what i do.

we went to church yesterday, and I instantly loved our new congregation.

i'm intrigued by the families that surround me.

i know that someday, these people will be a part of me.

right now the people are all blurred together in my mass meeting.

someday, they will feel like my family,
again. 

i wonder who i have already met, that will change my life for the better?

i was caught off guard meeting a young mother who has kids the same ages of some of my kids.
(when you have lots of kids, EVERYONE has a kid about the same age as yours...)
this girl asked, "what does your husband do?"
i explained again, "he is a professor at OSU, that's why we moved here."
her husband worked at the university also.
and then she asked, "and what do you do?"

i stumbled.
"i, uh... nothing. i stay at home.  what do you do?"
she explained that she recently lost 50 lbs and was now a healthy living life coach on her way to a business conference in Florida.
as she explained her work to me, I was remembering my own answer "nothing, i stay at home" and wishing i could try again..
nothing?!
i stay at home?!
BLAH!
even if i added, "i'm so LUCKY!!  I get to stay home with my children."
or "i do laundry."
that would have been better.
but, nothing?!???

what do i do?

why, thank you for asking.

i am...

a teacher.

a child development consultant.
a household manager.
an assistant professor.
an occupational therapist.
a child psychologist.
a minister.
a nurse.
a wet nurse.  :)
a chef.
a marriage counselor.
a writer.
a financial consultant.
a maid.
hey, i'm a healthy living life coach too!

i'm a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend.
i create babies.
i create home.
i create love.
i create harmony and peace and order and fun.

i almost NEVER do NOTHING.
and, i don't stay at home... much.
i do...

serve and love and stretch and learn... every day.

i work.  hard.

i get paid.  lots.

i'm doing.  every day.
in fact, what DON'T i do?

and, even if i did work outside the home... i wouldn't want that to be what i did.

what do you do?

i SAVE THE WORLD, one child at a time.

or
i'm a super hero.
or
i create.
could you imagine if i had really said that?
next time...

today,

i unpack boxes, and feed a baby, and converse with my tweens, and decide where on earth i should put the coloring books.

want to see another picture of my house?  ok.

life is good.

welcome to oregon.

we drove all day and arrived in oregon late.

for days i had been anticipating this arrival.

i had almost cancelled our house rental many times, because i was worried.

our house is BEAUTIFUL and it is nestled on a mountainside with gardens and woods surrounding us.

we have a two story deck on the back of the house that is like extra rooms in the house.

we have neighbors close to us,

but because we are on a mountain, we look over them and can see other mountains in the distance.

my first impression--  WOW!! It is so pretty here.

to the right of our house we have a field with lots of beautiful trees. 

to the left we have a neighbor with dogs and left of them is another field with 3 horses- brown, black and white.

so fun. 

 our back yard is a tiered garden (another reason I was VERY nervous about this house). 

who has tiered gardens with 7 kids?

can i tell you how much i love it?  

when you stand on the deck, you can smell the beautiful flowers.

AND, we have a gardener that comes on Thursday so we don't even have to weed if we don't want. 

There are some big, nasty slugs that we found... hmmm.  Gratefully, i haven't found one in my bed yet!! 

 i still need to take better pictures of the inside. 

it is two stories- 3400 square feet.

it's newish and very pretty.

it is big and very open... and very hard to photograph.

upstairs is the living room with a large fireplace, master bedroom/bath, study, kitchen, laundry room and half bath.

downstairs is a half bath, full bath, kitchenette, two bedrooms, big toy closet under the stairs and a large open area.

we have 5 sliding glass doors (two on top, three on bottom) that open up to the deck.

and lots and lots of beautiful windows.

this home feels so bright and open-- the outside is such a part of the inside.

and, it's beautiful. 



kitchen, dining area.

laundry room.

Sorry I don't have better pictures of the house... my 50mm camera lens doesn't do rooms very well.
We really love Oregon so far.
But, how I miss all of our good friends in Texas.
And... my mind is going to burst with unpacking...  burst I tell you!
setting up a house is HARD work.

we're here.

just a quick note to tell y'all that we are here in oregon.
it is BEAUTIFUL.
when i step out onto our deck i feel like i'm camping.
we live on a mountainside with beautiful gardens and trees and frogs and owls...
i have lavender all along one side of my fence, a dogwood tree, aspens, a beautiful blue hydranga bush... and a gardener. 
it's lovely.
we feel SO blessed to be here.

we had a bunch of people from church help us unload our trucks last night.
the professor is off to school (he starts teaching on Monday) and I'm up to my ears in boxes.
my mother and father in law kept ellie, leah and lily in idaho until next week.
i have my three oldest, and the baby helping unpack.
our new home is beautiful and perfect and full of windows.

it's cold here.  i hardly have anything that i can wear- coming from 100* Texas weather.
I think it is going to be 70* all week.
there have been off and on rain showers.  it is SO pretty.
coming from texas i still feel SO BLESSED when it rains.
(There is a drought in Lubbock- we have been fasting and praying for rain.)
i know it rains a lot here.  i wonder if i will always love it as much as i do now? 

today my mission is to unpack.
to make my new house feel like my home.
soon i will get to know the area better.

i have LOTS of pictures-- but i'm still missing the cords to connect my camera to the computer.
so, pictures coming soon. 
i can't wait for you to see this place.
thinking of you... hope your summer is going well!!

guess what?

we got an offer on our house.
someone wants to buy it.
for our asking price.
i'm so grateful, and excited...
but
i'm still holding my breath.
in case.

my neighbor asked if there was an included prayer fee- for her.
yup!  i'm asking the Lord to repay ALL of your prayers with a 6% commission.
thank you!

we're driving to oregon on wednesday...
i can't even wait to see the town where we will be living...
i hope i love my new house (we're renting)--
i've only seen it on craig's list.

happy sunday!!

from the prairies, to the mountains, to the oceans white with foam...

as i sat down tonight to check my blog, i felt at home.
it is so sad leaving home.
it is hard to leave friends- to begin building "family" again.
but, here at this blog, i felt that home feeling.  
and that maybe, a part of it can come with me.
so, THANKS.
thanks for your sweet comments, and for being my consistency amidst my change.

we just arrived in rexburg, idaho at todd's parent's home.
it is lovely here.
there is a cool breeze that blows through their kitchen in the evening. 
lush, green grass.
trees.
and snow-capped mountains in the distance.

we still haven't sold our home.
but we have renters who want to sign papers this Monday. (?!?)
AND we've had 6 showings this week (3 since we left).
i have hope.

our car ride was the best it possibly could have been.
all the kids were GREAT.
my car stayed clean.
we are safe.
i am so grateful for my mother-in-law who travelled with me.

our stuff is in transit from tx to or.
we needed an extra trailer, because we had too much stuff...
so moneywise we're still tight, but such is our life right now.

i'm overwhelmed if i let myself think about my life.
i'm tired.
i'm so grateful.
i'm nervous about oregon, but looking forward to the beauty and new possibilities.

how i will miss texas.
so many friends did so much for our sweet family as we were leaving.
our car was packed with love from MANY thoughtful friends.
thank you!  we miss you already.
people are so good.

as we travelled I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this earth.
from the desserts of texas to the mountains of wyoming.
this land is beautiful.

moving on is difficult.
very difficult.
but life is so good.
people are so good, everywhere.
this land is full of beauty.
today, my heart is Texan.
someday, Oregon will take root.

Oh, heaven help me make this transition.

moving.

yesterday we are packed up EVERYTHING.
today we are loading the truck.
tomorrow we are driving...

please pray for us.
(or perhaps i should say, pray for our children.)
Thank GOODNESS for all the sweet service we have received.
Thank you for watching my kids, feeding us, and helping us pack and clean.
We couldn't have done it without you.

Anybody want to buy a house?

supermover!

 I married into a family of SUPER-movers!!

My father-in-law repacks the boxes I have packed... so they don't crush when the movers load them.

And, he's GOOD.  SO GOOD.

We are very thankful to have him and my mother-in-law here to help us transition...

again.

(They helped move us here to Texas when I was 9 months pregnant with Leah.)

My father-in-law uses tractor tires to secure things.

Big tires... that he cuts into tubes and rubber strips.

See?

So grateful for the good men in my life.

sleeping with the enemy.

Guess what happened to me?

I was nursing the baby in the middle of the night/morning and i felt something scurry down my leg.

I screamed, and made the professor wake up and save me.

He looked around and couldn't find anything.

He pleaded, "It's gone.  Please don't make me search the whole room."

I was nice and let him go back to sleep... although I kept feeling or imagining bugs walking ALL OVER me. 

Sometime later I felt the scurry again on my arm.

I screamed again and jumped up.

There was a HUGE, nasty bug in my sheets.

(I took a picture AFTER the professor killed it with a flip flop.)

EWWWWWWWWWW....

I'm still grossed out.

Good thing we're moving... I hear there are NO nasty bugs in Oregon.

the parade.




ellie did her own hair!!! 
front looks great, we're still working on the back...
i love that kid.



   

 Hope your 4th of July was full of red, white and blue too!!

eve's blessing.

baby eve was surrounded by love on her blessing day.

  

we are grateful for kind neighbors and loving grandparents.

and, we thought of many who were with us in spirit.
we sure love this baby!

scouts.

What do you call a mix between an elephant and a rhinocerous?

Elephino

blessing eve- 3 months

  What a blessing baby eve has been to our family.

She is a perfect blend of hard and HEAVENLY.

These past 3 months have been stretching/climbing months.

Sometimes we think SEVEN is too many.

And then we look into this darling, angelic face... and are greeted by a big, happy grin.

We think-- if we didn't have seven, we wouldn't have HER.

And we are ever so grateful.

Yesterday I packed away a bunch of 0-3 month clothes that have grown too small...

It hurts me to see how quickly these precious moments are fading.

Yet, it is SO FUN to watch her grow... to hear her deep laugh, to see her finding her hands and rolling from belly to back.

It is familiar to have a baby sleeping between us again.

One of life's most precious moments is holding a sleeping baby- mouth open, tiny breaths of heaven, squished cheeks and fuzzy hair.

Loving eve, we remember each of our other babies and we love them that much more.

How we will miss these days.

Oh, how we love her.
We are so blessed to be her parents.