Josh's First Day.....

Josh started high school and seems to have enjoyed it. He was a bit nervous about being new to the school and not knowing where anything was, but he said he did alright.

Miraculously, he was up at 6 AM and on his way to school by 6:45 AM. We'll see how long that lasts. He didn't eat much of a breakfast and has the last lunch of the day, so I may need to make sure he eats a power breakfast.

Josh said his favorite class so far is history and his least favorite is Spanish. He has A and B days, so his schedule switches on Tuesday and Thursday. That should keep him on his toes. Tomorrow he has applied nutrition (that's home ec to us older folks =) I bet that ends up being one of his favorite classes, too.

Cody's First Day

Today was Cody's first day of middle school. I think his body was in shock when we woke him up this morning, but he got up, got dressed, had breakfast, got a couple of "first day of school" phone calls from Grammie and Nana and then headed to school.

Rick took him today, but starting tomorrow he'll ride the bus to and from school. Rick said he seemed a bit nervous when he dropped him off, but when Cody got home he said it was boring.

He met a boy in his homeroom named Xavier that was in all of his classes except his music class. They ate lunch together, too.

He rode the bus home, but got off at the wrong stop and had to walk a long way home. Tomorrow our neighbor's son will be on the bus with him, so hopefully he'll get off on the right stop.

1 day down, 179 to go.

Pictures from the Trip.....

This is the view Mom and I had for 1380 miles!



Two of the maps we consulted on our journey


Mom did a lot of the driving with a smile on her face


We stopped ay Cracker Barrel to eat
and bought Shirley Temple a lollipop


Kari and Josh


Rick and Cody at the Western Sizzlin


Cody and Grandma Feather


Noah after we finally arrived in Maryland

A Place to Worship

We visited a new church today. My friend, Donna attends this church and so does a family from the school I taught at six years ago.

The church has two services on Sunday - 9 AM and 10:30 AM. We went to the later service and were actually on time! It was a bit congested arriving during a change over, but the greeters were very friendly and welcoming.

Donna met us in the foyer and showed us where to take Kari and Noah. Noah was a bit apprehensive at first, but Kari went right to her class.

The worship part of the service was very upbeat, but we didn't know any of the songs except one. When you are used to singing and such during praise and worship it is a bit disappointing. But, they had a very talented praise team and worship leader.

We were very impressed by the way they greeted and ministered to the visitors. We were given a welcome packet and CD of the pastor's sermon during the meet and greet time. They had a special area of the foyer designated to meet the visitors. It had coffee, juice and sweets.

The message was the last of a series of messages on the prayer of Jabez called "Temptation Island". It was an informative, encouraging message.

After being home from the service for 15 minutes or so a group of girls stopped by to drop off some cookies as a "Thank You for Visiting" from the church. That was really neat.

They have youth group on Wednesday night, so we may try to get the boys there since they did not have a seperate class for them today. I am sure Cody and Josh were bummed about having to sit with Mom and Dad.

Kari's take home sheet was from the same curriculum we used at Living Hope, which was encouraging. Noah's "number" from the nursery never flashed on the screen in the sanctuary, so he must have had a good time.

We will be visiting another church next week and are praying about finding a church home. It is actually a bit odd for us to not have a church home and the task seems a bit harder than we expected.

Now it's time for naps and such. Cody and Josh still need some school supplies and Cody needs a haircut. I can't believe school starts tomorrow!

Saturday Scrimmage

Cody had a pre-season scrimmage today against a team of players that all weighed 120 lbs. And their quarterback was a girl!

The score was 24-12 in favor of the other team, but Cody's team played well. He is still nursing a sore heel (he jumped into the shallow end of the pool on Tuesday and jammed it pretty bad) but, played defense for most of the game. The coach let him rest it for one quarter. Rick gave him some Advil that kicked in pretty quickly and Cody said it helped a lot.

He had a really great tackle near the end of the game, but the announcer couldn't find his name because he had his practice jersey and number on instead of his game jersey. Rick had to yell his name up to the booth. He's number 9 and his teammates call him Tex.

Last night at practice, there was a fight between a Mom and a coach. Apparently, they were arguing and she sucker-punched him! I think her son was asked to leave the team after that happened.

I guess they do take football more seriously in MD than I thought!

Update on School.....

We actually switched Kari's preschool. A co-op preschool near by has a morning class opening for her! She will be going Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-11:30 AM. I get to volunteer in her class twice a month and I am on the housekeeping committee. Her class will go on many field trips, including a trip to the circus where they'll ride the light rail downtown. I think I'll let Rick take Kari on that one.

Cody registered for middle school today and will be taking advanced placement classes for all of his core classes. The counselor was very impressed with his TAKS scores and his grades. We believe Cody will do a spectacular job!

I am so glad there are only four more days before school starts =)

A Much Needed Update.....

Well, we made it safely to Maryland on August 4. Our trip was a bit longer than we planned since we left later than we anticipated. But, such is a trip with kiddos and a mother in law.

We did not run into any inclement weather like we expected. Apparently, the weather in MD and TX was pretty hot, but being in the air conditioned vehicles it didn't affect us at all.

We were able to stay at hotels that had adjoining rooms and continentional breakfasts, which was really nice. The last night we needed to find a hotel, it took us several hours to find vacant rooms. Rick had to maneuver the moving truck with the van on a trailer in several tight spots as we scouted out a potential sleeping place. We stayed on the second floor and had to take the stairs to our rooms.

When we were packed and ready to leave the next day, I ended up getting hit in the head with a suitcase and then Noah fell down the stairs! Luckily, we were both alright and we were only 6 hours from "home". We stopped in Roanoke, VA and Cody was able to have lunch with Grandma Feather.

The last leg of the trip was very uneventful and by 8 PM we were home. We promptly ordered cheese steak subs, fries and brown gravy and had snowballs after dinner.

Things at my parents' house are not exactly like we thought they'd be - we've ended up having more of their things to move before we can completely unpack, so things are going slow in that area. I still can't find our coffee maker! But, we should have everything organized before Josh and Cody start school.

Josh is registered and starts on August 30. He is not very excited about having to be in class by 7:15 AM, but is looking forward to being home by 2 PM. He is waiting to play sports until basketball season. Right now he is occupying his time by sleeping in and swimming.

Cody goes to register on Wednesday and is a bit anxious about going to a new school. His first day is August 28. He is playing football for the Apaches and has had 5 days a week practices with scrimmages on Saturdays. Yesterday he had to weigh in. Luckily, his weight class in 105 and under. He made it in at 79 lbs.! He tackled his coach the other day and is looking forward to playing defense. His teammates call him Tex.

We found a preschool for Kari. She will go to school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 12 - 2:30 PM at a church school Tara's kiddos attended. We would have liked an AM class, but are glad that she will be going to school. She is very excited about starting school and can't wait to see her new school and new teacher.

Noah is enjoying the playground in my parents' yard and wants to go out and play as soon as breakfast is finished. He hasn't been feeling well the last few days and may have an ear infection or getting his molars. He has been waking up in the middle of the night and sleeping with us a lot lately. He like playing with Harrison, too and thinks he is a riding dog. Harrison tolerates this for now, but doesn't seem too impressed with Noah and Kari.

Rick is adjusting to working with my Dad and having a different schedule. He gets home between 7-7:30 PM and ends up rushing up to the field to catch the end of Cody's practices. After he eats and spends a bit of time with the kiddos he gets on line to unwind and keep up with the Vikings and other sport teams. He has not been able to spend as much time on web design lately, but hopes to get back to that once he gets his sales license and has a more traditional schedule. He realizes that he enjoys sales much more than office work.

I have not been doing much with Pampered Chef yet, as I still have some things to unpack and organize. I have two shows from last month that I need to wrap up and may be heading to a meeting tonight. I have a new director in the area now and need to meet her and her team as soon as I can. Nicole has a friend in DE that is moving to NY and I may be taking over her scheduled shows. Right now traveling an hour or so for a show doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'd like to get the house completely in order before I start doing shows on a regular basis though, so we will see. Rick will not be able to attend the shows like he did in TX so that may change things a bit, too. But, I know that the Lord allowed me to start my business and He will sustain it.

Devin seems to be enjoying school so far (although, it's only been a week) and said that it has been hot in TX. She is planning a visit at Thanksgiving and we are counting the days until she comes. Kari and Noah definitely miss their DeDe.

Well, that's pretty much our update on things so far. We are still looking for a church (we stayed with the Lamarres on Saturday and visited their church on Sunday. We enjoyed it, but it is an hour away. We'd like a place closer to home.) and would appreciate your prayers. We have several prospective places that we will be visiting. We are hoping to get together with the Whites this weekend. It will be good to see some familiar faces.

We love and miss our TX family and friends, but do not miss the weather. I do not think we have been past 89 in the last week. Sitting on the front porch enjoying the evening breeze has been priceless.

Just hope the winter is just as mild =)

We'll post some pictures of our trip and the new abode soon!