No pictures, just a long overdue update on the past month. Yes, it has been over a month since my last post, but I have a very good excuse! There is lots of
information to catch you up on, and hopefully I will not wait a month for my next post, so hear it goes. . .
The move and snowWe did it, we moved back down to Texas. We started out the first week of February with the movers coming and hauling our stuff away. Our items were stored in Austin while we lived with family and friends out of our suitcases for 3 weeks. A HUGE thank you to everyone that opened their home to us. Ryan worked all over Texas, and the boys and I enjoyed time with family and friends. The snow and cold weather followed us to Texas. We had packed 1 suitcase with all shorts and short sleeve shirts for the warm Texas weather we were anticipating, needless to say we didn't need it. The day we closed on our house in Austin 2/23, it snowed. Ryan and I painted 2 rooms - dining room and bedroom and then prepared for the movers. No major damages or problems with with movers - and then the fun began - UNPACKING! Thanks to my sweet mother who came down to help unpack/watch the boys. I think we set a record of unpacking, by Tuesday all boxes were unpacked - yea! The boys started a new preschool last week, they go on Tuesday/Thursday and are enjoying it. We have a park near the house, so we try to go everyday and play outside. We have had wonderful weather, so we are loving being outside. One of my favorite parts about moving to a new area is
investigating the grocery stores. I have a secret passion for grocery shopping. I do have to say, I LOVE H-E-B! We have almost overdosed on
mexican food, so now we are getting our feel of
bbq down here. That sums up the move . . .
JennyMost of you know/are friends with Jenny, or you heard about her through my
facebook or word of mouth. Thank you so much for your prayers and support throughout her fight. I always thought about Jenny as the "Jesus girl", she was strong in her faith and loved the Lord more than life. She said the most beautiful prayers. I always loved it at bible study when it was her turn to pray. She had such sweet words and a tender voice to heal your pain. Her death was very difficult. 2 days after she died I was unpacking my kitchen, I unpacked a pot holder that was hers. The last time she brought dinner to our house for small group, she left it. For over 2 years I tried to get it back to her until we decided I could just keep it. Now
every time I use it I think of her and say a quick prayer. She was a woman of God that believed in the power of prayer. Please continue to pray for her family. Her funeral was one of the hardest most wonderful things I have ever been through. One of her brothers (a music minister) lead worship, for over 20 minutes we worshiped God through singing praises and the other brother (a minister) did an excellent job with the service. Jenny wanted her life to be a God driven life, her funeral represented that. It was hard to say goodbye to such a sweet "Jesus girl".
JacksonOur sweet nephew is about to start his bone marrow transplant. We will be traveling to Dallas next weekend for a prayer/support meeting for him, Doug, and Mel. They will leave the following week for CO. They will go through testing before the procedure will start around the first of March. Please, please add Jackson to your prayer list, this will be a difficult procedure on him. Please pray it will be successful and in time he can be
NEMO free. Please keep Doug and Melissa in your prayers. This will be very hard on them, please pray that this will continue to strengthen their relationship as husband and wife and parents. They are amazing people with a big hearts!
That should catch you up on us . . . I will try and upload pictures of the house and boys this week!
We had several visitors over Spring break. Robin and London came in to see us. We took the kids to Zilker park and rode the train. The kids had a great time playing together and running around. Afterwards they wanted to put their feet into the cold waters of Barton Springs. You should have seen their faces once they hit the very cold water.
The Paul's stopped by last Monday to visit. D found a Texas jersey for Ben, so he had to wear it that day to support the other longhorn fans that were with us. The boys had so much fun playing baseball in the backyard. I don't think anyone wanted them to leave - you must come back!
Pic of the trips - Doug, Rich, and Ryan - last weekend we went up to Dallas for a prayer service for JAckson. They leave this week for CO, they will have 2 weeks of testing before the bmt. Please continue to pray for them!
We ride our bikes daily. We have a park 3 blocks away, so it is very good excerise for the boys to ride their bikes to the park. We did have to bribe them to ride their bikes, but now that they are pros on them, incentives aren't needed - sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do (yes honey, that is J-town talk).
Our new house - not the best picture, but I was taking it at night. Hopefully the next picture we will a lot better with pretty colorful flowers in the front. I love our new house. Last week, Ryan and I took down the wallpaper in the kitchen. When he was out of town, I textured the walls. We are hoping to paint it this coming week. Very slowly we are making the house ours. We have already found a church - Westover Hills. It is a fairly large church, but somehow they make it feel small. We have enjoyed the two Sundays that we have been. The children LOVE children's church; Ryan and I both attended bible studies which we enjoyed.