Thankful Thursday

1. Thankful that after 10 months, I am finally living in the same state (and house) as my husband!

2. Thankful my daylilies made the trip from Georgia to Texas and they seem to be just fine.

3. Thankful that I already have a friend! Mrs. Troop told me about a friend of hers from her church who just moved to Texas about 5 months ago. She only lives 2 miles from my house! And she homeschools! They invited us over for supper and to swim in their neighborhood pool last Saturday and we had the best time!

4. Thankful that I've located the nearest Sonic, Hancock Fabric, Mardels, Super Walmart and Super Target. It just makes a girl feel better to know where a couple of the important stores are.

5. Thankful that I've gotten all the main rooms unpacked and somewhat organized.

6. Thankful that I have so many friendly new neighbors.

7. Thankful that my parents are coming down this weekend to help celebrate my daughter's birthday.

8. Thankful that even though we don't have any tall tress, that we have nice pretty green grass. My husband said it was Tiff and it is SO soft and thick! We love it!

9. Thankful that my nephew from Ethiopia might be here by Thanksgiving!

10. Thankful that I am so much closer (geographically) to family.

So that is all I've got for today. I hope you have a Thankful Thursday.

There's Nothing to See Here

I appreciate all the comments and e-mails requesting pictures.

But there is truly nothing to see here.

Just a flat grassy yard and lots of boxes.

But since it is pictures you want, I will show you what I have been doing while away from blogland.

I've mainly been unpacking boxes and trying to organize my home.

I helped my husband re-assemble this storage building.

And we only had one piece left over.

If you are considering moving a structure such as this anytime in the near future I would highly recommend using a Sharpie and using numbers and arrows to indicate which pieces go where and in what order.

It's not as intuitive as one might hope.

And here is my daylily collection .

I think they did just fine.

My parents drove down to help us move in and my dad and my husband planted all the daylilies the day before the movers came.

We couldn't have done it without them. We were just too worn out.

And then just because I didn't really feel like I had enough to do, I made my daughter a Minnie Mouse skirt to wear for her Birthday. It started out that she wanted a Minnie Mouse party. It is now that she wants to BE Minnie Mouse for her party. I saw one on Esty that was just adorable. I just couldn't bring myself to pay for it when I could probably sew one up for much less.

So I just did it.

In the midst of all the other chaos.

I made her a full circle skirt using Hancock's Minnie Mouse fabric and a poodle skirt pattern.

Which is really just true love because sewing with patterns gives me hives.

But she adores it! While I was cutting it out, she was sitting and watching and started making up a song that went.... "I love my mommy..... because she makes...... a Minnie Mouse skirt.....for my birthday...... She is so special..... She is so sweet........ she makes a skirt....... just for me....."

That right there made it totally worth it.

Now my problem is that my oldest mentioned to her that Minnie Mouse wears yellow shoes and white gloves. I told him thankyouverymuch for that. She now is hoping that she will get a pair of yellow dancing shoes as a Birthday present.

Anyone have an extra pair of yellow girls shoes in a size 10 1/2?

Telegram

status update STOP all moved in to Texas home STOP boxes everywhere STOP "helpful" children everywhere STOP much unpacking and organizing left to be done STOP no chocolate to be found STOP otherwise things going well STOP send a home organizer STOP send low fat calorie free but still wonderfully delicious chocolate STOP send map to closest Sonic STOP send someone who would like to take some moving boxes out of our garage STOP will send next communication once I get house organized STOP sometime next year STOP

Yee Haw Yippe Ki Yo Texas Here We Come

So we are in Texas!

They're Heeeeeere

The movers are here. They are apparently going to disconnect the computer this morning so this will be my last communication until we arrive safely in Texas.

Wish us luck!

I spy with my little eye....

A hummingbird.


This one has decided that our hummingbird feeder belongs to him.
I say him, it could be a her.
Who knows?
We'll go with him for now.

But he sits there and waits for other innocent little
hummingbirds to come take a drink then
he swoops in and attacks.




It has actually been quite amusing.

My kids are always giving me updates on the hummingbird wars.
And WHY in the world am I taking pictures of hummingbird wars?

BECAUSE I'M TIRED OF PACKING AND ORGANIZING!!

Okay, I've got that out of my system.
Now back to packing.

Thankful Thursday

1. I am thankful that my husband is coming home tonight and we will never be parted again. (I know, that probably isn't realistic, but just let me live the dream for just a moment) (but I'm still excited, he gets home late tonight and then he'll stay here until the movers come and then we'll all drive to Texas together in two cars and then we'll all be one happy family living under the same roof again)

2. I am thankful that we are moving to Texas next week. Yee Haw. (Emphasis on moving) (although I'm sure Texas will be nice) (I mean hot)

3. I am thankful that we already have our internet service set up to start the day we move into our new house. (just kidding) (kinda)

(and where was this butterfly when I was entering that pollinators contest?)

Hope you have a Thankful Thursday.

Summer Fun

This is my entry for the Summer of Fun photography contest
at 5 Minutes for Moms.

They've got a nice prize so find your favorite summer pic and enter!

and that's what broke baby bird's balloon.

So, my husband was supposed to be home around midnight on Thursday. He called and said his flight was postponed a couple hours and that he should instead be home around 3:00am. And then he added that I should go ahead and try to rest and also, since this was a late flight and there was bad weather that should he die that I should not close on the house in Texas but instead take the equity and move back near my parents.

I slept like a baby after that.

Oh, I jest.

I actually stayed up and waited for him because that is what I always do. And by the time he got home at 3:20 am I had his funeral completely planned including the minister (T. Elliff), the songs(I was hoping I could get Steven Curtis Chapman to come in person and sing a few) and a couple of his friends who I would ask to say something nice about him.

I'm serious.

So we were pretty exhausted come Friday morning. He had to leave around 7:30 that night for a flight to New Orleans so we tried to spend quality time with him that day. And, of note, my son lost a tooth. This is important later on in the story.

So, about an hour after my husband got to the airport, they announced his flight was delayed. I'm sure he was shocked. Okay, so maybe not so much. But it was really late when he boarded the plane and I'm just sure I asked him to call me when he got in. Since I had taken a benadryl around 8:00, I was able to drift off to sleep in an effort to rest a bit until he got in. I woke up around 1:00am and realized he had not called yet. I called him and it went directly to voice mail which it usually does when he is in flight.

So I went back to sleep.

Around 3:00am my daughter came in because she was having a bad dream. At least she said she was. She seems to only conveniently have these when her daddy is gone and she thinks there is a chance I'll let her sleep on his side.

And it usually works.

So at that point I realized that he had not called. I figured either his plane had crashed and he couldn't call or that he was exhausted when he got in and didn't call. I figured I couldn't change anything by calling him except to wake him up.

So I didn't.

But I lay there and contemplated his death once again to the point that I decided at 4:00 am I must call him.

And so I did.

He was just fine but said didn't call because he didn't want to wake me up. Very sweet, but he didn't know I was anxiously awaiting his call. So all was good and I finally went back to sleep.

5:55am cue son, who had lost his tooth. He was distraught because his tooth was gone and the tooth fairy didn't leave him a gold dollar.

Darn that tooth fairy! She was so tired she forgot all about the tooth under his pillow.

And he wouldn't let it go. He wanted answers right then. Why would the tooth fairy take his tooth and not leave him anything? Why? Why? Why?

All my pleading for him to go back to bed and mama will deal with it in the morning would not work. So I dragged my drug laden body out of bed and went to investigate the Great Tooth Fairy Mystery of North Georgia.

Fortunately I found the tooth on the floor. I explained that the tooth fairy must have not been able to find the tooth. I proposed that we put the tooth in an envelope and try again Saturday night. He was placated and we both agreed we should try to stay in bed until at least 7:00am.

So on Saturday night I had two goals.
1) Get that tooth and exchange it for a gold dollar (that's what we call the dollar coins).
2) Get at least 6 hours of consecutive sleep.

At 10:30 I went to bed (was waiting on my husband's phone call after his conference) with a good 2 hour head start from the benadryl.

I had a good feeling about that night and I went right to sleep.

2:00 am - cue daughter with "bad dreams". I heard her start to cry but was hopeful (in my drug induced state) that she would go on back to sleep. It was no good. I heard the crying get louder which meant it was coming for me. I was so tired that I readily agreed that the best place for her was on daddy's side of the bed. Problem solved, back to sleep.

4:00 am - cue middle son with "bad dreams". I heard him start to cry and he actually cries out, "mommmmy...... mommmmy......". I give it a couple minutes because by this time I'm so tired, I'm just not for sure I'm going to make it. And then I hear it getting louder. Yes, that's right. He was coming for me.

So I hopped out of bed and was greeted by not one, but two boys. I ask the oldest what he is doing and he says "I'm not staying in there if he's not staying in there." I do the mental math and figure out that with 3 children in my bed, I'm likely to end up on the couch. And I like my bed. It has one of those foam toppers on it.

So I made my decision. All the boys back to their room. I wrapped up the middle child and lay down beside him and asked him about his dream. He said he dreamed that his brother locked him up in jail. We had just been reading about Joseph so I could see where this would have come from. But still, not the worst dream I could think of.

He was just starting to settle down and almost asleep when my oldest discovered that the tooth fairy had come. He had to get up right then (4:30am) and put his coin with the other two he was saving.

Are you kidding me? Go to sleep child!!!

After several minutes of searching and not finding his secret stash of coins, I convinced him to go back to sleep and we would find it in the morning.

It took a little longer to get middle child settled down and he had just gone to sleep when I heard from my room..... MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good grief!

She's going to wake the other two.

And then she gets louder and suddenly she is standing in the middle of the boys' room. MOMMMMMYY I can't sleep without you!!!!

I finally got her back to my bed and everyone settled in around 4:45 am.

And which point I felt like I was trapped in the B Book by the Berenstains'. You know the one that starts out with ..

Big.

Big Brown.

Big Brown Bear, Blue Bull, Beautiful Baboon, blowing bubbles biking backwards, bump black bug's banana boxes and Billy Bunny's breadbasket and Brother Bob's baseball bus and Buster Beagle's banjo-bagpipe-bugle band.....

....and that's what broke Baby Bird's balloon.


Yep, that's exactly how I felt.


I'm thinking about giving everyone benadryl tonight.


Just kidding. Or maybe not.


So is it just me? Or does anyone else have nights on end where sleep is elusive? If not, what is your trick? Desperate minds want (need) to know.