Whistle While You Work

Quick pics of the bed rooms with their fresh coats of paint:

We spent the first few nights on the floor down stairs so we could get our rooms just right :)

Our Daughter's room before.....

...and after!

Our Son's room before...

...and after!

Our room before...

...and after! (Kinda crazy but I like it :)

From the outside the house looked like nobody was living there so I made it my mission in the first week we were there to bring some life to it. So I planted flowers, put up a flag and tried my best to make it look like a home. Next up is the living room and dinning room... I'll update you as I go.

I have been very busy trying to get a job and Rob's been busy getting to know the people from the churches and the town. He preached Sunday for the first time and it went well.

If you want to check out our new church's blog at any point it's www.mckendreeumc.blogspot.com

Love you all! Have a great day! And I hope next time I post I have a job!!!!!!!

The Saga Continues

So, the saga continues.

June 23rd we wake up and finish loading up the U-Haul and it (inevitably) takes longer than we thought it would. The toys, TV, etc were all packed so the kids were running wild, driving me crazy and of course bored. I kept trying to find things for them to do and promising that if they behaved we would rent a movie at the hotel that night.

So, just as the truck is ready to pull out we get a call from the new church we are to serve in NY saying that the renters in the parsonage have decided to stay until they get evicted (thus meaning we were homeless until further notice.) Grreeatt.....

The truck leaves and Rob goes to hook up "campie" our pop-up camper and says "What happened to the wires, Christian? They're cut." We don't know what happened but the wires we all cut. So we had no tail lights, etc. We loaded into the van with campie attached and head for Walmart. Rob buys what we need to replace the wires and does that in the parking lot. We pull out of Walmart and drive about 3 miles when we hear "thud, thud, thud, thud". Rob had to change one of the tires on the camper. (We hadn't even got out of Parkton yet!)

Thankfully the kids fell asleep and we drove a few hours. We stopped and stayed the night in a hotel on the road somewhere in DE. We check in and go to our room and I could not figure out for the life of me how to rent a movie. I had packed my deodorant by accident in the moving truck and on our hotel sink was one of those little "ask us for any amenity you forgot" signs so my son and I walk down to the front desk. The lady there informed me that they don't have a movie rental system (you have to rent one of these 15 year old VHS tapes for $3 each) and oh yeah, fresh out of deodorant. So we rent two old movie that my son wasn't quite sure about and we head back to the room just to find that our VCR has no cable hooking it to the TV so I had to do some quick conflict resolution with my kids (soda and chips from the vending machine) and we all just went to bed (the kids feel asleep in the King and Rob and I were stuck in the pull-out couch.)

The next day we woke up and went to Cape Henelopen State Park in DE to camp for a few days. It went ok. Not even 24 hours in our son said "We've been here for 5 days Mom. Can we leave yet?"

I had never camped at the beach before and did not realize that I'd be camping on sand (and because of everyone's camp fires, sand FILLED with soot!) Check out my son's feet:

The kids were constantly COVERED from head to toe in sand and soot and Mama was NOT happy. We'd let them play in the sand for a while and then play in these tubs of water (to help keep them cool in the almost 100 degree heat and sort-of clean).

In fact, these tubs served as my daughter's bath tub b/c the first day there she was fooling around in the camp shower and did a full-on belly flop thus making her completely scared of them and refusing to go in to bathe. So each night right before bed Rob and our son would go shower together and I would wash our daughter as she sat in one of these tiny bins. Wicked fun. Let me tell you.

After baths we would carry them into Campie and they were not allowed to come out because they were semi clean and we were trying to have as little sand in bed as possible since Rob and I each had to sleep with one of them.

So we biked in to the beach each day (about 1 mile) and had a good time. Our son had a different cute older girl playing with him each day (chick magnet!)

We went one day to see "Kung Fu Panda" and as we left the theatre I saw the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile across the street at a grocery store so we HAD to stop and see that! They even let us inside (but our son cried cuz he thought they'd let us go for a ride...)

One day we dished out more money than I'd like to admit (or think about) so that we could spend the day at a water park (it was sooooo hot and we were all soooo dirty it was our only choice!) It was called Jungle Jim's and the kids loved it. Our son was big enough to ride even the huge slides and after coming down one with him he looked at me and said "This is the best day in my young life". What a character!

We stayed at the beach for a number of days and then went back to Parkton, picked up our dog, and headed to Knoebels amusement park for a four hour kiddie-ride-extravaganza.

Then we drove up to Rob's Mom's house (because we really had no where else to go) and squatted there with our pop-up for about 4 days. It was hard. Stress was running high. His Mom and Step Dad had other family staying there as well for other reasons. I felt like I was living in a commune. They were stressed. We were stressed. My kids were crying all day over little things. They were just spent. At one point our daughter came to us crying saying that she "just needed space". Another moment our son told me "I have to talk to you in private Mom". and continued to say that "if one more person washes my cup I'm gonna freak-out" I do the whole one-cup-all-day thing and he can get his own drinks at our home so he was feeling like he had no control over anything there which is not my in-laws fault but my children were crying out asking for some sameness, something familiar. They had had enough of being nomads.

Not to mention that my hubby and I had been sleeping in 10 feet of space with two small children for about 2 weeks and that leaves no room for us to do... you know what... wink.wink..... so, more stress.

It was nice however to get to see my 6 year old niece (daughter of Rob's sister Roxy) and my brand new niece (born to Rob's step-sister Ashley).

A pretty butterfly I chased one day while staying there...

Finally, through a long story that I won't go into, we got into the parsonage in Candor. (Wheew...) And have started to make it our home. Next time I blog I will show you the house, etc.

-Christian

U-Haul, Eye Contact & Forking

Ok, so where to begin? My life has been crazy for the last month or so. I guess I am going to SLOWLY blog it out to you all as I find time to....

So, Sunday June 22nd our U-Haul pulled in after church (and so emotional goodbyes) and we started to pack up the house in Parkton. (My Parents and sister Jess came to help.) The kids were quite impressed with the size of the truck and enjoyed playing in it.











After a LOOONNGGG day of packing Rob and I headed over to Youth Unplugged to say one last goodbye. It was the best too... Glen had by chance found a Wendy's gift card for $10 at his house and said anyone who wanted a shot at it should come forward and break dance. Then the whole crowd would vote by applause and the winner takes it. It was hysterical! I could hardly breathe I was laughing so hard. Four boys came forward and the three older ones looked half injured as they jerked around the floor but usually shy 9 year old Jesse was off the hook! It was a great way to end the night! So funny!

Most of the kids hugged me and some just punched me in the arm (how boys say 'love you' in code). Before that night I couldn't have told you what color all of their eyes were but as they all individually said goodbye to me they made eye contact. And it was beautiful. Some eyes shimmered and twinkled and some were just sad. One person's eyes we so green and pretty - I had never noticed before... "The eyes are the window to the soul" it is said, and I find it's true. I remember after my brother died I couldn't make eye contact for years (because I was in so much pain). And it struck me that night as I said my farewells to the kids that they get more than we give them credit for. That night saying goodbye I knew that they understood the loss. They understood that I was going and wouldn't be around anymore and not just that but they understood that I loved them because I could read it in their eyes. I guess that's maybe a little weird or a rabbit trail of sorts but I felt it was significant... the eye contact was significant...


So anyway, we went home for more packing and a little sleep before we and the truck pulled out the next day. But late that night my sister went outside for something and said "Hey Christian. You better come outside. I think you've been forked."


Now, I wasn't going to blog about this but my Dad's been telling everyone about it anyway you may as well get the full story from me.


One day about a month ago, I mentioned to Taylor and Justin (two youth group kids) that I wanted to fork Craig and T's lawn (also from the youth group). (What this means is to buy hundreds of plastic forks and go in the middle of the night and put them all over ones lawn - just for fun - just because). So, anyway, I mentioned this to them and they wanted in on it. So I emailed their Moms, got their permission, and a week later (on the last day of school and during a power outage no less) I picked them up at 11pm and we did it. We forked T and Craig's lawn with 500 plastic forks. (Their Mom and I are close friends and I knew she'd think it was funny). Later that night I emailed them this photo with the tag line "you've been forked":
Ok, so Debbie (their Mom) woke up the next morning, walked out on the porch with a cup of coffee and said out loud "Wow. Someone really worked hard on this" and, as I said, thought it was funny and suspected me right away.


Later that day, her boys wanted to "spread the love" so to speak and she suggested retaliation but the boys wanted to get someone different. So they picked a house close to theirs that was the home of two other boys who go to YU. Well, long story short they got caught in the act and had the cops called on them!!! (Since then everyone has found humor in the situation and there's no "bad blood".)


Of course I felt bad cause I started the whole thing. Rob thought it was great and was picking on the boys at Youth Unplugged the last night we were there so of course - they forked us. Which was AWESOME. It was the best going away present anyone gave me!


I was impressed with their creativity... loved the ones in my bike spokes...

.... I'll continue the story of my adventures soon...