He is safe... but the water isn't...

Today was a bad day for teachers in the MCS system. 58 teachers were given notice that they will not have a job next year. 27 of those teachers are at the elementary level. Dave is safe. They went by seniority and he barely made, but he made it none-the-less. We are thankful for that! Thank you to all who have been praying.

As far as moving goes, the home site failed another water test today. We still don't have a move-in date. They will have to pass the water test twice before we can get the ok to close on the house. It is hard to not even have a date to look forward to. It could be next week, or it could be the next, or later. It all hinges on the water and what they will have to do to pass. I am praying the problem is not underground and that they won't have to dig up roads and water pipes to find the problem. I don't even know if that is a possibility... I just don't want it to be the "worst case scenario", since that is all we have had so far.

It hit me tonight that tomorrow is December 1. I made an advent calendar last year that Emma has talked about all year. I had planned to have it up on December 1 to begin our countdown until Christmas. I don't want to miss out on that this year. I guess I will be digging in some boxes in the basement looking for it...

Please keep praying for us! I know that eventually we will be in the house and this will all be a faint memory. But for now, at this moment, this is hard.

Where I wish I was tonight...

Where I actually am...

Bad News

We are not closing tomorrow. In fact, we have no new date at this point. We just wait...

There is an issue with the water. It is not passing the tests. It is fine going into the neighborhood, but then there is a problem somewhere. So we wait...

I just got off the phone with our contact person and he has no new date to even give us. Maybe next week... maybe not... We just wait...

I am surrounded by boxes, I left out only a few things we would need before the weekend. Looks like I will be unpacking here, not at the new place...

Can you tell I am frustrated and tired of waiting? This stinks!

It is so close I can taste it!

Ok, so I can't really TASTE it, but it is getting close! Just two more days... the day after tomorrow... we should be able to finally get in our house! "Should" being the operative word there. I found out today that it could still change at the last minute. Water is the issue right now. They have to pass all the tests, and then get the plumbing hooked up. The last test should be tomorrow. Then the plumbers come into the house to get it all connected from the inside. We will have electricity and water, but will be without phone or cable lines. The cable part isn't a huge deal for us, since we don't subscribe to cable. The phone lines are pretty important though. We may actually have to get a cell phone, or at least pay for some minutes on our Tracfone. That's right, we are a "no cable, no cell phone" family. Bizarre, huh? Well, we are also a "living on one income" family and a "Daddy is in grad school" family so that kind of limits our spending. :-) Anyway, we are hoping for only two more nights here in this house. Phone or no phone, we are moving!

Like Father, Like Daughter

I just thought I would share a funny little story of how much Emma really is like her father.

Dave has told me stories about when he was a boy. Ever see the movie Sleepless in Seattle? Remember how the boy and his friend used codes to talk? Well that was Dave as a kid. He used to tell his parents, "G.N." instead of "Good Night". He would be sick and bed (on occasion - not all the time) and tell his mom he would just shout out a signal that he needed her instead of actually calling for her.
Fast forward to Emma. She says, "N-O" instead of "No". The other day she said to me, "1-4-3". I had to ask what she was talking about. She was saying, "I love you". Then last night she did it again... sounded just like her father.
A little side note here... in this little house the girls are in the same room (actually, they have always shared a room - that's one reason we bought a new house... I can't wait!) Anyway, Anna is SUPER CHATTY when it is bedtime, so Emma usually ends up going to bed in our room and we move her when we go to bed. Last night we were reading stories in our room and sent the girls off to bed. Anna went first. Dave left the room and it was just Emma and myself for a minute. She asked if she could stay in my bed. I told her to try to sleep in her room first, but if Anna was bothering her, we would have her move.
Here is what Emma said... sounding just like Dave!
"Instead of telling me to move, just say, 'EEEE' and then I'll know what you mean."
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?

SIX MORE DAYS!!!

Yesterday we went for another visit to our house. We were surprised by what we saw... we now have a YARD! They put in sod, a tree and five bushes.

We close in eight more days!

Our Week

Here are a few photos from our week...

"Stone Soup" at Westminster... the performance

Eating Stone Soup

Emma spent time styling my hair... isn't it LOVELY?! :-)

I TRIED to cut Emma's hair... it needs some more work.

Can you believe it? There is a DRIVEWAY in front of the house!

Say a prayer!

Marcia begins chemo today at 10:00am (CA time). Please pray for her!

Also, we have a friend in CA that is 25 weeks pregnant with triplets. She went to the hospital this week with contractions. They were able to slow them down and she will be staying until the babies arrive... hopefully in seven weeks. They are trying to get them to stay put until 32 weeks. Please for Matt, Kelli and the babies!

As far as November 29, that is our new closing date. It could still change, depending on the utility companies. Although it is a date, it is not set in stone. Please pray for me. Seriously. Thanks.

...November 29...

Updates

Marcia update...

From what I hear, she is doing a little better each day (as far as recovering from surgery goes). They did find out that the cancer had not metastasised. That is great news! She sees the oncologist next week and may begin chemo next week as well. Please keep praying for them! They still have a long road to travel!

House update...

We are NOT closing on Nov. 26th. Indiana Michigan Power Company will not have the work done in time. We don't know when we will close. They (Arbor Homes) are saying it should be either the first or second week of December. We thought we only had 18 more days of living in this little box... less than three weeks. Now we may have four or five more weeks. UGH!!!! We are frustrated.
The house is pretty much finished at this point and it is just sitting there. I am praying that the electric company starts working quickly and efficiently and gets it done! As soon as they finish we can close. We have locked in our loan already and we have until Dec. 7 for that. If interest rates go down, we still get the rate we locked in at. If rates go up, we get the higher rate. We would really like to close before the 7th!

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia

I found out some rather disheartening news recently. My good friend Marcia has been diagnosed with breast cancer. At first, three small spots were found and a biopsy showed stage 0 cancer. A mastectomy was ordered and she elected to do a double. The hope was that surgery would be all she would need to get the cancer out and no further treatment would be prescribed. However, once they got in do the surgery, they found more cancer, some being a bit invasive. The cancer had also spread to 11 of 22 lymph nodes. She will begin chemo soon and that will last 4-6 months. Then she will have radiation to the right chest wall. Marcia needs prayer! Her husband, Bryan and their kids, Nathan and Ava need prayer as well.

For me, this news has been really hard to deal with... and I am not even the one with the cancer. It just hits too close to home. I hate knowing that someone I care about is dealing with such an awful thing!

Marcia and I have been friends since the beginning of college. We actually went to the same church before college, but we weren't really friends. We knew who each other was, but we didn't hang out. (There were no ill feelings between us, but we did know at one point we liked the same guy.) But once we got to Westmont, we ended up across the hall from one another. There was an instant bond because we were from "home". We knew the same people, we went to the same church, we lived in the same city. We bonded.

Towards the end of freshman year, we were talking. I can still picture it like it was yesterday. We were sitting in my room, on my bed. Marcia was wearing her cheerleader uniform because it was right after a basketball game. As we were sitting there, we were discussing our roommate situation for the next year. We decided then that we would room together sophomore year. We were roommates for the rest of college - with the exception of the semester she spent at Gordon.

We had so much fun living together. We got along so well. In some ways, we were an odd pair... a biology major and an art major. But we had fun together. So many memories! Too many to write here!

After graduation, Marcia left for Nebraska to go to nursing school, while I went back to Irvine to get my teaching credential. We talked on the phone every Saturday morning. Occasionally we'd write letters too - this was before email was the "way" to communicate. :-)

I stayed in So. Cal and she moved to Denver. She always wanted to live in Colorado and she made that a reality. She was a nurse in Denver and I was a teacher in Santa Ana. We still talked frequently, but not every Saturday like the year before. I met Dave during that year and got married that summer. Marcia was my maid-of-honor.

Then she met Bryan, a resident at the hospital where she was a nurse. Dave and I were able to visit her in Denver and we met Bryan for the first time. They came out to visit CA and spent a night with us. Bryan proposed the next day. I couldn't believe he was in my house with the ring and never said a word to me! I like to give him a hard time about that. :-)

Then came time for their wedding. Just as she stood up for me, I too stood up for her (only I was a "matron"-of-honor. That was probably my favorite bridesmaid dress too. Thanks for having great taste, Marcia. :-)

Through the years, we have stayed in touch. I think it was in 2000 when Marcia and Bryan moved from Colorado to California. We were then only a couple of hours away. We were both pregnant when they moved. Our firstborns are only a few months a part (in 2001).

It was great to live in the same again, only we moved to Indiana just a year later. Now we are miles a part again. Dave and I always try to see Marcia and Bryan... or at least Marcia (since Bryan works)... when we visit CA. Sometimes it is just for a meal, sometimes for longer.

The great thing is, that when we are together it is as if no time has passed. We can always pick up right where we left off. There aren't many friends that you can do that with. I always love spending time with her.

A few weeks ago I got a call from Marcia but I wasn't home. She left a message that said she had news to share. Her voice didn't sound happy or sad; just matter-of-fact. Well, since I know so many people that are pregnant right now, I really thought that she must be too. I tried to call her back, but didn't get her. For about a week, I figured that must be her news. I finally got in touch with her. She was on her cell phone and had been evacuated from her house the previous night because of the fires in So. Cal. That is when she told me the news.... she has breast cancer. She told me of the double mastectomy she was going to have and that hopefully that would be the end of her cancer story. I have been checking email a million times a day waiting for reports. Bryan emailed after the surgery and told of the bad news... it was worse than they thought. UGH!!!!

I am praying for a miracle and for God to heal her body. I have faith that He can. Yet I also know that He has a plan, and this will play out as He sees fit. He sees the whole picture; I can only see a tiny fraction. From my point of view, I am praying for a miraculous healing. I am also praying for comfort, peace, courage, no pain, and for encouragement.

I ask you to also pray these things with me. Marcia is going to need a lot of prayer in the next 6 months or so. Please pray.

Norgan Mitchell - part 2

The premier was last night. Evan did a fantastic job! There were over 200 people that came to his movie. It was great. The Chroncile-Tribune had a write up about it today. They got a few facts wrong... (Evan is a high school junior - not a senior, and not an IWU student) but overall, it was a good article. Here it is if you didn't get to read it: http://www.chronicletribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071102/NEWS01/711020317/1002

I was very proud of my nephews last night. Way to go, guys!

Beautiful Butterflies