First Day of School!

It's offical! We have a 3rd grader.....




2nd grader......



Kindergartener.......



& a Pre-schooler.......

WOW! where does the time go???

GO Texas Rangers!

We ended up with tickets to a Texas Rangers game on the day I flew back in from Convention yesterday! WOW! What an extremely long day, but TOTALLY worth it!
The kids had a blast! The seats were in row 10, right above 1st base...WHAT A VIEW! (thanks Uncle Aaron!) & to top it off, the TEXAS Rangers WON!!!!

Offer on Hearthstone!

We got an offer (finally) on our house. Wea re taking a loss but that is the way things roll I guess. We accepted & are set to close on July 11th so let's hope that Cartus will not screw things up. We have had many difficult issues with them for a relocation company, mainly they tell us one thing & then when we get to that part of the process, things are now different. Very frustrating!! anyway, keep your fingers crossed!

Soccer Camp 2008!!!

The kids attended a day soccer camp, or rather an evening soccer camp this June. They all had a blast including little miss Avery.

Macey was in the older division & is pictured holding a make-shift trophy with her teammates & the Brittish soccer coaches.

It was really warm but we managed not to get heat stroke or sick so we are thankful for that!

The kdis are already begging to sign-up for soccer camp next summer!

Macey taking a break!

Macey Classroom Award

Macey's teacher does a candy awards at the end of the year. I was amazed at this other woman who gets to spend almost as much time with my Mac as I do. She recognizes amazing traits in Macey that as parent, I tend to over look at times. I was totally beaming after this. I even let her cut class to go grcoery shopping with me for the rest of the day! We had Krispy Kreme Donuts & DP for lunch...

Closing Date...

SO we have been up & down since May about when we could close....we finally have a date! JUNE 20th! Which also happens to be Avery's 3rd Birthday so we are still working on that issue as well. She has been going on & on about her Birthday party at the pool so we will figure something. Life is crazy here so if you do not hear from me till July, you know why...Billy is gone for most of June so that leaves me relying on my friend, Shara & my family for all the help around close dates. Billy is here for 2 days after closing then off to work for Raytheon! BTW, have i mentioned how great a company Raytheon is???? Man, we have been so blessed to have a job with them. Nothing like the AF that is for sure! Gotta run! I have have alot of packing still to go!I will keep you posted!

Albuquerque House

Here is the link to the house in Albuquerque. We are lowering(yet again) the price of the house to $259,000. If you know ANYONE who is interested in buying or renting, please send them this link. We perfer to sell but are considering renting/leasing at this point. Thanks so much!

Starting to look like a real home...

So we have grass now...how cool is that??? The fence that you see is our side lot/yard & eventually will have an inground swimming pool. That is a few years away when all of kiddos swim like fish. We hope to close soon. (May or June timeframe) I will send out the new mailing address when we get settled.

Dentist Appt

AJ & Avery's first dentist appt was today & went really well. AJ went back all by himself & did not even need me. I have to admit that left me with mixed emotions. Then , Avery came along & would not budge without me.....It is good to know that I am still needed! :)

Hair-Cuts!

It is that time again when the girls hair is just too long & they want to change it up some! We found this place called shakey's cuts for kids & it was a total blast for the girls.

My Mother-in-Law....

My mother-in-law passed away 2 weeks ago tomorrow. I felt that if I wrote it down somewhere it would be real & I really did not want it to be real. I hear millions of stories of horrid mother-in-laws & i have to say that I do not understand them. Mine totally ROCKED! She was there when you needed her.

When we were stationed in OHIO, I talked with her on a daily if not every other day basis. I could tell her anything, I mean anything. She was a military wife & totally got the all of the BS that comes with it.

We breezed thru the Celebration of Life service & as long as I stayed busy, I could do it. My Billy had to get up & say a few things about mom & my heart went out to him. I can not imagine the greif that he feels. She was my mom for 10 years & I miss her so much.

My children miss their grandmother too. Leah (6) left a not on Billy's pillow this morning that reads" I know that you miss your mom. I miss her to. I know that she loves me & you. Love Leah." Leah drew a picture of a cake on a table at the bottom of the note & also drew music notes & labeled them "irsh music". She knew that here gmom loved irish music.

There are so many things that remind me of her: lasgna, gnomes, blue eyes, shamrocks, st. Patricks Day, sudoku, (she is the one who got me hooked!), Snowbabies,THOMAS KINKADE. I think she had everything he ever made. She was a great lady who was there for anyone who ever needed her.She will be greatly missed! Love you MOM!

School Art Show

First Day of Soccer Games

The day started out chilly. we are all wrapped up in jackets & blankets. Gammy, Pappy & Uncle Jek were able to go to the games with us. Everyone had a lot of fun! There were so many little soccer players running around. You could not see any "leg" on any of them when they had their shin guards, socks & cleats on. Way too cute!

AJ was attacking the ball. He is located in between #9 & #13. He kicks well so the coach has him kick the ball in often.

Macey has been named the team goalie. She is the only girl who would get in front of the ball when it was coming at her. She is excited that she gets to get special gloves & a different jersey when she plays goalie.

Inside Grisham...

So here are a few pics from the inside of the home. It will be really great to get settled soon. We still have our home in NM so PLEASE pray hard that it will sell fast. We have a month left....

Fireplace in the Family room

(the mantle will be stained the color of the kitchen cabinets)

Kitchen

media room with my little brother, Nick being, well, being Nick!

Easter 2008

With all the craziness this past March, the kids spend 3 weeks (includeing Spring Break & Easter) with my folks. My mom was a life-saver & came & stayed with the kids so I could go with Billy to his mom's & get things in order. Here are some more from their east egg hunt at the FARM.

So Far, So Good...

Okay, so I have been totally nervous about the stone that we picked out last September. I kept thinking that it was more PINK than BROWN for some reason. I will not go into any details, but let's just say that I was having nightmares about having a PINK brick home. Billy was confident that we were okay on colors that we choose but I was quite nervous. The brick was dropped to the house on the day we left for San Angelo, so there was no way to tell what the color was yet. My mom was with the kids due to school so she drove by everyday & took a picture with my camera & her cell phone. For the first week, we were looking at our brick/rock combo on a screen of a Razr Phone so that was tough. We decided to get Vanilla & bring her out to San Angelo rather than leave her alone at home during Spring Break. I was able to go back to Rockwall & get photos to bring back to Billy. The brick & stone look great. Hopefully the outhouse will be moved when the home is done. :) We are so excited. Our home will be finished toward the end of April so we hope to be moved in by the end of May. I will keep you posted!

Calling for Prayers...

We received some sad news last Thursday evening. For some of you, you may not know the whole story. Here is a brief summary:

Jean (Billy's mom) was diagnosed with lung cancer in mid-January while admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. There was a stint put in to help her breathe while she recovered from the pneumonia & then the plan was to attack with radiation treatments.
Earlier this week, Jean was readmitted to the hospital because the pneumonia was back. Apparently, she had not recovered from it before the radiation treatments. Along with adjusting other meds, it has become quite draining on her body. On Thursday, her kidneys started failing & she was told that the cancer was spreading too rapidly. She was given 2 weeks at the most. She decided she had enough. We brought her home on Friday night with Hospice.

We are in the process of getting all her affairs in order & enjoying what time we have with her. She spends most of the day sleeping. Please pray for our family as we go through this tough but natural process. It is hard at times to believe it but everyday it becomes more real. Please pray for the strength to know what to do & when to do it. I will keep you posted as much as I can.

So, walls are nice!

The house is slowly coming together. We did our walk thru last week of where we wanted the phone, TV & internet outlets. The brick was being dropped Friday so this next week we shall see what the outside will look like. I am a bit nervous about what we picked out but hopefully the brick & stone will look as good as it did on the table when we picked in 4 months ago.

A might bit chilly...

At least there is walls. Okay, so I know that these are not the finished walls but the house seems to be taking shape. The bricks will be coming in later this week so hopefully the outside of the house will be looking pretty good in a week or 2.

More Showings.....

Okay, so we have had 5 showings in the last week so please keep prayin! 2 of the showings claim that our home is their top choice but neither has made an offer. All we need is to accept an offer & the relocation company takes over from there. Hopefully someone will make an offer soon!

Drop to your knees & start prayin'!

Okay, so I just got a call from our realtor in NM. We had our first showing....the thing is that that our house was 2nd on their list. Well, their first choice is already gone & they are coming back for another showing on Friday. We are getting down to the wire with the house that we are building in Rockwall in accordance with our contingency. We basically have till the 2nd week of March to get a contract on our home in NM or we will lose the home in Rockwall. So we have been praying hard & long for this stress to go away so please take an extra moment to pray that we will be relieved soon, whether through this buyer or the next. I will keep you posted!

Framing up!

They have been framing this past week & putting in the windows. It is really neat to watch our home take shape. We have had decent weather so far so hopefully we are still on the Mid-May move-in date.

Vday Lovin'

So the kids all got animals for VDay & wanted to show them off! Enjoy!

A Before & After Valentine Suprise!

Okay, so I wanted to something special for Billy for Valentine's Day but he is yet out of state for the 3rd year in a row for VDay. Since he was gone the whole week, I decided to do an project that I had never done before. Staining a piece of furniture...

Not just any piece of furniture....HIS USAFA blue trunk!

I personally did not know this could be done, but a friend of mine had mentioned that she knew someone who haad done it before. She & Iwere visiting last Sunday afternoon & she was telling me about it. The top of Billy's trunk had started to peel & was ripped & torn from al lthe moves in its lifetime. We started peeling the blue "vinyl" off. If you take an exacto knife & run it around the edges, it leaves a nice clean cut line next to the metal.

This picture is after the vinyl has been peeled away. I sanded it down & the proceeded to put 3 layers of American Walnut stain from HD . Then I sealed it with polyeurathain.

So, not too shabby for my first staining job if I do say so myself!

Foundation is a GO!

The foundation was poured on Tuesday & looks really good. They were to start framing today but with 80% chance of rain for the 3-day weekend, the are hoping to drop lumber on Monday & start framing then. It will actually start looking like a house soon!