Three AM Wake Up Call

Talking with a friend the other day, I mentioned to her that I was so sad at how quickly my life is flying by. It seems like the weeks just soar right past. For some reason, this is by far, the busiest summer of my life. I am just sure of it! It's busy in a good way, sort of...? Ha! We still have adequate family time and every time something gets marked off the calender I think, "Oh, that wasn't so bad." But let me tell you, the calender is full. Which is crazy, I think, because just this winter, we were saying to ourselves... "What is our purpose."

I know this for sure, God was totally in our decision to take our first Summer break from school. We don't usually take a summer break but we thought since this was our first summer in Oklahoma in a new home, we should take off because we knew we'd have lots of projects we'd like to get done without the pressures of school.  Of course, I was all worried about how we'd fill our days, HA! So far... no problemo! 

The first weekend of summer we had the kids final gymnastics celebration. We all got to go and see what all they had learned during the past semester.  That was a lot of fun, they were real proud of themselves.

They'll love this when they're grown. Nothing like a hot sweaty gymnastics picture =)

Of course, Emmyn had to get in on the fun. Man, she is so cute.

Gymnastics was on a Saturday morning followed by our Ten Year High School Reunion. That was nice. It was fun catching up with people from so long ago. (So, long ago... ha!) I felt old, we all had children running around and everyone was all grown up. Reunions are a little weird, I think... but the stories were the same and we had lots of nice laughs. I haven't been around anyone from High School for so many years that when I see people or get together with anyone, I forget they remember the same things I do. Does that make sense? It's like "Oh, yeah... you were there too." I find that coming up more often now that we live in my hometown. 

Last weekend we had a End of the School Year Bash at church. The kids have been learning about fear so they did a Fear Factor Party. Yeah, it was completely gross. That was the idea. Get real gross and don't be afraid to do it. Well, our little Jordi wasn't afraid to take a whole ketchup bottle to the eyeball. If you ask me, she deserves the "Most Brave" award.

 

We finally went yesterday to the pediatrician, they sent us to the eye doctor. They scanned her eye for abrasions. Sure enough, a big scratch over the pupil. Obviously, not from ketchup but most likely from the night of screaming and rubbing after it "incident" happened. ; ) Now she's on an antibiotic eye drop and we're hoping it heals quickly. But as far as Jordi, she is so super good with it. She's such a trooper. 

One of the things we were sure to miss was the awesome pool in Ozark. In Missouri, we were a walk through the park away from an amazing outdoor pool with a big splash pad, huge water guns, buckets, slides and more. Yeah, not so much here. So, the kids were already mapping out how to keep cool this summer. Then it happened. We walked into Atwoods and their marketing ploy totally got us. 

Yup, they had the biggest self set up blue pool with the ring set up INSIDE right when you walk in to the store. OK, even I was in love... not just the kids. It was huge! After googling over the pool for several minutes and thinking about how to talk Daniel into it, the kids were ready to go home and count their fun money... 

They sat outside counting for over an hour; every dime, every dollar. We told them we would pay $100 of it; the same cost as a season pass to the public pool for a family our size. Well, between their $150.00, their nice Papa, and our $100 we have a new pool... still in a box. =) 

Oh, not by choice, of course. The kids ask every day when the pool is going to get put up and we always say the same thing, after the new lateral lines get put in. Yeah, that's another story. ; ) You would never beleive the little home repairs going on over at our little home. First off, we had crazy hail that deemed a new roof and almost took out my little garden. = (

Yes, that is all hail!

Then, we had crazy, crazy, crazy, rain that suggested, very strongly I might add; we have new lateral lines installed. Well, only IF we ever want to flush when it rains. Not to mention, do the laundry or dishes, or hey... even take a shower ; )  Well, the trucks came yesterday and the lines are done. Which we are so very happy because we've been waiting since Easter.  The yard now looks like this:

It might be a while before the pool goes up ; ) I have never been so happy to see dirt. There is a lot of work a head of us considering Oklahoma is like 90% ROCKS. But we are so very glad to have that work finished. 

Now, here is the kicker... most of you know, we moved real fast, too fast to close on a house. Well, this house just so happened to be at the top of the hill from where Daniel's parent's live and they just so happened to stumble upon it the day after we had told them we had THOUGHT about possibly moving home. It just so happened to be for sale, the owner just so happened to let us rent it since we were moving so quickly. Well, of course, it just so happened to be a house we absolutely love, and we just so happened to make an offer on it for purchase... three days before the lateral lines went out and the hail came. We just so happened to get a new roof and new lines laid for FREE before we settled on a purchase price. Seriously, ummmm. All I can say is, Thanks God. Thanks a whole bunch.

Of course, I sit and talk about our cutsie garden, dirt yard, and new roof and I am gently reminded and yet haunted by the deafening sights of Joplin not only during the day but during the night. A place that words just can't describe. And yet, my garden thrives and my children play in the hot summer sun and I can't quite wrap my mind around all of that.

Huh, this post worked out totally different in my mind. Now, all of a sudden my 3am rise and shine this morning, with to-do lists running through my head; and my thought of blogging about it to get my mind off of everything, seems trivial. 

Writing about things going on or things coming up, like leaving for a family reunion in NE early this Friday morning, right after a day of Eleos, packing, and cleaning the church. Or talking about how the next three months of Saturdays are full of Fostering classes  or even sharing that we're crazy for going to NE now and then heading for a big trip to CO one week later and every little thing in between... I think it was more of a wake up call instead.  God is so good.

It's not that big of a deal. Other than the fact that we get to do all of it.

The sun is rising, it's time to worship. Hmmmm, perhaps I'll start a pot of coffee too. =)

Good Morning.

Loves,