Long time no type!

So to say "it's been a while since I've posted" is an understatement...  It's been forever.  We've had how many end of the world scares since I've last posted???  Of course my money was on today's date as Obama's inauguration is today.  So I guess it's time to fill everyone in on the past couple years...

About 2 years ago or so, we moved out to my mom's house and put our house for rent to try and get out of debt.  Unfortunately, we didn't really get as far as we'd hoped because living so far away from everything was killing us in gas, and Aaron didn't work nearly the amount of overtime as we were used to.  We did get a few things taken care of though.  Living out there had it's pro's and con's, money aside.  It was out in the country so we didn't have neighbor issues like we have now (and boy do we ever have neighbor issues!!), but it was also out in the country...  I could go days without seeing anyone but my kids and husband.  That's where a lot of gas went, trying to get out and see real people!  But it was a really nice house, that was cool.  But after a while it got frustrating to not be able to decorate it the way we wanted.  My mom and step-dad lived in Oklahoma, but still had their house here as they planned to move back in a few years, so all of their stuff was still here and Aaron and I tried to keep our stuff limited to the back bedrooms.  By the time we were moving back to our house I had the whole decorating plan set up in my mind!

We moved back last March, and we're less than welcomed back by our neighbors.  We very quickly started to remember why we moved in the first place!  Long story short, we kept catching our neighbor on one side watching movies on his phone.  And when I say movies, I mean porn.  No, we couldn't SEE it (thank goodness) but when I go out in my front yard and hear very clearly... what I was hearing... I know what he's doing.  This was a daily occurence.  Aaron had words with him, and we ended up building a privacy fence in our back yard.  I didn't like the idea of a man who wasn't bothered to watch that garbage in the privacy of his own home (that he shares with his mother, just sayin...) being able to see into my back yard.  After Aaron had words with him he turned against us and went on a mission to turn the other neighbors against us to. 

Within a week or so of putting up our fence, our neighbor on the other side (who the pervert had previously hated, yet suddenly befriended) started calling the police on us for various reasons, mainly being our fence.  We couldn't afford to build the fence all the way down to the back fence on her side, and she already has a privacy fence, so we asked if we could just connect to hers for now.  She agreed, apparently then got amnesia or alzheimer's, and started calling the cops because our fence came on to her property.  Over a week or two, we had 3 different poice visits.  They were all sympathetic to our situation and nothing really came of it.  But it didn't look so good to constantly have a police car outside our house. 

On to what else has happened since my last post.  We moved back into our house at the end of March, and just days after we moved back my step-dad passed away.  It was sudden and very unexpected, but praise God, he passed peacefully in his sleep.  On April 1, 2012 my phone started ringing at about 4:15 or so in the morning.  I just remember grabbing the phone, seeing "Mom Mee" as the caller, then accidentally dropping the phone as I tried to answer.  I finally was able to answer it and my mom was crying saying "Corky had a heart attack!"  That's what she thought had happened at the time.  They'd been on a mini vacation at a hotel in a nearby town in Oklahoma, but when she woke in the middle of the night, he was gone.  She had the hotel call 911 and the rushed him to the hospital but it was too late.  Within 15 minutes of my moms phone call I was on my way to Oklahoma.  I left the house praying that God would protect and heal him, and when I called my mom to check at about 6, he was gone.  So I suppose in all honesty God answered my prayer.  My step-dad has never been as healthy and whole as he is today in Heaven. 

Within hours of arriving I started working on getting funeral arrangements underway, informing family, and trying to help my mom figure out what to do next.  She was in Oklahoma by herself now, no friends or family around, no job tying her there.  In the month after he passed, we came back to Texas for the funeral, back up to Oklahoma to move her down to Texas.  We sold her house there and moved her down here again.  A few months after she moved down here, she moved into a rental house knowing she couldn't keep up with the house they had here already.  She's still in limbo as legalities are dealt with, and I know it's driving her crazy, but she's really handling it well.  For all the changes she's had to make over the past year, she's been a trooper, even though I know she doesn't feel that way. 

I still have a hard time believing he's gone.  It still doesn't seem real at times.  But as much resistence as I put up when they first got together, I'm so thankful they found each other and got married.  He was so good to her and they truely loved each other. 

Aaron and I are (again) trying to get out of debt, this time with much more fervor than ever before. I'm so angry at our debt that I want to kill it in the most horrible way.  In the past year we've managed to pay off more than $10,000 and I'm hoping to double it this year.  So far we're at $679. 

A few things worked together to really push us to do it. 
1) It's ONLY by the grace of God that when I got that call from my mom at 4:15 that morning I had enough money to just up and go.  We have never held on to more than a dollar or two for any amount of time.
2) Because my mom and step-dad were sensible with money, that was one thing that she didn't have to be stressed about with all that was going on.  She had enough to pay for the funeral and take care of moving.  It really made me think.  I mean, Aaron has life insurance on all of us, but that takes a while to process so you can get it and the funeral home wants to be paid thousands of dollars now. 
3) With the issues we've been having with our neighbors I am ready to buy a new house.  This one is getting too small, and I do NOT want to have 2 teenage boys and their dad and only one bathroom.  No thank you.  I want to decorate and have nice things, but I can't in good conscience until I'm out of debt.  There is nothing on my walls right now, but as long as we're getting closer to being debt free, I'm ok with that. 
4) I would go out with friends and they'd find a shirt they loved or something and just get it.  $15 dollars on a shirt isn't that much and while I don't have rich friends (darn) they have been responsible with their money and it's not a big deal to spend $15 here and there.  If I were to do that, it has the potential to drop us into red.  It gave Proverbs 22:7 much more meaning in my life.  "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."  I was, and for now, still am slave to all the places I owe money to. 

I don't get to do what I want with my money because I have to give it all away!  I want to be able to help others the way I've been helped (give, not lend).  I want to follow through on promises to take my kids on vacations.  I want to pay it forward and pay for someones dinner or groceries.  I want to use my money the way God wants me to use it.

Ok, so this is generally where things are with us for now.  By the way, yes, we do still have the kids, I figured I'd share what they're up to in my next post.  I've taken too much time to write this as it is.  But in all honesty, the only reason I did was to put off housework a little longer.  Guess I gotta do it now.

Count your blessings name them one by one...

Ok, so I wrote this blog a good 2 years ago, and it seems crazy to post a draft you wrote that long ago, right?  But I found that most of it still rings pretty true, except thankfully Reese is no longer in diapers, so why not post?  I'm sure I can add plenty to this but we'll save that for another time...  Well, assuming I actually continue posting.  I'm not making any promises! 

So how many of you pray and thank God for the blessings in your life?  I'm sure you thank God for your spouse, your kids, your job.  But have you ever gotten a little more specific? 
I love/am thankful for:
1. Reese's brown eyes that are so dark in color they seem too mature for a baby.
2. Braeden's expression when he's really excited about something.
3. How much I know I can trust Aaron when so many women can't trust their husbands to actually follow through on their wedding vows.
4.  The talks Aaron and I have when we ignore the tv, internet, kids.
5. The naps Reese lets me take on the days Braeden's at school.
6. A pleasant surprise of a good tip when the tippers were, well, not as pleasant.  As porcupines.  That are mad.  And cold.  'Nough said.
7. The way my boys play together for that brief moment before the fighting begins.
8. When Braeden says "I wanna hold you mama."
9. How when I hold Reese when he's tired he'll lay his head down on me.
10. That accomplished feeling when you get the house cleaned.  I just hate the feeling before that one of cleaning house.
11. Going into the closet to find something to wear when I'm in a hurry and the outfit I want to wear NOT being wrinkled!
12. I love the sense of humor Aaron and all of his family has.
13. I love my in-laws willingness to help.
14. I love when my mom comes into town and we just sit in silence playing nintendo DS or reading.
15. I actually love how my dad says "little joke, little joke!" 
16. When we were homeschooled I loved when me and Colt would go outside and do school on windy fall days.
17. I have so much fun when my sis and I stay up at night talking when she's in town.
18. Me and Spencer's bickering.  Just like old times.
19. I love it when we actually get the trash out before the trash man comes.
20. I love the surprise when I go to change Reesey's diaper when I'm sure he's pooped and come to find out he only tooted.