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I thought I'd put that first, because I am sure that's exactly what you were wondering. :o)

I realized yesterday that I've wasted this week being 100% grumpy when I should have been 10,000% thankful. Ever have those weeks?

Warm Bed with a Side of Hotel Fire

So it's the night before Thanksgiving and I am busy being thankful (with my eyes closed) for the hotel that my in-laws paid for us to stay in so that we could spend a few days in Katy with them. It's a brand new hotel and the bed is so comfy and my kids are so tired that for the first time in a few months I find myself sleeping through the entire night. This is a moment of special lights and angels singing because sleep is a true gift and blessing for a tired mommy such as myself. At 5:30AM, however, all of the special lights turn into those flashing fire lights and the angels turn into orb like alarms screaching a melody that no mommy wants to hear, ever. Barely awake, Steve and I jump out of our warm bed and into action. We don't even think to turn on the lights so we are groping for coats and shoes in the dark. I grab Kalea and Steve throws Nathan's shoes on him and we take off down the hall and down the three flights of stairs with our new best pajama clad friends. At the second story, the smell of smoke hits us and in his panic, Nathan takes a tumble down the carpeted stairs. There are so many people that a pair of pajamaed legs breaks his fall and he is up and running in an instant. As we step out into the crip early morning air, the bite of the cold weather takes a delayed moment to hit us. I can feel Kalea trembling in my arms as we take the que from other families and run for the car. Fumbling in the cold morning air, it takes Steve a while to get it unlocked and started, but we were super grateful for the warm air that poured out of the vents. As we settled in, the horrific notion hit me that I left Kalea's beloved Mimi in the hotel to be cooked by the flames. As Kalea's shaking subsided, the fire trucks arrived, and Steve and Nathan giggled as the pajama clad Chief jumped out of the truck and into the hotel with his fully dressed companions. After almost an hour, we were able to head back into the hotel and back to bed. Kalea and I snuggled in and went back to sleep greatful that Mimi (and ok, I guess the hotel too) was ok while Steve and Nathan chatted excited about the morning's event. We never did find out exactly what had happened, but in the end we were all thankful that no one was injured or killed by the fire.

Nathan's funny sayings for the week:
At the Gem and Diamond exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science- "Mom, people can't wear these, they're just rocks."
On the way out of Walmart on a super cold day- "I don't need Germ X, the germs already froze off my hands."

Test

Here's a true test to see who actually reads these...... a very nice family has decided to buy our house and if things go well, then we should close on December 14th (the same day that my parents will be closing on their house to move to Virginia). We are both terrified and extremely excited about the next three weeks. We are fully aware that whatever happens from here on out is completely in the hands of God. Please pray for us through the inspection and through the other family's financial process.
Every young girl wants to marry a rawk star, but the trade in is that rawk stars are great with guitars but really bad with home repair work. I may be needing to trade my hubby's guitar skills for your hubby's home improvement skills if the inspection warrents. Thanks so much for your prayers through this crazy process.

Sitting instead of cleaning....

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Blog-tas-tic

Just wanted to say that I am feeling better. A big thank you for those who prayed. We have a definite 'maybe' on the house and have had two people look at it this weekend. Go figure that the one weekend that I don't feel well and that Steve is gone, is the one weekend that people actually want to look at the house. I was at the bottom of the well on Saturday when the agent called about showing the house. I gathered every last bit of energy I had to clean muttering "I can do all things in Christ Jesus who gives me strenth" under my breath and while I cleaned, the 'un'children uncleaned. It took me a while to realize what was going on and when I finally realized what my beautiful children were doing, I had to take a 'come to Jesus' minute. If I had been feeling better, I might have killed them, but since it would have taken too much energy, I just made them sit on the couch with the 'No No Spoon' at eye level while I continued to slowly make my way through the house. While we waited for the house to be shown, we went to the mall where we did a driveby Santa visit. Peeking through the white gate, Nathan whispered "Mom, I think that one is the real Santa." (He has issues about taking pictures with 'fake' Santas.) When I asked him if he wanted to go say 'hi,' Nathan shook his head no. Nathan has never liked taking pictures with Santa. We gave up trying when he was 3. I don't think wives of Educators were meant to get Santa pictures of their children any way. It's funny how Educators help to develop great talent and academics in this world, and they get paid the least and have the worst insurance.

"Grubby"

When I was pregnant with Kalea, I temporarly worked fulltime at a day care so that we could afford her birth. Because I was in a church, my super cool, super large classroom shared space with a Sunday school class. On my first day of work I noticed a small fish bowl sitting solitarly in the corner of the room filled 2/3s full with green murkey water and a moldy looking fish I dubbed "Grubby" for obvious reasons. Sharing space with a Sunday school class, I assumed that Grubby was part of a Sunday school experiment gone terribly wrong. I am not a big fish person, so every day I hoped that Grubby would go to the big pond in the sky, but every day Grubby kept on swimming in his earthly disaster of a home. Months went by and the water grew greener and greener and much to my displeasure Grubby just kept on living. As I waited for my class to come, I spoke to Grubby every morning, encouraging him to go towards the light, but the moldy fish never did. By late November, a new teacher joined our ranks, taking half of my class with her as well as my pal Grubby. She only showed up every once in a while to clean Grubby's bowl and to yell at the kids, and after a miserble month or so, she was asked to leave. As much as I was hoping she'd take Grubby with her, she left the small, smelly thing behind. Christmas came and went and pretty soon it was time to have Kalea, so I gladly packed my bags and left my job leaving Grubby to the mercy of his Sunday school pals. Surprisingly enough though, not long after I left, I learned that my pal, Grubby, did not belong to the Sunday School class after all, but to the teacher before me. Poor Grubby had gone months without being fed or cared for and had somehow survived. He had adapted to living with nothing. After I left, a good pal had taken Grubby in. She cleaned his tank until it was sparkling, fed him, talked to him, and most likely given him a good name......needless to say, it wasn't long before Grubby went belly up. The poor girl killed him with love.
It's a good thing that people don't die from too much love, because then my children wouldn't have made it past their first few months of life. It's not just us who love them, but we have an entire church who loves them and cares for them. About two weeks ago, we received an envelope with enough money in it to pay for our car to be fixed. It was an enourmous debt that weighed very heavily on our hearts, and someone loved us enough to pay that debt for us. No one, especially us, deserves such a gift as that. As a general rule, we never deposit gifted money into our account until we write a thank you note, but our gift was without a face. I placed the envelope on our kitchen counter and every time I passed it I got so overwhelmed by the generosity and love and the unworthiness we have for it, that it brought me to tears several times. Since the car broke down, I had been begging to see the face of God, to at least feel His presence during this time away from Steve, and He was there all along. He was in the faces of everyone at church, of everyone who loves us and has been praying for us. I am so thankful for whoever gave us that gift and I pray for them every night before I go to bed, because they opened my eyes to remind me that God is not so far away.

Prayer requests- I have denied being sick every way possible, and somehow I thought that refusing to talk about it would make me feel better. I feel like the world's worst mommy because I am all my kids have and I am so sick that by the time night comes I absolutely cannot care for them. I think it's just the strain on my heart, but I am walking around with my hands completely numb and the entire world swimming around me willing myself not to pass out. My pal Jenny has been a HUGE blessing for me, but we're on our own this weekend, so if you could please, please, please pray for me, I would really appreciate it. I feel like we're jumping from one crisis to another and I am really sorry, I am really not that kind of person who has a different emergency every day of the year. Once we make it out of the desert, we should be fine. If you could just please pray for my heart and God's healing for it, and for the safety of my children that I don't pass out while caring for them, I would really appreciate it.