Moving Photos

So all of these photos are probably pretty self explanatory except for pile of bricks in the nice subdivision. The one of the truck on the road is Rob driving, I just flashed the camera at him while I passed him. I passed him alot. :) I love the one of us in the flags at the TX tourist station. And there's one of the river as we crossed the border, and the sign welcoming us home. (even though we drove another 8hours after that point!) But my favorite is the pile of bricks. We got into my aunt's at 10:30 on Monday, had been up since 5am, packed the house and drove 11 hours. Crazy. Anyhoo, Rob just totally didn't see this mailbox. It was dark and there were no street lights. Yep, that used to be a mailbox. And you and I know that usually I would have been flipping out. But I was so tired at that point, I just laughed and laughed. It (at the time) was the funniest thing ever. I had to take a photo the next day. Well, that's our life so far. I'll be sharing more soon, I'm sure.

PHOTOS!!

I know you are dying for them! Need a little esplainin here. The cousins photo was from Sunday afternoon. We were insane and ran to St. Louis for Karl's 4th birthday party. It was awesome. The kids had a blast. Then we got home and Rachel and Katelyn had this cookie they made for me. It was soooo yummy. Mmm, making me hungry now! And then there are some photos from hanging out with our students, whom I already miss so much! In fact Rach has texted me like ten times today! Also, there are some photos from worship our last night and then a great one of the group on the front steps. And even one from moving day - all these good people came to help us. cool, huh? Next post will be fun pictures from our trip.

How Ya'll Doing??

No pictures yet, still. My apologies. I promise I've been taking them. And the camera is here, but the card reader is with our stuff, so you'll have to wait just a bit longer.

We are doing great. I pretty much never want to drive to Texas again, that part was pretty horrible. but once we got here, the fun began. We closed on our house yesterday. Yay! (the people rejoiced) but we still don't have a key. boo. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow we will. I'm guessing tomorrow at this late in the day.

We had our first youth service here last night. It was awesome and I'm so excited about our future. Rob is already hard at work assembling his office since we can't assemble our home. :)

So driving for 25 hours in 2 days ALONE gives you a lot of time to think and pray and thank God for all He's doing in your life. Wow. I am so amazed at Him and His providence right now. He's continually swept into our life and saved the day and I'm seeing Him do it all over again. I had a lot of time to thank Him for all He did in and through and around us at Hartford in the past 18 months. My heart has grown by leaps and bounds because of things that took place during this past season of our lives. For that I am truly thankful. I am amazed by where we've been and where we are going and so thankful to be in the center of His will. I could fill this blog with stories of His grace and provision in this past three months, time and time again He's moved a mountain to sustain and bless us. I am truly thankful and aknowlege that it is all Him. I find it interesting when He uses someone's disobedience to bless you in an altogether new way and just find myself singing His praises over His creative solutions. Know what I mean?

Anyhoo, God is good, and greatly to be praised. Take a moment and get to it!

Oklahoma City

Yay!! Access to the internet. I felt like I was beginning to develop a twitch from the withdrawal! No pictures for you today, although we've taken TONS the past few days, but it's complicated using someone else's computer. I can't wait to share our pictures though - so many good ones from Sunday and then some really cute photos of our moving crew in front of the truck.
We arrived in OK City last night about 10:30pm after ELEVEN hours on the road. Three of which could have been avoided without poor customer service, but that's life, right?? We stayed up until 1am talking to my Aunt Char (whom I totally adore) and then I slept poorly - I guess I'm excited or something. So I was up at 5am, but the good news is I got my quiet time in and I'm feeling some what refreshed and ready to tackle the day.
So.... we were perusing online last night and there is an IKEA literally 5 miles off our path in Dallas this morning. YAY!!!! We wound up leaving our ancient press board desk in the parsonage because we decided it just wouldn't make one more move. But we can find something really cheap and FUN at IKEA, so that will be a fun break today. Map quest says it 488 miles but Aunt Char and Uncle Gary say it's 8 hours tops. We'll see! See you in Houston!!!

PS- So I'm glad we bought the extra insurance on the truck. Rob accidentally took out a brick mailbox last night in Aunt Char's subdivision. Oops!! But it was super dark and hard to see, I guess it happens all the time here. crazy, huh? So pray for my new mail box at my new house. Rob has to maneuver the truck around it too!! :)

adios

This is my last post from Illinois. In a week we will be in our new house in Texas. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel, close and unpack. We are excited for our new adventure. I look forward to sharing photos of our new digs!

Taking It Easy

As a family we've all been working our tails off these past few weeks. We woke up this morning and realized we needed a break! So we headed off to Gordon Moore Park for an hour or so and it was great. Right before it got hot. :) It felt good just to run around and blow off some steam and energy. Now we are laying Sarah down for a nap - I'll do some work for Expo and a little packing and a few dishes, then we'll head to the pool when she wakes up. It's just good to hang out and be a family for a bit, know what I mean??

I know I'm going to get flack for this...

We cut off Sarah's hair. But it's super cute, so don't be too cruel. We just decided that with no air in the car and the move to TX that maybe this little girl needed a little less hair. And I'm so glad we did, I love it. So does she. She just looks a little more put together. Not a bad thing. :) And it's so fun the way it all curls under, she's adorable.

packing

I am so tired of packing.

(if anyone was wondering)


Actually.

I'm just tired.

This is my house right now, pretty crazy, huh?

Also, me sacked out on the couch with my kids for a moment of down time. could use some more of that. sheesh.

Lots of phone calls today. And boxes. And tape. Piles of boxes and tape. I will survive this, right?

(still excited about my new house though. Yay New House!)

more wedding photos

finally! Sorry about the wait, that's just life sometimes. So happy with the way the photos turned out.

sorry.

My blog is just kind of at the bottom of my list lately. I know that some of you are still patiently waiting for Kimmie and Ricky pictures and I'm promising to get on that. I've just spent the majority of my time lately packing boxes and uploading to Expo. Rob got motivated and did 50 videos yesterday, when you add that to my 100 that's a lot of videos to upload! :) We are on our way to a pool party for Katelyn tonight. I think it should be a lot of fun. Ever since the hot weather hit I've been craving some pool time.

Oh, and we celebrated father's day/new house a bit early with AMAZING steak tonight on the grill. Loving that hubby!!

Also, throwing in a few fun pictures from the MOPs event the other day. These are my friends Gina and Estelle. So going to miss this group!

Pretty Much the Cutest Picture Ever

Enjoyed church tonight. Katelyn got her hair dyed and we all thought it was pretty adorable. She kind of reminds me of 1986's Rocker Barbie, but I loved Rocker Barbie!! Anyhoo, we took this adorable photo on the church steps after service. I love it!

Feeling Overwhelmed

Those of you who walked through the last move with us may remember the trials we had with Sarah. Apparently she hasn't outgrown it. With each box we pack, the more volatile she becomes. I guess she really hates change?? We've had a rough morning thus far. I spent an hour in Alton looking for boxes. (grr) and came up with ONE. Very frustrating. I'm just about ready to give up and buy boxes, only because I don't have time to search! It seems like everyone crushes boxes now, rather than letting people take them. We scored quite a few yesterday from Walmart and ShopNSpend, but have not been that lucky today. And my pile is quickly dwindling.
I guess I could really just use some prayer. I have a lot to do in the next few weeks and I think it's going to require some grace.

Ricky and Kim Forever

Wow. What an experience. I loved doing Kim and Ricky's photos. I was so nervous. Can't even tell you how nervous. But I prayed hard and I think that God blessed my efforts. (and Rob's, he was huge too!) We collectively took 900 photos between our two cameras. It was incredible. Unfotunately, I'm having trouble uploading the vertical shots - the Mac program I have self-corrects, which is great, but doesn't help me when I'm uploading to blogger. :) Anyway, I'm really pleased and I'm hoping they are too. We left three cds of photos with the newlyweds before we took off for home last night.

Well, there's more, but I'll have to upload later. Rob is on the laptop and that always interfere's with my connection a bit. I need some down time anyway. toodles.

a little sad

Sharing a few photos from our weekend. I'll be uploading Kim and Ricky wedding shots here in a just a minute. I've spent the last few hours working on lists and mentally preparing to pack. We are going to pick up boxes here shortly, and then the fury begins. I'm tempted to wander through my house with a camera and just capture a few things before they are forever changed. I have really enjoyed living in this house the past two years. I invested a lot of myself into it, and I'm a bit sad to leave it for our new shiney house. (seriously, our new house was built in 1996, I have shoes that are older than it!!) I have really appreciated the time we have spent here. I enjoyed the history of this house and I enjoyed embracing it's character with color and vintage stuff. Somehow I don't think my vintage table cloth curtains will suffice in the new house. :)
I do think that embracing change is a life lessong God has been instilling in me recently. Life moves so fast, I think it's important to enjoy things for the season you are in because season's change quickly. I want to live without regrets and appreciate things as they happen and embrace the change when it comes. I have loved this house, but I'm sure we will create many warm and happy memories in our new house as well.
We told our students tonight, the ones that weren't there this morning. That was hard. I will really miss our kids, we've grown close to them. I'm sad that we will miss major moments... graduations and proms and milestones in their life. But I know that this is part of life and part of ministry and staying here outside of God's will for our life is not a valid option.
Anyway, lots of deep thoughts tonight. Enjoying the quiet of being home again.