Interview Day shots

Perfectionist part 2

So, how did Joshua learn to be a perfectionist?  You guessed it . . . his mother!  I have been working on packing and well, if I am going to do it, I'm going to do it right.  I have a nice stack of boxes in my living room (not perfect, but better than all over my house), but I have to have a clean house.  Fortunately I have boys who love me enough to help me keep everything clean as I go.  We dust and vacuum, keep toys put away (the few that are left), sweep and mop,  and most importantly never play on the boxes.   It is a good thing I still have a month to finish my perfect packing job because it takes time!  But when it is done it will be perfect!  

Perfectionist part 1

Joshua, age 4, has always had "Monkish" qualities about him.  These qualities have been frustrations as well as blessings in his life.  For example:  Frustrating when he will not learn to read until he knows he can do it perfectly.  Blessing when he toilet trains in 2 - 3 days because he hates being wet.  Well, the other day he found that he could ride a bike without training wheels, so we took them off and he tried, BUT he couldn't do it perfectl

y so now refuses to ride his bike at all.  I think we will put the training wheels back on and wait until perfection can exist.    (Michael was so cute helping him--what a great big brother!)

Arkansas Day 3—Monday

We did it.  We found a place to live, in the Branch we feel we should be in, and we're headed to sign the contract tonight.  It looks like the Lord really does want us here.  Of course, he's charging us an arm and a leg for it, but hey, you do what you've got to do.  Maybe we'll sell the fruit of our three pecan trees to help pay the rent.

4 Bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths (that's a weird fluke, by the way), large Living room, kitchen, sun room (which we're using as a dining room!) with a back porch/deck, covered parking, air and heat, and this amazing room upstairs that will be our school room.  It looks to be converted attic, but is about 2/3 of the main part of the upstairs you see in the photo (left side.)  One of the best parts is that we'll now have a guest room.  Hmm?  What?  Speak again?  Oh yes, we'll have a guest room, and we're even hoping to have a guest bed to put in it, and it has its own bathroom.  Of course it will also be the treadmill/TV/James office, but if, on he chance someone does find their way down here, I'm sure we can work something out.  The down side?  Knotty pine.  The kitchen is über dark from it, and one of the bedrooms is paneled in it.  Other than that, though, all is well.  Thank you for your prayers as we've mounted this impossible search.  Sometimes it seems that life is all or nothing, and our nothing finally gave way to all.  We're heading home tomorrow.

Arkansas Day 2—Sunday

We got up bright and not so early for another hot, southern day, the second in our quest to secure the best place possible for our little family.  Today was a day of rest and prayer before the real work starts tomorrow.  We attended church at the local branch here, and enjoyed a nice two hour service with seven other people.  That made nine total.

Nine.

Nine.

With our children it would be twelve.  an even dozen.

So, as it was the first Sunday of the month, we took it in turn to share our testimonies of principles of the gospel, one person following another until it was our turn.  First me, then Liz.  I get the strange feeling that this is pretty standard, and we will have plenty of opportunities in the future to do the same thing again and again and again and again.  Wow.  The photo here is of the church building, which consists of a chapel, kitchen, library, restrooms, and a large room that can be divided in three for differentiated instruction.  We didn't do any of that today—just two hours sitting in the chapel all together.  It's a beautiful little little building, and I'm grateful it's there, otherwise I think they'd disband the branch.  We sang hymns to the accompaniment of CD (including the recorded voices on the CD) and had a grand time feeling that feeling that we could belong in a unit like this.

Now you now what we're looking at.  Tomorrow the house hunting begins, and we actually have a great lead in Marianna that came late tonight from some Teach for America people leaving this year.  We're hoping things will come together quickly so that we can get home to our boys, one of whom was bitten in the face today.  Apparently it wasn't that bad, but an adventure nonetheless.  Keep us in your prayers, and we'll keep the updates and photos coming!