Flowers

The day Leigh went and took his drug test, he brought me home some flowers!! They were so pretty and fun!!

Tickets

A couple weeks ago a member of our household received a ticket. It was quite interesting the mail we received several days after that. We got 8 different ads for traffic school and/or law firms to get the case dismissed. We've received about 1 or 2 in the mail every day after that.

(The ticket was for "speeding" in a school zone, and a stop sign had just been passed, so it couldn't have been much over the 15mph.)

kiddos

The kids are doing very well in school. Some days are harder than others to keep Josiah occupied. There was one week he kept snitching food out of the kitchen. (My dad would say I should feed the kid!) I had made chocolate chip cookies - that was probably the problem - and they sat in a container on the cabinet. The cabinets in this house, excuse me, the countertops, in this house are not as deep or as tall as the ones in Pensacola, so if something is on it, Josiah can get a stool and easily reach it. That week he ate cookies, crackers that I had made for Timothy (although Timothy won't eat them), graham crackers out of the diaper bag, graham crackers off of Timothy's high chair tray, two of Emily's skittles, part of one of Luke's cookies at lunch, and drank out of everyone's water bottles. No, he's not starving, he gets plenty of food, I think he was just bored that week or something. I don't remember Luke or Emily ever snitching as much as he does.

Timothy started saying "uh-oh" a week or two ago. And, he uses it appropriately. He has started playing the "throw my food off my high chair and say uh-oh" game. It is very cute though. If he drops a toy while he's playing he says uh-oh, too. He was playing with a dinosaur at the coffee table the other day and it sounded like he was making it roar. He was making it "walk" down the table and he was doing a very good job!

Josiah entertaining himself at school with address labels

that we got in the mail.

Update

Well, we had a good week this week. Leigh started his job on Wednesday. He went in and took a drug test on Monday, and they said it would take 2-3 days to get the results and then they would call and he could start work. We didn't think he would get called until Wednesday, so we were expecting him to start on Thursday, but they called on Tuesday, and he was able to start on Wednesday, so he didn't quite get finished all that he had hoped to before starting work, but he was able to finally finish most of it this weekend. After about a week of him being home after all our company left right after we moved down here, I didn't think I was going to survive with him being home every day. It was driving me crazy, because I was trying to unpack boxes and keep the kids busy, without interrupting his computer time where he was trying to find a job. I find it's easier for me to stay patient and just take care of things when it's just me, versus him being in another room to just ask to do a "quick" something. It was better when school started, because the kids and I were more occupied and weren't in and out as much, and we kind of got into a routine. Well, we must have been doing pretty good because I got right used to him being home. (Neither one of us has ever thought that we would do well with him working from home. We would have to have a detached shed or something for his office if he did.) After they called and said he could come to work on Wednesday, I was sad that he would be leaving! I was lonely on Wednesday, but it didn't take us long to get back into a new routine. I packed the kids up Friday pretty soon after he left for work, and we went to the library book sale!! Yay for book sales!! I was able to find several kids books, and a sewing book and a craft book for myself and it all cost under $4.00!! The kids books were .25 and .10 which were good prices I thought for a book sale! On Thursday and Friday, he came home for lunch, which was a fun highlight in our day and helped us not miss him so much.
Leigh's new schedule is later than it was in Pensacola, so that will take some getting used to, especially on Wednesdays with trying to get him supper and get to church on time. It's a good thing we don't live far from either, otherwise we would probably just have to meet him at church!! On Saturday, we went and did the Lowe's project, which was a monster truck with a green blinking light on top. The kids seem to enjoy it and it's a fun, free activity! That was about all that happened this week! Very exciting.....!  :)

New experiences

Saturday we went out on Family Visitation with our church. It was a fairly nice day for it, warm, but not roasting hot - nobody got sunburned. :)  Luke and Emily went with Pastor and his wife, and Leigh and I took Josiah, letting him walk, and pushed Timothy in the stroller. We only had about 4 people open their doors, so in that respect it didn't go very well. The other groups didn't do very well either. The kids seemed to enjoy it and I think it was a good experience for them. Luke was rather timid to start out with, but by the end of it he was participating very well! Josiah was hilarious! We had running commentary the whole time. He got to hold the tract to give to the people - supposedly they'll take it from a kid faster than an adult - and he did a very good job. One of the first houses we went to had a big, fluffy, live cat in the front window. He says: "Is that a cat? I don't like cats. (pause) I not afraid of cats. It has green eyes." Another house had little dwarf figurines and he wanted to know "what are those things called? Can I touch it?" A few houses later we walked up and they had three benches on their porch, and he informs us, "I'm going to sit on their bench." Um, Let's not, they might not like that... "oh" As we were walking up to one door, he says, "It might be a mean lady." I'm not sure where in the world that came from, because at that point the only lady that had opened the door was a really nice grandmotherly like lady who made us listen to her doorbell because it was missing notes. Several houses had dogs and he informed us at one house, that he has a dog, too. I said, "But we don't have a dog," and he tells me, " Well..... Cooper is my buddy." (Cooper is Grandpa and Grandmommy's dog) "He's at Grandpa's house." It was really sweet. The last house we went too had a nasty looking Halloween "dead person" hanging next to the door. It was a head/not quite skull thing with one eye bulging out and the other one either gone or inside (I didn't study it very much) with gray, stringy, decayed?? clothes? hanging on it (no other bones or anything). It wasn't too scary looking, just nasty looking. I tried to stand so he wouldn't see it, but I think he spied it as we were coming up to the house. So he asks, "What is that man doing?" I said, "He's yucky don't look at him." Josiahs says, "He's wearing a dress," and then he gives a little laugh, "that's funny, ... Can I touch his face?" I was like, "no, he's yucky!!" "Is he a mean man??" I don't know.
He was so fascinated by all the new things he saw and experienced. It was really cute and funny to hear him talk so much and ask so many questions.

In other news (possibly TMI)

Josiah is finally completely potty trained!! (and has been for a few weeks) Yay!! I kept putting off potty training him due to different things going on, so we finally got settled enough and got it done! I usually start potty training when the kids turn two. Josiah's birthday is in Sept., so we had just started school a few weeks before, and I was pregnant with Timothy who was due Nov. 30, so the energy and motivatin was completely lacking, and "they" say kids regress when you have a baby or changes, so I thought I'd wait until after the baby came and things settled down. Well, then Leigh gave me the News in October that we would be moving. Ha, How do you potty train a two year old, when you have an infant, and have to leave the house spotless at a moments notice and are trying to school two children?? Wasn't happenin' at my house. Oh yeah, and try to pack and declutter before having house pictures taken and putting a house on the market. Anyways, so he has been the latest, so far. He really wasn't hard to potty train due to the fact that he had full bodily control. It was mostly the training of "put it in the potty" and get there in time. I do have a theory that there is a certain time frame that works best. It would be when the time where sitting on the potty is still new and fascinating and the language and understanding isn't quite there to argue and "not want to" go on the potty and they request a diaper. I decided at one point that he was "to old" to potty train because he asked for a diaper because he didn't want to go sit on the potty. He should have been potty trained by then.
The other night at church I took him to go potty and there was blue water. His response was quite loud and firm, "I DON'T NEED A BLUE POTTY." I told him to just go ahead and go and then he says, "I flush the blue potty." That's fine, you can flush it! I didn't know it would be so traumatizing to have blue water in the toilet! :) One day I took him potty and after he was done (he sits on it backwards of his own doing), he says, "Git me offa here." He is so funny. (I think ages 2 and 3 are my favorite ages-the way they talk is hilarious)

Timothy was walking through the house today pushing his little push toy with wheels. He was so funny because sometimes he would let go and kind of tease us by standing there and then he would hold onto it and go some more. I wasn't sure how he would do with it and so I was very careful when I stood him up to it. I was afraid the wheels would move too fast on the hard floors and he wouldn't be able to keep up with it and would face plant, but when it started getting ahead of him, he had enough balance to pull back on it and not crash. He DID NOT appreciate Josiah trying to help him though. He gets quite vocal with Josiah. It's very funny!

Luke told us tonight that he had an idea to "draw beautiful pictures to sell to help make money until Daddy got a job." So he decided to draw some beautiful pictures anyways even though Daddy already had a job. They range in price from "3 sents" to "6 dollers". It was really sweet. He aslo learned to ride his bike without training wheels the beginning of September. He had to overcome his fear the first day and about two days after that he was doing it!!

I guess I should have put this first, but Emily accepted Christ as her Saviour a few weeks ago!!! I've been trying to encourage her to tell people, but she is very shy and quiet about it. Probably like someone else I know....:) I was so excited. Every time we would talk about Jesus and sin and whether she was saved or not, she would just cry and cry, so I knew she was sensitive to it, the understanding or something just wasn't quite there, and she would say she didn't know how, even though we would have just explained it. This time I explained it to her and she cried and cried, and asked me to help her!!! I was so glad it was her decision and she finally asked!

Etcetera

The biggest thing on our mind lately has been Leigh finding a job. It feels like he has been searching nonstop since we moved.  At times it has been very frustrating trying to find a balance of when it is okay and not okay to interrupt his time on the computer and such while he was job hunting. I think we adjusted well to having Daddy home all day, although it did become easier for me once we started school and my mornings were taken up with stuff instead of in and out and doing things all over the house. I think he did better too, because he knew I wouldn't be interrupting him whether on purpose or on accident (not that I would EVER purposefully interrupt, but maybe accidentally on purpose???? :)  :)  )  Anyways, we had to lay some boundaries down for ourselves and make it work and it has gotten much easier since we've gotten into a routine. I really have enjoyed having him home the past couple months. I really think it has helped me feel a little more settled and safe having him here. So that's good. We are so thankful that he has a job. It sounds like it'll be a good job and he will enjoy learning new stuff.
I feel very undeserving and amazed at God's provision for us. Our whole moving expedition has been a fascinating learning experience for me. I grew up and lived in the same house my whole life, my family is very close, I did live far away from grandparents, but I always wanted my kids to know their grandparents well, so moving in and of itself was a interesting concept to accept. I wasn't sure how to help my kids with a transition like this, because I had never had the feelings that I'm sure they have, but they seem to have adjusted beautifully. Yes, they miss our family and friends, but I don't think we've scarred them for life. Leigh and I have both had absolute peace about the decision to move. We sought Godly counsel and advice to make sure we weren't "missing" anything, and had absolutely no red flags from anyone or anything. We wondered if it was "smart" to leave a good job in the economy we were in, but we knew that we wouldn't go without anything we needed. We met with a realtor I think the beginning of February. At that time the average for a house to be on the market was around four to six months (if I'm remembering correctly). Our realtors put our house on the market the end of March and there was a signed contract on it the end of May. Wahoo! The closing date wasn't until Aug, and we were hoping to be able to stay in it until Leigh's contract ended on July 31st. (A shout out to Skip and Kristy-Thank you! :) "Technically" in our "economy" it shouldn't have sold that fast. Leigh's job ended July 31st, so he's been out of a job since August 1. He starts his new job next week, which is only 2 1/2 months of not working. After hearing him inform me of the statistics of finding a job and such, especially in a specialized area, he "technically" shouldn't have gotten a job this fast. It's neat to look back and see how God has worked specifically and generally in so many different ways, but it has also been neat to look forward and know that God WILL sell our house and God WILL give Leigh a job, we just don't know when.
Another interesting tidbit about his job, is that a few weeks ago, he went around town to different companies dropping off his resume and asking if they had job openings. This company was one of the ones where he dropped off his resume. ( I think they actually accepted one, most of them wouldn't take one) They told him to look online at their website and see if there were any openings. So, when he got home he did that, but the website didn't have any openings. It was about a week later when a recruiter contacted him about this job - they never did have it listed online.
Anyways, I guess I'm done rambling. I hope it makes sense. I'm trying to make a little sense out of some of my feelings, but I don't think I've done very well explaining any of it. Oh well! Hope you weren't too bored.