Easter 2009

Our Easter weekend was a busy one with extended family coming to Maryville to celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday. We had a delicious Easter meal on Saturday afternoon at my brother's house and enjoyed catching up with each other. On Sunday afternoon, the kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at some friend's of Eddie and Shannon's. We even got to see some itty-bitty baby bunnies just behind the fence that the kids are standing in front of. They were so cute! What a neat Easter treat!

Putt Putt Fun

After shopping at the outlet stores in Pigeon Forge one evening, we took the kids to play putt-putt at an Old MacDonald themed course. I don't know what Kaela thought it would be like, but she did not want to play and was crying by the time I chose a ball and club for her. I didn't know a child could be so nervous about playing miniature golf! After the first hole, however, Kaela loved it and they all had fun. Karis was happy to have her picture taken with a cow, her favorite animal at the moment. She got lucky at the end of the game by getting a hole-in-one on an almost impossible putt and won a free game!
Kaela, as she so often does, says "This was my best day ever!" She has lots of "best day evers." Even if she gets a new toothbrush, it's a "best day ever!"

Ice Cream #2

We're doing our best to eat our fair share of ice cream, so we took a field trip on Thursday to Mayfield Dairy where we had a tour of the milk and ice cream factory and then enjoyed some ice cream, of course! The only cow we saw was the giant one in the picture below, so I insisted that Corban milk it. Rho told me that Corban always wanted to milk a cow when he was little. I thought this might be the closest he'd ever get to fulfilling that dream. I thought we all looked pretty spiffy in our red hair nets, don't you?

Ice Cream #1

So much for posting old news in any kind of order. It's just going to come at you randomly. How 'bout that?

There isn't much that beats eating free, delicious ice cream in your pajamas and that's exactly what's going on here. Mom and Dad knew of a great ice cream place in Knoxville that was giving free ice cream one Saturday to anyone who showed up in their jammies. Yum!

Buzz Cut

I was going to post our TN happenings in chronological order, but I wanted to post these pictures of Corban's last haircut. My friend Jessica asked if Corban had been saying "NO" to haircuts. Well, for a while, he was sporting a longer style that he would wet and put curling gel in. It looked very nice that way, but as most of us with curly hair know, it became a hassle and I finally talked him into getting a "summer" cut. Before the cut, he could pouff out his hair pretty big (first picture with goofy grin)! Nan (my Mom) was the stylist for this latest buzz cut and she had some fun by first giving him a rad mohawk. (I think I'm going to be in big trouble for posting this picture). The end result is nice, as you can clearly see in the last picture of a very handsome 10 year old.

Backyard Fun

These are just a few photos taken early in our TN stay. My parents have a nice, big backyard for the kids to enjoy. If only we could annihilate the ticks and bugs! Ick! Colorado doesn't have all these creepy crawlies....it takes some getting used to. Corban enjoys shooting a b.b. gun and the girls sometimes take over Pappaw's shed to use as a play house. My parents have a great waterfall and LOTS of flowers and such. The garden is in as well, after Rho tilled and worked the dirt. I realize I didn't post pictures that show all this! Maybe in a later post. Oh, and we're watching some baby birds whose parents made their nest inside one of the bird feeders. Cool!

Temporary Tennesseeans

A WHOLE lot has happened since my last blog. Most of you know about all that. Though it's hard to imagine that I would ever forget this crazy time, I'm going to write down a quick recap here anyway, since I know how unreliable my memory can be.

On February 23rd, two days before we were to sell our Erie home and buy a new home in Loveland, Rho's boss informed him that he would be laid off at the end of March. One of our main goals for this move was to get Rho closer to this job. Not knowing how long it might take for Rho to find a new job or where it would be, we backed out of buying the Loveland home. We still sold our Erie home, closing on the 25th. In the midst of shock and confusion, we were forced to make many difficult decisions, quickly. God saw us through that time and, in the end, Rho stayed in CO to finish his work and I packed up the kids and a UHaul and drove to TN with the help of my Mom. Rho was soon told by his boss that he could just quit working and still get paid, giving him the freedom to job hunt full-time. Within a week, Rho had interviewed with Lockheed Martin, a former employer, and basically had secured a job. We felt amazingly blessed. During an economically tough time, we were amazed that a job presented itself so quickly. Clearly, God's hand was in this. Though being apart from Rho was tough for the kids and I, we felt very encouraged that we'd be back together sooner than we imagined. Though we had hoped Rho's job would start on April 6th, he actually didn't get started until the 27th. There were "issues" at Lockheed that are too confusing to remember!

During parts of March and April, Rho came to TN and was able to spend several weeks here while waiting for his job to begin. I made the trip back to CO with him and did some house hunting. We are still waiting for the right house to show up. We did make a bid on one, but were outbid by other buyers. We weren't terribly disappointed over this, just frustrated that it meant MORE house hunting and that our being together as a family would be postponed a little more. We continue to pray that God's Will will be done in this and that he'll bless us with the home that he'd have us in.

So, that's the saga, in a nutshell. It made me sad to think about all that again. What an emotional time. Anyway, I hope to do several blogs to show what we've been doing while in TN. It's old news, but at least there will be pictures to enjoy!

Thanks to each of you who have prayed for us during the past months. It is greatly appreciated.