Quick Update

I don't have but a few seconds, but I wanted to let you all know that the insurance company sent out a construction company to check on everything and they found that there are busted pipes under the foundation that is causing our problems.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that doesn't sound good to many and you may be thinking that is MORE money....but for us, the insurance company will cover the pipes AND since the pipes are causing the foundation issue, they will cover the foundation repair too!!! Now we just have to work out all the other stuff as well....like, all the CRACKS in the walls and resetting the kid bathtub!

The damage is actually getting worse as the days go by, so just pray that the insurance company gets on a roll and gets things moving FAST! I don't know if you have ever been to one of those "Magnetic or Tilting Houses" but that is what my son's room and the kids bathroom is starting to feel like. As soon as you walk in you can automatically tell that the room is off kilter!

PRAY they move fast!

My Summer Thus Far (part 2)

I know that these posts are a little out of order for you, but if you haven't read part one, then skip below to the post directly under this one and read it first.

Let's see.....I left off with "Personally, I am about to have a nervous breakdown. Then my phone rings......."

Well, my phone rang and it was Carlton on the other end....

C - "Is this not a house key on your spare set?"
M - "It is suppose to be....WHY?"(Hysteria is about to set in....)
C - "It is NOT working!"
M - "Did you lock all the doors?"
C - "YES, I locked all the doors. Then you called and I was going back in and this key does not work!"
M - "NO WAY!!" (other mothers around saying..."it's going to be okay!")
C - "How much time do I have?"
M - "Well, they are still playing all the pre-show music. Then they have production, and one woman sings before the girls go on."
C - "HOW MUCH TIME!!"
M - "About 20 minutes!!!"
C - "I am breaking the window then! BYE!"

Me....I hung up the phone and looked at those other mothers and said..."He's BREAKING a window! Oh my gosh....he is going to be so mad!"

Rachel looked at me and said, "You okay Mommy?"
Immediately my whole demeanor changed and I looked right at her and told her that Mommy was okay, and everything would be just fine. Then she skipped off to play with the girls!

About 3 minutes later Carlton calls and says...."How much time??" I told him that Dorthy was just meeting up with the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Lion (as if you couldn't guess, production was a mini version of the Wizzard of Oz) then I told him he had about 15 minutes MAX. To which he replied...."I just broke a double paned window....I BETTER make it on time for her to dance!"

Panic sat in once again for I knew that he had our son in the car and was breaking ALL kinds of traffic laws on the way. I told him to call me once he got to the street the theater was on and I would run out and get the costume. SO when he called, I ran, and ran, and ran....then I ran back in, got to Rachel and one of the other mothers had already unbuttoned her cover up. The woman was singing her song, we slipped Rachel in her costume, snapped the back, the girls walked backstage, I met Carlton and Timothy in the hall, we stepped in the theater and the Baby Ballet class walked out on stage!

NOW tell me he doesn't love his daughter and wouldn't do anything for her! That is one incredible man I have. However, he then had to listen to a million questions from Timothy who was trying to figure out why he was driving like a maniac....because you see, we live at least 15 minutes from the theater!

Whew......what a night!!!!

Well, $234.64 and one week later, the glass has been fixed!

Now for another part of our summer.....let's see....oh yeah, we finally got a fence put up around the back yard. Now the kids will be wanting another dog. They have wanted one for some time now, but we have put it off because our last one, Pongo, a Dalmatian, was an indoor dog....but....we have decided that we don't want another indoor canine in the family, so we have been telling the kids that we needed a fence first. (I'll let you know when the dog comes!)

And now for the best part of all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rachel was in her room the other night and yelled...."Mommy, come look at my crack!" Did your eyes just get big and your jaw drop to the floor?? Because when I heard those words, mine did! As I got up and walked to her room I thought, "We have NEVER called it that, where is that coming from!" When I walked in, she pointed to the wall above her bathroom door and said, "See it, up there!" And sure enough there was a crack in the sheet rock that was about 2 1/2 feet long from the corner of the bathroom door on up in an angle. Immediately I knew what we were looking at......the foundation. SO I called Carlton in the room and started looking around the other doors and windows, and sure enough there were other cracks. Some big and some small, but lots of them. So we walked into Timothy's room (they share a Jack-n-Jill bathroom) and sure enough, there were cracks in his wall too! Carlton said he noticed the doors were harder to shut the other day. Well on this night, the two doors in his room would NOT shut!

So the next morning I called a slew of foundation repair companies, and over the next several days they all came out, shared their two cents, and showed us how much it would cost us to fix our problem. The problem being the corner of the house that Timothy's room is in, has "sunk" a whole 2 inches! Well, the cost ranges anywhere from $1850 to $5765. The cheaper cost was using the most simple way to fix the problem but has no warranty to guarantee the work. The most expensive amount came from Olshan (the leader in foundation repair) and it includes a lifetime warranty that can be transferred to a new owner if/when we sell the home. It also included coming INSIDE the house and drilling holes in the floors of the kids rooms. (Not something I am totally thrilled about, but then again I am not thrilled about the whole situation anyway!)

We will probably go with Olshan, but please make it a matter of prayer. There is an older gentleman in our church that was pretty set on us going with a man's company that he knows. And although he knows him, I checked him out with our friends from the Better Business Bureau and they showed several complaints filled against him (the older man's friend that is) SO we just don't want to take the risk. We have had too many problems with this house as it is and don't want to do anything to "risky".

Well, that's it so far....crazy summer huh?? The kids and I are at my parents until early Sunday morning. We will get up then and head on home. Carlton and the youth will be coming home Sunday evening late and I want to get home before he does.

Hope you summer has been better than ours thus far! :)

My Summer Thus Far (part 1)

Well, I tried to load some pictures to go with this post but for some reason I am having a tuff time with Blogger here at my parents house. I wanted to catch you all up to date on what's been going on so far this summer. I know that my cousin Melissa checked my blog everyday before school was out so I told my mother she is probably having "withdrawals"! LOL

Well, where do I start......I SO wish I had pictures....

Let's see......Ok...the first thing that happened after school let out....a TUBING TRIP! Carlton took a group of youth on an overnight trip to New Braunsfels (sp) and I actually got to go without the kids! It was a much needed trip for me. We had a blast.

The next couple of days I spent getting Rachel's costume ready for her first recital. Did I mention I wish I could have loaded some pictures! Well, this was an interesting 1st recital to say the least. The dress rehearsal was extremely long! The dads were told to be there for the Daddy/Daughter dance part of the rehearsal @ 6:30 so they could be on stage by 7:00. Well, they were all there, many of them against their will, however they didn't go on stage until 10:00!!No, I am not kidding. So you can guess that the daddy of this house was very frustrated! At this point he had been the only staff member in town since two staff resigned and our pastor was on a trip in the Holy Land! He had spent the day with a family that he was preparing his first adult funeral for that day and was suppose to meet with them the following morning! He was one pooped Daddy!

The next day, Saturday, was the recital. We hung around the house as much as we could, the leisurely got ready. I took Rachel and left the house at 5:45 to arrive at the theater by 6:00 for what I thought was a 7:00 recital. BUT I was ALL wrong! The recital started at 6:00! As I was pulling down the street to the theater, the line mother called me and said "panically"...."Angie, where are you!!! We are lining up!"

Me... "No way, are you kidding me....I thought it started at 7!"
Line Mom.."No, it starts in 5 minutes!"
Me..."Oh MY GOSH!!! I am outside, be in there in a minute...."

Then I frantically get on the phone and call Carlton to tell him to get there NOW! So, after me explaining to him that I had gotten the times wrong, we hung up and he got himself and Timothy dressed.

In the mean time I realized as we were getting out of the car that I had left Rachel's costume ON THE BACK OF THE CHAIR AT THE HOUSE!! I got on the phone and called Carlton....

C - "What...where is it???"
M - "On the chair......hurry....they are on after production!"

As I am running in, the other mother's start asking "where is Rachel's costume?" Personally, I am about to have a nervous breakdown. Then my phone rings.......

Okay, this has gotten long, and my kids are giving me fits right now, so I will have to finish this later.....hopefully tonight, but if not, then tomorrow....come back, and hang tight, it gets CRAZY.....broken glass...cracked walls......OH YEAH.....it gets CRAZY.....

Bittersweet!

This is a bit of a bittersweet moment for me.

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, many of you are probably thinking, "What do you mean by bittersweet????" Well, for me that means ...............NO INTERNET!!!!

GASP!!!!

We don't currently have it at home because there is no high speed available. We live 400 feet out of the loop!! 400 feet!!!!! Anyway, it's too much of a head ache to use dial up since it is SO SLOW.

However, I do go to the church to check up and occasionally post. AND I will be at my parents house for the week of June 23rd, and I will be taking trips to the library with the kiddos, so I will sneak in a min or two on the computer there to check up on all that's happening!

So, I bid you all a GREAT SUMMER!!!!

(not farewell, cause I will be around.....even if it is lurking!) LOL......OH.....I also remembered that my hubby can bring home his laptop.....ooooooo I forgot about that...... He has a wireless card, and he can pick up signals from the neighbors behind us!!! Isn't that sad! We are that close and can't "get it" on our desktop!!!

How to DO the WHO do!

Hee Hee......that just sounds funny! AnyWHO......(i'm killin' myself here!!) LOL OKAY....enough with that....on with what I am here for today! A couple of you that read the post below wanted to know how we accomplished this great up do, so let me tell you, it was super easy.

Here's what you need:
1. Plastic cup (sized to match the amount of hair you have)
2. Your own hair (hee hee)
3. 1 scrunci

To accomplish such stylish do, simply brush some hair forward, place the cup in the center of the top of your head, bring hair up from all sides and secure with the scrunci!

On a small child you might try those little Dixie cups....would make for a smaller do, but would be just as much fun!

Now was that easy or what!!! So, now go make your WHO do!

Girls Night Out and My Ballerina

Well, it has been a week and a half now and I am FINALLY getting some pictures on here from our first ever GNO! I guess it really should have been called GNI since we stayed IN all night. Anyway....for some reason most of the pictures I took came out too dark, so these were some of the better ones. Just showing some of the fun we had.

My princess stayed with us! She was a hoot..... I think in this picture the time was about 12:30 and yes she was still running!!

Here she is eating her "mushmellow". That's what she calls them!

Some of the girls wanted to straighten my hair. You know it has only been curly since having both kids, mainly since Rachel! Anyhow, as they were doing it, someone thought it would be funny to turn me into a WHO. So with they accomplished that with help if a plastic cup and a scrunci. Then in the picture below is one of our girls....she has long hair too and a lot of it, so they did the same to her!

These two were a hoot, you'll see their handy work below. They decided to tape two of the girls that went to sleep to the floor! I have to say I did have a little to do with that....helping at least!

These were some other helpers! They had the tape ready when we came back for it!

Displaying their handy work!

This is the "All Night Crew" Not one of us went to sleep. Oh, there is also the one behind the camera.

My princess being woke up to head home! Would you believe that she stayed up til 2:30!!! I am not joking, that girl is a party animal!

After we got home Rachel and I went straight to my bed and slept til 12:00! Could have slept longer, but my dear hubby just had to mow the grass!!! LOL

The pictures below are of Rachel. I had to practice getting all of her hair slicked back for recital in a couple weeks. SO, with the help of water and some hair glue, we got it back. For some reason she wasn't wanting to give me a smile, so she was trying to frown!

Then after I snapped a few shots of her, she wanted to take one with her "brodder"! Look at him all beat up! He is ALL BOY!!!! He never goes a day without some kind of scratch or bruise!

Trapped!

Do you ever feel trapped? I know that seems kind of harsh, but sometimes it's just how I feel! Being a minister's wife is not always the easiest thing in the world. But I also think about other women, like coaches wives, and others....I bet they feel the same thing sometimes.

The reason I say this is because there are times when I just want to get away and it just isn't possible. For instance, next week Carlton is taking some of the youth on a trip. An over night trip to go tubing. I entertained the thought of going with them and asking someone to watch the kids. I even went so far as to call someone this time. BUT then last night it hit me.......Rachel has one more ballet class on the Wednesday we would be gone and it is the last one before dress rehearsal on Friday. So, when I mentioned this to Carlton, he said, "Ask them if they would take her." So I was planning on doing that......although, inside I TOTALLY felt like I was imposing enough already!

But then another thought crossed my mind this morning......SWIM LESSONS...... I had promised the kids they could take swim lessons. After getting to school and checking the session dates, it looks as if the only time they could go is June 9 - 18. SO, that would mean asking someone to not only take Rachel to ballet, but to also take the kids to swim lessons two days.......I just can't do that!

Being married to someone whose job moves you around and keeps you away from family is not always the easiest thing! I LOVE what we do...... I LOVE ministering to students......I don't really mind the moving around part either......however, in times like this, it sure would be nice to be closer to "home".

Pink Rose Award

I was given this Pink Rose Award from my friend Janna. She is a dear friend from college. I love her so much and she is one of a very few that I actually still have contact with. She is so sweet! I pray for her daily and I hope you all get a chance to meet her, so head on over!

I am going to nominate a couple people:

1. Natalie: She is a fellow minister's wife. I met her through another "blog friend" and we check on each other anytime we are online. Thank you Natalie for all your encouraging comments and the silly ones. I really do think we are two peas in a pod!

2. Angel: She was more of an "aquaintenance" in college. I found her somehow through this blog land and am never more glad that I did. She inspires me almost daily from her book clubs to her adoption stories (She is currently in China picking up her precious Lady Bug!), to her spirit of trying to make a difference. Take some time, you may need a while, to browse through her blog...you will be amazed as well!

3. Lisa: The Preacher's Wife.....you may know her....who doesn't! LOL I love how she makes me feel that I can go days with out taking a shower(LOL you must read!), that I don't have to stick to a certain schedule all the time and that I don't have to be something I am not! I love that I can go to her blog and find anything from funny girl talk to random nonsense to advise from her and many others about being "married to the ministry". If you want some down to earth, truth telling opinions then head on over to her place.


4. Sue at Praise and Coffee. I love going over to her place on Tuesdays, I don't always leave a comment (maybe only once or twice) but I love going over and being filled! You can get there from the button on the sidebar that says Two Shall Become One Tuesdays. I am reminded each week of the things that I can do to make my marriage stronger and happier. I praise God for women like you Sue that give of your time to allow God to use you in shuch a way! Thank you!


So ladies...here’s what to do if this is your thing:



1. On your blog, copy and paste the award, these rules, a link back to the person who selected you, and a link to this post: You will find the story behind the Pink Rose Award here and other graphics to choose from there. (It's really such a sweet story)



2. Select as many award recipients as you would like, link to their blogs (if they have one), and explain why you have chosen them.



3. Let them know that you have selected them for an award by commenting on one of their posts.

4. If you are selected, pass it on by giving the Pink Rose Award to others.

5. If you find that someone you want to nominate has already been selected by someone else, you can still honor them by posting a comment on their award post stating your reasons for wishing to grant them the award.

6. You do not have to wait until someone nominates you to nominate someone else.Please remember that you don't have to be listed here in order to give this "pink rose award" to someone. All of you listed on my blogroll have changed my life in one way or another. You have all supported and encouraged me, whether it's through the words you've written on your own blog or the comments you've left on mine, and I hope that you will pass this along to all the women who have made a difference in your life! Then go here and let Kymberli know that you'd like to be added to her "rose garden".

Cinderella

That is a picture of my little princess. I posted pictures like this not long ago from a tea party that Rachel was invited to attend. There were so many little princess's at that party and Cinderella made an appearance as well. It was a very exciting time for all those precious little girls.

With all that has happened in the life of the Chapmans I wanted to repost this picture as a reminder for myself as well as you to hug your little prince and princess.

Here is a link to Steven Curtis Chapman's site. If you go to this page there should be a little box to the left that says "play video". By clicking that little box you will be able to watch the video to the song "Cinderella". Immediately following the video Steven discusses how the song came about. Carlton and I heard him tell this story back in February at the Valentines concert in Houston. It will really make you stop and think about the time you spend with your children.

Hope you have the time to check it out!

What was I thinking??

WOW...I haven't done one of these in a very long time, but tonight we are having an ALL GIRLS lock-in at the church. I am not sure how many girls will show up yet....10....20....who knows! All I know is that we are going to have a blast. BUT I will be so tired tomorrow! LOL

We have movies to watch, games to play, food to eat (you gotta have snacks for a sleepover!), and I have spent part of the day gathering up discount cards to a lot of shops in our mall. Pretty good ones too! One of our mothers is also going to get a gift card to either Bath and Body or Bath Junkie. That will be a big hit!

The adults are also going to put on a "what NOT to wear" show. So pray that goes smoothly! Then I will tie that show up with a Bible study from 1 Timothy 2:9 and a discussion on how we look at ourselves vs. how guys look at us and more importantly on how God looks at us.

So, keep me in your prayers tonight bloggy friends!