House and more

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.

Starting Over

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 snow
We 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 . . .

Jenny
Most 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".

Jackson
Our 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!

Moving week

Sorry no pictures, at this point everything is packed. It is hard to believe, but also exciting to see our "stuff" packed ready to go. I can say my emotions this year are different than moving up here. I remember when all the boxes were out of our last house. I just walked around it empty house and cried, thinking our lives as we know it are about to change. Ryan was in Chicago already and the boys were at friends. I don't think tears will flow this year, but I can say there are thing about this move that are sad. BUT, we are excited to be heading back to Texas - family and the SUN! Except - my mother already called to say it would be very cold and rainy there - YIKES, why does the cold follow us? Update on our living - we have bought a house in South Austin, and no we have not sold our house here. Please continue to pray for someone to love our sweet house and snap it up. If not, March 1, we can take a buy out from Ryan's company. There is an end in sight, but it would be much better for us to sell the house ourselves! We will not close on our new home until the end of February, so once again we will be traveling the state staying with family while Ryan works in Austin.

Pictures

Horrible picture I know, who wants a picture of me with my mouth wide open. Well if you hadn't had BBQ in over 15 months you would be like this too. I think all we will eat when we hit Austin in BBQ and Tex-Mex. When Ryan and I went house hunting, we ate at IWB (Ironworks BBQ). I made Ryan take this picture because I was so excited to be coming back!
This is Jackson. Most of you know him and have been praying for him. Doesn't he look great? Please continue to pray for Doug, Mel, and Jackson. He is scheduled for his bone marrow transplat the end of February if RSV is under control in the Denver hospital. The three of them will head to Denver for 6 months for his treatment.

Like I said before, we had such a great time at Christmas with family. The boys loved everything about the holidays. They were so fun to buy for this year. Does it keep getter better? Ben is into everything sports and Carter is loving superheroes, especially Batman!

This is Christmas Eve, if you can't see the snow if coming in sideways. It was like that all day. It snowed 8 inches in Jacksboro, I don't ever remember that much snow! We thought we were coming to Texas for a snow BREAK! Every year on Christmas eve, Santa goes through the town handing out stockings. This year we had to chase him down, the kids were excited to get back in the warm car after this picture.

Oh where, Oh where?

Oh where, oh where have the Merriman's been? That is the question I ask myself about the past month. We had a wonderful Christmas in Texas with both families. We spent the month traveling around the state - looking for houses and living out of our suitcases! We made the long way back celebrating that it was our last trip across country! We have had several lookers on our house, but so far no takers. Please pray that someone will snap our house up! It would be a huge relief for us! Ryan is house hunting for us this week in Austin, hopefully he will find something for us; we haven't found anything yet! For the next 3 weeks, Ryan is flying down to work during the week and flying back here to us on the weekend. I will try and upload pictures from the holiday season, the boys had a blast!

Bulls, Snow, and Sledding

One thing that the boys LOVE to do when there is snow is to go sledding. We have a great hill by our house. On the weekends when there is snow, the kids in the neighborhood all go there for fun. You should hear the laughing as they go flying down the hill.

We went to the bulls game on Friday. The game went into overtime with the bulls winning! The boys had such a great time. They were into the game yelling and singing the songs. Everyone around us would crack up laughing when Carter would get up and dance!

The boys have spent the last couple of days playing out in the snow. Ben has his wish of not moving to Austin until after the snow. We had a snowball fight and tried to build a snowman, but the snow was like powder and didn't stick together. We are excited that the temperature is back up in the 20's and 30's. We had a day when it was 3 degrees, know that's cold folks! We said we were actually glad it warmed up to the 20s. Even though it is cold, I am trying to enjoy this weather. Hopefully I will never have to experience it again. I am looking forward to packing up the snow gear!

Update & Pictures

Carter loves taking pictures. This is his picture of his feet!

We have been busy getting ready to put our house on the market and getting/keeping it clean. We spent last weekend in Chicago enjoying the sites and watched the Miracle mile parade with 800,000 other people. We went swimming in the indoor pool after the parade. Word to the wise, never let your children drink a extra full cup of chocolate milk before the start jumping in the pool. After 10 minutes both boys managed to clear out the 15 people in the pool by throwing up IN THE POOL, yes, I said both of them! On a lighter note, Ryan and I also celebreated 7 years of marriage. He was so sweet to come home with flowers. He also left his wedding ring in his swim shorts in the HOTEL! Well, it only took 7 years to lose it!

Pictures and update!

The boys received these Tech stickers and went crazy! We had to get our "gear" on and play football in the basement.

Last weekend we went into the city for the cruise tour on the river. We had great weather and the boys enjoyed the boat ride. We learned so much about the city, I suggest it if you are ever visiting the windy city. After the cruise we had dinner at Navy Pier to end a wonderful family day. We have been busy getting the house ready to put on the market. Hopefully it will go up soon, please cross your fingers that it sells fast!

True to his word!

When Ryan accepted the job to move up here to the Chicagoland, he promised me it would only be 12-18 months. I agreed thinking that was true. After several months of being up here, he was informed that it would be more like 3-5 years. I was a big girl and said "okay" I can handle the cold weather for 5 years! Well, true to my sweet husband's word, we will only be here about 14-15 months. Yes, you are hearing me. Today Ryan accepted a job with Kellogg's in Austin, TX. We are moving back home, YEA!!! It seems so good I almost can't believe it is real. Its not that I don't like it here. This is a wonderful place to live with great people, it is just REALLY cold. I am excited to move back to the warm weather and much, much closer to friends and family. Plus, I was born in Austin, so it is special to be headed back there! Please pray that our house sells very fast! Ryan starts his new position after the new year! We will keep you posted. . .

Halloween pics 2009

We had a blast trick or treating in our neighborhood. It was fun watching the boys RUN from house to house. Benjamin ate candy the entire way (while running; hey, he needed energy). When we got home Carter had twice as much candy in his bag, too funny! The boys also enjoyed handing out candy. Carter really liked the girls and have them 2-3x more candy than the boys. When we told them to let the kids pick out the candy, they were great at reminding to only get 2 pieces. I have to say these Northerns know how to celebrate Halloween. I have never seen so many decorations and trick or treat events. Every shopping center had a trick or treat time with actvities for the kids. Did I mention they t-or-t here in the afternoon? I really liked doing is in the day! Each of the boys' school had a Halloween party - and they both attend separate church schools.

1 Year . . . Can you believe it?

Today, 1 year ago, we closed on our house here in Wheaton and started the next adventure in our lives. Wow, has it really been a year? In some case, I say it seems longer than 1 year, and then in other ways, it has flown by so fast. Here is a review of our lives this past year. Our boxes were delivered on November 4th (Tuesday), also known as election day. Word to the wise, never move on election day if you actually want to watch the election - TV is not hooked up on day of delivery. The weather didn't bad here until the middle of January. All I can say, I have never been more cold than when it hit -26 degrees, folks that's cold. Snow stayed on the ground for 6 weeks, you didn't see anything but white everywhere. It was bitter cold outside. The cold stayed around until April. I have to say, January thru March seemed to last a LOOOOONG time. It gets dark around 5:15 and the sun comes up at 5:30 in the morning. That means that during this time, the boys get up by 6:30 - YUCK! They would burn off energy by running around the house, I don't recommend this, but we were needing something! April started with promises from other people that it would warm up. Well, it did a little and then the rain started to come down. The only thing I remember about part of April and May was lots of rain, I mean LOTS of rain. Everyone told us it was the coldest winter and wettest spring they have had in awhile. Thanks, but it doesn't help us get used to it! We left for Texas for 3 weeks in June and when we got back, we had a little warm weather. I remember a man telling me it was going to be a really hot day - it was 90 degrees, only 3 days in the summer got over 90. The rest of the summer was really pleasant outside. We rode bikes daily and played outside all day long. The fall hit very quickly and the jackets came back out. I have to say, I am really not looking forward to the cold weather yet, I don't think I have thawed out from last winter.

In some ways this has been the best experience for me and our family. I stayed home with the boys which is something I wouldn't have done before the move. Getting to experience this time with the boys has been challenging but awesome! Staying home with children is the hardest job EVER! I didn't realize this until I did it. We love our neighborhood and have met friends in it with children the boys age. We plugged into a new church. This fall I started a ladies bible study, another thing I would never have done before. I feel the Lord has stretched me this year with patience, reaching out to others, and being okay at being alone. I have had the hardship of miscarrying a baby and then the long months of getting over it, and we have met wonderful people here that will be friends forever. In some ways this has been the best year with more time with my boys (2little, 1 big) and in some ways in has been the hardest year.

Pictures

The boys LOVE getting ready for Halloween. We decorated our pumpkins this past week. The boys had a great time making their pumpkins into a clown and vampire. We carved 1 pumpkin as a family, the boys didn't last long with that!
These Mr. Potato Heads are the best way for kids to decorate! I bought them half off several years ago, and we reuse them each year!

Picking out our halloween costumes, it took us 4 stores to find just what we wanted. Carter will be superman and Ben will be ironman. We have finally hit the superhero era!

My mother, sister, and niece came to visit last weekend. The weather was not very friendly to them, but that didn't keep us down! We took them to eat deep dish pizza, we took the train to the city and went to the Shedd, went to the French market and library, and they even tried a Chicago hot dog! We were all every sad when we had to take them back to the airport!

Ben's 5th Birthday

Can't belive my little man turned 5! He is getting so big and tall. Benjamin is such a sweet boy. I love the fact he is so active, always ready to go. He loves going to school, learning, and showing us his school work! For his birthday, he chose to go to Chuck E Cheese for dinner (one of the boys favorite places to go!) We had a great time together as family! Above Benjamin in his Bears jersey, he has been asking for it since Carter got one in February.
Couldn't resist this funny picture of Carter playing a game. He is soooo serious about it.

Ben with his football helmets. They now have landed a role on the coffee table because there is always a game going on between two teams. (The are the Big 12 schools if you are questioning.)

Our sweet friends in Texas gave Benjamin Target gift cards so he could pick out his gift here instead of trying to fly back with something. Benjamin has said he wanted a skateboard for sometime now. I have been trying to talk him into a Razor (one with a handle), but oh no, he wanted a true skateboard to use on the stairs IN our house. I very quickly had to let him know you don't got down the stairs you just jump them! He decided to avoid the stairs altogether - YEA! So this picture above is of him after purchasing the skateboard. Carter had to get in there too for this big purchase.

Again at the check out line very excited about buying a skateboard!

Yes, we then went to the skateboard park. We took Carter's bike for him, and for about 30 minutes the boys had a blast "Playing" with the skateboard. I don't think Ben ever had both feet on the board. It was mainly one foot on and one foot off scooting. They also enjoyed laying on it and pushing around with their hands. After about 30 minutes, 3 teenagers came to skate so we moved and watched them. They were very nice to the boys showing them tricks (Thanks guys, we are only 5). They also encouraged the boys to skate. We haven't been back to the skate park due to the massive downpour of rain here. I will try and take pictures next time we go, pretty funny!

Back Home Again

We got back today from 1 1/2 in Texas visiting family and friends. We did so much in a little time, I will have to blog separately about each event. We started out with my parents, and then went to stay with friends over the first weekend, went to the State Fair of Texas, I got to leave the boys and visit my old co-workers, attended my 15th high school reunion and homecoming, Ben's birthday party with family and friends, and the we ended our trip at the Great Wolf Lodge. I have lots of pictures of each event. These pictures today are just the boys we friends and family! We got back to home with cooler weather and a fun week planned!
The boys with Zane and Brittany. I do not know why the boys always take their shirts off when they are around Zane. We had a great time visiting with them, wished it was longer!

Boys with Uncle Kyle - Uncle Kyle couldn't go to the state fair with us as planned, so he came to the hotel early to see and play with us.

Carter, Parker, Benjamin, and Emaline before church on Sunday.

I thought this was the sweetest picture. I took this at Ryan's birthday dinner.

Go Cubs Go!

We started out having a wonderful Monday. Ryan's brother and his family were coming to visit. Doug, Mel, and Jackson rolled in around 5 on Monday evening, and our adventure began. We had such a great time playing with Jackson (and Doug and Mel). Tuesday night Ben woke up with fever, so Wednesday morning they had to leave. We were bummed but understood Jackson couldn't be around Ben since he had a fever! At least we got to spend a little time with them, it is something we will always treasure! So Wednesday we were having a low moment, so I decided to kick us into gear and found Cubs tickets. HAving lived up here almost 1 year, the boys have never been to a Cubs game. We wished Doug and Mel could still be with us, but the Cubs game came within a close second of them. The Cubs didn't win, but we had a great time. Or at least I can say, the boys settled down in the 3rd inning when they got cotton candy and popcorn. This is a great way to celebrate Ryan's birthday! We will celebrate his real birthday today with deep dish pizza, presents, and cake! Ryan wanted a Tres Leche cake, it is my first time to make it, so I will let you know how it turns out! Thank you Doug and Mel for driving across country to see us, we love you to pieces!

Boys looking up to the upper deck to see the people. We had great seats. There were lots of balls that came our direction.

Yes, anytime we go to a baseball game, we were full uniform. Both boys wore uniform head to toe!

It was worth the long walk to the field to see the boys face light up when they saw Wrigley Field. They couldn't get over the bright lights and people. We didn't get to sing the Cubs song. They lost, plus we didn't stay until the very end.

Pictures

Just a few pics. We have family in town and are loving it. I will try and post later with fam pictures. We are experiencing a little heat up here, low 80's. We are even having to turn our air conditioner!