Answers to Prayers

I keep meaning to write this recent situation down. So here we go. For Christmas David got a shotgun. Until last month he had yet to even go shooting. He has been trying to coordinate going out several times, but finally was able to set a time with a friend to go target shooting. For transportation to this outing David took our trusty, rusty old white car. We don't drive it much anymore, because it has no A/C and it is getting hot. David was kind, though and left me the van with AC while he drove the hot little car.
On his way to the designated shooting spot David stopped to fill the car with gas. He ended up going inside to also purchase some water. David NEVER stops in the gas station to buy anything as it costs ten times more than anywhere else, but this time he did. He went in to buy some drinking water. He looked at the price of the little water compared to the gallon water and ended up spending the extra money to get the gallon. On the way to the shooting area (in the desert) the car overheated. But guess what David had just purchased at the gas station... water... and it just so happened that the car was a gallon low on water. David poured the water in and the car cooled right off. Then he was off without any further problems.
What a blessing! I am so grateful that we are looked after in all things big and small. Some may say coincidence... but I say otherwise. The crazier thought is this: We always say God is "all knowing", but have you ever thought that it includes understanding how a car works, and just what it'll need to get you to your destinations safely... Just a thought.

Our second blessing was David receiving a job. The job is out of town though, so came the dilemma of selling our house in a market that is horrible. We were blessed not to be "upside down" in our house so we were able to price it pretty competitively. Even having said this, many houses in our area are bank owned and selling for dirt cheap. We decided to do our part in making the house as presentable and gussied up as possible and we'd have to leave the rest to prayer. And pray we did! For three weeks not a soul called about the house or looked at it. We were getting pretty frustrated and were looking at having to do the long haul on this house and even were trying to figure out how to drop the price further. However, every time we left the house we'd leave it ready to go. You know... "faith without works"... So this weekend we had a call and someone went through the house... and then asked to come back an hour later. Within an hour of that we had an offer. BOOYA! And the best part is that it was an offer that we could accept without having to write a check to someone to buy our house. What an amazing blessing. They want to close by the end of June. This is wonderful news. Now I don't have to be away from David for an unknown amount of time. I feel very blessed and am so grateful for answered prayers. Thanks to those who offered a few in our direction... I know they were heard, and we much appreciate them. Now we are packing and rearing to go. I can't wait for the next big adventure!

Drug Addicts Pay My Mortgage...

It is official. David is now officially Dr. Mower PharmD. HOORAY! What a big, fun, wonderful, long awaited day. It started at 5:30am with a rush of people trying to get dressed, cleaned up and ready for a 9:00am graduation. David's sister and two brothers stayed overnight as well as my sister, so it was a full house. Amazingly we all made it out of the house on time with a somewhat decent house. (The house is for sale so technically anyone could walk through at any time.)

David's parents and sister met us at the college and even got there early enough to get us some sweet seats. As soon as the ceremony started Alexis did her famous, "I have to go to the bathroom!" Thankfully my sister volunteered to take her and of course once arriving to the restroom she did her next famous phrase, "I'll try again later." Oh, my child! Then Timothy became VERY restless and things were just getting started. Luckily there was space in the auditorium for him to roam but still see the graduation. Once again my sister helped with him. Thanks Katelynn. I was able to sit and watch until David crossed the stage.

David's graduating class was only about 80 people so each person wrote a thank you "speech" that was read while they were being "hooded". This made for a long ceremony but it was nice to be able to give a last hurrah.

When David crossed the stage I suddenly became very emotional and I felt the past six years flash through my mind of all the struggles, long nights of studying, financial worries, and trials we've been through. Some days I thought it would never happen, but there we were. Graduating! DONE! Ready to start the next phase of our life. Could this be real!? It was! HOORAY! Alexis and I "rushed the stage"... okay... we quietly snuck forward to get a better look at daddy get his diploma. When David's thank you was read he mentioned Alexis and Timothy and all Alexis could talk about was how they said her name over the microphone. She was so excited they were talking about her.

I spent the rest of graduation wandering the halls with Timothy, but I was grateful to have seen David graduate. Afterwards there was a reception across the street. I got a phone call from a realtor who wanted to see the house... right then. My mind was sent rushing to think about all the things I hadn't gotten cleaned in the rush to get out the door. This would be the first person to see the house... of course on a day when I was a mess. Oh well. We just crossed our fingers...

It was a great event with lots of family and friends. Thanks to everyone who drove a long distance to celebrate with us. After graduation we had a barbecue and sent everyone off to David's brother, Aaron's graduation who was graduating from ASU with an engineering degree. A long day of festivities.

Congratulations David! We are all so proud of you for all you have accomplished. Now lets go make some money! :)

David getting his medallion.

David getting "hooded"Where David got to stand for the next hour and a half!Alexis excited to see Daddy's big day. She kept saying, "Now daddy can make money and get a truck!"

Post Graduation Pictures.David and his parents.Timothy fell asleep minutes before graduation was over. Typical.

Family photo op.Alexis the fashionista.Off to spend daddy's first pay check with aunt Kathy.The next drama queen. How old is she? Oye!Next she'll be looking for my keys! Eeeek!

David getting "hooded" by his brother.Alexis at the "After party" soaking but happy.Pinata time! You can't say pharmacist without "Aaaarrr!"

Timothy on the run.Our little water baby. He would live in the water if he could. He LOVES it.Timothy ate mango. Random but he seemed to like it.

Signs

Do you ever pay attention to just how many signs are along the side of the road? I didn't used to until Alexis noticed them. From the rear seat of the car I hear a little voice saying, "P"... "P"... "P".... I ask Alexis what in the world she is saying, and she explains to me that there are lots of "P" signs. Sure enough there are LOTS. She is referring to the no parking sing with a large letter P with the "no circle" around it. Now she has added to the signs she reads off while we drive. Now I hear, "turn arrow," "no turn," "bikes" and many more. So I challenge you to pay attention to ALL the signs you pass as you drive and imagine someone reading them all off to you as you go. Quite entertaining.

March '09 San Diego Vacation... Part 1

So I am finally getting around to our March vacation to San Diego. We went from Friday March 27th through Tuesday March 31st. It was a nice little vacation and probably one of the last we'll take for awhile. Once David starts working vacations will be harder to get until he gains some PTO. So here is the run down... with pictures of our wonderful time off.

Friday March 27th

It seems like it takes us an entire day just to pack the van to get out of town. We were still in Yuma and would be leaving Yuma upon return from San Diego, so we were packing for a long weekend... and packing from a three month stay. We finally got on the road early Friday afternoon. I love it when we can start a movie in the car and ride in a bit of peace. The kids seem to enjoy it more too. We only supply movies when we are on long trips so it is more a treat. The drive was uneventful except for the truck we saw drive off the freeway into a field (all were okay) and a long wait at the border checkpoint in the mountain pass.

When we arrived in San Diego it was just about rush hour, but we avoided most of the traffic. My grandma lives in La Mesa which is about three miles east of SDSU. It is the perfect location to about everything. When we arrived we enjoyed dinner with my grandma and then went to SeaPort Village for a sunset stroll. Alexis was so excited to see the boats and water. The weather was nice and a wonderful change from the dry Arizona sun. I love the ocean air, the fog, and the cool breeze from the water. I guess it is because I grew up in California. It was a nice time and the kids even got little toys. You have to pay for parking EVERYWHERE in San Diego, but if we purchased anything we were able to validate our parking. Lucky for the kids. Here are a few pics from Sea Port Village.

Alexis found a store full of hammocks and different swings. Her favorite was the tire swing made to look like an elephant. She also had to toss a penny in every fountain she saw. I think we paid the city of San Diego at least $20 in pennies during our stay. Oh... and just to give you an idea of how many pictures we took in our 4 days... it was roughly 1700! NICE! I don't think I can load them all... but stay tuned for more from San Diego!

Living on the Edge

So it has been a week since we placed our house on the market. We have kept the house immaculate and the kids have even helped. I keep waiting for something to happen. Maybe the phone to ring, the doorbell to ring...heck... anything to ring. There has been nothing. This is a VERY different experience than our last house we sold. By now it was under contract and off our hands. The market is much different than a few years ago. It doesn't help that every other house is a foreclosure or short sale. A bit frustrating for those of us who played by the rules and are now feeling a bit punished by it. Not only is our equity far gone, but even breaking even looks impossible at this point. I know it has only been a week, but I am super frustrated already. David starts work in 4 weeks and I don't want to be stuck down here with the kids by myself... and we can't rent up in PHX until David gets an actual paycheck.
I feel like we have done all we can on our part to sell the house. I planted new pretty, blooming flowers. We painted any "extreme" colors neutral. We cleaned the heck out of this house. We staged half the house to look like a "model home". What more can we do? Oh yeah.... drop the house price another $30k... oh wait... we've already gone as far as we can. We are still cheaper than the new builds in our development by about $15k, but still NOTHING! Have I mentioned that I am a bit frustrated! ARGH!!!!!!
I guess this will be another lesson for me in patience. Have I mentioned that I lack in patience?

ANYWHO! In other things.... Alexis has a new love for baseball. She is actually pretty good at it too. She hits at least 1/2 of the pitches I toss to her. She also loves to play catch. What is even better is that with all her energy, she'll run ALL over the yard. Good thing too, because she doesn't have the greatest aim. She is also finding new independence with the refrigerator and water dispenser. She can operate both now and it makes bedtime fun. We never know exactly how much she has had to drink before going to sleep. No issues yet. She always comes and wakes me up.
Alexis has also developed some fears. She is so worked up lately about monsters. To protect her from the monsters she requires sleeping with 6+ stuffed animals. The other night she had so many animals on her bed, that there was nowhere for her to sleep. David put a limit to 2 animals and placed the rest in a box. That night she woke me up at 3AM to look for the rest of her stuffed animals. 3Am.... are you serious! Then because she was up walking around, she had to go to the bathroom. While in the bathroom she was "small chatting" with me. She was asking where we got a certain movie, and how much it cost. All I could think was, "I can't seriously be having this conversation at 3 AM!".... did I mention it was 3AM! After much reassurance I was able to get her back to bed and convince her that 2 stuffed animals could protect her from monsters just as well as 10 stuffed animals could. OYE!

As Alexis is developing fears, we find that Timothy is more fearless every day. I have found him on top of the table just playing, and he continues to climb on EVERYTHING. He can even climb into the bathtub. We have since locked the bathroom and placed child gates up... because he can also start the water. He is pretty smart.
He can open our doors, and we have found new use for the alarm system. The doors all chime when they open. This has been helpful in knowing if Timothy is trying to escape. This past week he was halfway into the garage. Time to start dead bolting everything, all the time. He also pulled over our nice lamp this week, which then shattered into thousands of tiny glass shards... on the carpet. He spent some quality time in timeout for that one. All these things happen in slow motion... just can't get there in time to catch him. He is a quick one!

As for us old folks... we are just tired, frustrated, and so ready to move on to other things. David is getting bored at home. The other day he never even changed out of pajamas. I asked if it felt wonderful to not get dressed for an entire day. He just shrugged... I think he'd rather be working. He is ready for a challenge. I think the computer games are starting to get to his brain and shrink it a little every day. He better get studying for his licensing exam. Time seems to sit still some days... and other days it just flies by... I hope it just flies by in the near future...