We are in the tumbler...

This past week was a doozy!  I realized the other day that I have been so busy and tired that my personal hygiene has suffered!  My toenails have been unpainted for most of the week.  Although I could just be satisfied that the old paint is off, but I just haven't had a spare moment to paint them anew.  I should also apologize to my small group because I realized (much after the fact) that when I went on Thursday night I hadn't bathed in two days.  Couple that with the fact that I had mowed the yard and done other manual labor in said two days and I am pretty sure I was not looking or smelling too pretty Thursday evening.  Oh well.  Most of the world's population doesn't bathe daily or even in clean water, so I can survive a 48 hour stent.  Later I realized as I went downtown Saturday night that I didn't know if my clothes matched or not, or if I had brushed my hair.  Good times.  Perhaps this made me look cool in the hipsterish crowd that usually occupies the downtown restuarants on the weekends in Champaign.  That is my hope anyway.  I should have worn a pair of thick-rimmed glasses just to seal the deal.  I'll have to remember that next time.
     This week did have it's fun though.  Wednesday we got to go on a tour of Curtis Orchard with a homeschool group.  The girls got to learn a lot about bees and how apples are sorted, cleaned, and made into cider.  Then we all got a snack!  I love Curtis Orchard's apple donuts!  We all got honey sticks too.  Then the girls played on the playground, fed the goats, and loved on all the kitties that live at the Orchard.  Gwyn and Celee kept saying they wished they had a kitty.  I kept reminding them that we DO have a kitty, but they want one of their own.  OhhhK.  Poor Moxie, she did choose Jason as her favorite so I guess that's what she gets.  Just joking.  I think they just loved that the particular cats at the orchard would just come up and jump in their laps and stay there.  At least I'm always able to put them off with "One day when we have our farm...."   If we follow through with all the times I say this, we are going to have quite the menagerie one day.  It was a lovely day to be there.  Lyla got to sit with some of "her people" for the snack and play later so she was happy.  As long as I sat/stood in the sun I wasn't cold and there wasn't a lot of wind.  It was a great day to go there, be with friends, and enjoy being outside. 

Friday and Saturday we had our garage sale.  We got rid of everything big that we were going to sell except a TV.  I got rid of a lot of little stuff too.  Then Sat. we got to take all the remains to Goodwill and wahlah!  a considerable load of things is gone!  Now I can tackle the packing and staging in earnest.  It's weird to not have a couch and I'm still not looking forward to packing up the homeschool desks that we just got the way we liked it, but que sera sera.  Each of the girls has a crate to keep their stuff in and the plan is to pick the crates up and leave if someone comes to look at the house.  That's the plan anyway.  I'm hoping it works out that easily.  :)

Sunday was a special day for us all.  Gwyn and Celee each made the decision that they wanted to be baptized and they wanted to do it together.  We had talked with our children's minister about it and the girls had decided they didn't want to do it in front of the whole church and they wanted me to do it.  Now, I grew up Southern Baptist so this was a little weird for me.  But tradition aside, biblically the first churches didn't have certain people who could or could not baptize.  That was a responsiblitly of all believers.  And they did it in small groups home churches.  So that's not weird either.  So I decided since there was no scriptural reason to deny it and the church was cool with it (apparently this happens often there and isn't a big deal at all but a viable option) we had the baptism after church on Sunday with just our small group and a few other people who knew and care about Gwyn and Celee.  It was a sweet moment.  What a privalege to welcome my own daughters into the body of Christ.  It's neat to think that now they are my daughter/sisters.  My friend Robin told me I probably shouldn't say that when we get to Maryland, and I thought wouldn't that be funny!  "Hi!  I'm from Mississippi and these are my daughter-sisters."  What a great stereotype that would play on.  Anyway, Jason and I are so proud of Gwyn and Celee.  They really took this upon themselves and took it very seriously.  I just love to see the buds of strong Christian women growing in them!  Praise Him! 












The whirlwind bathroom remodel is mostly done.  The big stuff is done anyway.  I feel like we did the Mobile workers' slogan proud, "No one gets hurt!"  Thank goodness.  We (more like Jason) took out some walls, moved some wiring and plumbing, sheetrocked, and we didn't get hurt!  Now the work is pretty much cosmetic.  Let's hope that goes better than the previous tasks.
So we've been in the tumbler this past week.  I feel like we are just being rolled around and beat from every direction.  It's not all bad stuff, but it just keeps coming!  I told Justin, our children's minister, on Sunday we are going to come out shiny though!  God doesn't promise us an easy or comfortable time.  Thankfully He does give us that sometimes!  Just for now, in this season, that's not the reality.  And I'm ok with that.  I think I can do just about anything if I know there will be an end, when I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.  And there will be an end.  And He will give us the strength to perservere because He is so faithful!  And He has given us such a wonderful community of friends here who make it all so bittersweet!  I am so thankful for the countless times a day when I am encouraged and strengthened by others who may not even know what their words or actions meant for me in that moment.  The Lord is good and He sends what you need when you need it.

The ball is rolling

This past week was a rush of the beginnings of what could be called packing, quick-as-possible bathroom remodeling, and whirlwind trip to Maryland.  I am a little zone-blazed this morning after the 13 hour car ride yesterday and my beloved Tinkerbell waking me up at 4am (30 minutes early!) with an upset doggie stomach.  However I think I can attempt to sum up the week. 
It's sinking in that we are actually moving.  We began the fun task of sorting things to sell and things to pack to keep.  My wonderful friend Jen Davidson let me bring over a bunch of toys to sell in her garage sale over the weekend even though I wasn't here to help with it.  Jason tore up the master bath in our room.  This does add to the sense of chaos in the house for a bit, but we and the real estate agent feel like it will increase the chances that our house will sell if we just go ahead and re-do it.  So in addition to the trying-to-get-started-packing-up-things state of the house, there is the out of commission bathroom and the displacement of everything that usually goes in there.  Boy!  If we couldn't see the light at the end of that tunnel I would be freaking out.  Much like I was freaking out at sporadic times last week. 
Friday we all took off into the great unknown and drove to Maryland.  Again I have a wonderful friend, Roxanne, who helped us find a very nice hotel for a decent price when I couldn't find one where I wanted for a decent price on my own.  We also have some wonderful friends, Will and Robin, who took care of our pets at the last minute when previous plans fell though.  It's so much better knowing that your animals are being taken care of by such sweet people!  That taken care of, we were off and we all saw Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland for the 1st time.  We broke some of the car-tiredness by getting some geocaches in new states.  I think Gwyn is enjoying trying to get a "sticker" for each state.  And we aren't doing so bad.  We have 9 so far and we just started in July.  Anyway, once we got to the east side of Ohio the drive was very nice.  There are things to look at and the topography gets interesting.
 Apparently in Maryland you should watch out for deer and bears.  We did see deer, but no bears this time.

We also drove through "dangerous mountains."  I am glad I did not have to drive a big truck or trailer through these. 


Anyway, we did find an apartment to rent.  It is bigger than we thought we would get, but the same price as the small ones.  It's in a nice neighborhood too.  I am exited about it!  I think it's going to be a big change, but it will be good.  Maryland and southern Penn. look like there will be a lot of cool things to do and see.  We got to drive around a few little towns in southern Penn. looking at rental houses.  I do have to say that one of the houses we saw at first glance had "character."  This is usually a positive for me, but after seeing the creepy unfinished dark basement and even creepier attic above the bedroom I was done.  Jason and I both just kept having flashbacks of horror movies where there are teeth-eating monsters in the basement or ghost children sitting in creaky rocking chairs in the attic.  And we'd be moving in right before Halloween!  No thank you!  The house is really cool considering it's 200 years old and in nice little town, but horror movies ruined that one for me.  So we didn't like the houses for rent, but the towns and countryside were awesome!  It's definately somewhere I can imagine the Montgomery Hobby Farm someday.

We drove down into Baltimore on Sunday.  We found some very interesting neighborhoods in our search for waterside seafood.  We did learn that Baltimore (actually we were in Essex) has rabid Ravens fans.  I guess we will have to break down and buy some purple and root for a hometeam to fit in.  :)     Finally we drove into Baltimore proper and found a pretty neat seafood restaurant on the bay.  We ate our crab and it was good and the Ravens fans in this particular establishment were excited but not too crazy to feel comfortable bringing kids in. 

On the way out of Baltimore we even found a geocache and got acquainted with Baltimore's non-official mascot, Natty Boh.  His face sits on top of the old National Brewery building and we got to see that as well in our traveling. 






All in all it was a little like a mini-vacation, albeit a tiring one.  The girls got to swim at the hotel.  We got to eat out.  We got to see new places and things.  I got to sleep late one morning.  We even went to a neat church on Sunday.  It was a good trip.  I feel a lot better having a mental picture of where we're going too.  I hope this helps the girls in the next month as well as they will know where Jason is and where we will be living. 


So now it's down to the work of moving.  We have a garage sale planned for the upcoming weekend where I hope to get rid of a good bit of furniture, toys and other stuff.  We have to box up just about everything except necessities to "stage" the house.  We also want to just soak up Champaign for the next 5 weeks - all that the Midwest has to offer in the Fall.  I have always said Fall is the best time to be here.  I plan on enjoying it and all our wonderful friends here as much as possible in the time that we have left. 

Big Changes A'Comin'

This past week has been pretty mundane..... on the outside at least. We did our small group.  We did work.  We played.  We got our pictures taken by a professional which didn't go as smoothly as the "dress rehearsal" but was ok. We did school. I guess Lyla is liking that I take pictures of their work from time to time because when I looked at my pics on my phone I found about 15 pictures of her magnet words that were all off-center and fuzzy.  This is the one good one.
We also got to eat Oreos because we scraped off the cream carefully to make an edible moon phases chart. 



Then Gwyn was able to have a birthday playdate on Saturday.  I purposefully called it a playdate instead of a party because originally we had said that her trip to California was her present and we weren't having a party or anything else that required additional funds on top of the trip.  Then she was a little sad that she's not at school with her Bottenfield friends and wouldn't get to celebrate with them at all.  So I compromised.  "Ok - you can have a playdate for 5-6 friends.  I will not be organizing any activities, crafts, or anything like that.  And no goodie bags.  I will make cupcakes, but that's it."  So that's what we did and I must say it was the easiest birthday "party" we've ever had.  She invited a few friends from Bottenfield and two homeschool friends and they just played and giggled and had a good time.  It was nice to not be stressed out and worried about it too.  Jason and I were busy cleaning out the garage for most of the time people were here.  Every now and then I'd come in and take pictures or get them something, but really all they did was play. 

Mundane aside, Jason and I were crazy anxious pretty much all week.  Jason recently was approached and went to interview for a game studio in Maryland called Firaxis.  We were told he was most probably going to get offered a job there, but we didn't want to count our chicks before they hatched and were trying not to make "plans" until we had it in writing.  So we had to wait for that, and wait, and wait.  We were worrying and fretting while trying not to think too hard about it all.  Then Wed. he got it in writing and accepted.  So we are heading off to Maryland in the near future.  Jason has to be there to start work Oct. 1st, but the girls and I are less certain when we'll be going.  Now we have a house to sell.  Not to mention going out there to find an apartment to live in.  I also have a lot of loose ends to tie up.  We just started doing a marriage curriculum with our small group.  I think this is actually another time that God just had wonderful timing.  What better time for Jason and I to be focused on our marriage than a time when we can anticipate it will be stressful and have periods of time apart.  So I hope I get to finish that material with the group.  Then we were in the process of planning out our girl scout year.  What will happen with that I do not know.  I just keep telling myself that if things are important to people that they will step up.  And if they're not important enough, then let it go.  Another cool God-timing thing is the homeschooling.  Even though the homeschooling laws in Maryland (and Pennsylvania) require more oversight than here, I still think this is best for the girls.  We didn't know we were going to move, but now I don't have to take the girls out of a school here, into and out of a school wherever we rent, and then into wherever we buy (Lord willing and the creek don't rise).  So we can re-adjust and find a community that we feel like we can be a apart of and then worry about a school down the road.  So big changes are a'comin' for us.  It is an exciting time, but a bitter sweet one too.  We'll be even farther away from all our family than we are here.  We've made some really good friends here that we all will hate to be far away from.  We love our house and our yard.(If you're looking for a house right now you might love it too!)   We're in a groove.  We're comfortable here.  But life isn't promised to be comfortable.  And how can we really grow and pursue God's will if we settle for comfortable?  I'm certainly not advocating discomfort for discomfort's sake.  I'm just looking forward to what God is going to do with us in Maryland.  We are certainly going to be purging and downsizing to live in a 2 bedroom apt. for a while.  But after reading David Platt's Radical, we finally get to do something radical!  We get to let God show us what is important instead of the fog of "stuff" that we accumulate and the busy-ness that clouds our judgement at times.  So if you pray - Pray for us please.  That God would use this to sharpen us and use us in Maryland and in the meantime her as we get ready to go.  That our girls would be safe and protected.  That Jason and I would meet each other's needs and build each other up.  That we would trust God, who is so faithful.  And that we would be faithful and not let fear cause us strife.  Moving is hard, even when it's exciting.  We've done it before, but we've been in C-U for longer than anywhere else as a family and roots do form.  And a peripheral question - Which state do we vote in?  :)

In the Forests of Endor...

This past week was dominated by the Birthday trip that Gwyn and I took over the long weekend.  However, I will say that the prior week went pretty well.  We survived the first Girl Scout meeting of the school year.  Our group was a little small, only 17 instead of 27.   Maybe the numbers made it a little easier, but I think the meeting went well.  And since Lyla is official now, we had Daisies through Cadettes represented at our meeting even though the troop is officially a Junior troop.

 School went well too.  We got finished "on time" more often than not.  Lyla was a little more cooperative.  We're working on finding ways to turn Celee's dread of math into something she can be proud of.  I really hate that she's has this stigma that she's "not good at math."  Math is way too diverse and there are way too many different ways to do things for her to think that already.  Oh,well - we're taking small steps toward her math wizardry.  I also think that Gwyn has figured out that she can work ahead on certain things and be done with it for the week.  Like her writing assignments for co-op.  That's cool though because then she has time the rest of the week to do creative writing or journaling. 

I realized that I do not have a picture of Celee working this week.  What I do have is a picture Lyla took of me while we were waiting on Gwyn at her violin lesson and I was doing some couponing.  I hope it doesn't always look that hard.

Anyway, so Gwyn and I flew out Friday to see the Redwood Forest.  Gwyn's 10th birthday was on Labor Day this year and her present from us was to go wherever in the 48 she wanted to with just me.  She chose the Redwood Forest, which was cool with me because I'd never seen it either.  So all was great until we got to San Francisco and our connecting flight to Redding was cancelled due to weather, which I guess meant fog.  There were no other flights there or any other little airport near where we were going.  So I had to cancel our car reservation in Redding and get one in San Francisco and drive.  That of course cost more than the original reservation, so I was a little miffed.  Add to that a 367 mi. drive to Klamath instead of the 200 mile one from Redding and I was a little worried.  Thankfully the Lord kept me awake and alert enough to get us to our cabin at 12:30am Sat. morning.  An 8 hour car ride!  It shouldn't have taken 8 hours, but traffic for the 90 or so miles north of SanFran was terrible and then the last 150 mi or so alternates between 4 lane highway with 65 speedlimits and 2 lanes with 35mph curves.  I say alternates, because it was 2-3 miles of one then 2-3 miles of the other the whole way.  Needless to say on unfamiliar roads in an unfamiliar car in the middle of the night after all day travelling, I took it slow.  Never mind that I still didn't know how to sort out the return flight from Redding to San Fran when I had a car that had to be returned to San Fran.  My phone didn't work where we were going so that couldn't be worried with anyway.  Gwyn did get to see the Golden Gate Bridge though! 
So after a good night's sleep and using the restaurant phone to let Jason know we were alive, we headed out to see what was to be seen.  We did discover that behind our cabin were montrous blackberry bushes covered with ripe berries.  It was also covered with banana slugs.  I guess these are a sort of pest in Northern California because everywhere we went there were banana slug novelties like little magnets that said "Banana Slug crossing" or yellow glass paper weights in the shape of slugs.  Fresh, free berries was a good way to start the day. There were also these amazing blue hydrangeas all around.  So pretty!
 Our first stop was the Redwood Forest Information Center which happen to be on the beach.  Gwyn was loving that there was so much driftwood everywhere and people had made little houses here and there on the beach.  We also happened to see a sea lion really close to the shore catching fish!

Then we were off to "hike" a trail in one of the groves of the Redwood Forest.  I must say the park ranger sent us to the perfect one!  We kept alternating between expecting Ewoks to jump out from behind bushes to musing that if there was anywhere in America where fairies lived, it would be there.  The tree of course were colossal!  The Prairie Creek section of the park was particularly awesome.  It was like being in another world.  And we didn't meet any other people on the trail until we crossed a scenic road and onto a more travelled part of the trail.  So for quite a while we were alone with the trees and birds.  I intentionally took pictures with Gwyn in each one because I was scared that a picture of the trees alone would underwhelm unless there was a person in it to gauge the size by.  It was just amazing.  And to think that some of these trees have been there for over 1000 years!  We did see one that had a plaque that said it was over 1500 years old.  It boggles my mind. We also saw lots of other neat wildlife, apparently there are lots of mushrooms here too.  In the ranger station store there was even a book about the joys of shrooms. 

We went and took a much needed rest after our hike.  After a nap we were off again.  Gwyn wanted to see if we could ride in a boat, so we headed off to the Klamath River where there is a Jet Boat tour.  So much fun!  The captain was super nice and funny.  He gave us so much info too!  He apparently helps the local biologist count and study the osprey and eagle nests among other things.  We saw sea lions, salmon, Bald Eagles, ospreys, wild cows, and beaver houses.  The captain also thought it was fun to swing the boat around 360 or slam on the "brakes" - most everyone in the boat thought this was super fun too!  We also learned that in 1964 a huge flood wiped out the original town of Klamath which was apparently somewhat properous, and the town couldn't rebuild beneath the high water mark.  This is where the wild cows come in.  A ranch was washed away in the flood, as was the road to access it but the cows just went up the mountain until the flood receded and then came back down and have lived free around a sand bar on the river ever since.  There is a town of Klamath but it's not in the original spot and it is much reduced in size now.  Anyway - the new bridge over the Klamath River is called the Golden Bear Bridge and was built just above the 1964 flood water line. 


Seal Lions in the Klamath River

We drove into Crescent City that evening to eat, mess around, and sit at McDonald's so I could use the WIFI and make calls.  There is a weird little aquarium/store there called Ocean World that we played around in for a bit.  The highlight was a creepy robotic pirate in the store that would turn and look at you when you sat on the bench with it. 



















The next day we decided to take one of the coastal trails.  We detoured the trail for the beach however and ended up walking/climbing approx. 2 1/2 mi. down the beach to a "hidden" beach which isn't very hidden because it's marked on trail maps and there are signs off the trail to it.  We got to it from the beach though and got to see a lot of really cool stuff!  We saw lots of star fish and little sea anenome.  We climbed huge boulders and saw the tide coming in.  We ate lunch in a driftwood house someone else had erected in between some boulders.  We even saw the carcass of a dead sea lion, which was yucky and really neat all at the same time.  The whole time and when we got to the beach, we were the only ones there.  We played in the black sand and built a driftwood house of our own.  Finally just as we were about to leave some other people did come down a path from the trail.  Which was good because then we saw how to get up the hill to the trail without trying to pick our own path, which had not worked out so well earlier in the day.  After all that walking and climbing we were pooped.  My ankles were actually tired from walking so far in all the rocks and boulders.  What an amazing day though. 

So that evening I finally had some salmon.  Oh how I wish I could have brought some home!  Fresh salmon caught right off the river - Yum!  Then we watched TV until it was time to go.  The only way we could figure out the plane/car situation was to drive back to San Fran that night and get to the airport prior to the 6am departure in Redding so that we wouldn't be marked as no-shows in Redding and have the San Fran flight cancelled.  The agents had advised me not to try to do anthing until Monday morning to ensure that the flight we actually needed would not be cancelled.  I don't really know why they couldn't cancel one without the other, but that's what they said.  So rather than sleep 2 hr. and get up to drive, we opted to leave at 9:30pm and drive so I would have an easier time staying awake.  It only took us 6 hours this time, and the scary parts of the road were in the beginning so it was much easier.  We even geo-cached along the way to get our California sticker.  So we ended up at the airport way earlier than our flight so we "slept" a little at the gate.  We had our boarding passes for the flight to Chicago and I had filled out a form to try to get a refund for the Redding flight so all was good.  Then our boarding passes didn't work and I had a silent panic moment.  Thankfully the agent at the gate didn't really question a whole lot, and even though the plane was full they moved us to different seats and we did get to fly home.  We even got to Chicago 30 min. early - how often does that happen?!  Jason and the girls were there to meet us and then we drove the 3 hours home.  All in all I slept around 3 on and off hours the whole time.  So I was pretty useless when we got home, and probably will be today too.  But life goes on and the yard must be mowed so we press on.  I am once again reminded of one of my favorite and encouraging verses, "but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  Isaiah 40:31
So Happy 10th Birthday Gwyn!  I hope you had as much fun as I did!  I'm so glad we got to go on this adventure together!