It's official....our new office is...

Do you recognize the skyline? I do...



ATLANTA!! Who would have thought?? We did put it #1, with no hope in getting it as it has been overstaffed for quite some time. We are excited,to say the least and with some of the other choices on the list, we feel very blessed! Kira really wanted to go to Texas, but is very happy to be able to see her friends again. Now we wait for HQ to tell us what to do, but we will be putting our house on the very terrible market, going to find housing in Ga ( no dates yet) and then waiting to see what happens with the home sale here. We could definitely use your prayer in this. The housing market is bad everywhere, but we can't just sit and wait for the market to improve. We expect to take a loss, but pray for it to be minimal. We are expecting it to wipe all the equity and then have to write a check. We really would like for a buyer to purchase it and then we will not have to wrestle with all of the relocation appraisal issues we have been hearing about. We have 120 days to report to Atlanta, so that puts us at mid-August at the latest for the move. However, with school starting and all the therapy needs for Lian, I think we will have to be down there if we can manage it, by late July. Note:everything posted here is subject to change...and probably will to some degree- it is the gov't after all! Right now, we are focused on cleaning, pressure washing, painting, landscaping,you know, that stuff. We are hoping to get the house on the market on Monday. Anybody know someone who wants to buy a house in Richmond?? After that, we are going to try to spend some time siteseeing while we are still here ( trying to stay out of the house) and really spending some time with the kids. They are feeling a bit left out in all this. Toys boxed up,not being able to get everything out and make a mess, limited time with us b/c of the house prep etc, has left them not knowing which end is up. I keep reminding myself, it's only for a time! So , that is where we are in the process.
On another note, my surgery to remove the growth on my wrist went well. I have been on typing restriction and light duty ( yeah, right). My PT is going well, still not very strong,but am gaining flexability back. It was not very good timing for this whole thing, but I could not use my left hand at all before the surgery, and at least now, I can use it- even if I pay for it that night! The surgeon said they removed it well and that it was a very common kind of cyst called a ganglion cyst- it had just was close to my radial artery and beside a bunch of nerves ( hence all the pain). At least it had not entangled all that yet. I do have another in my right arm, but it's not causing any pain, so I will ignore it until we settle in ATL and then might think about doing the surgery again- maybe.

For now, I will be dreaming of all ATL has to offer- Braves games, aquarium, parks, RuSan's, Sam & Roscoe's and so much more- I think we'll be seeing more of what ATL has to offer than we did when we lived there last time!

Robin's Surgery

Surgery went well. Robin will have a six week recovery. No blogging for at least three days. Thanks for all your prayers. -T

Kira and the Contrail ( especially for the aviators in the family)

Contrail definition according to Wikipedia:

Contrails (short for "condensation trails") or vapour trails are visible trails of condensed water vapour made by the exhaust of aircraft engines. As the hot exhaust gases cool in the surrounding air they may precipitate a cloud of microscopic water droplets. If the air is cold enough, this trail will comprise tiny ice crystals.

So Todd was telling Kira that it was time for bed and she asks if she can do the wheelbarrow (on her hands with Todd holding her feet) to her room. Todd picks up her feet and starts walking. About halfway to her room she breaks a little wind, ok, a lot of wind. Not missing a beat, she looks over her shoulder at her Daddy, still holding her feet, and says "oh look, contrails". Yeah, honey, ummm, right. Maybe mommy needs to work more on teaching science- you know standard testing time is coming up soon...

Let the Countdown Begin-Second Try

Ok- I posted a great, long post about the upcoming move, but was having trouble with the wireless internet. I had the whole thing written and went to post it and guess what- no service, so it gave the internet page not found message and when I tried to go back to the page, the post was GONE!!
So, this may be shorter than the original post.

I know there are those who don't like it when we talk about moving but it's coming and so we have to!

We got our list with the office choices on it and we went ahead and ranked them. After much deliberation we ranked them and sent it back in. Our top 6 are Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Miami and Phoenix. I really hope we don't get any lower than that, because the choices start being much less appealing. NYC and Newark are about at the bottom of our list.

We are spending every extra minute organizing, purging and packing. You really don't know how much stuff you have, til you have to go through it all piece by piece. The kids stuff was the most overwhelming- all the toys with about 100 pieces each, of course, with just one missing and things that don't work right ( but they still love) you know, the stuff... well, we are still working through all of that. One word for it- tedious.

So we find out where they are sending us- "needs of the Bureau," you know... the week of April 14th. So, it's 5 weeks out at this point. I think it will be a lot easier when we know where we are going and can start planning for that city. It's kinda like nesting. I am feeling the need to nest and can't yet.

More to post soon-

Dilenquent

Yes, that's me. I'm delinquent. I admit it. I just have not been making time to post. It is a pet peeve of mine to say I have been too busy. I make time for the things I really want to accomplish, right? My perfectionism is showing, I think. I often want to just post a little bit, but then I can't think of the right way to post what I want to convey, or can't pick the picture I want to post (and posting all of them would take a year). So, I end up not doing anything. Sound familiar? It is the very thing that I am working on with Lian. It might take to long to do it - or it will be too hard, so we don't want to do it. Maybe that's why it bothers me when I see it in him, it's one of my faults as well. Hmmm...

So, I am posting, even though it has no anecdotes or moral to the story- and although it is not well written, it is well...written. And that, for now, is better than yesterday.

12

This time 12 years ago, I was sitting in a cold ER room in Sevierville, Tn waiting to be seen over labor day weekend. OH, and btw, I had been newly married for just a few hours. I guess it's good to get the hard stuff out of the way first, right? I am told this is my silk anniversary. 12 years. It seems like we blinked and here we are. When did this happen? I married my best friend and the one who understands me the most ( well, tries the hardest, anyway). He is my heart and soul- Happy Anniversary baby!

Back to the picture , we were eating the best, sweetest organic peaches the other day and Copelan is munching happily on his pieces when all of the sudden, he looks at his half and yells, "aaaahhh...bug...cheach bug!". I look to see what all the commotion is about and he is pointing to the peach pit and having a fit. This is what I see.

The poor child has not had enough exposure to peaches. Since pesticide residue is a major problem on certain types of fruits and veggies, we try to do what we can to buy organic. Sometimes that means we cannot get them at a reasonable price, so we don't buy them. It has been a long time since we have had peaches, but these were exceptional. Juicy, sweet and just the right amount of tartness. Yum! The kids scarfed them down. All the kids , that is, except my highly suspicious Copelan. Until I removed the pit and tapped on it with a fork to show him it was really not a bug, he seemed mortified that he had that "duff" in his mouth. He said " it skeer me" Only after a good showing of non bug traits ( doesn't crawl, have legs and sounds really hollow) would he venture out and try another bit of cheach. I mean, you can't be too careful, you might take a bite and have it bite you back!

Yes, this is my boy, who upon seeing a spider crawl across the floor in the foyer, went screaming into the hall while his sister and younger brother went to look for it. " That skeer me too".

Sigh, so much for the protective brother ...at least for now.

On another note, the funny words are just coming out this week from the kids. I make guacamole and the kids are on a kick right now asking for it. So when they are putting in their requests, Kira's goes something like this...

" Mama"

yes.

"can we have some whack a moley"? Just as straightfaced as she can be.

Now whack a mole is a game she was given that has 4 hammers and 4 moles. you can imagine what you do with it. I dont make guacamole that way, but I think the guacamole/whackamole reference is pretty funny.

She also likes to fold daddy's goxer shorts (where do these things come from???)

If I am not careful, all these things can pass right by me while I am busy potty training and homeschooling and I can forget to stop & laugh- this is the good stuff.

Ummm, the reason my room is so messy is....

We have been working on keeping the kids rooms clean. Right before bed, they clean up for the next day. When Todd went into Kira's room , it was a wreck. The explaination he got made all his resolve to make her clean it up- go right out the window. Here's the explaination:

Todd: Kira, why is your room so messy?

Kira: Umm Daddy, Copelan attacked my teaparty today. Pause. He went BLAAAAH ( think hands waving frantically in the air).

Todd:- a small snicker escapes his lips, then "well, maybe he can help you clean it back up in the morning"...pause, then all the resolve leaving..." on second thought, maybe you should go on to bed and clean it up in the morning"

Such a little brother- I did not see the incident, and Kira was a big girl about the whole thing. I know she was dissapointed that he did that, but she sure handled it with grace!

We are slowly getting the blog set up and are trying to do the music for the site. I have a lot more work to do as some of the versions of the songs I would like to have on here, have some inappropriate things. So bear with us as we make some changes.

We are looking into moving to a hard to staff RA- one in particular is Mc Allen TX. We dont know the details, but it looks like it would be much more affordable on one income than most of the offices that are options right now. We won't know anything til next week at the earliest.

I have more pictures to post, and more laughs to share, I just need to go to bed now!