Christmas blessings

Time just a-flies by. It's already December and time for 2015 to come roaring in. And only a month after 2015 starts, we'll have number five join our family. I can't believe that's only about 9 weeks away.

Anywho...

In an effort to curb my own ugly bah-hum-bugginess that has been festering all summer and fall, I've tried really hard to bring the Spirit back into our house. With a 90% completed kitchen and no more giant house projects looming over our heads, we have been able to resume normal-ish daily life and my heart bursts with joy over that simple fact.

I've started (a very relaxed effort at) homeschooling Eden, since I know I will be pulling her out of preschool in January because I know my motivation for gathering three children, including an infant, into a car that is surrounded by snow and blustery temperatures will be nonexistent. So we've started doing our own math and reading and handwriting curriculum. She seems to enjoy it. I do most of the time. I'm excited to keep going with it and we'll see how committed I am at the end of the school year.

For Christmas this year, we are doing the Elf on the Shelf thing, BUT I hated how last year it was so focused on Santa and presents. I want my children to understand why we celebrate Christmas and not to hurriedly embrace the materialism and "Santa-centered-ness" that is the social norm. But the elf is fun! So Kevin and I decided to make Dorothy (our elf, named about Elmo's pet fish) a service elf who brings ideas for daily service and reports to God through prayer each night about how well the girls did with their service activity for that day.

In an effort to keep myself accountable to this activity, I was thinking about writing a post every few days about our activities and how they go over, successes or failures that they may turn out to be. Then I wanted to share some of the daily blessings we have received because of our efforts. This won't be daily, but I do want to share because it is very important to Share the Gift during this time of year.

We started on December 2 (hey, I'm nothing if not consistently tardy).
Service activity #1: Buy a CVS gift card and give it to a random person in the store.
This was relatively simple except that I was trying to coupon and buy a bunch of stuff for another service activity later so my hands were kind of full. Eden paid the cashier and Winnie chose the person to give the card to. The lady was holding a dog and had no clue what was happening. But we just said Merry Christmas and left. I included a Christmas card that basically said "Enjoy this random act of kindness and pass it on."


(Girls with the CVS receipt and Dorothy's instructions for the next activity)

Service activity #2: Donate supplies needed by the library.
This was easy. I just gathered the art supplies they were requesting and dropped them off. The girls were too excited to be at the library and play with the books that they had no clue I dropped off the donation.

Service activity #3: Bake goodies for people at Daddy's work.
Well, yesterday our gas was shut off for 12 hours so we had to delay this one until today. But the girls helped make the goodie (pretzel toffee) and then we went to his work and we all walked around delivering the treats to people at their desks. Eden had a blast as the delivery person. I think this activity was the best one so far because the girls were the most involved and understood what they were doing.


(On our way to deliver goodies to Daddy's work)

Service activity #4: Donate old blankets and linens to a pet shelter.
We haven't done this yet because we are a day behind and did the previous activity today. But we will probably double up tomorrow or the next day.

Blessings:
I've found that these have been small but I have noticed their presence more and more.
*I've had three nights of no acid reflux, thus much better sleep, compared to the previous month.
*Mornings have gone more smoothly and the girls have been in good moods.
*I received a sizable refund from a purchase I made back in April from a company I didn't think I'd get the refund from.
*I got to talk with a friend for an hour on the phone that really lifted my spirits and made me feel so much better about life.
*The girls have done their morning and evening routines every single day this week without missing anything.
*Even with the gas off all day yesterday (meaning no heat or cooking anything in the oven or stove), we had a great day. Normally this type of inconvenience would annoy me and put me in a funk.

There have been other small blessings, but these are the ones I remember today. I truly believe blessing others with service brings blessings back into one's own life. So here's to hoping the motivation to keep serving keeps coming and we can keep the true meaning of Christmas in the front of our minds.

Pumpkins and a farm

I love Pennsylvania. There are so many things here to do and take part in. We found a farm nearby that has all kinds of stuff to do and to eat. There are cheese making classes, farm stay opportunities, volunteering opportunities, a pumpkin patch, baby animals of all kind, and best of all (in my weird opinion) RAW milk! I had such a hard time finding raw milk in Alabama, and here it is about 10 minutes away. Plus there is fresh goat milk, homemade kefir and yogurt and cheese, fresh eggs, duck eggs, and all kinds of other stuff. It's awesome. Makes my mouth and tummy happy.

So anyway, after Kevin got off work one day, we went there and got pumpkins and went exploring.



The girls had a blast searching for pumpkins. We inspected all the pumpkins for "boo-boos" and imperfections.



After finding our perfect pumpkins, we walked back to watch cows being milked.





We had such a great time. It was nice to go out and enjoy where we live and take a break from home improvement projects. I'm looking forward to next year when we can do that full time and not worry about having unfinished bathrooms or kitchens or fences or any of the other 200 projects on our list.

Happy early Halloween!

Kitchen is getting there

So we took the plunge and decided to redo the whole kitchen.

I'm super excited to have a nice new kitchen, but I am not excited about dealing without a kitchen. I crave baking, sautéing, mixing, chopping, blending, grinding, roasting, and having things in cabinets instead of boxes.

But we made a lot of headway this weekend. I assembled all the cabinets from Ikea and my dad and Kevin got most of them installed, as well as prepped the floor for tile. Next steps are securing the lower cabinets to the walls, installing the counter tops, and installing the sink.

Oh, how I miss having a kitchen sink.

Doing dishes in the bathtub = :(

I can't figure out how to get the photos from my phone onto my blog without lots of work, so just imagine a dirty, gross kitchen transformed to an empty kitchen with cruddy walls with unpainted sheetrock and old backsplash removed then transformed to the same space with about 2/3 of new cabinet frames installed.

Sink, oh sink. How I miss you.

Sorry for the lamenting.

That's our kitchen tale so far.

We're moved in and 40% settled.

We finally moved into our house in Pennsylvania. A lot has been happening since we got to PA, but luckily we survived two and a half weeks in a hotel. (Winnie's night terrors did not help us much, but like I said, we survived.)

Our household goods made it safely from storage in SC and despite finding out some interesting quirks of our house, we are sort of settling in. I've managed to paint three rooms and hang some pictures. We are redoing the kitchen because the bottom cabinets have bad water damage. So I've yet to unpack any kitchen stuff. We are living off of take-out, microwaveable stuff, occasionally a crock pot meal, and once in a while a grilled meal. Luckily Kevin's dad has been able to come and redo a bunch of electrical work, move some gas lines, and redo some plumbing. We decided to purchase Ikea kitchen cabinets because they were the most economical, and they will arrive on Saturday, October 4. So we will be assembling cabinets for a while after that and then hopefully installing them soon after that. Hopefully. This has been a learning process for us and I've dreaded living in a construction zone, but we've been living in limbo for so long that it's not much different. I'm just really looking forward to making homemade, healthy, non-prepackaged or take-out food. One day, one day...

My pregnancy is going fine. This kid will probably come out with a third arm or something because of all the crap I've eaten due to minimal ability to make good food, but maybe the third arm will come in handy fixing all the problems with our house.

Other than my general impatience to finally living a regular lifestyle that does not involve two trips to the hardware store a day, we are all fine and dandy. The girls are doing well and Kevin likes his job and I'm sleeping pretty well, so life is good. I think Pennsylvania will be an excellent experience for us...once I have a completed kitchen.

Beach, Pennsylvania, Saudi Arabia...later?

News Update:

1. I do not like living at the beach. I do not like living in someone else's house. I miss my stuff. Shallow, I am. Yes.

2. Baby number 3 is on the way. Due in early Feb. Feeling fine-ish. Nauseated and very tired all the time. I have energy from waking up till about 2, then I'm useless.

3. Saudi Arabia has been delayed. Visa-issuing problems and other issues have arisen so we are putting ARAMCO on the back burner, but Kevin will still continue to actively pursue a job there.

4. So instead, he is looking at working at a company called Lutron (dimmer-switch inventor people) in Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Philly. We went there last week for an interview for Kevin and to just visit the area and we fell in love. Hopefully that will work out. We will know something within the next week or so.

5. It's hot at the beach. I do not like hot.

6. I've been very complainy. I blame pregnancy. What else can I blame? Because it's not my fault. I'm perfect. *I forgive your eye rolling.*

That's all. I miss everyone very much. And I can't wait to resume a normal life in which we have a schedule and routine. And our own house. And our stuff. And closet space. And all my clothes. And my pots and pans. And knives. And a pantry. And and and...

We are still alive.

We are all still alive and well. I feel like we've fallen off the face of the earth, but we haven't. We've been back and forth between Columbia and the beach a whole bunch. I don't think we have been at one location for longer than 7 days. So lots of traveling.

Our plans have changed slightly. Saudi has been postponed a bit and now Kevin is looking for jobs somewhere in the US till we can get to Saudi. That is still our long term goal. 

Have no clue where we will end up but the time line is still to figure that out before Sept. 15. 

So we've just been beach-in' it up, park-in' it up, and car-ride-in' it up. We are fully entrenched in limbo living. It's not my favorite but it's working. I'll just be glad for September (as we will hopefully - fingers crossed - know by then where we will be living and potentially even be living there). 

Blog posts will be few and far between. Sorry. And there won't be any photos because uploading photos costs too much data on our internet plan. But I'm on Instagram and there are almost daily posts there.

Hope everyone is well and have a fantastical summer! Toodles!

New Address

Hello, everyone.

We are in the midst of moving. Stuff is gone. We are just cleaning up the house.

We roll out of Alabama on Sunday and into Shaw AFB in Sumter, SC on Sunday night. We will be there for a day or two, then we'll keep on rolling on until we get to Myrtle Beach.

Our new address will be 412 38th Avenue S in North Myrtle Beach.

Pictures of all our adventures as soon as we officially move into the beach house and get internet hooked up and our computer assembled.

Please say an extra prayer for us to continue having a peaceful moving experience!

:) Toodles!

Easter cuteness

It's late again, but I wanted to share some Easter photos with you.



This is isn't too bad, considering I had to do a self-timer and grab a runaway Winnie.

See that weird blueish gray cast on my hair? You do? Yeah. That's not due to bad lighting. Those are my grays. I earned one for every day Kevin was gone. Per girl. Per hour. Plus a few bonus ones here and there.

Last year's Easter pictures turned out so cute of the two girls that I tried to recreate the cuteness. It wasn't exactly the same, but I did get some funny expressions from Winnie.







Eden was not feeling any genuine happiness so her smiles all look fake and cheesy, but that's okay. She was a better picture taker than Winnie was.





At least my subjects are fun to look at. :)

One photo...to be followed by more

I just spent 3 hours editing photos from the past month. I have concluded that I take way too many photos. I only end up keeping maybe 15% of the original amount that I took. Then the editing sucks me in...

Anyway, I'm done editing, but I'm too exhausted to do a long blog post with a bunch of photos tonight (plus there is rumbling thunder and severe weather reports running in the background -- night number two of this, no less). So you only get one photo. But it's cute.



Ta da. This was a shot from Easter. They were making some goofy faces.

Off to bed I go. Pray that we are safe tonight from all the crazy weather we've been having. Last night at 1:30 we had to go "thunderstorm camping" (that's what I told Eden and Winnie so they wouldn't be scared) in my closet till 3:00 till the tornado sirens went off. The four of us (Sparty was in there, too) hung out and snuggled on the floor while I texted my neighbors back forth and watched the radar on my phone. Fun stuff, lemme tell ya.

But we're safe. That's what matters.

Anyway, toodles till next time. (P.S. 6 more days till Kevin comes home!!)

Dates

Another update about our future plans.

Kevin will get home from Saudi on May 5 in the afternoon.

The movers will come pack us up on May 6 or 7 (still waiting confirmation).

A few days later we will head out to Myrtle Beach. 

It'll be crazy, but hopefully a fun-ish kind of crazy.

On another note, the girls and I just got back from a week in Destin, Florida. I took a few cute pictures that I'll share. Now I just have to prep for a garage sale this coming Saturday and then a move in 10 days. No stress (ha). 

And another note, I fiiiiinnnnnaaaaallllllly gave in and joined Facebook socially. I deactivated my Montgomery Doula account since that will obviously no longer apply to me. I figure that if we are moving to Saudi Arabia (still haven't heard anything yet), I may as well utilize Facebook as a tool to stay connected to people. So I'm on there as Cameron Lawracy. If you see a photo of camels, that's me.

Okay, off to bed. Driving with children for several hours in the car always exhausts me. 

Toodles!

P.S. To answer your questions, yes, Jen, we can have visitors to Saudi Arabia. It's hard to get a visa there, but not impossible. And Charli, we will DEFINITELY be hooking up with you guys when we are near Shaw. And yes, Jess, Kevin will thankfully be home before we have to leave for Saudi. Moving by myself = me running away screaming. :)

The big question...

...Where are we moving?

And the answer is...

...We still don't know long-term, but short term we do have an answer. It's probably not what you're expecting.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Here's the shortened version why:

Kevin is separating from the Air Force, for several reasons, but mainly because with all the reductions in force and the potential for our retirement to go out the window if the RIF affects him.

He is applying for jobs (doing the same things he did in the Air Force) with an oil company called ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia in the same city he lives in now.

We have renters moving into our house on May 16, so we must vacate before then so we will be staying at my mom's beach house in North Myrtle Beach for...well, that's the thing. We don't know for how long.

The job application process with this company typically takes 4-6 months. We started counting the beginning of March. So, in theory, we will know something around the end of June. Or maybe August. Or maybe before that. Or maybe after. Who knows? We don't.

So we will be living in limbo for this summer, praying our hearts out to God to give us faith and patience to find out what is next in our lives.

There are more details to this story, but those are the main ones. And to answer the questions that most people seem to ask:

-- No, we do not feel unsafe in Saudi Arabia. No, we are not taking our tiny female children to a place where they will be suppressed and grow up in slavery. No, there is no more terrorism over there than there is here in the U.S.

-- No, Kevin does not hate the Air Force. The AF has been very good to us. We are just ready for a little more job security in light of all the RIFs.

-- Yes, I support Kevin in doing this. It was my idea (sort of).

-- Yes, we love Saudi Arabia that much.

-- Yes, we will miss our families and friends.

-- Yes, the pay will be good if he gets the job.

-- Yes, the flight to S.A. is long.

-- Kevin will get paid from the AF till September so we will have definite income  and insurance till then.

-- Yes, we have, like, 3 back-up plans in case this whole S.A. thing doesn't work out. But truthfully, yes, we will be perturbed about leaving the AF if S.A. doesn't work out.

-- No, I'm not scared. I have faith that God will take care of us, as long as we make responsible decisions about our financial security and have patience in this whole process.

-- And finally, yes, yes, YES, I PROMISE to let everyone know what happens as soon as we know something definite. When that will be, who knows....

-- And finally, finally, because for some reason this question seems get asked along with everything else, yes, we are planning on having more children. I don't know how many. No, I'm not pregnant.

And P.S. Yes, this means I will probably succumb to using Facebook more if we do indeed move there. Evil, evil Facebook.

If there's a crucial question you just must know the answer to, by all means ask it. I will be happy to answer it with as much info as I can. Though, probably my answer will involve some form of "I don't know. I hope so."

I have two toddlers and I cannot lie...

...you other mothers can't deny
when a girl walks in with a food-covered face
and yells "Chase me! Chase! Chase!"
you get stung!

Ha. You like my "Big Butts" throwback there, mom-style? That's how I roll. Mega-cornball.

Goofiness aside, I just thought I'd post a little bit about Eden and Winnie.

I no longer think to myself, "I have a baby and a toddler."

I think, "I have two toddlers." I use to think a baby and toddler sounded like a lot of work.

I was wrong. Two toddlers is worse (and better).



Winnie is just such a handful. The child has NO FEAR (except when Eden pretends to be a monster and chases her around the house). She climbs on EVERYTHING. She has already climbed out of her crib all by herself. Joy. She is the messiest child in the world. Boys can't be any worse. She can turn anything into a mess. Five goldfish crackers = I'll be vacuuming for hours.



But she is such a blast. Smiles for everyone. Hugs and cuddles like you wouldn't believe. Loves dolls, eating sand (still), sitting on my lap, reading, being held, giving kisses, squeezing Sparty, snack time, her blankey, and coloring on my calendar.



Eden is growing up. Still a toddler, but edging into girl-hood. She's very choosy about clothes and shoes and hairstyles. She changes her clothes at least 4 times a day (it drives. me. batty.), and far be it from me to tell her what to wear. I stopped trying to fight that battle a long time ago. She eats oatmeal like it's her job (and not much else). She is addicted to TV (shame on me). She says "Why, sure-tainly! I would love to do that for you," when I ask her to do something. She is all girl: loves pink, painted nails, hair bows, twirly skirts and dresses, make-up, and princesses and fairies.



She's not great at sharing. Or going to bed. Or sleeping on her own. Or eating anything green. Or sharing. Or going to bed. (Did I mention her aversion to sharing and going to bed?)

And the tantrums. Oh my goodness. They are epic. And way more frequent than I would like.

But she is a passionate, sensitive, strong-willed little thing. I love her.



They're both my girls. Sometimes I want to throw them in the trash (and I will readily and freely and openly tell them this). But mostly I can't stop squeezing them till they screech in delight and squirm away.

My Visit to Saudi Arabia

So I promised you 500 photos of camels, but I reigned myself in and ruthlessly pared down my 500 photos to 65. Not too bad, I say. I wouldn't want to be responsible for anyone OD-ing on camel-viewing.

Let's jump into this dromedary adventure, shall we?

(Like how I just threw that crazy "dromedary" word right atcha? That's a one-hump camel, for you non-zoologically-inclined individuals.)



Bam! How ya like them apples? That enough camel for ya? No?

Me neither.

So anywho, my trip to Saudi Arabia was awesome. Amazing. Enlightening. Eye-opening. Fascinating. It's my new favorite place. I would go back in a heartbeat. (Maybe I will...more on that later.)

It was unlike any place I've ever been. It's not at all the terrorist-filled sandbox that Fox News led me to believe. Yes, there is sand. And camels. And women in abayas (pronounced uh-BUY-uh). But there are also really cool architecture, beautiful dune-scapes, HUGE malls (these are massive), cuisine from everywhere, a surprising number of ex-patriots from the U.S. and other countries, and yes, camels.

I had a blast.

I started my visit in Bahrain, a little island country to the northeast of Saudi. It's like Saudi without the same laws.



Here is Vanna Kevin, pointing to where we were currently standing.



We toured a mosque and got a personal tour and lesson about being Muslim from a very nice Muslim guy.





Inside a mosque, people must remove their shoes and women must wear an abaya and cover their heads.



It was quite fascinating to learn what Muslims believe and how it relates to Christianity. Very eye-opening.

The Arabian Gulf (also known to Americans as the Persian Gulf) is beautiful. Water that looks like the Caribbean.



We went to the desert and saw all the oil lines piping oil to the refineries.



Then we went to a camel farm, a.k.a. Cameron's favorite part of the trip.





You guys, this place was giant. 600 camels. 50 baby camels. The King of Bahrain owned them all. Crazy.





Then we left Bahrain after my visa was ready and headed across a very long bridge to Saudi Arabia.

We went "camping" (I use that term loosely - basically it was hotel accommodations without actual hotel walls) at a Saudi guy's farm/land/property.







I was accosted by a very friendly camel who decided my hair would make an excellent snack.





We slept inside these HUGE carpet-covered tents. It was cold at night, but very cozy inside.



The next day we took a dune buggy out and tooled around the desert and happened upon some camels.







Then we came upon some more camels.



And some more.



(That's a Bedouin herder in charge of herding the camels.)

Then we went four-wheeling out on the dunes.



It was a bit scarier than I thought it would be. The dunes are deceptively big (and Kevin informed me that the ones we went to weren't even very big compared to other ones he's seen).



The sand plays tricks on your eyes and it's very difficult to gauge how big dips and cliffs are. I learned by accident that having a helmet is a must (thankfully my helmet was on when I learned this lesson).

The rest of my visit comprised of Kevin and me visiting with the friends he has made there and eating out and just driving around and looking at stuff.

Overall it was one of the best vacations I've ever had. I missed our girls terribly, but it was so nice to spend that much time with Kevin. Luckily he'll be home in 2 months and hopefully we will know some time soon where we will be moving to. Maybe it'll be Saudi Arabia...

It's coming...

...500 photos of camels.

Christmas 2013 - but you don't get to see it

Well, I'd like to share with you the extremely cute photos of my girls making ginger bread houses with Kevin, and Winnie shoving frosting in her mouth as fast as she can go, and Kevin and the girls with Santa while the girls are cringing and leaning as far away from him as possible, and them playing in their homemade teepee on Christmas morning and trying on the new hats they received and hanging out with the sister missionaries and enjoying Christmas morning together, and Christmas celebrations with grandparents, including my stepdad trying on a Saudi Arabian head scarf thingy, and our trip to the aquarium in Myrtle Beach.

But I can't.

Stupid flickr won't give me the HTML code to upload the photos to my blog despite my photos being public. ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGH!! (That's my Tyrannasaurus Rex roar of anger and frustration.)

I am officially deeming flickr as being the highest level of suck-age and have thrown my loyalty to Photobucket. Unfortunately flickr has 9.905 of my photos in their hard drives some place in Internet Land. Maybe one day flickr will decide to stop messing up their original program and go back to pre-beta style.

Apparently I'm not the only one to feel this way. There are MANY forums on flickr devoted to the dislike people have of flickr's new format. Doesn't make the world right, but at least I'm not alone.

So, alas, until I can figure out how to retrieve my photos from flickr and upload them to my blog, Christmas will be hidden from all those people whom I know have been waiting with bated breath to see the excitement our family brings to this holiday.

*tear drips down cheek*

OH WELL!

Onward and upward! That just means I will have to take some more photos of our life happenings and upload those to PHOTOBUCKET (*evil glare at flickr*) and share those with you instead.

Toodles!

Skipping Christmas and getting to the snow

Okay, the heck with the rest of the Christmas photos. I'll get to those some time in the future.

Now I want to show you SNOW photos! Oh yes, there was actually snow in Alabama (albeit a light dusting that my Michigan side indignantly protests is not real snow, but I digress...).

After showing Eden the white stuff on the ground, she promptly exclaimed, "We can ride the sled!" And fortunately for her and Winnie, we have one (as evidenced in our previous adventures of grass sledding a.k.a. redneck sledding).

So without further ado, here are our snow adventures.

Eden, in all her pre-snow glory:


Eden quickly assessing the fun potential of snow and realizing, that yes, this may make for a fun time:


Eden helping Winnie discover the glories of snow: (Is there anything better than little mitten hands?)


Winnie: "Can I eat this? Hmmmm..."


Winnie: "I'm already having fun and all we are doing is sitting here!"


Eden making snow dust-slash-ice-grass angels:


Happy Winnie


Cheese!


Winnie: "Yep. Could definitely get used to this." (There are about 20 photos I took showing pure joy on Winnie's face while getting pulled on the sled.)


Eden: "Wow! Look at the ice on the chain thingy!"


Now, look carefully at Winnie's AND Eden's face. Winnie is eating ice/snow and discovering it's cold. Eden is discovering that mittens get stuck to very cold ice. I love how you see the beginnings of mild panic on Eden's face.


Winnie: "Yes, I can definitely eat this stuff."


So can Eden. (I may or may not have suggested/modeled how to lick the snow.)


After our frolicking good time outside, we came in and took a breather (complete with kisses) on the kitchen floor while I made hot cocoa and marshmallows.


We wrapped up our snow festivities with a fairy movie on the couch. (Don't you love how enthralled Winnie is with the movie?)


This mom's conclusion: Best Day Ever.