My Life Is Like.....

....an old country song. I have been out of commission for a while and am just now starting to get back in the groove of things. I thought I would start off and tell my story of what happened.

May 24th around 8pm my daughters, Annie and Rebecca were playing on the couch in the living room. They were falling off the top of the couch to the seat. Annie fell off the top of the couch and landed on the seat and then had enough momentum that she was going to fall on the floor. So, Annie decided to grab onto Rebecca and pull her off the couch. Rebecca landed on Annie's arm breaking both bones in her forearm. It clearly was broken.

We drove 45 miles to the nearest hospital that had a orthopedic surgeon. The entire drive Annie talked about random things that 4 year olds usually talk about. So, we get in and see the doctor and they didn't want to set her arm that night because they would have to put her out and she had already eaten dinner and didn't want to risk her aspirating on the food. The next morning we had to bring her back so they could set her arm on an empty stomach. Here is a picture of Annie after her arm was set and put in her cast. Pitiful, huh?

The girls and I were walking out the door to pick up Matt in town because he went to work that morning. We noticed that my mother-in-laws dog had gotten bit by something. At that point we weren't sure what. Good thing my mother-in-law hadn't left for work yet. She was able to take her dog to the vet. Her dog, Rudy, got bit by a venomous snake. Not sure what kind. I was not happy to hear this news because that meant we had to be really careful when we went out on our property. I guess that is country living for you. We got on the road and took Annie back to the hospital so they could set her arm and put it in a cast. They had to put her completely out because it would have been pretty painful due to the manipulation the doctor would have to do to get it straight.

Matt and I unloaded the girls out of the car in the parking lot of the hospital. I then reached back into the car to get some paper work from the car that we had to turn in for Annie's visit. My daughter, Rebecca, shut my hand in the car door. We went in and got Annie fixed up, but I had to wait and come back to my local hospital to see the doctor about my hand.

We get back into town and I get to my doctor at 2:45pm. They take ex rays and find that I broke my finger. It is the bone that connects to my hand on my right pinkie finger. Yes, I am right handed, so a lot of things went undone for a while. The doctor splinted my hand and referred me to the orthopedic surgeon. So, the next day I went to see the same doctor that Annie had seen for her arm. He put a cast on me for two weeks.

I let Annie pick the color. I got my cast off about two weeks ago. The swelling is almost gone and the bruising is completely gone. I have to tape the two fingers together and wear a soft cast. Although, this week it has felt a ton better and I haven't been wearing the soft cast that much. My finger is still sore when I move it and try to bend it.

Annie goes back to the doctor on July 8th. I think she is going to get her cast off then. She will have had it for 6 weeks. I will have a check up at the same time. We hope that Annie gets her cast off then, so we can enjoy our summer at the pool or at least in the sprinkler. See I do have a good excuse for not blogging, right?

Happy 4th Birthday, Annie

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl. I can't believe you are growing up so fast. I love your cute and silly personality, you make me laugh. I love the joy and excitement that you bring to others. I love the little girl that you are becoming. Happy 4th Birthday, Annie Elizabeth!

Annie sitting in a tree.

Annie's silly grin.

Annie striking a pose.

Annie hamming it up for the camera.

My little 4 year old.

More Pictures

My house is twice the size of my old house and has taken time to get organized and to take pictures of it, so I can share with my wonderful readers. My house was built in 1950 but has been completely remodeled. In fact, I was told at some point during the sale that the floor plan is completely different than the original design. I heard that the master bedroom used to be the kitchen area, which makes sense because of where some doors are placed in that room. I will follow up with that room on a later blog. Anyway, today I am showing the formal living room and family room.

Below are pictures of the formal living room. Like I said this house was twice the size of my old house, so there is a lack of furniture in this particular room. I am not sure what we are going to do in this room, but if I find a nice couch at a reasonable price it will go in here.

This is my Texas room, aka the family room. This, so far, is my favorite room in the house. I love the textured walls, wainscoting, fan, decor, just everything that gives this room the special feel of being a Texas room. The furniture in this room is everything we had in our other house. It all fit in this room. The shelves in the corner are built-in and came with the house. I have a set of longhorn horns that I have not put up on the wall yet. To me that totally adds character to this Texas room. They will be hung over the doorway.

I am looking forward to having friends and family come out for a visit. Our first overnight guests will be here in May. I am looking forward to spending time and entertaining in my new house. We will have to have some good old guitar picking and singing for the entertainment and some good barbecue to fill our stomachs.

Easter 2010

Here are some Easter pictures I thought I would share. Rebecca went on 3 Easter egg hunts and Annie went on 2. They had so much candy, we still do. We do remind the girls that Easter is about Jesus and not the Easter bunny.

This first picture is of the girls waiting while Matt hides the eggs outside. I did have to keep Rebecca from peeking out the window a couple of times. Silly girl.

This picture is of the girls hunting Easter eggs. Rebecca had to wear her boots on the hunt. I think it is her way making a fashion statement.

This picture is the girls showing off their eggs they found. And wishing everyone a Happy Easter.

So, this is my 4th post since I have started blogging again. Not sure if I am getting any readers. I am trying to think of some interesting things to write about. I am still doing some research on where I am living. Seriously, this place has history, I just want to get my facts right. Besides, it gives me something to do.

Wordless Wednesday

The History of Gustine, TX

Gustine, in southeastern Comanche County, was settled about 1873 by H. H. Blankenship and M. B. Odell. The first settlement, which was called Old Evergreen, was about three-quarters of a mile northeast of the present site. The post office was established on January 6, 1888, with Samuel Gustine, for whom the town is named, as first postmaster. Religious services were held under a tree until a union church was built. The first store was built in 1889. In the early 1890s the town was moved to its present site to take advantage of a newly opened road between Comanche and Hamilton. By 1895 the town had eight or ten residences, a school, a cotton gin, a corn mill, and a general store. Aided by the arrival of the Cotton Belt line (officially known as the St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas) in 1911, Gustine thrived; its three churches, two banks, one newspaper, and other businesses served a population of 900 in 1914. The next year Gustine was incorporated. In 1940 its population was only 409, but it remained at roughly that level through the mid-1960s. The community's population reached a low of 324 in 1980, but by 1986 a population of 416, a bank, eight other businesses, and a post office were reported there. In the 1980s Gustine was an agricultural community with an economy based on cattle, goats, hogs, grain, peanuts, pecans, and fruits. In 1990 the population was 430.

This is main street.

This is the First National Bank in Gustine.

This Union Cemetary is about 2 miles from my house. It has some very old graves and is home to several Confederate Soldiers.

This building is vacant but was built with petrofied wood and rocks. And apparently it was Christmas when this photo was taken because of the sleigh and reindeer decoration.

As you can see this building is vacant as are many down Main Street. Not sure what used to be here.

My next post will be about Comanche County. There is a lot of history in this county. I will do some research and blog about my findings. Stay tuned for your next history lesson.

It's About Time!

I am sure that is what you are thinking. It has been such a long time since I have sat down and blogged. Once you get into the habit of not blogging, it is really hard to get back into it again. So, I have decided to change the look of my blog and to start reading some blogs that I used to really enjoy reading. What do you think about the new look? I like it.

My last blog I left pictures of the outside of our new house. Here is some pictures of the inside. Not too many to show. I need to get some more pictures taken and get them on here.

This is the dining area.

This is Annie's room.

This is a different angle of Annie's room. No window, but she's okay with it.


Rebecca's room.

Different angle.

This is all for now. I have to ease back into this. I will be thinking of all the great things I can tell you about Gustine, TX. I will have to do some research. It is not the most flattering town in Texas.

New House

Our Front Porch

Our backyard area.

Different angle of backyard

Matt's Man Cave.

The Guest House

Our Acreage


Our Frontyard with 5 Pecan Trees and 1 Pomagranate Tree

Our Driveway

Truly Blessed

For those of you who keep up with my blog, I know it's been a while. We moved and I have been busy unpacking and trying to find a place for all of our stuff. Plus, I didn't have Internet right away and that was torture. I would post pictures of the new house, but I can't find my cord to download pictures from my camera to my computer. So, maybe next time. I thought I would tell you in detail about our moving experience. It was truly God's hand at work.

We put our house on the market July 1st. I am guessing we had maybe a dozen showings before we got an offer on July 30th. Yes, it only took 30 days to have our house under contract. In this market, it was awesome. I had seen several house in the area that had been for sale for at least 6 months. The girl had the inspection done and nothing major came up. Just a few odds and ends came up that were easily fixed.

So, since everything was coming together with the sale of our house we thought we ought to start looking at where we were going to go. We looked into renting something because we didn't know if we wanted to build or not. However, when it came down to rentals, we couldn't find any. So, we went to a local Realtor office in Comanche and looked at some houses. We found one. We made an offer and we haggled with that for a couple of days. Then we finally agreed on the on a price. We were going to get a house. However, time was ticking and we had to be out of our house by August 27th. So, we set a closing date of August 28th for the house we wanted to by.

Several people told me that they weren't sure if our mortgage company would be able to get it done in time. We had our inspection, appraisal done and all of our paperwork done. All we could do was wait. Our mortgage company was great about getting all the financial stuff in order to make this purchase go through at that date.

So, I started packing a few boxes but knew that I was going to get packers and movers to move me. It was so much weight taken off my shoulders to have someone come in and pack me up. The packers came in on August 26th to pack us. They packed everything. Then the movers came to load the trucks on August 27th. That was the day we closed on our house. We were allowed to have the place until 8pm that night. However, there was major problem. The moving company that we went with had underestimated how many trucks we needed for our house. They planned on two trucks for our house and a 10 x 10 storage unit we had. Well, we needed 3 trucks for our house and storage unit. We didn't realize this until later that afternoon when stuff was starting to close and the clock was ticking until we had to be out. So, the company brought in a third truck. But was unable to pick up the stuff in storage due to the time they got finished loading my stuff.

It was 20 minutes until 8pm and the girl who was buying our house came by and asked if we needed more time. I told her yes just another hour should do it. I told her the ordeal with the trucks and she was very kind to let us have an extra hour. So, we put it in high gear and got everything loaded and cleaned as much as possible. It started raining while the guys were loading things and so they were tracking in all kinds of dirt and junk on their shoes. We finally got out of there at 9pm and headed straight for McDonald's. We were all hungry and that's what was open and we were able to drive to Comanche that night.

We stayed in a hotel in Comanche. Our closing for our new house was at 11am. We signed our lives away on August 28th, or at least that is what it feels like when you sign like a hundred papers at once. Our closing took an hour to get done. We met the people who were living there. They were very nice. We headed to our new house about noon. We were there no more than 10 minutes before the moving trucks came with our stuff. The timing was perfect.

The guys unloaded the three trucks and then it was my turn to start unpacking. Which still isn't done. But I have my house. Can you see how smoothly everything went? It couldn't have been an easier move. It was amazing.

So, we now own a 2,900 square foot house that was built in 1950. It was an old farm house. It has been completely remodeled in the last 5 years. I have wood floors, fake, but nice. Our house sits on 1.87 acres. It has a huge shop or man cave for my husband and a guest house for my mother in law. We have about a dozen pecan trees, two pear trees, and probably a dozen or more live oak trees. Big ones too. You can see the stars and hear the crickets and silence when the girls aren't screaming. It is total country living. Something I am going to have to get used to again.

The people in town are nice, very nice. My mother in law has been looking for work and everywhere we go she asks if anyone knows of anyone hiring. They stop and think and give her a few ideas of who may be hiring. Living here is definitely a slower paced life and it is going to take some getting used to.

This all for now, but I hope to post some pictures of the new place soon. I just need to find all my stuff first.

Moving

Just thought I would write one last time. My house is being packed up by the movers as I type. It is fun to watch someone else do all the work, but I guess we pay for it in the end. Anyway, I will write more when we get Internet hooked back up. This will be my last blog at the "old" house. Anyway, yay, kind of excited to get this over with.

Happy Early Birthday, Baby Bec!

Thought I would give a shout out to my Baby Bec who isn't much of a baby anymore. Rebecca is turning 5 on Friday. Rebecca is my first born and the most beautiful baby girl ever. Yes, I am biased and I will say the same thing about my other baby girl too, because I can. Anyway, Rebecca is so smart and funny. She surprises me with something new everyday. Sometimes it isn't a good new surprise, but nonetheless a surprise. There are days that I sit back and look and think "wow she looks just like me, but acts just like her father!"

Rebecca has learned a lot this last year. She has learned to write her name really well, write other letters, ride her bike, drive a car (well a kid car), swing on a swing by pumping her legs and much more that I can't think of right now.

This year we decided to buy Rebecca house. She gets a house for her birthday. Who gets a house for her birthday? Rebecca does. We are moving to our new house on Friday. I will finally have my family all under one roof all of the time. It will be a good move and I am looking forward to getting settled. I am going to be busy for the rest of the week. The movers are coming to pack us up on Wednesday, Thursday they are going to load the truck and the Friday we unpack.

My next post will have pictures of the new house and I promise to get back to writing more often. This summer has been crazy and I am glad that everything is finally settling down and getting back to what I call normal.

Happy 5th Birthday, Rebecca Glenn!

Monthly Post

Since blogger is cooperating with me, I will start with pictures from our vacation. The girls had a great time. Can't you tell?

Seems like I only have time to post once a month. My monthly posts will be, hopefully, changing in the upcoming months. Actually, a whole lot is going to be changing in the months ahead. In my last post I mentioned that our house was up on the market. Well, it is now under contract! Took 30 days to be semi-sold. I say semi-sold because nothing is final yet. But it will be on August 27th. Yes, August 27th. That is why I may not have time to write in the next couple of months, but I will try. I know how much everyone misses my posts.

Matt and I haven't found a house to buy yet. We may end up renting for a while. Not sure what is going to happen. My mother in law and I are going to go to Comanche tomorrow to look at houses. Not sure what I will end up with. There is one house I have been wanting from day one. It is on 7.8 acres and was built in the 1880's. Anyway, it has had three families that have lived in it for the past 120 years. It is 5 bedrooms and three bathrooms. It has been completely remodeled. It has original wood floors that have been refinished. It is gorgeous. Here is a link to the house. Take a virtually tour, you will be able to see more. Click here to see website. The only reason why we have not bought the house is the price. That is probably the reason why we won't buy the house too. The house has been reduced again and still isn't in our price range. My husband has spoken to the owners and they are really wanting to move. Not sure if they would just take any old offer or not. But, isn't it beautiful?

I just got back from a three week vacation with the girls. We went to California and saw my mom and dad. While there we saw my brother and his family, Matt's aunt and some friends, my grandparents, and my little brother. We went to the beach and the girls had the best time. I was thinking that we will have to make this an annual event.

My mom is doing well. She is taking her treatments just fine. My mom sleeps a lot after each treatment of chemo but other than that she is her normal self. My mom really enjoyed seeing the girls and they enjoyed spending three weeks with Grammy.

Until next time.....

Checking In

I know, it's been a while since my last post. Life has been CRAZY around here. I have been vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, wiping, scrubbing, painting, washing, making, mowing, watering, watching, waiting, drying, and now typing. All these things over and over again. Our house is finally on the market! It was a long process but worth it because the house looks great.

We put the house up yesterday and are waiting for our first showing and hoping that all goes well and we sell this house soon. This is all new to me since I've never sold a house before. I just hope everything goes smoothly and some lucky, pre-approved person that can put 20% down can buy our house.

Since the house is on the market and ready to go. I am taking a vacation. A LONG vacation. I am leaving with my girls on Sunday and we are driving to California. Should be an adventure. I am not sure how long I am going to stay. Probably about 3 weeks. Since I am driving I have the freedom of not planning this trip. Looking forward to seeing my family and some friends along the way.

Pictures

Annie on her 3rd birthday showing off her swimsuit.

Annie getting her hair done.

Rebecca getting ready for Annie's birthday party.

Annie getting ready for church on Easter Sunday.

Rebecca getting her hair done before church.

Isn't she sweet?

Rebecca not looking at the camera.

Rebecca and her silly faces.

Rebecca and Annie posing with Gabe.

Rebecca and Annie checking out their loot.

Playing around.

Rebecca happy about getting some candy.

Annie, obviously, really wanting to get that egg open.

Annie and I decorating eggs.

Rebecca and I decorating eggs.

Oh, and we had a litter of Vizsla puppies. Eight to be exact.

Aren't they cute?

You know you want one.

The puppies are 3 weeks old today. I will post more recent pictures later. They are so cute. Copper had 3 girls and 5 boys. Can my life be a little crazier?