Last day at School

This is my "Posse".....

This past Friday was my last day of school. So I thought it would be appropriate to have us all dress like Texans and wear cowboy hats. (ok, I know I just did a stereotype, sue me!)

I bought all the kids in my class hats and bandannas. They went crazy over them! We walked into the cafeteria at lunch with our hats and all of the K5 classes (7 of them) went crazy shouting: ooohh! cowboys! The lunch ladies lost control of the room. And that was exactly the response I was looking for! See, my kids are an ESE class. Whether intentional or not, we sometimes get left out of stuff at school... so it was nice to have a spotlight on my class for a change.

PLUS, it was a great tool for good behavior. You could only wear your hat if you were a good listener!

Now, this fella was a guest of the school Friday.

Our school had a contest to raise money for the Cancer Society. Kids would give a $1 for a vote on which teacher or administrator would have to KISS the PIG. I don't know for sure, but I think it was rigged, cuz our Principal was the 'winner'.

The whole school got to go out in the field and watch Mr. Shields kiss this lovely. I missed it cuz I had to go to the office and pick up the pizza for my class that we ordered.... But the kids told me he did it!

I will miss the kids, MOST of them. One of the girls (the chubby one on the left) said she was going to Tx with me. I asked her if she got permission from her mom and she said YES! haha

I have a month still before I leave for Tx, but there is so much I have to get done, I really didn't want to have to work around my work schedule. And as it turned out, I quit at the right time. Mom has a lung biopsy this week. We spent half the day today doing pre op stuff and then we'll be at the hospital half the day again on Thursday. I would have had to ask for those 2 days off. This way, they already have a replacement for me and they aren't short handed.

I am going back on Friday morning. It's "Dr. Seuss" week this week and they are having green eggs and ham in the morning....can't miss that! lol

Paper Chain Countdown....

This is a paper chain I and one of my students made. It's the days I have till I see Fred again. I also have a countdown on my kitchen calendar, my planner and my PDA. Obsessive much??

The first couple of weeks, I did pretty good. I even slept well at night, even though on the norm, I don't. So I thought, "ha, I can do this! no sweat!". Yeah, it only lasted a couple of weeks. I am miserable. I guess the best way to describe me right now is RESTLESS. I am SO ready to go.

My last day of work is this Friday. Even though the closing is not until March 31st, there are a lot of things I need to take care of that I didn't want a job to slow me down. Steph is moving into a new apt. this weekend (yay!) and I am hauling some of my furniture to her. Andy will be moving into his soccer coach's house sometime in the next 2 weeks and I want to help him with the transition. Mom still doesn't have a place, and quite frankly, I don't know what she is going to do. She has a lung biopsy scheduled for next week, so that will keep me busy for a couple of days.

Then, I will start preparing the house for the movers. I am going through tubs of stuff and consolidating, figuring out what will go with me and what will go on the truck. And we haven't found a house yet and our stuff may be going into storage, so I have to think long term what will we need....
I also want to take Andy and Steph to Disney one last time. THAT I am looking forward to!

And lastly, Becky and Tym are going to Israel for 2 weeks at the end of March and they have asked if I would stay with Matt and Katie. That works out great as my house will be empty after the 20th.

So the month of March will have me busy enough that I won't go crazy waiting. I DO NOT want to do this separation thing again. I absolutely hate it.

BY THE WAY, IT'S 38 DAYS!!!

It's Starting to Sink In

My house is sold. Wow. Not only is it amazing that it sold 3 weeks in the market. Everything about this transition has been smooth so far. Fred is settled in Texas and started his new job this past week.
But it is starting to really hit me, I am moving to Texas. I am leaving Florida, where I have lived since I was 10 years old. I am leaving my kids, my mom, my friends, to go to a place I know not very much about.
And I am leaving my home. I know that it's not healthy to hold on tight to material things. But I truly love my home. Mainly because I know it was a gift from God. How we got this house was yet another amazing set of events that only God could orchestrate. This was supposed to be IT. The house we were going to retire in, the grandkids were coming to visit me. This was the home I always dreamed of for my family.
I truly didn't think we would leave, even though we have been talking about moving to a quieter, slower pace area, I didn't think it would happen. And certainly not this quickly.
There are times when I get up in the middle of the night because I can't sleep, and I walk around the house. I FEEL God's presence in this house. We have had great fellowships with friends, small group meetings where it brought us closer to some wonderful folks.
The buyers came by tonight. He had a sister that was leaving town and he wanted to show her the house. So in comes the realtor, the buyer, his sister and 5 kids. The kids were running through the house (mainly chasing Kaya). It felt so odd. They are going to be living in my house in another month or 2.
This is going to be hard. Now, I have no doubt that moving to Texas is what God has planned for us. It's clear. But it is still going to hurt. And it's going to be an adjustment. A bigger one than I thought.

Catch up Blog

I hope the 'thought counts' counts because I have 'thought' about blogging several times but never sit and do it! So here is a quick catch up....

Andy turned 19 on January 18th. We didn't see much of him because he had a soccer tournament all weekend. We did slow him down enough to give him his present, a laptop. He is going to need a computer after we move, plus now he doesn't have to use MY laptop! lol

We finally got to go out to dinner and celebrate his birthday. For a few years now, Andy has requested a japanese steakhouse for his birthday dinner. This year we went to Kobe's. Steph came into town for the weekend.

this picture is just to pick on Steph. Although, she DID pose for it! haha

This was also Fred's last weekend with us. He left on Tuesday morning, and if you are on Facebook, you have seen my whining about it. Our Sunday School class is amazing. They had a cake for Fred and some "Texas" decorations around it.

They showered him with cards full of wonderful wishes. Leaving that class is one of the hard things to deal with in the move. Great folks!

Let's see, I think I am all caught up.

Oh, yeah, WE HAVE A BUYER FOR OUR HOUSE!!!

After only 3 weeks to the day the sign went up in the yard, we accepted an offer. It's a bit lower than we wanted, but our realtor is confident that the price is what we were going to get. She said we could wait it out 3-4 months and maybe go up the $5000 we wanted, but we would have spent that in utilities and mortgage. PLUS it would be more time that I would be in Florida while Fred is in Texas.

If all goes well, we should close either March 15th or March 31st. It depends on how fast Fred's job can get the movers down to me. I am hoping for the 15th of course. Not only because I am ready to hit the road, but FCAT and SAT2 testing is during the month of March and I sure would not mind missing out on that!

Once again, God has worked in our lives to show us that nothing is impossible to Him. And if we ask in His will, in His timing, He will honor it.

I am a walking billboard for His mercy. God has blessed my family more than I deserve or ever expected, and I will use the rest of my life to show Him how grateful I am, however feeble that attempt will be.

The Power of The Cross

Our church sang this song today. I don't know if I have ever heard of it before, but I absolutely loved it. I am constantly humbled at how much God has done and given up for me. ME! Someone who is too busy to spend time with Him, someone who wants to control the situations around her, someone who will doubt that very love He constantly pours down.

I am so glad He loves me in spite of me!!

Is God THAT fast??

The house has been on the market for 13 days, we have had 7 showings. One of those has made an offer. It's a VERY low offer, almost a joke. But our realtor has counter offered to see how high they are willing to go. If they are serious, we will talk.
We don't know what this means. They could just be fishing for a cheap deal and hoping we are desperate. But just a week in, we aren't there yet.

I have been saying all along that I have a peace about the sale of our house. I am confident that it will not take long. But a week?! Can God do this? ABSOLUTELY YES.
Then, why am I questioning what I claim I knew all along??

But we do this a lot, don't we? We are quick to say 'I have faith God will provide in times of need','I trust God will take care of the situation'. But when He actually does it, we seem shocked and surprised. Silly us.

So, I have to learn to just breath, sit back and let God handle it. I stop myself from stressing over this almost hourly. I am my own shrink! lol

No matter what happens, I KNOW God has amazing things in store for us!

House on the market

Well, the sign went in the front yard last Friday. We had someone come look on Monday, and they keep coming! As of tomorrow, just 9 days in the market, we will have had 6 showings. Now, it only takes one, the one who will buy our house. But the more bites, the better the chances.
I have been doing some 'decluttering', which thrills me! I have cleaned out the tops of the kitchen counters and it's nice and clean. yay! I still have to work in mine and Fred's closets, but that will happen after he leaves, which will be a week from Tuesday.
That is something I am trying not to think about. I am not at all happy to be here without him, but I also think it's going to be a great learning time.

It's only been a week, but the stress of making sure the house is 'just right' every day is a killer! And when I am at work, I wonder if Andy made his bed, did he leave his bathroom clean, has mom made any progress packing her stuff in her room.....
Boy, another lesson I am learning is that I can't be in control of everything! lol

And I have to say, Andy has been pretty good about his room and bathroom. And as long as we stay busy with showings, we won't get 'comfortable' and slip up and leave messes behind us.

I have full confidence that it won't take long for us to sell our house, in spite of the way the market is. That is one thing I have peace about. Now, about the other things, that is a different story! lol