It is finally done!

Well there it is! We close on our house on Monday. I apologize for not posting for a few months. I was just like this when I kept a written journal. I get busy and I forget and then by the time I write again, about a thousand things have happened.

Sorry for the van in front- I will take a pic without it later and post it. Man, this house is so cool. I can't believe it is ours. Richard built us the most amazing place to call home. It turned out far better than we could have imagined.

This next few weeks will be crazy with moving and everything going on with the last six weeks of school. We close Monday, but we are not moving ourselves in until May 24 because of schedule conflicts with work and other things. This will give us a few weeks to move in a little at a time and to clean and get organized. The economy in this country is in the trough of a downturn, and we are hunkering down to ride this thing out. Gas is sky high at about 3.50 a gallon, food prices have risen, and everyone is just sick and tired of this war with Iraq. I just want to hole up in our new home and stay there until this whole thing passes. We are not taking a vacation this summer, so I will have to be creative keeping the girls busy. They will have their own rooms to enjoy though. We will spend a lot of time at the many pools we frequent I am sure. Grace will be in summer school for about 6 weeks as well. Our contract with MDCP was just renewed at a higher rate of hours for Jenny to work. They upped our hours of respite care from 1560 for last year to 1993 this year. Jenny will be able to spend lots of time with us this summer trying to get as many hours as she can so we don't lose any. She and Forest just bought a new home and they will be moving in close to the time we do. It will be great for them to get out of that apartment and into something they can call their own.



I was brave and volunteered for a bigger position on the PTA board next year, I am going to be the volunteer coordinator. My job will be to drum up volunteers to come help with the various activities we have going on. I think it will be good for me and I will have more time for it now that Grace is going to be in school all day in the fall.

I am excited to get out of the apartment-- our upstairs neighbors like to stomp around alot and we are right next to the train tracks. Not to mention the ants. This has been a bad year for ants everywhere. I bait one colony and they die and then within a few days it seems another one pops up somewhere else and I just have to chase them around with the baits.

We had a family home evening this week about wastefulness in honor of earth day. We made goals as a family to watch our consumption and to do more to be kind to the environment. I am going to go completely chemical free inside the house. I am buying "green" cleaners so that the chemicals won't be on the things we use. We are going to work on the three r's reduce, reuse, recycle. Even a few changes will make a difference.

It will be so nice to be able to set down roots again and to have lots of room for all of our stuff. My sister LouAnn is coming to visit after we move in so she can break in the guest room and help with the unpacking. We love it when Aunt LouAnn comes. She and I are really close and sit and talk non stop when we are together. One time I will post about all of our fun that we have had dealing with my mother. She is a card that lady. (My mother that is)

I need to go to bed- it is a stormy spring night here in Texas and the thunder and lightning are going to town. I love spring in Texas with the bluebonnets and tornadoes. I really don't mind the storms as long as the scary stuff stays away from my house. A good thunderstorm is quite relaxing to me if there are no tornado sirens!

I promise I won't wait so long to post again this time.