I Like To Move It Move It...

Yet again, it's time to move!!  Thankfully I didn't unpack too much after the last move, though I'm kicking myself for unpacking things that I've yet to use.  I suppose there was no way for me to know we'd be leaving this house so soon.

Yes, we're moving for the 2nd time in 6 months.  Yesterday we signed the papers on our new home.  It'll be nice to have a place of our own again.  It'll be nice to have a little bit of extra room to move.  It'll be nice to have my FIRST EVER COVERED BACK PORCH!!!! Woooo hooooo!!!!  I'm a little excited about that.  I'm not sure if the message conveys well via blog post. 

With this excitement comes worry, though I think I'm the only one worrying.  I worry when handling money.  Especially the large sum it'll take to pay this baby off.  When we sold our first two houses I felt free.  Now that we've taken on another mortgage, I feel like a slave once again.  Being a "worst case scenario" type of thinker, mortgages are murder on the nerves.  But I have to remember that I'm not in charge of all of this.  God has been faithful to provide for my family over and over again.  He's yet to allow the worst case scenario (though I doubt that'll be the case forever).  He has, however, allowed things to get bumpy.  During those times He provided for us richly and I actually felt most content.  I suppose that when we find our ultimate joy and comfort in Christ, the rest is just window dressing.  I'm learning day by day to not only be content with my lot, but embrace it.  It's by grace alone that I'll take my next breath, much less pay my next bill.  And when the worst case comes along, I'll know that my riches truly lie in my Savior.

So, anyway, that's what we're up to.  Closing was yesterday and we'll start moving in next Wednesday.  I'll try to remember to take pics and video.  I have what I think will be a fun idea for a video to chronicle this event.  I'll try to edit and post it as soon as we get internet going in the new house.  Be looking for something on the blog by the first of July (which in "Keri time" will most likely be the first of January. Ha).  Until then...

Oh, hi there.

Buenas dias! I'm rusty on my Spanish, so I hope that's appropriate. Man, it's been a really long time since I've posted. Very poor form, I know. So what's been going on?

Well, Anna has almost completed her first year of school. She has only two weeks left. She started the year at Speegleville Elementary with Mrs. DeHay. I must say, I totally loved that school. Small, friendly, and probably has the best principal ever. It's such a small school that Mr. Eberlein had Anna's name memorized by the end of the second week. He was very personable with the students. And her teacher was a 30 year veteran and super cool. I just can't gush enough about Speegleville Elementary.

We moved just before Christmas break, so Anna began Gatesville Primary after the New Year. The transition wasn't as hard as I thought it would be for her. Mrs. DeHay had indicated that Anna was painfully shy, so I worried a little that she would fall apart having to leave the school she began the year in. That wasn't the case at all. I'm sure her new teacher, Mrs. Smith, was a big factor in her quick adjustment to new surroundings. Mrs. Smith is one of the 5 nicest people on the planet, to be sure. Soft spoken and super sweet, her style connects well with Anna's "school self." "School self" differs a bit from "home self." Ha.

So, yes, we moved back to Gatesville. We decided it'd best to live a little closer to Justin's job and actually become part of the community in which he works. It's been nice to be so close to family and friends that we hadn't seen as much as we'd like since marrying and moving off to the big towns of Oakalla and Waco. We miss Waco, certainly (I think I miss it more than anyone else in the family), but I think we've adjusted to the move just as nicely as Anna has adjusted to school. We've rented a nice little house for the time being. It's on a game ranch, so we have to live behind a high game fence. It annoyed me a bit at first, but I've since gotten used to the idea. It's certainly nice to let the girls go out and play without fear of them getting into the road.

What else? Hmm. Well, let me just post a few pics and you'll get the general idea of how our year has gone.

We celebrated the Mitchell July birthdays at the Shop.

We enjoyed Independence Day fireworks @ Speegleville Elementary

The girls dressed like the Chick-fil-A cow and got free chicken!

Splash park and a special visit from the Leutwylers!

We visited the Dr. Pepper Museum. The horse was made from Dr. Pepper bottle caps!
We visited the Waco suspension bridge and fed ducks by the river
Anna's first day of kindergarten!

Laura Kate and Kolby visited the Baylor Bear mascots

We took a trip to Kaska Family Farm

Anna lost her first tooth!

We had snow!

Mommy went with some friends to see NEEDTOBREATHE. Mommy likey.
Anna and Laura Kate helped Daddy clean fish during white bass season. Actually, they just played with the poor fish.

That sums up our year in pictures! More recent and exciting news soon to follow...

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