Yesterday was the first day of school for the kids. I went to their door to wake them up and as I was putting my hand on the doorknob, my oldest opens the door. She was completely dressed, all the way down to her socks and shoes, all she needed to do was brush her hair. So anyway I got them all ready and took a few pictures before headed up to the school. Drop-off yesterday morning was a little chaotic to say the least. It took no less than 20 minutes just to get into the school parking lot. By the time we even got remotely close to the building, it was already 8:50 (school is supposed to start at 8:45). So I told my sweet kids that I would not be able to walk them in. There was nowhere to park. So they very bravely walked into their new school.

Things were put into perspective for them a little while we were waiting in traffic. We were listening to the local Christian radio station and they were taking phone calls. A lady called in asking the DJ’s to pray for her little niece as she had just moved to FL from Jamaica and was starting a new school in a new country. My oldest said, “wow, whole new country! That must be hard for her.” I told them all see I know you think it is hard because we have moved again but at least you have only moved from one state to another and you are not having to learn a new language or anything like that. How’s that for some perspective?

Ok now some pictures:

I think we are ready. We have had a busy couple of days so I have not had time to write. We went on Tues to see if we could find another pair of shoes for each of the girls. The dress code at school says NO SANDALS. So we figured they needed a little variety in their sneakers. Anyway my middle daughter found a pair rather quickly. But shoe shopping with my oldest has never been an easy task, umm it is one of my least favorite tasks. Right up there with going to the dentist and doing laundry. She never did find a pair that she liked.

Weds we took the kids to have physicals done for school. They are all healthy. My son made us laugh when the doctor told him to touch his toes and instead of bending over to touch them, he lifted up his leg and stretched out his arm to touch his toes. After we were done we took all the paperwork to school and got them all registered for school.

Yesterday was meet the teacher day at school. All of the teachers we met are very nice. I think the kids will have a very good year. We got all the directions for how to do pick up for car riders. There was even a map of how to drive around the parking lot so that the traffic flows properly. My brother even went along with us so that he could check out the school too.

Yesterday was also my brother’s 20th birthday. So some more family came for a yummy dinner of baked Ziti and meatballs with cake and ice cream for dessert.

Today my step-mom and I went back to Sears to return one of the shirts we bought last week that we discovered after we got home had a defect in it. We then looked around and in the junior’s dept (I can’t believe that my girls can actually wear junior’s sizes, I am not ready for this yet!! lol) We found these cute little summer dresses that were on clearance for $9.99 according to the sticker. When we went to the register it rang up for $3.99 so we went and found another one. Can you believe that?? The original price of the dresses was $42. So two dresses for a total of $8.50!!!

Tomorrow I will get all of the school supplies out and sort them all by child and get backpacks ready for school. Maybe I will also see if I can get the kids to pick out what they want to wear on the first day of school.

I was tired before I started typing but now that I have read back over all we did this week I am really tired. So now I think I will go to bed.

Moving back to a familiar place means that I don’t have to find a new hair dresser!! The lady that used to cut my hair years ago is still in the same place and so my step-mom and I took the kids for back to school hair cuts today. And the results are fabulous!! (Of course I am a just a little bit biased…LOL)

Dad was working outside today and he came in and said, “tell your hubby to get his shoes on. I need his help with the goats!” So hubby put on his shoes on and went outside to help. The goats had made a hole in the fence along the back of the property. So they cut down a tree and chopped it up to make posts to repair the fence. As they were doing this hubby saw the goats back on the wrong side of the fence, there was another hole!! So anyway they made temporary repairs and will have to make more permanent ones after dad goes to get some wire and posts.

But dad said to hubby, “Welcome to Green Acres!”

Then not five minutes after my dad and hubby came in from the heat and dad was taking a shower, my brother comes home. I said to him, “you have impeccable timing! You missed all the hard work!” LOL There is never a dull moment around here with 4 dogs, 2 goats, 1 cat, 1 dwarf hamster and 3 fish. A few more animals and we could open a petting farm, don’t you think?

They will know we are Christians by our love!

Romans 12:9-21

1. Be Authentic vs 9

2. Be Unselfish vs 10

3. Be Alive vs 11 see also Colossians 3:23

4. Be positive, patient and prayerful vs 12

5. Be hospitable vs 13

6. Be a blessing vs14

7. Be Available vs 15

8. Be humble vs 16

How to Respond When Wronged

1. Resist your natural instincts vs 17-18

2. Leave all revenge to God vs 19

3. Turn your enemies into your friends vs 20-21

“I will never allow a man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” George Washington Carver

I have moved to this blog from my old one because I need a new place to be, a fresh start. We live in a new place, well we have lived in this area before but it has changed so much since we lived here it is like a new place.

Church was good this morning. It was really nice to feel free in worship, free to who I am, free to raise my hands if I felt led to. And the message was one that I needed to hear. The minister talked about the world knowing we are Christians by the love that we show, not just to one another but to the lost. He also talked about how to respond when someone has wronged you. And given what we have been going through of late, I would say I needed to hear it. He gave us a really good quote today.

“I will never allow a man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” George Washington Carver

The kids start school on the 18th. We go to meet the teachers on the 14th. Even though all of this is new, I think they are looking forward to going back to school. We have haircut appointments for all of them on Tuesday with my old hairdresser. There are some good things about coming back home! Hubby has an interview tomorrow morning with an insurance company. It is the first interview he has been called for. I applied for some jobs through the state web site today and hubby sent my resume to a couple places that were in the paper today. So prayerfully something will come up soon.

Urs and I took the girls school clothes shopping today. Oh what fun we had. No really. It was fun. I mean it. Really. I do. The girls are at the age now where it is fun to go shopping with them. They like to try things on, see what looks good, what doesn’t. So off we went today to Sears to hit the clearance racks to see what bargains we could find. And bargains we found! (Sidenote- we left Buddy home with Steve. Buddy is not so much fun to shop with, he just wants to play in the clothing racks)

So after a couple hours of shopping we came home with a bunch of new things and we saved a bundle. Who doesn’t love to save money?? One shirt that we got for the girls had a $9.99 pink sticker on it. It rang up $2.49 and then we had a coupon that took an additional 20% off our entire order. How is that for a bargain?? All of the kids are good to go for school now. We have clothes, backpacks, school supplies and new shoes. (We are still missing that YELLOW folder, dumb yellow folder).

Meet the teacher day is on Thursday and we are all looking forward to that. We drove by the kids new school today on the way home from the mall and the girls we very impressed by the building. They can’t wait to see the inside.

Well now I think I am going to take my aching feet to bed. Good night. And God Bless!!

Went school supply shopping today. My step-mom and I braved Wal-mart to get all the things on the three lists for the kids. I think we have everything on the lists except a YELLOW, 2 pocket folder with prongs. We went to 2 other stores on our way home and still did not find a yellow folder. At least we still have time before school starts.

The kids have been enjoying time with Steve parents, swimming everyday and just hanging out. They will be coming home tomorrow. We have been talking to them on the phone each day but we miss them. So it will be good to see them tomorrow.

I just had a reminder that God is always beside me. He never leaves my side.

Just wanted to share. Especially since traffic is up on my site this week. There have been over 100 views on my blog each day for the past couple of days. I am glad people are stopping by.

God loves each one of us. Remember that always.

Today when we left the house we had a lot of things to accomplish and that we did.

• picked up registration forms at the kids new school
• went to the bank
• went to the post office
• went to eat some lunch
• I registered fro my fall classes while we ate lunch
• Steve made some phone calls while we were at lunch
• went to the library to print out a form we needed to have notarized
• went back to the bank to have the form notarized
• bought some envelopes
• back to the kids school to fax the form to request their records and we got a tour of the school
• back to the post office
• to the storage unit to look for Steve’s birth certificate (didn’t find it)
• went to Vital Statistics office to get another copy
• went to driver’s license office and got our FL licenses (our DL #’s are the same one we had from when we lived here before)
• came back to the house and filled out all the paperwork for all the kids
• after dinner watched Juno (was a pretty good movie)

So you see we had a pretty busy day. But we got a lot done. Steve even filled out a few job applications online while watching the movie tonight. So we are getting some things in line. Prayerfully we will both have jobs soon and we will be able to get back on our feet. All in all today was a good day. Now I am tired and going to bed.