I'm Back!!!!

WOW!! I think this is the longest I have ever gone without making a blog post. Obviously, things have changed a bit in our little lives. We are in Houston now and are finally in our new home - it will be 3 weeks on Wednesday since the moving truck arrived. For the most part, we are settled in and able to go about our day to day activities (that are MUCH curtailed from the previous level before we moved). Of course, there are still boxes that I should be unpacking...but here I sit blogging. Isn't catching up with you more important anyway?? :o) Dave is at the office today, but is able to work from home 3 days a week so that is nice to help save on gas and toll. It will also allow me to sub some - I am only subbing when we know in advance so that we can plan our schedule around it. The girlies seem to be adjusting well to their new schools. I think that the biggest complaint I have heard (& why Kendie is NOT going there next year) is that they can't wear flip-flops to school!! Poor kid, even has to wear teenies to church on Wednesday nights! Addi tried out for the volleyball team (84 girls tried out for 24 spots) and made the "A" team! We are very proud of her as she has played vb a little, but has concentrated on basketball the last few years. Believe it or not, that is the only extra-curricular activity that anyone is involved in right now. Emee would REALLY like to take horseback riding (the stables are DIRECTLY behind our house behind trees but we can hear the horses) and Kendie needs to get back in gymnastics, but since our other house has not sold yet (PLEASE say a little prayer about that, OK??), we have decided to put everything on hold! Besides, I think a little time to settle in is a good thing! I have done some some volunteering for the middle school...well, actually a lot the first 2 weeks of school. [Did I mention that until our house was completed, we lived with Grandma & Grandad. It was a wonderful, special time (I hope they think that too!) but I drove the girls over to our new neighborhood each day so that they could start at the school that they would be attending...& I stayed all day so I wouldn't have to pay all that gas & toll to go back & forth. I rotated between WalMart, Target & HEB to use their restroom so that I wouldn't be the homeless lady that showed up on the same security tape everyday!] I have not been near as involved at the elementary school as I would like, but they just haven't called me. I signed up for everything, so I am hopeful that those calls will be coming in soon! Well, I better go get busy now...I think I heard the trash truck so I have to go wheel those cans in - no alleys and dumpsters here! I'll try to do a better job of updating...I promise!

Getting Ready

Things have been VERY busy around here!! I am not even sure where to begin - I guess with Emee's adventures at the ER! One Saturday we were at a basketball tourney for Addi and Emee started crying & complaining about her arm - apparently she had hit it on a chair at lunch and then a little girl had kicked it at the bb game. She KEPT crying and holding it to her side...this is not usual behavior so we finally figured that we better get it checked out. We called our neighbor & he was just about to go on duty in the ER so he met Dave & Emee there. You gotta love that quick, personalized service! They got it x-rayed and put a sling on it for a "bad bruising," got something to eat and were back for the next game all in 2 hours!! The following Friday at 2:45, they called from school and said that Emee had been in the nurse's office off & on that afternoon complaining that her tummy hurt. I went & got her (by that time school was out) - thank goodness I took a bowl because before we could get to the Middle School to get Addi, she started throwing up. She got sick a couple of more times but nothing out of control: however, that evening while I was taking Addi to practice, she told Dave her SIDE hurt and her fever started going up. He immediately thought APPENDIX and started looking on the computer. We called our pediatrician and talked to the nurse and he recommended that we go to the ER. We called our neighbor - AGAIN - he had just got off but did call up there for us and expedited our visit and told us the specific Dr. that would be working with us (he was AWESOME, BTW). **Let me just say here 2 things: #1) needless to say, we are doing something special for our neighbor & #2) In 12 years and 3 girlies, we have made exactly ONE trip to the ER - ONE, I say!! - now we have gone twice in less than ONE week's time!! (& we might as well say that poor Emee has been the one to go all 3 times!)** Anyway, it did turn out that she had to have an emergency appendectomy that night around midnight (which does bring me to my burning question - is there ever an appendectomy that is NOT an emergency??)...poor girl but she was such a trooper! She is all OK now and got the "All Clear" from the Dr. a mere week and a half after the surgery! I think the girlies took me a little too serious when I told them that "we were not taking anything we didn't need to Houston!" - I didn't mean body parts!!
We were already scheduled to go to Houston that next week to "House Hunt" so my precious mom, who was already watching the girlies that last week of school, took on the added task of a little patient that had just had surgery. Dave left on Sunday and I left on Monday after Addi's Theatre Arts play (so cute!) and we hit it hard on Tuesday looking at houses and communities! We were finally able to narrow down an area and are building a house. We will be leaving on July 1st for an "extended vacation" at Grandma & Grandad's. We will leave all our furniture here until this house sells or we need it in a new one...of course, I guess if we don't sell this one, we won't get a new one! Please say a little prayer that our house sells fast! That brings me to the next craziness of our lives! We had to have our house listed in a certain number of days from when we signed to start the house so it would be "Contingent" so the minute we got home we started (I had done some "purging") getting this house ready to go on the market. I must say that it looks AWESOME and I am SO PROUD of all that we have done! The pics are up on the internet now so let me know if you want to look at them!
We went Saturday to OKC to take the girls to catch the bus for Kamp Kanakuk! Getting two girlies ready for 2 weeks away at camp is not an easy task...especially while trying to keep the house relatively clean so if they call at any minute to show it, you can! They left bright & early Sunday morning and we got home last night. Kendie doesn't even know what in the world to do as an only child. She has NEVER been with Mommy & Daddy by herself for more than a day! She has already written her sisters letters!!
Ok - that was a quick rundown, but now I feel like we have caught up a bit...how about you?

New Slide Show

I left a few of the old pictures so you could see how the girlies have grown, but I added a whole bunch of new ones! Check it out...
:o)

MOVING!

Well, once again it has been quite awhile since I have written here. We had quite the ordeal with Kendie & getting her tonsils removed. She did great & was eating by that Friday but then apparently got a virus. She woke up Saturday morning with 103 fever and the ENT on call "didn't think it was anything to worry about" even though the orders SPECIFICALLY said to call if her fever was over 102. Long story short, it got worse, then better but then she started bleeding on Tuesday afternoon - probably because she got so dehydrated from the fever. I rushed her to the Dr. - I looked like a homeless woman (at least I had taken a bath that day but wasn't planning on going out!) - and they immediately took her back into surgery. Seemed like all was well until Friday morning when her fever shot up again. Mom realized that she had big blisters on her tongue - poor girl, that's why she didn't want to drink anything. They admitted her back to the hospital to give her steroids and fluids (IV) - we were there for over 24 hours and then got to come home. Then she got sick again from all the medicine the next week and missed 2 MORE days of school! She finally was released from the Dr last week and started gymnastic back (after 5 weeks) this week...hopefully we are through with that chapter of our lives!

Following right on the heels of that, we found out last week that we will be moving to Houston after school's out. We have known for quite a while that it MIGHT be in the works so I feel like I have been living in limbo for months - it has definitely been a roller coaster! Dave is getting a promotion and I am SOOOOO proud of him!! However, moving away from here and all our friends and way of life was not exactly what I WANTED, but #1) I'm just so relieved to know something for sure & #2) I am choosing to embrace this and have a good attitude!! Really, I feel a peace about it because we had prayed so much for God to put us where He wanted us...I feel VERY strongly that this is where we should be going & that God has great plans for us! I am ready to find out what those are! I have told the girlies that this is our next great adventure!! Dave parents and two of his siblings live in Houston so we will be surrounded by family and I know that the girlies will probably be spoiled to death by Grandma and Grandad! My mom will probably eventually move to the DFW area to be near my brother and her cousins (life-long friends) - she will always have a room at our house and will hopefully visit OFTEN!! I have a LOT of PURGING to do to get ready for this move - I have started a little and have made LOTS of calls already to find out about different things! We could definitely use some prayers during this transition in our lives!

Spring Break 2010

Spring Break is here - yesterday the weather was BEAUTIFUL. I got out & cleaned up all the dead stuff and leaves from our flower beds. It is always seems a little unfair to me that WE really don't have any trees (one in the back) but yet we have TONS of leaves...obviously they aren't ours! Oh well, I figure all the neighbors put up with our barking dogs and wild girlies so what is a few leaves! LOL! It is a little colder and is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. We didn't do much today - church, lunch with friends, NAP & then I went to the hospital to visit my little friend, Miss Trixie. I am so glad that it is Spring Break when we have the time change - I think it will be SOOO much easier on the kiddos (and ME!)! Kendie has her tonsils and adenoids out Tuedsday morning so I doubt we will be doing much other than trying to get her to drink and watch movies the rest of the week. We are hamster sitting and quite enthralled with the little guys...so much so that we are very seriously considering getting our own. We thought that we would wait until these have gone back to their owners, but now we may get ours tomorrow night to help keep Kendie's little mind occupied. I think she is getting really nervous. I put a status update on FB asking opinions - most thought that we were crazy but then others put they it was one of their fondest childhood memories. It may be something that we regret, but it sure will make our kids happy and make a memory! I'll have to let you know how that goes...Please say a little prayers for my sweet Kendie on Tuesday!

changes...

I took off the word verification a while back because it is just easier for those leaving comments - I hadn't had any trouble until now! SO...back on it is and we will see how it goes...

this & that...

It has been a while since I last wrote...I have no excuses, we were even snowed in our house for many days, but I just never got the urge to update this blog! Sorry to the few of you who do try to keep up! Kendie's basketball is going well - our last 2 games were snowed out so we will see when they are rescheduled. Our biggest goal has been accomplished - ALL the girls LIKE basketball now and want to play the whole game - they beg me to go back in. I figure that is the MOST important thing in the 1st Grade - instilling a love for the game! Addi is going to be playing on yet another new team when the club season starts back up. She has been going to some Sunday clinics - I watched this week and she is starting to LOOK like a player (more like HS/college girls than a 3rd grader that just kind of runs around) - she positions her body well and puts up her arms like a PLAYER! She is still much better at defense but her offense is really coming along too. The coach they had this fall REALLY helped her game and confidence a TON!! Emee got some new figure skating clothes from Grandma & Grandad (they're only ones that live in a REAL city with a skate shop!) for Christmas and the clothes seem to be making a LOT of difference - she is doing great! Apparently, she hasn't passed her Level 3 test yet, but is able to do some Level 8 skills - go figure!! :o) Dave & I have definitely noticed a change in her attitude towards skating...she is also more interested in skating and skate shows on TV.

It snowed here last week and it is still VERY much around (I haven't been out in it much the last 2 days because poor Emee is home with the stomach bug). We got ICE first and then about a foot of snow with drifts up to 5 feet deep! The worst is trying to get across streets that they have plowed but the snow is a HUGE pile in the middle. We had rain forecasted for Wednesday & Thursday but now they say FREEZING rain and then SNOW again...can't wait to see what the roads are like then!

I know this has been pretty boring, but at least I wrote something!! :o)