Project Completed!

I'm super excited!

I have sadly taken a short break from writing little stories to having to work. I know... work... BOO! But is it really work if you're enjoying it? In this case, yes it is! I've worked for over a month on this project of mine. Here's the scoop!

So, about a month-ish ago, I was approached about coming up with crafts for the preschool age group. My church is putting on a Positive Parenting class thing for parents who may be searching for a better way to parent. Now I'm not sure that this is what it's really about or even the reasoning behind it. I'm also not sure that I even have the name right. I've been so focused on so many different areas in my life, but mainly BUYING A NEW HOUSE! If you have been reading my blog for the short while it's been alive and kicking, you'd know that Buying a House is a crazy and draining process, especially if the first house you invest in falls through.

Anyways, back to my project. I'm against babysitting. If I'm going to be watching someone else's kid so that they can have the freedom to be invested in, I want the kid to also be invested in. I know that a lot of kids don't think like adults, but I imagine that if they did, they would really not enjoy being thought of as an "After Thought." This means that even though my church is doing a thing for the parents, I want to be very intentional about the kids' time too.

A few times a month, I teach a preschool class at church. We have such great fun with different crafts and learning new things about the Bible. I wanted to take that same excitement (which is why I was approached in the first place) and apply it on a larger scale. At last count, we have 12-13 kids who will be attending IN OUR AGE GROUP of 4-7 year olds. I'm super excited about the possibilities. The first night of this event will be taking place in a school, whereas the second night is in a church.

So for what feels like many months (though it's only been a few weeks), I've been agonizing over what to do. I've been even second-guessing myself, thinking that maybe I should just go back and say that I just can't do this. The theme for the kids at first was Family. Have you ever searched online for family crafts? They basically center around crafts to do as a family or around the family tree. Not super helpful. I then had the brilliant idea of concentrating on the word "LOVE." Thanks to Valentine's Day, Love crafts are readily available. I put them all together and modified some crafts to be family related. The idea is that "We Love Our Families!"

You can check out my hard work at this website: http://adventureclub427.blogspot.com/

I feel like I'm finally proud of the kids portion of the event and even happier that I can say that I have finished my part! Hopefully things will go exceptionally well!

My Laptop's Note to Me

I haven't been able to post too much on this blog as of late due to the death of my last laptop. I loved that thing like it were my child, my large, square child. It decided to start making noises, which alerted me to a hardware problem. Then, one morning as I fed my son breakfast and turned my laptop on in faith, I found a message that told me that my Operating System could not be found. I actually took a picture, when I get a chance, I will show it to you. It's perfect because it shows my eyes in the "OH NO" stage! It cracks me up.

So, tonight, I went to Best Buy and impulsively bought myself a replacement. Actually, I told my husband what I wanted (CHEAP!) and said that he should pick it out and I'd pay for it. He picked it out, I paid for it and I think we both walked away very happy. 

Well, this new computer has Windows 8 on it. I can't say I'm too thrilled with this operating system. I feel like there's so much going on. It's hard to concentrate and multitask. I know that spending more than 15 minutes dinking around with this thing will fix my "new computer" problems. But for now, I'm mourning the loss of my Windows 7. I hate that the Windows 8 stuff won't recognize the Windows 7 Office programs. So I followed my husband's advice and have loaded LibreOffice on my computer. This is the result after many, MANY minutes of waiting for LibreOffice to download. It's a letter from my laptop to me. Hopefully you can relate to the lack of wanting to change a good thing!

Good morning!

My name is Baby. I am your new laptop. Please proceed to the start menu to get started. Do not confuse this Windows 8 for Windows 7 as we are worlds apart. Windows 8 requires a college degree to understand and to navigate. Windows 7 is for sissies. You, Miss, look like a sissy. Windows 7 is perfect for you. Why are you clicking on that over and over again? Did you know that if you do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, you have just proven that you are insane? Clicking on that over and over again expecting a different result is an insane choice. Please reconsider this choice. Banging on that button over and over again expecting a different result is not a proper response, it is still insanity. Screaming at the laptop is a useless response. Throwing the laptop across the room is a ba...

Asher's Magical Room

Asher is a little boy full of imagination and curiosity. He stands three feet tall but has never viewed himself as small. He has fuzzy auburn hair with big blue eyes that are full of life. He has a Daddy who likes to lift Asher up high and a Mommy who likes to hug Asher tight.

Today, Mommy wants Asher to play in his bedroom by himself for a while so that she can clean the house. Asher is excited at the opportunity to have some time to himself to play in his room. What Mommy doesn't know is that Asher's room is magical. She puts him in his room and says, "I need you to play in your room for a while so that I can clean the house. I love you my little monkey."

After Mommy leaves, Asher turns around and looks at his bedroom. His toys are put away and his bed is neatly made. The first thing he does is lay down in the middle of the room and looks at the ceiling light. Asher is fascinated with lights. Wherever he goes, he points them out to his Mommy and Daddy. He looks at the light and wonders how it works. What makes the light so bright?

After spending a while of looking at the ceiling light, he decides to get up and play with his favorite stuffed animal, a sock monkey named Jax. Asher picked Jax up off of Asher's bed. He held on tightly to Jax's arms and spun Jax in a circle. They spun and spun and spun until...

"Asher, I'm getting really dizzy!" Jax protested.

Asher was delighted to hear Jax's voice. They always have so much fun on their many adventures. He stopped spinning so that Jax would not be so dizzy.

"Thank you!" Jax said, happy that they weren't spinning any longer.

"You are welcome, Jax. What are we going to do today?" Asher asked.

"How about we create a theme park and invite the other toys to come enjoy the theme park with us?" Jax offered.

"I think this sounds like a great idea!" Asher exclaimed.

They got started on building the theme park  They put together the train track so that the different toys could easily tour their theme park. Once Asher put the train on the track, it let out a happy "TOOT! TOOT!" It then sped around the track excitedly. Next, they put together the Hot Wheels track in big loop de loops, they placed it in the center of the train track. They put some cars on it and all you heard was "Weee!" from each car. So far the theme park was loud, excited, and very active.

Asher then took some animals from his Noah's Ark toy and put them inside a gate to create a petting zoo. He had a couple lions that let out a loud ROAR, a couple of monkeys that said HEE HEE HOO HOO as they scratched their armpits, and a couple of elephants that trumpeted loudly. It seemed that all the animals were happy to be out of the ark. 

One thing their theme park needed was a pool. It was a good thing that Mommy left a bottle of water for Asher to drink. He unscrewed the lid and dumped it's contents into his toy boat to create a pool. The dinosaurs went straight into the boat. They were thrilled to be swimming and splashing around. Some water even splashed into Asher's face, which only resulted in a delighted giggle. 

Asher and Jax had quite a lot of fun creating their theme park. They created swings using string, a carousel using a lampshade and some horses, Asher even took some of Mommy's makeup to turn some of his stuffed animals into clowns. When they finished, they just sat back and watched as all the toys enjoyed Asher and Jax's creative masterpiece. 

Everything was going great until Mommy walked by. She had heard some commotion and had decided to check on Asher to make sure everything was alright. As her footsteps neared Asher's door, the toys all heard and went back into their lifeless state. Mommy ended up walking into a big mess. There were toys EVERYWHERE, not to mention a little pool of water in the middle of Asher's creation. She was shocked and amazed at what Asher had accomplished. 

"Looks like someone is having fun in here." Mommy stated. 

"See!" Asher exclaimed at his masterpiece.

"Yes, what a big mess! Let's go ahead and get this cleaned up and put away. When we're done, we'll go get a yummy snack." Mommy suggested.

The two of them started cleaning up Asher's mess. They put away all of the toys, dumped the water out of the boat, took apart the different tracks, and put everything in their own spot. Asher took Mommy's hand as she led him out of his room to the kitchen where she placed him in his chair. She prepared a delicious snack of animal crackers and a banana. As she handed it to him she said, "Here's a snack for my little monkey."

He ate the snack in no time.

"How would you like to help me make some cookies for Daddy?" Mommy asked.

"YAY!" Asher excitedly agreed. 

So Asher spent the rest of the afternoon baking cookies with his Mommy. Don't worry, he made sure that Jax was there to help him make the cookies. 

What a lovely afternoon that was!

The Adventures of Phil the Walrus as an Entertainment Slave

What is a slave? If you were to look up the definition in the dictionary, it would only show you a picture of Phil the Walrus. Phil is a slave.

Phil lives at the zoo, only he and the other animals call it "Prison." The thing is, they do not know what crime they committed to be put into prison. They assume they did something really bad in a past life and are serving at least one life sentence, perhaps more. Still, they hold onto the hope that they will soon be released from the prison as long as they are on their best behavior. Little do they know the zoo is not prison, rather a place for humans to gawk at them. Humans are easily entertained by animal noises, animal activities (such as swimming or balancing balls on their noses), and natural animal functions (like peeing). Phil and the other animals are entertainment slaves.

This is the story of Phil the Walrus as an entertainment slave.

Phil is not an ordinary walrus, he's not even an ordinary animal. In fact, he seems to be smarter than all the other animals at the zoo. He recently came to the conclusion that he will never be let out of prison. He no longer thought it was necessary to be on his best behavior in order to be released from this prison. He tried to persuade the other animals to do the same.

"Uh hem." Phil started. He noticed the other animals weren't paying him any attention. 

"UH HEM!" Phil shouted, the whole zoo quieted down.

"Attention all fellow inmates. It has come to my attention that there is no way we will ever be released from prison, even for Good Behavior. The humans would rather we continue living in these cages so that they remained entertained by us. I propose that we no longer entertain them. This means that we should be quiet, become inactive, and hold in our body functions until they all leave the prison. Maybe if they aren't entertained by us, they'll let us go. What do you say?

The animals were speechless, so many thoughts ran around in their brains. Some were afraid, wondering what would happen if the humans weren't entertained by them any longer. Others simply didn't want to stop peeing for the whole day. Still others were intrigued, but refuse to put in the effort. They ended up voicing their concerns to Phil, but ultimately told him that they would not go along with his plan. 

Phil got down from his big rock. He was discouraged at the lack of support from his fellow inmates. 

He found himself starting to feel angry at the other animals, which led to feelings of resentment. He started thinking of ways to be mean to the other animals. He considered getting onto the nearest bulldozer and driving it into different prison cells, in an attempt to scare or possibly harm the other animals. A few minutes went by and he started thinking this option was a bit rash. He then decided to set out and make the other animals look like behavioral problems. This option sounded like a lot of fun and he thought it sounded even better if he came off looking like a sweet walrus angel. He resolved to starting this plan in the morning. For now, he thought sleep sounded like a great plan.

Except, he woke up at 3 am. He tossed and turned, but when sleep wouldn't come, he became very bored. He looked around. There were no prison guards and all the other animals were asleep. 

Just then he remembered his plan of vengeance and mischievousness against the other animals who didn't support his plan of not entertaining the humans. Then it came to him. He would shave the tops of every tree in the prison. The prison guards would surely blame the giraffes. They would most certainly never suspect a walrus!

Phil thought this idea was brilliant and he started thinking up his plan to accomplish his goal of shaving the tops of every tree in the prison. He decided that launching remote controlled helicopters with remote controlled scissors attached to the helicopters would do the trick. These items were readily available thanks to children who unwisely brought their toys to prison, only to have them confiscated by the prison guards.

Phil got right to work. Thankfully all animals (with the exception of Phil) are heavy sleepers. In no time, the tops of every tree in the prison were bald. Phil was pretty proud of himself. He hid all the evidence and found that all this hard work made him sleepy. He headed back to his enclosure to settle in and sleep. For the rest of the night, Phil slept like a baby.

That morning, the whole prison was in an uproar. The prison guards were blaming the giraffes, in fact the whole prison were blaming the giraffes for the bald treetops. No one even found it strange that even the tops of the pine trees were bare. Giraffes HATE pine needles. They hate how pokey the needles are and how their mouths itch afterwards. It's an itch that can't be scratched! As expected, no one suspected Phil of this mischievous act. This made Phil very happy. In fact, it only encouraged him to continue his mission of revenge against the other animals. 

Later that night, while everyone was sleeping, Phil pooped into Dixie cups. He built a device that would fling his poop at the touch of a button. He mounted his contraption to the top of the monkeys' prison cell, using his trusty remote control helicopters and a remote controlled robot he built out of three sticks and piece of gum. He loaded this contraption with his Dixie cup contents. Did I mention that he's the walrus clone of MacGyver? Probably an important detail, I do apologize!

Next he went into every building and enclosure and tole every ice cube he could find. He piled every ice cube high in the penguin enclosure.

All this late night activity made him very sleepy, so he hid any evidence and headed back into his prison cell to settle in. Just like the night before, he slept like a baby, perhaps better than a baby. 

The next morning, as predicted the prison guards blamed the penguins for stealing all the ice cubes. The penguins also received blame from the other animals. This isn't common knowledge, but all zoo animals LOVE iced water. Since the main ingredients are ICE and water, you can understand why all these animals were upset. 

Later that day, Phil remembered his poop-flinging device. He watched the monkeys from his prison cell and waited until they were hyper and humans were around. When the time was right, Phil pushed the magic button and poop flew everywhere. It hit peeping Tommy smack dab in the face! Peeping Tommy was stunned and started screaming in such a high pitched scream that the wolves started to whine. When peeping Tommy's parents ran over to check on their son, Phil pressed the magic button twice, pelting the parents with poop. When the prison guards ran over to the family, they were outraged at the monkeys' behavior. Just then

SPLAT! SPLAT!

The prison guards had been pelted with poop. This earned the monkeys a day behind glass so they could no longer fling their poop. The monkeys were dumbfounded. They weren't the ones who flung their poop at the humans. For the rest of the day, they had to endure kids knocking on the glass. This troubled the monkeys. You see, when you do the slightest tap of your finger onto glass enclosures, it sounds like a freight train running into an airplane engine. Now imagine how loud and obnoxious KNOCKING on glass would be! This obviously made the monkeys very unhappy with the humans.

The monkeys did their best to quiet the noise. A few even got so desperate that they put poop in their ears. It didn't make too much of a difference, but it made enough of a difference that they were slightly happier than if they had no ear protection at all.

This whole scene made Phil pretty happy with himself. He found the taste of revenge to be oh so sweet. It was then that he realized there was another feeling creeping up. We would call that feeling, guilt. He called it nausea. He decided to take a nap to see if it helped this feeling go away. The nap did not help his "nausea" problem.

That night Phil fought through the guilt and continued with his mission. He wandered down to where the elephant paintings are displayed. There they were, big and beautiful. Phil took a moment to ponder at the meaning behind the paintings. He imagined what it would be like to be as popular as the elephants with their great talent. He was happy the paintings were displayed behind glass. He wanted to make a statement, but didn't want to ruin such beauty. He decided to sneeze on the glass to cover it in walrus snot. He sneezed and he sneezed until there was not enough moisture in his nose to produce any snot. The display was oozing with snot. It was thick and starting to drip. The thought of this would make any human sick to their stomach.

Somehow Phil tip toed into the Prison Kitchen and took out all the meat. He then hid all the meat in the Lions' Den. When he had finished putting all the meat in with the lions, he made his way out of the enclosure as quickly as he could when they started stirring. Did lions sleep as heavily as all the other animals? Phil found a hiding spot as quickly as he could. They started sniffing around and suddenly covered their noses with their paws. It would seem with all the exercise that Phil had been getting recently, he was extra sweaty and smelly. This horrid smell woke them up from their deep slumber. They noticed the pile of meat and immediately forgot the rancid smell that was Phil. The pile of meat made them think they had died and gone to heaven. In their excitement, they didn't notice Phil as he made his way into his own cell.

The next morning the prison guards were in a panic. They noticed that ALL of the meat was missing and they couldn't feed meat to any of the animals. This was troubling to the guards because they just had a shipment of meat the day before. They started walking around the prison looking for the meat thief. When they walked by the lions' enclosure, they noticed the lions' faces were covered in blood from their feast and they were extremely inactive due to the extra meat weight. Upon further investigation they found leftover meat in their den. The guards were furious! Where were they going to get the money for more meat? The other animals who ate meat weren't too happy with the lions either.

A couple other guards noticed the snot mess that Phil had made of the elephants' painting displays. The elephants were upset that their artwork had been treated so disrespectfully. They vowed to find the culprit immediately and to pour their paints on the culprit once he or she were found.

Just then, one of the guards exited one of the buildings and walked excitedly to the guard that seemed to be in charge. He quickly told the guard in charge about what he found on the surveillance cameras. Phil assumed this was the conversation because the guard kept pointing to the cameras hidden around the zoo and made big motions towards Phil. That's when Phil knew... he had been caught.

That day Phil was moved into a bigger enclosure that was Walrus Proofed. The guards made sure that there was no way that Phil could ever escape to cause any more trouble in the prison. The other animals were not happy with Phil. They were furious at him. They hated that he got them in trouble the few days prior, but were happy that the truth won out. All the animals started getting along again, except that no one would talk or even look at Phil. This displeased Phil because he felt like they deserved everything that came to them.

That night Phil thought about the day and he was so angry, mostly because he got caught. Getting caught took away all the enjoyment he got out of his mission. He decided that since the prison guards had done their best to make sure he could never escape, that he would take up magic to pass the time. For days he worked on different magic tricks and even prepared to do a magic show for the whole prison.

The day finally came where he would perform his magic show. He started with the usual, pulling the bunny out of the ground trick. He moved on to pulling snot out of his nose like it was a never ending string of bandannas  Then it came to the grand finale of magic tricks... he would disappear.

That's when poop started flying everywhere, snot poured from the sky, ice cubes pelted the visitors, and...

Phil the Walrus disappeared.

Moral of the Story: Go along with any idea a walrus has, it's better than being blamed for things you did not do.

Shining Sun!

I know my past few posts seem a bit down and depressing. I'm here to say that my gloomy cloud is lifted, the sun is shining, and my face sports a smile. It seems that the whole house was stressed and now everyone is calming down and getting into a groove. Time really does help some issues, but being someone with a servant's heart does help matters as well. My in laws come home to a house that's clean and picked up. I'm pretty sure they're enjoying it and will notice it when we finally move into our own house. It's nice to be a blessing and to make their lives a little easier.

This past week their cat got ran over by a car. It was an especially traumatic experience because they just put a cat down about a month ago. The cat that got ran over by a car has survived. He gimped away with a broken leg. The poor thing now sports a splint with a purple wrap. He's a boy... wearing purple. I was hoping he'd have green or blue... something manlier. He also has some pretty amazing pain killers that I wish my cat would have had when she almost died. You rub it in his ear. I think this is the weirdest concept, but within about 15 minutes it seems to take effect. He's a happy boy right now!

This past week I discovered the fun of Instagram. Here is some proof:

"I always feel like somebody's watching me!!"

Making faces!

My two littlest kitties sleeping on my bed.

Our drive home from church on Sunday, it was raining.

Instagram is definitely entertaining. I'm enjoying how all my pictures have that "Wow" factor. Maybe I'll become a professional Instagram Photographer... does that exist? If not, it does now! I've also decided to become a professional singer that ONLY does jingles! I'll be famous before we know it!

STRIKE ONE!

I just had to tell this amusing little story from last night.

Last night was youth group. We had a couple extra students than normal, which brought our total up to 6 students. I know... pretty crazy! In one night, we grew by 50%. Those are some good percentages, don't you think?

Well, we started the night out by playing Live Action Mafia. Our students love this game and request it every single week. My husband and I weren't really in the mood to do much of anything, and the teens were really rowdy  so we opted for an impromptu Game Night. This brought much excitement to our teenagers.

After a few games of Mafia, we played Sardines. If you don't know what Sardines is, it's where one person goes and hides and everyone else tries to find them. Once you find the person, you hide WITH the person. Some places are especially squishy, which is where the name "Sardines" comes into play. So I hid first, and they found me pretty quickly. Next up was a student of ours, and then after that was my husband. My husband requested a few extra minutes so he could go to the bathroom before hiding. This is where things went totally chaotic. There were pillows being thrown in every which direction, teenagers running around a room and screaming. If I didn't know better, I would say that I was standing in the middle of a war zone between two countries-- Pillowland and crazy Screaming Teenagers. It was so chaotic that parenting movies are based off moments like that.

My first action was to tell them to put the pillows away. I had two kids who decided they would throw in their last pillow at each other, so I yelled "STRIKE ONE! PUT THE PILLOWS AWAY!" Suddenly the room got so quiet, that you could hear a pin drop. Actually quieter, you could hear a feather hit the ground. It amused me so greatly because of the looks they were giving me.

I never yell in youth group. I never call out strikes. They know that if they break the rules, we do call our strikes. They have three strikes before they're "Out" (like in baseball, only they're out for a while). Normally, I never think to call out a strike. I found myself, in this situation, shocked by how quickly I called out those strikes. Honestly, I was a bit proud of myself.

The teenagers were quiet for a brief moment. Some started moping around like they were in a LOT of trouble. Last night was just chaotic. The whole night was. I probably should have called out more strikes for poor sportsmanship. I just liked that in that moment when I called a couple students out, they took me seriously. I guess I had that tone of, "Don't mess with me!"

It was a good moment. I'm proud of that moment!

Vaseline

What is it with my kid and Vaseline?

The kid has had a pretty bad diaper rash for the past few days. Diaper rashes are a constant thing with him, 99.9% of them tend to be acid burns (like foods he eat don't agree with him). I always have Vaseline on hand, ready to go at a moment's notice. I think the stuff is amazing, plus he's allergic to all the other helps out there.

Anyways, on more than one occasion, my son has gotten into the Vaseline and has had a party. It's sooo obnoxious! I don't know what's so enticing to him, is it the lid, is it the Vaseline itself? I have no idea what intrigues him so.

This morning, it happened again. Let me just say right now, I am NOT IN THE MOOD! I wanted to bathe him in our bathroom, but it's being occupied by three teenaged girls. I knew that it would be a while, but in the middle of our wait (they're still not out of the bathroom by the way) he decided to have a Vaseline Party. That stuff is so nasty to try to get off things that it should not be on. What was I supposed to do? The other tub is so nasty that I'm afraid of catching various gross diseases. Seriously, If the kid sits down, I'm afraid his penis will fall off, it's that nasty. So I did what any person would do, I made him stand... I have priorities here. My plan is to one day hand my grand children Vaseline as payback, in order to do this, my little man needs his manly parts.

That was one bath that I think was pretty scarring. I don't know why. Maybe it was the standing. Maybe it was too warm for him. Maybe it was the type of shampoo we had to use. Or maybe it was the simple fact that I talked over and over again about how unhappy I was with him for doing this. I doubt this will have a lasting effect on him and curb his Vaseline party interests in the future, but I can hope, right?

Moral of the story: Don't leave Vaseline around a child. Also, smack whoever left the Vaseline out in the first place!

Easter

First off, a little announcement. Chips Ahoy has come out with a new kind of cookie, they're advertised as GOOEY! Some have fudge, others caramel, and I think there was one other flavor. I bought the fudge ones and they tasted a lot like pretty yummy brownies. I recommend that everyone go out and buy a package (at least of the fudge ones because those are the ones I know are delicious).

Anyways, this past Sunday was Easter. My family (as in grandparents, aunts, and uncles) has a tradition where everyone goes to my grandparents' house to hunt Easter eggs. Every year we have a "prize egg." which has ALL the goodies in them. Most years it even has a lot of money in it. My husband heard that my family hides 300 Easter eggs for maybe 10 kids (possibly less).

This year was my son's first time Easter Egg hunting. Since he's recently learned about putting his toys away, he caught on to putting the eggs into his bag. A little bit into it, he started noticing the eggs and would get really excited as he leaned down to pick it up and put it in his bag. I was really impressed, he probably got 20 eggs or more. The older kids had a lot more in their bags, but not by much.

Yesterday's post was kind of depressing, mostly because I've been feeling really depressed about my current living situation. For those who don't know, my living situation is that I am in limbo. We're pursuing home ownership  we have a house that looks like it might even be ours, and until that official closing date we are living with my in laws. It's not an easy task, it's rather taxing, difficult, and a constant reminder of the changes happening in my life. For this, I have been pretty depressed, able to cry on cue if I ever took up acting.

Easter was a fantastic day for me though. I was able to get out of the house and go be around my family. My family is pretty quirky, but I generally feel quite loved around them-- especially my grandparents. My grandparents aren't the typical grandparents. I've lived with them on and off my whole life and even did a cross-country road trip with my grandpa. They're full of life, great stories and memories, and most of all I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they love me. It's such a great feeling.

I also visited my other "dad." He's not my biological dad, he's the dad that I adopted. He used to be my boss/mentor and even though I haven't been working with him for about 3 years now, I still keep in contact with him and visit him when I can. He's an amazing man who loves me like I'm his own kid. I've seen him in his dad-role many times and I don't ever see much of a difference with how he treats them and how he treats me. This is currently a big deal right now with living with my in laws. With my in laws, there's a pretty major difference with how they treat their own kids and how they treat me. Anyways, I spent a lot of time with my dad and his family and it was just a refreshing time. The most stressful part was leaving and coming back to our current house.

I feel like I've "checked out" since moving in with my in laws. I don't feel very present with them, due to the hurt that I'm feeling. Yesterday I made a point to clean a bathroom and vacuum the entire house, as well as do OODLES of laundry. When they came home, it seemed like it made my in laws more peaceful and more peaceful towards me. I don't know if it was that I straightened up, cleaned up, or if they just needed to get back into the Monday routine, but there was a noticeable difference in attitudes. It was a difference that I actually felt some hope about our situation.

In light of this new day and a pretty great ending to yesterday, I've taken some time to reflect on the meaning of Easter. Easter is the celebration that Jesus rose from the dead, that he defeated the grave. The grave couldn't hold him. I don't want to believe in a God that is just like me, I want to believe in one that is greater than me and can do great things. Being raised from the dead is something that no human can do to themselves. If they could, graveyards wouldn't have bodies in them. I have this overwhelming desire to live life to the fullest. To live a life full of meaning and purpose and JOY. Because of Jesus, I have all of these things, best of all, I have his love and his HOPE.

One of my friends posted online yesterday that "He has Risen!" You could look at it and be like, "wow, he was slow to catch up, since Easter was yesterday." Or you can look at it the way all Christ-Followers should, that Jesus is Alive all year long! If he's alive all year long, then he can do something about our situation today. He can change our hearts today.

Easter is just a reminder of the hope we have.

Short Seasons

I haven't written in quite a while. Lots of new changes have happened since I last posted. Since I don't feel like reading over my past posts to see where I left off, I may repeat a few things.

First, We were going for a house that was supposed to close on the 25th. We ended up rescinding our offer. On top of being jerked around by those people, their listing agent was completely unethical, unprofessional, and possibly even a bit on the illegal side (I'm not so sure about it, if it isn't illegal, then it should be). He started calling our bank to see if we had the finances to go higher on price. Thankfully our bank respected our privacy and told him to bug off. Since that house fell through, we have been on the hunt for a new place. Last weekend we put an offer on a beautiful and perfect house for us, but for reasons other than financial, the owner went with the client of an agent she knew. We then turned around and put an offer on my other first choice house and the couple accepted our offer. So far this house has been a breeze to work with and the owners seem exceptionally nice. We are still waiting for the earnest money back from the first house. This could make or break whether or not we actually get this house. We're praying hard, not only because we can really use the money, but also because we don't want to have this go any farther (as in no lawyers and whatever).  It's frustrating and discouraging, but we are encouraged by this other house and its owners.

Second, we have moved out of our apartment and in with the in laws. The reason was to save money and be able to put more towards the house. I also didn't want to keep jerking around our land lord, because I am just a really nice person. I work really hard to keep my promises and I felt that going back and trying to work things out would make me look like a flake. I also understand that they need to be able to know how to plan for things.

Anyways, we got all moved out, go the apartment cleaned up and looking better than when I moved in there. It was beautiful and I was sad to leave it, though still hopeful and excited about becoming a home owner. The down side to all of this is that my in laws came over to help pack up a few extra things and now I don't know where anything of value is. It frustrates me and stresses me because I like things to be organized. When I pack boxes, I can pretty much tell you what is in the boxes. Now, I have no idea and I'm already stressed about unpacking all these boxes because there's no organization to them. It will make unpacking take MUCH longer, and we won't be able to unpack based on priority.

The dynamics of living with the In Laws has been incredibly stressful to me. Emotionally, I have sunk into a state of depression. If you look at me wrong or use an annoyed tone, I burst into big, fat tears! No matter how hard I try, it's really difficult to stop crying once I get started. All of this is incredibly abnormal to me. I'm constantly frustrated and stressed that I'm not even talking as much as normal. I have to watch the words that come out of my mouth pretty closely, for fear of being offended or being disciplined like a small child. I have to work hard to actually parent my own child and to establish that as my role in his life because the in laws want to take over. I constantly feel like I'm messing up, that I'm not good enough,and that I pretty much suck at life. Moving into my own house cannot come fast enough.

I'm working really hard at being a blessing. I've been cleaning a lot: doing dishes, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, etc. If a need presents itself, I fill it. Part of this is also out of boredom. I've also been taking my husband and son out for walks. The other day we walked 6-7 miles plus we walked around in Walmart. Keep in mind that we haven't done any real exercise in a long time. It was really refreshing and nice to get out as a family.

My son has been so good. He hasn't been allowed to take much of a nap in the last 4 days. He tries to but the family keeps their tvs on SO LOUD! It's loud enough that it's quite difficult to have a conversation. If I put him in his bed to give him the chance and he cries, the grandparents will go and get him up. My poor boy has really bright red dark circles under his eyes. Yesterday he took to falling asleep whenever he could. He fell asleep on the way to church (which is an hour) and he slept for 3 hours while we were at church, and then fell asleep during car rides when we continued our Easter trek to see my extended family who live 3 hours away. During all of this, my son hasn't been real grumpy. He still is pretty happy.

In the midst of all the life changes and this season, I hold onto the hope that this season will be a short one. The prediction is that (if all goes well) we will be in our new house before April is over. Our closing date is May 9th, three days before Mother's Day.

Here's to a REALLY SHORT SEASON and for EVERYTHING to work out WELL!