Change...

Our house is under contract since last Mon. We have a tentative close date of April 29, and no we don't know where we are going yet but to Oklahoma somewhere between here and Tulsa. If you have been praying for us... Thank you because God has heard and answered. We know He is leading us and are very grateful! Things keep lining up and the next step is clear and I praise God for this because I struggle with these kind of changes! It's reassuring!
The kids are enrolled at Indy Bible School for the next 8 wks... they are happy to be with thier friends but I think they miss me a little. I am happy for them too, they were able to go because I am working full time til the end of May. I had committed to working while a nurse was on maternity leave and that happened alot sooner than anticipated but in time for us to know to send the kids back. Now I just need to find time to pack. I had a dear friend tell me she is going to come help me and she has always been "Gods hand extended to me"
Derek loves his job but is very tired. The drive is so long and early but he has come to enjoy the time too he told me...gives him time to decompress or gear up mentally. That being said he will be glad when we live closer.
I hope to post some pics soon...I am on the lookout for the cord to connect my camera to the computer...kids thought it might double as something else and there it went! Pics hopefully later

ts

Snowdays!!

Derek got sent home yesterday and today for weather conditions. Local schools are shut down so it is pretty hard not to have a "snow day" even though we will have to make it up. Drew's friend Noel came over and brought his "quad" and they have been out all day shoveling a snow track to pull each other on the sled. Josiah's friend Mikey came over and they have played games with Gabe and rode the sled too. Looks fun but it is freezing out there- evident by the red cheeks and runny noses. Crock pot is simmering spaghetti sauce. Kids are all cycling in and out of the house, frigerator, showers, laundry room, and I can't keep up. Oh well I love days like this when your whole world has to stop and just let it snow. There are no pristine white sparkly yards here! There are mud tracked, upheaved tunnels of snow littered with snow monsters of sorts of shapes and sizes in my yard. It is beautiful to me!
TS

4 degrees

Derek started working at Nordam Monday. Nordam is on 75 outside of Tulsa. He is excited about it...says he has a nice office but doesn't envision getting to spend much time there. He also says its about 4 degrees warmer there than home, and he has to ignore the Starbucks on the way...
Drew and Gabe's basketball team the Tyro Eagles, remain undefeated. They are having fun and I am glad they have that activity. We have discovered that Gabe has some asthma tho and are having to learn to deal with that challenge.
Josiah is 2 and 2 for basketball games so far, both losses by 1 pt. (he told me to say it that way) He's still learning to play and was pretty frusturated with himself.
Taylar and I are talking to planning her birthday party. I would welcome any ideas...we try to give her a day that is too girly for the boys to want to be around - Ha Ha.

Just some other family facts...
Zorro now weighs 83 lbs.
Chickens have started laying eggs again...well some of them.
Remodeling- we now are at the doors for the upstairs, Dad is going to have to help Derek frame them.
Drew got his permit
Josiah turned 11
We've discovered homeschoolers don't get snow days :(
Josiah might be lactose intolerant...we are testing him.
and Not only Josiah but Arnold too thinks the Whitson's is his 2nd home.

God is good...all the time.

bye for now...ts

January!

We got a camera, an awesome little picture taker for as cheap as it was! So I can't wait to post some action. The boys have a tournament starting...well it already started but their first game is Thurs.
Siah's basketball starts Sat so...

TWENTY-ELEVEN here we go!

I try to keep this pretty light but here is a serious little sidebar. Please pray for Derek and I as we make some major family decisions. Life is good, no complaints but we do have some choices to make and we want God's direction. It's amazing to me that Jesus Christ actually desires a relationship with me but He's convinced me so I don't anything to get in the way of that.

til later...

Oh and I can't physically decorate my walls in all the ways I want to so you all are just going to have to deal with my girlish outlets on my blog :j Too many things got broke or just couldn't deal with the environment around here so my interior decorating is pretty limited.

~Christmas Shots~

Taylar 8 for 2 more months

Josiah 10 for 1 more month

Gabriel 12 and according to him he just had his 1/2 birthday


Drew and he just turned 14

My kids are growing up. I am home with them for now and they have been schooled at home this fall. Drew got his first buck (4pt) a couple of weeks ago. Both Drew and Gabe got to go pheasant hunting last weekend. They love to hunt and thanks to Ryan and Darrin Goins they have got to get out and get some experience.

Drew and Gabe are playing basketball for Tyro this winter. They are really enjoying themselves and the game although they have a lot to learn. I hopefully can post some pics but they will be from my phone.

Josiah is done with football this year. He loved football last year but didn't seem to get into it as much this year but him and his best friend were on opposite teams and that was hard on Siah. He's glad that he gets to hang out with Michael Whitson again...and we are looking forward to having him around more.

The kids are all in karate and its time for me to pick them up...

Christmas season again!

Derek has graduated from college! Big thing to all of us around here. Now he gets to decide what his next move is but he wants to teach and maybe go on for his Masters. Pray for him that he knows what to do.

Updating...

Just wanted to post a quick not to let everyone know I haven't completely forgot about this. I will definitely have more time at home now that I am not working. Derek is on furlough so we are going to start working on our remmodeling tomorrow. Today, we get caught up from youth camp :) Our kids have their own little schedules too, more about that later.

Drew's New Gun

Weekend update

This is Gabe's Science project assignment from a couple of weeks ago. I have zoomed in on the type in the next couple of pic's. Part of the assignment was doing the work himself, he asked questions and we helped that way, but he did the typing, cutting, pasting, and we helped with research.

This is priceless-- the way he worded this!

Good job, right Papa?

Madi loves to ride on Siah's shoulders. Siah won his football game against Sedan this weekend .

Drew's game against Cherryvale was a nailbiter. He won 7/6. He stopped a TD in the first quarter and was pretty excited about that. Lots of his friends came and watched the game. It looks like he had the girls lined up???? Definitly joking, it was really sweet of everybody to come.


Today I am thankful for my church family, esp my pastor and his message this am.

For Adrian

Adrian brought Alexa and Madi over for a few minutes. Drew and Gabe wanted to do something with Alexa since they don't get to see her very often. I don't know if you can tell but there is a grasshopper on the wagon that Alexa is not very sure about!

On the other side of September....already

Can you believe it? I can't! I need to be thinking about Christmas. Anyway, what we have been up to...
Taylar has one more game of soccer than she is done for the season. She has had alot of fun but seems to forget that it isn't a social and takes her eyes off the ball! I finally had her pictures taken (she graduated from Kindergarten in May!) and I am so happy with them. You can see a sample at amandamarquez.blogspot.com Mandie is so good at this! She made a 100% on her spelling this week on the pretest. That has been a goal of hers. (It helped that Daddy was going to take her out for icecream when she reached it) Memorization hasn't been a strong point of hers and she really is working on it this year.
Gabe is playing two more games before he is done with soccer. He has played against the Brewer kids-two buddies of his, and one is a classmate-and of course he loves that. He can stratagize and go over their plays in a debate like a pro. He got goalie gloves and of course they only help his game. He is fun to watch and right now I don't usually worry about him getting hurt. He is trying and doing so good in school. I am so proud of him. I will try to post a picture of his science project, he really has a knack for research. Part of the reason I haven't had time to post is because of all our family homework lately though.
Josiah's Black Dawgs football team has won all of their games so far. I have only been able to watch him for one game but hope to not only watch but take pics this weekend. He says the coach told him he would get to run the -ball some so he hopes that this is the game this weekend. I have been told he is fun to watch, I think so too --the times I'm not worrying! Being a 3rd grader has brought on a lot of changes and challenges for him and he is working through them.
Drew got grounded from his phone this week but other than that I have been nothing but proud. 100% twice on math papers this week. He hasn't done that in awhile, I am so proud of him for working at it. His game of football is here in Indy this weekend and Cheryl Brewer is going to take him for me. Derek is helping Kevin Weinand and family move so when Cheryl told me that she wanted to watch him play this weekend I just gave him to her for the day. Not really but it is great to know she will "have his back". So far they have only lost one game and their team gets better each week, according to Derek. He (Drew) is having fun playing and working on his skills. He is already growing out of his football pants and socks that fit him much better a couple of months ago.
Today I am so thankful for the weekend coming up, the chance to start a new week soon and that Madi will be here again tomorrow!

9/13 Game highlights

Ok Sorry no pics this time. We had games Sat, it was about time according to Siah. Taylar and Gabe's soccer games don't start til Mon but they have already been postponed d/t field conditions from all the rain.

Josiah had a football game against Ramona. His jersey is #25 by the way. His highlights of the game were: he ran with the first kickoff, he played defensive end the rest of the time. He tackled the quarter back and fell on the ball once. He made a beautiful tackle but didn't go down low enough and was called on face mask. That scared me, but I think it bothered him to and he will think through his tackles a little better. He has practiced hard to be running back and hopes to get to next game. They won by 18 and didn't let the other team score at all.

I didn't get to go to Drew's game against Caney. His uncle Jason and Aunt Amber took him for us. Caney really gets into their football, so their games are kind of cool to go to usually. Anyway Drew said he had a lot of fun. He blocked for offense the whole time but Jason said he did good. For some reason the coach played the same 2 plays over and over. They lost by a touchdown. Last year they beat us really bad so I was pretty encouraged it was just 1 TD this time. Drew is #65.

Well, that was Sat's game highlights. I will try to take my camera next time. Derek worked all day or 12 hrs at least, I was grateful for a break from studying and to get to do something with the kids.

Today I am thankful for many things but especially for the fact that I get to be my kids mom!

TDS

Taking it easy..relatively

Taylar has been begging to go to PFF tonight, except she has been calling it PE. We told her to wait, I had to finish my homework and Derek needed to eat and unwind from work a little bit. She gave up it looks like.

The boys are using thier imagination. They said the call it indoor bowling. Could be dangerous...especially if Gabe doesn't move.
Drew has been helping Papa Dave and Grandma cleaning Woods.

Here goes!!

We were at a football practice for Drew, they were going to scrimmage Coffeyville. Madi came by and although she wasn't feeling well, crawled up to straddle one shoulder then hugged my head.
Drew's team did very well. Derek said a guy at work was bragging about how much they were going to beat them, the guy was pretty quiet today. Drew's team (Orange Crush)not only beat them, Drew successfully blocked or tackled his son. They protected their house according to Drew.
Gabe has his first soccer practice tomorrow. He's excited.