A Storybook of Grace

  Last Sunday we were able to go to the Promised Land lol in Wisconsin.  We have a homeschool sports group in our area that we have thought about joining in the future and they were hosting, so we went.  Hunter won first place in archery and has never even done archery before in his life.  The kids enjoyed lots of swimming and boating in the spring fed lake.  It was a beautifully day.  I definitely was on high alert with all the kids around water so I was not able to relax really, but they had a lot of fun and we all made it home safely thankfully!   We also unpacked our very last box last Saturday and organized the garage so that was awesome!!!!!    If I didn’t mention already, I started back to grad school, so things are a little busier, but the kids have I think a two week break from school after tomorrow.  Other than that, we have been busy with dental appointments and yard work and low grade fevers!  

 Last weekend was our last overnight trip, ending with Jessica and Ryan (and our tag-a-long Natalie).  I was a little sad that they were coming to an end.  The kids already this past week have been talking about their overnights and reminiscing, as have Sean and I.  Sooo I think the plan worked!  To make memories, spend time together, and have fun, while crossing things off the bucket list.  :).  We took Jessica and Ryan to The Pfister  Hotel in Milwaukee.  Our room overlooked downtown and the lake.  It is a hotel that is 128 years old so it had a ton of character.  Friday night we ate at the Public Market and I had delicious fish and shrimp tacos.  We went swimming in the hotel pool overlooking the city a couple of times, ate breakfast at the hotel and then headed off to the Wisconsin State Fair.  We had a little rain, but it wasn’t too bad.  we didn’t really eat any crazy fair food, just creme puffs, which they are ...

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  We moved in last Thursday and all went relatively smooth!  Now we are busy unpacking boxes, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel.  Or in our case, I am able to see the garage now instead of brown boxes everywhere!  We are loving our new home and can’t believe we are here!   Last Friday was a crazy day!  Natalie was bit by a hornet and had to go to urgent care, which thankfully is less than 5 minutes from our house.  Her arm was all red and swollen and we weren’t sure what happened so our pediatrician instructed us to take her to urgent care.  It’s there that we were told it was probably a hornet.  She is doing much better now.   Then Friday night we headed down to Navy Pier with Andrew, Hailey, and Natalie for our next overnight.  We had a gorgeous hotel room right on the pier.  We basically just hung out there and our hotel the whole time.  Saturday we went to the Chicago Children’s Museum, too.  We enjoyed o...

  We had our house closing today!  The movers come tomorrow so this is the last night in our rental house.  We had a quiet last walk through our neighborhood this evening.  We made some good memories here over the last almost two years.  I am very thankful for this place.  God definitely placed us here and He was so good to us.   But tomorrow we go to our first forever home.  And our last forever home.  :). And what a testimony.  The market is still crazy.  Maybe even crazier.  But we got this house and we even got it under what it currently appraises for.  That in a market where houses are staying on the market for just a few hours and buyers are paying way over listing price.   And we had a tight timeline.  A timeline of a little under a month.  Our lawyer and agent said it was near impossible.  VA loans take a minimum of 45 days and they are backed up, but we got ours done in 23 days.  God is go...

 Since my birthday post, we had a 3 day neighborhood wide garage sale, which we did Ok with.  The kids became quite the little salespeople.   Addison has learned how to ride her bike without training wheels!  And we removed Lucas’ feeding tube.  He still will just eat puréed foods that we spoon feed him, but he will drink enough from a sippie cup that we felt like we didn’t need the tube any more.   I finished my stats class early and with an A and was even able to skip an assignment!  I actually really enjoyed stats, which is crazy because the other two times I took it, I did not enjoy it at all.  I am happy to be on a school break now.  We have had some drama with getting into our new home, mostly with the contract and what not, but we are supposed to close on the 28th and move the 29th.  We will see!  I think everyone is excited and ready to move in.   Personally, an ongoing close to 13 year on again off again trial has real...

  Today is my 41st birthday, but I’ll back up to last Saturday.  That was my birthday outing day.  So I chose to go to Lake Geneva, WI with the family.  Sean had taken me for our anniversary, but that was in February and it was super cold and the lake was frozen and it was snowing a bunch.  So I had said then that we’d have to go back when it was warm and so we did.  We went to lunch and walked by the lake and went in the shops.  And got coffee.  :). And by the way I loved our anniversary in case it sounded like I didn’t! Today Sean and the kiddos threw me a party and we ate dinner and had Nothing Bundt Cake Bundlets.  They decorated it all pirate-y for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (my favorite football team) and Ryan actually gave me $70 of his own money to get something special for the new house.  I could’ve believe it!  I felt bad taking it, but I didn’t want to offend the giver so I did.   It was a good day after all, because a...