I'm Back!

Hi everyone!

I am back! Was I missed? haha What a summer we have had! I am not even sure where to start.... Remember that, in April, we received a letter from our landlord saying that they had to sell the house and we had to either buy the house or move. Well, that seems to be when the chaos began. We debated over renting again or buying, coming to the conclusion that we were tired of paying someone else's mortgage! So, the hunt began! We looked at the "good", the "bad", the "oh so very ugly" and the "so scary we didn't even go inside"! While going around town looking at open houses one Sunday afternoon, we found it!! We knew the minute we walked in that it was our home! So, we went under contract mid May with a closing date of June 1st. Everything was moving so quickly and SO WERE WE! The boys got out of school at the end of May and our summer began with a visit from Tyler's friend. Not thinking, which I seem to do a lot these days, I agreed to pick D, Tyler's friend, up in San Antonio on JUNE 1ST!! Yeah, the same day we were closing on the house!! See, I told you that I wasn't thinking! As it turned out, the closing was rescheduled for the 2nd, and then the 3rd and finally the 4th! The morning of the 3rd brought a big health scare, a trip the ER and an overnight hospital stay. Come to find out, I have atrial fibrillation and have probably always had the problem. So, there I was in the hospital and we were suppose to FINALLY close on the house the next day. No problem! The title company came to the hospital and we signed all of the papers right there in my room on the cardiac floor! Now all I had to do was get out of the hospital, finish packing the house, move, clean the old house, paint the new house, unpack, take Tyler and his friend (remember that he is visiting for 2 weeks) to Six Flags in San Antonio (a trip that was already paid for weeks in advance) and "take it easy" (Dr.'s orders)!!! Amazingly we got it all done, except for the "take it easy" part, of course.

And, things haven't slowed down much since then. We had ants everywhere in the new house! You know, those little tiny black ants that some call sugar ants! They are persistent but not as persistent as Gary was with his sprayer! Waaahhaaahhhaaa! Then, while I was washing clothes for our trip to Six Flags, the pipes backed up and we had 2 in. of water in the laundry room! I couldn't wash clothes or dishes for 2 days!! Then I found out that my stove and oven didn't work properly. It took 25 minutes to boil water on the stove and the oven temp. would vary from lukewarm to surface of the sun no matter what the temp. knob was set at! I think Tyler's friend only had one home cooked meal the entire 2 weeks that he was with us. How sad is that? Thank goodness for our home warranty! Everything is fixed and working fine...for now!

After getting Tyler's friend packed and back to the airport in San Antonio, my mother in law came down for a few days with our niece. Now, don't get me wrong... The visit was great! We love having her visit and Matthew enjoyed his cousin so much. But, I had no down time and I was wore out by that point. Thankfully, after they left, I had a week to work on the house and get things organized. Since then I have had several Dr. appts, a MOPS retreat to help organize and prepare for and a visit from my best friend from college. On top of all of this, one of my dear friends has moved away and I am struggling with panic attacks (since being in the hospital... That's another post altogether!). WHEW! I am tired all over again just typing this. haha

So, all of that to say that I have been a little busy and have neglected my blog. But, things are finally starting to smooth out so I hope to get back on track! I will post some pictures of the new house soon. I hope that you are having a fun, relaxing summer!

Love and Hugs,
Lisa

Breath From Heaven!

Hello? Is anyone still there? I know, I know... It's been SO long since I have posted anything. Let me tell you, things have been super crazy around here. I will write more about that later but in the mean time, here is a post to a blog that I started a while back. I totally forgot about it until a friend reminded me and suggested that I "re"post some things. So...here is the first "re"post for an old blog page. Enjoy!

January 09
A breath from Heaven
"Mommy! You can come fishing with me and Daddy and I can show you how to do it and where to go!" This was the little voice I heard behind me as I was standing at the kitchen counter deciding what to fix for dinner. My first thought was, "I can't go fishing! I am getting ready to start dinner." Then I turned around and saw those big blue / green eyes smiling at me and I couldn't say no. So...off we went to go fishing. Don't get me wrong, I love to fish but only when I know the fishing is good (like in Alaska). Besides, I don't even have my license. During the entire ride to the lake, I was thinking about all of the things that I would have to do when we returned home and fuming a bit that Gary didn't realize how much I had to do and help me get out of going. (I know, silly right?) We pulled up by the water and as I got out of the car, I realized that I didn't bring my jacket and the wind was very cold. Luckily Gary brought his jacket and put it on me. I did remember the camera and took some pictures of Matthew and Gary while they were trying to catch "the big one". I was amazed at how good Matthew was at casting and reeling. When was the last time I actually watched him fish? He looked so grown up backing up the bank and reeling fast not to get hung up in the bushes that he had just casted into. Then my spirit woke up and smacked me on the heart! I forgot about all the things that I had waiting for me at home and just had fun. They fished, we went exploring, we threw rocks, we played in the mud and best of all we laughed. The wind was really cutting into us now and we noticed the cold and even commented on it, but it didn't detour our fun. Finally, Matthew runs to pick up his fishing pole and says, "Come on Daddy, one more cast and then we can go. It's getting dark." As they were making their last attempts at a catch, I was standing behind them watching everything. They were laughing and casting and Matthew was getting very brave and standing at the very edge of the water. There was a duck about 50 yards out that was trying it's last attempt at a catch too. (I didn't realize how long ducks can hold their breath!) Then Gary turned around and said, "Honey, look at the sunset!" It was amazing! I wish that I could describe it for you but the only thing I can say is that it looked like the sky was on fire. We talked about all the colors that we saw and thanked God for the lovely sunset that He painted just for us. Gary commented again on how cold it was getting and that we should be getting home when this amazing thing happened. There was a breeze within the breeze, a very warm comforting breeze that must have lasted 30 seconds. I felt it and looked at Gary. He turned around and said, "Did you feel that?" "Yeah, I felt it. It was warm." Matthew said. Then, in tandem, Gary and I said, "It felt like God breathed on us!" We all just stood there watching the sunset until the colors began to turn purple. We didn't want to leave. God had breathed on us!