Love Our Mema

Yes we love our Mema and when she comes to visit we eat up every minute we have with her.  Gracie is old enough she truly gets so sad knowing she won't see certain people for a long time and that they live far a way.  So the night before Mema was to arrive I told her who we were going to see the next day and was elated.  We made a big welcome sign for Mema when we picked her up.

On one of our days the kids got to make sugar cookies and they were loving helping with every part.  If Gracie did something Nolan wanted too!

 making

 decorating...

 eating

loving there mema

Boo Bash

This year for Halloween we very early picked out our costumes.  Gracie as Dorothy and Nolan as a tiger.  Gracie's little dress was a gift from a friend and we just added a touch of red.  We also found shoes at Goodwill that were perfect but wrong color.  I am sure I can fix that right??:)

Not often do we get any grandparents for these type of events but we got lucky that our town through a Boo Bash with games, hayrides, trick-or-treating, and the haunted house.  The guy at the haunted house tried to convince us a number of times the kids would be fine no big deal the will love it.  No way!  I sent Troy through and as the guy continued to convince us to just go and as Sheila walked away so did I.  We walked over for a game and Troy said no way for the kids or for me.  Funny that I was included in the who can handle it thought.  People are crazy.  Anyway enjoy the fun pics below.  Nolan is hilarious.

Before Pic

Just so you know I loved Wizard of Oz growing up and I remember watching it every year on tv around thanksgiving.  My Grandma gave me this piece when she passed and it's pretty special to me.  I thought that Gracie would love it as well and thankfully she has loved the movie.

 so funny and so cute.

I just added red ribbon and tulle 

under the skirt for something fun.

The shoes spray painted red and then glitter added.

 Nolan actually left the head on the whole time.

I was shocked!

Nolan was in shock the whole time of what was 

happening but very happy when we got to the car to have a sucker.

the little things

Often I think about the things I love about my kids and grab my camera and try to capture a simple moment.  Even though the lighting is terrible I know that if don't I forget later to capture those small things that just make my heart melt.  This was just part of our morning.

Art Time

With our little home schooling project happening we are always adding something in including Gracie's favorite, art time.

that's my boy

My son for some reason loves his camo pants and his Chiefs jacket and would wear them all the time if I would let him.

as Troy would say, "that's my boy"!

Time Away

Right now Nolan is obsessed with being with Gracie at all times.  For the most part Gracie loves it too but sometimes she is ready for his nap or asks if she can have quiet time.  Quiet times most often means she cozies up in our bed with her ipod but on this day she found a new place to relax...

Our New Sylvan Life

I have not talked much about our newest location and the new happenings, so here we go.
Since we did not sell our house in Canton we needed to rent something. It was a little difficult to find something in our budget in a good school district.  We were actually laughed at by a real estate agent at one of the houses we looked at renting.  $1,300 to rent a 3 bedroom in a terrible school district was just crazy to me.  Finally we found something through Trinity.  We call it a 1 1/2 bedroom house.  The kids share the biggest room and Troy and I have the smallest.  The living and kitchen area has plenty of space and is perfect for us.

When we moved here so much had and continued to go wrong it was so hard to be positive.  Troy had been out of the family routine for 6-months and our focus was to get things as quickly as possible back to our normal, working as a team.  He had literally been living the single guys life in a dorm making roman in the microwave.  It was time for our family to work as a unit again.  This was not easy.  In the midst of coming together we had a family vacation that had been planned pre-us know we were moving.  Vacation was the last thing we wanted to do seeing our family had a ruff couple of weeks trying to get moved in.  Vacation ended up getting us back on the right track.  Not being able to focus on the house was good.

I have never moved before with kids and without a job to immerse myself in.  It was hard being by myself so much.  I tend to go through a hate relationship when we move into a new area.  I tend to hate everything about it until, well, until I don't.  Most people in my life don't know what it's like to move where they don't know anyone, where they have to start from fresh with a husband MIA.  Now I do love the start fresh opportunity portion of the move and somehow what my plan was, always, thankfully, gets over ruled by God's plan.  He is always protecting us but during the process it seems like everything but.  This time I have turned to enjoying our new life a lot quicker.

We started attending 2 different church's on Sunday mornings.  The kids loved the first church because of the donuts and the other they just got so excited when we pulled into the parking lot.  I have meet some amazing ladies already in my MOPS group.  It seems that most of the ladies have also moved often for their husband's jobs.  The comprehension of the transition world was understood and women loved and encouraged each other.  I have sat at my table at both bible study and MOPS and listen to women as they cry about how lonely they are and how disappointed they are in there friends for forgetting them. These things are all to familiar to me and so many amazing connections have already been made.

Sometimes I don't always find the best way to describe my feelings.  Then I hear it put in terms that are perfect and I say that's it that's me and perfectly put.

1) Don't push a loyal person so many times, that they no longer give a crap(i inserted a clean word).
This was on one of those silly FB drawing/encouragement pictures that are going around but when I saw it I thought, that is so me!  I have people that have done this and I get to a point where I just say forget it.  How many times can a person be burned.  How many times will I let myself and is it worth it to keep trying?  Plus those deep seeded issues that did not exist seem to come out when you parent...always for an interesting discussion.

2) "I am 34 years old I no longer want those how's the weather relationships.  I am too old for that stuff.  I need those people that can handle being there during the hurt of my life.  Some people just don't want to hear about it and can't handle it." {not exact, exact but close}
At homecoming a friend sat with me during the game and poured her heart out.  Not just the part she felt safe sharing I mean the whole thing.  The parts people as Christian's tend to hide.  She laid it all out.  This is me, this is how I have been struggling, this is my world.  I loved every darn pickin minute.  {not that she was struggling but the honesty} These are the type of relationships I want and need in my life but I have not ever actually heard another women say it like this until my time here.  Mrs. P an amazing women at our church just spoke about this and the relationship/friendships that are so needed in each women's life.  It's hard to keep those deep relationships when we move so much but those women have meant a lot to me and therefore a renewed and deep appreciation will be given to them as much as I can.

Now it's not that I am not having those update conversations or get to know you convos but I need those deep relationships.

although hard to see but there is a
double rainbow for mymorning walk

I know that 10 years ago when we were considering the Sterling, Kansas job we knew we did not want to raise our kids here, Chicagoland.  I have learned the places I really don't want to go tends to be the place I need to be the most.  It has been true in every move we have made.  And as true as it is for our new location to the Chicagoland area, to Sylvan Lake in Mundelein, IL, to Trinity.  We have been so blessed already by the rekindled friendships, new friendships, and the surprise people that have been put there to encourage us.

lake sylvan sunset taken with my iphone

We are in love with our little community and had no idea a place like this existed here.  It's something from the 80's, the 80's I remember.  A neighborhood where all the kids play together at the play ground that was built by a man and his son who now have grand kids and great grandkids in the same neighborhood.  Where sister live next to each other and family have grown up here and came back to raise there kids in the same great neighborhood.  All crazy right.  Literally everyone knows your name. They have 4th of July BBQ's, Octoberfest under a big white tent complete with band, hay rides, face painting and a bomb fire.  They have town meetings at the local fire department and the can kids ice skate and play hockey on the ice in the winter.  People walk and run every day and people say hi to each other, uncommon for the area.  On top of all this Gracie and I took a tour of the school where she would attend next year.  I was in love.  I am so excited and Gracie is so ready but we still have a little time before my baby girl is off to school for a long time.  Right now we are excited to see what God has for our new chapter at TIU.

And what started off as a short informational went a tad long;) enjoy!