Hi!!!!!

 We made it!

 We are in Nokesville VA and we made it in 10 hours…should have been 8 but we had to stop twice and also had to wait for about 20 minutes in latham ny for mom to meet us there with alivias favorite blankie that we left at home.

 the kids did amazing and neither one cried even once….

oh let me back up a little bit first…….

last night there were alot of tears between me, my mom and my sister.

this morning there were alot of tears between me, mom, jess, dad, and joyce…. it was terrible. at one point right before we left bryson was making this little moaning noise that he makes when he is tired but not in his crib…and mom loves it and he does it alot with her when she rocks him. so … she was rocking him and saying goodbye. she was crying, alot, and he was making that noise and then he quickly fell asleep. she couldnt put him down in his carseat and none of us could stop crying.

my dad and his girlfreind were crying. it was aweful….. i am so glad that i gave each of them ( dad, mom and tim) individual letters that day or the day before telling them how thankful i am for them. everyone was crying and we finally just got in the car. before we drove away, i held the camera out the window and took a pic of them all standing there crying. LOL. then once we pulled out into the rd, i took another one of them all out there.

i also made jason stop at the end of the road and take a pic of me standing by the Upper Newtown Road sign. lol. i love that road.

…..ok……so at this point i was having a pretty good cry and jason was rubbing my leg and livi just kep asking why i was crying….

….we still had no confirmed place to live.

…..about 30 minutes later the realtor called and said we could have EBB TIDE for $200 LESS than their asking price!!!!!! Ebb Tide is amazing. It is DIRECTLY on the beach. Not across the street from the beach….but ON THE BEACH. the back side of the house is floor to ceiling windows and looks directly at the ocean.

AMAZING! we will be there from Jan 11th- May 1st…..3.5 short months, but thats ok.

So, how amazing is God…I think that he was testing us to see if we would actually leave, actually pack up and move without knowing where we were going to go. And then as soon as we left, we got a phone call. This was my top choice of a beach house. I could not have asked for a better view, or location. Plus this place probably goes for like 3500-4000 a WEEK during the summer.

So Blessed! This has been one of the most challenging times of our lives and this is one big blessing for us and we are just begining this journey.

Ok, so i cant sit here and blog all night when i havent seen my inlaws in 5 months. so i am off. thank you all so much for your prayers, emails and good thoughts…….

and special thank you to my mom and tim for letting us live with them for 7 months and for helping us out in more ways then i could ever mention…..

special thank you to my dad for the help getting the bootcamp challenge liscense and for all the other gifts we has given us

and last but not least, thank you to jasons parents, alan and carolee, for all of your help with differnt gifts as well.

we are so blessed to have such  an amazing  family.

i will be updating during this whoel journey……or should i say adventure.

we have an application into 4 different furnished beach houses in virginia beach….. all either across the street from or directly ON the beach.

i cant wait to get confirmation to live in one. hopefully that info will come tomorrow.

we have been super busy finishing up packing all the little and random things that are all over this house. its CRAZY how much extra stuff you need when you have 2 lil kids.

we have a uhaul reserved incase we need one for wednesday. that is ready for us for tomorrow. we plan to leave around 9 am on wednesday.

i will keep you all posted…so keep on checking this blog!

…..well first before i get into that, i want to say a bit about last night.

we had plans to go to dinner at the outback with beth and joe…. we did…. and laughed a ridiculous amount and had a ton of fun.

They wanted us to come back to their house….we said we couldnt  bc mom was watching the kids…. she called mom and mom agreed to let us sleep over there and her watch the kids. GREAT!

We drank some wine, played some Wii ( first time for me), took some jumping pics, made gross egg sandwiches, and got pulled on a sled by a quad in the snow. lol. Laughed more than i have laughed in a long time.

I love Joe and Beth, and i will miss them alot. I have been friends with joe for a long time….. since high school …….. i used to always hang out with him no matter who he was dating…and of course i would always give him my opionion! LOL.

I became friends with Beth when her and Joe were dating….on and off…….

so…i have been freinds with each of them individually and then as a couple and i love them. I will be sad to not see them….but they will hopefully be coming to see us in april!

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyway…..

today when we came home from our sleepover jason went to work and i took care of the kids. He wanted me to call a few of these Furnished beach homes for winter rental.  I checked them out and i wrote down a few names of the ones I like. I called, the first choice was taken, the 2nd choice was open and the third choise was taken.

We told the lady about our situation and the trouble we have been having getting into a place. These are only 6 month or less rentals during the off season. She said we could just pay upfront for 5 months ( way better than 12) and not have to give them ANY info about taxes, jobs or income. YAY!

They were great on the phone and said i would have an answer on Monday. Best part….. we can move in on Monday Jan 11th! The place is right on the beach, has 4 bedroom and 2.5 baths. A HUUUUUUUUUUGE deck and you can see the ocean and sand! ( the actual beach is across the street buyt you can see it in the pics)

My sis in law drove by it for us and she said its amazing and is def the best part of virginia beach that you could live in. YAY!

So now, all we need to wait for is the ok on Monday and then we get them a certified bank check or money order and we can move right in!

So EXCITED.

Now another tough think is packing here…… even though we only came here with SOME stuff, and all of that stuff and then some is already in the POD….. there is still SO MUCH STUFF here! I feel like it is never ending…..

we also need to figure out what to do with the POD ( keep it here, ship it there, put in a regular non POD storage unit, sell everything)….we have no idea but we only have a few days. Its practically Sunday and we leave first thing Wednesday am.

Tomorrow is a bog family going away dinner for us……..so we will be busy with that and i know i will take a bunch of pics tomorrow…. monday jason works, i have the kids and then i will do yoga at night and meet up with a college roomate, and then Tuesday  i am getting my hair done one last time from beth, yoga at night,,….finishing up everything and then wed we head out!

CRAZY!!!!!

KEEP PRAYING FOR US…………

PRAISE GOD FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF A PLACE TO LIVE!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yesterday was one of the roughest days i have had in a long time. I pretty much cried from 9-12. then spent the rest of the time shopping, cleaning and getting ready for the party. Not too mention taking care of the kids.

Turns out that LOTS of people came to our party. Even a few people that i didnt know were coming. All great stuff! I took pictures of every single person that came and those pics are beiing uploaded as i type this.

most people came right around 645 and most people left around 845, The remaining peeps left by like 10 and 1 couple satyed with us till after the New Year. It was a great night. ALivia stayed up till after the new year too and that was fine was she was awake, but we regretted it after she fell asleep and then woke up at 2:30, 3:30, 4 and 5:30 am. Every adult in the house got a turn getting up with her. No fun.

Early bedtime for her tonight.

Townhouse situation…..we made the call to the realtor to let him know we can put down the years worth of rent….and now we are just waiting to hear back. I am not expecting the hear back today since its a holiday. But tomorrow would be nice.

We went sleding with a whole bunch of friends this am and it was great to have another get togetehr before we go.

…..i will keep you all updated on our situtaion.

OH!!!! The past few days…..this blog has had 168 and 169 people viewing it. The top day ever, was the day Bryson was born at 170. Seems like people like to read my drama. lol. Thats ok, i like it and i need the prayers!

And that is why i put this stuff out there…..but you should read it all the time! and leave comments!

so jason and my dad and brother get down to the POD place and they have no record of jason coming today to put stuff in pod and the pods are stacked on top of each other and they need a minimum of 6 hours notice to get your pod ready.

they ended up letting him use some empty pod that was right there, but we now have to go back on tuesday to move all the stuff from one pod to the other.

SUCKY.

and people keep calling me telling me that they cant come tonight or can only come for an hour.

bryson wont nap and only wants to be held for the first time since he was 2 weeks old.

and alivia tried to wipe herself…got poop all over and is now in the tub.

please, dont let today get any worse. i dont know if i can handle that.

that cheesy credit commercial is playing over and over in my head right now.

the townhouse place called a few minutes ago to say they could not give us the townhouse bc i am starting a business and jason has no set job yet. so the fact that we have never paid rent late, saved up a few months rent, and showed our last years taxes mean nothing bc of the jobs.

this is aweful. so now we are calling back to the first place that is privatly owned and said we would need to pay a year in advance,,,,,and we are working on that option….with help from family.

i definitly had a quick cry when i hung up with the lady and i am crying now too. this is by far the most challenging time of my life. but my attitude and outlook on this major change is still positive bc i know this is what God has wanted us to do. But i dont understand why it is so hard.

I keep thinking of the song that seems to be the theme song for this time in my life.

I KNOW MY GOD SAVES THE DAY AND I KNOW HIS WORD NEVER FAILS AND I KNOW MY GOD MADE A WAY FOR ME, ITS GONNA BE ALRIGHT.

thats what i keep thinking. over and over and over.

i have faith that it will all work out. but i am still slightly scared.

stay tuned……………..

please keep praying

tonight my friend rachel- who i have been freinds since i was 11- came to take a yoga class with me and go out for dinner after. it was so sad. we both cried. i cried more.

she said such sweet things and talked about such sweet fun memories. It was so sad to say goodbye to her. she was a bridesmaid of mine. It was because i was friends with her that i was ever saved and baptised ( when i was 14, not when i was 21 like in my testimony post……)

i love her and i am so thankful for her. I wish we got to spend more  time together throught the last few years.

also…about 2 hours before i had to leave to go take yoga jason said that we cant get the townhouse b/c they wont count our our last years tax return as our income b/c it is out of state and bc we both dont have jobs lined up. and that the only way most people ( this is quoted from one guy) would let us rent from them is if we pay a year in advance. STUPID. like we have 12,000 just alying around.

i felt a little sick to my stomach at that time. we are supposed to leave in 7 days. we do not have a place to live. we need one.

i will be making some calls to places tomorrow to see if they just require a credit check  or if they need proof of income. if they just require a credit check then we are good bc our credit is good. but if they require prrof of income in virginia….we dont have any.

oh boy oh boy. Lord, you must really want us to be faithful right now.

on the way to yoga i had some private praise and worship….in my car as loud as the speakers would go. i cried. Amazing Love. good song.

and then i kept thinking of the Hillsong song…..

I know that myGod saves the day and I know His word never fails and I know my God made a way for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, ITS GONNA BE ALRIGHT!!!!

but still. i am sad , and slightly worried. But worry is useless. ( that just reminded me of an old Jewel song…HANDS…..” worry is wasteful and useless in times like these”)

We really need some prayer. please please pray for us and for Gods will and direction in our lives.

I am hoping that the door to this town house closed bc a better place is going to open up.

yesterday my mom ( who is recovering from hernia surgery) stayed on teh couch and watched lifetime movies all day. i hate lifetime movies. all crazy and drama and cheating and terrible things.

i got sucked into like the 3rd movie she was watching.

it was called the Glass House The Good Mother. Very similar to the big movie called the glass house, only different. lol.

these 2 kids- brother and sister lose their parents in a car accident.  they go into foster care with this seeminglt awesome couple. the couple lost a son to drowing a few years ago. and since then they ahve been taking in foster kids…… long story short…… the mother has munshausens disease. she would poison the boy, and then spend all her time ” taking care of him” she was giving him shots to make him sick and feed him poisoned food.

she would lock all the windows and doors from the inside and hide the keys so they girl could not get out. she could not use the phone or the internet and they lived on the top of a mountain is a huge house, secluded from everything.

the sister started to figure out what was going on. the mother even used oven cleaner and sprayed it on the boys back and scrubbed it with a sponge till his skin all burned away.

in the end, the mother got shot and the dad goes to jail and the kids parents old friend comes and saves the day. but its so disturbing.,

how can people do such things?

i know its a movie, but still. it was making me sick  to watch it. but its like a train wreck, you cant look away and i had to see what happened.

i was of course yelling at my mom telling her she is nuts and asking her if she has had enough drama and misery for one day. lol. she watched the movies following that one as well. lol.

i cant watch that channel. i cant watch scary movies. i cant watch anything bad since i have had my babies.

geez. now those images will never leave my mind.

makes me want to love and squeeze and kiss my babies even more.

im fasting,

i was trying to do a 2 day, 4 shake a day fast.

i tried yesterday, had 2 shakes and then caved and made 2 eggs and 1 cup of red beans. no oil, no butter. just salt and pepper and red pepper flakes.

then i made everyone veggie soup for dinner. i of course caved and ate that too. and popcorn.

then i asked jason if he would do it with me today. he said yes. but he is at work till 330.

i have ahd 2 cups of coffee…… and some water. i am about to make my first shake. i did an hour workout and just showered. i am going to get dressed and ready and then do some alphabet writing with livi for the first time,

i need to keep myself busy so i dont eat. even though i only fasted for 1/2 the day yesterday….i lose 2 pounds. i need to stay strong and stay with it. I need to pray everytime i feel tempted. i need to read my bible, i need to have faith that i can get through this fast. if i do, this will be my first time succeeding in a fast. i have only tried like once or twice before.

i need help.

pray for me!

Church on Christmas Eve was amazing. The band is amazing, Pastor Buddy is amazing.  I was actually sad for the first time that we wont be going there anymore. They are doing such awesome and amazing things there. I have been going to that church for 5 years.

We sang the song that made me cry a few weeks ago…..called Salvation Is Here

the words that really get me are-

Its gonna be aliright

I know my God saved the day

and i know His word never fails

and i know my God made a way for me

Its gonna be alright

AMAZING

so that got me to thinking about my testimony. Most of my friends know it but many of them dont. Many of you that read this blog may not know it. I want to tell it.

I used to party, a lot. There was a time where for about 4-5 weeks in a row, i would come home so drunk, that i would either pass out in my bed and throw up in my bed, in my sleep, or i would get dropped off and i would be knocking on the front door and puking at the same time. No good. I knew something needed to change but I didnt know what.

I met this kid at school ( hudson valley at the time) His name was Brett and he was a Christian. We started to talk alot about God. And how much his life has changed since he started a relationship with Him. At that time, i knew something in me was gently starting to change.

We became better friends. I went to his church with him once. Definitly was not the church for me. But that next night I had a dream that changed everything,.

I was sleeping ( of course) and I kept picturing these words. The words were written in red. On the right hand side of a book. On the left hand side of the page, towards the bottom. What I could remember was ” love the Lord, your God with all your heart, and all your mind”

The phone rang….in real life. I answered it. Fell right back to sleep. The exact same words came into my mind. When I woke up, I knew that God was really trying to get my attention.

I called my friend Brett and told him. He told me to get my bible and start looking through it. I did, but I didnt find what I was looking for. A few weeks had gone by. I was reading my bible one night… mostly, searching for the verse from my dream. Finally, i saw it. There is was, right hand side of the book, left side of the page, towards the bottom, written in red.

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment.

Mark 12:30

I could not believe it. I knew then that God really wanted me to come to Him. I went to church the next day ( a sunday) by myself. Temple Baptist Church. I started to go each week. At the same time, I started to not want to go out and party anymore. I started to not want to hang out with the friends I was hanging out with. I started making new friends at church. I started to ask people in my life to come to church with me. It was awesome. But it was one of the most broken times of my life. I thought everything I had going on was good.

I was wrong. I thought all of my friends were great. I was wrong. I thought I knew alot. I was wrong. I lost most of my friends that I did all of my partying with. That was sad, but it was ok. I knew that I was heading in the right direction.

Less than 6 months later, I met Jason. 9 months after that we were engaged. 6 months after that we were married…… 3 years after that came alivia. 2 years after that came bryson…. now we have been married for 5 years and 2 months…….

and none of that would be the case if I never listened to God knocking on my heart. I listened. Finally! and I let Him in. My life has changed for the better and I love it. I have amazing family and amazing friends and I am so thankful for them, and so sad to leave them at the same time.

But I also know that this is Gods plan for us. All doors have opened in order for us to move, and lots of doors have closed to let us know, we need to move from here. I dont know if it is forever, but i know it is for right now.

I have had 2 great churches in my life and if any of you are looking for a church or searching for something…. check them out.

Temple Baptist Church in Halfmoon

or

Northway Church in Clifton Park or Colony.

They are both amazing. God is amazing.

Thanks for reading about my testimony.