What's Happening...

So, real fast, since we don't have internet and I'm using Chase's phone that he got some cheap internet for. We moved to Seguin, TX, just outside of San Antonio and about an hour away from Austin. We drove here Christmas day and the day after. I have been cleaning every day since then with a few days off for my sanity's sake. I have faith that the house will be a good house for us once everything is cleaned up. The house is a rental on 3 acres just on the edge of town, enough not to get a lot of city services, hence the constant battle to get internet services out here, hopefully it will be resolved sooner than later. We have to hire out our garbage pick up, but really we are not that far out there, it's ridiculous really. We live across from some cows and next to a small pecan orchard, but there are houses down the road and a restaurant kitty corner to us and the freeway is just behind us.

The house had been vacant long enough to acquire some unwanted house guests. I have been cleaning up mounds of mice poop, cockroach poop and eggs, and recently found a snake skin, and skeletal remains of some animal, probably a mouse, or snake. Many of my days consist of putting on a face mask, rubber gloves, and grabbing my trusty spray bottle of bleach. I am slowly getting it done, even though it feels like it will never be done. I am trying to remember that we are together again, and that is something to be happy about. I am trying to remember my favorite motto which is written on a tile placed above my kitchen sink..."Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, but about learning to dance in the rain." It's hard to be happy when you're cleaning up mouse poop and crying hysterically after finding evidence inside your house of something you fear so very much.

I want to tell Chase that I love him and that I know it's not his fault the house turned out the way it did, although I secretly wonder sometimes if this is how he's getting back at me for picking the Lehi house. I know he is working very hard and is doing the best for us. I want to apologize for my breakdowns (I've had a few). I am glad to be here despite the house conditions and nearly stepping on said feared creature mentioned above (see Chase's blog for details). I am freaked out no doubt, and will soon be making my visit to the closest hardware store to purchase a shovel. A family that invited us for dinner from church mentioned that we should familiarize ourselves with the local poisonous snakes and always carry a shovel..."Happy thoughts, think HAPPY thoughts!"

In all seriousness though I believe this will be a good place for our family. I am thankful for a wonderful, loving, hard working, husband, and I am thankful for fantastic, sweet, helping, brave children. I am thankful my husband has a job. I am thankful for my own house again, and will be even more so if I survive the clean up process. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father who is always mindful of me in spite of myself. I am thankful for the wonderful weather we have here and that Joelle getting off of her 3rd antibiotic and 3rd ear infection in 3 months and sick with bronchiolitis finally seems to be healthy and well. I am thankful that the bus picks my kids up right outside our house (Because the school they were supposed to attend was capped for 1st graders, they sent us to a school further away and ended up having to bus my kids.)

I am thankful for the beautiful creatures that exist here too, the deer outside my kitchen window, (even though they scared the crap out of me at 1:30 in the morning when I got up with Joelle), the squirrels, and pretty red birds that I think are cardinals. I am thankful that my car runs, and that I have a husband who could fix it. I am thankful for music and silly kids and a husband that dance to it. I am thankful to all the awesome thrift and second hand stores they have here since we couldn't bring all of our stuff (most of our things are still in storage in UT). I am thankful for a husband who after getting home from working all day comes home and realizes the crap I've had to do and cooks dinner for everyone. I am thankful for a nice tax return hopefully coming soon. I'm thankful for a library that provides cool books and free movies for my kids.

I am thankful to the friendly people who have invited us for dinners and make us feel at home here. People here are very friendly, I've had people help bag items for me at the store, and help me try to fit purchases into my trunk. I am even thankful to the crazy ladies who wanted to buy my hair at the Goodwill, it gave me a good laugh, still a little nervous, but a good laugh none the less. I am thankful to all of Chase's friends from the academy who showed up at a moment's notice to help unload the moving van. I am thankful for kids and a husband who put up with my grumpiness and craziness, and still love me, I hope. I am thankful that we can be together forever as a family. I love my husband and kids and hope to try to learn to dance when it "rains" and be a happier and better person for it. Well, better get to bed, finally got the baby to sleep and have another long day ahead tomorrow. Oh, and if I don't moderate your comments right away, I'm sorry, it will probably be a while before I can get back on here, but I will try to keep updating.