The Great Clothes Swap

That is what Matt and I managed to do today in little over 2 hours. The temperature has taken a giant nose dive from 88 to 58 as highs. I knew that we needed to go through all the little kids clothes and decided what needed to be purchased for this season, in fact it was on my to do list in the next 2 or 3 weeks. However with the temperature change even if only for a couple of days and the fact Lily had to try on 3 shirts this morning, it became more important.
I am actually really blessed after all is said and done. Between clearance and awesome yard sale finds that I always store and gifts/hand me downs from several friends we actually have a very short “needs” list. Zach is currently wearing 18 month shirts and pants, I did find a couple of 24 month outfits that will also fit just fine. My plan is to buy 24 months for him. He needs pjs, socks, a new winter coat and a couple of shirts. Kendall, currently wears size 3T, I know she will move into 4Ts before the winter is finished but I also know we have enough of those that she should not need anything besides pajamas for this winter. Lily she is currently in a size 6 shirt which may be a 5 depending on sleeve length and size 5-6 pants with adjustable waist. If it does not have an adjustable waist, she can’t wear it. Lily needs pjs, socks and a 4-5 long sleeves shirts.

I am so glad to have this behind me. It is more of a headache than anything else so to say I am finished makes this weekend half as stressful for me!

The Good, the Bad , the Crazy Week in Review

I knew that this past week would be busy as normal and so when I thought about posting for this week, I came up with this list format. Hope you enjoy…

The Good

-Lily has had a blue or purple light/dot all week, so she got a prize. I had lunch with Lily on Thursday and Matt meet briefly with her teacher Thursday night. Lily is very well-behavior and is exceeding in reading and writing! We don’t have a good reading level on her yet but at the end of first grade, all students should be reading on a Level I, currently Lily has passed Level E with plans to test at Level F this week.
– I got to have a meeting with my supervisor at work this week, so I am feeling alot more at ease about my position and there is a chance that by the end of the year, I may only be working 1 job which still will keep us on track financially.
-After a somewhat rough start to the Bible Quizzing year, Haley has joined a team from the church in Greensboro. We had our first competition on Saturday. Haley did awesome and is currently 6 out of 27 quizzers. This also was an awesome event for me. I came home not exhausted and I really enjoyed interacting with the quizzers.
– We are still gathering peppers from our Square Foot Garden
-I was able to make several good trips to CVS this week, including today (Sunday) where I spent $10 and saved $36 or 78%. I was also able to bring home 3ECB which is only 1 less than what I started with. I hopefully will be able to do the same transactions on Amanda’s card later on in the week. One of the big sale item is Diet Coke cans!
-Kendall and Zach are both enjoying “preschool” at least once a week!
-God has supplied all our needs. See the bad to understand more.

THE BAD

– Haley is currently grounded from the computer and the phone.
-On Wednesday night our dryer developed a sound that could give anyone a headache and it sound like it could stop at any moment, add to this it was taking 2 hours or more per load. We knew we needed to buy a replacement. Matt was able to locate and purchase a dryer for $150. After bringing it home it is much better than we expected. It is a higher end “digtal” dryer that is quiet and dries even a full load of towels in an hour. This was a huge answer to prayer so that we can hopefully purchase the new windows and start our debt snowball next month.
– On Saturday, about an hour prior to leaving for Greensboro, we discovered a flat tire on my car. Thankfully, my parents came over and help Matt with the little ones so he could get the tire fixed and back on the car.
– We discovered late Friday night that “Angel Food Ministries” will not be disturbing food in September. This is one of the main ways we have been purchasing meat over the past year. We are both shocked that after 17 years that have stopped. Our prayer is that they will be able to reorganize and begin again before the end of the year but we have no information to go on so at this point it is very doubtful.
The Crazy Hairstyle

Haley is entering the Crazy Hairstyle contest at Youth tonight and she really wanted to win and to have it posted here! This leaves a smile on my face after a long week!

Priates and Princess


Wednesday night was the beginning of “Kids Club” at church. We are excited because Kendall is old enough for the preschool group this year. The kick-off night include a magic show with “Captain Jim”. Zach was able to go and actually sat through the entire show and enjoyed it. Here are a couple of pictures of the “Pirate and Princess”.
Lily is always ready to pose for a picture
This is a picture to give you an idea of the size of the boat. Matt spent last Saturday working on it. It is HUGE!
Zach’s shirt says “Dude” and he was so excited to be able to wear a patch!

After the show minus a patch and with a pacifer.

How Time Flys

It has been a couple of weeks maybe even a month or so since I did a random list to catch everyone up on our life so now is the time.

-For the past week I have been working full-time plus between the two jobs. I am exhausted but we are not losing our minds so it must be getting easier on all of us.

-I am determined to keep a whole day off each week. I was unable to do that for the past 2 weeks and after yesterday, that will not happen again. I can handle the long hours if I know I get a day to spend with the kids.

-I managed to sprain/ jam my ring and little fingers on my left hand yesterday and they hurt especially trying to type.

-Lily is super excited about starting First Grade next week, on Tuesday we get to meet the teacher and Thursday is the first day of school. Both events will include me-YAY! YAY!

-Matt is starting to get heavily involved at the church again. Currently he is working on updating and managing the church website and working on building a pirate ship for our kids group. He played the drums this past Sunday. Along with Angel Food, he is actually doing more than I am currently!

-Haley and I took the little kids shopping alone on Thursday after hair cuts. Both Zach and Kendall feel asleep after less than 2 hours. We have finished most of the back to school stuff but need to make a “underwear” trip for a couple of folks who will remain nameless.

-Kendall is officially potty trained and only wears pull-ups at night. The majority of the time she even wakes up dry.

-Zach is starting to work on potty training. He is usually successful about 75% of the time. His birthday is coming up quick! He has such a little personality and makes sure we understand what he wants, even if it means taking a hand and showing us what it is.

-I am finding time to organize and display ALOT of my pictures of the kids over the year. Currently I am working on the large wall in our bedroom and then it will be on to the hall of shame.

Disney World- Never forget Rapunzel

I am having a lazy Saturday today and enjoyed looking again at our Disney World Pictures. One of the memories that I don’t want to forget is how we got to meet Rapunzel, who is Lily’s favorite princess. We found out by chance that our first day was also the last day of a very special meet and greet with Rapunzel. The story of my wait is posted earlier but what I didn’t share then was the wonderful pictures we got so here are 5 of my favorite!




Lily actually gave her picture that she colored to Flynn Rider who put it in his bag!

Vacation Bible School

This is one of the most looked forward and exciting weeks around our house especially for Lily. This year it also marked the one year anniversary of Matt becoming unemployed…we have survived and are actually enjoying more time as a family and even being able to splurge a little. After a year of construction, our new church facility is almost complete, so much so that VBS was held at the building while last minute construction, painting and staining were occuring. Matt volunteered to help “where-ever needed.” He ended up in charge of games, the best news is that was only 3 days. I had hoped to arrange my schedule to be able to spend a little time each day at VBS, but that was not to happen. I have worked around 38 hours this week. I was able to sneak away at lunch on Friday and watch the closing program. Lily was so excited that I made it.

The week of VBS is also one of the most busiest for us as a family. We spent last Sunday evening helping prepare crafts and doing some last minute moving of things to the new facility. Each morning I left for work at around 8:15am. VBS starts at 9:20 with all workers set to arrive at 9:00am. For us this means that EVERYONE must be feed and dressed with hair and teeth brushed. This served as an awesome reminder of how blessed we are not to have to attempt to get this accomplished every morning to take the kids to daycare. I honestly don’t know how anyone with more than one small child makes it anywher before 9 any morning.

The week ended with a couple of bangs as well. We decided after the pool on Saturday (today) to head to Salisbury for Chinese and Shushi. We made several discoveries on this trip. First Zach is allergic to shrimp. At least that is what we are thinking. His face, arms and body broke out in a itchy rash after 6-8 shrimp. While waiting to pay, I looked over and noticed Lily’s ear was black around her earring. So I have to remove, clean her ears and we bought her some sensitive earrings to wear. While at Walmart, getting Lily’s earrings, Kendall decided she wanted her ears pierced. After several minutes we agreed and she is wearing the most adorable rainbow flowers I have seen. She changed her mind after I had already paid for the new earrings, and she even cried when they pierced both ears but now she is excited to look at them in the mirror. Wow what a week. Now back to our regular not quite so busy lives!

Kendall’s Birthday Celebration

Birthday are a big deal around here, thanks to Haley! Kendall is a little different, one of the reason is that there are really no little girls her age at church and so that makes it kinda difficulty to plan a real birthday party. So this year, I wanted to try something different. We actually did have a small party last night with family (pictures to follow). In order to make Kendall’s birthday extra special, we planned a trip to the mall and toy story.

I had to work on Thursday morning but I arrived home around 11 and we headed to Pizza Hut for lunch. Next we went to Hanes Mall. The first stop was the carousel. Kendall actually asked for this the minute we got to the Mall. Next we stopped at the play area for about 20 minutes. Build a bear was the next stop of Kendall’s celebration. Kendall picked out a bear and named her “strawberry.” Zach ended up with a bear called “Chocolate chip” and Lily picked out a Rapezul outfit and shoes to match. Kendall LOVES this Bear and it has become a constant companion. The really cool thing about the bears is they actually are part of an ice cream promotion called “Blizzard Bears”. Both bears hold cups of ice cream and they smell like the flavor! Pictures were scheduled at JCPenny’s. Kendall is usually the most difficult one of the kids to get a good picture of but she did awesome for these. We ended up spending more than planned on pictures but these are the best ever pictures of Kendall so well worth it. After pictures it was off to ToysRus. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, the answer for the past month has been “a scooter.” So of course we had to go and find one. After finding the scooter, we decided to eat at a Chinese Restaurant before heading home.

The fun continues on Friday morning(actual birthday). I was able to spend most of the morning outside with watching the little ones playing with the scooter. The weather was perfect! Friday evening our small party was our family, Amanda’s current boyfriend, Pawpaw, Granny, Sandy and Lucy! Kendall received a crying baby, a barking dog, a hopping ball and all the attention a three year old needs!