Week 1 school

Wooo it is complete! I have some observations. One is I am going to learn how to do this by trial and error. This concept doesn't bode well with a lot of books I've been reading and advice I've been given who claim I need to do this and that. I've never been a traditionalist when it came to learning therefore my teaching methods will probably scare some people. I'll get some of those methods later. What curriculum am I using? Well a little bit of everything. A Beka, Bob Jones, Horizons, Reading Eggs, my own a little bit of of this and that.

The kids came back from their grandparents after a week( yes my Mom took all my kids to give me a break. I will not divulge when my last break was) wanting to start school the next day. The excitement came because while they were away Eric and I made them a school room complete with table.

So we dug in and completed our first week. They have lost all their enthusiasm now but we are onto week two and I have no doubt this is where God wants us. 

We finally made it!

We are in a temporary apartment about 30 miles from San Antonio until April but we are a family again seeing each other every night and have our own space well small space but a lot bigger than that small room at my parents.

We are getting adjusted to the big city, Eric is already so I have a bit of catching up to do. Of course the first thing we did was take the kids to the Alamo. Since Eric works downtown we have free parking on the weekends and his building is not to far away.

Tomorrow starts back to school for us. I am still homeschooling Grace and Jonah and will continue the rest of the year due to all the moving and hopefully with the last move being in April. A much much happier and content Carissa...

2013 Life Update

Now that the Holiday hustle and bustle is over I am going to really try to keep this blog updated more. Hopefully. January 2nd the Lord answered our prayer for renters. The kids and I finally get to move further south and be with Eric and live as a family again. We will be living in a temporary space, a two bedroom furnished condo, until our house is built. It really is a vacation condo but we were blessed to find they also did month to month for what is called winter Texans. Apparently there are alot of older folks that use the area in the winter to live. Our house should be done some time in April and we will move again then. 3 moves in a short time!

 I am totally excited about our new house and being able to follow the progress. They broke ground on it mid Decembe. On December 23rd the last time I was down in San Antonio the plumbing was in place.

This is part of our backyard. art of city living is giving up space. Native San Antonio people tell me outdoor time is for Winter months because of the heat in the Spring and Summer. It is going to be quite a change moving to a tropical climate.

The house is a two story and 2900 sq feet! It will feel like a mansion to us!

April can't get here soon enough but for now I am praising God that the kids and I finally are able to join Eric in San Antonio and start looking for a church and exploring our new hometown.

A Salvation Story

Our last night in Texas we had the most wonderful surprise, Jonah our five and half year old, gave his life to Christ. His Paw-paw had the privilege of praying with him and you could see the sparkle in his eyes. We had thought Jonah was getting close to making a decision about Jesus since he has been asking tons of questions about salvation and his older sister has been doing a fine job of witnessing to him. So on May 17th, 2012 we will now celebrate Jonah's birth into Christ. What an amazing gift. We look forward to watching what God has planned for his life.

and so it begins...

We are officially a Soccer family. Grace had her first soccer practice yesterday through an organization called upwords. Her coach seemed nice and best of all made it all fun and weaved Christ in the practice.
We took the whole family to the first practice and it was sort of mess so we will be looking for a sitter for at least Titus since he doesn't quite understand boundaries quite yet. I gave the kids on the sidelines a speech on supporting our family and being there and that this wasn't about them or playing at the park but cheering Grace and being there for her. It is something I believe is important in our family because with the kids so close in age they all fight to be number one. Thank the Lord we are diving into this slowly I can only imagine what it will be like when all of them are into an activity. YIKES!

Old as Indians

Grace is learning about Indians in History I suppose that is what led her thinking in this conversation she and I had before bed this week.

This was too good not to share. Putting Grace to bed Grace says "I get to have chick fil a tomorrow yay!" looking over at her whiled I rubbed Jonah I said " I wish I could have some too." Grace paused "because they didn't have schools when you were little" me trying not to be offended that my child just referred to me as old "am I really that old?" I asked. Grace exclaimed  "not as old as the Indians that is Daddy!

Now it is a pretty well known fact that I am actually older than my husband but obviously Grace doesn't care or doesn't realize that quite yet. It's ok really, hearing her call her Dad old was priceless. I thought I would have to wait until she was at least ten but nope. I will have to remember to thank her for the laugh.

What is in the toilet stays in the toilet

I have a problem. My kids leave the toilet seat up. My 14 month old Titus loves to play in the toilet. So far all types of things have been found floating toys, food, and my personal favorite dog food which when soggy resembles poop. This week though Titus took my sneakers and you guessed it gave them a bath in the toilet. Now I guess I could wash and wear them but it grossed me out so much that I threw them out. I mean really no one would notice but I would know and just feel gross. So needless to say I will be purchasing a new pair of shoes because what I find in the toilet stays there!

Happy New Year from All of Us!

If there were any picture to capture us in our true fashion this is IT!

I hope it brings a smile to your face because it sure brings some smiles to mine.

5 Blessings...

The Impromptu photo shoot

Day six and seven...

I have been a blogging slacker! I need to finish blogging about our trip. So the last day in the midst of the Hurricane Irene hoopla we visited George Washington's House Mt. Vernon. What a fun filled day. The kids loved it and one of the park guides who was giving us a tour of Mr. Washington's house told us our kids were the best behaved kids she'd seen in a long time. We like those type of compliments. On the ride from Falls Church to Mt. Vernon our route took us through downtown Alexandria. What a beautiful city! I think if it weren't in the midst of like a zillion people I'd be in love. I LOVE the colonial era.

Can't you see a future Stone Street Soaps someplace like this?

The kids with their treasure maps. I love when historical sites have things to help my kids enjoy the experience. This made their day.

Road trip day 5 and 6

Well after the exciting events the previous day. We decided just to chill at the hotel and the kids spent some time with Eric in the pool.

Day 6 was all about watching the weather. There was a hurricane in the Atlantic that had the area on edge. We decided that we may do the Baltimore Aquarium BUT after spending nearly 45 minutes in traffic and only going a half of a mile we nixed that plan and made our way near Dulles Airport to check out the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Air and Space Museum. We were not disappointed. One it was huge, two it wasn't crowded so the kids could walk and had space to look at all the airplanes.

On the way back to the Hotel we passed a Mall and spotted a Cheesecake Factory so we decided to treat the family!

and of course I forgot to take a picture of cheesecake.

Road trip day 4

Let's just say after Monday's events we didn't think anything could top it. WRONG...There I was with the kids visiting with a friend from Parenting After Infertility and her kids when all of the sudden the world started to shake. At first it sounded like a large truck roaring by but then the shaking got worse and stronger and I knew it was an earthquake. Thankfully I had experienced one before otherwise I might of totally freaked out more than I was.

After the quake my friend and her family kindly took us to their neck of the woods because the whole DC area was shut down. We got to see some of the History of where George Washington had his surveyors office. Cool huh? The rest of the pictures are from Winchester Virginia.

Road trip day 2

Day two of our road trip was a little less eventful despite losing a signal to our phone which included the gps in which we had to find a map. Lucky for us we just happened to be right in front of a National landmark so we could look to see which way to go. Our 7 and a half hour journey took us around nine hours before we finally arrived in Falls Church.

Road trip

We are blessed enough to have a husband and father who loves his family so much that he just had to have them come with him on business to the Washington DC area. We took off Saturday morning on our fourteen hour trip. Day one was eventful and stressful rolled into one. Titus does not like to travel and he really doesn't like his car seat and I mean REALLY. We pretty much knew he would be a bear on the trip since our road trip to Texas was almost the same distance as the one we were going on. He proved us right and then some. He is quite the determined guy screaming for two to three hours at a time in between a biter biscuit or two. Or three. Let's just traveling with Titus is enough to make anyone go mad.

And then there was this.

Oh no not us. Our car was blocked by the Ambulance. Some man eating either passed out and hit his head or cut himself or both. We got several stories. It was a man in his later years out to a meal with his wife and grown Son. We used this as an opportunity to teach the kids about prayer and we stopped to pray for him while we sat on the front porch of the Cracker Barrel we were eating our lunch at.

we passed the time by posing for pictures. You can never have enough pictures!