My husband is COOL!

Well, hello there, new and improved website!

Can I just get a shout out for my husband – the SUPERSTUD!

As you can see we rolled out the new look and we’ve kept the same name until we can make a decision on whether or not we even want to change it.  There are a few things that still need tweaking but they’ll be done over time and if you see something that doesn’t work, please let us know! 

Instead of a guestbook we are simply leaving comments available for each post and page.  We took out the photo album and we’ll be using Flickr, that little picture thing-a-majig on the left sidebar, you’ll be able to see the photos and to leave comments there. 

Peter and I worked really hard to get this thing from start to finish since Thursday.  It is one of those things that we needed to both be present to do and we made the most of his being here to complete.  We stayed up until 3 AM every night so that we could work long and hard after the kids went to bed, Peter pulled out some of his great tricks from the Big Bag of Computer Genius, and I did all the “Hey, that goes there. No, I don’t like that.  What if we moved that here.  Can you make that smaller?  No, make it bigger again.  I really want this, that and all that too.”  And this is the end result 

I gotta tell you, I’m excited about the changes!  What you don’t see from the user end is all the cool stuff it enables me to do and change and jigger around with.  There have been both encouragement and complaints about us making changes to our site.  We do appreciate both. 

Let me explain a little more about our decision to change things up a bit and the choice to put ads on our site.  Being a SAHM (Stay at home mom) is a blessing for me.  Not everyone has that option and not everyone would want to, but I love being at home with me kids.  Not that I don’t enjoy the much-needed breaks from them, but I do love that I can be with them without the constraints of a work schedule.  But it also allows me to be involved with their school on a volunteer basis, I get to stay active with the other cancer families I love, apply my time to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, I’m going to be working on learning to grant write and work with the Giving Hope Through Faith foundation to get them money to help cancer families. Doing these things feed the soul and I know they are part of the plan God has for us in giving us these hurdles, but they don’t pay the bills.

I hope it doesn’t offend people that we’re going to be putting BlogHer ads on our site.  Some of you have really supported the idea, knowing that it is my way of writing “that book” that’s always in question and if I can help support the family then it’s a good thing. Others have been justifiably concerned that I’ll change the feel of the site to charm the masses.  That’s so not my intention, and I openly ask one and ALL to let me know if you think that I’m headed in that direction. 

I also want any families of children that I talk about often and whose child has a picture in our new “Kids that inspire us” page, if you let us know, I can take your child’s information off in a heartbeat.  We will never stop following your site, praying for your child, but if you’re not comfy with them being on our site, just please let us know. 

Peter has been my workmule all week and now he’s getting ready to pack up and head back to his Alabama home base.  I can smell the excitement in the air….smells a little like disgust/reluctance, but with more lemony freshness.  It’s been an up and down week, with both fun things and some not so fun things.  We got a lot accomplished over our time together, but Pete and I also had some really tense moments.  The definite move date hasn’t been made and we are both struggling with how to handle that.  Please please please pray for us as we work to make the best of a hard decision and that we make the right choices.  And that we not fight while we do it.  We don’t fight often, but when we do, it’s a doozy. 

I’m happy to announce that we have 5 butterflies fluttering around in our little habitat!  The kids were all “Look what WE did!  We have butterflies!”  I’m all “How about some God credit and WHAT ABOUT ME!  Remember me?  The lady with her hand in the smelly muck that made this all possible for you?”  No such acclaim was given and the kids were thrilled to see that all 5 butterflies made it through the incubation period.  They are lovely and we are going to name them and release them in about a week…I want to send them out alive because they only have a lifespan of 3 weeks and I don’t want to come out one morning and have to explain why the butterflies have died.  We’re planning to name them after our sweet friends we’ve lost and let them go in honor of each child.  I think it’ll be a very special thing for the kids, and me, to do. 

Peyton came to me this afternoon…after having eaten 3 oranges, 2 pickles, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some chips…and asked me, “Am I still on steroids?”  I told her no and she just shook her head and said, “Then why am I so hungry!?”

I have to share that there has been this amazing bonding between Nathaniel and Rachael.  What we’ve discovered is that the one thing that tears down the walls of siblinghood, crosses the barriers of girl/boy, closes the gap of years is a Nintendo DS.  These two kids have argued and bickered about nothing more than the fact that they have to share air for years.  Rachael was able to save up her birthday and allowance money and purchase a DS of her very own.  Now, more likely than not, these two are squeezed together, bent over their little handheld peacemakers and acting like…sniff, sigh…friends! 

And they’re QUIET!  Life is good.

f.r.o.G….fully relying on God

–Anissa