Another week in the life....

WHAT.A.WEEK! Wow.
1. VBS!! WOOT! My kiddos all 3 were in VBS during the morning this week... learning about creation and dinosaurs. Pretty awesome. Straight up, KG is the queen of VBS. Songs... dancing... crafts... snacks...
2. Dentist Visit... We found the most awesome dentist office, McKinney Pediatric Dentistry. They kids did great, minus KG's little kicking and requiring a restraint from me... ha. (It did make it easy to see her teeth) The unfortunate part is E has 4 teeth that need to be capped (luckily in the back or I would request gold ;) ) The development was poor and they are in pretty bad shape, which we knew... thus... the dentist. :(



3. We did have a silly string "fight" to commemorate Shane's last day working with Hope for Orphans and to celebrate all God has done in our lives through our time there... (more to come on that later)

4. My parents are in town!! WOOHOO! My mom is the "organizeanator" so things are getting DONE! And... once a Daddy's girl, ALWAYS a Daddy's girl... so my daddy bought me these boots for Africa for the "farm" and rainy season... (Happy Father's Day to me! ???)

5.RODEO... E found himself in the right place at the right time... and was dubbed the 1st place Sheep Chasing rodeo Champ! Awesomeness... and We ate at one of Fort Worths best BBQ places... Good times...

6. Awesome Birthday Party for some of our favorite twins! (E fell in the pool without his life vest and the Mr. and another great friend jumped in to save him... *neveradullmoment)


7. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!! WOOT!

Up for next week... Lots of stuff that really isn't "blog-worthy"... paperwork, phone calls, newsletters... BUT the most blog worthy is this : GIVEAWAY!!! We wanted to do a giveaway to celebrate a couple of things... so.. YAY! Stay tuned because on Tuesday we will be posting the details! Whoop!

Weekly Highlights: brought to you by Walmart

Man, time flies by... and honestly this week seems like a blur. When you start to write down all that has happened in a week, you either think "How did I do that?" or "What in the world did I do this week?" Unfortunately, mine was the latter this week. There are days that I'm certain me and 3 small humans could disappear for 9 hours a day and NO ONE would notice!! But seriously, with all the change going on in our "environment", I'm trying super hard to keep our daily routine just that... routine. The kids need predictability and they need my attention and time... so ... this week was just that. A usual week with a few things added in...

1. We celebrated Memorial Day with AMAZING friends and GREAT BBQ... swimming, etc! Quite the treat!

2. I did get all the homeschool stuff I ordered... which made me realize how great of a nerd I really am... wow. Scary how exciting one can get over educational material. ( a total shocker if you knew me 15 years ago)

3. I took the kids to the pool several times this week, along with a spray-ground... tons of fun... and yesterday Z started to swim underwater on his own!! A HUGE accomplishment!! Check out this video:

4. We sold our beds, bike and trailer, and camping gear...

5. The Mr. took E to get his hair "cut" and ended up getting it BUZZED... that's the last time Mr. McB takes E to a barber shop and says "whatever you think is best..." eek!

6. I did schedule travel immunizations for 2 weeks out! (you can start praying now, thanks)

7. And possibly the funniest thing of the week....

We are cleaning out for the garage sale (yeah, the one I SHOULD have had this week, but seriously this coming week we are DOING IT!) and so I took some of the money from selling the bed and went to replace some stuff we will need in Zambia. For example, we are selling all of our dishes and glasses... and we are taking some plastic, yet cute, to Zambia with us. We figure they are light-weight and durable. (one certain friend can lecture me about buying and eating off of plastic later... you know who you are ;)) Anyway, the Mr. also asked me to get a couple of towels to take because ours are 10 years old and on their last leg. So, I had my cute Better Homes and Gardens PLASTIC plates in the cart, with PLASTIC cups, and some towels. Yes, they are cute. So.... I'm waiting in the checkout line and the lady in front of me and the cashier start commenting on how cute my stuff is. "Thanks"... I say. Then the cashier says "I'm doing good if my towels match my shower curtain!" The shopper in front of me says "Yes, some people care too much about their stuff." Inside my head I'm trying to process this... I realize that I guess I LOOK as if I am just out getting the next cute thing. I just say "I'm moving and we are getting rid of our glass stuff." She walks on and the cashier then asks, "Where you moving to?" I say "Africa" and the guy pipes up behind me in a very *Chris Wheeler country voice "What in the #@* are you going to that hot place for?" I quickly tell him and the cashier. He said "Have you ever heard of that Craigslist? You can really sell stuff on that." (BTW, I LOVE people like this man... good country man trying to be helpful... LOVE it) I say "Yes, i think we are selling some stuff there." The cashier then asks "Do you have a TV?" At this point I'm thinking... who needs Craigslist... just come to WalMart... and didn't this conversation start by accusing me of being attached to "stuff?" Just makes me laugh... and No, I didn't sell my TV to the cashier.

On the books for next week? You guessed it! GARAGE SALE... our anniversary, our last supper with the amazing HFO staff, and a surprise... working on a "facelift" for this here blog. ;)

It's that time again... This Week's Highlights

Ok, I'm starting to like the summation of the week... so much happens that I want to remember, and SO MUCH is going on right now... So... here it goes...

1. Last Saturday We let the kids play in a massive mud hole in the backyard... while we were being "productive" (as in clean out closets, pack up stuff for garage sale, make phone calls, etc)

*Yes, I did get all the mud out of the clothes!

2. Sunday evening we spent time with 2 sweet couples dreaming about a possible mission trip to visit us in Zambia! And there was good fun and swimming and jump houses.... awesomeness.

3. Tornados... not on the agenda from last week... check out these cuties sleeping in the hallway (i know, the bathtub would have been a better choice, but it didn't seem "bad enough" to cram in) ... note: Zack NEVER woke up and we told him he was in the hallway for an hour or so the night before and he didn't believe us! the other 2 were WIDE awake!

4. Family Pics! thanks to the amazing Amy Block... (who by the way is moving her family of 11 to Guatemala... if you think I'm crazy, go read her blog here.) Check out these great pics...


Truly I am so blessed to have her as my friend... as we are selling our things, and moving to a 3rd World Country... we are finding so much joy and encouragement from each other. They came over later in the week and played in the water with us... it was sweet because all our kids were talking about "moving to Guatemala" or "moving to Africa"... it was a picture of the gospel going out check this out:

2 Ethiopians: 1 going to Zambia, 1 going to Guatemala.

2 Guatemalans returning to their nation of origin,

2 African Americans going to Guatemala,

3 Anglo kiddos: 1 to Guate and 2 to Zambia

2 Momma's COMPLETELY BLESSED!!!

5. Passports: APPLIED FOR AND WAITING. 4 weeks we should have them back! The kids kept asking "where's my book?" (ie passport) Afterwards we went to Cabela's, The Mr.'s FAVE... and then we celebrated with IN N OUT Burgers... the drive through wait was over an hour... but we went in and had eaten within 45 minutes! YUMMY! *Animal Style

6. Meetings, phone calls, conference calls... ALL GOOD STUFF!

7. Postponed the Garage Sale... There's only so much a human can do in one week... NEXT WEEK! it's on!

So for next week.... Garage Sale... empty out this house!!... Drs apt... schedule travel immunizations... and make a list of things we "need" for homeschool...

Despite things to do... I'm really trying to take it one small step at a time. I don't want to get so busy that I allow myself excuses for not connecting... with my kids, with my husband... and most importantly with my sweet Jesus.

This week's highlights!

So much happens in a weeks time, so I wanted to make note of this week before it blows away into "just another week."

1. Spent last weekend with my family in TN. AMAZING. Smells of honeysuckle blooming, campfires and roasting marshmallows with my family, and hearing my Dad speak at a sweet country church with the most awesome pot-luck dinner afterwards. Yes, it does sound like Walton Mountain, and to me... it's just that special. I mean, seriously look at how beautiful it is:

2. Decided and ordered homeschool curriculum! What.a.task. There is nothing like the pressure of the fate of your child's educational future in your hands... haha. We had My Father's World 1st grade given to us, and I am using that in addition to the history/geography and readers of Sonlight (which I found at a STEAL here). I also made a "schedule" of balancing schooling my children and being at the school with our other 210 kiddos. ;)

3. Got our passport photos! That was quite the adventure and I must share those here.
Z's face says "seriously, they are taking me to Africa?"

Plus everyone was asking where we were going that ALL THE KIDS needed a passport. It was a fun opportunity to share what God's doing through LifeSong in Zambia.

4. We talked with several of our partners in ministry, which is ALWAYS a blessing. We have been BLOWN AWAY by how God is using this in their lives, and to have such amazing, amazing people to walk alongside us as we transition to LifeSong and life in Zambia! We love you all SO MUCH!!

5. My neighbor and sweet friend took me yesterday for a pedicure and lunch! AND her mother kept ALL 6 of our kiddos!! (that's 6 kids 5 and under, so yes, she is superwoman) Amazingly sweet, and no... they didn't have to break out the saw like on dumb and dumber...lol.

6. Shane bought his ticket to Zambia, leaving at the end of July. He will be gone for 5 weeks to start learning the job, the culture, etc... before the madness comes in September. (that would be me and the kids= madness). *sigh. 5 weeks is a LONG time.

7. Had a nurse come this am to do our medical exam for life insurance changes. That was fun. ha. BUT she did say my BP is "child-like" so I guess that is awesome. As long as it's not so low I'm dead. pahaha. The really neat thing was that she is the adult MK, growing up in Mexico. She was able to share with us things that are important to keep in mind while raising children internationally. (3rd culture kids)... But she said that she is now a nurse because it was so difficult for her to understand why kids around her would die of the measles just because they didn't have a vaccination. She said "I wanted to be able to come back and give them shots... so I became a nurse." Amazing to see how God used that in her life to direct her profession! It was a really neat blessing for us this morning!

8. This is the first Saturday since March that we didn't have "something" on the calendar! HORRAY!

What's on the horizon for next week? ANOTHER Garage Sale, Apply for kids Passports, and Family Pictures! woot!