On The Market........And Other Life Stuff.......

* Today we put our house on the market. Can you hear the thud of the silence? Is this really real? We are listing our house with Coldwell Bankers. Last week we did alot of updating to the yards, both front and back. I planted daisies in the front yard and we also dug up an old bush and planted three Japanese Boxwoods and two other flowering plants. The yard looks really nice. We have also had our guest bathroom fixed. Some of the tile around the bathtub had come loose and the soap dish that was affixed to the wall had come off. The guy that did our tile, did a great job. He also took out some of the old tile in our bathroom and cleaned them up and put them back up. He also did some re-grouting for us. Why don't we make these adjustments when we are living in the house so that we can enjoy them? The flowers are really pretty. At my next house I am going to plant some Gerber daisies. They are so nice. It is amazing what color a few flowers bring to a yard. Don't look now but I think I am growing a green thumb.

Now we have lived here for 9 years and not one house has gone on the market in that time. Well today, three yes, two houses within spitting distance are going up for sale right across the street from us.. WOW!!!!! David called our realtor and told him that that makes us very nervous. He said that it was o.k. because we are right in the middle of the prices of house and we have the most square footage. So I guess this is another area that we are going to have to trust God in.

*I would like to tell you that I am going through all of this with out any stress at all. But that would be a lie. If you notice that I am getting a little fluffier during this time, you know that is how (apparently) I am handling my stress. I guess food is my drug of choice. What a surprise? he he he Like that is news to anyone. Anyone that knows me, knows that I have had a love affair with food for a long time. I am also discovering that I have become rather forgetful, these days. But I am not going to worry about that right now. I am just going to take one day at a time and trust in the Lord.

* My kids took their final math benchmark today and out of 38 children I had 4 fail. One that missed it by one question and 2 that missed it by two questions. One of the students missed it by 8. I don't know that I can do much about that. I have 4 more weeks until my taks test. I will hold tutoring for four more weeks.

* My oldest had to learn a very hard lesson today. Maybe I will write about it some day, but for now I just can't. One of those simple little mistakes girls make when they are trying to be older than they really are. It is not life altering in the big scope of things, but for her it is. I felt so bad for her. I hope she doesn't suffer too much for it at school. Maybe no one will notice. It is tough growing up. I have discovered that it however, is much tougher to watch your children grow up. So many times of joy and so many times of heartache. Poor baby she just cried and cried. I felt so sorry for her and had to cover up my own grin. However she and I will laugh about it someday.

* Hannah is doing great with ymca volleyball. She really loves volleyball and practices it all of the time. She scored several points in each game this Monday night. She is growing up so fast. She turned 10 this week. I thin she is faking it. She is really just 5. We bought her a refurbished ipod for her birthday. She was so excited. She actually squealed with delight.

*Bekah is playing softball. She wanted to skip t-ball. So we moved her up into a higher league. It will be fun to watch her compete. She loves sports.

* David has gotten to stay home for about a week. Before that he was gone for a very long time. I have really enjoyed him being done. I have come to realize over and over how much he does around. We really got a lot done. Even though I told you how I am relieving my stress, I feel so much better now that we are beginning to get some things done. I just thanked David over and over again today for all of the help he gave me.

* Oh by the way I am writing this post from a new laptop we got today. We took down our other computer to stage the house for viewing so David found a good sale at Office Depot so he bought one. He gets his work schedule on the computer and I also have sent out so many resume's with my home e-mail address on them, we felt it was a good purchase.

* I will post some pictures of Hannah's birthday when I learned how to down load on this computer.

* It is late and I am tired so I will write later.

ttfn

Easter Dresses and Olive Garden....

yesterday i was planning to stay home and just have a day of chillin'. but my sister called and she asked me to come and help her buy some now clothes. she has a new job and has to come out of her comfy nursing uniforms.

so off to the mall we went. we were also met there buy my sister in law and my niece. of course we went to bealls my favorite store. boy they have some cute spring clothes out now. we spent 5 1/2 hours in the mall. i love helping people buy new clothes and coordinating them together. ( i think that may become my new business when i retire from teaching) i love making beautiful women feel awesome about themselves. anyway, we went to several stores. i also got to help my sister in law buy a new dress for a wedding.

while i was helping them, my daughters were looking for an easter dress. not that i was really prepared to buy them that weekend, but they found really cute outfits that will work nicely for easter. rebekah loves gouchos and hannah loves pants, hannah ened up with the long dress shorts and an adorable top to match. they were so cute. so i figures what would one weekend earlier make?

after that we ended up going to olive garden with the family. well most of the family. my little sister is sick with the flu. sorry baby girl. i missed you.

we just really had a great day. i love to shop with my girls. when we move to frisco, i am sure that there will be lots of stories about me shopping with my girls. we are going to have so much fun. just think of what i will be able to buy up there.

i know that this sounds very superficial, but i love shopping. i know you are used to more spiritual blogs, but sorry girls, this is it for the day.

anyway we had a great time yesterday.

ttfn................

OH, THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFULL......

Well as you could probably guess, we did not make it all the way to Frisco today. We left here about 8:00 a.m. only to be stopped before Abilene. We also slid off the road in between Miles and Ballinger. After that, David decided to try to drive to Abilene. But we didn't even make very far past Jim Ned. There were times that we were going 15-30 miles an hour.

So I called the assistant principal at the school where I was interviewing at at 3:00, and she happily rescheduled for next Tuesday at 12:30. Even though I know God can see tomorrow, and He definitely had His hand of protection upon us, I was still disappointed. Thank you Jesus for guiding us safely home. I know He kept us from harm, however I still felt let down. I was just ready to have this interview out of the way. I am so ready for all of this to be over with. I am ready to have a new job, new house, and be settled. See A. I am great at giving comforting advise, but when the uncertainty lingers, it is easy to get unhinged.

I hear the Lord saying to me on more than one occasion, to keep my eyes focused on Him. Put him first, seek Him first, make Him the first priority in my life. Oh Lord I am trying to the best of my ability, but sometimes my ability really stinks. Can I just have everything now? Can we just be done with all of this now? What patience, wait on Me, really Jesus are you talking to me?

Today as I was driving home from work and picking up the girls, I put in the c.d. from the retreat. Boy did it minister to me. Just to sit at Jesus' feet. Rest in His arms, soak up His love and peace and mercy and grace until we are able to stand up again.

Oh well life goes on and so will I . I look forward to having a great interview next Tuesday. I know that You are preparing a place for us!!!!!!!!!!

Once again I remind myself to rest in my Father's arms.

ttfn..........

Small Town Girl, In a Big City Whirl.....

This weekend Kelly so generously drove me to Frisco Texas for a job fair on Saturday. It so much fun. Frisco is not the little city I remembered. I had many emotions as we were stuck in traffic on Friday afternoon. I felt excited, amazed, awed, intimidated and many other emotions. I do have to admit that I was excited. We got into Frisco around six in the evening. Kelly has a fantastic sense of direction. She was like super woman in that car just whipping it around to anywhere she wanted to go.

We got there and found our hotel. Then we went to eat at the best mexican restaurant. La Hacinda's. Man did they have the best chicken fajitas. We actually ate there twice. It was that good. After we ate, we found where the high school where i was to go for the job fair. Kelly mentioned that night that maybe i could find my way back to the high school in the morning so she could rest a while. You could have felt the panic rise in the car. But I was determined to do this with the Lord's help.

So in the morning I set out on my own. It was a massive high school. Beautiful and new. I saw my old principal and ran to give her hugs. She just hugged me back. The job fair went very well. I had four interviews (minor) with four different principals. My old principal told me she had my resume on her desk, and that she looked at it every morning. She also said that when all of the letters of intent had been turned in and that all of the internal shuffling had been done, she would be giving me a call. I left feeling pretty confident that I had a really good chance to get a job in about 3 weeks to a month.

I have to say that I did not like selling myself to these principals over and over again. It made me feel awkward. Imagine that, I love to talk. But that was weird. Even though they were very nice. It felt like a cattle sale. So many people, so many tables, so many teachers old and new vying for the same positions. Oh well, God's will be done.

We are close to placing our house on the market. Time is really whizzing by. Wow can you believe that it is already March? Where does the time go?

THANK YOU SO MUCH KELLY FOR TAKING THIS SMALL TOWN GIRL TO THE BIG CITY.
Love ya girl.

I will keep you posted.

ttfn....

BUSY BUSY BUSY.........

we have been so busy lately. sometimes i feel like a., do i have nothing to say, or do i just want to say nothing. but it has been such a long time since i have posted, i feel like i have a lot to say tonight.

david has just recently left, today. he has been home for about two full weeks and weekends. that was really nice. we had fun. he left today, and flies tomorrow. he will be back the following friday.

we have been getting ready to place our house on the market. we are going to put it on the market around the middle or end of march. our realtor told us that we had better wait so that we do not have to move our things twice. i don't know about you, but i don't like packing. who does, right?

we are getting our master bathroom ready. it needs some updating. we already have painted it a pretty creamy brown color. we are also going to paint the cabinets and change out all of the hardware and the light fixtures. i am also going to frame the mirror. it is one of those old mirrors, that covers the whole wall, above the sink.

after we do that we are going to change all the hard ware in the kitchen and update the lights. i was going to paint the wood cabinets, but decided instead to clean then really good and coat them with some formbees wood stain on them. i think since so much of the living room has wood in it, that will look better. for those of you who do not know, my living room has wood cabinet shelves in them and our mantle over our fireplace is a pretty wood color. i think this is the best and quickest and easiest solution for the time we have left to get the house ready.

we are also going to do some curb appeal to the front and back yard. we are also going to have the house painted on the outside. so we have ALOT of work to do. maybe this will be our last move. i kind of like being in the same place.

the girls are doing fine. hannah is going to get contacts for her birthday. she turns ten in one month. can you believe it. we are going to let her get her contacts early. so tomorrow, we are going to the eye doctor to get fitted for them. she is so excited. she sure is growing up fast. she is also playing rec. b-ball. she loves it. and i love watching her.

bekah is doing fine. she has really become a reader. that is so fascinating to watch. i can't wait for her to play sports. she will get to play softball in the spring. she loves to play sports.

the girls are getting excited about the move. we have been looking online at different houses on the internet.

time sure is passing fast. the weekends go so fast.

i am getting ready for TAKS. doing lots of tutoring. i have sent off several applications and resumes. i have a job fair for frisco on the 23rd of february.


i am just continually trying to put everything in the Lord's hands. i know He will take care of everything.

here is one of my favorite new scriptures i have learned, and am learning to live by:

If a man's way delights the Lord, He will make his feet sure, even though he stumbles, he will not utterly fall. He will uphold him with His hand. I was young and now I am old, and I have never seen the righteous forsaken, or their children begging for bread.

Psalms 37:3-8

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eyes upon you. Do not be as the mule or the horse who are unwise and are controlled by a bit.
Psalm 33:8-9

and one of my favorite

REJOICE IN THE LORD, AGAIN I SAY REJOICE. LET YOUR GENTLENESS BE KNOWN TO ALL MAN. BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING! BUT BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION MAKE YOUR REQUESTS KNOWN TO GOD. AND THE PEACE THAT SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING WILL GAURD YOUR HEARTS AND MIND. WHAT SO EVER THINGS ARE LOVELY, WHAT SO EVER THINGS ARE TRUE....... THINK ON THESE THINGS.
Philippians 4: 2-9


ttfn.......

Big Steps......Big Faith......

i am sorry it has been such a long time since i have blogged. when david is gone i am so busy with the girls and the routine of life, that i am too tired to blog. i just want to sit in my blue recliner and veg. sometimes doing nothing at all is the best gift a busy mother can give to herself.

other times when david is home, i not only feel compelled to spend every moment with him, i want to spend every moment with him. the schedule seems to be 5-6 days gone, 5-7 days home. which is really not that bad. the adjustment is going better than i thought. i must preface this by saying that when we are up in dallas, he will be home much, much, more. some of those nights, he is staying up in dallas because he only has one day in between flights. when he stays up there, we save a lot of money on gas. but boy i so realized how much he does around everywhere for me. i have always known that, but it sure is evident now.

well it is time for big steps to be taken.i was talking to a teacher who moved here from houston, and she said i needed to start sending out applications and resumes now. wow. i wasn't quite ready for that, but here i go. i am going to starts sending resumes' and applications to various small districts around dallas. i know God will take care of things, but now as the time is drawing nearer, it has become ever more pressing on my mind. it all still seems so big.

i have not been in an interview in 10 years. and the last interview was with my 6th grade teacher. about all we talked about was how my parents were doing. i pulled out my professional portfolio and he was like put that up i have known you for 20+ years. then i went in to meet the kindergarten teacher i would be working with and we visited about school stuff for about 10 minutes and then we started talking about the blessings of God. she had been struggling with infertility for years and i was telling about Hannah and how she came to be. i don't really call that a true interview, do you?

i ask for your prayers about where i should apply. this not only affects me, but my precious girls. they have really thrived in a small school setting and i would hate to miss God. i really would prefer to teach in a 2AA or 3AAA school setting. i know He is big enough to find me, if i accidentally miss Him, but i so don't want to do that. wherever i teach, will also determine the area that we buy a house. it could also lead to where we go to church. i so don't want to stumble in the area of hearing his voice.

adventures in life always call for a large leap of faith. you know it is one thing to move with out children, it is quite another, when it involves children.

we are beginning to get the house ready for sale. we will put it on the market in march. this is the advice from our Realtor. we are definitely going to do some curb appeal to the house, along with some other areas inside the house itself.

BIG STEPS........ BIG FAITH.......

thank you for your prayers, i love you all so much,
kimmie

50 years of Love.......

I have had the most wonderful Christmas vacation I have ever had. I think my husband is one of the luckiest men I know. Let me explain. This December the 28th was David's parents 50th anniversary. The four children and their spouses decided to throw them a reception with a dinner and dance last Saturday. What a blast we had.

Many relatives from David's side of the family came down for it. There were relatives from Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Minnesota and other parts of the country. I got to meet for the first time since I have been in the family, 22 years, some of David's cousins and aunts and uncles. Imagine if you will a room full of relatives just like David. We had so much fun. Some of them came down Christmas Day. Some of them came down the day or two after. What a great time we had. So many of David's family are so easy going. We had such a great time. David had to leave on Christmas night, but was able to see some of his relatives before he left for Dallas.

On Friday, I went over to the Poynor's and met some more relatives that I had never met before. One of David's cousins came from Las Vegas. His name is Tom. He was just like David. He was so funny. I told him that I had been married to him for 18 years, he just came to me in the form of David. He was hysterical. How funny. I ended up spending the whole weekend with them.

On Saturday night we had the reception. My family was also invited and came. During the reception, one of their granddaughters had put together a slide show and had taken some of the footage that Bob had on 8 mm reel to reel tape and had converted it to dvd. All of the presentation had been put to music. It was fabulous. When the footage of David came on, I did tear up because he was not there. But the tears were soon turned into laughter watching the growth and the development of this most special family. What a privilege to be a part of such a rich heritage.

The food was terrific. The music was amazing and the company second to none. David did get home later that night as we were going to the Poynor's. On Sunday we went to the Poynor's all day so that David could visit with his family. We had such a great time. He just laughed. They just hugged him and asked him all about his new job. We finally got to have Christmas with the Poynor's on Sunday. What a great time we had. On Monday we went back over to the Poynor's as we saw some of the relatives off. But later we went to Zentner's Daughters for supper. There were 20 of us. I got to sit by uncle Larry. I have never met someone more funny. It was hard to say goodbye to these wonderful people that I had just met.

Hannah and Bekah got to meet their great aunt who had made them their special blankets when they were babies. They got to meet cousins that they had never seen.

I wish Bob and Celine 50 more wonderful years of wedded bliss. I hope your life is filled with all the love and peace and joy that you deserve. I am so thankful that 41 years ago you gave this world your son David. What a gift. He is a fabulous husband, father and friend. What an awesome example of parenthood he had to fashion his life after. your children rise and call you blessed. You guys are such a blessing to me. I love you so much.