The Big Day...It Is A Comin'

tomorrow is moving day. yep, tomorrow. the day i have been pining for every day for almost an entire calendar year, and do you think i'm ready? nope. nowhere close. i'm a basket case. i have a foyer full of packed boxes yet there is still laundry in the washer (and the dryer for that matter), furniture to be disassembled, dinner to be eaten, half a kitchen to be packed and miscellaneous other matters that i will drive myself crazy if i even think of listing them...and you don't want to read all that anyway. so, if you think of it, please say a prayer for us. and being selfish, me especially, that i don't fall apart. i already broke down crying once (it doesn't help that i'm sick with a horrible head cold and some allergies on top of it). i should take a deep breath, slowly eat some dinner ala leftovers to clean out the fridge and then dig into packing like the wind. there really isn't tons left, it's just the idea. it's some stuff that needs to be done, and it's that pesky thing called change. you know, the one i'm not good at. even if it's a great, i mean great, change. i'm excited, i'm scared, i'm exhausted. if that ain't a breakdown waiting to happen i don't know what is. there will be changes in our lives yes, but i have a feeling they will be good. but the look on these little peoples' faces running into their future backyard for the first time...
...makes it all worth it. one million fold.

Changin' Them 'Tilities Is 'Spensive!

wow, i'm a literary genius. ain't that the truth yins! :) but seriously, i can't believe how much companies make you pay for doing...oh, pretty close to absolutely nothing. for example, the gas company charges $90...yep, you saw that right...ten bucks short of a hundred to "switch my account." and since gas has been flowing freely to the new house since it was built and i'm not asking to take the underground piping from the old house and avail its use at the new one, i'm thinking "transfer my account" involves a few key strokes. so if we give them an extra keystroke for deleting the old address and one for each letter of the new address, we're paying roughly...$2.31 per keystroke...and that's just to the gas company. don't even get me started on the phone company. where can i find a job that will pay me $2.31 per keystroke? heck, i would have already made myself just shy of two hundred bucks with this post.

Enough About Me...Let's Talk About the Kids!

well, in the interest of comic relief (don't we all need some), here are a few things that my children have pulled out of their bag of tricks lately...this. gross? yes. but let's get the full story to be fully grossed out. i was eating an el fudge, quite possibly my mostest favoritest cookie in the whole world and i accidentally flipped my frosting, which of course i separate from the cookie because it's oh so luscious, into the leftover ketchup on my plate. i, totally joking, looked at our two year old and said, "would you eat this chocolate from the ketchup?" and before i could blink she said "yes," plucked it out of the ketchup and viola...the picture above.

now onto the four year old son. the other day my husband overheard him playing and thought he heard some unacceptable language. then my husband asked him what he was doing. well he proceeded to show my husband something he had built out of legos which he called his "damage car." it was fully equipped with the anakin lego guy from star wars. he showed my husband also how every time it hit something...it was dam-ing it. therefore, everytime he would ram something with it he would yell, "come on anakin, dam it, dam it." ah yes, the dam-age car.

now, back to the two year old. she provides so much on her own. we pray a "sort of" litany of the saints every night at the end of our family prayer time. usually she just repeats the saints i say and occasionally says "pray for us." tonight she decided to invent her own saints and try to interject them among the ones i was offering. my two favorites were "st. daddy" and "st. eat cheetos."

ah kids. i think i would go nuts without them.

Leave It To Me...

...to have to get a meaning for my life from a veggie tales movie. this afternoon we took our kids to see the new veggie tales movie, "the pirates who don't do anything." the kids have been looking forward to it for a month and on account of some free movie passes my husband was awarded at work...so was i. totally off the topic. did you know that pretzel bites and a drink at a movie theatre cost $10.50. but i digress. the movie was good. i'm not quite sure that i liked it as much as "jonah," but the remake of the b-52's "rock lobster," (in veggie tales land, "rock monster") was superb. and also, i'm a little slow to admit...i got teary eyed. you see, there's a father in the movie and he's supposed to represent, you guessed it, The Father, you know...the big guy upstairs. and he tells the pirates that he gave them trials to make them realize what they had. i thought i would bawl. yes, i have always known this but when a larger than life talking vegetable tells me it...well people, it's somethin' else entirely. so without going into depth in my personal life for all the 3.2 people who read this...i'll go into it in person some time if you like, but you understand. the other day, God and i had a little pow wow, that involved alot of tears (on my part, i can't be positive about His), a big ol' apology (that obviously didn't need to come from His side of the tracks) and alot of relief. it didn't come easily and took something that seemed downright crushing to do it, but it came...and by golly it was blessed. isn't that just the way? He's totally into giving us the desires of our heart because He loves us so, but He also wants us to realize what we already have and what we are leaving for this "bigger and better thing." He wants us to see that He's never left us. it's just that back then, the gifts He gave to us were different. they were better or worse, they were just different. they were to suit the situation we were in then, the need we had then. and even if the gifts we may receive now seem totally better, they are the same as yesterday. our needs change. we grow. He knows that and gives us everything we need and so much more, until we are overflowing. He's good people...oh He's good. and thanks to one of the four food groups for reminding me.

Post One Hundred And One!

ok, it's just like me to be behind. i sort of spend my life like that it seems. but today when i signed in to write this i realized that i had written 100 posts. now most people would have clued into this and said something about it oh...in the 100th post. but that's just how i am, so happy 101 people.

anywho, the house is starting to look like a cardboard city. i wish i had a picture to show you. alright, actually i don't. i'm a little bothered by boxes and random pieces of whatnot everywhere. the kids just seem to see the piles of boxes as mt. rushmore or the like. i cannot even count how many times yesterday that i found the two littlest members of the family involved in some adventure or rescue mission of a doll or stuffed animal that had perilously fallen to it's doom taking a tumble off of the packed boxes. every instance was of course after they had been previously reprimanded to stay off of the boxes because some of the boxes in the library contain, you guessed it, books. and lots of books in a smallerish (forgive my making up words to suit) can be well...heavy. and tiny 25 pound little girls getting crushed by boxes of books that weigh more than them is not how i wish to spend my afternoon. call me crazy and unadventurous, but it's not.

well, off to get some school work in and then off to packing again. seriously, i don't think it's ever going to end. i told my husband by the end of the month when we need to be out, i think i'll have maybe the library packed up. argh. when we started showing the house i threw away so much stuff. now there's not really much in here but i hate packing in any way, shape or form. i'm the type that would rather by toiletries for vacation when we get to our destination. but i have started throwing away all manner of things again...with reckless abandon. my wonderful husband is not quite as sure that all sorts of things need to go to the trash. i just don't want to pack them and then in turn, unpack them some time. i shouldn't have started with the library i guess. it's just an entire wall of books (wow, that's a shocker huh?), my sewing desk and fabric stash and what we use for the only utility/storage closet in the house. maybe it will just be a breeze once that room is finished. i can hope.

Remember That Peace I Was Talking About?

well, it's waining. ok, i'm trying not to let it but yesterday the alternator (we believe) started to go out on our only functioning vehicle. this caused it to stall right in the middle of moving traffic in our city square. i was petrified to say the least as i fumbled for the hazards and prayed that someone would not hit me as the car slowed to a stop. praise God though, nobody hit me and the call started right back up. then, we got a call from our realtor letting us know that the funding for our new home is bogged down in government discussion and whatnot somewhere. we have to be out of here in 28 days. we're not scared yet, we just need to sit down and weigh out all of our options in case they need to be used. we would appreciate any prayers for this situation. i'm still praying that God's will be done in all of this. He does and will take care of all of us and things will work out.

Happy New Year!!!

a happy new year to all yins and yours (i did live close to west virginia for a few years). i hope you are enjoying your first day of the year. this morning we went to mass to celebrate the solemnity of mary the mother of God and then we just stayed around the house, ate a little bit, napped a little bit, ate a little bit...well, you see a pattern. it's the first day of the new year and of course, that gets me thinking about the one we have just left. now mind you, i usually don't try to get as sappy as the vh1 year end montage that seems to continuously play green day's "time of your life" or whatever the heck the trendy, sums up everybody's feelings supposedly ballad of the latter half of the year was, but this past year has been a humdinger. i didn't really get thinking about it until the phone rang unexpectedly around 8pm last night and it was a friend i haven't spoken to since august. she used to live just down the block, we did everything together, our kids (especially our oldest daughters) were inseparable and so on and so forth. her family moved to join a Catholic community in arkansas this past summer and their leaving was a bit of a strained sort of weirdness. we have exchanged a few random e-mails since then but nothing substantial. we had a truly blessed almost two hour conversation. we talked about our lives, our families, our faith, our struggles and our blessings. we talked about how our lives have changed and what we think God is doing in each of our lives. it was amazing and i got off of the phone with her, not knowing when i would be able speak to her again, but feeling like the most blessed person in the world at that moment. so many things have happened and changed in the past year. it has been a year of losing touch with old friends and making new ones. it has been a year of things not happening that i had planned on and things happening that were above and beyond my wildest dreams. this year has been difficult...it has been strained...it has been blessed. i don't know how to explain it other than the peace that passes all understanding. the turmoil of the past year, and that which continues for us, would have normally drove me over the edge, but i am at peace. i am truly at peace. i don't know what it is besides i have started entering into lifes events without struggle...against Him...Him who knows all, sees all and takes care of all. and that even includes me, no matter how unworthy i may feel. i knew this all along but for some reason, lately, by His grace i have been able to do it. i know it may not last forever and i could slip into old habits at a moment's notice but right now...i'll take it...and be thankful. things aren't great by any stretch, but He is in control and there is peace. blessed peace and assurance that He is in control and i am not. and that is where my phone conversation led me. that time of true faith sharing with an old friend was the greatest gift. for her to be able to share her journey with me and vice versa. i am so thankful. it was such a great capstone to the year that seemed so out of my control. but isn't that great? to lose control and realize that it's because you are allowing Him to take control...even just a little bit. in no way have i surrendered everything to Him like i should, but the little bit i have given up is sheer bliss. may this year find you closer to Him than you have been before and more thankful for everything...everything He gives you. it's all gift, even if the wrapping isn't pretty and it wasn't on your wish list...it's all gift.