Still Alive and in Arkansas

I am still alive...
I am still in Arkansas...
Still planning to leave this week, trying to tie up loose ends...
I had to go to the oral surgeon Friday and have felt awful since! My jaw is swollen and hurting...all the way to my ear. It is making my head hurt. I didn't realize it would hurt this long.

Now I remember why I have a phobia about dentist and haven't been to one in a long time. It is reminiscent of the time I broke my jaw and had to have my mouth wired shut for six weeks. When the six weeks were up, I sat in the dental chair and they began to give me shots all across the top my top gums, and all across the bottom. Then they began to pull one by one, the wires that were through my gums...I nearly went into shock! They had to stop for a bit to give me a chance to calm down. That is where my phobia of all thing dental began...I was 13 then. I am 42 now and still panic when I think of having to have dental work done. I was a wreck on Friday...I tried to go to my happy place while they were working on me, but they kept pulling me back. When he finally finished the work and they took that big block out of the side of my mouth, I told him, "Now I remember why I dislike you people!"

I hate pain, especially pain in my head area...

On to other things...

Andrew is in North Carolina setting up housekeeping. He is trying to unpack, and yes, the movers did make it there with all of our things...

Anyway, Andrew went yesterday and bought a new washer and dryer and he is finishing the fencing. The kiddo's and the dogs and I are leaving sometime this week. I do dread the drive and will be glad to get it all behind me...I had forgotten how hard it is to move...I think I got out of practice over the last few years...

Well, as you can tell, there isn't much to report here. I tired to think of something interesting to add to make this post a wee bit, well, interesting...but due to the pain in my head, I couldn't think of anything interesting to add.

And still moving...

The movers have come and gone. They left yesterday afternoon. Now we are here cleaning the house up. Andrew is painting a couple of the rooms that needed some paint. I am cleaning bathrooms, floors, carpets, and the kitchen.

Looks like things are going according to schedule. Hopefully we can finish up here today. I may not be posting for few days depending upon how things go. I may not have Internet access for a couple of days.

I know one thing for sure; I have been drinking entirely to much Dr Pepper! I have got to stop that nasty habit when I get this move behind me. I have got to get serious about losing some of this weight I have gained. I hate eating at fast food places. I am so sick of McDonald's, Burger King, and even Sonic!! I have never been crazy about fast food. Occasionally I get a hankering for a burger, or a foot long chili cheese dog, but beyond that, I despise fast food. But I have been forced to eat it for the last several weeks. First on our trip, and now during this move. The movers started packing up the kitchen things on Friday and all weekend through present, I haven't been able to cook...so we have been eating junk...Last night we ordered pizza and wings. Today it was Burger King breakfast and for lunch I just devoured a pack of Club crackers and Pimento cheese spread...that has to been good for you, right? And all the while I have been chugging down gallons of Dr Pepper...I don't even want to step near a scale...

Oh well, it is only a moment in time...Out with the old, in with the new!

Today's Quotes

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live
~Flora Whittemore~

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

~Alan Cohen~

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.

~Ivy Baker Priest~

A Day of Rest

Today is a down day. A day to do a few little things in preparation for the movers to come tomorrow and start loading all of the boxes and furniture. I did stay home from church this morning. I know I should have gone, but I was just so tired; physically and emotionally. I tried to sleep in a little, but with my little alarm clock, that was an impossible thing to do.

Andrew is outside doing some yard maintenance. We took the dogs to the vet yesterday to get their yearly shots and such, so I won't have to immediately find a vet when we move. Then we took them to the kennels to stay until we leave town in a week or so. That will give Andrew time to get the yard back to where it was-- pre-dogs...

Noah and I are sitting among the ruins, (boxes), and flying our paper airplanes...

I will start cleaning the showers and tubs and bathroom areas, getting things ready to turn back over to the owner. But most of the cleaning will have to wait until everything is out of the house. I think they will be mostly done tomorrow, so the hard work for me begins...

I have to clean out our freezer and find a home for what is in there. I have tried to cook down our meat supply in the last couple months, but there is still a good bit there. We usually go to the meat market and buy one of their large packages of meat that they sell. That way I don't have to buy meat at Wal-mart or Kroger each week. And we find it to be better and in the long run cost us less this way. Anyway, the freezer needs to be emptied and unplugged so it will be ready to load tomorrow. So maybe today isn't a very restful day after all...

Here are a couple of photo's I found on the computer today. Thought I would share...

More rambling thought...

While at the spa the other day, I happened to remember what the date was...



Okay, least you get the false impression that I am a woman of leisure and I am accustomed to lavishness such as this, let me just say, it was a gift from my husband, for my birthday; this past November. Yes, I am just getting around to using it, and only because I am about to move out of state, and this would be my last opportunity to have him here to keep Noah while I relaxed enough to enjoy this gift. I also know how much he paid for it, and being frugal minded, I couldn't let it go to waste...



That being said; while enjoying the relaxing three-hour pampering, I happened to remember what the date was; March 19th. As I lay there on the massage table, I begin to reflect on the last sixteen years, thinking how life seems to have taken a wrong turn somehow. How that through a series of events out of my control, life took a direction that I could have never imagined.

Tonight, while Noah sleeps, the girls are at a youth conference at our church. Andrew and I sit among the stacked boxes that hold the contents of our life together, he is listening to music. The music of our past, music from another time and place, that of another world even, or so it seems looking back from this angle.

I close my eyes and remember when this music was new and fresh, when I was hearing it then...I could not have looked this far down the road of my life and imagined for a moment I would be here, now, like this...having faced the things I have faced along the journey...

Only God could see...and He wasn't telling. He was giving me just a little light for each step of the journey...that is all we get. A good thing I suppose, perhaps if we could see what was ahead; see the path that our lives would take; we may not want to make the trip...

But sitting here tonight looking back, I realize that every thing in life adds together to make the whole. I would not be the person I am now, (maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing!) if it weren't for ALL of it. I suppose I would still be me, the essence of me, but I would be different. I would have different beliefs, thoughts, goals, images of how I felt life was or should be...

We are a product of our experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Are we who we thought we would turn out to be? I am not the person that at eighteen I thought I would be at forty, and I suspect that many people would agree that they are not who they thought they would be either. I am fairly sure that most of us are not where we thought we would be today...Maybe there are those few, who had a vision and followed it all the way. But even they had unexpected life events that changed the course of life to some extent.



Pause...Station break...

Our wedding song just came on, so pardon me while I dance with my husband!
If you would like to hear the song, you can click on my playlist in the sidebar. I Will Always Love You by Taylor Dane.


...do you know how long it has been since I danced with my honey? Way to long...



Back to the scheduled post:


I lay on the massage table and begin to think of the events in my life that have shaped who I have become. We each have them; those events that we consider life changing or life altering. Some of us have those really wonderful life events that we look to: salvation, falling in love, having children. Then there are those other life events that aren't so wonderful...the events that throw us for a loop and knock us off our feet. The blows that we weren't expecting, the ones that catch us blind-sided...these usually include a loss of some kind. Death of a loved one, ending of a marriage, major illness, bankruptcy, loss of a career...whatever the event may be, it can change so much about you, the person you were, is sometimes no longer recognizable.



When Daren was killed, the days following his death were hard ones. I would say it took me several weeks for it to actually hit me what happened and the impact of it completely knocked me into another dimension. It was as though I was suddenly thrust into a life that was not my own. I remember thinking that I didn't eve want to be me anymore, because it was to painful to be me... I would have traded lives with just about anyone at that point...just so I didn't have to feel the hurt and pain I was feeling. I didn't want to experience that hollow feeling in my chest that was once my heart...It was as thought someone had cut a hole in my chest, and breathing was difficult. I tried to walk around holding my breath, because it hurt to bad to breathe. Sounds crazy? Not to someone who has experienced this kind of loss...



Sometimes we do things; make rash decisions, use poor judgment, develop bad habits all in an attempt to move away from the pain that this "life experience" is bringing into our lives. Sometimes we have to suffer from those bad choices. Which if it weren't for this elephant that suddenly crashed into our lives, we wouldn't have even had a part of. So because of all of this, we are now on a different path, with different emotions, needs, thinking...



Which can lead to places we never wanted to go, never thought we would see...It is how we navigate from this point that determines where we end up...where our lives go from there...



Some things are not our choice, they are decisions that seem to be made for us that bring us to places and crossroads...where in turn we must make decisions again...only with a different set of awareness and knowledge---different dreams for the new future we must find for ourselves, minus the part of us that has been lost, taken, stolen- ripped from our lives...we are the walking wounded. Some become the walking dead. We are just trying to find our way through this maze of life that we no longer recognize and no longer want to be a part...



Many times, we allow this thing to make us bitter and hollow. We can use this event as an excuse to quit. A reason to become a shell of the person that God placed us here to become. We can go the rest of our lives wearing it like a badge, letting the world know just how awful things are for us...



OR....

By the grace of God, and His mercy...By allowing Him to mold us, by allowing Him to take this horrible event and softening the clay that is our hearts, with His hands and power...

Somehow, some way, with time...Time is an amazing thing-- time heals all wounds, or so they say. I agree that the wounds can heal but the scars will always remain. The scars tell our stories. If we allow them, they can become a thing of beauty, something that attracts others to us. Something that guides us and others on a new path. The scars can become a way of directing us onward toward a new goal, and a new life. If we allow this event, this life changing event, it can help us to find our True North. Because of this thing that the devil means for evil, God can turn around for good; we can find our truer selves, our real purpose and calling in this life.

Wow! Sixteen years! On the one hand it seems as though it were only yesterday I was awakened to the horrible reality that you were gone...but on the other hand, it seems as though it were several life times ago...I was truly a very different person then... I find it hard to even think of that life as my own...

Rereading my previous post...

I just read my previous post and realized among other things, I had written "there here". I meant "they're here!" I didn't get the chance to edit that post. I had to run some errands and thought I had just saved the post to come back and actually post later after I finished it. But when I came back to it, I realized that it had already been posted.

So the post wasn't actually finished. I had planned some existential babble about the extremes of having and not having stuff. How it is easier for me to think of just letting it all go verses having to decide what to give up and what to keep. Because somehow the act of deciding on one thing are another is to difficult a task, so I would prefer to just walk away and leave it all...as opposed to deciding what is more important and what is less important in the whole scope of my life.

Of course, I am strictly talking about things, not people. Because we all understand that it is the people in our lives that are important and not the things...right, we all understand that don't we?

Anyway, back to the things in our lives. I do understand that in our normal way of thinking, there are some things that we require in order to live our "normal" lives. But even our ideas of what is normal and what isn't can get really messed up when we start to look at the lives of people around the globe. Even when we start to examine the lives of many who live right here in our country, in our cities and towns. Of course, if we were choosing a life, we probably wouldn't choose the way of life that many live. But probably many of them don't "choose" that way of life, but it is somehow forced upon them. By them, I am referring to the homeless or the very poor in underdeveloped countries that live in conditions that are deplorable. The things they manage to live without makes me rethink what is truly "necessary" for a happy life.

Many times I have discussed with my girls about "wants" versus "need" and in our society it is quite difficult sometimes to understand the truth of what is "want" and what is "need". So with all of this said, whatever I can think of that is on my "need" list, I can think of a situation and life circumstance where that so called need could be considered a want. So when it comes down to basics; food, shelter, and some sort of clothing become the basic of needs on my list. But I am thankful that I have beyond that-more than enough, more than my basic needs. So much more that it requires a large tractor trailer to move them from one location to another.

Maybe we don't really have this "need/wants" thing figured out yet. Maybe it is that "little gypsy" in me, you know the one that thinks living in a yurt would be so awesome; that is struggling with this whole idea. Maybe I just feel a little bound by all these things. Maybe I still think that picking up and moving to a new place, a new life, should require a little less planning and coordinating with packers/movers, and van lines. The whole idea of spontaneity is completely lost because of all of this around me, packed away in all these boxes.

It is becoming a love/hate relationship I have with my things. On the one hand I can't rid myself of them without suffering this mental anguish and emotional ripping away of something that I feel should be held on to,,,for what, I haven't quite figured out...For memory sake? For future use? For??? What? What need do I have of it all? On the other hand, to much stuff becomes a heavy burden to carry. You have to house, tend and see to all of it. It is time consuming and expensive. And for the most part, much of it stays hidden in closets, cabinets, drawers, storage sheds; unused and mostly forgotten...

Yes, your getting a little of the existential babble...

You come into this world with nothing, you leave with nothing...but in between your burdened down by...stuff.

I know that most "normal" people can't understand what this is even all about. You have a house, you have stuff...you know furniture, clothes, books, junk that belongs in the junk drawers. After years of living you manage to accumulate lots of this stuff. Maybe some people shed their stuff on a regular basis, so it doesn't get to much. But I am sure that most of us do have lots of stuff...Which reminds me of a podcast that I heard a couple of years ago about a guy who was trying to get down to where he only had 500 things. He did an inventory of what he had and whittled his things down toward the goal of 500 things.
You can listen to it by clicking on the links above.

As I sit here tonight looking around at these boxes, that it took two men all day to pack; and they aren't done I might add; I wonder if they drive off with it all on Tuesday like they plan to do, and if they never showed up at our house on the other end of this trip. Say it was like the airlines with luggage, and it ended up in another location, never to be seen again, would it REALLY matter? Could I start over from scratch and if I were to do that, would I be more discriminating in my decisions of what I brought into my life, and what I left on the shelves of the store? I truly believe that I would be very selective in what I chose to "collect." I would really think about what I bought, no impulse buying for this gal. Just the basics, just what I loved, just what spoke to me. Minimalism?? Hummm....maybe it shouldn't be just a movement in art, architecture and music history...maybe it could work in our daily lives...

Maybe my new mantra should be:

"More experiences, less stuff, More memories, less memorabilia!"

Okay, it is getting late, I am tired, and my mind is doing that thing again...time to put the leash back on it and reign it in for the evening. I am obviously to tired to be writing a lengthy post that goes on and on about something...Oh yes, that is what most of my post do, uuuhummm...anyway, I need to end this here and now with a couple of silly shots of Noah.

Moving...still...

They're here! They got here about 8:30 this morning and have been working steady ever since.

Our life in boxes...

Which got me to thinking about things. Of course, I have been an advocate for downsizing for some time now. I have done some downsizing...I have taken four loads to Goodwill in the last couple of days. However, we still have lots and lots of stuff.

So I started thinking...what if you didn't have stuff? What if we didn't have anything other than a few changing of clothes, and the necessities?

What if you were told that you had to leave your home in an hour, and take only what was most important to you, only what would fit into a box, or the back of your vehicle? What would you take? What is most important? What things would you just not be able to leave behind?

If I were moving and had to start from scratch with nothing but what would fit in my vehicle, I would have to carry photos, and family videos, computers ( because they all have important photos on them), a couple changing of clothes. However, I don't own one piece of clothing that I couldn't part with. My whole wardrobe is replaceable.

I would take my cameras with me, because I always have to document what is going in our life so we can remember.

I suppose there isn't anything that I would just have to have other than those things, and even they could be lived without if necessary.

Tattooed boy...

How little boys entertain themselves when their parents are busy and sisters aren't watching them closely!!

I hope that these are washable markers!!

Moving = Stress!!

Oh Dear Lord, I had forgotten just how stressful moving can be...
We need prayer!!

We're back...

Well we made it back to Little Rock on Saturday evening. And we were all sick. Sunday we spent the day resting and recovering. Monday I had an appointment with the ENT about my ear. That turned out well. The viral infection I had found its way to my ear and had a party. Causing a blister to form on my ear canal. By the time I got to the ENT Monday it had already gone down. He perscribed me a few days of meds and said I should be fine.

Monday night, I am feeling much better and am eating some crackers and boom, a tooth starts hurting. I discovered that a tooth with a filling in it got chipped sometime and the filling is loose causing food and liquids to get underneath the filling..ouch!

The first available dentist appointment is tomorrow morning at 9:00. I will be there. I am praying that it won't start hurting to much between now and then.

Today Megan has an ortho appointment.

Thursday I have an appointment to use the Spa package that Andrew bought for me for my birthday last year, that I have never used. And Friday, the movers will be here...

Busy, busy week.

And it doesn't help having been sick and having to see the dentist unexpectedly...but such is life.

I don't have a whole lot of things to post about that is interesting. My days and nights are consumed by this move, and stressing over it all. Hopefully when I get settled in I can get back to more interesting things.

I am still working on the Family Journal, I haven't forgotten it, just taking longer to get it out than I thought. Please be patient with me.

A little rant about hotels...

I just have to say...

What is it with hotels and there ratio of towels and washcloths per room? You check into a room meant for four; two adults, two children. You go to the bathroom and they have three towels and three washcloths. What is up with that? I don't understand, is there a shortage of hotel washcloths? Can they not buy more? I know for a fact that at Wal Mart you can buy a pack of like 20 washcloths for $5.00. But I am in a $130 hotel room and they can't provide enough washcloths.

I don't mind using the same towel twice and I really don't mind reusing a washcloth. But I refuse to use the same washcloth to wash my face when I get up in the morning that I used the night before in the shower. I just won't go there. Maybe I am strange, that is a given. Maybe I am a little phobic, I'll admit it. And I am quite sure that the other members of my family will agree, I don't like to share a washcloth...

So again, I ask, why three, how do they figure that ratio? If there is such a shortage of washcloths why don't we cut up a few of those five hand towels that they don't mind giving you. How many hand towels does four people really need for an over night stay? Five? I don't think so...I have even used a hand towel before as a face cloth, it gets messy, but it sure beats the idea of having to use a used washcloth that someone else left balled up in the corner of the shower...yuck! That is just disgusting.

Hey, look there is a Wal-Mart right across the street. I think I'll run over and grab a couple of those 20-packs of washcloths to keep in the car for the next trip. Maybe I'll show them to the clerk downstairs, just in case the hotel wants to get some...Maybe they don't know you don't have to order them special from hotel suppliers...

What a trip

And it ain't over yet!
Pardon my slang...
We started out sometime around 10:00 or so. Stopped along the way to get the water taken care of and then we were off...

All of us sick in one way or another. My head and ears are so full and my head is so off balance I can hardly stand up straight. Good thing I am not having to drive.

However, Andrew has a head full of sinus and his ears are ringing, so he isn't much better off then I am.

Megan is coughing and her head is stopped up, and Noah is still coughing and has some run to his nasal area.

We are like a traveling circus, or a traveling infirmary. Not only are we feeling unwell, but Noah has been taking Zertec for several days and that coupled with the fact he has been couped up in a hotel room or a vehicle confined to a carseat for what seems an eternity, he is wired...to the brim. He needs to run for several days to release the energy he has pent up inside. He has squirmed and squeeled, tried to get out of his carseat, unbuckeled himself, and thrown a fit. We are all so tired, and frustrated with each other. We could hardly take another mile of the trip, so we stopped just out of Atlanta, got a room and are now munching on an aray of Zaxby's food. I am going to shower and put on my pj's and hopefully get a better nights sleep than last night.

Boy this moving thing really is stressful. They say that moving is one of the top life stressers; the last twenty years have taken their toll...

More than I wanted to see...

Well, I got to see a little more of Fayetteville than I wanted to see on this trip.
As most of you have read, I have been sick this whole trip. Well last night my ear started feeling like it was stopping up and full of fluid. During the night I woke up with ear ache and major pressure in my head. I figured I must have a sinus infection. I got up and finally decided to go to the emergency room. I hate to go to doctors or hospitals, and especially hate the ER. But being in a strange place and knowing I probably wouldn't have any luck finding a doctor that would see me today, I decided to go to the ER. It helped that the hospital is literally within walking distance of the hotel we have been staying in. Not that I walked there at 4:00 this morning. I drove myself. Andrew stayed with the kids and I braved the unknown and the sick and afflicted to try to find out what is causing my problem.

After what seemed an eternity, but was actually more like an hour, I was called back...

To another waiting room area...

At least I was there alone, no one around with some strange undiagnosed illness that I could contract...Yes, I am a little phobic about those things.

Finally someone came to get my insurance information and then a Nurse Practitioner came to check on me. I didn't even go into a room, she just checked me in the little waiting room. She asked the usual questions, looked into my ears, nose, throat. Listened to my breathing and then told me I had a viral respiratory infection. Basically the same thing Noah had a few weeks ago. She also found a cyst in my right ear and suggested that was probably why my ear was hurting and I was having pressure on that side of my head. She was stumped. She called a doctor over to look at it and he was stumped also. Not their speciality I suppose. She told me they could do a scan or I could see my ENT when I get back to Little Rock. I chose the latter.

After another 30 minutes or so, the nurse came to me with a prescription for an antibiotic for the possible infection in my ear, and told me to follow up with the ENT.

Back to the hotel, straight to the shower to wash off all the strange sick germs I might have collected while in the waiting rooms.

Now, I sit at the computer, my ear full and hurting and my nose stuffed up. Andrew had a meeting this morning so he left a few minutes ago and will get the antibiotic filled while he is out. The kiddo's are sleeping soundly, unaware of the events of the early morning hours. How nice it is to be a kid.

Now I would love to crawl into bed and sleep...but just as sure as I lay down and get really sleepy, little man will wake up and be ready to go...His energizers have been charging all night and once he wakes up he is non-stop movement...

Just in case...

In case I haven't mentioned it....

I really wish you had come with us, I do miss you!

Mission accomplished!!

Well our mission has been accomplished. We have a home! Today we signed the paperwork and I had the electricity transferred into our name. Tomorrow I have to go take care of having the water turned over and see about having phone/Internet/cable connected. I think we will go with Time Warner because they offer the best package deal that we have found so far.

Andrew has to go into the office for a bit tomorrow for a meeting, set up his computer and go over the drawings, then I guess we will get ready to head back to LR Friday morning.

Then the real work begins...So much to do, in such a short time. I will be glad when May gets here and we are settled in...

The house has a good size back yard for the dogs, and for the kids.

There is even a little "wooded" area for a little boy to explore.

Although I am more of a shower kind of gal, I think I will enjoy this tub once we make the move. I will enjoy soaking in a warm bubble bath with candles around the tub, listening to my Chris Botti cd's.

In the house we live in now, I am always battling with the light in the closet. Most of the time it doesn't work. I can't see into the very small closet to find my clothes. But in the new house...

I have a window in the closet!!! And it is a walk in closet!

I have a WINDOW in my closet!! How great is that?

All in all, we like the new place. There are some things that I wish were different...like the laundry room, or should I say, laundry closet is just off the eat-in-kitchen area. Andrew is going to see if he can hook them up in the garage just outside the kitchen entrance and we can use the other area off the eat-in-kitchen/breakfast nook for storage, or more pantry area. If not, then it will have to do as the laundry. I was hoping for a larger laundry room, but I guess you can't find everything. And I really wanted a red front door, but this one is --- black? What's with that? It does have the large back yard, a bonus room, plenty of storage, and a WINDOW in my closet...

We went to Cracker Barrel to eat supper tonight and I saw those white wooden rockers they have and thought they would look great on the front porch! Now I just have to talk Andrew into getting a couple. I also have been after him for years to build me some Adirondack chairs, maybe I will get a couple of those for the deck on the back. I'm thinking maybe turquoise or red...

Carolina Beach Trip

Today we decided to take a day away from the stress of trying to find a house and just have a little fun. We drove over to Carolina Beach on the Atlantic coast. It was a beautiful sunny day. The temp was about 78* and was a very nice day.

We got there about noon and stayed around three hours. Mostly I just lay on the beach towel and listen to the waves. It has been so long since I heard that wonderful sound. It is such a relaxing sound. I could have fallen asleep and slept for hours, but when you have little ones to watch out far, you have to stay awake.

Andrew, Megan and Noah spent the day building sand castles and digging in the sand. Megan and Andrew went for a long walk along the beach and brought back a handful of treasures. They were actually shells, but I love finding shells along the beach. I especially like to look for sea glass, but I didn't do much but just enjoy being there. I really didn't feel well today. I stayed up to late, and with the time change, I didn't sleep much, and my head is so full of this sinus. My head was hurting, so just lying there in the sun was like a magic potion for my ills. I figured that the salt air, and sunshine would do more good than any of the medicine I have been taking this week. Looking out into the vast open ocean, feeling the breeze blowing across the beach, just being there...was awesome!

I have been landlocked for to long. I am glad that we are close to the ocean once again. Of course, we aren't nearly as close as we were when we lived on Padre Island, TX. There we were only a couple of blocks from the sand and surf. But it is a short drive over to the Atlantic from where we are now, so we can do some day-tripping.

Maybe next trip I will feel more like moving around more and taking more photo's. As soon as possible I want to drive to the Outer Banks and photograph the lighthouses again!

Well I got to get to bed, gotta drive Andrew to the airport EARLY in the morning...So I will post again from Carolina tomorrow. Maybe some photo's of the house...

Eureka! Maybe!

We may have found a house...say a prayer! We turned in the paperwork today and will know something on Monday. The owner wants to sell, but is considering the lease. Unless something unforseen happens we should get the house. It is in a subdivision out of town in the 'burbs.

So we wait with baited breath to see if we spend the next two years or so in this house...

While we wait, tomorrow we are taking a relaxing trip to the beach! Yes, the beach in March. It is suppose to be 78* tomorrow!!:-} Yea!! Atlantic Ocean you are my friend! Last summer I went to the Pacific, but the Atlantic is still my favorite.

I will post photo's from our day trip to the beach and maybe Monday if we get the good news, I will post a photo of the new place.

Andrew has to fly to Montgomery to get his truck, so we will be here the first of the week just chillin' and checking out our new town...(read-mall...shopping plaza's and flea markets...)

Random from NC

Well my heart is somewhat heavy tonight. There was one house I really wanted and when we got back to the real estate office to start the process of trying to get the house, someone had already beat us to it! So back to square one. We had several lined out to see today, but after doing all the leg work yesterday, we found out that the agent was mistaken about the pet policy! All that work for nothing! So we looked at a couple...I'm not lovin' it yet!

Here are a few photo's from the trip here. I still haven't taken any photo's of the city yet, not a lot I see I want to photograph...

Noah and I are feeling much better today. Our allergy/sinus issues are still there, but not so much...

Please pray we find a good place to live. We have several musts, and a few flex points, but we need a place where we can feel like home. We have always tried to work hard to make every place we lived be "home". We don't like to feel like it is just a temporary situation. Even though it could only be two years or so, we want it to feel like home.

Here is a photo of the kiddo's clowning around in the hotel room.

Tonight we ate at the 316 Oyster Bar. I forgot just how bland North Carolina food is, even the seafood! I ordered the combination platter with catfish, shrimp and stuffed crab. She asked if I wanted to fish and shrimp fried or broiled. I asked if the broiled fish and shirmp were seasoned good, and she replied that they were very well seasoned. Yea right!! A little dash of paprika! I should have gone with the fried, at least it would have been something besides a big hunk of white flesh fish...I need to go to the grocery store and look to see if they sell Tony's, if not, I know what I am going to load up on when I get back to Little Rock.

Still looking...

The last couple of days have been miserable. I have been sick and Noah has been sick. Thanks to all the prayers that went up for us, we are doing much better. Seems like since we have been here, I have been sick and under the influence of medication.

I haven't really cared much whether we found a house or not. But today we spent the day driving around to different neighborhoods to see if we were interested in looking at the house. From a list of about 22 houses, we found maybe three that we plan to look inside! I am a little discouraged by this. Sometimes it wasn't necessarily the house, but the neighborhood where it was located. So hopefully tomorrow we will look inside and go from there. We have seen two inside that are on the shorter list, but nothing I am in love with.

To be honest, I am going to reserve my opinion about our new home town until I get to know it better. Read between the lines; if I didn't fall in love from the beginning, well, I'm not crazy about it. But I have been sick, so I will wait to give the verdict on whether I am glad we are moving here.

I don't have any photo's from Fayetteville yet, I haven't been up to photographing much. Maybe in a day or two.

We arrived...

We arrived at our destination about 8:30 eastern time last night. We were all very tired, we had been on the road Monday for about 12 hours. So you can imagine how Noah felt after that long in a car seat!

We arrived to a very cold 20 degrees! And with me nursing a sore throat and sinus drainage! I woke up this morning feeling like I had been hit by a very large truck. My back feels like I walked and carried our load all the way. I suppose it is from sitting in the car for so long in one position.

Well Andrew had some work business to attend to this morning so it will give me little time to shower and relax before we have to go out. I think it is only suppose to get in the 30's here today. But the sun is shining and that makes a difference. However, by Thursday it will be in the mid 70's! No wonder everyone I talk to is sick with some kind of allergy/sinus thing...

We stopped east of Memphis at a church parking lot and let the kids get out and play in the snow a few minutes. Noah who had just said how much he liked snow, looks as though he doesn't think the snow's so great after all!

The rest of the photo's are through the window shots, I hate that kind, but considering we were flying past the scenery at rates of 55 to 65 miles an hour, it was kind of impossible to get any other kind of shots. My husband is the type of traveler that feels like the destination is more important than the journey, and I am just the opposite. I can understand that this trip was a little different, we had to be here and this is more like a mission than an actual trip, but I like to enjoy the journey. Even if I am going to the grocery store, I like to make the trip enjoyable. I do that by taking a different route each time, noticing things along the way that I may have not noticed before. I am always on the look out for a photo op. When I am in serious need of a vacation, I will drive around town looking at things as though I am new to the place and try to find interesting things about the area to see and enjoy. Yes, I suppose I am a little nuts, but hey, what would like be like without a few nuts like me... Don't answer that!

These trees reminded me of those old flocked Christmas trees from the 70's. When you bought that can of mysterious white spray and sprayed it all on your tree to make it look like it was full of snow. Along with filling your lungs with no telling what kind of toxins! Or for those who bought artificial trees, you could buy them already flocked. We usually went into the woods near our house and cut down a tree. We liked the Charlie Brown kind of trees...

I am going to shower now, and try to actually feel human again. I will be posting more trip photo's later. After we have had a chance to explore our new home town. Hope we aren't disappointed. I have to be honest, as bad as I felt last night after the long journey, and this sinus junk I have brought along with me, I was having a few second thoughts. But like they say, things always look better in the light of day. Since I haven't see it yet, lets hope they are right.

Heading East

Today we are leaving to head east. Naturally it would choose now to snow. I think we will be following it all the way...

Please be in prayer for traveling grace for us and also pray our trip is sucessful. We will be looking for a house. I have never been to this particular part of North Carolina so I am not sure how I will like it, however, I suppose I will have to adjust considering this will be our new home for the next few years.

I will be posting along on our trip and I will post photo's of things along the way.

I need to get off of here to finish our packing. I hate to pack...I put it off to the last minute because I hate it so much. But more than that I hate to unpack when the trip is done.

I washed up all of our dirty laundry yesterday after work, and now I am trying to get it all together...It is hard to pack for that long of a period of time, because as crazy as the weather is at times it could be snow or we may get to swim while we are there...

Well gotta run, au revoir!