What a mess

Right now we are having the carpet replaced at home. Well atleast I hope that that is what they are doing since I am not there to watch. Last night we moved most of the furniture out of our bedroom and the kids two bedrooms. So right now there is a ton of crap sitting in my living room. Who knew we could fit so much stuff in 3 small bedrooms. Tomorrow they will put new carpet in downstairs. This is something that we have wanted for a very long time. I just never thought about what a mess it would make in the process. For the past two weeks Justin and his brother have also been putting in new laminate wood floor in our livingroom, dinning room and kitchen area. This project has lasted longer than I really had hoped. It too has created a mess. Now with Christmas just a week away I am hoping that things will get finished and the house can get put back together. I will admit I am not always the greatest housekeeper, but I hate for things to be really out of place, especially in the living room. We only have so much space and when too many things are out of place the house feels like its a mess, so I always try hard to atleast keep things picked up. I am hoping to find the time to get everything put back together before I go crazy. We have so much going on and I still have to finish my Christmas cards (actually start them) and find some time to finish up my shopping without having to take the child who I need to get the gifts for with me.

Well now that I have gotten all of that out. I must get back to work. I will post pictures once the floors are all finished.

Family Pictures

This year because of budget limits I thought that I would have my sister-in-law take some pictures of Justin and the kids and me and I would choose one to use for our Chirstmas Cards. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be but we did get a picture we can use. Sophie who is very much a little firecracker and loves to cause trouble was trying to make funny faces during most of the pictures.

I love pictures like this though because you can really see the kids personallities come through. Kaleb is a little more reserved, Abbie is a little goofy and Sophie just likes center stage. I still need to get the Christmas cards together. Hopefully that will happen this week. I have a sick Kaleb with me today at work. He actually seems to be doing much better than he was at 1:45 this morning. He is currently down in one of the classrooms here at the church watching a movie and making a book. He is really such a great little boy. I just hope the rest of today goes as well as it has so far.

When did so much time pass?

Last week Kaleb turned 6. For him this is monumental for me it's a bit of an eye opener. Kaleb was 6 weeks old when Justin and I moved from Las Vegas back to Cincinnati. We lived in Vegas for only 3 years but in that time Justin and I did a lot of growing up. We had Abbie and then we had Kaleb. We have now lived back in Ohio for double the time we lived in Vegas. I don't keep in touch with my friends as much as I wish I would from Vegas but I think about them often. I still talk about when I lived in Vegas and experiences I had. I look at Kaleb though now and think of how much time has really gone by. Our lives have started to get busier with the kids involved in so much more. We always talk about taking a trip back to Vegas to visit with our friends but then life happens and plans don't get made. There are so many people who made Vegas such a wonderful experience for me. I really do miss so many of the friends that I made. They were all part of my extended family. I loved opening my house for house church and miss the fact that we don't have that here. I hope today that all of those who were a part of my life then know how much I love them still and appreciate the friendship that they gave to me. Well I went off what I thougth I was going to type but oh well.

tired

I'm tired today. It's my own fault really but I was reading a book last night and Justin wasn't home to tell me to get to bed. He was working a side job with a friend from work all day yesterday. I can't complain because the money is really good and we just had to put new tires on the van. I really don't have anything wonderful to share. I'm sitting here at working trying really hard to be productive but it's hard to work on a newsletter when you have nothing to put in it. Oh well, maybe i'll just lay my head down and take a short nap. :)

Life is hard.....

...when you are three. You're not really a baby anymore but you can't do the things your old siblings can do yet either. Sophie seems to have this problem everyday. She wants to be able to do everything that Abbie and Kaleb do. She doesn't realize that she is smaller and younger. All she really cares about is getting to what they are doing. At the same time she is the one that causes most of the fights. She is very stubborn and and will argue and fight to get her way. Abbie and Kaleb have always been a lot more passive or just whinny but Sophie just gets mad. Then there are the times when she is just her cute little self. We were in the car the other morning listening to Air 1, they were playing "God of Wonders" by Third Day and Sophie chimed in during the chorus singing "You are holy, holy". She was so cute. Of course the funniest thing is to watch her sing along to Thousand Foot Krutch. She gets her head moving and just starts rockin out. I think we may have the next big rock star :)!

When the phone rings

As many of you know I work as the office manager/secretary at the church I attend. I am the main person in the office pretty much all the time. We only have 2 full time pastors and a couple part-time staff and me. I am the person that answers the phone. It amazes me all the different people who call the church. I get your typical telemarketing calls throughout the day. We have our "criminally insane" friend who likes to call at least once a week and we have many benevolence calls. I get a phone call from an old man on occasion telling me our church is going to hell because we use other versions of the Bible besides the King James. I think the calls that tend to get to me after awhile are the benevolence ones. I listen to their story and most of the time I am a pretty easy sell when it comes to all their problems. I am very limited as to what I can do for them. I basically get their name and a phone number to reach them at and pass it on to the person who is in charge of our benevolence. He then checks them out pretty thoroughly before he will even offer help. What bothers me is the people who call a couple times a day after the first time I've talked with them and ask me if I contacted the person who handles our benevolence, or they will have another family member call. They tell me how they need the money by tomorrow or that by noon today they won't have a place to stay. I don't understand why people wait to the last minute or act as if they are the only ones that have the problems. It was actually interesting after Justin lost his job and people would call and I could say I understand because of what I was going through. That would throw people off. The church finally has caller id which I have to say is my favorite thing. Now I can look at a number and know if I do or don't want to talk to the person on the other line. I still generally answer the phone each time it rings but there are a few numbers now that i know I can ignore.

Finally I am going to Blog

I have wanted to get on here and write for some time but I just haven't taken the time or the time hasn't been there. It has been forever since I have written here and many things have changed and many things are still the same. I think that has been what has held me back from writing because I don't know where to start.

Here goes, Justin is working for a friend of ours from church doing tree work. Which he has been extremely busy with the last week and a half since we had remnants of Hurricane Ike come through in the form of a wind storm. He worked almost nonstop from last sunday afternoon till friday night. Our power was out from Sunday afternoon to late Friday. Luckily for us my parents live just 15 minutes away and only lost power for about 6 hours on Sunday. The kids and I spent a lot of time over there, but slept at home. The kids only missed one day of school which was good too. We lost what food I had in our deep freezer in the garage, but other than that we were able to save most everything. We had a few shingles come off the roof but other than that we were really blessed to not have more problems.

Well I think I will just have to stop there for now. My time is short maybe soon I will write more.

Happier things!

As most of you who may have read any of my blog over the last year know that i have been going to Weight Watchers. A few weeks ago was one year but just this week I got to a big goal. This is not my final goal but it was a major one that I wanted to get too. This week I was down 2.6 pounds which put my total at 76.8 pounds. I wanted to get to 75 pounds and I finally did it. I still have 31.2 pounds to get to my goal but I was very excited to reach this goal. It has been a long hard year at times but I am so much happier with how I look and how I feel. As soon as I can I will post a new picture. Recently the lady who lead the Monday night meeting that I attend had to take a leave of absence because of traveling for her main job. We've had a new lady leading the group who just does not do a very good job. I've had several of the people who I have met while attending the meeting tell me that they would love it if I was the leader. I have to reach my goal first but it is something that I have really been thinking about. It would be extra income, but I would love to be able to help others with their weight loss journey.

On another note Justin has received a job offer from the franchise owner of a couple of Donatos in the area. Just pray for guidance as he looks into this and explores a few other things.

I should be scared

I should be scared about the fact that Justin lost his job on Monday. I should be scared that he has no income at this moment. I should be, but the crazy thing is I'm not. Justin has hated his job for so long and has hated working for Donatos for so long that I feel his getting fired was a blessing. There are a lot of extenuating reasons as to why he was fired. There is the one main reason but then there are other things that we figure made this a great reason to let him go. He has filed for unemployment but we don't know yet if he will qualify. He has sent his resume out to several places and is actively looking for a new job. There is one possibility which is with Donatos but on the franchise side and not corporate. The guy who owns several of the franchise Donatos in the area has called Justin and wants to talk with him and see what he can do for him. Justin likes Don and he would be doing something that he already knows, but he isn't sure that is what he wants to do. I am trying really hard not to push him into anything. I just keep praying that the right door will be opened as he sends out his resume and all that God will guide us as to what to do. We need a lot of prayers as we go through this time and all the changes that may come with this.

A Very Special Lady

Today is a very sad day for me. A very special lady who has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember passed away last night. Her name was Barb and she was an amazing women who loved God and loved children. Barb never married but she had lots of nieces and nephews and lots of kids at church whom she touched. Growing up Barb taught my Jr. Church class, she organized and directed the Children's Christmas program. The thing that I will always associate with Barb is camp. Every summer Barb went down to Camp Begomi in Pike County, Kentucky. You had to drive through a narrow creek to get to the camp. Barb started taking me to camp when I was seven and as I got older I would go for more than just the one week. I would go and stay for several weeks and work. I loved camp and made so many friends there. Barb loved camp too and loved reaching out to kids who needed help. Over the last several years Barb's health hasn't been the best. She had to wear oxygen all the time and often had a hard time getting around. Her health never seemed to keep her down for long. A couple of years ago she started a quizzing program for the kids at camp. She would send them monthly verses to learn and a newsletter with everyones birthdays in it. She would come here to church and I would help her get it together and run them for her. I really enjoyed the time I had with her each month. Last year Barb spent 30 days in the hospital but kept praying that God would let her get out in time to go to camp. Sure enough she was still able to go and had a great time with the kids. She was an amazing women who has left a wonderful legacy of how God can use one person to touch so many. I will miss Barb very much but I now now she is with her Father in Heaven and she is so happy to be there.