Day By Day

I do believe I forgot to include a few important details in my last blog. Blame it on distractions (for instance, screamin' youngun's?) and misinformation. Our move to Shreveport is going to take place on several conditions, ones we feel to be pretty easily met:

1. John gets accepted into the School of Accounting at LSUS for the summer semester.
2. John finds a job that will support us and allow the flexibility of attending a few daytime classes (he can always go to night school if not).
3. We can find a decent place at decent rent.
   

If he can is able to take more day classes, he could be finished with school in 3 semesters! If not, it is going to take a little bit longer. Then he will have to take the big bad CPA exam--which has a first time pass rate of 45%!

Anyways, I hate that I made it sound like we were up and moving just like THAT (although that is the impression John gave me when we talked about it). If things fall into place, we will be getting on down the road. For now, we will take it day by day.

Today, we celebrated Christmas here with Elijah and Grace. It was fun to see them experience it for the first time really knowing what was going on. John read us the Christmas story and then they opened presents. Elijah got a big dump truck, and Grace got a new baby doll as their "big" gifts. They each got a puzzle and a toy cell phone apiece as well. My dear hubby, who wasn't supposed to get me anything, because he told me not to get him anything, was very naughty and had a new watch hid in Grace's stocking for me--so when I was helping her pull her gifts out I found mine! Wasn't that sweet? Next year, I will not listen to him!

The children have had a lot of fun playing with their new toys! The funny thing is, Grace played with the dump truck and Elijah played with the baby doll! Ha! Now that they are finally in bed, it is time for to get ready for our trip which includes packing, cleaning out the car and wrapping some more gifts! I have a lot to do and not much time to do it in!

Maranatha!

Peace

There is such a wonderful peace in knowing that I am sheltered under the wings of God. Life brings change (and we sure have had our share of it, with more to come); but God's faithfulness to me never changes. When a situation arises that overwhelms me, I turn to the rock of my salvation and it holds strong and fast.

We will be in Texas for only a couple more months. As soon as John finds the right job and we find a place to rent, we will be moving to Shreveport! John says he has more peace about this decision than he has had in a long time, and that gives me peace. My husband is a praying man and I know that he has sought God's face for His will and direction for this decision. Although I will greatly miss our church here in FW and all the friends we have made. I have become attached to my little house, as well, but it's just a house.

We are going to have Christmas with our family tomorrow morning! Yeaah!! I am so excited. We got the kids three gifts each, in remembrance of the three gifts brought to Jesus by the wise men. This will be a tradition we hold from here on out.

I wish I had new pictures to post, but alas, the PC that has the capability to upload pics from the camera has died! So y'all will just have to see the old ones for now. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, I'm off to pack for our trip to Alabama!

Cabin Fever

Hello? Is anyone out there? I know the Christmas season is busy, but come on, one little comment wouldn't take that much time. I've been revisited by the ominous "0 Comments" tab again! Anywaaays.... not much to blog about lately. We've been having some wet, nasty, cold weather around here. Today it has not tipped much over 40, and has not been much warmer since Sunday. Yesterday I felt sorry for the kids because they had been cooped up for two whole days, so I bundled them up and put them in the back yard, muddy as it was. I expected them to get dirty, and I wasn't really worried about it. They were truly enjoying themselves as John and I sat down and ate lunch together (with the back door open). About that time Elijah starts hollering for Daddy in a slightly distressed tone. John ran to the door and alas! There was Elijah straddling our 8 foot privacy fence!! (Wendi, if you read this, please do not pass this story on to Nana and Beamey, we will "get it" from them for sure!). I was the only one with shoes on, so I ran out there to fetch him. By the time I got to him, he was dangling by his arms! He got a good little spanking, but I believe it scared him so much that he will not try that one again! How did he do it? He climbed on top of his new slide/playhouse and then transferred over to the fence. Siiiighhh......I bet his guardian angels are exhausted :).

We are having the children's Christmas program at church Sunday night and Grace is going to be an angel and Elijah is going to be a shepherd. That should provide for an interesting blog. I'll keep y'all posted!

Love,
Amy

Good Things

After reading all the recent great blogs of my friends, and see some who blog every day, I have aspired to blog more often, even if it's a few lines. So here goes: My children are just WONDERFUL. They really are. Elijah has slept in his bed all night for the past two nights in a row!! I want to shout it from the rooftops! And you know what, it wasn't really anything we did, except maybe being consistent. Monday morning when I woke up, he still wasn't in the bed with me. I found him still in his bed, playing with this toes. I called John to share the good news. My phone was breaking up, and when I said Elijah was in his bed, John thought I said Elijah was dead!! He started freaking out on the phone! It's kind of funny now, but it wasn't then.

Last night we had our church Christmas supper. Elijah refused to take a nap yesterday (maybe because he is sleeping all night?) and Grace was snotty and grouchy. So I decided to get a babysitter. I think the last time John and I went anywhere without the kids was our anniversary in May (maybe one another time). The girl I asked to babysit has 5 younger brothers and sisters, and I felt completely comfortable with her. The kids did not miss a beat and had a ball. Her name is Danielle. This morning Elijah came in my room and asked me, "Where is Dorey?" Who knows why he is calling her the name of his favorite character on Nemo? He tried out a new phrase on me this morning when he did not want to eat his breakfast. When I tried some verbal persuasion with him, he put his hands out (he's very expressive with his hands) and said, "It's just the first day of my life!" I have no idea what that was supposed to mean but I thought it was pretty funny.

Grace is talking more every day! She started talking more when we were away at Thanksgiving and even more when my parents were visiting. Being around other people gives her reason to verbalize, I believe. Why talk when it's just Mom and Dad and Elijah? She is getting quite sassy and is putting a lot of power behind the word "No". She doesn't just say it, she emphasizes it! We are celebrating the holiday season quite educationally this year. I am using my nursery Sunday School class curriculum as a guide to teach them about the real reason of the season. We are going to buy a nativity scene today, and each Sunday we learn about a different part of the story. We are making a manger out of construction paper, cotton, and hay and will wait until Christmas morning to put baby Jesus in it. I am teaching them "Away In A Manger" with all the motions (I feel like Sis. Wiley) :). Grace is sooooo cute when she puts her little hands to her cheek and lays her head over for "lay down his sweet head". She can sing most of the words, too. She is great with tunes! I don't always know what she is saying, but I know the song because she sings the tune perfectly.

We are working on getting some good snapshots for Christmas cards, but it is so hard with those two! Hope to have our cards out soon so be watching the mail. I hope you don't mind me going on and on about my kids. They are 99% of my days so what else is there to write about? :)

Making Memories

We had a wonderful half a week! My parents flew in on Wednesday, and from there on out the time just flew! We spent our time shopping, shopping, oh, and eating. Yep, about as much eating as shopping (lol). My Mom is from a take-over family, so she has a little bit of take-over in her. In a good way. She helped me spice up my house with new curtains and pictures (all found very cheap at thrift stores and yard sales). We put up my Christmas tree, too. Saturday we finally did a little sight-seeing outside of stores :).

We went to the Log Cabin Village in downtown Fort Worth. My Dad and I are both history buffs, so we really enjoyed going through the cabins, church, and schoolhouse and reading about how the pioneers built them and the cool stories of their survival. I do admire the pioneers, but I do not envy them. They had a very hard life. It was not quite as romantic as Janette Oke makes it out to be! It struck me that they must have had to depend heavily on the Lord for EVERYTHING.

I was hoping that it would somehow miraculously snow on Sunday so the plane couldn't take off! That didn't happen so we had to say goodbye. Only three more weeks and we will be in Alabama. This year is almost gone. What changes will next year bring? It seems my life has been so full of changes in the past couple of years. I've learned to just close my eyes, hold on tight and enjoy the ride! Every now and then I peek out to see what's coming next :). I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays. Maybe we will get to visit with most of you in a few weeks. Ta-ta for now!