A Wheel in a Wheel

Ever heard the song, "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel?" We used to sing it in my college choir. I always loved that song. Part of it says, "A wheel in a wheel in a wheel in a wheel in a..." over and over again. It's my favorite part. That's the part I was singing today when I had my first blowout.
The little kids and I had just left the big girls school where we watched Addi get a character award, and we were on our way to my mom's house to help her pack up the last of her things before their big moving day tomorrow. I had just gotten on the road that leads to the interstate when I heard a loud clank against the back passenger side of the suburban. Thinking I must have missed a stick in the road or something I thought nothing of it until suddenly my car was not drivable. I assumed that it was a tire, but because it was nearly impossible to drive the car forward I was worried it was something else. I slowly eased forward into a store parking lot to see what the damage was. Sure enough my back tire was shredded! It had a GIANT hole in it.
Knowing there was NO way I was going to be able to get in touch with Manly while he was in a session with a client, I began to panic a little because I'd never learned to change a tire in this particular car. I knew two things: that the tire was attached under the car, and that the jack was NO WHERE to be found! I searched EVERYWHERE for it! Nothing. Assuming we didn't even HAVE a jack I got back into the car where the baby was crying from not having his morning nap. I called Manly about a million times trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do when a man in a nice car pulled up and rolled down his window. Thinking he was going to help I opened the door and said hello. He immediately began telling me why he COULDN'T help me(he had a baby in the car, he needed to get to the pharmacy, yadda yadda.)Thinking it was a little strange that a stranger would take the time to stop only to tell me he couldn't help I smiled and said, "Well, thanks anyway!" and shut my door.
We sat there for almost an hour before a giant fifth wheel truck pulled up next to us. A GIANT man from Texas got out and smiled. He said, "Well! It seems you need my assistance, ma'am! Can I help you with your tire?" I gave him the run down about what I knew then he just smiled again and asked for my suburban book from the glove box. After giving it a quick glance he opened the back of my car and quickly found the jack(which was TOTALLY hidden!!), and explained that he needed my key to release the spare. In what seemed like 5 seconds he had the spare out and was jacking up the truck all the while stopping to explain to my eager four-year-old son what he was doing and how someday Isaiah would be able to help me himself. My heart was blessed by his willingness to help us out. He made quick work of the tire, and was putting the shredded one in the back when Manly finally made it there.
We thanked him, to which he said he was happy to help. He got back into his giant truck and drove away like a knight on a steed. Ha! I was so so thankful for his help. We had to get a new tire, but the day wasn't completely ruined. I came home and had a homemade brownie Steph had made the night before with the kids while we were at parent/teacher conferences(WHICH WE TOTALLY ROCKED, BTW). We also won a gift certificate to one of our favorite restaurants from the school AND were blessed by someone at church who got us Frozen as an anonymous gift which we watched again today. All in all a pretty good day even with a giant holey tire! Wait, is holey a word??? Ehh, Have a GREAT weekend and FUN Spring Break!

My Addi with her Character Award. She was slightly embarrassed about winning, but so excited!

Master of destruction, Eli LOVES looking at photo albums. He'll point to the pictures and say, "THAT THAT!" He'll pull three or four out at a time, but he sure does love to look.

My Lulu was right in front of us at the assembly today. Fun to watch her interacting with her friends. The boy on her right is one of her best friends at school right now. She shared about Jesus to the girl on her left today. She came home with tears in her eyes that this girl wasn't ready to ask Jesus as her savior. I told her she might have planted a seed in her heart. You can pray with Olivia that the girl's heart will be softened. Olivia is VERY burdened for this girls salvation.

The Truth Is...

I keep getting on my blog to update the world with what's been going on with us, but the truth is every time I do I feel overwhelmed with how far behind I am on here. It's been WAY too long, and I've missed a LOT. Another truth is that I bought a new computer, and while I love a lot of what it does I HATE sorting through photos on it, and it makes trying to post photos on here nearly impossible. I'm thankful for the provision of a computer, but I should really take the time to try and figure this thing out because I'm limited to what I can actually do on the silly thing! Ehh, at least it has a touch screen...
Also, the truth is that we aren't doing so great. While I always try to be real on my blog, there are only so many times that you can write that it's been a tough year. We've had financial struggles due to the yo-yoing of private practice, heartache, loneliness, sadness, sick kids, kids going to public school, kids getting their heart broken, kids with attitude problems, the list goes on and on. I am fully aware that our trials are minuscule in relation to the trials of others, and I am in no way trying to get anyone to feel sorry for me, only stating that it's been tough, and sharing our nutso life with the world isn't really high on my list of things to do. I want to be honest, but honestly, there are some things I really don't want to have lingering over my head on the Internet for the rest of time.  I've struggled with how to say what I'd like to say for a long time. Honestly, there are a lot of things I'd like to share, but proper words just won't come to me, so I take that as the Lord being my filter of sorts. Ha!
I haven't really done a whole lot of blogging since Christmas, so I think I'll just highlight a few things that have happened since then.

• In January we put the three big girls in public school. It hasn't been what I wanted it to be, and honestly, I'm not really all that pleased with how things are going. The girls are all doing fine, and have really liked a lot about school, but I'm still feeling sad about not being their teacher. I miss them terribly, and feel like it's still not quite right. There are a lot of things I do like about it though, and one of those is that they are having a fun time and they are shining their light for all the school to see.
  

Here they are on storybook character day. Addi is Cinderella, KK is Alice, and Olivia is Josefina(the American Girl).

 

KK won the character award in February. Makes a momma proud!

The kids had a superhero night at school. Here they are sporting their looks. Yes, Eli is wearing a shirt although you can't tell! Ha! Check out the creeper behind Livi. Poor Mia was a little shy.

 

Another pic of the kids. Seriously hysterical!

 

My Lulu at her first choir concert. She's the first one on row three on the left.

• Brubbs turned FOUR! I can not believe he's already four! He's such a sweet sensitive little boy. I love his sense of adventure, and love for all things manly. He and his Daddy went to the monster truck jam for his birthday. He got a Red Rider BB gun from his Pop which he loves. All he asked for was cake and his Nana and Pop to eat lunch with us.

Here he is at his restaurant of choice with his monster truck cake.

 

With his pop shooting his gun for the first time! He is SO proud of that gun!

• Manly and I made rain gutter bookshelves. I got the idea to do them a long time ago, but never had the time or effort available to do them. Recently we've been making some simple home improvements, so I added doing this to my list and we knocked it out in an afternoon. They look BEAUTIFUL and the kids love them, and they are quite sturdy if I do say so myself. We used this tutorial, although since ours were almost nine feet long we added several more brackets than they say are required.

I added little baskets for the really heavy massive story books we have. They're just too big for any shelf really.

•  I also decided to have my hand at some of my own DIY projects I've been putting off. I'm really happy with the end results, although I don't have pics of those. Ooops!

I used my leftover lactation tea to dye my curtains. They turned out the right color and everything. Too bad tossing them into the dryer for 10 minutes to dry shrunk them up!

This poor front porch rocking chair was looking quite rough! After a few coats of red spray paint she was looking as good(better) than new! LOVE the new color and it matches my front door.

I also turned several things in my house teal. LOVE the pops of color!

 

•  I helped the girls(with Manly) make some killer Valentine's boxes! Judge if you want, but it was fun and the girls were DELIGHTED! I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Although I did make these reusable, so I stuck them into the attic at first chance so I can use them again next year!! Ha!

Addi wanted a castle, so castle she got! It looked super girly and sparkly.

KK wanted a pirate ship. Her box took us about 20 minutes. REALLY simple and FUN!

Livi did most of the work on her doggie box. It was the cutest thing! I loved her idea of using multi-color brown yarn to give it added dimension. The little pink bows on the ears just really top it off. SO cute!!! Pretty easy too! Just a box with tape and yarn.

•   Isaiah is still receiving vision therapy in Fort Smith, and we are pleased with his progress. I will say we HATE going to Fort Smith every other week. It's a total hassle, but at this point still worth it to me. I wish his Dr. would move to Conway though!!

Isaiah working through his therapy with red/green glasses. He does a lot of work with these so that it will force him to use both eyes at the same time. 

• I got a nose ring for Valentine's Day. Well, I guess it wasn't really FOR Valentine's Day, but I did get it the day after Valentine's Day. So far I like the way it looks, but it does bug me a little. I think it's mostly because I touch my nose too much! Ha! It's funny how the way some people viewed me changed. Ha! Honestly, it's something I've wanted to do for a REALLY long time. I just finally got the guts to do it! There are a lot of things like that on my list of things to do that you might see pop up. Too bad the next thing on my list is fit into a dress that I've always kept. I may NEVER get to anything else on my list. Haha! No, seriously. I like my nose ring and you should too!



• Eli is a MESS. No, like he's really a stinker! He's basically been sick since he started refusing to nurse at 4 months. Yeah, he's basically a poster child for the benefits of nursing. He's currently on a month long dose of antibiotics in hopes of flushing this nastiness out for good, but if this doesn't work, we'll be checking for immunity and allergy issues. To say the least, it's been a long several months of having a sick baby. I know it could be much worse, and I'm very thankful it's not. I am praying for healing and answers though. In the mean time he's just been as sweet as can be! In between making messes that is!

 

After he got his oatmeal bowl and basically got it EVERYWHERE!

• Mia Jane is really coming out of her shell since the girls have been in school. She has had severe shyness, but in the past three months has really bloomed. She's also REALLY smart and able to do things that blow me away. She can add, subtract, knows most of her letters and numbers, and has amazing control over her writing. This girl got her smarts from her daddy. I can't wait to see her continue to blossom this year.

My sweet girl wanted to write her name. She said, "Show me how, momma." So, I did. This is what she did afterward. Love her little Disneylike "I."

 

She reminds me so much of my sweet Livi at this age.



• Manly won the outstanding young alumnus award at our college. I am SO proud of him! He's really done well in the last few months at work. I can't wait to see what lies ahead for him. I know he'll go on to do great things. He's such a hard worker, and really great at everything he puts his hands to.

My man with his award. Looking quite cute, I might add. 

• After YEARS of waiting I finally got my Big Red!! I'm SO SO EXCITED. I jump at any chance to get to use her! She's such a bute, and so good at what she does. I'm so thankful to Manly for getting her for me!

Here she is in action making homemade butter cream icing.

 

• Manly and I will soon get to take a break and visit Dallas sans kids.
• I met a random stranger who knew who I was because she read my blog. Hi!
• Manly got a new truck! Poor guy has been driving tiny cars suitable for much smaller people than himself, so he was delighted to get to buy a big Ford Explorer. Best part is it's completely paid for. Best advice we ever took was to buy cash cars!

OK, so up next, Eli's party! Now I feel like I'm caught up enough that I can share about his party without feeling like I've skipped EVERYTHING else that happened over the last few months! Thanks for being a part of our life and for hanging in there with me while I needed a break!

 

All-American Sleepover

Olivia just recently had her ninth birthday. In an effort to minimize the craziness in my life I asked if she'd like to have a sleepover instead of a full party. I know, you're thinking, "IS SHE OUT OF HER MIND?!?!" but our parties are a pretty big deal, so when I thought sleepover I thought simple.

She wanted to have an American Girl party anyway, so I thought that an all-American sleepover would be perfect.
She invited some friends, and we did some simple décor. I made a box cake with strawberry frosting, ordered pizzas, popped popcorn, bought candy, got doughnuts, and stocked up on punch and paper products. That's all you need for a sleepover, right!?
Since she was only going to have a few guests we were able to do a fun craft project-doll purse making! They loved using the fabric paint to decorate their doll purses.
I also took pictures of each of the girls. I'm not posting them here for security reasons, but they were SO cute!! I sent the pictures to the 1-hour photo place and picked them up on my way to get doughnuts so that I could send them home with her guests as party favors.
Lulu had the TIME OF HER LIFE! Fun was had by all, and we survived our first sleepover with flying colors!

 

Her daddy made her a giant homemade cinnamon roll on the day of her actual birthday and brought it to her in bed.

 

Little princess happy to have breakfast in bed.

Yikes!

I can't believe my sweet girl is NINE!!

On the evening of her birthday Nana and Pop came over for dinner. She asked for Chicken Alfredo, bread, corn, and peas. She wanted a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. That's just what she got.

We made each girl a little place setting including a name card. I sent these home with the girls on their party favor bags.

Simple décor. Dollar store decorations on light, dollar store table cloth, cheap-o paper products, the side of an American Girl doll box in the middle of the table with two of her mini dolls. The girls thought it was SO cool! Ha!

The doll set-up! They played with dolls ALL evening!

This is the craft table. Olivia thought it would be a cool idea to decorate with clippings from the magazine, so she cut out some of her favorite things then taped them to the table.

My sweet girl turning NINE!!!

Here you can see SOME of the things they had to play with. Each girl brought their own doll.

We used the front of the doll box to take these posed pictures of each girl, and sent them home with this as a party favor.

AND, little sister lost her first tooth at the party!!

Our Story: And Baby Makes Three

So, we were married in October. We knew it may not be long until a baby joined us because we weren't using any form of birth control. I know it's crazy, but I've said here before, we made a decision before we were married to allow God to plan our family, and that's just what we did. I was still a little shocked when only THREE months later, on January 25th I had a positive pregnancy test.

The few months BEFORE we found out we were going to be parents. Our first Thanksgiving and New Years as a married couple.

 

Exactly one month before we found out Lulu was on the way. Like my monogrammed shirt? Ha!

 

Our first snowfall, and a pic of our cottage. That's actually how long it was. This photo isn't cut off. We were so proud of it though!

 

Manly had just left to go to school, and I had been feeling strange, so as soon as he left I jumped out of bed and went and took a test. It was immediately positive. I was interning at a crisis pregnancy center at the time, so I headed over there to take an additional test. To my surprise I saw another PINK test result. I was pregnant!

Our first Easter as a married couple. I was a few months pregnant here.

I wasted no time in telling...Ashley! I called her and told her the news and she was even more SHOCKED! She helped me come up with a plan to tell Manly the news. I made a yummy dinner and set an additional plate at the table(actually we didn't have room for a table in the cottage, so I set the plate on HIS tray table.). I taped baby booties to my tummy and wrote the message, "Hi Daddy!" I also put the pregnancy tests in a gift bag just in case he needed a little proof. When he came home from work I was waiting for him to notice but he never did. FINALLY I said, "Did you notice we have an additional plate at the table?" After a minute of looking around confused he asked what was up. I raised my shirt up to reveal the message. To say he was shocked was an understatement, but he was also very excited! After that we sent cards to all of our family telling them the news.

My beautiful girl proving that she was wonderfully made.

 



Once we went to the doctor and our little pea sized flickering baby we were in full get-ready-for-baby-mode. The baby was due October 6. I remember before we were married Manly saying he wanted seven girls. I know, he's probably a few fries short of a happy meal. When we found out we were having a baby I just knew it was going to be a girl. I can't explain it. When the ultrasound tech finally said she was a girl we were thrilled! We decided on the name Olivia Nichole(even though Manly said that Olivia was a "fat girl" name).
Before she came I had to graduate, and we had to find a new place to live. The cottage was just too tiny. In fact, the biggest reason we had to go was because my growing belly could no longer fit into the tiny shower and we literally had NO place to put another person. We found a little 2-bedroom apartment, and moved when I was about 6 months pregnant.

Manly's friends from high school threw us a great baby shower.

 

I continued with school, and we stayed on the acting team we were on. It was a little difficult to travel being married and pregnant. Most times we were separated for the night due to the logistics of hotel rooms and our tiny budget. We made such sweet memories that year of school with our friends who were on the team with us. I think they were just about as excited about us having a baby as we were!

This was actually right after we got engaged, but I forgot to load it on the other post. We look so tan. And young.

 

Our good friends "Skeeter" and Sarah.

 

On a trip we took with the team to OKC.

 

Most of our team in OKC. Such sweet friends and fun memories.

 

On of the scariest hotels we have EVER stayed in was in some tiny town in armpit Missouri. This was outside of our room. Manly posed with it, and this has always been one of my favorite memories of our year on the Impact Team.

 

The roughest trip we took. I don't remember where this was, but I was SO sick!

 



There were mornings when I was so sick that I'd be sitting in class and barely make it to the bathroom. I'd just wash my face and head back to class like nothing had happened. I FINALLY graduated in May 2004 after 6 years! I was about 5 months pregnant. That was a really big accomplishment for me, as I was the first in my family to ever graduate from college.

My graduation day.

After being huge pregnant all through the summer our sweet, kind-hearted, humble, smart Olivia Nichole was born two weeks early on September 24, 2004. She had some minor breathing problems and spent 24 hours under an oxygen tent, but she was the most beautiful baby we'd ever seen, and we were so glad she had made us parents.

The progression of becoming a parent.

 

Our little family.

 

I'll always remember Manly bringing her into our little apartment in her car seat. He sat her down in her room, then turned and looked at me and said, "Now what?!!" He turned out to be the perfect father. He'd hold her while he studied. He'd stay up with her in the night while she screamed. He'd hold her just right to help her gassy little tummy. He'd talk to her in a calming voice and get her so peaceful. He amazed me at his ability to jump right in and do a great job.

Lulu resting while Daddy studies.

 

Checking out the classifieds with Dad.

 

Manly stayed in college, and I worked full-time as a church administrator. When he was in class, his sister would come over and watch Olivia. I still think that is why Olivia and Stephanie have such a close bond. Stephanie loves that girl, and she poured into her those few hours a week that she was there. We were so thankful to have her help us out that year.

Me and my sweet(grumpy) Santa Baby.

 

Some of my favorite moments with Lulu in her first year.

 

First trip to the pumpkin patch

 

Family Day at CBC.

 

Christmas studio photo. We look like a big black blob!

 

Lulu's first Thanksgiving.

 

It finally got to be time for Manly to start thinking about what he wanted to do after graduation. After much thought and prayer he decided to pursue a dual master's degree in counseling(LPC/LMFT) from John Brown University. That meant a move that I wasn't quite prepared to make...