LarkExaltation

Have I mentioned lately how proud I am of my husband!!!

Yesterday PD was told that he was the “student support person.” When he sent me the message I thought, well…yeah.. it’s what you do and asked if that was a good thing? Later he began to realize and told me, that it’s basically paraprofessional of the year for his school. I remember seeing a sign outside of Sam’s school a couple of weeks ago for Student Support Person. How cool is this! The principal told him that it was unanimous! We think that the teachers voted. They asked for his new address, not sure why? And the principal said the ladies in the office would coax him though an interview… he’s kind of nervous now, but very excited.

I really believe that the man is finally in his element.

I can’t wait to see what he does as a teacher.

I actually fell asleep in the bathtub Sunday night, and I really don’t think my body is going to forgive me anytime soon. PD and I, with the help of my sister, cousin and mother-in-law watching the children over the weekend (THANK YOU!!!), managed to move all of the furniture and a huge chunk of our things to the new house Saturday. We worked for nine hours loading and unloading. We’ve made a couple of small truck trips since then. I haven’t seen it since Sunday afternoon, but PD made a few trips yesterday and says there isn’t much left, though I know I have a good bit of my kitchen waiting to be moved. We had the piano moved yesterday, the best $150 we’ve every spent. After we get the last of our things, the only thing I’ll need to do is clean the bathrooms and the kitchen. We’re having the carpets cleaned on Thursday, just in time for the electricity to be cut off on Friday. PD managed to keep moving yesterday so the muscle soreness isn’t quite as bad for him as it is for me who sat at work all day. I know for sure now, when we build our house, I’m going to hire movers to move us… ug!

Before we moved I was making all of the appropriate phone calls and fill out change of address forms. Our telephone company informed me that they did not have DSL in that area. I was shocked and very disappointed. I haven’t heard great reviews on the major cable company for their customer service, and when I called to see about service, I quickly realized why. PD asked if I would call a local DSL provider about service. I was informed that I would need phone service, obviously, and told me to check out a local telephone company. Well, I think this company must lease the circuits or something because the prices where phenomenal, and there were odd places to go and fill out an application. I got back online to our phone company’s site and started to place an order for our service to move our phone service and I realized they weren’t telling me the DSL service was not available. I can’t help but wonder if my questioning the lack of DSL made them reevaluated the area and realized, hey, maybe this is a service area! Needless to say I’m ecstatic about it! Though, the turn up date isn’t until the 28th. Not very convenient for someone who’s taking internet classes, but PD said he’d either sit at the empty apartment… until Friday I guess, hehe…. or go to the lab on campus.

Needless to say the house is a mess right now and there are boxes everywhere, but we can already see that we’re really going to enjoy living there. I really can’t wait to get it all fixed and post pictures of our new home. Here are some of it empty I took at the beginning of the month. I left out the laundry room and the bathrooms because I’m not really going to decorate those much. They have very nice counter tops and fixtures, but once you’ve seen one regular bathroom, you’ve seen them all, no? The back yard is dirt right now, I’m not stranger to that, but they’ve been smoothing it out from construction, and I’m sure the grass will get going once the months get warmer and it stops raining so much. We have a little man made bayou in our back yard and Sam is really looking forward to fishing and every morning Libby asks to “see ducks.”

it’s hard to believe i haven’t written a post in over a week. the kids are keeping me busy,that’s for sure. after evelyn got over her rsv the lovely daycare decided that she was having…. loose stools…. to be polite about it. and i couldn’t bring her back until it was cleared up. well, i breastfeed exclusively and that’s gunna happen! sam had a stomach virus but she just wasn’t acting like that was the case. on her last checkup on the rsv i had the doctor write a letter stating the facts and that she could return to daycare, she was not contagious. i was then informed that it was not only the content but the fact that it was getting out. what the heck? babies have leaks! so i told them i would buy bigger diapers, my girl is in a 2 now! the director said she would work with me…

my online buying consultant

she always does this, i’m not sure why. biblical or bride?

… so on the more fun side of things. pd got his student aid refun, yay grants! and we purchased a laptop. my favorite laptop! so he could take it to school, work, etc to do his school work and to have something to take to church for his power points when he teaches sunday school. it’s lovely! well, the lappy has wireless so we just HAD to get a wireless router, tee-hee. i got it all set up at lunch yesterday and i have to say i’m very pleased with myself. of course this is after i set it up perfectly and then started looking at settings and botched everything up and after a long lovely phone call with my isp support, they decided to send out a wireless modem/router, and i could send my router back if i wanted. right! i put it back the way it was after initial installation and let it go. isp’s wireless router should be here tomorrow… ir.. today. after several IMs and phone calls with a friend I finally realized what was going “wrong” and that i should leave it the way i had first set it up. we even worked through managing the router remotely. all issues from before, the same. and so here i sit, having just fed/changed evelyn, blogging from my favorite recliner.

she’s a beauty!
in other great news, we’re moving. i know i said i wouldn’t move again until we had a house, but in the warm nights, and even some of the cold ones, our neighbors are rather obnoxious, outside talking into the wee hours of the night/morning, and the girls across the hall who smoke outside our doors and it leaks into our apartment. bleh! we’re renting this brand new duplex apartment. it’s lovely. 3/2 a very open living space, no carpet (good for the allergies, bad for clumsy kids - we plan to put down area rugs). though we’re living in a box mess right now, we’re hoping to have everything moved next weekend. if i could get my act together i’d pack more, blog less and have everything done by moving day…

as of December 28th i was officially back to work and back to “normal.” and aside from a few changes that took place january 1st that no one told me about, everything has been running rather smoothly. PD and I have been figuring out morning schedules with getting kids and ourselves ready. And then there’s PD’s night classes that start on the 14th. i am happy though to say we’ll have him home more in the evenings this semester. he’s only taking two classes on campus and the rest will be internet courses so that will be nice to have the normality for the kids, but it will be hard to keep them out of his hair when needed.

i realize it’s been almost two months since i posted last. i’m not going to say it’s the baby that keeps me busy. i think it’s more of the needing to work while on “leave,” Christmas shopping, and the two other tornadoes that live in our home. but, as the dust is starting to settle, i think, well, i hope that i’ll be able to keep up more with writing and pictures. i was told yesterday by a friend who will remain nameless, amie!, that i needed to post more pictures of evelyn. so! i’ve been inspired to take more pictures! imagine that. and last night i snapped off some cute ones of the kiddos. but i’ll start with the one’s from two months ago…

40 Hours old

Home at last

So pretty

Christmas Card 2007

Precious Memories

Sam’s Christmas List - Optimus Prime, Bumble Bee, and a Black Spiderman outfit “see his angry eyes, and he has no mouth”

She picked out her clothes after bath last night. Boy pull-up because we couldn’t find girl “feel n learn” at the store (those things work so well!)

So much for clean towels - standing at the kitchen door with a wash cloth in hand “i get another baby…”
*side note: every towel has some sort of baby under it*


“I love you to take a picture of me with my ship on my head”

We got the original “my little pony” for her birthday. That’s the same one I had when i was little.

My little thumbalina

The baby we got her for Christmas, I am always drawn to the dark skin, brown hair, brown eye babies for her. She loves that it has a “pony”

Evelyn Rae

Born November 14th @ 21:53
8 pounds 2 ounces
19 3/4 inches long

A few minor adjustments to the costumes but this is what my kids were for Halloween.

Princess Presto and Super Why from the PBS kids show Super Why!.

Sam decided he wanted to be Super Why (with the power to read) so I went on a quest to find the costume. The best I could come up with was a super hero costume pattern and my wonderful mother-in-law agreed to put it together for us. In my search for a Libby costume I decided Princess Presto (with spelling power) would be easy enough. I got a cute princess dress from e-bay and some fabric to make a cape. Edna Mode would not be happy with us …. “no capes!”

He looks like a luchador to me

That wand is a weapon, I didn’t let her carry it much. “Presto!”

Showing off costumes to nana.

My kids and their local cousins at the church Fall Festival

It was a blue afternoon for me and I’m going to blame it on the lovely hormones before anyone else does. Events that we attend lately are not with a group but more like we see people we know when we get there. I’m miss my close group of friends planning, meeting, going, doing. Lately, we get to a place knowing that others may be there. You go one way and when you finally meet half way, they’ve already been where you’re headed. I can’t seem to remember when the go your own way, see you if we see you thing started. I suppose I could be more of an initiator? That’s an area I’ve always lacked in; conversations, outings, groupings. We jokingly, but lovingly, referred to our group as “the commune.” Not only for meals, but movies, game nights, road trips, even random trips to the store was just the thing to do. Once we’d finish with that there was the question of “what now?” You’d get out of class, church or off of work and ask “so what are we doing?” “what’s for supper?” “cooking or eating out?” But never questions for a table for two but a table for six, plus. Usually gatherings occur at one home in particular but life situations change that make for a new question of “who’s home?” So for three years now, maybe a little more, I’ve noticed gatherings becoming more an more sparse. We just don’t go and do anymore, or even stay “home” and play for that matter. You’d think after a couple of years of it I’d finally get the hint. Maybe this is what growing up means. Focus more on your own family, plan small events for “the group.” But that’s just not how I’ve pictured my adult life. I’ve always wanted the long table to seat anyone who wished to join. To have the house to come and go from at any time…

… so anyway, here are some pictures from last weekend and today. Last weekend was the Celtic Festival that I was so excited about. I’ve filed the pictures under the Zoo in my album because there’s not one from the actual festival. I really hate that I missed the singing, dancing, bag pipes, highland games… I joked with PD about getting his mom to watch the kids the next day so we could sit and take it all in, but that didn’t happen. I guess when there’s a zoo to be seen, there’s not much else you can convince the kids to sit through.

My sister’s birthday was also last Saturday - I got to make the cake! A yum yellow cake and chocolate frosting recipe I got from the Southern Living website.

of course my favorite part would have to be my kid with “let me count the smokes…”

Beth managed to cut a batman shape out of it - and Sam says, “hey, it’s the same as me”

Today was the 10th Anniversary of the Friends of Black Bayou Fall Celebration. We didn’t spend as much time there this year as we have in the past, but we had some sleepy kids that were on the verge of sleeping before we even got out of the car.

Speaking of car… we have a new (to us) car! A 2000 Hyundai Elantra that our lovely friends decided to give us. There are a few repairs to be made, including a slippery transmission that we’ll need to get looked at/repaired, but at the moment it is running just lovely. All reviews I’ve seen online say it has about three or more inches of rear hip room than the Escort, but with the placement of the seat belts, it’s about the same. Either way, it’s white, not navy, so it won’t get so hot. Even if it does, we won’t be cooling a whole station wagon, just a front and rear seating, AND the A/C seems to be significantly cooler, however it’ didn’t get much over 80 degrees today, if that.

I’m have appointments every two weeks now, as of today, could possibly change in two weeks. Of course my body is no where near ready to have a baby right now, but that’s okay considering I have over five weeks left. It’s really hard to believe it’s so close. Poor PD had himself in a state of shock the other night with how close it was and how fast it has all gone by. He blames keeping busy at work and going to school. I tried to tell him that it has flown by for me too, but then again, so has this whole year. We still have a good bit of getting ready to do. We need to buy a crib, or find one to borrow. Our last one bit the dust in our last move. Apparently it wasn’t suppose to stand up to assembly and disassembly for two moves, two kids and a couple of room changes. One would think we would have everything we need for a new baby, as we already have a girl and a boy, but we had the bright idea to have a garage sale in January. The majority of our baby clothes were sold or went to goodwill. Lucky my sister had picked up a good bit of my favorites, so I was able to borrow them. I’ve been browsing the baby section of the stores and there are a lot of things that fit the “nice to have” category, but our only “need” would have to be bottles and diapers etc. I may change my mind soon. I haven’t gone through all of the clothes yet. I guess I need to make a weekend project of that. I keep saying that about cleaning up and getting the room ready. We finally have the bed in the baby’s room where we can also fit a crib and changing table, but we’re no where near organized.

It’s not exactly what we had planned, but we did have fun. His birthday was Friday the 31st, but we didn’t get a chance to “celebrate” until Sunday. Dad smoked chicken and Beth made meaty beans. I brought the banana pudding (memaw style) and the coconut cake. YUM! The kids had a blast running around in the back yard and climbing on Daddy’s CJ6 and in “Fort Wainwright.” So much fun that Miss Libby wore herself out. With her head down on her Aunt Beth’s shoulder saying, “nite-nite, ready go.” When that girl’s ready, she wants HER bed!

Despite the circumstances, it really was nice to be together with my family. Lauren plans to come down again the end of this month or some time in October.

I can’t wait!

Well, there’s never really an easy way to talk about things like this. Two weeks ago my grandmother was admitted to the hospital with congestive heart failure, and where we had thought she was getting better, she soon took a turn for the worst. I guess it had all just gotten too hard on her. She pretty much gave up and decided to start making arrangements. I was able to see her a week ago Sunday in the hospital, but a week ago today, she passed away. I thought I was doing ok with it all, but today a co-worker told me that he had heard about it, and I could feel the tears welling up.

She was 89 years, 6 months and 19 days young

PD and my family went down for a good clean up and clean out. You can really tell when someone comes from the time when there was nothing, because she kept everything, and I’m sure there’s much more to be done. Oh, the stacks of magazines and puzzles! I think found three empty powder boxes. Then again, they were beautiful. I can’t say I wouldn’t have kept them myself.

I love you Memaw!

A photo found in an old wallet of my grandfathers

“I Love You Darling, Sarah”