Sorry it's been so long...

I just realized I haven't blogged in like two weeks. With getting ready for the trip and then just getting home from the trip my mind has been elsewhere.

The trip went well, the kids did great on the drive considering they were stuck in their carseats for 12 hours. We were glad to see everyone (with the exception of Chris' sister Colleen, who unfortunately refused to see us but that's a whole nother story), and meet Jason and Alex. My computer died just as we pulled into Salt Lake City, so I didn't have my own computer for doing homework on, but there are 3 others that I could've used. It turns out we think my hard drive died, but we're still able to get things off of it, so we're not sure. Anyway, a new hard drive and a re-install of everything and I'm back as good as new. Chris took out his golf clubs and was able to go golfing with the guys in the family which he enjoyed, and now his dad and brother in laws all are starting up golfing.


We were able to get pictures of all the grandkids, the idea was to get all four of them together in one picture, but since Damion wasn't feeling well, and therefore wasn't cooperating we had to settle for individual pictures and then make a collage of all four of them on the same page. The night before we came home was the worst. After pictures and lunch I took the kids back to the house to get a nap in, and Charlotte got whatever bug Damion had and was throwing up all afternoon, evening, and most of the night. I think we finally got to sleep sometime after 1:00 only to be up 4 hours later to leave to come home. Chris also got some sort of a stomach bug (different than the kids) at the same time, so I was a little panicked as to how we were going to make a journey of 700 miles stopping at every bathroom without going insane. Fortunately though stomachs cleared up and we were able to make it back without any problems on that end.

Charlotte and Joshua - we make pretty cute kids!

Charlotte is so photogenic. Pretty girl.

Joshua "honking" the invisible horn.

This is my favorite. Charlotte was playing peek a boo and this got snapped at the right moment.

Damion in my cousin Sammy's lap. He wanted nothing to do with his mom, and the only way we could get him to sit for even a half a second (even mid-scream) was if Sammy sat down with him.

This is the new baby, Stormie Rain Mitchell. She is 4 weeks old now, and is a whopping 6 pounds 6 ounces. I can't remember Char ever being that tiny, though I know she was a pound less than that at one point.

We're looking forward to going out in September again. SuAnne (the 2nd oldest) is getting married and I'm the Matron of Honor in the wedding. So I'll take the kids out (by airplane) the week before the wedding, and then Chris can come out a few days later and not take off so much time from work. It will be fun to see how much Stormie has grown in almost 6 months and to have all the grandkids together again to play with eachother more. But for now it's good to be home and sleeping in our own beds without the kids in the same room.

Now we're packing and getting ready to move. We move in less than 3 weeks and we have a lot to do. The kids enjoyed having a big backyard to play in out in Utah so I know they're going to enjoy having the same at the new house. I'm excited to be able to have people over and have room for everyone.

We went Yard Sale-ing this weekend and got two really good deals. We bought a real wood dresser with attached mirror for 15 dollars, then later found a twin size bed frame, headboard and footboard for 10 dollars. We figured that we'd found our share of good bargains for the day and went to the home show, which was not as impressive as I'd hoped it would be. I think being renters is part of that disappointment, but there just wasn't a lot that interested me this year there. Bummer.



So that's about all of the news from this end. I'll throw a few pictures in from our trip to share.

Excitement!

Our house is abuzz this week. It has been a great week and it's only Tuesday! First, as you know we are getting ready to drive to Utah, on what we originally thought was going to be Friday night, but it turns out that we are able to leave on Thursday night instead. I am excited that we will be able to spend another day there with the family and getting to see everyone will be very nice. I'm really looking forward to the trip, though not necessarily the drive. If you have a chance to send up a prayer for us between now and then, we'd appreciate it. Specifically please be praying for the drive to go safely as we'll be leaving Thursday night after Chris gets off of work, and driving through the night. I plan on napping that afternoon when the kids are napping, and sending them to bed early so that I can get a few hours sleep before Chris gets home, then I will drive the first part of our journey while Chris sleeps and then he can take over after a few hours sleep. I'm sure once we get there we'll probably crash for a few hours, letting the kids play with the family there, then we'll be refreshed and ready to go after that.

We also found out this morning that we did get the house on Pershing. I am so grateful to a friend of mine from our MOPS group that encouraged me to call the lady on the house, even though it wasn't going to be ready until the 20th of April. We are moving into a 3 bedroom 2 bath house, with about a 1/4 acre back yard. The house is mostly hard wood floors, with the exception of the kitchen, bath and family room. There is some cosmetic work to be done, it needs painting and work done in the bathroom (it's fully livable) but we are being allowed to paint it whatever colors/decor we want (with the exception of black) and she is paying for the cost of materials. She has also said that we will work something out in regards to the cost of labor, which probably means taking the cost off of our rent. We're across the street from a peach orchard, and allowed to have as many peaches as we want when they come in bloom. I can't wait as peaches are my favorite fruit. I think once I start seeing them bloom and produce fruit I'll be waiting with baited breath. The house has a brand new fridge, stove, and sink in the kitchen, and a new toilet and sink in the bathroom. That kinda stinks because we just bought a fridge thinking we'd need one in a house that we were going to rent, so we're going to sell ours. We have a 6 month used stainless steel side by side fridge for sale now if anybody knows someone who needs one. We bought it off of Craigslist from someone who used it to decorate houses she was selling, and didn't have any room for it. She had only used it for about 6 months, and most of that was light use just for the contractors/people working on the houses to put their lunches in. I'm sooo excited and can't wait. The owners of the house are also planning on selling the house in the next few years, which is about the same time we're planning on buying, and they're willing to do a lease option with us as well if we are interested in that as the time goes on. It is a little bit of a jump in price, so we are having to buckle down our finances a bit more, but we're also going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, which is teaching us how to better manage our money, so I think we can do it!

On the Financial Peace University thing, I highly recommend it to anyone! I've learned so much in the past three weeks, and am looking forward to the next 10 to get on top of our money management issues and start saving for retirement/college for the kids. I'm excited that we're paying off bills that we haven't been able to in the past, and we're looking forward to getting completely debt free! I want to be able to call into his radio show and yell, "I'm COMPLETELY debt free!!!!" and retire comfortably knowing that my children will have a secure financial future and not have to worry about them getting caught in the same trap that we've been caught in so many times before and have struggled to get out of. It has also strengthened our communication over money. Dave's approach is simple, easy to understand, and if you use the tools he gives you, it works. I've heard nothing but good things about the program in general and am completely satisfied with what I've seen so far. I hope that you will consider it if this is an issue in your life, it's changing ours, and has changed hundreds of others!

"Getting It"

I've sat down four times over the last two days trying to come up with something that wasn't the same old stuff to write about. Nothing came to me until I was visiting a friend's blog tonight and came across this video. Grab a tissue people, this is inspiring to me.

How does a 13 year old know this?!? After Todd's message this past Sunday at church when he spoke about his own 6 year old hearing from God and now this video I'm amazed that these children "get it" and yet it is so hard sometimes for myself and the adults around me to do the same thing. Can it be as simple as just listening with a childlike faith? I want that kind of trust and belief, yet I struggle so much sometimes and think I'm hearing when in fact I'm making my own decisions and not truly listening to His will in my life. Perhaps that's why we haven't moved yet. I'm making up His will rather than "Letting go and Letting God!" That's so hard to do though when we're programmed and marketed to about leading your own life, making your own decisions, having it all and more, and the "Me First" attitude that is pervading our culture. Why is it that Satan uses the same old tired tricks over and over again and we don't learn? We still fall for them.

Thank you Lord for your message to me tonight. I pray that I will "get it" like this young man did when he went out to put that calf down. Please open my ears so that I may hear You and know what it is You want for me. Amen.

A Deep Breath

I can now breathe a big breath again. I've been swamped this week with school, MOPS, Financial Peace University, and two kids, a husband and house hunting. I'm so glad the week is over. I've finished with my finals in three classes, and only have 1 class for the next couple of weeks. I start 2 more classes on the 17th, so I'll have homework over vacation, but it shouldn't be too bad. I'm hoping to finish up the first week before we leave and then work on the second week after I get back. (At least that's my hope.)

Here's the status on the house hunt for those of you following it. We moved our 30 day notice back until the 31st of March, so we have another few weeks. Between the theater next week, then being gone the following week it was too much to try and do it all before we left, plus we had not found a place that fit our needs after being rejected by the one on University. I mentioned our search to a friend at the MOPS meeting on Tuesday and she called me after looking on Craigslist and encouraged me to call on one of the postings. There is a 3 bedroom house for rent that is about 1500 square feet bigger than what we're in now, that is coming up for rent the middle of April. The owner knows about our credit issues and is willing to work with us on that. She is moving to Virginia and wants someone who can take care of the house for her without needing a property management company or having to call someone to fix everything. She is willing to pay for all of the materials for anything that needs to be fixed and will take some off the rent for the labor. We go look at it on Sunday evening, so we'll know more then what needs to be fixed/worked on. I'm excited and a bit petrified because of our previous experience. So we may need to extend our lease here a bit longer if this goes through.

We're getting very excited about our trip coming up. I don't know how much Charlotte understands about the trip, but we're talking about it more and more often, so we'll see how it goes. Joshua is beginning to have issues in his carseat, he yells at me every time I put him in it, but then he's usually okay, so hopefully he'll be okay in the car that whole way. Poor kids... we'll have to let them out at a stop or two if they're awake. I don't know if I mentioned in the last blog or not, but Sandra had her baby at the very end of February, so we have a new niece waiting for us. I can't wait to get my hands on her and love the heck out of both her and her brother. I've been sewing up a storm for Stormie (hehehe...) and need to figure out something for Damien so he doesn't feel neglected. Maybe I'll embroider some fabric panels and make him some balls?!? Or... hmm... I'll figure something out.

Other than that, not much going on around here. I'm off to go jump in the shower so that the kids and I can go do something tonight. We'll go take dinner to daddy tonight thengo figure something out for us to do.
Be Blessed!

Starting and Stopping

It seems that God is putting us in transition for a few things right now. I am not dealing well with it at all. I am feeling a bit stressed out about it all, and though I know that He has us in mind, it's hard not to get what I want.

We heard back this morning from Trident Property management, it seems that despite jumping through all of the hoops that we did, the owner of the property we were looking at decided that they weren't comfortable renting it to us. I was pretty bummed out about it, and spent the morning driving to all of the other property management places in the area to get their listings, checking the Appeal and Craigslist for a new place. After much thought, and prayer over the last few days we've kind of decided that maybe right now isn't the time for us to move, and we're going to hold off until at least after we get back from Utah. We would have to find a place by this weekend and move this weekend because we have plans next Saturday and are supposed to be out of here by the 16th. So I'll call down to the office tomorrow (or just walk down there) and cancel our 30 day notice for now. I had hoped that it was the right time, but with all of the signs that seem to be pointing to us staying here I think we need to trust that God doesn't want us to go anywhere yet. That's been a hard pill to swallow, but after the fiasco last year with the move before we got to this apartment, I don't want to go somewhere that He doesn't want me to go again. We are going to keep looking, but not with such fervor. We are going to go see a property tomorrow, but I think if we don't like it we're going to back off for awhile. There is another property that I saw this morning from the outside, but it's not available to be shown until later this week. We'll see how it goes between now and then if I want to see another. I sometimes wish that we could just buy a house instead of this darn rental stuff. But alas, our credit is so shot that until we get it back in track and get some money saved up that's just not going to happen. Plus we're still waiting for prices to keep coming down before we're ready to commit to something. We're thinking that when I get my degree and into at least my credential program before that happens. Probably another year and a half or so. I'm hoping by late next year. We'll see though.
I'm also in transition with my classes. I am finishing up three classes this week, and have until the 17th before I start my two new ones. In the meantime I do have one class that overlaps, so I'll take this time to focus on it, and my family and other obligations I have. By now I have almost enough credits to get my A.S. degree in general education, but I would have to pay 100 dollars for it and I'm just not sure that it's worth that. It's not like it will help me in my job once I get my Bachelor's. Besides, it's more or less a piece of paper that says that I've completed 60 credits. I don't think I need a $100 piece of paper to tell me what I already know. And it's not like my employers need it! They'd use it to color on! Pretty color mommy?!? Yes darling... my degree is pretty to color on! The good news is that I currently have 2 A's and 2 B's in my classes. I've finished one of my finals and am getting ready to finish up another class either tonight or tomorrow. The third class I have to take a final in doesn't allow me to take it until at least Thursday, so I'm studying for that one now.
That's it for now. I'll write more later when I have more to update.

Heidi