Hiccups & Home

Last night while I was feeding Laney before putting her down, I got a major case of hiccups. I mean, the kind where your whole body jumps every 5 seconds. It was really frusterating to Laney b/c she could never get a good rhythm going with her eating. Everytime she'd suck, I'd hiccup and bounce her off me. So I tried really hard to just relax and take deep breaths so they would slow down. Finally she got a rhythm and finished eating. When I held her up to burp her, she starting hiccuping too!!! And now that her tummy was full, she thought the sounds of my hiccups were hilarious. She busted out in laughter when I hiccuped and I laughed at her every time she hiccuped. I don't know how on earth we both got them at the same time, but it was one of those little blessings from God that just makes you smile.

I made a list back in January (when we were still in the "dreaming" stage of thinking about moving) of all the features we would like our new house to have some day. I pulled it out last week to look at it again, and I was absolutely amazed & humbled that God answered our unspoken prayers by giving us EVERY thing on that list! Our list was pretty specific too. Things like: long flat driveway to play basketball, seat in master shower so i can shave my legs easier, two sinks in the girls' bathroom, secondary bedrooms close to master bedroom, spacious living room for having company, big backyard with covered patio, divided staircase so if the kids fall it won't be too bad, one big garage door instead of two little ones, easy access for dogs to go to bed in the laundry room, and the list goes on. I mean crazy specific stuff. And this house has everything on our list. And several bonus things we never knew to ask for, but that we are so glad to have. It is so awesome that we serve a God that cares about the little details that matter to us and is so generous with us.

This is not the order I was planning to post the pictures in, but for some reason I can't cut & paste them (can anyone tell me why blogger won't allow that anymore? or is it a setting I have messed up?), so this will have to do.

The living room, with our clean, folded laundry on display The girls new bunk beds! I can't wait to get their room decorated with some PINK stuff!

Tatum did not want to eat her taco soup tonight. No banana pudding for dessert. Poor thing.

Our kitchen "before." I hope very soon to post "after" pictures when we bless it with new countertops & backsplash. I guess 2 inch tiles were cool in 1989.

The view from my kitchen... the GAMEROOM and the backyard!

Laney is a sitter now!

No basketball goal yet... Christmas present maybe?

The yard still takes my breath away. It is the main reason we chose this house.

Brian finished summer school today and starts volleyball tomorrow. I wish for his sake he had a break, but I am so thankful he is willing to work hard & that he enjoys what he does.

Some friends have asked me recently how I am feeling about going back to work in a few weeks. Honestly, I am at peace about it. I am not looking forward to it, but it's not the end of the world. Life will go on and God will carry me through another school year. The girls will enjoy their time with their Gigi or Nana taking care of them while I work each morning and I will try to keep the perspective that I am my husband's helper and it is a privelege to help him in this way. Please pray for me that the Lord will help me be more bold & outgoing in my faith this year at school. I feel like God has kept me at that school all these years for a reason and I don't think I've fulfilled it yet. I hope this will be the year I fulfill my purpose there, whatever that may be.

I'M BACK!!!

I am so excited to get to blog again!! We have tried for three weeks to get internet in our new house, which has been so frusterating. Then this morning a technician came and spent about 10 minutes messing with the wires and now it works! I can't wait to read up on everyone else and see what all I've missed over the past month.

We are settled in to our new house and we feel very "at home" here now. I keep thinking someone is going to come in and tell me I'm dreaming and it's time to get out, but it's ours and we are so thankful the Lord has provided this house for us.
Over the past month we have mostly been busy working on the house. It's a 20 year old house that has been very well taken care of, but it is in need of a lot of updating and fixing. I think we will always have projects to work on, but it's kinda fun fixing it up and making it look even better.

Brian's Grandma K went to be with the Lord last week. Since they live in New York, she kept up with our family by reading my blog. She never got to meet our girls since by the time Avery was born, it was getting too hard for she & Grandpa K to make the trip down here, and we never got to make the trip up to New York. But she sewed each of our girls a blanket when they were born (even Laney!) and always sent them the sweetest Christmas packages. She always sent us cards for every special occasion. The last card we received from her was our anniversary card on June 2. She assured us in the card that the good Lord would take care of her and that has brought us so much comfort now that she is gone to be with Him. Brian flew to NY last weekend for her service and had a great time with his dad's family that he rarely gets to see.
Grandma & Grandpa K were in Houston visiting Brian's parents when I went to meet Brian's family for the very first time back in September 2000. I remember thinking what sweet & funny grandparents they are and how I would love to be a part of his crazy & fun family. Thank you Lord!
We also went on vacation with Brian's family to Lake Travis the week after we moved into our house. I will post some pictures of our house next.

My mom with the girls in front of our new house

Tatum, Laney, Avery & Cousin Tara at the lakehouse


We found Nemo!

Laney laughing at Nemo

Brave Avery jumping at the mall

Sweet Laney - 6 months old

Smiley Tatum

What a beautiful day!

The three monkeys!

Aunt Jenn & Avery in the lake

Gig Em, Uncle Brent (he put that hat on my child)!

Tatum & Grandad under the pontoon boat

Avery doing her backstroke!

Laney & Tara holding hands on their first boat ride!

Our new house!

Summer Fun!

I feel like I have been so out of touch lately. I have been having blogging withdrawals, and today I am going to TRY to catch up the life of this homeless family of 5.

Here's what we've been up to lately.

~ Laney turned 5 months old! She is rolling over, giggling at her sisters & their friends, sleeping through the night (I love not seeing the hour of 4:00 AM anymore!) and weighing around 16 pounds (it's all in her cheeks)! Her favorite pasttimes are staring at her momma, eating, kicking her feet as hard & as high as possible, eating, sucking the life out of her paci and did I mention eating?? She is pure sugar and we are all amazed at her sweet little life.

~ Tatum is potty training!!! She wears her Cinderella pull-ups proudly and never fails to put tee-tee in the potty when we sit her on it. However, she is still making Cinderella be dressed in yellow several times a day, so I don't think we're quite ready to try big girl panties yet.

~ Avery is in love with swimming and all things water. She will be starting her first round of swimming lessons in a couple weeks and I think she will pick it up quickly. We are in the pool several times a week so she is comfortable in the water, she just needs to learn how to swim. She & I are starting Hooked on Phonics together and I'm excited about the fun we will have doing it.

~ We celebrated our 8th anniversary! Hopefully next year we can actually go somewhere by ourselves, but this year since we're saving every dime for our down payment and Laney is pretty attached to me, we just spent some time in SA shopping and hanging out with my family.

~ We sold our Chamberlain house to a sweet young couple with a 9-month old baby girl. I am excited for them and happy that another little girl will get to have some fun times in that house & yard. We are supposed to get to move into our new house one week from today, but every one I've talked to says that since the market has picked up, most closings are pushed back a few days, so we are just hoping we can move in by the end of next week. CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!

~ We just got back from visiting our dear friends, the Kindle's, in Grand Saline! Jennifer is an awesome cook and we had so much fun watching all 7 of our kids play, eating great meals, and putting the kids to bed early so we could watch some good movies. I have not gotten to watch any movies since Laney was born so I really enjoyed that. They moved into their new home about a year ago and have updated it & decorated it so beautifully it could be in a magazine! Brian & I got alot of good ideas from them that we hope to copy and do in our new home. Thanks again for the great weekend, Jennifer! I haven't been able to find my camera, so I might steal some of your pictures if you post some from our weekend.

~ Brian started summer school today. He teaches an entire semester in 12 days. Then gets two weeks off, then teaches the 2nd semester in another 12 days. That's it!

~ We re-joined the Y last week. I love their splash pad. That alone is worth it. And we both hope to start working out again. We'll see about that one.

~ Okay, I'm about to delete all those sweet things I wrote about Laney at the beginning of this post! She is so tired right now, but is refusing to let herself fall asleep!!! All her fussing is waking up her big sisters, so my blogging time is officially over.

Hopefully I can post some pictures soon!

Our Crazy Life

Well, we are almost homeless. We moved all our stuff into storage on Saturday and we moved in with Brian's parents on Sunday. Our house will have a new family in it in just a few days and we are very excited for them. We have had quite a rollercoaster ride looking for our new home and it isn't over yet. We put an offer on a house last week and found out that we were a few hours too late... they had just accepted another offer that afternoon. We were very disapointed, but I know God can see the big picture, and for some reason, that house wasn't His will for us. We are going out looking again today, and we are praying today will be the day we find our dream home!

The girls are being such good sports about it. I know it must be hard for their little minds to grasp that someone else is moving into our house. We went over to our house last night to take apart the playset in the backyard. I must admit my eyes filled up with tears seeing our backyard empty. The girls ran around in the empty backyard for about an hour playing chase and hide and seek and running circles around it. I think that memory will stick with me for a long time. There's such a mixture of emotions that goes into this moving process. It is especially difficult right now b/c we don't have the hope of a great new house that we can picture. Right now, we are giving up our sweet little house with no hope in sight. I know the Lord will provide another house for us, but since we have no idea where or what it's going to be, it's hard to be excited about it.

Okay, enough about the house. My little Tatum has been such a big girl the past couple nights. We didn't really have room for her crib anywhere at Brian's parents' house, so I decided it was time to try letting her sleep in the big bed with a bed rail. So we put her in the queen bed with Avery and she has done great! It is so cute to go in and check on them at night and see them cuddling up right next to each other in that big bed! They are a sweet little pair.

School is pretty much over. We are watching "Forrest Gump" this week, the perfect history movie. Final exams start Friday and go through next Wednesday, then summer is here! I have learned alot this school year. In my 5 years of teaching, this has been the hardest year I've ever taught. I think it was partly my own fault b/c of my attitude, partly b/c of my maternity leave and leaving my students with an inexperienced sub, and partly that some of my students were extra disrespectful and depraved. I've learned in teaching that some years are good and some are bad regardless of how you think you've improved as a teacher. You can be the most experienced teacher with all the best classroom management techniques, and if you get a rough group of kids, it's going to be a tough year. If you get a good group, it's going to be a good year. I pray next year will be an easier year than this one.

I am so thankful for the blessings in my life. My sweet husband and precious girls bring me so much joy every day. My in-laws have been so hospitable taking us in and helping us out with so many things. My parents have supported us and helped us out in every possible way they can. We have great friends and a great church that feed us and encourage us. We are truly blessed!

Two Years Ago Today....

My sweet Tatum Mary was born!


She came out screaming and she hasn't stopped since. Tatum means "cheerful bringer of joy" and that has proved to be the most true of any of my kids' name meanings. She brings our whole family so much joy everyday. She is learning to do so many things by herself now, I'm so proud of her, but kinda sad that she is growing to be more independent of me. She is our middle child, and I pray to the Lord that Tatum will always know how very special & important she is. She gives the tightest, best hugs ever. She has the cutest dimpled smile in the world. Her laugh is the heartiest, most boisterous laugh I've ever heard and I cannot help but smile every time I look at her. God blessed this child with a GREAT set of lungs, and she uses them to their full potential. She imitates almost everything Avery does, and Avery usually loves it. She loves Thomas the Train and Mickey & Minnie Mouse. She loves her froggie blankie. She looks undeniably like her momma at that age (although cuter), and I couldn't be happier to have her be a "Mini-me." Thank you Lord for these two wonderful years with my precious Tatum!

We were so excited this week to meet our precious little niece, Tara Beth, born on May 12. We are now Aunt Melanie & Uncle Brian and we couldn't be happier! Brent & Jenn are both doing great, they will be super parents. Tara was born at 7 lbs and she's even tinier in these pictures. She is such a doll, and I'm sure she & our girls will have all kinds of fun together as they grow up. Here's my chunky monkey, Laney, and her cousin Tara, almost exactly 4 months apart.

Auntie Mel & Tara
We finally have a cousin! Yay!!!

Our lives have been pretty crazy lately. We need to be moved out of our house on May 28, which about 1.5 weeks away, yikes! And we still don't have a new house picked out yet. We've been looking, but just haven't found "the one" yet. I pray that this will be the week we find it. I'm starting to feel very nostalgic about our house. Me & the girls always sit out on the back patio while Brian cuts the grass. While we were watching him mow the other day, it hit me that he might only cut this grass one or two more times ever. I asked him if he was sad about that, and suprisingly, he said yes. We've worked so hard on our yard and it looks so pretty right now with all the flowers in bloom. We think the family that is moving in in two weeks is very lucky to have our house. We are so happy for them because it is such a great house. We hope & pray that they make many great memories here too.

OK, one last pictures I love. My mom took this of Avery and her two best buddies, Rylin & Lauren. I think they are such a cute little threesome.


If any one has any tips on moving, how to pack up stuff efficiently, what is important to keep until the last minute and what can be packed now, etc. Please send me any & all advice you have.

Four Years Ago Today....

I became a mom. Thank you Lord for the amazing privilege & blessing it is to be called "momma."

Here I am with my firstborn, my mom and her mom. Four generations of us. Makes me miss Nonie so much. Makes me so thankful for my precious Avery Elizabeth.

Avery Then

Avery Now

In other news, we got a contract on our house!!! Thank you Lord! Closing date is May 29, exactly one month from today. Now we just need to find a house to move into ASAP. We appreciate your prayers that the Lord will guide us to just the right house for us and hopefully soon! Brian's parents offered to take us in if we don't close on our new house the same day, but we would prefer to have a new house to move into on May 29!!!

Baseball season has been postponed for two weeks due to the swine flue epidemic. I guess they are worried about it spreading in any large group of people. Pretty scary stuff. Unfortunately it looks like we will not get the pleasure of seeing Brian with a mo-hawk. Maybe next season.

School was cancelled yesterday b/c of the foot of rain we got over night. What a wonderful blessing! We all slept in and spent the day together driving around looking at houses and being amazed at all the crazy lakes of water everywhere. The street my school is on was completely under water even this morning. Half the teachers were late to work b/c they came one way, then when they came to where the road was impassable, they had to turn around and go back another way.

We also started TAKS testing today. Poor students. I feel so bad for them to have to endure this nightmare of a week. I also feel bad for myself that I have to administer the darned thing. Truly the most painfully boring week of my life each year. Watching 30 students write for 4 hours, handing them calculators or dictionaries when needed, writing the occasional bathroom pass, wishing I was allowed to sit at the computer or read a book or do anything besides stare at those poor students. AGHHH!

Avery's buddy, Rylin, just called her on the phone to wish her a happy birthday. I let Avery hold the phone, but I put my ear right next to it so I could hear the conversation. It was truly the cutest phone conversation I have ever heard! Here's a glimpse of a 4-year-old phone conversation:

Rylin: Hi Avery. It's Rylin.
Avery: Hi Rylin.
R: Whatcha doing?
A: Playing with my momma & my baby sister. (Me prompting her). What are you doing?
R: Playing with play dough with brother. What did you do today?
A: I got a Ariel & Sebastian bath toy and Nemo.
R: Avery, what are you doing now?
A: Um, holding momma's camera and i took a picture of my baby sister.
R: Happy birthday Avery.
A: Happy birthday Rylin. (Me prompting her). I mean, thank you.
R: Can my momma talk to your momma?
A: Yep. Bye.

I know it won't be so cute when she's 13 and glued to a cell phone, but at 4 years old, I was so proud of my big girl and her buddy having their own little conversation over the phone, I almost cried.

Happy Birthday, my sweet, serious, giggly, thoughtful, gentle, wild, brave, precious Ave! You have made my life fuller and happier than I could have ever dreamed!

My Baby Daddy

This is what Brian had to wear to school today. He & the other coaches made a deal with the baseball team if they won 4 games in a row, the boys could pick out what the coaches had to wear to school one day. Well, they just won 4 games in a row, so the boys bought the coaches Hello Kitty t-shirts and "skinny" jeans for them to wear today. The "skinny" jeans weren't so bad, but the Hello Kitty t-shirt on Brian was pretty bad, it was a women's size large, so needless to say, it was pretty dang tight. This morning when we had our prayer time together, I specifically prayed for my husband that he wouldn't get beat up at school today. I am still praying this whenever he comes to mind. Thankfully our girls aren't old enough yet for this to damage Brian's dignity in their sight. Avery loved his shirt, I think she really thought it was cool that he was wearing Hello Kitty. Anyway, if they make it to playoffs, the coaches all have to get a mo-hawk, so here's hoping they will win these last three games. I would love to see my baby daddy with a mo-hawk.

It says "day dreamer" at the top amongst the flowers

Here's Tatum with two of her favorite possessions - No matter how many times we tell Tatum her name is Minnie, she insists in calling her "Mindy", which is pretty darn cute. And Dinoco Lightning (Lightning McQueen painted blue) is "Dico Yite-ning."


Okay the braids. Last Saturday, it stormed all day so we were stuck in the house. So me, trying to be creative and kill some time, asked Avery if she wanted some braids in her hair. I love braiding & doing my girls' hair, and Avery is usually a good sport about it. Anyway, she said she wanted lots of braids, so I went to work. We ended up with six long braids shooting out from the top of her head. That night when it was time for bath, Brian started to take the braids out, but Avery wanted to leave them in, so we said okay. Sunday morning we wake up, and yes, you guessed it, she wanted to wear them to church. So she did. I decided life is too short to have perfect hair every Sunday, and I figured her Sunday school teachers would get a good laugh out of it, so my little Jamaican went to church like this (except with a dress on).

After we took the braids out, she looked like a brunette version of Debbie Gibson in all her "Electric Youth".

Our little Laney-loo is growing so fast and getting some serious chub. Check out her chins & cheeks! I could just eat them up! We've decided she is looking alot like my dad, and my mom found some baby pictures of him to prove it. She's the best little sport in the world, just going with the flow of our crazy life right now. She & I have had several conversations lately where I get right in her face and tell her something and she talks right back to me with a bunch of coos and gurgles. I cannot wait until I can understand what she's saying and what her unique personality is.


We got an offer on our house yesterday!!! We countered today, so hopefully we will hear back from them either this afternoon or tomorrow, whether they can work with our counter or not. We are praying the Lord's will be done, so if this is it, we are so excited!