It's a bright, beautiful morning

and thankfully after a very rough afternoon/evening Courtney has gone 10 hours without regurgitating Gatorade. We are staying home from church to make sure we don't pass the holiday cheer around. Bethany and I are feeling queasy, Kevin is coming down with a cold and the little boys are feeling great.

It is suppose to get down to 16* tonight. Its been a long time since we've experienced those kind of temperatures. But hey for one night how bad could it be? Saturday it was almost 70 and by Christmas it is suppose to be back in the 60s.

Here's a quick quote from Stephen, "My laughers are getting tired." Context he had been smiling a lot and his cheeks were tired.

Mornings....

Yesterday morning I stumbled to the bathroom and began my usual routine at the sink. First empty Kevin's contact case (it is usually left open, still filled with old contact solution, I know, I know, not everyone changes out their contact fluid everyday, but I do, and if I don't for Kevin his case gets all filmy and grungy), ok, next begin to put my own contacts in; however, in a horrifying moment I realize that I have just cleaned out MYcase! This is bad, very bad. Take a deep breath. Wait a minute, why was my case open? empty (I'm pretty sure it was empty)? And why is Kevin's case.....full? Yup, he was stumbling around more than me this morning! He put my contacts in! What a relief, at least I didn't wash mine down the drain. So next I did what anyone with 20/250 vision. I put my husband's contacts in. It was not a comfortable fit and a couple hours later I had to take one out because my head was hurting so bad, but I made it until he got home. Being able to see is such a blessing. I am so thankful for MY contacts.

Demolition Work

After church we went to the house to continue our painting endeavors. Courtney’s room is looking really cool. Pink and Brown. The Master Bedroom is going Chocolate. Yep, a denim and chocolate house, what could be more fitting for the Yerkes. Unless, of course, they have some sort of classic ice cream color.

While Kevin was doing prep work for painting in the living room, he discovered a little water damage, which was, well, you know, a little disconcerting. So in typical man fashion he began to tear away part of the wall, really that is a bit of an exaggeration, he was being very judicious about what he stripped away. Thankfully we decided that the water damage was explainable and not pervasive. But you know how it is once men get that demolition energy going, so the next thing you know we have decided to tear out the funky brick benches on either side of the fireplace and before it was time to eat dinner it was done. It is really going to be neat. I had been trying to figure out how we were going to put bookshelves in that area, but just couldn’t figure out how to work around those bricks. Now we don’t have to!
We started painting the LR walls this evening but decided that the “Polite White” was just a little too polite. With the rest of the house being so bold, this white just looked, well, too white. The burning question, after ripping out those brick benches, is, can we paint the remaining brick fireplace. So it is off to the paint store again tomorrow.

We Closed!

Friday was a very busy day. We were on the front steps of the bank before the doors opened. I know, you are thinking, how hard is that? Banker's hours, sheeeesh. But we are a shift work family where every day has a different beginning and ending. But anyway we got there early and then withdrew crazy amounts of money from every account that has our name on it. Scary. Then in a carefree and happy manner we drove to the Realtor's office.

You know the car and furniture places that advertise: interest free till 2009? Well for a moment it looked like we might be getting to live in our new house not only interest free, but payment free for the first YEAR! You should have seen the look on everyone's face when I pointed out that the legal document stated that the first payment was due December 1, 2009!

After signing a gazillion papers and turning over a large sum of money we were treated to great Mexician food. Isn't that great. Yes, there really is a great Mexican food restuarant right here in nowhere's ville Arkansas. Real Mexican food. My only complaint is the guac (I don't think it is real).

So as long as the giant fallen oak tree is really gone by Tuesday, then everything went smoothly and very quickly. The final contract was signed Oct. 8 and we closed Oct. 24. That is fast!

On the way home our landlady called to ask if she could show the house where we are currently living. In an hour? uuuuuggghhh, hmmm, well, uh, sure. So we relayed the info to the kids at home, who had dutifully been doing their schoolwork while we were gone all morning, yeah right ;) We actually got the house looking good by the time they arrived, which was also the time that Kevin needed to leave for work and was also the time I needed to leave to take Courtney to the pick-up point for her ride to Little Rock.

And then, Bethany, the little boys, and I drove to El Dorado for groceries (they have a super W-M and cheaper gas prices), home for a quick dinner, then off to a bowling B-day party. You know you have friends when you get invited to a B-day party (actually the pastor and his wife might have just been feeling sorry for us, but I don't think so). Then we came home and watched a movie. I know we're bad, but we just couldn't help ourselves. We are trying netflix, one month FREE! It was an interesting indie. Of course the Veggie Tales~ Pirates Who Don't Do Anything ,that we watched a few days before was TERRIFIC!

So it was an action packed day, oh, and I forgot to mention-it really started at 1 a.m. with Courtney waking me up saying she was having an allergic reaction. That lead to an ER visit and Kevin, Courtney and I not getting to bed until after 4. Thankfully Kevin had just gotten home from work. The great thing about allergic reactions is that modern medicine can reverse the effects very quickly.

So it looks like we will be living just North of Camden AR, in a community called Harmony Grove, doesn't that sound soothing. I guess I will have to change the header on my blog. We will officially NOT have to be the Fordyce Redbugs. We can choose between the Camden Cardinals and the Harmony Grove Hornets. Since I like red and birds I vote for Camden Cardinals!

An Apple Cozy

Yep, that's what I did this afternoon. I usually indulge in a nap on Sunday afternoon, but today I decided to knit an apple cozy. A friend had showed me one a while back and it was so cute, and besides I am fixin to have so many other things that I really should be doing....So I got on the internet and found a couple of free patterns and looked at some cuter examples that didn't have free patterns and came up with my first prototype. It was a fairly relaxing experience, once I got past the first 3 rows or so. I'm sorry but juggling 4 double pointed needles when you only have 9 stitches is a little tedious. It took less than 2 hours, including interruptions (if I had been taking a nap, there would have been NO interruptions!) and hardly any yarn at all. So there you go, everyone knows what their Christmas present is going to be!

Well, it looks like everything is going smoothly towards closing on our house the 24th. It is so cute, Kevin has been stopping by the house on his way home from work. I guess he is test driving the ride "home".

I enjoyed listening to Kevin read some from Little House on the Prairie to our little boys this evening. It is fun to be going back through that series, yet again. There are so many good books we have read over the years. Some day when we are old and there are no children left in the house it will be fun to read to one another.

Courtney just went by announcing that tomorrow is the day of abundant laundry. Our day of rest is always followed by an abundant laundry day. This day of rest was good. Filled with the word and song.

Moving right along....

It looks like we really will be closing on our house this Friday, the 24th. So far everything is moving along as it should or even faster. We got a favorable quote on getting the fireplace/chimney fixed. Got house insurance stuff lined out, a quote on fencing, have been looking at paint,....Fun times.

Kevin and I took a quick trip to DeGray Lake this week. It was fun to get away, relax, and just enjoy being together, just the two of us. Since the last 23 years have been cram packed full of kids, I was a little afraid we might not know what to do, but it was good. We went to see Fireproof before we came back home. It was good, I cried, they did a great job of balancing intense drama with intense dialogue.

Stephen turned 7 yesterday. Everyone has been decked out as cowboys, yes, EVERYONE, for the last 2 days. We had a little party and lots of fun. I'll try to post a picture.

It is interesting how quickly you can grow attached to an area. We have only been living down Hwy 67 for 5 months, but yesterday I was thinking I would really miss that drive when we move. It is a pretty, windy road dotted with quaint farms. I am partial to country roads and old farms. I don't know why the transition to AR is taking a whole year, but it is. This time last year there were just rumors that the Logansport mill might be closed. We would never have imagined at that time that we would be moving to AR and that it would take so long to get it done once the decision was made, but we have seen God's hand in it all. And we are content to rest there.

A Month Past

Wow, who can believe that over a month has passed since I last posted. Such good intentions, but alas. In the last month we took a family vacation to Texas. Helped Ariel and Ramses get married, while we were in Austin we recieved the phone call that verified that we had SOLD our Mobile Home in Nac, went to an Astros game with Jim Mahood, Uncle Mark and all of his family (Astros were in the middle of a winning streak, yeah!). Emptied out the last of the stuff from the MH. Got to hit a couple of services at the Mission. Kevin recieved a wonderful gift. Went on a campout with the local homeschoolers and have been house hunting. And of course we have been squeezing in normal "school" stuff.

You know how when you travel some place new, you notice everything. But then after awhile you don't notice it any more? Well, ever since we first moved to AR I have had my eye on this pawn shop that we pass everytime we go into town. I thought that would make a fun picture, but then I never would do anything about it. Then I realized a couple of days ago that I was no longer noticing it. SO, today we stopped and took pictures. You just never know where those rascally bad guys might be hiding. Thankfully I almost always have a couple of cowboys with me.

The reason we got up and et em this morning is that today was the acclaimed Big Barn Sale. 40th year of the Biggest Craft Show in south AR! So yeah, it was fun. There was all the typical craft stuff, face painting, unusual jellies and jams, some really cool metal work, and a guy with a potter's wheel doing demonstrations. That is on my list of future professions or at least I would like to learn how to throw pots. He has some jars with unusual markings on them. He said he got that effect from putting horse hair on the ware when it came out of the 2nd firing (1200 degrees). Very Interesting. We were tempted to try the alligator on a stick, but it was too early in the morning. And the parking lot attendant got us stuck in the mud, but then he got us unstuck so no harm done.

As soon as I set my bread to rise, it will be time for the little boys to get haircuts. We have our first dinner invitation this evening. Getting to know new families is really lots of fun. I think this couple is close to 20 years younger than us, their youngest is Stephen's age. We've always said Owen and Stephen would keep us young if we could just survive it.

We are very thankful for God bringing a buyer for our MH, now we need for Him to unveil our new home here in AR. Have a Blessed Lord's Day.