A more happy family

Just a few cute pictures of Sophie swimming today.

This is what I found Loraly looking like the other day. I totally freaked! We shortly after found out that it was JUST a mosquito bite. She swells like this everytime she gets bit by a mosquito.

Crazy in Love or just Plain CRAZY!?

So Mark and I both pretty much have been crying, boo hooing, and carrying on since he left. So after leaving church this morning upset, I was on my way home to call him and tell him to just come home. I arrived home checked my text messages. He had left me a message a minutes earlier telling me he was coming home. I couldn't believe that we had both the same thoughts. The distance, not getting to see each other but once MAYBE twice a month, not being able to find a house, and not to mention the cruddy towns and schools! We just decided that we are going to stick it out here and HOPE, PRAY, and PRAY more until something happens here in Texas. It is interesting what we have to go through to realize things...

Anyway like I said we as a family may just be crazy in love or just plain crazy, but we are going to stick it out here in Texas and look, look, look for a job here and be happy together instead of miserable apart. Feel free to let me know how crazy (or stupid) we are.

The dreaded day

So the day has come and almost went by...

We won't talk about this morning.

I am sure you can all imagine for yourselves how that went...

Mark is actually STILL driving as I type this (he said only 120 more miles! HA). Poor guy... We have just had the big picture thrown at us today. Yes, of course, we know how far Florida is from Texas, but it is amazing just has really far it is away. We have talked a few times today. I sent him some pictures of the girls eating ice cream tonight and he called me and said to not send those pictures anymore because they made him cry. He loves his girls! Hopefully he will be arriving soon.

We came to the conclusion that we are definitely going to be looking HARD for him a job here in Texas. Or if worse comes to worse, the girls and I will be moving to Florida a lot sooner than we had anticipated.

The next few days will be hard, but as soon as we can get into our school schedule, hopefully, the time will fly until we can see our Daddy again!

Countdown...

Unfortunately the countdown has begun...

Mark leaves in a little more than a day and a half and no one is looking forward to it. He is taking the girls bowling tomorrow to spend some last minute time with them. We have spent just about every minute of the last month together as a family and it has been GREAT. I was afraid that we would eventually grow tired of being together constantly but it has been a wonderful time together as a family.

Tonight Mark, Madalyn, and I went to Madalyn's school to meet her 2nd grade teacher. I had no idea who she was but couldn't be any more pleased with her! Madalyn made the comment at dinner that it sure was nice of the school to always give her the nicest and sweetest teachers!

Which once again makes me sad to have to eventually leave her school. I know we will find a school just as nice, teachers just as nice, but I have become a creature of habit and I have to admit I am going to miss that school.

Mark also surprised me with a going away present tonight:

I put one half the heart on my necklace and he will keep the other half with him. He said he saw this charm in the magazine a while back and remembered it today while he was out and decided to go get it for us. He has always been the most thoughtful and giving person! We talked for a while tonight about how we feel, the good, the bad, and the 'we have no choice'.

Saturday the girls and I are having a few of their friends over to swim and hang out so that none of us will sit around and be sad all day.

Wish us luck this weekend as we drift into our new lifestyle!

Video of Disney Pictures

We are home!

We just got home today from a wonderful 10 day trip to Florida. The first 7 were spent at Disney World and the last 3 were spent with some wonderful friends. Off to bed because I have been up since 3:30! But I will definitely post pictures and tell you all about our trip as soon as I get the 5 big suitcases plus 5 carry ones worth of dirty laundry done! WISH ME LUCK!

(plus school starts in a week, and Mark leaves for his new job in Florida on Saturday!)

Mark's new license plate! jk

So Mark, Sophie, and I went to Florida this last week for 3 days. Sophie was not a happy camper being in her car seat, or being held on an airplane for basically three days. We literally got off the airplane, drove straight to the realtor's office, got back in the car went and looked at houses for 4 hours! That night we went and looked at more houses alone! The next day, same thing, got up, went to the realtor's office, went looking at houses again. Still found nothing. There are some really GORGEOUS houses in Florida. But you have to spend like over $500,000 to get one. We were looking under $300,000. SO basically the realtor was trying to put us in a shack! I WAS NOT A HAPPY CAMPER! So Friday we were pretty bummed out. If perhaps we WOULD find a decent house, then the school would look like a shack. We just can't take Madalyn out of one of the top 10 school districts in the US and put her in a hole in the wall. We have pretty much come to the conclusion that Mark will go live in an apartment and work there. The girls and I will stay here. And perhaps, maybe Mark can find a decent house, in a decent school district, in a decent neighborhood, then EVENTUALLY we would THINK about moving down there. But as of now, unfortunately it will just be him. He is going to try and either fly, or drive home every other weekend (or we will go there) because where he will be working, they get a 3-4 day weekend every other weekend. We are not by any means excited about any of us being apart, but have to do what is best for ALL of us.

Please pray that Mark will get a job offer here in Texas, so that we can be together again and be a REGULAR family!

By the way---Sophie HATED (bad word, I know) the sand! And the ocean flowing onto her little feet! Maybe she will like it in a few years!

Sophie found a friend in the mirror at the hotel.
As you can tell by the look on her face, she was too happy with the beach.
We found this great sand castle, of course we asked the owners if we could take Sophie's picture by it.
Mark trying to get Sophie used to the sand.
Inside the sand castle after the owners left. NOT HAPPY WITH US--Sophie that is.