we're alive!!

well, we're back. the house is a wreck, and i can't find anything. we're overrun with books, and no bookcases to speak of. i actually have no idea where the memory card adapter is that i bought. if i can't find it by wednesday, i can buy another one at best buy. so, no pictures currently. sorry!!

wednesday or thursday should have a nice large post. the kitchen is slowly coming together, and we're gradually unpacking the bedroom. i sincerely think it will take a month to really go through everything, and make sure we want to keep everything we're putting up.

i'm a little intimidated by the task, since i'm not a born organizer. but we have to be. the house is pretty small, but very very cozy. it felt like home immediately. and zoë apparently agrees, since she's been running around in her room, yelling "zoë's house! zoë's house!"... lots of toys are all over her bedroom floor, and she's loving every second of it.

we're not far from a train line, so we do hear trains everynight. well, and all day too. i'm already sleeping through it, and zoë's adjusting pretty quickly to them as well. poor spencer, being the light sleeper of the family, he's having a harder time. i'm hoping he adjusts in time as well.

it's been really rainy, and the first night we moved was awful. it poured rain during the entire 80 mile drive to athens, and a tornado followed spencer here. we have almost everything moved, we're still trying to empty the storage unit. i think it's a little better for us this way, even though it stinks as far as the round trip drive we have to do to actually GET to the storage unit. at least this way, we can go through all the things we're bringing before we get more. should be done within a week or so. thank the Lord.

and i know i flaked out on you, jenni, if you're reading this. i'm so sorry about that. i'm still so scatterbrained, and i lost your email address, and didn't charge my phone (since i couldn't find where the chargers were) and had no way of getting pics to you. i know it's gonna be awesome though.

so there's a quick update. pics to come, and there's a good bit of them. lots of fun to be had.

gratitude

welllll.... we signed the lease today. so we did it. we started over. i don't know if anyone else understands the magnitude of feeling we have right now, but it's overwhelming gratitude.

there's a song by a band we both really love, and the verse and chorus says this:
"When clouds veil sun
And disaster comes
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
When waters rise
And hope takes flight
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul
Oh, my soul

Ever faithful
Ever true
You I know
You never let go
You never let go
You never let go
You never let go"

this is our anthem. this is most certainly the song our hearts are singing to the Lord.

oh. and i've got a few pictures of the house. we weren't able to get inside today, which is fine. the current tenant is still packing, and the house would seem teenier than it is. i think the backyard and the inside of the house are the same size. actually, i think the backyard is bigger. hah. and those big trees? pecan trees. so come this fall, you know what we'll be doing. eating a ton of pecan pies. the landlord is going to take a week to clean and pressure wash and do some repairs before we move in, so the house will look a little different when you see it again. but the amazing turquoise trim will still be there.

also. i will probably take a break from blogging until we get moved in. i promise i will have lots of pictures when we get back online, but i have 3 weeks to get a lot done. our move in date is set for the 11th, and we should be back as soon as internet is turned on in the house. hopefully by the 11th.

so, thank you. everyone who's been praying for us. i know the things that have transpired in our life are the direct result of prayer. we love you guys. a lot. and life on this blog is about to be very different. get ready. it's gonna be awesome.

i know i left everyone hanging with my doomsday post last week. but like i hoped, i have good news to share.

spencer's surgery went really well, and he and the oral surgeon are now working on a timeline to start his dental implants and all the surgeries involved.

we got a deposit from the state, equaling the amount spent on surgery. yay!

we got our car from the wonderful folks who gave it to us, and we've got wheels now.

we're going to be receiving unemployment benefits until july, which allows us to get into school this summer, and pay rent with it until we get our grants.

WE FOUND A HOUSE TODAY!! which is a bit of a miracle at this time of year in athens, since most places are pre-leasing for the fall. it's a little 2 bedroom house, downtown athens (i could ride my bike to school if i wanted to) with a fenced backyard, and central heat and air. which is also another miracle, since most of the places in our price range were pseudo-crack house looking places. seriously. we went to 3 places today that i wouldn't want to keep livestock in, and the rent was more than we'll be paying on our little place. we put down the deposit and sign the lease on saturday, but we won't be moving in until spencer's birthday. april 12th or thereabout. the current renter wants to move out the week of the 4th, and the landlord plans on getting into the house and touching up the paint, cleaning, and refinishing the floors. and she's already got a little spot weeded for a garden! hello tomatoes, here i come.

so, thank you so much. everyone who lifted us up this past week. we had some pretty awesome breakthroughs, and it only continues to cement our knowledge of a loving Father, who won't give us more than we can handle.

more pictures coming soon, i need to take some. and whenever the house is emptied, i'll post pictures of it. well, you might have to wait until we move in, but you'll get to see it. it's pretty small, but it's exactly what we need.

so, here we are again. after another long delay. in all honesty, all the changes and uncertainty in our life has made it pretty un-motivating for me to blog. as lame as that sounds, it's easier to hide my life from everyone when i'm ashamed of it. i know that almost everything that's happened this year isn't our fault, and there might have only been a few things we could have changed. at least i know it in my head. but who really likes to post pictures of their kid growing up at grandma and grandpa's house because they can't find work, can't afford a car, can't figure out what they're doing with their life. and so yeah, it's been easier not to post.

we were given a car last week, something that brought spencer and i a lot of hope. hope that we really are gonna get to start over. that our life is about to change. hope that we can use our tax money to put a deposit on an apartment, and really get on our own. until 3 days ago. when 2 of spencer's 3 remaining molars decided to go insane on him. he's not slept in 3 days, and the pain has been excruciating. i get so angry when this happens, because it's just not fair. he keeps losing tooth after tooth, and before long, there's gonna be nothing left. he's having surgery on monday, getting 2 more teeth removed. leaving him with 1 molar. just 1. and to pay for that surgery, since the 2 weeks we got of unemployment compensation this january made us ineligible for medicaid, we're having to use our deposit money. i'm so frustrated with everything right now. i know God is in control of all of this. i know this. but it's so hard to hang onto hope when every circumstance seems to thwart our ability to move on. supposedly, because spence's unemployment was put on hold for 2 months, we're going to receive those 8 weeks in a lump sum. which would repay the deposit money, and give us our chance to start over. without those 8 weeks, we're going to have to stay here longer, possibly miss the summer semester and move when we can save the money up again.

i know this isn't what you come here for. you come for sweet pictures of your grand-daughter, your great-grand-daughter, your cousins, family you've never met in person. but i'm so tired of hiding all these fears. and frustrations. pray for us. pray that we are able to move on with our life. instead of stuck in a borrowed bedroom, hoping to one day start over. pray for spencer's mouth. the situation is not good, and he is in constant agony from his mouth. even when his teeth aren't acting up, he's hurting all the time. i hate it. i can't even describe the fury i feel because of him being in pain. pray that for once, the red tape gets brushed aside, and we're able to get back the 8 weeks we should have already received. pray i learn to pray more, and whine less.

i'll be posting pictures of zoë soon. i need to upload them from the camera. and maybe next time you hear from me, we'll have better news to share.

i had forgotten about posting her first "big girl owie"... when we were playing outside, she kept running on the concrete path, instead of the grass. and of course i kept telling her to get on the grass, knowing what was about to happen. and it did. followed by some tears, some kisses, and of course, more running.

and then, we have pictures from zoë coming out of a time out. i know people call this age "the terrible twos" but this is certainly not that. zoë is such a sweet natured child, who loves to kiss and hug everyone, but she has a willful streak which leads to her throwing food at the dinner table, or climbing on tables, even after repeated "no ma'ams." and so, we've begun the timeout. and boy is it working. within 2 minutes of the fiercest tantrum starting, she's completely calmed down, ready to go back and eat her dinner, and say "bye bye naughties" (her favorite thing to say as we leave the bedroom - the timeout room) i guess she just needs a few minutes on her own, whether or not her brain is processing why she's in there, it seems to work. thank the Lord for that. she will cry the whole time, but when there's a break in crying and yelling, that's when i go in, and she's all smiles. covered in tears, but all smiles. hence the pictures. they were pretty dark so i manipulated them in photoshop, some more successfully than others.

i know it's only a small smattering of pictures, i'm slowly getting my act back together. and to be honest, i don't forsee extremely frequent updates, like in the past. at least not until we get moved into our own place, and settled into a routine again. i will continue to post as often as i can, but when the posting has be done after midnight while zoë sleeps, it kinda precludes me from lengthy picture laden posts. which take a while to upload. and usually have zoë waking up in the middle.

i'm a foodie now. muwhahaha. well, kinda. but i did start another blog. don't worry, this one will still be around. i'm just blogging about the things i don't post here. like what we ate for dinner, and how much i paid for toilet paper.

over the last year, with all the upheaval in our life, i've really started missing my kitchen stuff. my mixer, my food processor. but in the middle of it all, i've really fallen in love with cooking. more than i already loved it. the thrill of trying new recipes, making homemade bread, sharing my love for my friends and family in the form of cookies. or amazing chicken. and what started simply, 2 1/2 years ago, with planning meals around what was on sale at the store, has turned into an all out game for me. it feels like i'm doing all these naughty subversive things by not paying full price for makeup. like somehow i'm beating the system. and i find it pretty exhilarating when i can get something for free. probably because this year has shown me the value of one dollar in ways i never understood before.

so that's why i've started a new blog. so that i can glory in the thrill of the hunt for the best deals, and maybe help some more folks along the way. if it wasn't for the resources i've found on the internet on how to really make our money stretch, i certainly wouldn't have been able to purchase the things i've purchased. especially not at the prices i bought them at. i'm still growing in all of this, but i'm getting thriftier by the day.

check me out at: http://otherpeopleskitchens.blogspot.com.

the name comes from the fact that this year, all my cooking has been done in other peoples kitchens.

and pictures of zoë will be forthcoming. although at this point, i think video captures it a lot better. she's getting so good at talking to us... like when she does something silly, and i sigh and say "oh zoë." she'll reply "i know, i silly" (although it's a little garbled, you know how us parents are. we're convinced she's quoting shakespeare when she babbles. but she really does reply "i silly")

so there ya go.

the long delayed pictures from the birthday. we got kinda sidetracked the last couple of days.

the big two-oh. zoë turned 2 on monday, with all the pomp and circumstance we could muster for a very busy bee of a toddler. i made 2 types of cupcakes, chocolate, and strawberry. in honor of her birthday falling on groundhog day, i also made a dozen candy groundhogs to sit on top of her cupcakes. she got to eat a whole cupcake, frosting and all. it was her first dessert that she didn't sneak. and the cranberries at thanksgiving don't really count as a dessert.

her stomach was not to pleased with all the sweetness, and the morning after was not pretty. needless to say, i'll spare you the details.

we ate a thai style peanut butter pork roast, garam masala brown butter green beans, broccoli with oyster sauce, and basmati rice. if i had been really planning, i would have done a lemongrass limeade, but the party was kinda hastily thrown together, because of scheduling issues. it was much more low key than i would have liked to do, but it's okay. next year, maybe we'll have more toddler friends, and can do something more "birthday party" like. i think in some ways i'm being too idealistic. i know all zoë really cared about was that most of her family was present, and she got to open presents.

i'm about to upload a ton of video to our youtube page, so make sure you click the video link to the left. it's the picture of zoë, right underneath the "about the writer"

zoë got an ikea gift card from grammie and mimi, money from great grandma and great grandpa squier, money from aunt debbie (which purchased the really cute hello kitty play tent and plate set), a big ball and a mrs. potato head from brent and michelle, a really sweet little lunchbox set from aunt lori, a barney dvd and a tea set from aunt allie and uncle buzz, a very practical bag of underwear (for the glorious day we're finally done with potty training) and a drum set (not so practical, but the big hit of the night) from grandma and grandpa mills. we're still waiting on our gift to arrive via amazon, but it's a set of nature dvds, the BBC version of the planet earth series, with the blue planet series included. i could have gone with the sigourney weaver narration, but i think a british accent (ala Sir David Attenborough) sounds awesomer.

so without cluttering these posts with unnecessary talking, here's the big girl. who is such a little chatterbox. if you ever want to talk to her on the phone, she would LOVE to talk to you. so give the girl a call. :)

so zoë has done nothing but talk about fishies since we got back from the aquarium. the trip was a birthday present for her, and i am too impatient to wait until february.

which, speaking of february, we actually hit our 2 year "blogiversary" on december 26th or 27th. i can't remember which day. either way, hard to believe it's been 2 years.

and when it comes to other 2 year old things, zoë's 2nd birthday is swiftly approaching, and i'm scrambling to figure out what to do for her birthday party. i think a good bit of sewing is in order, to make her a happy birthday banner, with cupcakes. also known as "hacakes" to the little girl who seems to learn 2 or 3 new words a day. as you can tell from one set of pictures, she got to see an "ocaticker" or to those not in the know, an octopus. actually, she's starting to ask questions, but they're the funniest questions. they go something along these lines every time. "i oy all ee kee shishy?" which is toddler for "dear mother, would you be so kind as to give me a goldfish please?" hahaha... sometimes i crack myself up. also, we're hearing "shishy? no shishies." from her a lot. which i'm guessing means she knows we can't go see the fishies, but she sure would like to. she says "ohwie? no ohwie." when we pass aunt lori's house, but we can't stop. crazy. 2 years ago, i was begging for her to hurry up, and hoping i wasn't pregnant until groundhogs day. which i was, incidentally. strange how i predicted that one...

so there's the update, plus some pictures.

anniversary

very crowded tunnel, and there was a baby crying right next to us. hence the dour expressions.