More Lucy Than June

As I type this it is currently 1:49 a.m. Yikes.

I’m being a little lazy…poor Stephen is still loading the trailer. I feel a smidge bad about that…

I have so much that I want to update you all with…so, I’ll give you a quick report in bullet-point fashion. Who doesn’t love a good bullet-point blog post every now and then, right?

I’ll give specifics later on this week, but for now…

• HOUSE IS RENTED!!!!! We had been praying for a very specific type of family to rent our home, and as we were leaving for church on Sunday, we received a phone call. They met us later that afternoon and called us within 30 minutes of leaving our house to tell us that they wanted it!!! This is a HUGE answer to prayer!!!!!
• Tomorrow morning we are set to roll out of here to head to Charleston with a very full trailer, two very full vehicles, three very excited kids, and one very scared cat. The whole “traveling cat” thing makes me nervous…
• Stephen will be back next week to do final clean up and another round of packing. I love that man…
• Back surgery is scheduled for July ???? I missed the doctor’s phone call to tell me when this morning, and so I have to wait until tomorrow to find out for sure. To those of you who know and love us: I am asking for help now for Stephen as he will have all three kiddos while I’m in the hospital for a few days. If I’ve got any takers on this, let me know!
• Yesterday, Stephen and I “celebrated” seven years of marriage. I use the term “celebrated” loosely because we are both saying that yesterday does not count as our official anniversary. We’re waiting till we get to Charleston, and then hopefully we’ll be able to go out to dinner sans children one evening. Mmmm…fresh seafood….
• We had a wonderful “Going Away” cookout with our Journey Group last night. They gave us a wonderful scrap book of pictures of our group through the years. Shame on them. It made me cry…
• And finally…I think I’ve converted my dear friend Terri into a fabric softener user. She’s not one for frills, so this is a big deal in my book. She’s been letting me do laundry at her house this week, and she likes the way her house smells when I do my laundry there. What can I say? That’s what friends are for…

So…there you have it. I got to use the “bullet point” feature on the ole blog. That was fun…

More to come…

Tonight, I have no cute pictures, no cute videos. I’m just processing alot of things tonight…

We have returned to our house in Georgia for the time being after a week in Charleston and a few nights at Stephen’s parents house.

It’s so weird being here, now. This is my home. But there is no furniture…many of our belongings are in South Carolina.

I brought my babies home to his house. We have a picture of each one in the foyer the day we brought them home. I know it’s “just a house”, but it was the first HOME my children knew.

I went into labor with two of them here. (Poor Jack and all of those issues made me just lie awake waiting for a phone call from the hospital to tell me to come in…)

And now, we’re packing it all up to move. I’ve never lived more than 15 minutes from the house I was brought home to when I was a baby.

We’re living in between two houses, and it’s been a difficult transition for all of us. The kids’ schedules are completely out of whack, and I need to really work to get them back to where they should be once we’re settled in our home in Charleston.

I feel like that’s my purpose right now. To transition them into this move well. To make them feel like Charleston is now home. To make the new house a place we call HOME.

In the world’s eyes, what we are doing is crazy. Dare I say, stupid, to some. To leave a home that we own, to move into a rental. To leave a job that was secure, to move to one where there is no promise of income for some time.

It sounds crazy to MYSELF when I say it. But I have to think about when Jesus called His disciples, He said “Follow Me”, and they dropped their nets and went with Him. I am most positive people thought they were crazy doing that. But they followed Him. They went where He told them to go. THEY WERE OBEDIENT. And it didn’t matter what anyone else thought about it either.

Stephen and I are tired right now. We are running on little sleep, packing up a home, and trying, in the midst of it all, to keep ourselves and our kids from going crazy.

I will say this…church-planting is not for the faint of heart.

Not much of what Jesus calls us to do is for the faint of heart.

Making such a bold leap of faith has threatened the enemy, and he in turn, has attacked. My self-confidence wavers daily.

“I’m not doing this right.” “I’m not a good enough wife.” “I’m not a good enough mom.” “How am I going to be a PASTOR’S wife?”

I go into this wondering what my role will be at River Church. Where will I “fit” into this picture? What will people think of when they think of Annette Parris?

I’m realizing that some of my dearest friends will now no longer be just a short drive away. And while I’m thrilled that there seems to be such a great network of people that we are already connected with there, I can’t help but be afraid that our friends here will “forget” us. And how will that feel? How will I deal with that if it does happen?

The stress of it all caused me to break out into hives while we were in Charleston last week. I’ve never gotten hives before, but then again, I’ve never moved this far away before. I guess that’s a pretty life-changing event that my nervous system felt was good enough reason to cause me to break out.

Please continue to pray for us as we finalize our move. Pray for a renter or buyer for our home here in Georgia. Pray for our financial needs as we take on this new journey. Pray for rest in the coming weeks.

More importantly than any of that, I ask that you pray for protection over our family…specifically our children.

***Edited to add: I just received news that a dear friend from high school lost his 2 1/2 year old son today. Please, please, please pray for the Maxwell family tonight as they deal with their devastating loss…

Well, as sort of a going away Hoorah for me, my journey group girls and I took a weekend away from the kids and the men!

My girlies stayed with Katie O. and of course, had the time of their life! And Stephen took Jack with him down to Charleston. (I know, right?!?! What man takes a five month old on a road trip with a U-Haul? Oh mine does, ladies! Be jealous…)

Our girls weekend started out with a baby shower for our friend Jill. She has one little girl, Ella, who just turned three, but now…she’s adding a boy to the family! So, of course, we had to shower her with some blue stuff.

Then we headed to Atlanta for facials. We split our group in two, took two separate vehicles, left my car in a nearby parking lot, and headed off. As soon as we got off the interstate, poor Allison’s car just sort of….quit. Well, it didn’t SORT OF quit. It COMPLETELY quit. Then, poor Jill who is very pregnant had to walk up a very big hill in the Georgia summer heat. It’s always an adventure with us…

We had the facials done at a “school”, so they were a little cheaper than a regular facial. They were very relaxing, except for the steam that they put on you at the beginning. I couldn’t breathe! Is that normal or was my student uneducated in the ways of the steamer?

Oh, and the “extractions”. Ha! Extractions… That just means they’re popping your zits. Remember those Teen magazines that told us not to pick our face? I guess they were just kidding…or wrong. Like those old parenting magazines that told you to fold and tape your baby’s ears over. I swear I read that once in an old 50’s magazine. It’s a wonder the human race continues with all the crazy advice out there…

Anyway, then we headed to the Georgian Terrace after buying way more junk food than seven women should eat in one night, and then we walked down to The Spaghetti Factory.

Then we spent the rest of the night just talking and laughing together. It was a WONDERFUL time, and I’m already planning our girls weekend for the fall. This needs to be a seasonal event, ladies!!

Here are some pics from this weekend that I stole from Melissa’s blog.

Bahama Breeze

At the hotel Bottom row: Melissa, me, Jill/Top row: Laura, Shari, Allison, Courtney

Spaghetti Factory

On the roof of the hotel with Courtney

On the roof with Melissa

Next blog post: Charleston-ing it up with Terri! And the hour long trip to the five-mile away outlet mall. That’s howwe live it up in C-town!

…but they’re still fun!

Remember when I mentioned that I was going to see New Kids on the Block for my birthday? Well, that was on Thursday night, and boy! did we have fun!

First, let me say that their new music is not as ummmm…PG…as it used to be. Yeah, they’ve come a long way from “Please Don’t Go Girl” and “The Right Stuff”. It kind of made me blush a little.

Strangely enough though, the tunes are catchy.

But, they also did all of their old stuff as well. That’s what I really came for. And let me tell you, I had so much fun!

Did I sing? Oh yes.

Did I cheer and clap and yell? You betcha.

Did I dance? Well, you just aren’t a true New Kids fan if you can’t do The Right Stuff dance or wave your hands to Hangin’ Tough.

Now, let me say that a New Kids concert just isn’t what it used to be, though.

Where once we were wearing our T-shirts and buttons and waving our glow sticks around, this time around we watched thirty-something year old women wearing their old concert shirts that didn’t quite fit the same as they used to. (I’m not judging anyone’s 20-year weight gain cause goodness knows I couldn’t wear MY concert shirt from back in the day either.) And instead of waving around glow sticks, now they’re waving around Bud Light cans.

We watched many a young lady perform what we coined “The Drunk Girl Dance”. This is one hand in the air, pointing a finger or two at…well, I don’t know what they’re pointing at. The other hand is holding the beer can, and they just sort of sway back and forth a little. We think it’s maybe because if they actually move their feet, they might fall over.

Instead of “The Drunk Girl Dance”, we performed “The Poncho”. This can only be done while standing in the pouring rain for four hours wearing a Disney World poncho. The idea is that you feel more freedom to dance a little crazier than normal because nobody can tell who you are in your poncho.

We also discovered that Jordan’s falsetto does not sound as good as it used to. Maybe it never really sounded that great, but time certainly hasn’t helped.

The costume changes in between were really kind of long. Terri said they were probably having to rub the Aspercreme on. And I’m pretty sure that Donnie (who now refers to himself as DDUB…what?!?!) appeared to be wearing what was a back brace or a girdle or something.

My how time changes things.

So, here we are before getting out of the car. Yes, we are each holding a New Kids on the Block doll. Not really sure why nose is so red. That’s just crazy…

Here’s Terri, Michele, and I getting ready to do “The Poncho”…

And Robin looking uber-happy…

So, all in all, it was a great concert and a fun evening with the girls!! They even showed the clip from Dirty Dancing where “Nobody puts Baby in a corner”!! Seriously…..does it get any better than that?!?!

We tried to close out the evening with late night Krispy Kreme doughnut run. But the place was closed!!! Talk about disappointing…

McKenna loves to draw. On everything. Papers, moving boxes, the floor, herself…

But in all seriousness, she really does have some talent. Of course, I’m her mom. I’m supposed to think that, right?

She draws ALL THE TIME. It’s her favorite pasttime, really.

Here are some of her latest pieces…

The person with the crazy hair is her, and her mouth is open wide because she’s yelling….And she asked how to spell “I want candy”. I guess that’s what she’s yelling…

This is a princess she drew for me. My favorite part are the high heels.

This is a cat she drew on the side of one of my moving boxes.

And this is where she traced some Hello Kitty magnets and then gave the shapes faces and arms “like monsters”.

And this, albeit a sideways photo, is the hopscotch board she drew on the patio.

So, as you can see…she’s expanding her horizons beyond just the usual stick people we used to get.

Also expanding their horizons these days…little Jack.

Here he is using his hands to play with his toys.

He’s also recently discovered his feet. Those are pretty fun toys as well.

And…two of my little blessings enjoying some quiet time on the couch while their sister napped…or sang Mickey Mouse songs to herself.