9 nieces and nephews

As of 24 hours ago we only knew of 8 (Taylor, Shai, Hannah, Cole, Gavin, Rylan, Joshua, and Kyndal). We heard from April last night and she told us that number 9 is on the way. Congratulations April and Ryan!

Another week...

Another week has come and gone. We did a little shopping, some walking, and playing at the park. Thursday we went swimming at a friend's house. It was nice to get in the water for a little bit. It was a little chilly when we got out, but worth it. Bethany has been a little fussy this week. I wonder if she is getting more teeth? We had a busy day yesterday. I had an appt with the chiropractor, got tags for the van, and opened a new checking account. We also went to the mall instead of the park for a walk and some play time. James got a bunch of furniture moved around yesterday too. I now need to go and get the right clothes in the right room. Megan and Bethany's are in our room and ours are in the front bedroom. We also need to get the toys put where they belong. So much to do to get this house ready to sell. Please pray that is sells quickly once we put it on the market and that we find just the right house for us. The school district we would like to get into is expensive to live in. Hopefully we will find something that we can afford there. We are still in the middle of the dog dilemma. Still not sure what we are going to do with him, but he's got to go. Heard from Amy a couple of days ago and little miss Kyndal is sick. I hope she is getting better. Hey Amy, let me know how she's doing. Mom made a trip to the hospital this week with heart stuff. They are not sure what is going on, keep her in your prayers too! I hope the rest of you are doing well! ~AK

Weekends

Did I not ever post last week? Ooops! Well last weekend was semi-boring. Friday, James spent most of the day dealing with a leaking pipe in the front yard. He finally called his dad to come help. So Grammy and Papa came up. They got it fixed and I think most of the water has soaked back into the ground. Saturday we took the girls to the park and had a McDonald's picnic. They had so much fun. They both loved the swings. I have pics, but as usual have not put them on the computer yet. Will get that done sometime. We then went to Walmart for our big grocery shopping trip. We finally have food in the house! Sunday we went to a potluck with our group at church. We also went and looked at a few open houses in that area. I found the house I want, but James won't let me have it. It is just a "wee-bit" out of our price range. I just don't understand why he won't write them a check. HA Last week was the same ole, same ole. We did finally get rid of our blue couch. Some friends of ours put it in their game room. The back room is not so cluttered now. This weekend we worked on the house a little. Our front door lock quit working, well at least the keys did. We could lock it from the inside, but couldn't use the key outside. So we went to Lowe's and bought a new lock. While we were there I found a mirror on the clearance table for $15 that we bought. I thought after 2.5 years it was time to have a mirror in the front bathroom. It looks great! We spent Saturday working on the house. James finished trimming the bushes, putting the new lock in, and putting a toilet paper holder in the front bathroom. I cleaned up the inside. I finally got my closet cleaned out. It looks soooooooo much better!!!! I now have a big bag of clothes to go to Goodwill! Sunday of course was church. We went to evening services with some friends of ours. It was good to see them. They keep trying to talk us into moving into their neighborhood. We would love to, it would be fun to live close to them, but it is sooooooooo far north. It's a joke at church that they live in Oklahoma. haha Well that's what we've been doing the last couple of weeks. I am down to 2 chiropractor visits this week, so that will help greatly. Tonight is ladies Bible study night, so James will be at home with the kids, while I get to spend a little time with friends without the kids. Yeah! The kids continue to entertain us daily. Little Bethany loves to make you laugh. She is quite the funny girl! Megan just gets smarter and smarter. She spelled Jesus for me the other day! She must have learned that in Bible class. Not much else going on here. Just staying busy going through stuff to get rid of. Hope you all are doing okay. Till next time......
By the way, we are going to have to get rid of the dog. Megan can't seem to leave him alone and he has bitten her several times. Two times it was really hard. Rather she deserves it or not, I can't let him keep biting her. Know anyone that wants a 1 year old Shih Tzu? The people that gave him to us want to give him to someone they know, but they haven't found anyone to take him yet. They better find someone soon, I don't want him around here much longer. He is so cute and so sweet (as long as you don't hit him, pull his hair, drag him around by the collar, etc), but he is biting my little girl! I can't let that continue to happen!

Seventeen

Just wanted to share a little story. I will update tomorrow with news from the weekend and a couple of pics.

Tonight we were sitting in church listening to the sermon. Megan is sitting beside me looking at her Eggemeyer (sp?) Bible story book. She keeps looking at the power point screen and then back down at her book. She leans over and says, "Mommy, can you help me find 17?" I'm a little puzzled until I look up at the screen and see Acts 17 in big bold letters at the top. What a smart girl! Whether she heard 17 or not, at least she put it together. (I was also impressed that she wanted to look it up in her own Bible!) She is getting so big, so fast!!!

My cars

I felt this subject deserved its own posting. About three weeks ago James and I were leaving to go to Sam's and then to Walmart with the girls. He had parked our red car in the driveway and so he went and moved it over so we could pull the minivan out of the garage. Well sometime between getting out of the car, getting in the minivan and backing out, he forgot the car was back there. I heard a strange crunching noise and within a split second knew what had happened. Needless to say, my husband wrecked both of our cars at once. After a few tears and getting over being mad, it wasn't as bad as I first feared. The car door is wrinkled and missing some paint on the side mirror. The van is missing quite a bit of paint on the rear passenger side bumper, has a dented side panel, and has a nice red streak from the cars side mirror. I am trying to figure out where the money is coming from to get it fixed, but not sure when that will be yet.

Where we've been lately

I know you've been wondering where we have been, right!?! Well let's see if I can sum up the last couple of weeks. We were supposed to leave for Mom's on Friday, Aug 25, but the day before was when we learned of Jessie's death and decided to stay home so we could attend the funeral. We ended up spending that Saturday night at James' parents. James took me to meet Dad in Fort Worth on Sunday. I rode with Dad to Oklahoma for the funeral. On Monday we attended the funeral then headed back to Mom and Dad's house. Since Amy was down from Colorado I wanted to spend some time with her. We had a good week. The cousins got along fairly well and Amy and I got to visit. James came down the next weekend, which was Labor Day weekend. They had their "big" city wide garage sale that weekend. So the kids were left at home with James and we went "garage hopping". It was really pitiful and it was pretty much a waste of time. Oh well, you just never know. I also got my hair cut while I was down there. I got about 10 inches cut off! I love it! I will see about getting some before and after pictures put on here soon. Also while I was at Mom's I began to experience some severe back pain. There were times I could barely get out of the chair. So as soon as I got home I contacted a chiropractor to see what he could do for me. He took a bunch of xrays and determined that pretty much nothing in my back is where it should be. Dad said "Welcome to the Isbell family". HAHA Dad! So I have been going every other day for adjustments. So far not much has changed, but he said it could take up to a month to experience relief. So much for my over night fix I was looking for. Oh well, maybe this will help with just more than the immediate problem. My appointments have been kind of all consuming since we got home. Between finding babysitters, getting to appointments, and trying to stay out of pain while keeping the house semi-clean has been taxing. Last week we were even down to one car since the battery was dead in the van. James took it in Friday night and got it replaced for FREE! If it had been next month we would have had to pay, how often does that happen? We did pay $11 for an "upgraded" battery. We have now had the dog for almost three weeks and he is doing fine. I think he is tired of Megan bugging him and she is learning to leave him alone. He did bite her pretty hard the other day, but no broken skin. Megan is doing fine. She stays busy bugging her sister and the dog. She is really wanting to start "school". I guess I should get in gear and get that started. We are going to do preK at home. Bethany is now walking every where, off of baby food, no longer nursing, and has a new tooth. She has definitely had a lot of changes lately. She loves Boston. Whenever she seems him she points and yells "Baw, Baw". Too cute! Mom and I are going to start selling stuff on ebay. We've both got so much "stuff" that we need to get rid of so we are going to sell it. I need to help offset my chiropractor bills some! I guess that's about it for now. I will post again if I think of anything. Hope you are all doing well.

Jessie

For those of you who don't already know.... My cousin Nikki lost her husband on August 24. The tractor he was riding on exploded and burned him on 80 percent of his body. He survived a few days, but his injuries were too great to overcome. He left behind a lovely wife and two beautiful children, Spencer and Sydney. Please keep them in your prayers as they face the difficult days and months ahead.