God is the one in control...I get that now God!

God has been working with me today...I am not the one in control He is!

Tried to go to the Y today to get my workout in. THey didn't have room in the kids club today for all 4 of the kids. So, I just put Melina in there and I told the littles to play in the Kids Zone with Deidra. I wasn't on the treadmill 5 minutes and here come the kids into the cardio room. Deidra is complaining that they won't listen to her and Josiah keeps running away from her. He had been begging to play basketball and I thought he would have been having fun with that. I should have known better. I told them that they better listen to her or there were going to be problems and to go play for 15 minutes and I would be fast today. 5 minutes later, I see Deidra walk by to get a raquetball room and I knew what she was thinking. Smart girl! If she got them in the room, they couldn't get out and run from her. 5 minutes after that, here they all come into the cardio room again. Josiah had chucked the ball at Deidra's face. I was done. I gathered Melina from the kids club and we left. Get out to my car and the check engine light came on.

Ran home to make Deidra a doctor appt as I am sure she has swimmers ear. The kids were not super cooperative in the waiting room, but we made it. Finally got checked in and got back to the doctors waiting area. The kids played for a minute and then we got put in a room. Thankfully, the doctor was in right away and confirmed her swimmers ear and we got some meds called in and we were off.

Off to the dealership that is being revamped right now to see what's going on. Josiah immediately tries to start getting into their cookies. My Mom walks in and tells him no and that they need to sit down. He goes and tries to pull on the trailer hitches that they have on display and my Mom gets after him again. She finally tells them that if they don't listen to me, Deidra will go get her and she will deal with them. They sat relatively well, but needed a lot of redirection. I had to text the speech therapist and let her know that I was going to be late. Found out that it's some emissions code and it's safe to drive, some valve somewhere needs to be tightened or replaced but they couldn't get it in before we leave for AZ. Ran to Walmart and to Walgreens quickly for Deidra's meds and then home for speech.

Had to do VBS in stages. Oh well...at least we got it done...not a lot of pics though. I'm having a lot of fun doing this with them.

A bonfire...

We had our van in the shop this week, something wasn't right when we got it back and I went and took it back in. That day, I was very crabby and when I walked in Mom's dealership one of the service techs immediately copped an attitude with me that nearly brought me to tears. I managed to hold it together, bit my tongue, he finally agreed to go test drive it, and I went and found my Mom. Told her what happened and she sat and talked with me a bit. The tech came back to find me and said he found the problem and he fixed it. Mom said with the way that he came walking back there, I must have given him a certain look as that wasn't really like him. I told her that I was just tired of everything coming out of my mouth being met with a battle. She told me I was being tested. She said that she knew it had to be hormones because she rarely has seen me like that (the way I was that day). The kids were all acting up and I was trying my best to deal with everything. She complimented me later that day and thought I handled everything very well considering the way that I was feeling. Anyway, she wants me to talk to the doctor about how tired I've been and the way that the nausea has been. I told her that I doubt they're going to be able to do anything, it's just pregnancy. Hopefully, I should start feeling better soon. Anyway, I asked her for her ghoulash recipe as I've really been wanting that lately. She wound up inviting us over after church on Sunday and she had made me a huge pot of ghoulash, chicken nuggets, and some garlic bread. It was so good! We stayed and the kids played with some stuff she had gotten for them and I think they are getting a bit more used to being at Grandma's as they weren't SO into everything like they were before. We built a bonfire in the back to get rid of Mom's woodpile and Andy and I burned the past 7 years of receipts. What memories we found! We wound up roasting hot dogs and making smores. Around 7, the nausea hit me, but I still had a really good time. It was nice to spend that time with Mom and her and Andy even watched the kids for about an hour so I could take a nap. That was nice! Got to spend some time with my brother, Jimmie, so that was nice too. I think we're going to go to the movies together while he's on break one night after Andy gets home. My Mom wants to go see the Christmas Carol too. Guess we'll see what this week brings. There's some things that I really would like to do if I'm feeling ok.

Stupid car troubles...

Our van keeps stalling, they replaced the O2 sensor thinking that would solve the problem. We thought it did and then yesterday it started stalling again. They're sending us to another dealership to have them look at it since they were the ones that told my Mom that they had a similar problem and it turned out to be the 02 sensor. Our van isn't throwing codes so they keep saying there's nothing we can do.

I have a caseworker that never gives me a time that she'll be here that is coming from a ways away that is supposedly coming this morning and I'm supposed to do therapy with the kids as well. My Mom just gave me a bunch of crap that it's a miracle Andy still has a job with how much he takes off of work to help me with crap. I told her that his boss doesn't care as long as he makes up the hours. He goes in at 3-4 every morning so it's not like he doesn't do his share of work and he also has the capabilities of working from home if he needs to which he does a lot. I'm about ready to burst into tears. Top it off too that I was going to bring it back to her dealership (where we bought it from) and she told me that now she thinks we'd be better off to take it to the Dodge dealership as they deal more with them than they do and since it's not throwing codes they had no idea what to do with it. So, we drove it out to Ennis and left it with them for the day. It's not a big deal, just that my Mom's dealership is a whole lot closer and we know everyone there. The Dodge dealership said there was a service notice out on them to clean the carborators and something else and hopefully that should solve the problem. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's finally fixed. I'm feeling a little better than what I was earlier today too.

My honey should have listened to me...

He didn't fix the car this weekend because he was fixing one of his bosses computers. He didn't want to bail on his boss. I can understand that on one point but it's a personal computer, it isn't like he needed it for business or anything. I wanted him to reschedule for tonight after work since I found someone that could have fit the car in that day to fix it. This week is a hectic week at work for him too. He doesn't know how he's going to get everything done in the time frame that he needs to get it done in.

So, he calls me this morning and says "I'm going to have to get the car in, the hole in the muffler separated the muffler from something something and the car is so loud now that it made my head feel like it was going to explode." Oooh...well, you wouldn't have been in that position had you originally listned to me (but I didn't say that, I bit my tongue). He's bringing it in this afternoon to have them look at it and if they can't fix it tonight, he'll be working from home tomorrow while they fix the car and then going in tomorrow night to work if he needs to.

I guess I must just have a sign on my forehead that says "don't listen to me, nothing I say matters and you honestly know best." Honestly, I really must have as everyone has been trying to undermine me lately. I've had to really put my feet down with Deidra lately as she's getting quite a little attitude. Granted, she's been sick since Friday too and I'm sure that's part of it, but I think I deserve more respect than what I'm getting lately from this household.

All I know, is that I have SO much to do today, but at least my downstairs is somewhat clean again. It was spic and span until all the kids came in from the sandbox last night and got sand all over my floors. So, I'll be sweeping again. Then, I'm going to take a shower during the boys nap time and try to get my bathrooms cleaned upstairs before they wake up and then I have to put laundry away for us and the boys. Meanie Mom made the girls do it themselves yesterday and all I heard was how Little J didn't WANT to do it. Several fits and tantrums later, it finally got done. I won't tell you how many hours it took them because they kept coming downstairs to whine or tell on each other. UGH This Mommy needs some peace and quiet.

Busy Day...

my van is in the shop getting fixed, Andy's working from home, I babysat this morning for a 15-month old baby boy. Then, I just ran and ordered Baby J's birthday cake (Thomas the train), I need to wrap his presents, I've been trying to get laundry put away and the house cleaned up. We had our pop-up visit from our caseworker and then I had to go up to the agency to drop off some stuff I had to make copies of before I could turn them in. Then, I had the intake worker that had some questions for me as they were confused on if we wanted another placement of just anyone or whether we wanted it to specifically be from the compound. I said we'd take anything...we just wanted to let them know that we were willing to help with the compound (LDS) stuff too if needed. They're trying to put those kids in large group homes and stuff though so they're not exposed to our cultures and stuff, so it's not your typical foster care settings. So, I'm doubting we'd get picked anyway. But, I told her what we were wanting and I gave her permission to say yes for us and so hopefully we'll have another little one soon. Then, I ran and get the girls from school and now I'm going to try to do a few scrapbook pages.

I heart my new van!!

I am loving this thing! The kids are so easy to load up...I'm still trying to figure out what all the gadgets are for since my car didn't have power anything. I love that the doors and the trunk automatically open and shut with the push of a button, I have heated front seats, and the passenger can have it one temp, while the driver has another, and the people in the back can totally have their own too. The radio not only tells you what station you have one, but it also tells you the name of the song and who sings it too. I was nervous about driving something bigger, but it totally hasn't phased me. If you want to see my actual van and all the perks that it came with you can see it here:

http://www.carlislechevy.com/VehicleDetails/917556844

We got $1000 off because my Mom works there and we were originally told the wrong price and we got $1000 for Andy's Saturn trade-in. He's going to be driving my old Cavalier back and forth to work now. I heart my new van and love driving it and I so love the fact that we all fit in one vehicle now. Oh...and I officially told my caseworker that we would take a newborn if one came in. We have the car space and the room space now. :-)

This is what we're going to test drive tomorrow...

Well, over the weekend I drove by my Mom's work and I happened to notice that they had 2 minivans in their used car lot. I drove up to take a quick peek at them. They were both 2007 Dodge Caravans. I talked to my Mom about them...one's 12k and one's 10k. I wanted the one with the lowest miles on it, although we'd take either one as the miles aren't all that high. She said that the white one had the lowest miles on it and not to wait too long or they'd sell before we got up there. I just sent in our stuff to see if we're qualified to get the loan and we're going to go up tomorrow morning to test drive it. I pray that it all works out as I'm so sick and tired of driving 2 cars everywhere we go.

Man oh man...

My Mom just called and let us know that they have a white 2003 Chevy Venture van sitting on their lot for 9999 with a partial warranty. We so need a new car, but when we did our mortgage they told us they don't like to see any big purchases or anything on credit until after we close. UGH! What do we do...what do we do? I guess I need to just be patient and wait. Maybe, I should call the mortgage company and just see what they say.

Abba, if this is meant to be please open a door...if not..we'll be patient and wait.

New car time?

Well, we've been talking about the room in our cars for the kiddos. I don't really want to have to take 2 cars everywhere...so the dilemna is...do we just take in 1 or 2 more kiddos and smush everyone into the cars and have to take 2 cars if Andy has to come with us? Or do we upgrade and get a used minivan? We'd have to trade Andy's car in and he'd inherit mine and I'd get the van to drive the kiddos around in? We just don't know if we should do this now or wait until we're in the new house? They always tell you that they don't want you buying anything on credit while you have a mortgage pending. I think I'm going to call our mortgage lady and see what she has to say tomorrow...however in the meantime...I offer it up to you, Abba. I know your timing and answers are perfect...even if they're not the ones that we currently want all the time. I must put my trust in you.

Any car recommendations out there that will seat 7-8? I've been looking at the Kia Sedona. However, I'd really like to find a Chevy.

Swirling around with different stressors...

Andy took off of work early yesterday since we had to be at the showroom for the house within 48 hours of signing our contract. Wednesdays we have gym, so we couldn't go today and we need to clean the house up for the home study as well on Wednesday. Anyway, we left the house and got a few minutes away and Andy says "Jess, your car is sounding awfully loud." I hadn't noticed anything before then. We proceed down the highway through the construction areas and every so often it would get a little louder. There really wasn't a good spot to pull off the highway. We were almost out to Richmond Hills and we start hearing something dragging and we notice the cars behind us are keeping their distance. We get off at the exit and pull into the showroom parking lot....yup, my muffler is dragging on the ground going right into my tire. Andy fiddles with it for a little bit and we call my Mom to see how to get it off (her working as a parts manager for the Chevy dealership has it's benefits). He can't get it...I was anxious to go in and pick out what we needed to for the house. We picked out some beautiful brick for the house and we got through about 3/4's of the packet that we had for all the options. We are planning on going out again on Saturday and bringing my Mom with us. She's awesome at decorating and I just want to see what she thinks of our choices that we made and make sure that everything we picked will go together. We have to go back and pick our bathroom and wiring choices, but we already have a pretty good idea of what we want.

They closed at 7 and so we had to leave...we fiddled around with my car some more until Andy finally got it off. Then, I just felt stressed about trying to figure out when we could get my car in as I knew that we also needed time to clean up the house for the home study as well today. I thought about calling in, but with how short-handed we are, I just couldn't do that to them. I had such a bad tension headache. Andy finally said that I could take his car to work and to take Deidra to school and he'd get my car in to get fixed. We came up with the plan that if he was still waiting on my car at noon, he'd call work and I'd leave to trade places with him so he could get into work as he had some moves he had to do today.

I went in to work and explained the situation and they were stressing about me having to leave early. I stood out in garden and felt the tension all through my back and head...I started praying and giving my stress to God to handle. It wasn't a half an hour later that Andy called me at the store...my car was already fixed and it was way cheaper than we thought it was going to be. He was going to come and trade cars with me and head into work. Everything totally worked out fine. Thank you so much, Abba, for hearing my prayers. They were relieved at work as well that I didn't need to leave early and now, I just have to worry about getting the house ready for tomorrow. I'm so nervous about the homestudy...I keep telling myself that everything is going to be fine...it's just the unknown and not knowing what to expect that makes me nervous.

Abba, I thank you for watching over us and letting the car get fixed so smoothly. I pray that we'll be able to get the house back in order within no time, and that our homestudy will go well tomorrow night.