Our Week

Let’s just say my house in under construction and leave it there.

In cuteness…Brother swinging           

The jasmine and ballerina roses are blooming

Visiting my friend Melanie on her birthday.  Joy loved the shake I brought home.

Lots of work going on…

We ripped out the desk in Becca’s old room and tore apart the entertainment center upstairs.  We cleaned out closets.  11 years of memories and junk.  It was a late night!  Thankfully the garage men hauled it away!  And yes, if you live in Texas, you also know it was STARR testing for Jessi and Lizzy.  I am the Mother of the Year that had them up till 9PM cleaning out closets because I’m awesome like that!

As the carpet was ripped out, Jason screwed down planks on the stairs so they wouldn’t squeak!    The new carpet looks awesome!  

The counters and backsplash were demolished.

Meanwhile our family got the stomach bug and Joy got Fifth’s Disease.

All the tile and the toilets in the upstairs bathrooms were ripped out.

New subflooring and tile

Playing around on the plastic sheeting                      Tea party

Becca and Aunt Marci told us about this idea.  Take cinnamon rolls from a can and cook them on your waffle maker – yummy!                     Yes, this week required pizza!

Lots of eating outside, no kitchen, so grateful for the grill!

Granite in – kitchen cabinets and three bathrooms

Backsplash up

Cuties

Summed up it was a long week.  We were stuck in the Master Bedroom since everything else was torn up.  Sickness and no kitchen.  Jason worked from home while the chaos reigned supreme.  He took off one day to care for me and the kids because I was so sick.  Not an awesome week.

By Friday night we were able to use the kitchen and Jason fixed the dishwasher so it worked again.  And then I had my moment.  I was finally able, after three days, to do dishes – ah, the simple pleasures.  I was using a new super deep sink, with a super fancy faucet, undermounted on fancy granite and I started to cry.  Silly me.  Really it’s pride rearing it’s ugly head.  But I’ve never had anything fancy like this. In Kentucky I won’t have anything like this either.  I spent Saturday second guessing myself.  Did we really need to move?  Why couldn't we just stay and enjoy this home?  The girls are good here.

Saturday afternoon as I drove to the Woodlands to donate some children’s books to a friend Jessi and I heard this song on the radio.  Loved it!  We came home and bought it~

Saturday night as  I read my scriptures, I flipped to the Bible Dictionary to read about pride.  There isn’t an entry there.  Instead my eyes fell on the entry for Proverbs.  I read that Proverbs 3 is the most often quoted.  So I turned there and read.  I read the first four verses, good stuff.  Then I came upon verses five and six and I cried again.

5 ¶^aTrust in the Lord with all thine ^bheart; and lean not unto thine^cown ^dunderstanding.

6 In all thy ways ^aacknowledge him, and he shall ^bdirect thy^cpaths.

These two verses have always been a favorite of mine.  I even cross stitched them as a teenager and it hangs on my bedroom wall.  But reading them Saturday night was like reading them for the first time ever.  How I felt Heaven’s love for me!  His desire that I just trust Him and follow Him.  To Kentucky.  It’ll be good, even if there isn’t granite and stainless steel appliances and brand new tile and carpet.  It’ll be His Plan and it’ll be good.

Our Week

Well, I’ll just get it over with.  Rip the band-aid off, right?

Our family is moving.  To Kentucky.  Remember this place?  It’s everything I could dream of for Brother.  We have thought.  We have prayed.  Our children have prayed.  We have gone to the temple.  I was reminded that I promised Alex’s Birthfather that we would do everything we could to help Alex develop and become the most he can be.  We really feel that Kentucky will help with that.  VIPS will help with that.  Having the Kentucky School for the Blind right there in Louisville (unlike clear away in Austin like here) will help with that.  Our girls have prayed and we are all in agreement that our family needs to be in Kentucky. Great!  Then let’s go!  Jason’s work has been great – they will let him work remotely.  No problem they said.  Fantastic!

Except that we own a house.  A large 3000 square foot house with a mortgage.  We have to get rid of this house and preferably for a large profit as houses are more expensive in KY. (darn!)  We talked with one realtor who walked in and learned that we had seven children.  After picking her jaw off the floor, she said just cut your losses.  Sell as is and be done with it.  It’s too much work with that many kids!  Then we talked to a realtor we know from church.  She has explained this crazy market, she has talked dollars and cents with us, and she has guided us on how to get our house ready for the market.  Thank you Mariangel!  It has been an exhausting, draining, and emotional process for me so far – and we still have so far to go! 

I have had so many thoughts of late.  I have likened selling our house to our lives here on earth.  We had one person say just forget it.  It’s too much work.  You have too many other responsibilities.  Forget this house and walk away.  Sound like anyone you ever hear in your head?  This is too hard!  Why bother?  It’s just who I am.  Then another who walked in and said with a little work, this house is going to be amazing!  Isn’t that what the Savior does to us?  Let’s work on this together.  We might need a little polishing or we might need a major overhaul – but either way, He sees worth and potential in us.  He doesn’t give up and walk away from us.  Especially on this Easter Sunday I am grateful for Him who has paid the price and can see me for more than I am, but for who I can be!

So grateful that I have decluttered and thrown things away over the years.  We have been in this house for 11 years!  That’s a long time!  Still every trash day I have sacks and sacks.  So much junk!  I am giving things away left and right.  And still we’ll have so much stuff!

Sleeping is overrated.  So is eating.

Grateful that I have 17 therapies a week.  It’s the only time I stop moving and working.

Back to our regularly scheduled blog post:

Having a friend over after Camp Hope last Saturday.  Sammi graciously cooked for her exhausted parents.                                  

A quick trip to the ER to replace a blown balloon on the Bella’s g-tube.

Everything, every piece of clothing, every toy is being weighed to see if will go to Kentucky or if someone in Texas could use it better.

For FHE, we watched this from the church – powerful!  Loved it!

Loving on kitties                                 Jessi had Orchestra UIL  – straight 1’s!!   AWESOME!!

Loving on each other

Joy’s sweet aide.  Mrs. Brown or “Brown!!!!!” as Joy calls her.  They planted flowers and had an Easter Egg hunt in her class!  I adore Joy and Bella’s teachers and assistants.  I can’t tell you the amount of prayers that have gone up in gratitude for these women and pleading that the girls will have good teachers in Kentucky!

Miss Rosie told Sammi about some sensory gloves – stuff gloves with flour – they feel really cool!  She also likes plain water.                              The kitties are getting so cute!

Going through food storage – Becca helped me with this baking soda in 2003!  Love her little handwriting! 

This week two carpet guys came out, one granite guy, and the painting guy.  Lots of decisions, lots of money.

Grace and Lizzy watching TV                     Joy coloring

Bella wants to do a forward roll

Jason got everyone up so they could see the blood moon/lunar eclipse.  Very cool!

Brother has learned to ask for up by placing his arms in the air.  He loves jumping on the ball.  How are we going to live without our therapists?  They are my dearest friends!  They know exactly what my children face each day.  They celebrate with me.  They grieve with me.  How I love them!

In PT Bella is working on how to push her own wheelchair

Garden pics                     and Bella’s artwork from school

We are loving the cheap strawberries right now!  Isn’t this one crazy?

Reading with Alex                 More happy jumping

Good bye puzzles, Goodbye song box (some things have such emotional attachments)

Mama love

Working in PT on swinging in a big boy swing!  He kept testing his boundaries – he’s funny!  Cute Bella!!

Lizzy took an uncontracted braille book to school for free reading – her classmates were amazed!  She made really good progress through it!   Another Bearkat award for Sammi girl.  Oh Sammi, how hard this is on you.  You are being so brave and trying so hard.  I appreciate your sacrifices on Brother’s behalf.  How I pray for good teachers, friends, and church leaders for you!

Playing with her baby       Trying to eat all of our beef in the freezer!    Dancing with Daddy!

For the granite guy to make a template the counters had to be totally cleaned off.   Turns out our kitchen isn’t that small after all!     Poor Joy trying to eat breakfast at the table!  All of our kitchen junk!

Even though I am exhausted, when my baby asks if I’ll go on a bike ride with her, the answer is “Yes, of course!”  They need as much stability as I can provide.  She picked this primrose during our ride.                        Playing together                     Blowing bubbles

With all of the going through and cleaning, I felt a little guilty for my big girls.  So off they went with Dad on Friday night to see Captain America!  (They were happy about that!)  They called it a Daddy Daughter, Daughter, Daughter Date!

New appliances

Dying Easter Eggs

Family Dinner at the Farm – it is going to be weird to have holidays without our family

Easter

 

  In Young Women they talked about “The Living Christ.”  We have been so blessed to live among such devoted and wonderful Saints!  So grateful for the good women that touch my girls’ lives!

 

 

 

 

Church Nursery – Bella.  She loves that zebra!