8 Years

8 amazing, wonderful and full years--yet, I think the best is yet to come! I am grateful to be your wife and your friend. Thank you, Kevin!

This Old House

This, we believe, might be our next house. It sits across the street from the land we are purchasing. It is a house that is over a hundred years old, but has great bones and lots of character--pocket doors, great hardware, and the wood work is beautiful. This house has stayed in the same family since it was built. The lady who last lived in it passed away, and her daughter, who lives in a house down the way, sold the 40 acres it sits on to a guy who has no need to keep it. He was going to sell the good stuff to the Amish and bulldoze the rest. The surrounding land owners are heart broken. The farmhouse has been a landmark and no body wants to see it go. So, after talking to the guy who "owns" it (who is very generous, by the way), we have decided to save the house and move it on to our property and restore (or renovate) it. The guy is giving us the house for the cost of filling up the cellar that will be left behind. We are going to gut the house, refinish all the wood inside, and make it our home. It sounds so crazy when I say we are going to "move a house," but that's exactly what we are going to try to do. We took the kids into yesterday for the first time. They were a little hesitant about the idea. It will be quite an undertaking!

WE feel very lead to do this. We will keep updating our progress.

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon.

where there is doubt, faith.

where there is despair, hope.

where there is darkness, light.

where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I might not seek to be consoled, as to console.

to be understood, as to understand.

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Under Contract

After a crazy series of events, Kevin and I have put a contract on this wonderful 3 acre plot right outside city limits (only 5 minutes outside). It was too good of a deal to pass up. I know that we have only lived in the house we are currently in for a short 18 months, but God has laid on our hearts a desire for a different way of life. We long to have a small piece of earth to tend. WE know it will not be an "easier" way of life, but we don't desire "easier", just different. I am excited and prayerful about what is to come, and truly feel that the Lord has and is leading each step. Our wish is to live outside and enjoy God's beautiful creation, so we our taking steps to build (or move, details later) a house that will be sufficient to live in without wasted space. But first we have to close on it to make it official!

Celebrating Life

I just wanted to recognize to 2 special people, (actually 4)!

This is Ryder, my nephew. He is going to be a big brother to a little brother due to be here in November! He will be an awesome big brother! I know that he will make sure that his baby brother will always be "happy.";)! And we are also happy for mom and Dad, my brother Mike and his wife Melissa.

And I also wanted to recognize my Grandfather who turned 89 the other day! You would never know he was 89! He is still teaching at the nearby college and traveling around the country, as well. We are grateful for every year!

Trip to Texas

We had a great time last week with my parents. It was good to just relax and be together. The kids enjoyed their grandparents and SugarBear, and so did we! We allready miss them. I used the "melting" feature on this slideshow because, well, we were in Texas! We also got to see my grandparents, who celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary while we were there--SIXTY-SIX! We swam, gave Eli his first haircut, visited with family, had a 4th of July cook-out, saw fireworks, and even caught a movie. But, more than anything, we really just enjoyed being together! We made it back through McAlester, OK without a glich, and are back at home!

What is with McAlester?

We traveled down to Houston to see my family this past weekend. We decided to leave in the afternoon and drive all night while the kids slept. It seemed like a good idea. We travel through McAlester, OKlahoma when we go down, which is our half-way mark. Usually we stop and spend the night, but we were anxious to just get there this time. We did stop and eat at good ol' Dennys--it sounded better than fast food. Last Christmas we stopped to spend the night, and when we woke up the next morning Aaron had a temperature of 104.5 and his lungs didn't sound to good. Aaron goes so quickly into pneumonia when he gets a virus, so we panicked and took him to the McAlester ER. By the time Kevin and Aaron got to the ER, his fever had practically gone away and he seemed much better. But they took x-rays and did some tests just to be certain. He was fine by that afternoon. So, before I go into the next McAlester story, let me give you some background on Eli. Eli has had some severe eczema for the last 2 or 3 months (see pics below). We have tried everything, short of steroid creams, to treat it. Some have helped soothe it and keep it contained, but nothing has gotten rid of it. He itches terribly some days, and I just hate it for him. The doctor has said he would eventually grow out of it. Since he has started on table food we noticed 2 incidents in which he seemed to have immediately started itching and had small patches of hives--nothing too bad--and that is when he ate mac-n-cheese. We thought he might have an allergy to dairy or just cheap processed foods (ha)! Well, with that all said, when we stopped at Denny's to eat we just let Eli eat off our plates because he will eat anything. I gave him bites of bacon, lots of fresh fruit, and egg. It was his first bites of egg--not a smart move to introduce a new food en route to Texas! We left McAlester, and about 10 minutes later, a very drowsy Eli began to vomit. Kevin stopped on the side of the road so I could clean Eli and his seat. I took off his shirt and while putting him back in his seat, I noticed welts all over his stomach! Then he began to turn red all over his body--like he had a really bad sunburn! He was itching all over as hives started to spread over his entire body--ankles to ears. I began to panic--literally, I felt like I was going to lose it. My last incident with someone with a severe allergy to coconut ended up with a 2 night stay in ICU. I have never seen a tongue that big--Oh my goodness!!! So, here we were in between McAlester and Lord knows where, and my baby was a welted lobster! His breathing remained in check, but you just never know! We found the nearest drug store, Walmart in Atoka, and got some Benadryl. We debated on taking him to the nearest ER, but decided to huddle together over the sweet boy and pray--we are slow learners, but are learning that the Lord should always be our first line of action! Lexi climbed up from the backseat to pray, and anxiously proclaimed that she was going to "put both of her hands on Eli, not just one!" You go girl! Peace began to fill our car after that, and then Bill and Fran called with news from our wonderful allergist in Springfield. He said that if it was going to attack his airways, it would have done so by now, and that he is most definitely allergic to eggs! Explains why the mac-n-cheese did what it did--eggs in pasta! It also explains why the flu shot he got at six months old may have given him that awful cough he had for 4 months--eggs in flu shot! He coughed like that during this attack--probably because it stirs up extra mucous in the body. So, though it was a scary hour in Oklahoma, we made it to Texas without a visit to the ER and with an answer to Eli's skin issues! Praise God for them both! It is what we have been praying for. Eli is doing great, and his skin is beginning to look better. These pics are from a couple months ago when he first started reacting, they are pretty mild in comparison to the worst it has looked. I wish I had pics of the whole trip ordeal--but was not in the frame of mind to think about pictures.