Our First Houseguest!

That's right. Our first houseguest is here. She's been here for a week already and we get to enjoy her company until this coming Monday. Here's a picture of her playing with the boys...

That's right! Ani is here! She is staying with us while the Starlings are visiting their family in California. The boys have been enjoying her visit. Every morning Zeke goes looking for her saying, "Dog. Dog. Dog." over and over until he finds her. Once he finds her and hits/pets/jumps over her he goes looking for Deacon. Yeah. It's all "See ya later, Mom, there's a DOG here." But it's been fun and I'm sure it'll be sad for the boys when she goes home.

And speaking of houseguests, we are ready to recieve...if anyone wants to come to Oklahoma, that is. Don't worry, we won't be insulted if you choose not to come see us here. If you do plan on coming there is something I must put out there. Our guest bed is set up in Deacon's room, which means that having guests in that room will mean the boys will have to share a room (which means less sleep for both of them). And due to the fact that I tend to get stressed out when we have guests for longer periods of time, and due to the fact that Josh does have a lot going on and tends to be a little on the stressed side with his course and grad school classes and all that, we are going to ask that if you do come to visit us and you do stay with us that you plan on staying with us for four days/three night (a long weekend worth's of time, if you will). Obviously you are more than welcome to come to Oklahoma and see us for as long as you want, you would just have to stay in a hotel any extra time you wanted to come for.

I do have a powerpoint presentation of our house, but I haven't figured out how to get it up on this site yet, so maybe in a day or two after I have some more time to work on it. (Anyone have any suggestions?) Otherwise, I'll just flickr the pictures like always and you can see them there. In the meantime, here are some pictures from breakfast the other morning...

And speaking of flickr, I added more pictures from our trip to NJ last month. I added the pictures from the time we spent with Josh's parents and the time we spent at my mom's. All that's left now is the day we went to my cousin Jon's and the day we spent visiting my dad and Karen at their Brick house (Brick, as in the town in NJ, not what the house is made of).

So, check those out, look out for the house pictures (hopefully via powerpoint show) and enjoy the month of October. I am looking forward to the cooler temperatures it will hopefully bring to Oklahoma, because seriously...I am getting pretty tired of shorts and tank tops. I'm ready to don some jeans!

Happy fall y'all!

When Will I Ever Learn?

When will I learn that the boys playing quietly together does NOT equal a good thing? When?

Why yes, some of the paper did get stuck around Zeke's ankle and made it's way down the hallway. How kind of you to ask.

What Josh Wants To Know Is...

When did we trade in Deacon for one of those "Peanuts" kids?

Just for Fun

A few months ago, sometime in July to be a little more exact, okay, July 9th be exactly exact, my dear friend Summer tagged me to do another one of those "getting to know you" things. Well, I finally have a little time to do it, and so, here we go...

5 things on my to-do list

1. finish unpacking all those boxes in the garage

2. wash all of the clothes that spent the last two months on a boat and in crates...ick

3. call my mom since today is her birthday - Happy Birthday Mom!

4. figure out what the boys will be having for dinner tonight

5. take money out of the atm for my evening out with Joni

5 Jobs I've Had

1. Hostess/Waitress

2. Stock"girl" at Staples

3. counselor at Bible camp

4. Substitute teacher

5. SAHM (my favorite one by far)

5 Place I've Lived

1. Scotch Plains, NJ

2. Bound Brook, NJ

3. North Plainfield, NJ

4. Ramsthal, Germany

5.Lawton, OK

5 Favorite Snacks

1. ice cream!!

2. cookies

3. wheat thins toasted chips (veggie flavored)

4. kettlecorn popcorn (usually with peanut butter M&Ms in it)

5. animal crackers dipped in nutella

5 Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I love Bruce Campbell. I think he is a fantastic actor/author.

2. I play World of Warcraft, and I LOVE it.

3. Sometimes my kids stress me out so badly that I put them down for naps/bed 15minutes, or more, early just to get a break from them.

4. I am slightly obsessive compulsive. Slightly.

5. I hate being pregnant. Being pregnant has not been a pleasant experience for me and I really do not enjoy those months. I guess the middle part was ok, but not the beginning or the end.

5 Things I Would Do If I Were A Billionaire

1. Pray. Mostly for myself and to make wise decisions with that sort of money.

2. Give to specific missionaries and mission organizations, help charities, nonprofits & ministries.

3. Set up some sort of adoption scholarship/fund thing to help couples who would make great parents become parents when they can't afford it all on their own.

4. Buy my husband a used book store he could own and operate.

5. Build a monorail system from wherever we wind up living "for good" to NJ so that, even though it'll still take hours to get there, at least it won't involve driving, flying, delays, traffic, other people, etc. It would have a play room, and a little movie theater and food. It'd be sweet.

5 Things I Love

1. God.

2. The excitement on my boys faces when they realize Daddy's home.

3. The smell after it rains early AM. (it reminds me of camp)

4. Fall

5. Laughter

5 People I Tag

I'm not going to tag anyone in particular, but if you'd like to do it too (it was kind of fun) feel free! And let me know if you do, as it's really fun to read other people's answers.

And so this post isn't all about me, here is a picture of the boys I took recently. In this picture, I was trying to get a nice picture of both boys on the chair together. As you can see, it didn't work out too well. The entire time I tried taking pictures Zeke insisted on telling me a story, he paid NO attention to the camera at all. Dee Dee, on the other hand, couldn't refraind from completely cheesing it up for the camera.

Oh, oh, oh! I also found a new site, by reading another new site, that I wanted to share with y'all because it is just too funny. I put a link on my sidebar, as well as one HERE. (Boy oh boy, is today's post linktastic!) It's called Cake Wrecks. I linked to the first one because I think that's a great place to start. So, put down your drink (or it will come out of your nose) and read a few of Jen's posts.

Simply Awesome

That's what God is. Simply awesome. I've been meaning to write this post for some time now, but with all of our stuff here, it's been a little crazy. I'm sure most of you understand how that is. But what I want to address today is the awesomeness of God, and what He's been doing here. Or, a list of current praises, if you will.

Obviously the biggest praise of all is that our stuff arrived from Germany WEEKS before it was scheduled to. Let's look at this timeline. We arrived from Germany the end of July with only some clothes and toys. No furniture. We bought a futon that doubled as a couch during the day and a bed at night (Josh was so good natured to carry it back and forth every day). We got a set of pots, and used paper plates and plastic silverware. We bought a washer and dryer so I could clean the clothes we brought with us, and we were pretty well set for the two and a half weeks we spent in Oklahoma before going on vacation to New Jersey.

Then we spent three weeks in New Jersey, and you all know how that went. If you don't, check my archives. I've posted about each week in fairly good detail. More details will be with the pictures as I post them on Flickr. But more about pictures later.

We got home from NJ on the 31st of August, really the 1st of September since it was almost midnight by the time we arrived. Here's where it gets exciting. On September 2nd and 3rd, a mere day or two after getting back home, ALL of our stuff from Germany arrived. Our unaccompanyed stuff came the 2nd, our household goods came the 3rd. Wow! Okay, our household goods minus one crate of stuff, but that was on it's way. Think about this. Josh was starting class on Monday the 8th. All of our stuff wasn't due to come until the 20th or so, after we would be knee-deep, as it were, in school - both career course and grad school. But God is so good, He worked it out to where our stuff came in THREE WEEKS EARLY (I'm capitalizing all of that because it's pretty unheard of in the military and pretty AMAZING), so that Josh would still be home when it all came so we could start going through it together and set up the majority of it all before he started class the following Monday. Wow.

But that's not all. While we were in NJ, Josh got a call that his Volvo had made it to Baltimore, and he should be able to pick it up in Tulsa when we got back from NJ. For a frame of reference, Tulsa is a good three hours from Lawton. On the 2nd of September (the 1st was Labor Day so no one was open) Josh called the car place in Tulsa and found out that yes, his car was there and ready to be picked up. Oh, we got a rental car to get home from the airport with and Josh extended it from 1 night to 1 week since he didn't know when he'd get around to getting his car. So, I think that day we also got a call that my Volvo had arrived in Baltimore and would soon be making it's way to Tulsa. Josh was talking to Jim about the drive I guess, and Jim offered to go with Josh for the ride, if Josh would be willing to wait until Saturday. Since we had the rental car until then anyway, that became the plan. Well, wouldn't you know it, MY Volvo arrived in Tulsa on Thursday or Friday SO Josh and Jim only had to make ONE trip up to Tulsa to retrieve cars, instead of two. I didn't have to go ever, as Jim drove mine home while Josh drove his home. WOW! Not only did God work it out that both of our cars would be in Tulsa by the time Josh got out there, but He did it in with such amazing timing that we never really had to be a one car family. (Which would never have worked, by the way, since I have two kids with two car seats and no one could really ever pick us up because we all wouldn't fit.) And He got our cars here before Josh started his class, so we wouldn't have to worry about it all once Josh started and had school to stress over.

Isn't God the coolest? I submit that He is. So there you have it. God is doing amazing things over here for us, and I just cannot help but praise Him for it. I love seeing Him work like this. He is so good. So, so good.

Oh, and the pictures. I have recently added pictures from Stacey and Shawn's wedding on Flickr, to go along with the beach pictures. Feel free to check them out at your own leisure. I'm hoping to get more up a lot sooner than this last batch now that we've got most of the boxes taken care of/in a more manageable setup (ie, in the garage).

Sing Us a Song, You're the Piano Man

While going through boxes in the garage the other day, Josh came across his old tiny keyboard from his youth. When Zeke got up from his nap, Josh handed him the toy and this is what followed:

Our Time In New Jersey - Week 3 Recap (Finally)

Ahhh...the final week of our crazy trip to New Jersey. Things did slow down a little bit this last week, but not by much, as you will see. While it was a crazy trip, it was a good trip. It was so great seeing as much of our family and friends as we could. And if we didn't get to see you, we apologize, but there's really only so much we could do. As it's over now, we look back with fond memories, as we look forward to the next few months here in Oklahoma. But here's a look at that last week (I almost feel like I should have a video montage here instead of words and pictures).

Sunday we went to church with Josh's family. Afterwards, we had Chinese food for lunch, then Linda, Jeff and Sam left to go back home. That evening, after leftovers for dinner, we loaded up the boys and went to the beach with Josh's parents. It was a beautiful nice and the water wasn't too chilly. But it was windy. So windy that it made everything else seem cold, so not much swimming occured. Josh's dad did make a nice little town in the sand (he's very serious about his sand castles and things, but he's very good at them).

Monday we went and visited my dad and Karen and Bobby, at their house in Brick. It is a very nice house and it's right on the lagoon. While the boys napped, we swam in there, and made videos and had a diving competition. While the boys were awake, we swam in the little pool they had there, fed the ducks (well, Zeke fed the ducks, Deacon ate all the bread we handed him to feed the ducks with), and ate some delicious dinner. Oh, and we played Rock Band on their Wii. I think we all slept pretty well that night.

Tuesday we just sort of laid low. We ran some errands, but mostly just sat around the house having one day of rest.

Wednesday we drove back up to my mom's for the rest of our time in NJ. We did some more shopping for the wedding (see Friday). After dinner, my Uncle Ernie and his family came over to visit with us for a little bit. After they left and we put the boys to bed, our friends Dave and Anthony came over to hang out. It was great seeing everyone that day.

On Thursday, we took the boys to the shoe store so Josh and I could get shoes for the wedding we were going to Friday. My grandmother and her boyfriend came over for dinner, and so that was our evening.

Friday was my cousin Stacey's wedding. It was a great time. The wedding was about a half hour away so we drove up there with the boys for the wedding, then drove back to my mom's to leave the boys with her, then drove back up for the reception (and drove back to my mom's when it was all over). But Stacey looked beautiful, just like a princess, and the whole affair was fabulous. We had a great time that night, and it was great seeing that side of the family again.

Saturday was picnic day. Josh started the day off by going to Katherine's first Cross Country meet of the season. After his return we hit the road. Our friends, Eric and Elyse (who have Peavey) had a housewarming BBQ, which we attended for a little bit. I'll admit it, I mostly went to see my cat, as I miss him more than I want to admit...stinkin cat. But it was great seeing Eric and Elyse and their cute house. Afterwards we went back to my mom's for a picnic there. My other grandmother came up and Josh's cousin Evan and his wife Aubrey came, and so did our friends Jonny and Rosa and their foster son, Micah. Oh, and Holly showed up later. It was a lot of fun being able to just hang out and relax with these friends before leaving the next day. I did eventually have to kick out Evan, Aubrey, and Holly, but it was out of love and self-preservation.

Sunday we went to church with my mom, then it was off to the airport and back to Oklahoma. Whew! Since then it's been go, go, go. But that's another post for another day. Oh, and I am going to be putting up our pictures from this trip (for those of you who are interested) by category/topic/event/whatever, but I'll make sure I link each set here as I put them up so that you'll know when new pics are there. To start the process, I put up all pictures of us at the beach. (If you click on the word beach it should bring you to the pictures.) I hope you enjoy them!

What I Want to Know Is, Where Did It All Come From?

So, while we were in NJ we sent a shipment of stuff to us in OK. It was all the stuff that had been lying around our parents house (and friend's house) since we got married and moved to Germany. While we were in NJ we also got a phone call that our first shipment of stuff from Germany arrived and to call when we got back to OK to have it delivered.

On Tuesday, Josh called Housing to set up a day and time to have our stuff delivered. They said they would bring our unaccompanied shipment on Tuesday (the little bit of stuff from Germany) and our second shipment (the stuff from NJ) on Wednesday. Groovy.

Well, Wednesday morning, Josh left for work (you know, the hour of work he has to show up each day since he's no longer on leave and his class doesn't start until Monday). Shortly after leaving, I received a phone call from Housing and the woman there starts talking about the shipment we have scheduled for that day. Apparently the shipment coming yesterday, the one we thought was our stuff from NJ was actually ALL of our stuff from Germany. WHAT?!? We had no idea it was even here (or even close to being here for that matter) and here's this lady talking about how it was coming in an hour minus one crate because it got left behind somewhere and is currently making it's way here. But that wasn't why she was calling. That I find humorous, as I would have been incredibly shocked when the guys showed up with five crates of stuff instead of half of one. No, after going on for five minutes about the stuff from Germany she let me know the stuff from NJ arrived also and would we like it delivered yesterday as well.

All this to say that our stuff is here! Well, most of it. But, our stuff is here! Our beds are here! Minus the bedding for our bed and the screws to put Zeke's bed together. But our beds are here! YAY! This means lots and lots of unpacking will be going on here for the next few days. I will try and post about our last week in NJ and get those pictures up by the end of the weekend, but right now, getting these boxen out of my house is a little bit higher of a priority.

And boy, do we have a LOT to unpack. Again, what I want to know is, where did it all come from? And don't say Germany. I may have to roll my eyes from this side of the computer if you do.

Of All the Things

We forgot our house key. In case you're confused by that statement, allow me to clarify it for you. When packing up and heading out to NJ three weeks ago, we left the key to our house in Oklahoma in our house in Oklahoma. When did we realize this? Oh, yesterday as we were packing to head back home. Yeah. Well, Joni called Friday to see if we had one with us, and Josh was fairly certain he did, even though I wasn't as certain, but I told her that we did. Only to find out that we did not.

Thankfully, I have our landlady's cell number programmed into my phone so I gave her a ring. (She is an adorable Korean lady, by the way.) Turns out, she's on vacation! After she finished laughing at my situation she goes, "So, how you gonna get eein?" She then graciously looke up and called me back with the phone number for a local locksmith. Not too keen on having a stranger open my house and then leave it open until we got in that night (not to mention I have no idea how we would have paid him with us being in NJ and him being in OK), I never did call him. I am saving his number for a rainy day though.

This might not have been such a big deal if we were getting in at a decent hour or something, but no. By the time we landed, got off the plane, got our luggage, got our rental car, and got home, it was close to 11:30pm. So, here we are, in the dark, both boys crying in the car, me trying not to freak out outside the car, and Josh trying to kick in the back door to our bedroom since it was too dark for him to pick the lock himself. Can you sense the awesomeness of this moment?

Finally Josh comes back around the house to try breaking into the front door again (that's right, again, as in he had already tried and gone back to the back door), and I just told him to go down to the Starling's house since they had our extra key. This is why Joni called in the first place on Friday. They had one of our keys but were going camping for the long weekend, and wanted to make sure we could get in when we got back. Remember how I said that we were okay and had one? Can you sense the irony there? Anyhoodle, I told Josh to go to the Starling's and use the key they have hiding outside to enter their house to see if our key is lying around somewhere inside.

Five minutes later Josh returned triumphant! Not because he broke in and found our key though. Apparently, Jim and Joni and returned early from their camping trip and were home. So Josh rang their bell (WHAT?!? Sammy sleeps right next to where the bell rings in the house!) and Jim woke up and gave us back our key. Yay.

Now we're here, we're catching up on bills and other mail, emails and other internet related things, and house stuff (Josh is currently fixing the toilet in the front bathroom). I will post about our third week in NJ sometime later this week, as well as put up all our pictures from the trip on Flickr. Our desktop should be in OK by now and I'm thinking about waiting until we get that here and set up before doing any of that. Or not. We'll see how it goes. But until next time, I pray you all have a great (and safe) Labor Day!