The Great Church Hunt, Part 5

I think the hunt is over!

At some point in this blog, I may have mentioned a tiny little local church that we found when we first got here that we didn't want to try for various reasons. One was that they were very small. Two, according to their website they didn't have the programs for kids on Wednesday nights we were looking for. It didn't look like the program for boys (Royal Rangers) was running at all, and the program for girls (Missionettes) didn't begin until age 10.

After trying several churches that were a *drive*, Jerry told me that he wanted to try this church. I didn't really want to, but I agreed. I mean, it's getting down to crunch time here. Jerry will be leaving on a deployment in the not too distant future and I need for us to be plugged in somewhere! The plus sides to a local church is that the friends I cultivate will be LOCAL.

Anyway, we tried the church. And I do believe that after 3 Sunday services and 1 Wednesday service we are going to call this church home. Turns out, their website hasn't been updated in about 2 years. They DO have Missionettes for the younger ones (Rainbows and Prims) and the Royal Rangers program for the boys just started back up after a long break. The Pastors on the website are not the pastors anymore, even! The new Pastor and his wife are our age, and have four kids that are about the same ages as ours. There are a few other military families, and I believe a few homeschooling families as well.

This is the first place I've really felt comfortable since we left our church in CA, and the first Sunday service here was the first time Luke didn't cry in the Nursery since leaving CA (and hasn't cried since!)

The kids are already starting to make friends, which makes me happy.

Today after church, one of the ladies on the Worship team came up to me and asked me if I sang and played an instrument. I told her that I sing, and that I sang on the Worship team in San Diego. She invited me to come to the next rehearsal and join them. Am I just putting off a vibe that says how very much I miss it?! LOL

I feel like I can exhale now.

Oh, and the moral of this story? Don't completely form your opinion on something based on the website alone (have I told you about the church with the great website that I asked Jerry to please never take me to again?).

Poison Control

So the other night, I had to call Poison Control for the first time with child number 4. I've had to call them so much over the last 10 years that it doesn't even phase me anymore when they ask for my name and zip code.

When my oldest was our only there was a span of time that I called them A LOT. I was so scared that there was some type of "Poison Control Quota" and if you called more than the quota Social Services would make a visit. I was certain Blake would be taken away after I had to call about him pouring gasoline all over himself in the same month he drank mouthwash (and two other things I've since forgotten).

Anyway, back to the other night.

I cleaned the kitchen after dinner. I even started the dishwasher and mopped the floor! Ok, Swiffered, but whatever. I forgot to re-lock the cleaner's cabinet. About 15 minutes later, I was in the school room, and I heard that oh, so, familiar sound. That gagging, sputtering, choking sound. I jumped up, hurdled the gate, and saw Luke in the hallway with the remnants of a dishwasher pack*, clearly gagging, and, uh, stuff coming out his mouth.

I realized what it was immediately. I jerked him up and ran to the kitchen, making sure there wasn't any left in his mouth. I started reading the label on the package and calling out orders at the same time "bring me the phone, I need to call poison control", "he needs milk, get me some milk", and "DO NOT INDUCE VOMITING" as he vomits (I'm so glad I mopped the floor!).

He's fine, just gave us a scare. The poison control guy gave me some instructions and things to look for, and then he called me back in 1/2 an hour to make sure Luke was ok.

In related? news, he went to bed great that night and slept until 7 am the next morning. It was the first time Luke has slept through the night since we left California.

Jerry says maybe we should feed him a dishwasher pack every night! He's kidding, right? :-)

*These

We're moved in!

We still don't have internet, and won't until Monday. We're in a wifi hotspot right now. I typed this up yesterday.

We moved into our house this past Monday, and for 5 days we’ve been learning what Grade A Jerks our packers were. I’ve got a few Navy Moves under my belt now, so I’m used to their craptastic way of packing, but nothing could have prepared either one of us for what we’ve been finding since moving in here. I’ll just share some highlights. When we moved to San Diego, our pot and pan lids didn’t make it to our house, so we were looking to make sure they made it here. Especially considering I just spent a good chunk of change on Pampered Chef cookware right before we left California. I hadn’t even used some of it yet! After opening all the boxes labeled “Kitchen” or “K.Food” we couldn’t find our pot and pan lids (Again! What is it with pot and pan lids?) or all the canned food we knew we had. In the meantime, we’re also looking for the screws to the crib.

On Tuesday night, Jerry is opening a box with a High Value label on it, which means the contents are high in value, how ingenious right? We knew that it was one of our computers because of the serial number markings on the outside. What we didn’t expect to find were our pot and pan lids, bottles of vinegar (yes you read that right), cooking oil, and various other liquids along with each component of the computer (printer, monitor, mouse and keyboard, and cpu) all wrapped in paper, individually for safety I should sarcastically add, shoved into one big box. Thankfully, there was no harm to the computer, that we can tell externally anyway; we haven’t hooked it up yet.

The next day I found our canned food! Yeah, they were in a box labeled “Bath Items” along with liquid medicines, the girls’ hair ties, and a container of carpet powder deodorizer (you know what I’m talking about, right? That stuff you sprinkle on your carpet before you vacuum.) Well, wouldn’t you guess, it busted open during the move. Now our pantry smells all nice and linen fresh.

I’ll stop complaining, but I will tell you that we still haven’t found the crib screws, and almost all the boxes have been opened. Luke has been sleeping in the pack-n-play. He’s not complaining.

A hippie, a pirate, and Dora, Oh my!

We took the kids to the Fall Fest last night and they had a blast!

Notice the still uncarved pumpkins?

Luke had so much fun last night. He slept for the first hour, but when he woke up we let him get out of the stroller to play some of the games. Then Mema fed him the little miniature candy bars, which he just LOVED, don't you know.

The biggest hit of the night was Dora :-) We heard so many comments about it. Little kids saying "mommy, mommy, it's Dora!", adults telling me it's the best costume they've seen all night. I had one dad ask me if I would mind his daughter taking a picture with Dora. Rebekah loved it. I wish I had a better picture of her in the costume. She's gotten to be the least cooperative with pictures lately.

Olivia got some great comments too. A few people stopped her and said they used to have an outfit just like it when they were teenagers :-).