Hooray!

Well, this morning I received an email from the property manager that we should hear something about the a/c within 2 days. O.k.

I was thrilled later in the early afternoon to receive a call asking if I'd be home for the next hour or so and the call was from the a/c folks! Yay!

Fast forward an hour and a half and we appear to have a/c working again - yay!

I'm so thankful for the speed of the service company, that the Lord saw fit to keep the temps low today (high today is only 84!) and the house didn't get hotter than 80 so far today!

So glad this isn't anything like the experience we had last year!

Thank you to everyone for praying for us to have this resolved quickly!

Here we go again....I hope not!

Well, you won't believe it, but I'll tell you anyway....the a/c started acting up last night.

Yes, you heard me right. Hmm....seems it stopped working the end of October last year....and it's August....ugh....I hope that doesn't mean we're in for another a/c ordeal.

We noticed the house just wasn't feeling very cool and checked and there was a nice big blob of ice forming around one of the little pipes off of the indoor a/c unit. Ack. We shut down the a/c overnight....not something you want to have to do in TX in August, but the Lord had mercy on us and sent a nice big thunderstorm last night to cool things down some. Also, thankfully each bedroom has a ceiling fan or another type of fan and that helped. This morning CKB turned the a/c back on and by the time I got up and going for the day the ice was starting to form again. NOOOOO!

I shut the a/c back off and we're a tad on the warm side right now waiting long enough to make sure it's completely thawed out before we start trying to slowly cool the house down - we probably will wait 'til evening to start when the heat of the day is over. It's a balmy 88 degrees outside today....let's see what the ol' thermostat says right now.....hmm, 83, at least it's a little cooler still in the house somehow. Here's hoping the a/c unit just needs freon this time around!

Hopefully this is not the beginning of another a/c saga...but if it is, I'll let you know how it turns out this time...if I don't melt first!

Miss Baby is still 6 months...for 1 more day

So...at long last, here's one of the pics from her 6 month photo shoot - I didn't have time to add a border and such. Isn't she a doll? :) Right after our return from the Association, Miss Baby began her adventure in fine dining with some rice cereal. She is the first of our 5 to actually like it and finish an entire box! She has now started on veggies as well as other types of cereal and so far, she has taken to all of the different foods very well.





Tomorrow she'll be 7 mos. and I'll need to take some more pics! Time flies!!!

Getting ready....

...for school to officially start, that is!

I've been using the remaining few weeks of Summer to tidy up, organize, clean, etc. as much as I can with an almost 7 month old in the house and I'm pleased w/the progress so far. I don't have all the books on the bookshelf yet and we have another bookshelf like the one in the picture that will go at the other end of the tables probably, but we're getting there in the "more organized" realm of things....



Here is the main work area. All nice and neat. I will be laying down the law, so to speak, on how this area must be put back in order every day when our work there is done...this area became the "Craft Emporium" the past few months and I can't stand it when it's a big mess (especially since it's one of the first things you see when you enter the house - it is straight down the hallway right beside/down from the front door, no less!).

Anyway, we will begin this coming Monday. We will start all subjects except for Tapestry (history, literature, geography, art, etc.) and will then add Tapestry into the mix the following week (Labor Day week). I'll try to update later to share how our first week or two are going.

Here's the whole crew patiently moving around from one pose to another as I tried out different ways of arranging 5 children for a nice portrait - coming soon!


Here are a few quick pics from lunch today - (Miss A was finishing up practicing piano and missed out on the picture taking this time).

Remember those yummy Bugles? I happened to spot them at the grocery store last night and couldn't resist....so much so that I popped open the bag when I was putting up groceries and had a few for myself (shhhh!). ;)

Time what an empty vapor 'tis

I read an email the other day that said if you have a 6 month old and your memory isn't so great, you're not losing your mind - you're probably just sleep deprived and distracted.

Well, I definitely feel like I'm getting more sleep these days, but distracted...well, that goes without saying! Not only do I have a 6 month old, but I also have an 8 year old, a 7 year old, a 5 year old and a 3 year old! :)

Time is flying by and computer time is not a priority - hence the lack of blogging these days.


For the past few weeks we were extra busy with a visit from my parents. The time always seems to go by so fast and then they're gone again. Sigh. One day maybe we'll live even closer to one another...you never know!

The 4 older children all had a week of swimming lessons and did very well - the last day they all got to jump off the diving board which was a big treat!




Mom and Dad got here in time to go to a few days of their lessons and enjoyed it a lot. We ended that week after the last lesson with lunch at a park and snow cones afterward - yum!




Mom and Dad traveled with us to the Primitive Association and enabled us to stay in the local hotel (the rooms weren't big enough to house all 7 of us in one room). The girls bunked with their grandparents, while the boys and baby stayed w/CKB and I. I think the hotel was pretty much filled with those in town for the meeting. It was so nice running into everyone in the halls and lobby at breakfast. The meeting was very blessed and we're so glad to have been there. Mom and Dad enjoyed it as well. This year I decided it would be best to not attend the evening services Friday and Saturday, but instead to take the children back to the hotel and get them ready for bed - this worked out well even though I really missed being at the meeting - I think it helped a lot, especially with Miss Baby to keep her on her regular routine as much as possible - she slept like a champ in the hotel for a change and did so much better in that regard that she had 2 weeks prior at the Camp Meeting.

Back at home we enjoyed having Mom and Dad here for a few more days and enjoyed a visit from my Dad's sister (my aunt) who lives about an hour from us and my cousin (I can't believe I didn't get a picture while they were here - argh!). Aunt M was "sweet" enough to bring a jug of sweet tea to go with lunch and we had a really nice visit with them in spite of the crazy weather and loss of power for about an hour!

The day before Mom and Dad headed home Dad had lunch with some old friends and Mom and I took the children to ride the carousel. Mr. A has the most expressive eyes, doesn't he? :)






Now, Mom and Dad have returned home and we're finishing up our "catching up" in History and starting to make preparations/planning for the new school year. I'm looking forward to getting started and hoping things will go well while at the same time knowing that each day will go however it will and I have to relax and remember that with a baby in the house, things aren't going to go perfectly smoothly every day. Be flexible......right?

Here are a few other miscellaneous pictures - enjoy!




Here's Miss Baby showing off her fancy new shoes that Grandma got for her - they match an outfit given to us by our good friend V!