Closing the Gap

Before I get started on my (hopeful) weekly blog project, I figured I'd fill you in on the gap between my last update & starting my organized updates. That gap would basically be: February.

We started the month living in a hotel for two weeks. It was not a bad stay by any means. We had a great room & we ate out every night & barely had to clean up after ourselves; however not having a home home wore on us all after awhile & we were SO grateful to move into a home.

Here is a glimpse of what we did (in NO particular order):


This was taken after naptime at the hotel. Early in the mornings & after naptime are the two RARE times you will find Cashe sitting still. All other times of the day, including bedtime, he is moving.

Yeah! We've moved into the new house! Hallelujah! Moving opens doors for new toys like step ladders for little boys.

And things (like Mom's hats) are much more accessible & fun to try on ... & leave lying on the floor moments later.

One of our favorite things to do at the hotel was to swim. We never swam in the pool, mind you. That was FAR too cold. Instead, we all swam in the giganto hot tub. Thankfully, it WAS giganto. Cashe has been exposed to hotel pools since the day he was born, it seems, so he was back to his daredevil swim tricks in no time.

For Valentine's Day, my sweet hubby surprised me with flowers. I didn't have a vase in the hotel, so I put them in the ice bucket & they were beautiful.

After a year of almost no hair & another year of Mom's haircuts, Cashe-man was due for a real haircut. The problem was, Twin Falls doesn't have a the cute, little, fancy kids' hair salons where you can sit in a car chair while you watch movies on your own personal TV & get your hair cut. So, we improvised - he got to watch a Cars trailer over & over & over again on Mama's phone while we went to Great Clips.

It was NOT the same experience (although we have no fun kids' salon experience to compare it to) & Cashe screamed bloody murder through the majority of it. The poor 19-year-old-girl who is just trying to make a living was a trooper & toughed it out with the rest of us in the salon (if that's what you can call Great Clips).

Back to Valentine's Day. Look at my handsome husband in his work attire. That's the reason I love this job so much -- he has to dress so nicely.

But, aside from that, we were only 9 days into our move to Twin & we didn't have a babysitter quite yet, so we all went out for a lovely dinner that night. (Yes, I do think we were the only ones out that night with a child.)

Several months ago, we started sponsoring a child through Compassion International. His name is Kelvin & we write to him each month & send him photos. Kelvin writes to us too & Compassion sends us newsletters that tell us what is going on in his country as well as his village & surrounding areas.

This is one of the newsletters that was sent to us. I looked through it with Cashe & explained parts of it to him. There was a photo of kids praying on one of the pages, which caught his eye. He carried that newsletter with him for days saying, "pray, pray, pray." Melts my heart.

After getting the house unpacked, I decided to start Cashe on a schedule. I'm not too rigid with it, but we do crafts every day & we sing & color & dance & run & read & learn about table manners & potty time. With a teeny-tiny attention span, we bounce through activities quite quickly (which is expected according to this schedule I found), but it's good to limit the time we spend in front of the TV or following Mom around the house terrorizing her with cars & trains.

This was taken one evening during coloring time. Cashe was explaining his coloring techniques to Dad. Take note: he is quite talented at coloring everything on the page in black.

A rare occasion: I caught one of his quick "cheeeeeeses" on camera. He sees the camera & he imediately says, "cheese", but within SECONDS, he's gone so it's seldom that I catch his handsome, little moments.

While living in the hotel, we tried just about every restaurant in town. This was taken at Idaho Pizza Company, which is Shad's new favorite. We had them in Boise too, but didn't eat there often & now that it's one of the few places in town to eat, it's at the top of our list. My boys LOVE their pizza. (I have to admit, I do too.)

And that's it for photos -- wow!

As far as an update goes outside of that -- all is well here in Twin. And I'm not just saying that. I heard a message at Bible Study a few weeks ago about how we are all pots & the more cracks you have in your pot, the more God can shine through those cracks. We are not perfect & we are weak & we must lean on God in life to get through each & every day, whether it's a good day or a bad day.

Through this journey of moving to Twin, I have found myself somewhat oblivious to the fact that our lives just made a great big change that often freaks people out A LOT. Why I have been oblivious is not because of any thing I've done (drug & alcohol use or anything like that), but because I gave this whole adventure to God. He undoubtedly wanted us to move & I wasn't about to protest.

Parts of this new experience are uncomfortable, but most of it IS comfortable & I only have Him to thank for that. I am weak weak weak & my only strength to meet new people & put myself out there & to deal with the unfamiliarity & the change is through Him. He has blessed us TREMENDOUSLY & continues to do so.

I fear that telling people how great life is for us hides my cracks (no, not my butt crack - ha ha ha), but I'm not hiding anything. My life is pretty darn great. I have a fabulous husband who loves his career, who is home EVERY single night & I have a beautiful son who is creating so much laughter in my life, I couldn't ask for anything more.