Long Post Before Hiatus

That's right, I'm going on a cyberspace hiatus. 7 days to be exact. I am taking a break from facebook and posting to my blog as well as reading other blogs. It will be hard for me, since this is in many ways my only link to the outside world as I am working, child-rearing and housekeeping in my house all day. But, it is necessary. I am going to devote extra time to prayer and bible study for these 7 days. I have been feeling bitter over our financial situation with the house thing and it's just not right. I need to take time to get right and begin to be able to look at things from His perspective again. No longer my own self-pity and doubt... that nasty ole' stuff has just about worn my poor heart, soul and mind out!

So, here's a LONG post to catch you up on the last week before my absence.

My camera has been broken for a few weeks now. I found out that it would cost more to repair it than we paid for it, so I broke down and bought a new one this week.
Here's the first pics I took with it.

Here's the boys, just hanging out and being silly.



Here's Gracie giving us her beauty pageant pose!



Jason and I found a wonderful babysitter, who is the daughter of one of our former teachers. They live in our town and I was so excited when she agreed to be our babysitter. So, Friday night Jason and I went out on a Valentine's Day date. We went to PF Changs, where we learned that the wait would be approx 115 minutes. I was like, "You mean 5 minutes short of 2 hours?!" I'm sure the girl at the desk was annoyed by that statement. We wanted to be gone for 2 hours since it was the first time with the new babysitter we didn't want her to have to worry about bedtime... So, we hopped in the car and headed to Copeland's. We waited about 40 minutes for a table. We were gone 3 hrs and 45 minutes and all we did was go eat and come straight home. Pretty crazy!!!
Here's the pic Christen snapped of us before we left.
Oh, and that's my new haircut. You can't really tell from the pic, but I have some little bangs now, for the first time in at least 15 years.


Saturday, Valentine's Day, Jason had to work all day. I took Braden to his basketball game. MeMe and PaPa met us there and they were a great help with the kids as usual. Braden played really well!
He's #14 in the green shirt and white shorts.





When we got back from bball, Bammaw and Uncle Jeff came to see us for a little bit and brought us a giant chocolate chip cookie cake with icing for Valentine's Day. We immediately had a slice, of course!!! So yummy!

Bammaw also brought me these beautiful flowers. I'm not going to say where she got them, but it's pretty funny!



When Jason got home from work, he brought me these goodies! He actually called the kids outside and had them bring the gifts to me. How sweet!! I totally wasn't expecting anything, so it was such a surprise. And I bawled like a baby when I read his card. He said he went through a ton of them to find the perfect one. And it was perfect. Couldn't have been more perfect. I will keep that card forever. I must say that I've read it a few more times, and I've cried every time. Who would think that a simple card could mean so much? It does to me.

All my vases got thrown away when we moved, so this is what my romantic husband came up with so my roses didn't die. It's ok, because we live in Arkansas!!!








Since it was too late to have time to get ready and make it to church by the time Jason got home from work, we decided to make a run to Bville and swap beds with Jason's mom. The boys have outgrown their full size bed and we swapped with her for 2 twin sized ones. They officially have no room to play in their room now b/c the beds take up so much room, but such is life. ONE day we WILL have space for all of us and all our stuff. Oh, I long for that day. A bunch of their toys had to be put into the garage....but hopefully warmer weather will be coming soon and they can play with them there.

Anyway, we here's the kids and the mattresses crammed into the Suburban. Yes, we went all the way there and back like this. It was 40 degrees outside, so we had to crank up the heat because we were freezing in the car!! Praise the Lord we made it safely since 1 of the kids wasn't seat belted... Sorry MeMe. I didn't mention this at the time so you wouldn't worry!





We went to church this morning. We have only gone to church on Sunday morning 1 other time since we moved here. We have been going to the Saturday night services at our church. This morning confirmed why we like going on Saturday night. Church let out at noon and it was 12:45 before we even got on the bypass. And it's only a couple miles from the church to there.
Traffic was c-r-a-z-y!! That's now officially what I loathe about living here.

We are looking forward to a busy week. Jason has volleyball on Monday and bootcamp class at the gym Tues, Thurs and Fri. The boys have school pics tomorrow. Braden has his last bball practice Thursday night and I hope to be able to make it to the gym 3-4 times this week. Just the same ole' same ole'.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will be back in 7 days!!!

Jason told me to say, "Peace Out!"