New Pics

I don't have much time tonight, but I wanted to post a few after pictures of our new house. I only have photos of the upstairs. I will post photos of the downstairs later. And there is one special pic at the end that just happened today!

Enjoy-













Today at the gym daycare, the back of a little boy's head found Kiley's eye. She incurred her first shiner. This is not even a good picture because she wouldn't really let me get close. I hope to get some more pictures later as it gets blacker!

Turn the page

Whew. The dust is settling. We landed here in Little Rock on February 20. It was a long day. It took no time at all to fill the house with boxes. I am still digging my way out of those. But all in all, the transition is going really well. I started my new job on Monday February 23. I am the new Executive Assistant/Manager, Facilities and Events for the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. I get to say that last part on the phone about 20 times a day. I started my second week yesterday and, so far, I feel like I have been there forever. Everyone is super nice and communicative. You never have to wonder what people are thinking. They will tell you. I truly appreciate this quality. And, of course, I fit right in! I am coordinating my first event tomorrow. We are hosting the Mexican Consulate for the Small Business Series. I had to go buy liquor at 10:30 this morning. That was a little weird. I don't usually buy my liquor until at least after 4:00 (ha,ha). So, we will have some cocktails and appetizers and a short presentation. I think my job is going to be fun (dare I say it?)

As for Brad, he is getting to spend a lot of time with the girls. He is playing Mr. Mom these days. He will stay home with the girls through the summer until school starts. He has already arranged story time at the Library and craft times and art times. He is doing a great job and the girls love being with him. Our routine is beginning to settle, although I still have oodles of boxes to unpack.

There is so much to do here. Brad has already taken the girls to a kids museum and we hope to go to the Zoo soon. I will try to post some 'after' pictures of the house soon.

We are trying out several churches right now. We visited The Little Rock Church on Sunday and really enjoyed it. We will probably be back. We both have a list of priorities for our new church and we'll know when we have found it. I know a lot of people have been praying for us as we transition and I can't thank you enough. I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate the prayers, the help packing, the encouragement. We truly have some of the best friends in the world whom we love dearly!

More soon....

Strange Reminders

There are things in life that you make you go "Yeah, that was definitely God". Then there are things that make you ask "Where was God in all of this?" I know God has an ultimate plan and that he makes good things happen from really bad circumstances. This has been a rough week. Our good friends Ron and Nan Deal lost their precious 12 year old son yesterday. His passing has a lot of people asking "Where is God right now?" But the words that keep coming back to me are: The end of the story is not written yet. Frankly, I'm hanging my hat on that today. There is a blessing in the storm but I am struggling to find it. This news came among some other bad news recently but I am already beginning to see the blessings from that so I am certain there will be blessings from Connor's death. My prayers and my heart go out to the Deal's. I am reliving my brother's death all over again through their pain. Sometimes tragedy serves as a strange reminder of God's power.

Home Sweet Home

It has been a busy week. We secured a house, enrolled Kiley for school, and enrolled Robyn for daycare! Things are moving fast. Now, if we can just sell our house. Although, it doesn't need to sell too fast because we don't really have anywhere to be for a while yet. We are in limbo for a while longer. We want to be settled by June 1 for Brad to start school in August. And the house in Little Rock is not ready yet. We decided to rent a house because it got us in the school district we wanted and we figure it will be less headache in the long run. It is a pretty sweet neighborhood! We will be the riff raff on the block surrounded by half million dollar homes. The home is older with a lot of charm. We will be downsizing to two bedrooms. Over the weekend, we took a few pictures of the house. These are the 'before' photos, complete with baggy jean carpenters. Try not to lust. These are in reverse order so if you just want to see the outside of the house, scroll down a bit. We hope to renovate some over the next few weeks and will try to post some 'after pictures'.



This is the downstairs bathroom. Most likely where Brad and I will be getting ready in the mornings.


Here is my favorite feature...the woodburning fireplace!!! I can't wait. If it is summer before we move in, my family may just have to endure our house as a sweat lodge for the first few days.


This is the rest of the basement with a beverage center.


Upstairs bathroom. AKA the girls bathroom.


This is the girls bedroom. We will be putting in bunk beds and Kiley has requested pink for the color. We are in negotiation about what shade of pink.


Here is the master bedroom. It has one full wall of windows and another full wall of closets. So, furniture placement will be limited.


Here is a before of the Kitchen. We will do some updating but not much. Although we did talk the landlord into continuing the new hardwood floors into this area. Yay!!


And here is the main living/dining combo area upstairs. I think we will forego the baby blue. But I welcome color suggestions as I am kind of stuck on what I think I want to do.


Here is the back of the house. The back yard is fully fenced so Duke will be fine.


And here is the front of the house. I won't change much but will hopefully update the landscaping a bit and paint the door a different color if allowed.

We are getting excited about the move but feel like there is a lot yet to be done. We will be selling some of our furniture to help make the transition and would love to have help moving...hint, hint!! We have had an amazing amount of support and are getting ready for this next phase. I think 2009 is going to be a lot better than the last few years have been.

Kiley and Robyn will be going to great schools that come highly recommended. Really, little else matters. We are lucky to have some contacts in LR that have been guiding us in the right direction. It has taken away a lot of the guessing about where to live, where to send the kids to school, etc. What a blessing!

Please keep the prayers coming. Specifically, please pray that we will sell our house soon so we can stop making house payments plus rent payments. Our wallets are getting very thin. Peace and love...

Crazy Ride

What a long, strange trip it's been. This year has been a whirlwind. We started the year contemplating law school. Brad was finishing his philosophy degree and in school full-time, working two full-time jobs, and studying for the LSAT. I remember counting down until the end of the semester until the LSAT would be over and we would have some relief. Then, Brad decided to run for City Council. So, we spent the Summer and Fall campaigning. That was exhausting with two kids and jobs to juggle. But a good experience overall. We lost, but that's okay. It is all part of a bigger plan (as is usually the case). It also kept us too busy to think about when we would hear back from law schools. But we were also in a perpetual state of "what if this" and "what if that". Again, exhausting. Then, last week, it came. Brad had been checking the mail box everyday. And this day I happened to be home cleaning for a holiday party. He rushed in and I think we both screamed for half an hour. It was a good day. Most people don't know how far Brad and I have come. We have had many internal struggles in our marriage but we've learned that conflict is not always bad. It is because of the conflict that we are closer today and because we are closer, we can share in this awesome joy together. It was a really good day. I am so proud of him!

So, on to the next adventure. We will be leaving Jonesboro for Little Rock. Brad will be attending Bowen Law School which is part of the UALR system. We have a lot to do over the next few months. So, it looks like 2009 will start just as busy as 2008. But first, I am going to enjoy the cruise I bought us! More on that later.

I think this news helped us enjoy the holidays a lot more. It was a relief to get the news BEFORE Christmas. We are so very blessed. I hope we can all focus on the many blessings we have as the new year comes around. It will be hard for me to make any resolutions because I don't think I could possibly work on anything else and don't want to endure the disgrace of breaking a resolution within the first week of 2009.

Snow Day

One of the great things about living in the South is that even when we get less than an inch of snow, everything shuts down. I have a friend who lives in Michigan and recently took a stroll through the woods with 12+ inches of snow on the ground and got up the next morning and everyone went to work...a normal day. On Monday night, we got a pleasant surprise when a "Winter Storm Gripped the Region" (or so the newspaper said). In truth, we received about 1/2 inch of solid ice with a little snow on top for effect. It was beautiful and a bit unexpected to have winter weather BEFORE Christmas!! As predicted, schools were out and many businesses closed. Our favorite pizza parlor refused to open (how dare they!). I let my employees off for the day because I deeemed it "too unsafe for them to be traveling". Actually, I wanted to stay home and sled with Kiley. After about an hour of sledding we were done with that and the kids went to Grandma's so Mom could get ready for Christmas by purging all of the unused toys and sundries from the playroom without grabby hands interupting to say "But that's my favorite toy". It is always a real treat when you get two days in a row out of school around here. This time, the conditions were just right and the needle didn't go above freezing all day yesterday (this is how I am certain there is a God who loves me). So, we had another snow day today! We loaded up the kids to head to Burger King for breakfast before going about our daily activities. While we were there, a big 18-wheeler tried to drive up the slight incline of BK to make his delivery. He got stuck in the entrance of BK. Consequently, we were all stuck in the BK parking lot for about an hour. I wasn't panicked because I was enjoying the snow day. But there were those in the drive- through who were a little less than happy. We were actually inside the restaurant enjoying our breakfast and an intriguing thing happened. As soon as the unfortunate truck driver got stuck, it was like a vail of difference was lifted from the patrons of BK and instantly we were all in community. The chatter rose, we had our noses stuck to the window, people were asking what they could do to help, someone went outside to direct traffic from the drive-through. We suddenly had this unifying event unfolding. As we watched the poor truck driver exit his rig and walk over to the dysfunctional tires to pour salt under them, he tripped and fell flat on his back and drenched the backside of his jeans (this guy was having a really bad day, and, since it was about 9:00a,it was possible this was his first delivery for the day. I hope his day gets better). But I digress. We all suddenly has this commonality that was so poignant and tangible. It was a forced moment to stop and take in the only commodity available to us....each other. This is why I love snow days. God creates this divine chaos so we will all take inventory of ourselves and check the condition of each other. Everyone seems to be watching out for one another a little more. Whenever you leave you are admonished to "Be careful out there". Hmmm, shouldn't everyday be this way?

Transition

There have been so many times over the last few days that I've thought, 'Oh I need to blog about that'. My girls are growing so fast and I feel like I can't capture each minute as well as I want to. It's kind of like how a picture can never do the actual view justice. I know that blogging about their lives pales in comparison to the joy of watching them unfold. I am thankful today to be in this moment and not begging for the next to come quickly. I am thankful that I am engaged with Robyn especially. I feel like I have lost a good portion of her first two years being distracted by so many other things. Her birthday is in a few days and I am more excited about that than Christmas this year! I am praying that 'The Christmas Spirit' doesn't overwhelm me and take away this joy of being in the moment. I have some of my shopping done but am not in a hurry to finish the rest of it. It's a good place to be. It will get done when it gets done. I have but a wreath on my door this year and nothing else outside. In fact, we still have our halloween pumpkins on the porch. Hey, why not make the season last as long as possible. At this rate, we'll take down Christmas sometime in March. We did get the tree up this weekend. It was a blast. We made cookies, we sang loud off-key Christmas songs, we put all of the ornaments on the first 2 feet of the tree because that's as high as the girls could reach. I can't remember decorating for Christmas being such a family event before. Brad even took pictures!! In a time of such transition and uncertainty in our future, there is peace in our family right now. And that is truly Divine.