Ellis' in Greenville

Well folks, he did it.

Done now after 3 or 4 years of working on papers by candle light. He'd put the boys to bed, hang out with the wife then when I'd get sleepy he'd get up and go study for an hour or two. He was so good at keeping his study time from interfering with family time that I didn't even know he was working on a Masters until 2 years into it. The man hasn't had a Sunday afternoon nap in four years. If he was home and we were sleeping, he was studying.

Boy is he glad he's done!





After graduation Mike and I left the children in Greenville and headed back to Abilene to oversee the move. Due to cutbacks in the Air Force this move was less government supervised and much more of a headache. See below. Mike and I spent hours chilling on this rug waiting while the slowest people in the planet packed and moved our stuff. I'm so thankful that the boys weren't there going crazy.

Helpful people like this one (Joe) kept the kids happy and healthy while Mike and I were moving.

For the last two months we thought we were going to have a house built for us in Arkansas. Turns out we were wrong. God changed the plans for us on that. No problem except that we didn't have a place to live and needed to begin the house search again. Well, we found one. We drove up and looked at it and immediately put in an offer. After a little bit of negotiating we bought a house! I'm very excited about moving in and making this place home. It comes with an acre and a half of land for the boys to explore. It couldn't be more perfect for our family.

Ty had a birthday. My smiley little guy has turned four. For those of you with little bitty kids, four is big. No longer a toddler, no longer struggling to communicate, no longer having potty training issues. No, this guy is big. I'll put up a birthday post soon. I'm working on collecting all the pictures. Here he is waiting on the UPS man to deliver him a package full of birthday party supplies --glow sticks!

So I told you the house was perfect for us right? Well it is, or it will be... after we add another 500 sq. feet. Dad is showing Mike how to build stairs.

We've been being a little more creative with activities for the boys since we are not at home and doing our normal routine. Here mom brought home a big piece of cardboard for the kids to draw on.

Austin helps himself to fruit often.

The boys have access to an awesome swing set in the backyard. Mom and Dad's is a fun place.

The boys and I have been to this park several times. Here my big guy is enjoying a picnic.

I snapped a picture of all three of them (in the same place). See how Austin thinks he's one of the big kids.

Hannah invited the boys over to her house for a sleepover. They did cool things like this. A masking tape race car track. The guys had an awesome time.

Dad needed some pictures of pregnant women for a video at church to show the need for workers in the nursery. This picture was taken two days before the baby was born.

Next post: Baby is here!

The way it's been

I am so far behind in recording our major life events that I'm going to have to update you in a series of posts.

I'll start off with saying that the last nine months were some of the most physically challenging I can remember. I was sicker with this last baby than all the others. More extreme morning sickness --the scented trash bags made me want to throw up. Mike making coffee did make me throw up. On the good days I would roll out of bed, walk to the kitchen, lie over on the counter resting my head in my hands and rest for a few seconds before summoning the strength to do what I had to in that room.

Amazingly enough my boys all made it through. The next couple months were good. And God provided (as He always does) with my sister, Chrissy, moving in with Mike and I. She attended college in Abilene while living with us. We had told her for years she was always welcome to come live with us where ever we were and do college in that town. She came and was a huge help to me and Mike. We thoroughly enjoyed her presence and involvement in our little family.

December arrived too quickly for me. I spent as much time as I could afford being with the women who had walked with my through the last four years --four years that I wouldn't trade for the moon. Those years were filled with adjusting to military life, deployments, TDYs, having children (plural), surviving a two-year-old. I learned so much about how to be a wife, a mother, a daughter to our Heavenly Father, a teacher. I learned how to make friends, how to make coffee, how to be not so obnoxious. I spent countless hours with a cup of coffee in front of me either receiving council or discussing with my peers different ways to reach a child's rebellious heart. I would listen to women build up their husbands and would learn how to be a submissive wife with words of praise on her tongue instead of a judgemental untrusting woman.

I wouldn't trade these four hard years. I definitely feel that God took us to Abilene for me to learn. --I think I've said that on here before... sorry....

So December we left Abilene.

For the last two months the boys and I have been living in Greenville with my gracious hospitable parents and two youngest sisters. I can't believe they haven't asked us to move --or moved out themselves. I had hoped that we would be able to be a blessing to them by having dinner on the stove and the house clean when they got home from work each day. It hasn't exactly worked out that way. The house has never been clean for them. Dinner on the stove... maybe once or twice a week. I just haven't felt very good physically since I've been here. The last month and a half of the pregnancy were hard. Today, a week and a day since baby #4 was born, I'm beginning to feel strength return. However, most all of that is spent trying to take care of four small people. It seems with each new child I have to re-learn how to do life. How many does it take till you get it down and daily life becomes a perfected form of art? 19? If so, I doubt we'll ever get there ;-)

Tonight, after sending the wild boys to bed, I asked if the grown-ups at home would watch the baby while I escaped. They were more than willing, as always.

But now, Starbucks is closing on me. I promise the next post will provide more humor and less information. For records sake I needed to recap the last months. Stay tuned, maybe this blog will get funny again. I think it will.