For Daddy

These pictures are for Travis to remind him how thankful the kids and I are that he takes time for us (even when he's very tired) despite all of the hard work and effort he puts in for us. He's got tons of responsibilities managing his ADM locations, he puts in many hours of work for us at home, and he's been putting countless hours into completing his master's degree lately.

He is missed at our house when he is gone (or busy working on homework). He is doing "double-time" this week as he's attending his manager's meeting in Kansas City for a few days and finishing up end-of-semester projects for his master's degree. We are praying that God would bless his efforts and willingness to work hard in everything he does while finding time to take "time out" for us!

We love you, Travis, and we can't wait to see you tomorrow night! Yay!

Sold!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Goodbye double utility payments and juggling the care and upkeep of a home 16 hours away! Today the sale of our Louisiana home to happy new homeowners became final.

We feel extremely blessed to have been able to go from putting our home on the market to completing a sale in about 5 months, considering the very rough seller's market we faced. This is the first time the sale of our home has been our sole responsibility since Travis started working for ADM. The company provided a home buyout option in the past, where we would sell the property to ADM and not have to worry about how long it would take to sell, upkeep, closing etc. ADM was losing so much money making payments on properties that were sitting on the market for months and months (and in light of the economy's current state), the company did away with the home buyout option altogether earlier in 2009. The company helps employees by compensating in other ways now to help offset moving costs.

I wrote the biggest check I've ever written in my life to complete the sale of our home. I wasn't as upset about losing the money as I was happy that the sale of the house provided emotional closure and relief that I've needed for a while.

We are officially ONLY renters for the first time in 7 1/2 years and it's okay with me. I love our landlords (they're family) and the little farmhouse we're renting meets our needs, which is all that matters. Another thing I find very freeing is that I don't so much care about the "house" we live in anymore. I care more about the "home" we make inside of it. We've learned that trusting God for what we need, along with a little ingenuity on our part to make the most of what we've got, is enough.

So, like the song I picked to go with the photo montage, I'll say, "Tis SO sweet to trust in Jesus!"

High Maintenance Hair

There's no task I avoid more than fixing 3 1/2-year-old Jillian's hair. There's no interaction with me that she avoids more than me washing and brushing her hair. No kidding. I think she would rather have a spankin' than me me fix her hair. I think I would rather choose living in the Arctic over doing her hair. Well, maybe not live in the Arctic...but you get the point.

Jillian's hair is like a marvel of the modern world. People don't just gawk, they stare. They point, they giggle, and they come up to touch it all the time. People frequently ask me (in all seriousness) if she's Travis's child. Some are sure she must have some ethnic blood to have received a head full of hair as curly and big as her's. She sometimes covers her head when someone's approaching because she knows what's coming and doesn't want another person messing with her 'fro!

I'm never lacking in strangers' advice in how to tame the 'fro, either. I get all kinds of "free" (and unsolicited) advice (from people with stick-straight hair, mind you) for what to do to tame the 'fro. When these people are standing there giving me all this advice, I'm thinking, "Do you really think I haven't already contemplated this 'magic potion' or fix already?!"

Taming Jillian's hair still remains a mystery to me and, YES, I have tried everything I've been told (within reason) and everything I can think of, short of taking her to the salon for a professional relaxer. I've researched and tried all kinds of homemade potions, ethnic hair oils and creams, expensive conditioners and all shapes and sizes of brushes and combs.

No matter what I do, we get the same result every time. When I comb and fix her hair right after she showers and bathes it looks great. The little curls are all defined, her hair is a "normal" height, and it's just amazing to look at all those tiny curls. THEN it starts to grow. Hour after hour, as it dries and as she plays, naps and sleeps, it "grows" larger and larger. She can look at least 4" taller when she goes to bed at night compared to the way she looked after she got out of the shower that same morning.

Bath/shower time goes a little like this. She screams all the way through. The commotion and screaming is so frantic, I especially dislike having to wash her hair when we're at someone else's house or someone is visiting. I'm afraid someone will think it's child abuse! I wet her hair and work in the a cleansing conditioner (we don't use shampoo anymore) and then brush it through. I let her sit and play to her little heart's content while her hair soaks up as much moisture as it can. I usually let her play a LONG time because by the end of "round 1" I feel terrible that I have to cause my daughter such pain and I need time to muster up enough gumption to finish the job. She also makes up reasons as to why she wants or needs to play a little longer or wash her body off one more time to try and prolong the inevitable. I rinse her hair out and then put in some conditioner to leave in. I also just choose a few squirts out of several of the myriad of bottles of products I have (I've learned it doesn't really matter what product I use at this point...they all give the same results), and then we brush it again.

We use a big, good old fashioned flat paddle brush to brush through her hair. I have decided that hair picks must be something of Satan, and have prohibited them from being used on Jillian's hair. They're not all they're cracked up to be. They're less effective at combing through the mass, and they are more torturous to her because it takes longer and pulls and hurts more. Did I mention her head appears larger than a basketball by the time we're done picking out her hair?

Jillian and I have come to an unspoken acceptance that we have to practice coping with what we've got to work with, instead of wasting time trying finding the magic cure. AND, we practice being thankful for her unique personality and hairstyle that God sent with her to go right along with it. As long as I have my arsenal of products and we only wash and brush her hair every 2 or 3 days, we both can handle the curly hair challenges.

Human Snow Plows

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Travis and the kids and I, plus Stacy and Raegan (Travis's cousin and her little girl) got out the sleds for some freezing fun when it snowed a bunch several Saturdays ago.

Stacy got out their Polaris and we tied the sleds on the back, loaded up, and headed for the perfectly smooth, deep, white snow of the cow pasture. The sun was out, and the glare of the sun off the sea of white snow was bright enough to blind a person. Thankfully, this blinded person was not driving!

I sat on the back of the Polaris facing the sleds and got a front-row seat to the show, though. Watching those kids turn into human snow plows was hilarious and brought back fond of memories of Dad tying my sister's and my sled to the back of his little Toyota truck and pulling us around on the back streets of Ulysses with the neighbor kids.

Jillian didn't want any part of the snow party. She played it safe and stayed seat-belted into the middle back seat of the Polaris well away from the cold, wet stuff. Maddie and I lasted until she took a tumble and fell on her shoulder and wanted to come inside. (She later admitted that she couldn't tell if she could even feel her shoulder...or her hands or feet...she was just cold). Raegan got brave enough to lay on her belly and go head first! She was COVERED in snow. The snow was so deep and fluffy, that it just blew up into the kids' faces as the sleds cut a path through the fresh powder.

The kids came inside with me, warmed up, and had some hot chocolate afterward, while Travis and Stacy went back out to snow ski...in the cow pasture. Obviously that topic is begging to have some further discussion in a later blog.

From Bayous to Blizzards

I have sat down to write this very post one too many times in the last five months. I have written several of them and have deleted every single one because they're not positive enough or I start crying before I can finish blogging about our move.

I've come to realize a couple of things in the last five months that finally prompted me to decide to post my raw feelings...kind of like the "unedited" version of my view on life right now. The first thing that brought me to just put my thoughts out there is that life is not always just a bunch of roses. Life is hard and sloppy in a physical and mental way, but especially emotionally. I don't need to pretend that everything is always peachy and, in fact, I don't think it's very healthy for me to pretend everything is one-hundred percent one-hundred percent of the time. I know it is not a healthy example for my kids, either, to fail to acknowledge real feelings of frustration, sadness, or even anger. They're going to face these feelings in life, as well, and I want them to know how to cope in a healthy way.

So I have been practicing to "cope" in a healthy way since we've moved from Louisiana. I have failed MISERABLY in healthy coping more times than I care to admit, but thank God that He is a God of second, third, fourth...however many chances we need...

One thing I will continue to focus on and will ALWAYS be a plus to living in Kansas is being near family. On a very serious note, I think our family and friends are the ONLY reason I actually want to live in Kansas now. All of my great feelings and memories of being in Kansas since September revolve around family and good friends we've "reunited" with.

I have dealt with guilty feelings of "forsaking" my home state of Kansas by deciding I prefer Louisiana living over Kansas!? I will never regret being born and raised in Kansas, but I just loved the temperate climate and TREES, glorious, TREES of Louisiana (did I mention gardening year-round?)! Winter has been bitterly cold this year in Kansas in both a figurative and literal sense for me. I also made some very special friends in Louisiana and left a great, supportive group of homeschoolers.

I have shed many tears while struggling to cope with the stressors a move brings, and leaving friends behind. YES, was even on the verge of tears and ANGRY the first time the snow started flying here. (And the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth times it snowed). Travis and I are, for the first time, truly at a difference of agreement as to the geographical location we feel most comfortable! He was out snow skiing behind the Polaris in the pasture Sunday. He is truly in his element again. I DO love that he is so happy, and who couldn't smile about someone "water skiing" on top of snow (with snow skis) in the cow pasture?

Did I mention that the reason we're in Kansas is because God blessed us with a wonderful promotion for Travis to a regional operations position? I'm pretty sure (you can verify this with Travis) that Travis was ready to be back in Kansas the day we moved to Louisiana! ;) He loved his job there, but his heart longed for family, friends, cold weather and the type of hunting he's familiar with. I want to say, with complete sincerity, that God and Travis are the reasons I have been able to stay home with my kids and love on them, watch them grow, and to teach them! For that I am eternally grateful.

Many of you have asked what happened to my blog. I will say this. I never realized how emotionally connected I am to what I blog about until I sat down and tried to blog about something bittersweet and painful. I've avoided blogging because I'm sad when I open it only to see pictures and read stories about the life and home I left in Louisiana. I've shed many tears to get to the point I can even acknowledging our move in print.

My God is faithful and I am also surrounded (literally) by family and friends who love me (and overlook my nasty "winter" attitude). Don't be worried when you read my lamenting about leaving Louisiana. I have no doubt in my mind that God has me in the middle of this snowy Kansas winter for His purposes. I have confidence that, despite any setbacks, discomforts, or sadness, God has a greater goal in mind here. God doesn't promise a posh life "full of roses," but He does promise that there is "life" in choosing His purposes over my personal selfishness!

Life has gone on in the last 5 months, and I have a few really fun and interesting things to blog about. I'm also praying that writing about life will help me heal a little (no, a lot) and get over myself and on to the fantastic things God has done for us and has for us!

4:00 on July 4th

A spur-of-the-moment Fourth of July “reunion” with some very dear friends of ours made my favorite holiday of the calendar year a top-notch July 4, 2009.

The phone rang at 4:00 on July 4 at our friends’ Jeff and Julie’s house in Thornton, CO. It was us calling, letting Jeff and Julie know we’d be staying in a hotel about 15 minutes from their house that evening and to ask Jeff and Julie if they had plans for the night. Travis had to catch a last-minute flight back home to Louisiana to return to work the next morning from the Denver airport, and the kids and I drove on to Kansas to visit my parents after dropping Travis off at the airport Hence the last-minute plans to stay in Denver that night.

Our idea was to try not to impose, so we suggested meeting somewhere other than their house for a few hours of fellowship. Julie’s dad and mom were still staying at Jeff and Julie’s house and Julie’s dad was still healing from a heart surgery he had while he was visiting them earlier in the summer. We didn’t want him to lose sleep and much-needed rest because of six noisy visitors. Our dilemma was, “to call, or not to call?” Ultimately we decided we just couldn’t fail to take advantage of being 15 minutes from Jeff and Julie, as opposed to the 18 hours normally between us.

Consistent with Jeff and Julie’s hospitality and sincerity, though, they insist on us coming to their house for a barbecue and fireworks!

Jeff and Julie are VERY special people that God put in our lives when we lived in Hugoton (the 1st time). Jeff was our pastor and Julie our “pastor’s wife!” Our friendships went way beyond the common and pleasant pastor and church member-type relationships, though. Travis and I and Jeff and Julie were challenged by our friendships and walked side-by-side one another in good times and tough times. They are one of the few couples in our lives we can “dish” to and expect a loving response whether it’s encouragement we need or an honest, but loving wake-up call. Our families physically parted ways when we moved away from Hugoton in 2004, but our friendships are as strong as they were (if not stronger) than when we left. Jeff and Julie also left Hugoton to pursue Jeff’s calling to a different congregation within a year of us moving away from Hugoton. Jeff now pastors New Hope Church in Thornton, Colorado, which is very near Denver, and (not surprisingly) Jeff and Julie’s ministry has made an amazing impact on the people God has brought to their growing church.

Pulling up into Jeff and Julie’s driveway and just seeing their faces for the first time in a LONG time was wonderful! We wasted no time in catching up on our lives and on how much our kids had grown since we’d last talked and visited their family. They, too, have 4 kids who are very close in age to our kids, so the kids were off and playing happily immediately.

We enjoyed a WONDERFUL supper Julie prepared for us, enjoyed seeing Julie’s mom and dad again, and met a couple that also came over at the last minute to spend 4th of July with Jeff and Julie.

The night was beautiful and cool, and Jeff and Julie live in a nice, quiet cul-de-sac with friendly neighbors, so we migrated out to the street and Jeff and Julie’s kids (Preston, Tanner, Landon and Kaylie) all shared their child-size fireworks with our kids. Jeff and Travis performed “dad duty” and helped with the dangerous (but exhilarating) job of helping the kids light the fireworks and make sure everyone made it to safety before the fireworks did their thing. Everyone was completely impressed with Preston’s citronella concoction/invention.

Dusk fell over the mountains and we strolled around the block and up the street a bit to another of Jeff and Julie’s neighbor’s house to catch a front-row view of one of the area’s big fireworks displays. The fireworks were fun, of course, but the most beautiful and amazing thing I watched was paratroopers jump and descend with firework packs strapped to their bodies, which illuminated the sky and lit the American trailing behind one of the paratroopers.

No visit of ours with friends we haven’t seen in a while is a short visit, naturally, so when we got back to Jeff and Julie’s house Julie, her mom, and her friend and I talked some more while our kids played and then got tired and slept. Meanwhile Jeff took Travis and his other friend to his church for a tour and to catch Travis up with how their ministry has grown…and MAN, has it!

I’m sure the kids were quite annoyed with me, but I insisted that I get a picture of all of them together and that Jeff and Julie and Travis and I snapped a quick shot before we left.

Bidding farewell, although we knew it was just a temporary goodbye, was hard for both Travis and I, because at the time only God knew we’d be back in Kansas and about 14 hours nearer to them in a few months. We were so happy that we got to see Jeff and Julie and their family again, even if our visit seemed to end too soon. Knowing friends are eternal makes saying a temporary goodbye much easier, too, of course!

Jeff and Julie and Travis and I always halfway-seriously joke about Travis and I moving to Colorado to be part of their church. So, Jeff and Julie, take note! We weren’t even moved into our new Kansas house before the kids asked when we’d be moving to Colorado! Our kids have persisted in thinking Kansas is only a temporary home for us until we move to Colorado. Is it a sign? Hehe!

The (SCARY) Car Wash

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Miss Jillian has always been tender-hearted and is easily spooked. She used to SCREAM all the way through the car wash. I had my camera today when we went through and as soon as she realized she was in the spotlight she was suddenly brave...well...most of the time I was taping! Thank goodness she had her blankie for cover when the going got tough. Hehe! Notice that Madalynn starts giving a play-by-play toward the end and Justis is sitting in the back seat trying to scare his little sister!