Character Backpacks and Sheets

Abe's 1st Day of School
Yes, his hair is sticking up. He got a bath before dinner last night and then dumped his macaroni and cheese on his head, so we washed his hair right before bed.

When it became evident to us that we were going to have to make the big move, I was concerned about space. We moved from about 2200 square feet into almost 1400 - and remember there are 6 of us. When put into perspective of all we have compared to others, we are blessed and the size of the house didn't really concern me. What did concern me was figuring out how to cram all the stuff we had in a much smaller space. Here was the biggest challenge:

Who shares a room with who? We had 3 bedrooms and a HUGE bonus in the old house. Ben had a room, Abe had a room, and the girls shared the bonus. Here we have 3 bedrooms, period. After much thinking and praying here was the solution. AB would get her own room. She is 5 years older than MC and has moved from toys to gadgets which don't take up much space. We would take the larger of the secondary bedrooms and put the "babies" in the master, where there is lots of room for toys. MC was not real happy with the idea, because she did not want to be in a "boy" room. So what does any mom exercising authority and demanding respect do...Bribe her. She was promised Hello Kitty sheets. On the trip to Target, she abandoned Hello Kitty and decided to get Ariele instead. I couldn't say no to Ben when he asked for the Transformer ones. So we came home with 2 sets of character sheets. I am more of the Pottery Barn Kids type, so this was a huge step for me. Besides the fact that they are tacky (just my opinion, and you can throw a nice comforter over them anyway) have you ever actually slept on them? They are soooo uncomfortable. I think they have a thread count of about 4. The kids were excited, and then Ben crawled in. "Momma, did you wash these sheets?" he asked. "Because I feel wike there are cwumbs in them." Yes, I did wash the sheets...they are just that bad. I offered to change them, which is huge because he sleeps on the top bunk and changing his sheets is no fun, but he refused and has slept on them every night since.

Backpacks. Oh, backpacks. I love getting the kids cute backpacks with their names monogrammed on them, and they already have these precious lunchboxes. I didn't even think about the younger kids needing them until meet the teacher last Wednesday. I had been so concerned getting AB ready, that I forgot backpacks for the middle two. So, we took a trip to the mall to find backpacks. Lo and behold the dadgum Disney store had theirs displayed perfectly for little eyes. With a pit in my stomach, we picked out Tinkerbell (surprising given our obsession with Ariel) and Power Rangers (who I personally don't like, but it seems Cars and Buzz Lightyear are for babies). The matching lunchboxes were free. I actually spent less on 2 backpacks and lunchboxes than I would have on one cute, precious one and I am the only one sad. At least AB wasn't there. The Hannah Montana get-up was HORRENDOUS!

Today was MC and Ben's first day of preschool. Ben got up, got dressed and was ready to go. Merrie Cannon and I had a small battle over clothes. She wanted to wear her ballerina outfit that she is wearing in the last picture(not exactly good attire when a 3 year old needs to potty). We compromised and she wore her ballerina skirt over her sweet dress.When I picked them up, MC would not stop talking about all that she had done. Ben was more reserved, but had a good day. As of late, Ben's response to my attempts to have discussion with him is a food. Something like this...

Me: Ben did you have a good day today?
Ben: Yes.
Me: Did you make any new friends?
Ben: Yes.
Me: Do you remember their names?
Ben: Chicken Nuggets. (sly grin)
Me: Really Ben, what were their names?
Ben: Pineapple. (laughter)

Boys!

Anna Beth loves school, but still dislikes homework. Afternoons are a challenge trying to get her to stay focused and get it done so she can play before dinner.

The roaches are getting under control. I am still seeing them, but I don't fear they are going to band together and carry away my fine china anymore. We have had a few more surprises. Every week we discover some new "thing" going on with the house.

Week 1) Roaches
Week 2) Toilets were stopping up a lot (a good plunger took care of it)
Week3) I noticed the wallpaper under the window in the kitchen was bubbling. Peeled it back...know that whoever put the horrendous wallpaper in the kitchen didn't prime the walls, so its almost impossible to remove without tearing up the drywall, so just the mere fact that I could peel it back easily made me cringe at what I was to find. Water damage and....mold. Great. We have to tackle that project and just pray it is only the small area we see.
Week4) Today I go to open the door for our neighbors little girl to come in, and guess what? THE DOORKNOB CAME OFF IN MY HAND!

I mean come on, can we not go 1 week without anything happening. Home ownership is soooo overrated!

***I forgot to mention that somewhere between week 1 and 2, our bed broke while trying to move it from one wall to another. We are currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

Just a random update.

All day things happen that I want to blog about, and everytime I sit down at the computer my mind goes blank. Here's the short of whats going on...

So, I am still getting unpacked. The roaches are dying and I am seeing fewer and fewer Praise the Lord! The weather has been incredible the past few days. It seems that everytime we move, the weather does crazy things. Last summer when we went to Nashville, we experienced the 100+ degree heat wave. We come to Birmingham and have highs in the 80s and next to no humidity (very, very unusual for August here). We'll take the latter over the former anyday!

Anna Beth is LOVING school - which is such a blessing. I miss having her to help out at home during the day and doing the fun stuff with us, but she is completely enjoying being at school.

Ben, MC, Abe and I are enjoying the outside and neighborhood park while the weather is nice. They are also enduring the countless trips to Wal-Mart and Home Depot to get things for the house.

The house is great. I was not looking forward to downsizing 800 square feet, but it has been good. I think I like a smaller house better. The kids don't know the difference, and it is forcing us (parents) to be more involved as a family. Since there is no playroom, the only TV is in the den. We are doing more together since I can't just send them to the playroom anymore.

I went to our old church on Sunday and it was great. I absolutely love, love, love our pastor's preaching style and was so looking forward to hearing him. Wouldn't you know he was out of town.

One of my pet peeves is people at church not being welcoming and nice. I realize we are human and have bad days, but it seems to happen to me all the time. We were looking for a Sunday school class at our church in Nashville and had decided to visit one. The class was small and everyone looked at us like we were lost when we walked in. So here I am at our old church, excited to be there, and not knowing where I was going because they have redone the whole darn thing. I got the kids (I only had 2 of them with me and Billy was out of town) settled and go searching for the sanctuary. There were signs but I didn't see one pointing in that direction. I try to follow the music and end up down a hallway and realize the music is getting softer and I don't know where I am, so I ask someone for help. She looks at me like I have a big booger and says "up the stairs" almost with a roll of the eyes. Are you kidding me? I have been treated better asking where the Gap is at the mall. It's a good thing I wasn't a first time visitor - what kind of impression would I have of the church if I was?

I was also caught in a bind when I had to sign the attendance book. There is a place for visitors and a place for members. Although I haven't been at the church in 2 1/2 years, we have never moved our membership elsewhere. We haven't stayed anywhere long enough to join a church, so I pondered a while and signed in as a member, because technically I still am (even though I did park in visitor parking - just thought of that).

We go meet the 3 younger kids teachers Wednesday. I am a little apprehensive about where they are going to Pre-school/MDO just because I know nothing about it - they just had space for all 3 this late in the summer and Ben didn't have to go 5 days a week.

Feeling like home...

So, we moved back into our old house, which is weird. The kids have adjusted fine. AB is back to being BFF with the girl next door, and has added a new friend that lives down the street. Guess what? All three are in the same 3rd grade class! How about that for an easy transition for the 8 year old. We went to meet the teacher today and it was nice to walk into a familiar place and see familiar faces. Old friends were excited to see us and glad we were back.

We have had more "Ivey luck" since moving in...I'll post on that later. In case you are wondering about the uninvited guests that are inhabiting our home, the exterminator came today. The only thing worse than having roaches is having dying roaches. They are coming out of the woodwork!!! Is it OK to ask you to pray that the roaches will all die soon?

We are here...

and we have roaches. Not outside as expected but inside. The little bitty gross ones that hang out in your cabinets. I can't unpack my kitchen stuff until the exterminator gets here, and he thinks they are german roaches which are really difficult to get under control.

I never had a roach problem in TN...just saying.

Alabama Bound

I have been a packing maniac, Billy has been playing tetris in the moving van with boxes and furniture, the kids have been great.

The other night we were discussing the logistics of the move. When are we getting the truck, turning off and on utilities, etc. He made the statement "We usually..." followed by I can't remember. I was focusing on the word usually. USUALLY? Did he really just say USUALLY? How many people usually move a certain way? Usually is normally reserved for things done almost routinely, you know, like "I usually hand wash the bottles." "She usually falls right to sleep." "Usually, I wear blue shoes with that outfit." I would bet not many people usually move a certain way...unless they are in the military. Come to think of it we probably wouldn't move this much if Billy did join the military. Hmmmm, I may see a career change coming!

See you in Birmingham!

Dancing in the Rain

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 106:1

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessolonians 5:18

This is what God tells us about being thankful. I'm not so sure thankful is how I have viewed life the past few weeks - or maybe even the past year. It's been a tough year for us.

I find it easy to be thankful for the big things that come unexpectedadly, you know, like bonus checks. But during the past year those big things have been few and far between. I have not been very thankful given our current situation, and even though I am reminded daily that "All things work to the good of those who serve Him*," it's hard. My attitude has been more like, really God? How does a house being on the market for a year work to my good? How is a moving my daughter again working for my good? How is having my husband away from his family working for my good? And quietly I am reminded 2 things.

1) He is the same. Regardless of where I am, how big or small my house is, whether or not my car cranks, He is not changing. Wow - what a big thing to be able to rest on!
2) Give thanks. This came to me in Lowe's on Thursday night. I have never had any kind of God thoughts while in Lowe's. (Most of the time my thoughts are far from God thoughts, because we are there to replace or fix something broken.) I was looking for the boxes, because we needed a few more big, really sturdy ones. I stop to ask an associate where they are and he tells me he has moving boxes in his garage that they want rid of. He immediately gives me his address, cell phone numbers, and tries to call his wife to tell her I would be by to pick them up. (I have 3 of 4 kids with me so I looked harmless.) He couldn't get a hold of his wife, so I told him I would call and get them on Friday. I believe that God put him in my path. Of all the people who worked at Lowe's I get the guy with moving boxes in his garage! I realized then that I should be thankful. Thank you for putting this man in my path. I need to be thankful for the little things, because I believe that even when our worlds are crashing we can find something to be thankful for. Here are few of mine....

• Free moving boxes.
• A second car when the first won't crank.
• My brother being here this weekend to help with the afflicted car.
• Uneventful well check-ups for my kids.
• Wonderful neighbors (I am lucky enough to have them here and in Birmingham).

I'm wasting time when I should be packing, and I think I have shared my heart. Recently on my facebook a friend sent me a piece of flair that said "Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness never danced in the rain." That pretty much sums it up for me. Being thankful in the hard times is like dancing in the rain.

*Romans 8:28