{Trying A New Thing Today}

About a month ago or so, I attended Women of Faith in St Louis. I was fortunate to have a friend invite me and the ticket was free, I simply couldn't pass it up! Those of you who have been to Women of Faith conferences know that when you arrive at your seat, you have to remove various bags and flyers and stuff before sitting down. Well I suppose you could sit on them, but that wouldn't be too comfortable. I have sat on them before, mostly because I wasn't paying attention (what's new) and I can attest to the uncomfortableness of the experience. Anyway, I digress. (again, what's new)

So, here I am sitting in my seat at Women of Faith, exploring the bags that were left dangling on the arm of my seat when I came across a Red Swan bag. What is Red Swan you ask? Well, you have heard of "Cash for Gold", the commercial that you see of TV where they ask you to send in your unwanted gold and you will receive money back. Well this is similar. From what I understand however, Red Swan places a big emphasis on charity as they give you an option to give your proceeds to charity when you send it in to the company. In the bag I received was a box with submission information inside along with a cute little plastic baggie to hold my gold items. I didn't think much about it but somehow managed to not lose the bag or the box and brought it home. Miraculously it also made it through our recent move and I found it today while cleaning our bedroom.

So today, I looked through my jewelry box and found two things to send in. One was a OLD gold chain that was kinked and otherwise unwearable and a sapphire and diamond ring that was given to me by a friend years ago that is WAY too small for me. I wish I would have thought to take pictures of these items, but the box is all sealed up and I am afraid that if I open it I will never get it sealed back up and mailed. I sometimes lack in follow through if there are too many steps to a project. :)

I will be sticking this thing in the mail today, lets see what happens. I'll let you know if I get some moolah back!

{A New Day}

We finally have internet! I've been without internet since last Friday and let me tell you, its been rough. I didn't realize how hard it would be and really didn't think it would be this big of a deal, but boy, its been hard. I have to say though, it wasn't all the social networking that I missed, it was being able to see our checking account! The level of stress at not being able to see how much money we had was almost too much to bear! Moving costs money! To not be able to see how much is coming out of our account on a daily basis almost sent me over the edge. I honestly don't know how I did banking before. I know there are other ways to keep track of your account (like calling the bank) but being able to actually SEE the account online is an invaluable tool. All is well now, at least with the internet, and knowledge is half the battle. Now to getting more money in there to be able to see!

Starting ASAP I am going to get my business re-launched down here in Waynesville. Its going to be a fresh start once again. I'm really fortunate in that I can re-start my business. This isn't a job I have to quit every time I move and for that I am thankful.

I have done some looking on the Tastefully Simple website, and from what I can see there are only two consultants in this immediate area, one in Waynesville, and one in Lebanon. The gal in Waynesville I know, we went to church together when we lived here before. I don't believe I have ever met the other gal that lives in Lebanon. I'm going to try to contact both and see if we can all get together and have a little "meeting" over coffee. It would be nice to have the comradarie as I start things back up again. I left a pretty big team in St Charles (one that I definately took for granted) and I know that I will miss the luxury of having team members close by. I guess I have to build my own team!

The bright side is that TS has started a new compensation plan in which consultants get a raise and if you are in leadership the bonuses have been increased as well. Its just amazing to me how much the company rewards its consultants. Its always been like that and now it is just getting better.

Anyway, this post really wasn't supposed to be about my business... its just one of the many things that we are starting over with. New home, new school for Sierra, new church, new friends (although the last two really aren't new).

As soon as my dad emails me pictures from their camera (they helped us move) I will get some posted of our fabulous weekend. I neglected to put batteries in our camera so I had to rely on their camera.

Anyway! Gotta run and get dressed and ready to go so we can make a trip back to St Charles today for some doctor's appointments for Sierra.

Have a great day!

{It's official! We have a home!}

Yee haw and praise God! The church members voted this past Sunday night in favor of letting us rent the old parsonage at our church in Waynesville. Our plans are to start moving things this coming weekend, as much as we can fit in our van and Jeep. Here are some pictures so that you can see our awesome new house!

The house has brand new siding and windows and a maintenance free front "yard" that requires no mowing!! :)

Now the back yard is another story... lots of grass! And the best part about the back yard...

...is the awesome playground!!

Now back to the house... did you notice the deck?

All we need to do is get Evan a Superman cape and he is set! Seriously, I see some lattice in our future...


Another picture of the back of the house and walk out basement. Pastor Dwain was weed eating around the back of the house and a rogue rock shattered the sliding glass door so some volunteers from the church began working on replacing it with a standard door. I am pleased because in my experience sliding glass doors haven't been great for heating and cooling. Thanks Pastor D!


Another picture of the backyard.

Oh yes, and the best part of the house...



...is it comes with our very own church!! How cool is that??

{Hand, Foot and Mouth}

Yep, it's true! Poor little Evan has Hand, Foot and Mouth. Sigh...

I reported for duty at work yesterday at the Parent's Day Out program at our church and in less than an hour we were leaving. One of the kiddos in Evan's class had a funky rash on his bottom last week and the day after he was at PDO his mom took him to the pediatrician and he was diagnosed with Hand, Foot and Mouth. This weekend Evan had the funky rash but I was not aware of the other little guy's diagnoses so I thought nothing of it. Then he had what appeared to be a spider bite on the palm of his hand which I noticed on Sunday.

Tuesday when we went to work I got to talking to the other little guy's mom about what his rash turned out to be and the light bulb went off. I showed her Evan's hand and that was that. It was crazy, as soon as we got home, a few more appeared on his hand and on his feet and around his mouth.

This is our first time with this so I am learning as I go. Apparently it is untreatable since it is a virus. There is nothing you can do but let it run its course. It is mildly contagious, so I will not be working this week. He can run a fever and possibly stop eating if he gets the blisters in his mouth but other than that we just wait!

Never a dull moment!!

A lot going on..

Just a quick update... there is a lot going on!! Please pray for us as we are going to hopefully get the final word this Sunday regarding the home we are hoping to rent in Waynesville. The church members will get a chance to vote this Sunday at a business meeting as to whether we can rent the parsonage that is currently vacant. It would be a HUGE prayer answered for us as it is what we can afford and would put us in the school district that we want to be in.

Our tentative move date is August 1st and there is a lot to do before then! Please pray we can get it all done! Also, while you are praying, :) our house hasn't sold yet. Pray for the right buyer. We would like to be a family again! Thanks so much for your prayers, we REALLY appreciate it!!

Laura

{What Was I Thinking?}

What was I thinking when I thought it a good idea to become a blogger?? I must have been under the influence of something. I know, that's not a believable excuse. Well whatever I was thinking, I was out of my mind while doing so. I just don't have the tenacity and consistency for this! Ah well, enough of the complaining...

Here is what is new:

The kidney stone fiasco seem to be taken care of as the hospital bills trickle in. We are extremely thankful for good health insurance, but extremely baffled as to how good health insurance can still leave such a large amount left unpaid. It almost seems like a racket that someone in the health care industry is running and making a whole lot of moolah off of. Anyway, the kidney stone is apparently gone and Nick is feeling much better in that department.

While in the process of diagnosing and dealing with the kidney stone Nick had a blood glucose test done. This was to follow up on blood tests done at the end of last year for a life insurance policy. He was not denied life insurance, but was rated up on the policy as a result of a fasting blood test that he took. At the time we didn't have health insurance to pursue the situation. Well when the whole kidney stone thing came up I asked Nick to show his doctor the results from the life insurance blood test and that led to a blood glucose test. Needless to say the poor guy didn't do so well and is now living life as a diabetic.

Now, on to the house situation. We haven't sold the house yet but have gotten the go ahead to drop the price by our mortgage company. The house was priced lower than what we owe but was still higher than the plummeting market values in our area so in order to get an offer the bank said to lower the price and prepare to submit a book of information to start the short sale process. We simply do not have $15,000 just sitting around to make up the difference so we are essentially stuck in the situation. Countless people from real estate agents to bank representatives have told me that its not our fault, just the sign of the times, but regardless it just makes me sick to not pay what I said I would pay. Obviously this is going to wreak havoc on our credit, but what can you do? So we are trusting right now that God will send a buyer our way, that the short sale process won't be too stressful and that we can once again be together as a family.

The good news is we most likely have somewhere to live in the Waynesville area. We are waiting on official word, but it looks like we will be able to rent the old parsonage that is next door to our church in Waynesville. Although we will be living in Waynesville, it will put us in the Laquey school district. Laquey is an itty bitty un incorporated rural community just to the west of Waynesville. I cannot be more thrilled. I did research on the school that Sierra would attend if we put her in the Waynesville district and found that the enrollment for grades 3-5 is well over 1,000 students. Laquey Elementary has K-5 with a little over 350 students. We are convinced this would be great for Sierra as she definately needs all the attention that she can get. The thought of her being just a number in the crowd terrifies me. At Laquey we are confident she will get a good education and more personal attention to help her stay on track. She is a smart girl but oh so distracted sometimes. :) Takes after her Momma.

Goodness, what else is going on.... Oh yeah, our church in Waynesville just went through a church split of sorts and is down to less than 50. It is most definately a time of rebuilding and Nick and I are excited as to how God is going to use us. There are certainly places to be used.

Anyway, I'm sure there is more, but it is late, and I am tired. I hope you all have a great evening and a wonderful week!

Blessings,

Laura

{I Hate Kidney Stones}

Nick spent the night last night and the day today in the hospital today in a extreme amount of pain. Apparently the narcotics that they gave him for the kidney stone pain gave him a massive migraine. Evan and I went to see him this morning after dropping Sierra off at school and he couldn't even talk because the pain was so severe so we couldn't stay. His nurse said they were going to switch pain killers to see if it helped with his migraine while they waited to see when the urologist was going to do his procedure. The pain came down a bit for him and they were finally able to get him in for his procedure around 4:30 or so. His doctor told me after the procedure that they weren't able to get to the kidney stone as it was too far up. They did put a tube in to drain the urine away from his kidney because the kidney stone is so big that it was causing a backup. Now his kidney can drain and we are waiting to see if they can get him in to blast the kidney stone to bits. He is staying in the hospital tonight in case the pain comes back and to try to get some decent rest. I am praying that his urologist is able to squeeze him in sometime in the next couple days to get the kidney stone broken up so that he can get back to work. He has missed so much work and I know that is a concern to him. Plus the pain hasn't been a picnic. Thanks for your prayers!!