I went to AWANA training all day today. I had to meet the other ladies at church this morning at 6:30 and I am really not used to being up at that time. The sun was just coming up when I left my house. It was really beautiful. Now, it is almost 8 and I am pretty much beat. Before I hit the sack I wanted to share something that I heard today.

The first is a story from one of the instructors. He is a college professor and teaches Christian Ethics so he gave a lecture today on teaching ethics to children. He is also a geologist and likes to explore caves with some of the college students. He said that one thing the students always like to do when they get into the cave is turn off the light to see what happens. What happens is very obvious- it gets very, very dark. There is absolutely no light.

One time, after they turned off the light he was waving his hand in front of his face and he could just barely see it. There was no light anywhere in the cave so he knew someone must have some light somewhere. They all searched through their bags and one student found a flashlight inside his bag that had a glow-in-the-dark sticker on it. That cave was so dark that the sticker gave off enough light inside the bag that they eventually could even make their way around the cave.

The darker the world gets and the more hopeless it seems, the less light it takes to make a difference. One little dim light can light up everything around you and make a huge difference. So, shine your light as bright as you can when the world seems dark. Even if you are only able to give off a little light, it will show the way to someone lost in the darkness.

In the front yard at our house lives a family of ponies. My daughter talks to them in the mornings while she is waiting for the school bus. They eat the little red berries that grow on the bushes. The smallest pony (Becky) likes Lillian to pick her up and she whispers in Lillians ear that she loves her and is hungry so Lillian shows her where the lowest bunch of berries are. There is also a baby pony named Jessica. The moms name is Miss Tina and is a unicorn. She is shy and likes to stay behind the tree. Every morning Lillian takes the time to pet them and speak very kindly to them and hold the smallest like a baby as long as she wants. They are very good and very quiet ponies and never make any messes. They aren't our pets (I don't think) but they are my favorite animals that we have.

We went to feed the ducks today. We had a nice time playing at the park and walking out to the duck pond. Isaac ate the bread instead of throwing it to the ducks. Lillian fell right on those sharp rocks and will probably have a bruised bum in the morning. Chris sat back and took care of Miley (the dog). We had a nice time and the best part was not thinking about the house we didn't get. The worse part (for me, anyway) was getting ate up by the bugs. Oh, and the walk all the way back to the car. That part is never fun, for some reason.

Oh, Alpha, where are you AlphaDogma. Gwen Stefani went and named her child Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale. I need you to mock it. To call him Nestli Quick or something. Sigh, I miss you.



We are finally putting an offer in on a house tomorrow morning. This house hunting stuff is hard work. Especially on a deadline. We need to be out of our house on post by September 30 so we really needed to find a house this week. We probably looked at close to 30 just this week. It was grueling, especially since we have had both kids with us each time. Our realtor is great and so patient and we finally found a house.


Not without drama, of course. We found a house that is PERFECT for us. We knew we would like it, but between the hardwood floors, sun room, covered deck and beautiful big yard, we were in love. The only drawback? The owners won't move out until December 1. So, it just won't work. And as much as I tried to convince my husband to live in an apartment for 2 months and I can go live at home until we can move in, he just didn't think that was a good idea. So, I guess that is what I keep him around for- making good judgement calls.


Then it was just down to two houses that we loved. One smaller, 3 bedrooms but in a great location. One 4 bedrooms with a great layout but in a less than convenient part of town. We went with the smaller of the two because the neighborhood just felt more like home. So, tomorrow we are putting in an offer and I hope to be settled in fairly quickly.


I want to just leave you with some pictures of what I have been knitting lately.

A sweet baby hat (I will be making one of these for Isaac as well) and a pair of socks for myself. If you love to knit and haven't tried socks on two circular needles, you should. It is a way that makes them very quick. And I am loving this self-striping yarn.

It has been too long since my last post. My mind has just been too preoccupied by a few things and I couldn't bring myself to write about either of them. The first is obviously the house search. It is not going as well as we had hoped. About the only option in our price range is way to small or falling apart. Or both. We are waiting right now to find out if the once house we found that could work is going to be ours. The buyers rejected our first offer. They really aren't willing to negotiate at all so I think we may have to move on. Fun times. But, I haven't wanted to make this a "I'm looking for a house" blog, so I haven't written.

The other thing that I have had on my mind is a very dear friend of mine. She had a baby on August 8 and the next day started running a high fever and having migraine's. They finally discovered she has encephalitis. The swelling in her brain has caused her to have memory loss and be very confused. She didn't know she was in the hospital or who her husband was. They finally removed a rather large piece of her skull to relieve the swelling. She is, as of the last report, doing better. She was finally taken off her ventilator and is responding to them when they talk to her and ask her questions. It seems like things are looking up, finally. They think she will make a full recovery and not have any long term complications. She likely won't remember anything during this time and that may include having her baby. She has already missed the first three weeks of his life and I know she will be disappointed about that. The important thing is, she will be there for the rest of it.

I have not want to write about this while it was so fresh and while I was so worried. My friend just delivered her fourth baby boy. Her oldest just turned five. If you could find a moment, her family sure could use prayer for healing and comfort.

To Do List for the Week of Aug 17

- Go grocery shopping
- Catch up on laundry
- Buy a house
- Make dentist appointment
- Work on socks and afghan

The wait is almost over. My husband's medical retirement is almost complete. I will not really go into it because you just have to understand the military and that is impossible even for those in the military. Just know this: the Army's unofficial motto is hurry up and wait. That is not a fun place to be. To make a long story short, we were told in January that it would take 2 or 3 months. He is now, in the middle of August being told it is going to be about 3 weeks.

Anyway, on with the good news. My husband landed a nice job here, at the post where we currently live. This is great news for us. I miss my family a lot and would really like to move closer to them again, but we really love it here. It feels like home to us. I really never thought that I would choose to stay here but it really feels like where we should be. We won't have to find a new church and new mommy groups and a new hairstylist. Okay, maybe just I won't have to do those things. Also, we know what areas are good to live in here and so that does alleviate some stress when it comes to buying a house.

That is stressful enough. This will be our first house. I am really excited to get on with finding one that is perfect for us. Well, I guess we really can't afford perfect, but at least right for us. We have a few that we really like already so hopefully it won't take too long. Because, of course, we have to do this the most stressful way possible. We have just over a month to get out of this house so we really need to have something else lined up.

Also, just because I am really excited about it and also because I don't really know how else to end this post, I am going to change the subject. I am starting my sock knitting class tomorrow night. We are going to learn to make socks on two circular needles. I am almost finished with my afghan so I am going to need something to distract me from all this stress.