Lessons Learned

Some things I learned yesterday while spending time with all the neices and nephews.

• Im not smart enough to have a 4 year old. Note to self: take the next 3 years to become an expert on ALL things. When JP told me his toy dinosaur was a meat eater I immediately impressed both he and I with some Carnivore vs Herbivore chatter. However 3 min later when he asked how fire was made I foolishly replied "Uhh something to do with Oxygen & a spark"

• Dora Word: Houdie Doup ~Definition: A large round plastic ring that you spin around your middle for fun. Ohhhhh! She wants the Hula Hoop!
  

• My new exclamation: Holy Houdie Doup!

• Roll with the punches, getting wet in the only clothes you have with you... oh well they should dry out before needing to go out tonight. Get out 2 decks of cards, one to play Go Fish with the 4 year old and another for the 2 year old to throw around and the babies to chew on.
  

• Play Pens in every room of the house is a must.
  

• In the future when you need a child to be distracted/busy so that you can change diapers, make lunch, lay down for naps etc... come up with more creative and enriching activities than food or tv.

• You are not as patient as you think you are.

• The silence of 4 napping children is much sweeter than the silence of 1 napping child
  

Walking The Lords Path

Well I suppose I will update you all with the disappointing news that we didn't get the house. The realtor said that there were other bids, I take it to mean they were higher than ours, which isn't surprising because the house is a GEM! Oh well, I was praying Gods will the whole time and not getting it feels right for some reason. Maybe Dave & Megan will buy it ;o)

Since we were in the mood to spend big money (j/k he has been looking for a long time) Joe is probably going to buy a truck this weekend in Dallas. He found a really good deal and can't pass it up. So he will be flying to Dallas saturday and driving it home Lord willing. So if you are interested in his 4-runner or a '97 ford farm truck let me know I will give you a good deal because we can be parking 5 cars on the street in front of our house!

House Buying Update

Just a quick update for my praying family. We were pre-approved by the bank, we are going to the house tonight to walk through again and put in an offer! It seems like the only snafoo is going to be Joe's self employment. PLEASE pray about this specifically. Pray that the bank will overlook their standard 2 year requirement for selfemployment (as they have already done 3 months ago when we re-financed) Pray that Joes health remains good that he can work, and that buisness continues to be as profitable if not more than it has been in the past year.

Weekend for Family

We went to Indiana this weekend for a Hendrix Family Reunion/Congratulations Party for Aunt Lan who FINALLY graduated college!! We are SUPER proud of Aunt E-Lan who has been working on her degree for some time now. Here is a sampling in pictures of the weekend.

These three were playing in the barn lot singing "Oh no you never let go" over and over, they were pretty darn cute
Aunt Lans Grandson Sean
Uncle Max making himself heard

Adorable cousin Ryan

Father Daughter Moment

Big Uncle Joe playin' Corn Hole

Best Grandpa in the world

Dory

5th generation sampling Great Great Grandma Nellie's Ice Cream recipe right off the paddle

The Patriarchs making Homemade Ice cream

My little Farm Girl

Pray With Me

I love my house. I think it is wonderful and old with Victorian charm that makes it easy to decorate. I love that I have a lot of room to grow. I love my little yard for what its worth. It is a luscious little green postage stamp yard and white picket fence. I love my hydrangea bushes that keep producing a sorted variety of big wonderful flowers all season long. I love being close to things so that I can run out and grab an ingredient for baking or cooking dinner.

However

I am tired of the city and have to constantly look for the nice things about it. I am tired of carrying groceries in from a block away where I managed to find a parking spot. I am tired of hearing my husband complain about never having a parking spot. I am tired of waking up to my car being egged (ok its only happened twice and one was Halloween) I am tired of not having a big yard that I can let my baby play in without having to redirect her every 5 feet

With all that said I am always perusing the houses for sale in the area. I enjoy looking at what is available in different price ranges. I am always showing the HUGE old Victorian castles to Kara suggesting opening a B&B. I show the ones similar to ours that sell in Bellevue to encourage Joe that we can sell ours. And I dream, I pick out the things that I like about different houses and I think about what I would want if I could have them all together. I like dreaming realistically and dreaming big what if's... what if I win the lottery and I could have a $500,000 house. What if I buy land and have my whole family move onto one street. What if I could have a huge gourmet kitchen and Joe can have a big garage for working on his car etc...

Last week I found what seemed to be a realistic gem. It is in the country with 2 acres. It is a ranch, 50 years old (a spring chicken compared to our 110 year old house) it is in immaculate shape and ADORABLE! A ranch! Everything on one floor! Including a big laundry room! There is a garage for my car, no more digging your car out of the plowed in snow on the street only to have someone else take the spot when you leave! So I drove by it and it sits beautifully in the country! So I took Joe by it, and he liked what he saw. So last night Joe and I walked through it with worlds best realtor and his beautiful wife. It Is AMAZING! Kris and I could barely make it past the living room, I could live in the one room alone! It is such a great house. I dont want to go into to many details for feeling like I will jinx it for us. But Joe and I are going to try to put in an offer! AHHHH!

So now I am going to ask you to say a prayer (or 4) for us.

1. That we would follow the Lords will in this
2. For us to have confidence in our financial ability to own 2 houses as we will attempt to rent this house. And for good financial decisions.
   
3. That the Lord will provide renters quickly
4. That we will continue to thank the Lord for all that he provides for us. For a roof over our head even in the stinky old city ;o)

yeah! I am so excited!

This Old House

Wednesday... on weeks when I don't work Tuesdays I am so bored by Wednesday! I did my general spruce of the house on Monday, I did most of the laundry on Tuesday. I made dinner both nights which is rare, as well as 2 loaves of Zucchini bread. I have already done a small grocery shopping trip for the essentials. Now is the annoying part of the week where some things in the house need to be scrubbed now that they are spruced and I hate scrubbing! There is a load and a half of laundry left like the annoying rags and tablecloths and one random blue towel that you cant throw in with other things. I only have one bill to pay and I can't gear myself up to do that either! So now I feel lazy for not wanting to scrub or complete a half finished job. Whats worse is that Annie is napping which gives me perfect opportunity to scrub something and I simply can't bring myself to do it!

On a completely different topic my sweet baby is constipated! She has been fighting her poor GI system for 5 days now! Do you know how awful it is to sit and watch your little baby grunt and turn red in the face and break out into a sweat and shake and cry from trying to poo! The poor thing in the most intense moments would stand in the middle of the living room leaning against my shoulder with her arms around my neck and just SSSTTRRAAAIINNN! So Sad!
Suppositories didn't work very well and I cant get the kid to drink much juice or eat any prunes to speak of. So this has been a serious battle! I tried mixing it in her formula and hiding it under her favorite food but she is SMART! She can tell the difference between the color of juice in her bottle versus milk! No lie! She wont even let us get close to her with a bottle of juice!
Oh my poor stopped up baby :o(

My poor belly aching baby laying on the floor in the living room trying to poop :o(

I am off to sweep the bathroom floor and pretend like I am going to mop it when I am done.

Hello Old Friends! I Have Missed You

Did you think this post was going to be about you, my old blogging friends? Well sorry not this time, this post is about the old Vanity Fair Gang! My faithful girls size medium & 34 - 36 D :o) That's right ladies, no more undergarments with hooks and names like "motherhood" or "pea in the pod" no more industrial looking straps that could tow a truck! I have reached the point where I can now lift and tuck these raisin resembling old friends back into Vanity Fair....... Good Grief what's the point? The gang will never be the same and we are all better off for it :o) I was thinking as I am down to my one feeding a day that by the time I feel like I have gotten them back I will be loosing them to baby #2 so I shouldn't get to excited. (and NO baby #2 is not within)
Oh well its the little things in life that get me all worked up.
Like having my husband home for the week. His partner is on vacation so it is easiest for the company to just have him off at the same time. So we have been having such a fun week. Monday he golfed with the pastoral staff (no they didn't ask him to be a pastor OR convict him of any major life sin, just a day on the course) Tuesday I worked and Joe worked here at the house while his mom kept Annie. Wednesday we ran errands which I LOVE doing with the friendly company of my husband. We went to McGlasson Farms and bought a bushel of peaches! They are soo good I highly recommend you do this soon! We came home and put Annie down for a nap while I went to the store and made a dinner of Roast Chicken with potatoes, carrots & Peach Cobbler for dessert. Now the peach cobbler turned out AWFUL however edible so we wont meditate on that I will just say Does anyone have a good recipe?
Yesterday we started the day at 9:00 which is a wonderful time to sleep in to. We took a walk down the river to the levee, across the Purple People Bridge, into Sawyer Point, played at the old playground where there wasn't a soul around because the loud screaming hoards of kids were playing on the new playground, and then back home for lunch. We also went to Big Lots which is one of our favorite date places because we love finding fun bargains. Joe tried to convince me to buy a new book for my brother-in-law called "Child Parenting With Pride:Latino Style" go figure it was only $3! We found a Yahtzee game for $5 and a new baby doll for Annie because she is infatuated with baby dolls for $6!
Today I had a meeting at work and Joe went golfing again and when he gets home we are joining my parents at the Zoo!
Tomorrow we have a wedding of an old friend and I plan on enjoying the day to the fullest!
Man what a week!