The Fly(s)

OK ya'll. My husband has an obsession with flies. He HATES them. You can see him start sweating at just the mention of a fly. Usually he grabs a towel and kills them by snapping the towel in the air, but he's been known to kill flies when they land on his beloved family members too (and that towel snapping on us just plain hurts - bad). There have been many arguments in our house about flies, and even the kids know to get the heck outta dodge when a fly is around. My favorite was when Mat was using the vacuum cleaner attachment thingy when a fly passed by, and he sucked it up into the vacuum. The man is nuts about flies! So just a few minutes ago he came into the living room with a bloody knuckle. He hit his hand on the edge of the counter in pursuit of a fly. His knuckle is swollen, and he currently has ice on it. I'm trying not to laugh about it...serves him right for being so obsessed. The best part was that about 5 minutes after sitting down with ice on his hand, a fly landed smack dab in the middle of the TV (which we were watching), and Mat spotted it immediately. Sweat started rolling down his face and he jumped up saying "oh no he didn't." I was just sure that he was gonna break the TV screen. Fortunately, the fly got away before Mat got to him.

A Whole Lot of Crazy...

We love our new home! We got moved in just in time for me to make a quick trip back to Florida to get my braces adjusted. I am supposed to get them OFF next month...yippee! Then I got back home and attended a 3 day homeschool convention and now Mat's mom is in town for Mat's birthday. We took a weekend trip to NYC to see the city and take Mat back to his birthplace in Smithtown, NY. In between all the craziness, we've had time to unpack boxes...mostly in a desperate attempt to find things. The first feverish unpacking happened in order to find the shower curtain which was buried in the bottom of a clothing box with clothes that were no where near the shower curtain to begin with??? Last night, Mat's birthday, the last of the boxes were torn open in search of our car tags. Who's great idea was it to make tags expire on your birthday. Happy birthday, Mat, let's spend a fortune buying tags! After a good hour of searching high and low for the missing files, lots of prayers, and a little panicking, we found the last 2 files including the car titles in a box marked Playstation...who would have ever thunk??? There was lots of rejoicing at our house last night at 10pm when we finally found them! At $85 a pop, reordering car titles stressed me out! Mat's been sitting at the tag office for 3 hours awaitin his turn to pay a lot of money for tags, but on a good note, we saved $2000 on car insurance just by moving out of the crazy state of Florida! Everyone told us that tags would cost a fortune, but nobody mentioned that car insurance is so cheap here - yay! This week, we plan to find a spot to pick blueberries...if I can ever get my neck unstuck. I guess all that lifting strained a muscle or something??? Ouch!

My Little Comedian

Andrew woke up as a comedian this morning. He is so excited about going to his good friends Star Wars birthday party today that I think it's overflowing. He's had us in stitches with his fun personality. Most of his funnies have been his tone and regular every day observances with huge eye expression and all, but the funniest has to do with our trip to the doctor. Elizabeth has struggled with some weird stuff that led us to the doc, the asthma/allergy specialist, and finally the ENT. All of our docs are close by b/c our house is very centrally located to everything. I love that. So we went to the ENT, and Lizzy had to get some wax out of her ear with a special knitting needle looking gadget. I commented that she must be able to hear much better after getting all that gook out of her ear, and the doc said they would take another hearing test in 3 months. Without missing a beat, Andrew piped in that "I don't really think she can hear very well b/c when I tell her to get out of my room she does this"...and he demonstrated her sitting there doing nothing. That boy is so funny! The doc is sending Eliz for a sleep study, and after that, she said we will visit her again to see what steps are next including removing the pesky little tube that won't seem to fall out. Pray that it will come out without surgery!!! We also went to the grocery store (have I mentioned that it is STRESSFUL to shop in the tiny little isles of the grocery here). No large spacious Publix isles. All the markets are tight and busy. I'm pretty sure we went down every isle 3 times trying to find our groceries, but the kids were super helpful. Lizzy kept reminding me what I needed to buy, while Andrew would find the items and sing an "ah-ha" song when he found them. It was really sweet. I found lots of people smiling at my children through the store. Maybe it was that they are the ONLY children with blonde curls around here, but I think it was that they saw Andrew's flamboyant personality charming. I'm off to make a mean PB&J for lunch, and then I need to dig my way out of some boxes...ugh...they are never ending!

Aroma of Christ

For years, Mat has dreamed of moving to Connecticut. His dream became mine, and that dream has become a reality. I can say I came willingly, but I had some reservations... will it be freezing? are we ever going to see sunshine again? will we find a church family? i heard that yankees are rude? can we even afford to live in the expensive North? will we have friends? but I don't wanna leave my Florida friends! will I fit in? and the list goes on. I can honestly say that a month into this journey, I love it here. It's not just that he weather has been wonderful since we arrived b/c I know that the weather will fluctuate with the seasons. It's the people. The people that we've met here truly exemplify Christ, and their desire to serve him reminds me so much of the verse in 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 which says: But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession of Christ and through us spreads the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. The ladies I have met have so warmly embraced me and my family. We have been invited to join into their lives just like we've been long lost friends. I've seen such great acts of kindness. One lady even offered to change a dirty diaper for another mother even though she herself is sleep deprived and worn out as a mother herself. Several of these same ladies (and some gentlemen from our new church family) have been cleaning my house the past couple of days, and by cleaning, I don't mean simply mopping the floor. I'm talking about being down on your knees scrubbing or arm deep in cleaner as we scrub down walls and filthy grease covered drawers and cabinets. It's gross work, but they have helped with joy...even with their own kids and my kids underfoot. I love it! It makes me want to be a better person, and it spiritually makes me desire to have a deeper walk with Christ. It literally gives of such a divine aroma of Christ. It's lovely, and I'm so thankful to be a part of this service to the Lord as we continue to deep clean our new house. Being part of the body of Christ is a beautiful thing! And if you are one of the sweet new friends who has been scrubbing my house, THANK YOU so MUCH!