times in rapid fire mode no less) at 2:15. They were there to finish fixing my laundry room floor but no one had called to tell me they were coming today at all. I was so angry, I spoke to his boss on the phone and voiced my disapproval maybe a bit to harshly. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, literally, and he bore the brunt of probably more than his fair share. I haven't had the use of my washer and dryer for 5 days now and have laundry piled up so high! I would have turned them away until tomorrow but I am so desperate to have clean laundry that I let them in after checking their work order several times. Anyway, an hour later Michael got home from his interview and quickly noted that they had brought the wrong flooring! So, they will be coming tomorrow to finish the job now anyway.

Then I finally had the chance to talk to Michael. I learned that the job he interviewed for REQUIRES overtime, its an 8-6:30 sort of job everyday anyway, and one weekend per month is required as well. That pretty much rules out all opportunity to take any classes at all. Michael and I sat down, almost at our wits end. We felt like we were at a dead end. Here we are with our 6 month old house 1/2 packed, no idea where we were going to live (I had spoken this morning to the housing dept at the seminary and they said it might be September before they would have anything for us.) our hefty savings now depleted to next to nothing and seemingly no good job prospects. The job Michael had applied for at the seminary hadn't called him back despite what we thought was a great interview on Wednesday.

Then it happened...a phone call letting us know that we had been overpaying on our car insurance since we sold our car a few months ago. We do not owe on it at all this month and next month is discounted. I am just remembering right now that a week ago we got our power bill, known to be quite large here in TX, and we only owed $4 because they overestimated it the previous month! Then as Michael hung up the phone and we were both a bit teary (it's been an emotional few days/weeks) and my cell started ringing. I practically broke my neck getting to the phone and I just missed it. I saw that it was the seminary # and started yelling at the phone to ring again...it did. It was the housing department lady letting me know that this morning when we spoke she hadn't seen the files yet for the daily assignments but now she has them and we have a place!!! I could hardly contain myself! She went on to tell me that it is an apartment that is 2 bed, 1 bath and 675 sq. ft. and we can hopefully move in by Aug. 10th. I was in tears again. After thanking her profusely I ran in to tell Michael. He was speechless. We sat down again in much different spirits and thanked God for providing at the right moment. 675 sq. ft. is do-able, we started planning out the space, what to take what to store where to place the couches. Then we called to see if we could tour the apartment or on like it. The lady said we could come right now and get the key to check it out. So we rushed over since it was so close to closing time. I ran into the office and introduced myself to Amy; she shook my hand and said, "I think I am going to be your new best friend!" I said "what?” She proceeded to tell me that she had worked some magic and needed to talk to someone. She disappeared for a few minutes then came back out to talk to me. She went on to explain that they had accidentally assigned a town home to a couple that had no children. The townhouses are reserved for families with kids. She then asked if we would be willing to trade the 675 apartment for a 996 town home. I almost yelled/cried YES! Of course! Square footage aside they have washer and dryer hookups, walk in closets, dishwasher, and many more wonderful things that the apartment didn't offer. It was almost as if God needed us to be happy with the least in order to let us have the best. 6 months ago the apartment would have gotten a nose turned up at it by me. I wasn't prepared to make that sacrifice. It was too much. I wanted the house, I wanted the neighborhood, and I guess I wanted it more than I wanted Michael to be in school. But today is much different. Michael and I were rejoicing at God's goodness for giving us the wonderful tiny apartment with coin laundry and tiny sink to hand wash dishes in. God can really make you change your perspectives in a quick period of time.

Wait, I'm not done with the day! I called my friend who is allowing us to stay in the very nice doublewide on their property while we wait for our housing to be ready. I asked if Aug. 17 was okay, it was a week longer than we had planned. It turns out that her parents, who live in the trailer, are coming home on the 16th! It couldn't be more perfect! [I know I am using a lot of exclamation points but that's how I am feeling!!!!!!!!!]

So then we stopped by our house on the way home from the TOWNHOUSE tour to pick up hotdogs to take to Michael's brother for dinner and Michael decided to check his e-mail. He had e-mailed the seminary to follow up on his interview earlier this morning. We they had replied saying at one point, "please don't accept any other offers or positions:) "! They asked him to send some more info about his beliefs and his history and understanding of the SBC (those who know Michael know that this is not a hard assignment for him). We feel like this is a confirmation that this job is a shoe-in. Through this job God is providing for us beyond our needs. It will cover everything and give us surplus.

What God did today was incredible. We had to be broken from our good life so that it could become great in Christ alone.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. It really means so much that we have so many of you out there rooting for us.

Our last need is to find a renter for the house quickly. I know God can do it and I feel like he is going to make it better than we could have imagined. We love you all! Rebecca

Update

First of all, thank you all for your e-mails and encouragement. I didn't realize there were so many of you keeping up with us! Secondly, Michael's interview at the seminary went well, we think. It was supposed to be only 1 hour and it ended up that the kids and I waited for 2 hours! (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we sold our civic so we are down to one car. I do love the van though! There are lots of families here driving around in 100+ degree weather in unairconditioned 15 year old mini-vans! ) He really hit it off with the interviewer, who would be his boss. It pays more than we had budgeted for basic survival needs while living on campus. It even would allow for us to stay in our house for a month longer than we planned so that we don't have to rush-pack everything and find good renters. Also, we will be able to pay for Megan's pre-school. We enrolled her before we got into this situation and the school won't let us out of our contract. So she will be attending one of the best pre-schools around!!! We have no choice in the matter:)

Since we made the decision to rent the house out I feel like a burden has been lifted. Michael shares the feeling. We have felt like we are sort of left out of the community at the seminary, set apart because we live off campus and also because we weren't "suffering for Jesus". Well, now we can join the club :) It is sad though. I have planted gardens, my tomatoes are just starting to really come into their own. I have all the herbs I've planted and the crepe myrtle tree's transplanted from Charlotte are starting to bloom. These are the things I am sad about. Michael is so proud of the great grass he has worked hard on since we moved in. I love the space we have here. My wood floors, my beautiful bathroom, michael's office/cave are all things we will miss. We talked about it today and agreed that tomatoes, green grass, and bathroom fixtures are nothing in comparison to what God has for us. We are willing to do what we need to in order to follow God's plan for us. I really don't think I was willing to take that step 6 months ago. It was too much to think of moving into the campus housing and leaving Zeke somewhere as well. A lot has changed in my willingness to do whatever it takes. I don't think that means I have to be jumping for joy about it. Hopefully my willingness is enough.

On another note, God has provided some very good friends here. We have known each other for such a short amount of time, maybe 2 months, but we have already become so close. She and I share backgrounds, passion for organic foods, and naturalist "granola" tendensies, and our children are the same ages and get along like a dream. Her little boy is Megan's age and her little girl is Jake's age. Her husband cycles just like Michael and is also in seminary. They don't live on campus and have faced almost identical challenges as we have. God has blessed us with them!

Michael has another interview on Monday at 1pm. This time it's in the financial world. It might pay more but we are really hoping for the job on campus. If we get the seminary one then we can have lunch with Michael, he can take classes during the day (a limited amount of credit hours), he can ride his bike to work (no extra car needed!), and we will have all the benifits covered. Plus he can attend night classes because he can finish work and go straight to class across campus.

Thanks for all your love and support. Please pass the prayer request on to everyone! Thanks! ~R

Wow!

So, we have a lot going on now. Here it is in the short version:

~Michael hasn't been able to find a job
~We are looking to rent our house out for a year and move into seminary housing
~Seminary housing may or may not have something available right now that we actually like. That means we might be living in the 2 bedroom, 600 square foot place surrounded by razor wire topped fences for 6 months or longer. Whatever it takes for something like a 1000+ square foot townhouse to come up on the list.
~It could be as early as next week when I need to pack up the house (2500 sq ft of stuff!) and move most of what we have to storage or sell some of it off.
~Michael and I have a vast array of feelings. We know we are where God wants us...Texas/seminary but we don't know why the job thing isn't working out. We are doing fine though. This should be the time we are flipping out and going nuts trying to figure out what to do... and we have had our moments believe me! But, we are oddly at ease with the whole thing. It has almost lightened the mood around here now that we have decided to rent the house out.

I'll have to add more later but this is all I have time for right now. For all of you out there that are keeping up with us and our adventure here in TX PLEASE pray for us. Michael has an interview on campus tomorrow at 4pm so please keep us in mind. I am sure Michael wouldn't mind some e-mails of encouragement.

Lots of love, R

P.S. Photos are from our recent trip to Myrtle Beach and Megan on her 4th Birthday

Rain, rain go away!

Since we have been in Texas we have become acustomed to the phrase "I've never seen it like this before!". Whether it be the amount of tornadoes, the huge orange dust storm that covered the city and left your mouth and eyes gritty (even indoors), the crazy ice storms or the massive amount of rain we have gotten. When we moved here I got books about drought resistent plants and low water usage gardening. If I had done what I planned it would all be dead now! Our trees in the front yard are dying, losing their leaves and dying because they have gotten too much rain. Our slow growing, drought resisitant bermuda grass has to be mowed every other day or it has the seed pods showing! Good thing we live one of the highest points around. The water rushes down our street with such speed that the neighborhood kids sit in it and are carried down the hill! Crazy stuff. Michael's dad's city lake was 18 ft below normal levels at the beginning of the year. It was supposed to take 5 years of "normal" rain to get it to a good level. Well, it was (before the last few days of downpours) 4 ft ABOVE normal level. We haven't even seen more than 2 or 3 90 degree days!

Okay, enough of the weather! Megan is now 4 years old and swears she is so big that none of the clothes she has fit. She was wearing them all fine last week! It took some convincing and removal of several legitamate small items to get her to accept her wardrobe as 4 year old worthy. She is starting swimming lessons in July and is so excited. Her preschool starts in August, I know she is going to thrive. She has such a wonderfully outgoing personality and is so hungry to learn. I am praying for her to do well and make lots of new friends. Her Birthday party is tomorrow afternoon. I have been recruiting for the last few months for the party. I have been getting e-mail info of all the kids she meets and has fun with. I was so excited when all the kids we invited, even ones she has only met once, said they were coming. I want so much for her to have a great 1st Texas birthday party. Oh, by the way, she has been asking for a fishing rod for months now. Turns out she is pretty good at it. She has a princess fishing rod with a practice piece at the end so it doesn't have a hook. She casts over and over into the back yard from the patio and has on several occations sent it flying over the back fence into the neighbors yard!

Jake is just awesome. He is such a cool combination of tough boy and sensitive heart. When I pray over him every night I pray that he wont loose that sensitive part of his personality just because he is a boy. Good thing is that his daddy finds no shame in showing his sensitive side. He is very affectionate. I have to tell him to stop kissing me! He is still very into the trains and cars and trucks. He has also started, to Megan's surprise, standing up for himself. I think he is starting to understand that he is equal if not stronger than she is. She can't boss him around as much now, he wont take it. After our trip to the beach he starting talking even more if it's possible. He doesn't stop. Between the two of them I have had several days where I am hoars at the end of the day from answering so many questions.

We are having fun in Texas! So far the only thing (not person) I miss is having so many Target stores so close to where I live. I have to drive 10-15 min on the super highways of Texas to get to the closest Target. I pretty much have to take the super highways to get anywhere other than starbucks(yum!), home depot, mcdonalds or walmart.

And for the sake of getting the "I love Crocs" to the top of the google list... Crocs, Crocs, Crocs, Crocs, Crocs, Crocs!!!

What!

"White Settlement-area historical tornado activity is above Texas state average. It is 211% greater than the overall U.S. average."

I read this statement online this morning as I tried to figure out exactly what went on last night. We were minding our own business watching American Idol when we got a call (which we are very greatful for) from my brother-in-law letting us know that there were tornados headed right for us! What? It wasn't even raining and the wind was pretty low (the wind never really goes away here, it's always blowing!). But we turned on the weather an it was urging people in our area to take cover, on the map it even specifically showed our neighborhood! For those who have lived here for a while I know this is not a shock, but for me, having not even given it a passing thought before moving here, it's pretty unnerving! So for the second time of the day (the first time I was at home alone with the kids) Michael and I ran upstairs to get the kids from their beds (it was about 8:45pm) while my mother in law threw the blankets and pillows BACK into the bathroom since I hadn't gotten a chance to put them away yet. Minutes later it started raining from all directions, thunder and lightening that made ME jump, then a few minutes later the sirens started up. My little man slept the whole time, but the sirens woke up my curious little lady. It was a tense 30 minutes. Michael could see the cloud wall from our porch and the tornado spotters kept driving by our house! How is it that no one mentioned the fact that we were building a house in tornado row? We are 5 minutes from White settlement, and as the quote above says, we have higher than even Texas average tornado activity. Again, I feel so welcomed to Texas by all the crazy, unusual weather that has happened since we have been here! By the way, we are fine and that much more prepared for the next time, because there WILL be a next time.

Keeping busy!

Hi all, We are in fact starting to fill our calendar up! Over the last few months my calendar has looked a bit bare. Well, Michael and I sat down for our monthly calendar coordination it was once again full. In fact we had to prioritize the events and even turn some down! Between library classes for the kids, MOPS for me, Michael's classes, seminary wives events, Easter eggs hunts (we have one down and 3 more to go!), spending time with family and attempting to keep the house in working order we are busy. Not busy in a bad way mind you, I don't want to max us out with quantity instead of quality.

We had spring break last week and filled each day with some pretty fun stuff. Among other things we went to the zoo TWICE (we are now members so we can go whenever we want) and we visited Holdenville Oklahoma where Michael was born. The kids and I also started a vegitable garden. That is no small feat when you live on solid rock. No kidding! You can dig 6 inches or so then you hit rock. For my flower garden I opted to use the 40 lb rock bar to break the rock apart and added good soil in. This time I decided to take the advice of my new Texas gardening books and made raised beds. We have had a great time starting the seeds inside, watching them grow and taking care of them. Here the last damaging frost is the last week of March, so we will be transplanting the seedlings outside soon. Megan helped pick out the seeds so we ended up with 3 types of tomatoes (big ones, little ones and itty bitty ones:) ) green beans, pink flowers, and Texas Bluebonnets (a must for every Texas garden).

For St. Patricks day we went to the Fort Worth stockyards to the "Cowtown turned Green" festival. It had cowboys, Indians, a real Steam Engine called the Tarantulla (Jacob was in Heaven) and a parade that started with a long-horned cattle drive down the street and then proceded on with horses, horses and more horses all decorated for the holiday.

Today we had our first Easter egg hunt. It was at the seminary and was lots of fun. The kids got to ride the little train and got lots of eggs to boot.

We also toured a pre-school for Megan today. It was great! It's hard to think about taking her somewhere even just 2x per week. We really feel like this school will benifit her a great deal. It's a private Christian school that goes all the way to 12th grade. Her Uncle is a teacher/coach/dean there so it makes it all the more appealing to us. Anyway, when the admissions lady asked her if she knew any of her shapes yet her reply was a very sweet "I know all of them! And I'm 3 years old." Then when she said the kids there right now where learning to write their names Megan said excitedly "I can write my name too!" Needless to say they said they would love to have Megan be a part of their school. I am so proud of her! She is such a sweet little lady.

I will keep trying to update as often as I can.

~R

Getting settled

So the verdict is... we like Texas! I know it's only been a month and a half, but we feel like this is home already. I told my sister Sarah that I feel like I'm a sellout. I feel like I should be misreble and having no fun. I should be missing Charlotte terribly and wanting to go home. But we are having a good time here. Everything is new and fresh. We try a new church every Sunday and a new park or mall during the week. I am navigating my way around Fort Worth succesfully, in part due to my wonderful husband laminating a map of the highways and getting a compass for the van:)

Jacob is now in a "big boy bed" and potty trained in a shocking 4 hours! I am so amazed by him. He is so sensitive and smart and funny. He is starting to get the hang of using "the sad lip" when I repremand him. He sticks out the lip and looks crushed at having disapointed his mommy. However, it's no longer genuine every time. He knows how it effects me. It makes me want to appologize for correcting him!!! Smart boy.

Megan is getting so big. She is itching for friends. She looks forward to going to new churches and finding out what they do in sunday school class. By the end of class she has always found a friend to give dramatic goodbyes to. We are looking for a pre-school for her and ballet or gymnastics class. So far she has a library class that she goes into without me for music, stories, and play. I am trying to figure her out. For a 3 1/2 year old she understands so much and has opinions about it all. I want to give her every opportunity and foster her personality but I also have to keep it under control. She is so strong willed and tests everything everyday, including her mom and all the limits.

We do miss our friends and family. We have everyones Christmas pictures on the side of the fridgefor the kids to look at. Megan sometimes comments on them. She wants her cousin to come visit soon to play dress up.

We love you all, R

Texas!

We are officially moved in! It has been fun and very challenging for us already. The days we loaded the truck in Charlotte it rained all day, then in Texas (where they hadn't seen rain in over a month) it rained so much we had tornado sirens going off in our new neighborhood. And that's just the beginning! On our way to TX we received a call from our builder saying we weren't going to be able to close on the 29th. That meant no close until the next year because of the holiday. Jan 2nd! Yikes! In hind-site closing on a house in another state on the last business day of the year is probably NOT a good idea. So we did end up having our closing on the 29th after several phone calls and meetings on the 28th when we got here. (We left my Uncle Joe's house at 4am that morning in Brandon, MS to make sure we got here with plenty of time to spare for meetings etc.) After the closing we were told it would be anywhere from 15min to 3 hours until funding at which point we could get our keys. Well 3 1/2 hours passed with no news. Not good! The end of the business day was quickly approaching and here we are waiting (yes it was still pouring rain as well). Anyway, they ended up giving us our keys and letting us get into our new house. We were so determined to stay in our house that we unloaded the 28 foot truck between the down-pours. Michael, his dad Grant, his brother Grant, my dad and mom, Michael's mom, and My uncle Bill and his whole family stuck it out and really pulled it through for us. We spent the first night in our new house. Just the 4 of us. Mom and Dad stayed at uncle Bill's mainly because we didn't get the beds set up for them yet. We spent the next day unpacking in what I think is record time. Mom and Donna got my entire kitchen set up! The house was put together so quickly I almost didn't have enough time to take it all in. We went to bed exhausted! I woke up in the morning to Mom calling me downstairs telling my "bring towels quick!" I came down to find a large puddle of water in the middle of my new wood floor in the kitchen. It was only getting bigger as the water dripped from my ceiling! It did stop and we did find out that the washing machine (yes it's upstairs and yes I had been warned) had a leaking connection but only after the plummers tore my new laundry room apart and cut several large sections of drywall out to find the cause. They said it was our fault and not a warranty issue but we did end up convincing them to fix it for us. After all this, the satellite guy came and said he wasn't going to be able to install the dish because he brought the wrong size ladder (they assume you have a ranch, not a 2 story). As you might expect Michael wasn't too excited about that. So anyway, things have been crazy but we have still had fun. Keep praying for us!