Thirteen things I love about the 4th of July:

13. Remembering the long, hot floorboard, Don Williams induced (watching Dad sing to Mom); working on record books on the way back; fighting about space in the back seat; stopping at all of the usual stops; wondering what everyone will be wearing; wishing we were there all ready; getting excited about the play time; getting the lectures before stepping out of the vehicle, “I don’t care if you don’t like each other, while we are here, you dang sure better act like you do. Do you hear me?” trips to West Texas, (I think the time spent in the truck was almost as good as the time there). There was also a time when I poured my coke out on the dry, cracked ground because I really thought that they were in a bad need for rain. Like it was going to help!

12. Remembering running in and hugging Grandma Zant (in the kitchen)

and looking around to find Papa and Granny to “surprise” them that we had arrived

11. Remembering getting coffee for all of the Zant Men (Joe Don likes his straight black and Papa likes his with half of a package of Sweet and low), running past Warren Lee so that he wouldn’t get me; everyone singing church songs in the garage and going to church either in Vilmore or New Home.

10. Swimming in the tank with Lanny, Shannon and Shane (such dare devils) and spending the night at their house during the last phase of the trip to New Home (watching “chasers” go up Caren’s gown)

9. Watching dad and mom’s reactions during the day as if they had been awarded the best gift in the world

8. Seeing my nephews (I love it that it is plural!!), sisters, cousins, cousin’s kids, aunts and friends

7. Playing outside with no time limit and no one cares what you look like or if you are dirty or not. In fact, if you are clean, you don’t fit in and you will soon find out that “they” will come and get you next.

6. Getting to slip and slide and knowing that you are going to have huge bruises the next week. Having a contest to see if someone can out-slide Karl and Andy.

5. The firework show put on by the Zant Girl’s Men and Co. (Micah, Andy, Jorge, Karl, Zach, Travis, Chad, Craig and I am sure I left out someone)

4. Coming home for church the weekend before

3. Seeing our grandparents sit on the porch and watch all of their wild and crazy kids

2. Cooling off with the water fights and loving the fact that everyone plays

1. Being with family (extended, blood and spiritual). It’s better than Christmas Day, no matter where I am. And hearing dad say, “I know that I said it last year, but I believer this has been the best year yet.”

Thursday 13 and then some...

Thirteen things I love about being married:

13. No matter what, you’re in it until you resolve it

12. Having kids one day with Karl

11. Not having to make decisions on my own

10. Trips are much more fun with two drivers

9. I always have someone to talk to

8. It’s great to have a hand to hold to pray

7. It’s nice to hear someone else pray for meals

6. Anniversaries are fun to look forward to

5. Knowing that our children will have a great example on earth.

4. Having two families to share life with.

3. Gaining an extra sister and brother

2. Excited about growing old with someone I hold dear to my heart

1. Karl is the love of my life

We are ever so grateful to God that both Paige and Emaline made it through the surgery just fine. We are thankful that Emaline is doing well and hope that her body can fully heal and grow, grow, grow!

Well, step 2 is complete. We passed with flying colors. The appraisal came back $6,000 more than what we even had the house listed for. We are going to use this weekend to get everything out of the house and into Raphael’s home. There is not a lot left in the house at this point. We are supposed to sign on June 30, 2006 and I think that it is going to happen! WHOOP!

Karl and I have been busy this week. We had a man at church that lost his wife to a stroke and we have been spending the evenings with him. Tuesday night we stayed up at the hospital with him until midnight and Wednesday we met him at the Funeral Home after work to help him make arrangements and decisions. Howard has two brothers and has not talked to them in over 10 years. He and his wife are very young. Josephine, his wife passed away 7 minutes after they took her off of life support. Howard is having a hard time with all of this.

Karl and I have made a deal that if he takes Howard to the barber for a haircut and facial shave Becky Yager and I will take the youth to SYS. I totally made out like a bandit!

One down and one to go...

We think that we may have sold our house. We should close on the 30th of June. There are two large steps in our way of signing.
1. Inspection
2. Appraisal

Well, step 1 we jumped over. Yesterday, while I was getting ready for work, there was a knock on the door. They were there to inspect the house. Karl and I had filled in all of the nail holes but we had not finished any of the painting and spackling. I warned him and we passed! Our realtor forgot to let us know that he would be coming by. They caught us by surprise, but God is good and we are in the clear for one of the steps. The next thing is the appraisal and that should happen late this week or early next week.

When I got home yesterday (around 6:30pm) I noticed that there were two red lights on the stove on. I looked and about the second turn of the neck I noticed that the stovetop was glowing. I guess the inspector left one of the small back burners on. Not only was it on, it was on max. That puppy was HOT! I am ever so thankful that I did not come home to a burnt down house. Again, GOD IS GOOD. I am not sure why we are so blessed. We definitely don’t deserve it. But we are thankful for it.

I will keep you informed of our sale saga….

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I love about my dad…

13. I know that I can just be me and he is good with that.
12. He taught us everyday the same way.
11. He taught us to always leave things better than we found it.
10. He taught us the importance of love and family.
9. He taught us to value material things (diamonds) but not to love them.
8. He put/puts up with four women and didn’t/hasn’t kill(ed) any of us.
7. He expects us to be good, tax-paying, Christian women that love what they do.
6. Because, “we do it three times” so that no one is left out and we all three have a chance to excel at everything.
5. He is well respected by everyone.
4. He never pushes when I make bad decisions but always lends a hand to help mend the problem and make things better.
3. He always encourages me to do what is right.
2. He holds his tongue and listens very carefully.
1. He leads a Christ like life.

My mom and dad are awesome. Thanks Neil for the idea! I can’t wait to get to replicate these things.

Random Thoughts

We are right in the middle of VBS and the kids are having so much fun. We are teaching about some different Kings in the Bible. The youth do a skit every evening and the parents seem to be having more fun with it more so than the young kids. Karl and I are teaching them Aggie Skits and we are having a blast. Last night we did my favorite two (Contagious Office and Sin Box). Karl was the preacher for Sin Box and did it justice all the way down to “L”. The youth seem to be having a blast and that is important for all of us. We have had a solid number of just over 50, which is great for us.

Karl has been down in his back since Sunday. I am not real sure what he did but he is hurting pretty bad. If you all could say a prayer for him, I know that he would appreciate it. I could use one too. I’m not real sympathetic and I need to be, more so with him!

Karl has a scheduled interview with John Deere for June 19. He will fly up this coming Sunday and interview on Monday. We have an offer on our house and we pray that this buyer will be able to pull through for us.

Not a lot going on, but enough to keep us going! I am so ready to see everyone. I feel like it has been months.

Updates!

All the good intentions in the world sometimes just aren’t enough. I noticed that I am getting some bad calls in the blogging game and wanted to update so that no technical fouls will be thrown.

I had every intention of getting the updates (with pictures) done this weekend. However, our desktop computer is packed and our laptop went on the fritz. So, instead of fighting with it I went over and helped Bec clean screens. Some friends of ours from church own a t-shirt printing company (on the side). Their garage (aka: the sweatshop) has a rather large automatic press in it and Bec is a mean machine on turning out some t-shirts. I took two days off this last week to stay at home and help her get done with some orders. Saturday I spent my day from 10 am until 3pm outside in her back yard cleaning screens (for the press) while Karl stayed home and cleaned the house. I have such the amazing and wonderful husband. I have red arms to prove my work outside and Karl has a clean house to prove his work inside. We had planned to go and tube down the river but it was just too hot. We checked it out at 10 am and it was already in the high 90’s and we decided that another weekend would be better. I am so glad. My arms are sooo red (with sun screen) and I don’t want to even think about what my legs would look like…yuk. Good decision on our part!

Karl and I have started SYS (Summer Youth Series). Every Thursday we take the youth to a different surrounding church and we have a devo, worship and then supper. It really is fun and the singing is worth the long drive every time. We consistently have about 9 kids that come with us and we are growing. Our girls and boys are getting along better and that is truly a blessing in itself.

We had a Board Meeting last night and it was stressful. Please pray for our congregation. We are at the time without elders and therefore we have to have monthly meetings to make all of the decisions. It is not easy and it is not the way that God intended it to be. We are working toward that place and we have had some new “elder material” brothers and sisters place membership! That is very POSITIVE. The in between is just hard and I pray for all of those that wear their emotions on their sleeves. (We had a split last year at this time and some are still not emotionally over some of the things that happened). Please just pray for your brothers and sisters in San Antonio at Ventura Church.

Our house is packed up and on the market! We have moved everything into another house and we are just paying him storage for his garage. Our furnishings consist of two chairs, a tv, our mattress, a futon and all of our clothing. All of my kitchen stuff is packed and in boxes somewhere. I am ready to either go or get unpacked.

So, here is an update in a nutshell. When we are not at church or with the youth, we are usually in the sweatshop. Hope that I didn’t over load or bore you. I will try and do better with my updates….may be once a month rather than once every two!