It's been too long

So I guess it's time for an new post. This is the longest I've gone without letting you know how we are. I must admit that having a blog and a facebook account is a little much. My blog has suffered because of it.
Well, we are finally settled in Birmingham. We officially moved into my mother's old house a week ago. Half of our stuff is in storage and the other half is here. We are still surrounded by boxes, but we are making progress. My job today is Wolfe's room and a little bit of the master. There is still some furniture that needs to be removed from Wolfe's room but I think by the time he goes to sleep is should be completed - much to his delight!
My friend, Jennifer, came over yesterday and helped me decorate for Christmas. She made the mantle look so pretty! It is so strange decorating so late. Usually it's all done the weekend after Thanksgiving. Oh well, it will just have to stay up way into January!
I am going back to school in January. I let my Alabama teacher's certificate expire in 2007 (stupid!) and I have to take 3 graduate level education courses to have it reinstated. I will be super busy keeping up with all that, being a mom and wife, and still tutoring 6-8 hours a week. I'm sure I won't be seen very much until May!
I was planning on leading a small Bible Study this spring but I just don't see how that's practical. I'm really disappointed. I was really looking forward to the Christian fellowship and shared study of the Bible.
We are going to lay pretty low over Christmas break. We are going to my mom's in Atlanta for a few days, but that's it. Jeremy and I are both really looking forward to it. He doesn't work much over the holidays, so we are excited about lots of family time.
I hope that gets everyone up-to-date on my life right now. We really miss Pennsylvania and our dear friends there but I am going to "bloom where I am planted".
Merry Christmas to all!!!
p.s. My Christmas cards are going to be New Year's cards this year. If you don't have it, our new address is :2643 Rillwood Road Birmingham, AL 35243

It's almost done

I wanted to post a recent pic of the kids. My friend took this last week. Still trying for the Christmas Card picture!
The reason the post is called "It's almost done" is because we have set a closing date for our house in PA. Its is going to be Dec. 12th. We are coming to PA after Thanksgiving to pack the house and the movers come the week of the 7th. We are still trying to find a house here. Pray that will happen within the next week!

We have a contract!!

Today we signed a contract on the sale of our house! It is contingent on the sale of their home in Hempfield but it looks like that should not be too big of a deal. We are thrilled to have this behind us and move on into our own home again. We still miss everyone terribly and can't wait to come back to visit when we pack up the house for the last time. Love to all!

Visit to PA

To all my PA friends, I will be coming to visit this weekend. Jeremy and I will only be there briefly, though. We will be arriving late Friday night and leaving Sunday morning. We'll be at the house on Saturday doing some yard work and packing up a few things we forgot to bring to Alabama with us. This house is still for sale and I need to make it look pretty for fall. We'd love to see anyone who wants to drop in on Saturday!

Brantley

Just had a few pictures of B with one of her new friends, Amy. She is adjusting so well to the move. Such an answer to prayer!

Brantley and Amy had gone out back to play in the yard and creek when I heard all kind of squeals and laughter. When I looked out the window this is what I saw! Isn't it great to be a kid??

Exercise

I have never really liked to exercise. I know, not that many people do, but I have always wanted to love to exercise. To be strong, lean, confident, and powerful. I have dreamed of being a runner; of being able to run long distances. I have wondered what that felt like, and why I have never been able to do it when others have. I have actually prayed for God to give me a love for running. Last week I started to jog. Jeremy told me that I ran too fast and that was why I never could run for very far without wanting to throw up and being in a very bad mood afterward, wishing I had never done it and dreading when I would have to put on my running shoes again. So, last week I ran slower. It worked! I ran for 25 min. the first time, 40 minutes the next time, and 40 minutes the 3rd time. I have never run for that long in my entire life. I ran 2.7 miles without stopping and felt like I could have run farther. Halelujah! Many of you may remember my failed attempt at running a 5K back in May. I never even registered for the race. Well, I am back in the game and am going to hunt for another one to run. I may be the last one to finish but I am determined to do this. While I was running last week I realized that it gave me 40 minutes to pray for people and to talk to God. That is exactly what I did and it was great! I look forward to spending a lot more time talking to God while I run...

Good News!

For all of my sweet friends in PA who frequently ask about my mom, she is getting married in November! We have lots of planning to do and lots of pounds to lose before then! I may be able to come and visit at the first of October, can't wait!!

I know WHERE we're moving!!

We just found out that we will be relocating to Birmingham, Alabama! (not Memphis, TN as we had thought) It is our hometown and we are so thrilled to be moving back home!! We can't believe that through all of these trials that we are actually going to be back where we started. God is good!

Too cute..

Brooke has been taking a nap for 4 hours and is still sleeping!! I went in to check on her and this is what I found. She must not have gone to bed when I thought she did -notice the wings! I just love catching my kids in moments like this. I want her to stay this cute and tiny forever!!

New Songs

The first song is one of my all time favorites! I wish it was a better recording. Many hours were spent at band parties dancing to this and others similar.
#2 just makes me laugh...collards, anyone?? Alabama, here we come!

pray!!

Someone's coming to look at the house tomorrow. Pray for an offer!!!

Finally...

Jeremy is coming to see us!! We had planned to not see him until August 9th but we both can't wait that long. (Maybe my teary phone call last night broke him..) He is driving 14.5 hours on Friday, staying the weekend and driving back on Monday. Isn't he a sweetheart??? I'm going to keep it a secret and let him surprise the kids. They are going to go berserk!

Update on our move

We still haven't sold our house but we are going to move anyways. At least move our clothes and other necessities. We will be moving into my mom's house in Birmingham, Alabama around the 8th of August. Maybe a few days sooner. She is coming up on the 1st or 2nd and we will pack and then head out. I am sad to leave our home here, but thrilled to be reunited with my precious husband. We miss him terribly and he can't believe that it will be another 28 days or so until we see him again. We will have to start a countdown! I have a lot of planning to do between now and then. I will post about my progress.

"Do you trust me?"

This is the question that God has been asking me this weekend. I actually answered him out loud today. I was in the bathroom, of all places, and just said outloud, "Yes, I trust you". Just saying it made me believe it more.

Just wanted to add a pic of my cute husband. We miss him tons and can't wait to smother him with hugs and kisses. Brooke told me today that we had to be careful not to give him "hard kisses" when we saw him because he could get hurt, only "soft ones" are allowed. Too cute!

Listen to the words of this song. It is my absolute favorite right now and I sing it to myself all the time! I really do believe the words. How can I keep from singing His name?? I am dearly loved by The King!! My heart is trying to sing...

Wait.

I am so frustrated!! God is definitely teaching me that He is in control, not me or Jeremy. Our lives are in such upheaval! Jeremy is in Birmingham today and next week he will be working in the Memphis area. After that is anyone's guess. On Tuesday his boss let him know that the couple who had the Alabama and FL panhandle region have retired and that there was a 75-80% chance that he could have that region instead of MS, AR, W. TN. Great news!! Now I have to wait until next week sometime to find out if it will really happen. Ugh!!! So here I sit wondering if I am here as a single parent until our house sells(which is who knows how long) or if I am leaving in 4 weeks to live in my mom's basement so that we can go ahead and enroll the kids in school. All that is involved with leaving in 4 weeks is staggering and emotional. I'm trying not to dwell on the lists that are forming in my mind and waiting until I know for sure if we are moving home or not. I am a planner and this is making me a little crazy, ok, maybe ALOT crazy. God knows that for me waiting is what I need. I need to rest in His arms and not in my own plans-or Jeremy's arms. I need to find my security in Him and not in knowing how our lives are going to unfold. I have a 1000 questions for Him and the answer to all of them is "WAIT, simply wait".

The above picture reminds me to find comfort in my children and simple, carefree moments.

Beach '08

The whole tribe after dinner.
Christmas Card '08???
The view from the front yard of our beach house - divine!!
It's so hard to get everyone looking cute!!
This is one of my favorite shots. We take one every year.

We had a great week a the beach. It was a much needed break from the craziness and uncertainty going on with us. I thought I'd just share some of my favorite pics. Hope you enjoyed them.

I'll be home soon!

We are finally nearing the end of our 3 week trip away from home. Let me just give a rund0wn of what's been going on with us.
1. Sunday, June 8th:Drove to Birmingham, AL with three kids and our dog. Jeremy was in Chicago for a meeting. The drive took me 15 hours and permanently robbed me of some of my sanity!
2. Monday, June 9th: rested, visited with in-laws, and had a wonderful dinner with one of my best friends, Jennifer. It was just two of us at a fabulous mexican place - Heaven!!
3. Tuesday, June 10th: more visiting with family and Jeremy arrived at 10:30 pm
4. Wednesday, June 11th: leave kids with family and leave for Memphis at 8:30 am. Shop for houses Wed. afternoon and Thursday. Travel back to B'ham on Friday. 5. Saturday, June 14th: Go to Seagrove Beach, FL with my whole family. Spend a great week at beach house right on the beach for a whole week!! Actually didn't feel completely stressed out for a few days. 6.Came back to my mom's house and then went to Memphis again Monday and Tuesday of this week. Did some more house shopping... Jeremy left Tuesday afternoon for 3 days in Atlanta, GA and we will pick him up there on Friday afternoon. Then we will drive to Wytheville, VA to spend the night. We will arrive in Mount Joy on Saturday around 3pm. I may be legally insane by the time we reach our driveway. Wouldn't you be??? We haven't sold our house yet and the stress of it is really hard. Jeremy has to turn right back around this Sunday and drive his car back to Memphis to start work on Monday. I feel really sorry for him and know that he will be exhausted by the time he gets there!! We won't see him again until we sell our house and he comes up a few days before the move. Pray that this will all happen quickly and we can be reunited again and get back to a normal life! I know that God will sustain us but I am still dreading all of this....

Update

I keep catching myself thinking that this will be the "last time we will do _______". We are really going to miss PA and all of our friends and church family. Jeremy is leaving on Saturday and will only be back for a few days until we move. Still have no idea when that will be, though. Hope to move by end of July, otherwise I will be getting awfully lonely without my hubby. We will be together traveling most of June but July is gonna feel really long, I'm sure.

We have packed most of the basement, garage, and storage shed. We have thinned out our closet, packed up excessive amounts of kid craft supplies, and are going to finish a few other things by Friday. I also have to pack for a 2-3 week trip - that should take awhile!! Pray for me on Sunday - I will be driving (by myself) the 3 kids and our dog to Birmingham. It usually takes 14 hours. That's right, 14 HOURS. I have done it by myself 2 other times and it went OK. I go a little crazy during the last 3 hours, but I set 30 min. goals for myself. "Only 30 min. to Chattanooga, 30 min. to the Alabama line, 30 minutes to Fort Payne, etc..." I am trying to pump myself up for the trip, but so far I am not feeling too enthusiastic!

At least the drive is taking me to her - my sweet mom!

On the road again...

We are moving to Memphis, Tennessee this summer. Jeremy lost his job in April and the new one will have us moving far from our friends in PA, but much closer to family and friends in Birmingham. We are really sad to leave our cute house, fabulous neighbors and our best friends, the Troutmans. They have become family to us and we look forward to seeing them for family vacations and visits. We are thrilled, however, to be able to see our family whenever we want (Memphis is 3.5 hrs from B'ham). I will keep you up-to-date on the goings on with the move.

Camping at Pinchot SP

We went camping a few weeks ago with our best friends the Troutmans. We had a ball and I just wanted to show a few of the pics that we took. Brantley and Wills had fun playing UNO on this rock by the water. We also fished alot from this rock. You can see Jeremy fishing from it in my last post.
Brooke and Lily's favorite thing to do was pick up rocks and throw them in the lake. They did this alot!
Abby was a real trooper! She was 36 weeks pregnant at the time. (She is still pregnant and hoping to not be REALLY soon!!) Lily wouldn't pose for the picture, but at least Abby looks cute.
This is one of our campsites. You can see how we were right on the lake. It was so pretty!
Brantley loves to pose for pictures, unlike Wolfe who there are no pictures of this trip! They all had a fun time playing around the lake, playing frisbee golf, riding their scooters (except for the 2 serious crashes -still have scabs from those!), eating smores, sleeping in a tent, and testing out kayaks in the lake. The adults enjoyed themselves too, especially sitting around the fire after the kids were in bed! We look forward to many more camping adventures this summer and fall.

Still a little lost in the fog, but the sun is peeking through!!

We miss you Daddy!! We can't wait to see you on Thursday night! It will have been 9 days!! The kids have never been away from you for that long. Every time Brooke gets hurt, she cries for you. So sweet!

I think I just need one day of beautiful weather and I will make it through! I am feeling more upbeat and am trying to leave all my worries at Christ's feet. It is so hard to do that! I really appreciate all the kind words and cards. I am starting to feel guilty about all of the attention I am getting and the concern others are having for our family. I will try to remain humble and graciously accept all of the kindnesses being done and said. Thanks again for the love being shown.

"Snap out of it, Leah!!!"

Sorry to all who faithfully check my blog and are regularly disappointed with the lack of new content. Alot has been going on in our family and I just haven't felt like blogging. Jeremy was laid off and is in the process of finding a new job. Relocation is a real possibility and the stress of it all has made me a little melancholy.

I turned 35 today and it just hasn't made me too thrilled. There are alot of internal/personal changes/goals that need to be made/accomplished in my life, and I thought I would have made more progress by the big "35". It's a little depressing to not reach your goals... How many more times can I say to myself, "I'll do better this year" or "I'll get that done by the end of the year" ? At what point do I admit to myself that I really am not going to lose the weight, become a runner, get organized, have a regular quiet time, always finish what I start, clean the kitchen every night, be a better friend, keep a tidy closet, yada, yada, yada...?

I am so blessed to be loved by many and cherished by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I must remind myself of this when I get in a funk like this. I feel as if I lose focus of my role here on earth when I get this self-absorbed. I wonder if I did a time line of each time that I wrote a depressing blog like this that it would always fall during my "time of the month"? I bet it would...

Fishing at Elizabethtown College

Sunday, Jeremy took B and Wolfe fishing at E-town College. There is a pond there stocked with bass. They each caught 2 bass within about 20 minutes. Jeremy will definitely be taking them back!

Poor Little Field Mouse

This cute little thing was being traumatized the other day by our cat, Tigger. Tigger chased, batted, and tossed this thing for a long time. I tried to save the little thing, but was a little scared of him, and whenever he hopped around squeaking I would back off. I did however manage to capture it all on film! ;-) I never did see if Tigger finally killed him or not. Tigger would just sit calmly in the grass while the mouse sat there terrified! Bad kitty!

Brantley's Horseback Riding Party

Brantley turned 8 this week and on Saturday we had a horseback riding party for her. I made her a horse cake which I think turned out pretty cute. Thanks to all who came to the party, she loved it!


Brantley, her best friend Michelle, and Brooke


What do you think?

Brooke's "Big Girl Bed"

Brooke loves her new bed and bedding! She looks so tiny in such a big bed. Her sister was a little jealous of all the new stuff Brooke got. She said that she wanted to move into Brooke's room now. Ha! Brooke doesn't have to always get her hand-me-downs!

Las Vegas -Day 3

On day 3 we went to Death Valley National Park in California. Jeremy really wanted to go here and I was a little skeptical. I was envisioning a really flat, hot place that was pretty boring. Boy, was I wrong! It was by far the most beautiful place that we went. The landscape was so varied that you felt like you were on another planet with each part of the park that we visited! It really does look very "unEarthly" in alot of places there. We both LOVE exploring new parts of the country and this was one of my favorites. The pictures should hopefully let you see how creative God is with his design.




















Jeremy forced me to hike to the top of this dune and I just about melted!

Las Vegas-Day 2

Day Two was our rafting trip on the Colorado River. We saw this rafting trip on the Travel Channel and it looked so fun and beautiful that we just had to do it! We boarded a bus at Lake Meade and were driven to the base of the Hoover Dam. We went through a security gate just to get on the road that leads down to the base of the dam and our van wasn't even allowed to go the whole way. You have to walk the last 100 yds or so due to securtiy. You can read the sign behind Jeremy's head in the picture. It was really cool to see the dam at an angle that almost no one gets to. It was quite impressive!
The river is really calm below the dam so the ride was very smooth and relaxing. Below the dam it is called the Black Canyon and it was so pretty! We saw lots of wildflowers, blooming cactus, beautiful birds, and even bighorn sheep! The canyon was spectacular and anyone who goes to Vegas should take this trip, it was well worth it.

Our trip to Vegas, Day 1

Jeremy and I went to Las Vegas for 4 glorious days. In the next few posts I will tell y'all what we did each day. On the first day we went hiking in Red Rock Canyon. The rocks were definitely "red" as you can see in the pic. To get an idea of how big the mountains were, look at the first picture. Look at were the desert turns to "red rock" and then look a little left of the center. You will see a thin black line. That is a parking lot! There were lots of people there and most of them were rock climbers. It was so cool to look up and see little black specks that were people climbing the rocks/mountains. We had a lot of fun hiking up into the canyon and into its crevices. We saw all sorts of cool things like the "cave" I took a picture of. It wasn't really a cave, but I don't know what else to call it. You can see how water has carved out all these little holes. Neat, huh? As we were hiking I decided to opt out on sunscreen for the day. I just wanted to "get a little color". Ha!! I was fried by the end of the day!
We hiked back to "the quarry" which was a little pond created by the sheer cliffs. Once we got above the quarry we had an awesome view of "the strip". If you look close in the photo you can see the big casinos. It was so beautiful up there! Jeremy and I fell in love with Nevada and all the fun things to do. We could actually even see ourselves living there! Weird, isn't it?

Easter 2008

Easter 2008 was such a great day. My mom was here to celebrate with us and we had such a good time. The temp. outside was too chilly but we all survived. You can tell by the pics how cold the kids were! The easter egg hunt was alot of fun and Wolfe found the golden egg ($5 inside!) AND the silver egg($3 inside). You can tell by Brantley's expression that she wasn't pleased! Wolfe was convinced to give Brantley the silver egg. She was much happier then! Mom loved being here with the kids and they loved having her here, too. Brooke's expression in the picture on the sofa made us laugh so hard! She did NOT want her picture made.