Home is where your STUFF is...

We are here, we are happy and we are MOSTLY unpacked! All we have left are those few boxes of stuff that we just are not 100% sure what to do with. We moved in last Tuesday with the help of Johnson's Moving (worth every penny!). They had us out of the old house in less than 2 hours and into the new house in less than an hour and a half. The kids stayed with DiGi and Granddad so we could get as much unpacked as possible and we got ALOT done.

With the help of a friend, Melissa, and her children, the boys rooms were completely unpacked within just a few hours of us moving in. They bought Kentucky Fried Chicken for us to eat that night and continued helping us unpack until we were too tired to unpack anymore.

Our church family has been so wonderful! They had our cabinets stocked with everything we use on a regular basis. Everything from deodorant to paper towels to bananas was in our cabinets! We have also had food delivered or bought for us many nights. It has been so helpful when there is so much you have to do!

So, here we are a week into our new house and I have already started painting. You know I love to paint! Girls, I might have lost my mind. The guest bathroom/boys bathroom is now lime green, yep, that is right, you heard me...Lime Green.

I found this great towel at Walmart that I thought would be fun for the kids bathroom. I wish I could show you a picture but am having trouble getting my picture up on blogger (anyone else?). Anyway, it is a fun towel with bright colors and one of the colors is lime green so that is what I spent my day doing. What did the kids do while I was painting? I knew you were thinking it. They played especially well today and it helped that Parker was "laid up" with a skinned knee and that Hayden felt sorry for him.

So, we are here and happy! I am thankful for the internet and us all having blogs so we can keep up with each other. I've got a few more blogs to post but will save them for another day.

Last post from Haughton...

Hi girls! Just wanted to let you know that we are moving tomorrow.

I am soooo ready to be in our new place. This house, strangely enough, doesn't feel like home anymore. It is amazing how you put brown moving boxes all over the place, don't cook for a week or more and take all your pictures down and realize this is just a house. All of my memories (and stuff) will stay with me and I am really looking forward to making new memories in our new home.

Chad feels like we will be back on the internet soon so I should be able to blog when I get sometime. Take care and I will be checking in on all of you soon!

Love you guys!

What was I thinking?

Will someone remind me to NOT make cupcakes for Hayden's preschool class two days before I move? I should have just bought them for time constraints but I know they are not as good as homemade (from a box) and I am cheap.

Today was such a busy but great day! Chad headed out around 7:45am to go to the church. The boys and I left about an hour later and met up with Chad's Dad and headed on to church. We had a great time at church and attended a class that is taught by some of our new friends, Shane and Melissa. After church we went to eat with some people from church at a fish place on Caddo Lake. Then we went to one of our church member's houses. He and his wife have a beautiful lot of land right on the lake with a swing hanging from a tall limb...the kids had the best time swinging and didn't want to leave! After that we went to the parsonage and showed it to Dad, who had not seen it yet. He was VERY impressed with our new house.

After all of that, I headed back home and Dad followed with his trailer to load up our swing set. All the while I am starting to make these cupcakes only to realize that my bowl, beaters, measuring cups and foil are all packed....yikes! I called my neighbor and they were so helpful sharing everything with me.

Anyways, my house is TRASHED but my sweet little boy will have his birthday cupcakes to take to school tomorrow and we will have survived another CRAZY day!

Hope everyone is good! Love ya!

Wandon...

The other day Parker and I were heading over to Michelle's house and because Parker pronounces Landon's name, Wandon, I said, "Are you ready to go to Wandon's house?"

He said, "Not Wandon, it's Wandon!"

I said, "Wandon?"

He said, "No, WAN-DON, starts with a P, WAN-DON."

I guess he was thinking since his name starts with a P then Landons would, too.

Packing...

This is a whole new thing for me. I have never packed up my whole family and moved. When I married Chad I brought my chest of drawers and clothes to the house we live in now. Since then we have accumulated two kids and all their things, bigger furniture, a treadmill and a karaoke machine (surely you have a karaoke machine...okay, maybe not).

I packed a little bit today but didn't make too much progress however Chad is like Super Packing-man. In less than an hour he had 8 boxes packed. Can you believe? He moved around alot as a kid so it must have come back to him.

The moving guys come NEXT Tuesday so we have to be ready by then. Until then we will be living among brown boxes. Which, can I just say something about those brown boxes? What a BLESSING! I sent out an e-mail for boxes and had four different people either let us pickup boxes or deliver them to our home. How nice is that? I tell you, I have the best friends. Not just the girls who gave boxes but MANY have been so nice to us during our move (okay, that needs to be another post because I could go on and on about my friends).

Love to you all! Have a super Tuesday!

Portrait Party...

There's Michelle doing her thing.

In the middle of moving my whole family to another city, I had a portrait party for Michelle Jenkins Photography at my house. It was stressful trying to get everything cleaned up and looking like we weren't moving but we had a good time visiting with all of the people who attended and who doesn't enjoy a good excuse to eat yummy ghost cookies and rotel dip with chips?

I couldn't resist this picture of Parker and Piper. Is she not the cutest thing or what? This was their goodbye hug. They play so well together and are really sweet to each other (and because of that Jinnie and I are convinced they will get married...can't you see the logic?).

Sharing Halloween Costumes...

Candy and I thought about this earlier in the season but I didn't get to post anything until AFTER I spent $36 on Halloween costumes. Costumes are SO expensive! Fortunately, my kids like to be things they can wear all throughout the year but when your kid wears, let's say a costume of Robinhood or Little Bo Peep, it will probably only be worn once.

My proposal is...If you have a costume that your child has worn in the past (and is still in good condition) that you want to share, list it in my blog comments. That way we can all share and maybe save each other some money.

I have a Spiderman costume that is a 4-6 and fits both Hayden and Parker. If you want to borrow it, you are more than welcome to, I just would need it mailed back to Oil City :).

Happy borrowing!

MY Hayden...

When Parker is referring to Hayden, he has started saying...

• That's my Hayden's room, my Hayden's toy, etc.
• This morning I heard...where is my Hayden?
• The other day at church...I wanna go get my Hayden.

I think it is so cute!

See that house?

That is where we currently live (don't mind the yard that needs to be edged and the packing materials under the carport). Two weeks ago we REALLY put some work into making the house look great so we could put it on the market. My whole family got involved and I am so thankful.

• Chad's dad came over and put up some blinds, fixed a light in the bathroom and put some quarter-round down all for a dinner of taco soup.
• My step-dad, Jimmy, came and did our landscaping. Jimmy said that working outside on landscaping projects is "relaxing" to him. You should see how beautiful their backyard is. The only payment they would take is our love.
• Chad's step-mom, Eloise, came over and helped us clean. She did things like clean our light fixtures, wipe down cabinets and wash our laundry, that hadn't been done in days. I don't know what we would have done without her helping us clean.
• My mom started helping Jimmy with the landscaping but ended up having her gallbladder out the next week and couldn't come back to help. The day she stopped by to "look at our landscaping" she was caught trying to fold clothes. We promptly sent her home to relax and recuperate.

Our family was great to us! After almost 8 years of living in a house there was alot of things that needed to be done. Having everyone come over and pitch in was special for us.

The best thing...after working a stressful weekend to get everything done, we put our house on the market Monday morning, the first person looked at it at 11:50am on Tuesday and she signed a contract 30 minutes later at 12:20pm.

Just another way God is involved in this!

First Baptist Church Oil City...

Wow! What can I say other than God is good! We are so excited about moving to Oil City and seeing what God has in store for us and the people of Oil City. Wait..wait, you want me to slow down, huh? I know some of you might be hearing about this for the first time so let me start from the beginning.

For about 6 months or so, Chad has felt like God was calling him to preach. For the past 15 months at a little church in Oil City, Louisiana members of the Pastor Search Committee have been meeting EVERY Wednesday night to look and pray over resumes to fill a much needed position. Through lots of prayers and events our resume ended up in the hands of that committee at First Baptist Church Oil City.

Within a few weeks of them having Chad's resume they wanted to hear a CD of his sermons so Chad mailed that to them. A week or so later we got the call that the committee wanted to hear Chad preach in person. That next Sunday Chad preached in Ida, Louisiana (a neutral location) for the congregation there and the Oil City Pastor Search Committee. For an hour after church, Chad and I met with the two men and three women who comprised the Pastor Search Committee and felt an immediate connection. We planned to pray that day and night and meet back together the next night at Red Lobster for dinner. They asked us tons of questions, we asked them tons of questions, we laughed, they laughed...it was just a great time with a group of people that we REALLY liked. That night they told us that they wanted Chad to come before the church in view of a call on October 7.

This past Saturday night we went for a Meet and Greet so we could get to know the members of the church and they could get to know us. Chad met with the deacons and then the members were able to ask us questions. Everyone was super nice and it felt so good. They made us feel like family. Sunday morning Chad preached and then at their Sunday evening services they had a special vote where Chad was voted unanimously to become the pastor of First Baptist Church Oil City.

So, I think you are all caught up now! This Sunday, October 14 will be our last Sunday at Eastwood and our first Sunday in Oil City will be October 21.

Bittersweet but I am trusting in God...I certainly don't want to end up in the belly of fish :).

Needing a facelift...

Not me, girls...my blog! Just because it is my birthday and I am 31 now doesn't mean I am going to go talking bad about my few "problem" areas.

I have been thinking my blog needed a change for a few weeks now and today is the day! For over a year this blog has only been about the boys and the sweet things they do. Since we are moving now I guess I need to update on more than just the boys so this will become a blog about us...

The Mills Family.

Enjoy!