Desperate for the Olympics!

I do not know if you can figure this picture out but this is a set of rabbit ears WITH some foil on them in my desperation to be able to watch the Olympics. For some crazy reason we could not have our Dish TV installed until 12 days after we moved in. My main concern was the Olympics. According to my husband my obsession with the Olympics is strange but I have always loved them! I love gymnastics, swimming, diving and of course all of the personal interest stories they feature on the athletes! So after hearing me complain about missing them he finally said I wonder if we can get some rabbit ears and pick them up. Off to Wal-Mart we went and low and behold they still sell rabbit ears. We proudly picked up a pair and plugged them in. I now get a total of 8 channels - 3 of them are Spanish and 1 is some other foreign language that we cannot figure out!!! But most importantly with the rabbit ears on the floor toward the balcony and the foil I can get the Olympics - Oh happy day!! I think my husband may be thinking...you might be a redneck if you rig up rabbit ears in order to watch the Olympics!

In other news...apartment living continues...luckily we have not received any complaints but if I had a nickel for every time I said don't run, walk on your tip toes - JOEL - walk on your tip toes - I would be rich!! Christian has been gone since Thursday to my mom and dad's. All of the other boys got time over the summer by their selves so it was his time. He does not want to come home - and I can't really blame him -ha. ha -who would want to leave full TV, not having to share the computer, getting everything you want, and not having to be quite as you walk!! He was very sad to hear that he would have to come home Wednesday or Thursday morning because he has his orientation at his school on Thursday!

Finally in Frisco!

Well it took a total of 7 months, 91 showings, 3 contracts, an EARTHQUAKE & A HURRICANE but we FINALLY completely closed on our house in Sugar Land. We were supposed to close on Friday, August 1st at 10:00 am. We had the moving truck load us up on Thursday, July 31st (the only day they were not booked)and then received a call that our closing had been moved to 2:00 pm on Friday. Not a huge deal except Craig was driving the HUGE U-haul truck while pulling his car on a trailer and was not looking forward to fighting Houston Friday afternoon traffic. As we pulled into the title company's parking lot around 1:40 pm on Friday we received a call that we would not close on Friday. The holdup was the earthquake that had occurred in California. Our buyers were from California and their paperwork was slowed down because of office closures due to the earthquake. Craig and I left for Dallas around 2:00 that afternoon and arrived around 7:30 that night. He navigated that big rig as we affectionally called it very well and only had one mishap at a gas station!(Luckily someone took pity on us and helped Craig navigate out without hitting the gas pumps!).

Of course as we loaded stuff into storage and into the apartment we picked the hottest day in Dallas! But by around 3:00 on Saturday we had everything that needed to go into storage in storage and everything for the apartment in the apartment! We received a call Monday morning that we were to sign the papers on our house in Sugar Land at 2:00 pm in Frisco, then they would overnight them to Sugar Land for our buyers to sign. Our buyers were to sign at 10:00 am on Tuesday morning but due to the threat of the Hurricane which only ended up being a tropical storm they were able to sign around 3:00 on Tuesday and it was a done deal - YEAH!

The last couple of days have been spent registering the 3 boys for school and constantly saying walk on your tippy toes!! Did I mention that they only had a 2 bedroom apartment on the 2nd floor!?? So, we are constantly telling the boys walk softly, don't run, walk on your tippy toes and it will only be 4 months! They are adjusting but I know everyone will be really ready to move into our new home!

Haven't taken any pictures except for this one of Joel. He is standing in front of the sign for his school (of course Caleb will be attending there but he did not want to have his picture taken and you know Christian is way to cool to stand in front of his school for a picture)!!!

Thank you to everyone who prayed for our house to sale! We are really looking forward to plugging into our life here in Frisco!

Home Sweet Home ....in about 4 months!

Here is a picture of the home we are building. It is a picture of their model home so ours will not have the 3rd garage and where the double set of french doors are that is where our garage will be. Also the front will be all brick. I have also put in the floor plans. The only change we made is we added a media room on the second floor that will be directly over the master bedroom. This truly is my ideal/dream home and I am very excited to begin to see it take shape.

In the meantime we are frantically packing to close on our house here in Sugar Land. We close this Friday but the movers are coming on Thursday to load us because all the movers were booked on Friday! I am trying not to stress myself out planning and packing what needs to go to storage and what we may possibly need in the apartment. (because who wants to be trying to search through a storage building for something you need!!!)- we will just say some days are better than others - ha. ha! The kids are going to go to Randy & Sherri's (YIPEE!) so I can have everything finished by Thursday morning.

Of course one thing around here has not changed and that is swimming!! Caleb & Joel have taught themselves how to dive off the diving board and I wanted to share those pictures. (The first 2 pictures are Joel and the last one is Caleb). I have also attached some pictures of Nicole's first few days at home. She went to the Dr. today and had a great report. She is doing remarkably well!

Going Home & Looking for a Home

It is official at 3:50 pm today Nicole Grace Duran FINALLY went home! Kyle, Leanna and Austin are very excited to have her home 1 week and 3 days before her due date. Please continue to remember everyone in prayer as they all adjust.

On another note - we are closing ONE WEEK EARLY here in Sugar Land (next Friday, August 1st). While we are extremely excited to have our house here in Sugar Land sold we still do not have a house to go to in Frisco! We are on our 3rd house which happens to be a foreclosure and are still waiting to hear. So, we wait - seems to be a theme of this transition period! I will update the blog when we know something.

For now we rejoice in the homecoming of Nicole!
**Update - we found out about 5:30 pm today that we did not get the foreclosure. The journey continues... We are going to go back and pursue possibly building a house we both like again. Just need some favor!!!

Houston we have a Contract!

6 months, 3 days, 91 showings and 3 offers later we have a CONTRACT!

We received a call this evening from our Realtor with a FULL PRICE offer the only thing the couple wants is a home warranty and to close August 8th!! Thank you Jesus! We are so very excited to finally continue this transition and covet your prayers through the 10 day option period and as we travel to Frisco this coming week to look for us a house (we are going to go up on Sunday because Craig is working Friday & Saturday). I will say it again THANK YOU JESUS!

**Side note - the boys have been requesting to each have a "special day". Which means a day where they can go anywhere and do whatever they want to ALONE! Caleb went with Craig today and all he wanted was to eat at Joe's Crab Shack and go swimming. They ate lunch but unfortunately when Craig dropped him off at the pool with me and the other kids it was raining so he didn't get to swim but here is a picture of his favorite part - the DESSERT!!

***One other side note - since I sent out the prayer request for Nicole and her problems with Apnea (where she stops breathing) she has not had ANOTHER EPISODE! Thank you Jesus. In the last 2 days they have moved her out of the "warming bed" into a normal bed, upped her to 4 bottle/breast feedings and are saying she possibly could go home in the next 2 weeks. Here is a picture Kyle sent me of her this past week.

Summer Days!

We are now fully into summer at the Wilson household. When school let out in June we went that very day to Austin to the Lake and then a week later got on the boat for the cruise so we have just now really gotten into summer days off! Which translates into boredom and fighting! Now not hitting although that does happen sometimes but mostly where the kids determine lets pick on and aggravate some one. Joel against Christian; Caleb against Joel; Christian against the other two - seems like it is always someone!! Also this is the very first summer in all of their lives that I am not working at least part-time so that has some adjustments as well (more probably for me than for them). All of this translates into a lot of time at the pool!! It is FREE, we have 4 to choose from and we have had very little rain to hinder our plans. So, if you are looking for any of the Wilsons sometime between 1 and 5 during the day we are probably at the POOL!

Since the early arrival of Nicole Grace I did not get an opportunity to share some of the pictures from our Lake trip in June so I wanted to share them with you in this post. Also my digital camera was damaged on our cruise and looks like I will have to replace it because that would be cheaper than repairing it - so until that happens the pictures may be fewer but for now enjoy the ones from Lake Travis in Austin and I have some other new ones that I will use later.

In June we went to Kyle and Leanna on a Thursday and spent the day and night hanging out with them and then on Friday went to the Lake. So some of the pictures are of the kids with Austin and some are at the Lake. It is also amazing to me that Nicole was born the very next week!!! (Pics - I took several of the boys with Austin; Christian actually took the picture of Austin in the jungle gym that I thought was awesome; Leanna and I had the idea to try to get all 4 of them holding hands - it was a trial with a 1 year old but we finally got this shot; Caleb and I were with Austin in his room early on Friday morning and I don't remember how Caleb got him to laugh so hard but it was so cute!; Craig riding the jet ski, he also wake-boarded that day, got up on his first try - I don't know why I don't have any pictures of him wake-boarding but he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to jet ski; me wake-boarding - did better this trip and finally felt more comfortable; Austin with Kyle swimming in the Lake and then yes he is asleep - he had stayed up the whole day all 6 hours on the lake and finally as we were swimming before going to dinner he passed out. *We realized at the end of the day that we never got the tube for the kids to ride on so that is why there aren't any pictures of them but they had a great time swimming in the lake and riding in the boat!)

Cruise!

As many of you know Papaw & MeMaw (aka Randy & Sherri Skipper) took the WHOLE family on a 4 day cruise out of Galveston. We left on Thursday and came home on Monday. We had a fabulous time but with all Wilson family events it was not without some mishaps!!

Immediately when we arrived on the ship on Thursday the kids wanted to swim. They loved the slide that fed directly into the pool. Everyone except Joel who was not tall enough to slide - boy was that a HUGE disappointment for him. He FINALLY got over it (about the 3rd day of the trip) and just swam. The pool is not very large because of course it is on top of the boat. But kids never mind if the pool is packed so they had a great time!








We also had a life saving drill. You can see from the pictures the joy the kids had to be participating in the drill. And as always it opened up many interesting questions about if the boat sank what would happen and if sharks could eat through the life boats, etc....














We went back to our room that evening to get ready for dinner. Joel LOVED that our room had 2 bunk beds that folded out from the wall (as he is showing in the picture)! The window was also a big hit as they all loved to look out of it.




We ate dinner in the dinning room that night. My kids were so funny with all of the silverware and glassware that was on the table. They had NEVER seen so much stuff! (Of course when you always drink out of plastic cups and eat most of your meals on paper plates I am sure the abundance of glass ware was a shock!) We ended up eating all 4 nights in the dinning room because it was easier to be served then to have to go back and forth to the buffet with the kids!












Friday was a day at sea and low and behold their was a miniature golf course on the top deck of the boat. We played A LOT of miniature golf over those 4 days but had a great time!! After miniature golf it was back to the pool to swim and then eat lunch.























After lunch we went through a BIG rain storm that lasted about 2 hours (when Craig and I cruised with my mom and dad we never had any rain but where not so lucky this trip!) This is a picture of the rain against the windows and of us hanging out with MeMaw waiting on the rain to pass!!


























That night we took a family picture together. We got one great shot and I know MeMaw and Papaw were pleased with it.




Saturday morning we ported in Cozumel, Mexico. That morning when I got up it felt like the boat was rocking from side to side. Despite the fact that I had a seasickness patch on I became very nauseated. Later on before we got off the boat Caleb complained about being nauseated as well so we both took a Dramamine. We decided to just do a beach excursion and it ended up that everyone did it together. We arrived at the beach where they had tons of lounge chairs, beach umbrellas, paddle boats, canoes, a water trampoline, and a inflatable mountain out in the ocean. We all ran to get "good" lounge chairs where we could see the kids swimming and then Craig and Papaw went to get the beach umbrellas and put their wallets, etc in a locker. While Memaw and I got in the water with the kids. I had only proceeded about ankle deep when Caleb who was about 5 feet from me began to SCREAM. I mean SCREAM loud and crying saying something was stinging him. I ran over and dragged him out of the water where he just laid down on the ground and continued to scream and cry. I did not know what to do - Craig was still finding a locker - and we were drawing a HUGE crowd but I didn't see anything on Caleb. A lifeguard ran up and asked me what was wrong. So I told him and we pulled Caleb's swim suit down and he had 6 large whelps on his lower stomach/groin area. The life guard got on the radio and began calling for a paramedic. He kept saying a paramedic is on the way. In the meantime I was really getting nervous because Caleb was screaming, I had a life guard who spoke very little English and I did not know what I would be facing with the paramedic. I was desperately looking for Craig. The paramedic arrived and asked us to come with him. So he took Caleb and examined him. He had been stung by a jelly fish 6 times. He began cleaning the whelps with antispectic the other thing that happened was he began to break out in hives. So he received a dose of Benadryl. Because of the Benadryl and the earlier Dramamine he slept most of the day at the beach. Luckily the beach place had a swimming pool as well so the rest of the kids spent the day at the pool. He finally felt better late that evening! (Because of the craziness with Caleb I did not get any pictures of the excursion and then I realized that night my camera screen had cracked and didn't take any more pictures the rest of the trip).

Sunday we were back at sea. Did the same thing as we did on Friday - putt, putt, swimming and the arcade! We also went through another rain storm that afternoon which caused everyone to come inside. Everyone was tired at dinner but had a great day.

Monday it was the process of getting off the boat, going through customs, getting loaded up and heading home. Then it was lawn mowing and laundry - vacation is over!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures!