I always feel added pressure to write this post on THE great Thankful Thursday of the year. Then I remembered I shouldn't. I could fill pages with the blessings God has given me. Tonight, as I hurry to rest my tired eyes, I'll make my top five simple: Numbers 1, 2, and 3 are sleeping soundly (though not necessarily sound-less-ly with someone's snoring ;) ), number four is the warm and cozy house in which we're all tucked in, and the fifth is the Savior who gave us each other and so much more.
Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all. As I've been so incredibly blessed to write for several years now: My cup runneth over.
Thankful Thursday
Thursday, November 15, 2012
1. Pilgrims and Indians. The real ones who helped build this country, of course, but also the adorable ones I got to see at Audrey's Thanksgiving Feast at her preschool today.
2. Our veterans. As you probably know, Sunday was Veteran's Day. We are incredibly blessed to live in a free country because of the sacrifice these men and women and their families are willing to make. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 Thank you to my dad, my grandfathers, and my friends who have served or are serving!
3. Office visits. On Monday, I took the kids to see David at work and have lunch with him there. I'm embarrassed to say that's a first (we've met him out at places before, but never gone there.) We thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely try to do it more often!
4. Talking to my grandparents. I called them tonight and they were so excited to hear from me. It was great to catch up for a few.
5. Cheesecake Factory Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake. Oh sure, it's $6 and probably 1,000 calories, but MAN is it good. As my brother pointed out, you gotta practice overeating for next week anyway.
No real house updates. We did have to sign a form late this afternoon, so that made me feel like some progress is being made. Please keep praying. I haven't given up hope that we could still close before Thanksgiving!
2. Our veterans. As you probably know, Sunday was Veteran's Day. We are incredibly blessed to live in a free country because of the sacrifice these men and women and their families are willing to make. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 Thank you to my dad, my grandfathers, and my friends who have served or are serving!
3. Office visits. On Monday, I took the kids to see David at work and have lunch with him there. I'm embarrassed to say that's a first (we've met him out at places before, but never gone there.) We thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely try to do it more often!
4. Talking to my grandparents. I called them tonight and they were so excited to hear from me. It was great to catch up for a few.
5. Cheesecake Factory Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake. Oh sure, it's $6 and probably 1,000 calories, but MAN is it good. As my brother pointed out, you gotta practice overeating for next week anyway.
No real house updates. We did have to sign a form late this afternoon, so that made me feel like some progress is being made. Please keep praying. I haven't given up hope that we could still close before Thanksgiving!
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Prayer, Please!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
I sent this email to number of friends and family this morning and thought I'd post it here too in case anyone checks this before 2pm today and would like to lift us up. Thank you!
Good Morning Y'all,
Most of you probably saw my update on Facebook yesterday, but for those that didn't, here is the latest:
Our buyers' loan is in final underwriting, but they have not given us a closing date. We have been granted an extension by our sellers and their lender (huge praise that this came through already!), but the extension states that we must close by November 30th.
Since the "For Sale" sign went up over six months ago, you all have been so faithful to pray for and support us through this insane saga. We would like to ask you to intercede yet again, but this time at a specific moment. If you are able, will you please take time at 2pm today and lift us up? There is nothing magical about this day or hour, but I do believe in the power of prayer and in the power of a number of people praying together for the same thing.
Here are our requests:
- First and foremost, that God's will be done, whatever that might be. Since we lost our first contract, that has been my honest prayer. We want His best and His timing, regardless of whether that includes a new house right now.
- That IF this is God's plan, that we will be able to close on BOTH houses before Thanksgiving.
- That all of us, especially Audrey, will adjust accordingly be it in new surroundings or existing ones.
- Pray for strength and endurance to see this through a little longer - this process has been long and tiresome, and we are incredibly ready to be settled one way or another.
Thank you all so much! We love and appreciate you more than you know!
David & Heather
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Thankful Thursday
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Wait - Don't go! You aren't mistaken! This IS The Sinyard Family's blog. After 3+ years of the same template, I decided it was time for a makeover. It's taking me some time to get used to it, but I think I like the change. I hope you do too.
Here's a quick house/moving update: We received the loan commitment letter from our buyers' lender and their loan is currently in underwriting. They have not given us a firm closing date, but we are expecting (hoping, praying!) that it'll be the 20th, or at the very most, by the 29th. On the buying side of things, we have been granted an extension from our sellers. However, because it's a short sale and we weren't able to close 30 days after it had been approved, we also had to request an extension from their lender. We are still waiting for that and desperately hoping that it'll come in before we close on our current house.
Now on to this week's Thankful Thursday list. If you're new to the blog, each Thursday I write a list of five things I'm grateful for. Sometimes it turns into as much of an update as it is a gratitude list, but it's a good way to for me to focus on the positive in our little world and capture the current state of fun chaos.
Here are my top five this week:
1. That God is still God. I did not vote for Obama and I do not care for him or his politics, so I was quite disappointed when I checked my phone at 3am on Wednesday morning and read the results. But, I immediately said a prayer for him and our other leaders, because I know that despite who is in the Oval Office, God is on His throne, and both they and we need Him. A good friend reminded me of these verses: "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." Romans 13:1-2
2. My nephew James who will be one year old tomorrow. I cannot believe a year has already passed. He is an adorable, sweet baby boy whose dimples will have me wrapped around his finger. My prayer for him is the same as the one I pray for his brother, my niece, and my children: That he will grow to know the Lord, love Him, and want to do His will and that he will be healthy and strong in body, soul, and character. We love you and cannot wait to celebrate with you, James!
3. My dear friend Kara, whose birthday is also tomorrow. She and I met at church nearly six years ago, but rarely crossed paths because I was so busy working on Sunday mornings. We ran into each other again at birthing class in Spring of 2009 when we were pregnant with our daughters. They were born three weeks apart that June and our friendship has grown just as much as those little girls have these past three and a half years. Kara is a thoughtful giver who is also an extremely talented teacher, crafter, and cook. It's so wonderful to have another mommy in the trenches with me who shares my faith and my parenting philosophies. I'm very thankful for her and her family and for the blessing they are to our lives!
4. Good sleep & later mornings. The autumn time change may give a lot of people an extra hour's sleep, but not those of us with young ones! Luke had been waking up at 6am for weeks and we'd settle him back down as best we could usually until 7am. So, with the hour shift, you can imagine what a rough few mornings we had at the beginning of this week. But I'm very glad to say the last two mornings he has slept until after 7am on his own without waking and that made this Momma very happy...and late since I didn't bother setting an alarm! Oops!
5. The Varsity. We introduced Audrey to her first Varsity hotdog last Saturday and she lived! It's a rare treat we only indulge in once every year or two...and then our stomachs remind us why we do it so infrequently. But, alas, it's an Atlanta tradition and I'm thankful that this past weekend we got to share it with AJ. Luke was there too, of course, but we thought it best to hold off on letting him try it for a little bit longer. We did get shots of both of them in the hats:
Here's a quick house/moving update: We received the loan commitment letter from our buyers' lender and their loan is currently in underwriting. They have not given us a firm closing date, but we are expecting (hoping, praying!) that it'll be the 20th, or at the very most, by the 29th. On the buying side of things, we have been granted an extension from our sellers. However, because it's a short sale and we weren't able to close 30 days after it had been approved, we also had to request an extension from their lender. We are still waiting for that and desperately hoping that it'll come in before we close on our current house.
Now on to this week's Thankful Thursday list. If you're new to the blog, each Thursday I write a list of five things I'm grateful for. Sometimes it turns into as much of an update as it is a gratitude list, but it's a good way to for me to focus on the positive in our little world and capture the current state of fun chaos.
Here are my top five this week:
1. That God is still God. I did not vote for Obama and I do not care for him or his politics, so I was quite disappointed when I checked my phone at 3am on Wednesday morning and read the results. But, I immediately said a prayer for him and our other leaders, because I know that despite who is in the Oval Office, God is on His throne, and both they and we need Him. A good friend reminded me of these verses: "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves." Romans 13:1-2
2. My nephew James who will be one year old tomorrow. I cannot believe a year has already passed. He is an adorable, sweet baby boy whose dimples will have me wrapped around his finger. My prayer for him is the same as the one I pray for his brother, my niece, and my children: That he will grow to know the Lord, love Him, and want to do His will and that he will be healthy and strong in body, soul, and character. We love you and cannot wait to celebrate with you, James!
3. My dear friend Kara, whose birthday is also tomorrow. She and I met at church nearly six years ago, but rarely crossed paths because I was so busy working on Sunday mornings. We ran into each other again at birthing class in Spring of 2009 when we were pregnant with our daughters. They were born three weeks apart that June and our friendship has grown just as much as those little girls have these past three and a half years. Kara is a thoughtful giver who is also an extremely talented teacher, crafter, and cook. It's so wonderful to have another mommy in the trenches with me who shares my faith and my parenting philosophies. I'm very thankful for her and her family and for the blessing they are to our lives!
4. Good sleep & later mornings. The autumn time change may give a lot of people an extra hour's sleep, but not those of us with young ones! Luke had been waking up at 6am for weeks and we'd settle him back down as best we could usually until 7am. So, with the hour shift, you can imagine what a rough few mornings we had at the beginning of this week. But I'm very glad to say the last two mornings he has slept until after 7am on his own without waking and that made this Momma very happy...and late since I didn't bother setting an alarm! Oops!
5. The Varsity. We introduced Audrey to her first Varsity hotdog last Saturday and she lived! It's a rare treat we only indulge in once every year or two...and then our stomachs remind us why we do it so infrequently. But, alas, it's an Atlanta tradition and I'm thankful that this past weekend we got to share it with AJ. Luke was there too, of course, but we thought it best to hold off on letting him try it for a little bit longer. We did get shots of both of them in the hats:
So, you're not going to let me eat any of those onion rings, but I have to wear this ridiculous hat?!
Hope you have a great rest of the week and enjoy what may be the last of the gorgeous fall weather!
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October Recap
Monday, November 5, 2012
October held a very strange combination of things. From alpacas to Letter P Parties to pumpkin patchin' to gun ranging, we've had a lot of fun activities going on around here!
The month began with Audrey and I participating in a food drive for CIA (Compassion in Action service day) at our church. I wanted to stretch this experience for her as much as I possibly could, so we started by walking around and counting the houses while she made tally marks on a notepad. A few days later, we printed out fliers and stuffed them into people's mailboxes together. On the first Saturday of the month, we took her little wagon and dragged it around our section of the neighborhood, looking for bags that people had left out. As I suspected, there was not much participation. And by "not much", I mean any. When we were far away from the house, I texted David to run a bag of our donations down to the front of our neighbor's house just so AJ wouldn't lose all faith in humanity. As we rounded our corner and she trudged along, I explained that some people might have already given to their church. She was disappointed and then her eyes fell on the lone bag sitting by Ms. Gail's curb. Bless her heart, she was so excited. And we narrowly avoided a jaded three year old. :) We took our donations to the food pantry and she helped the other volunteers and me sort the food and throw out the expired stuff. It wasn't as super fun for her as I'd hoped it would be (because I think that it should still be all fun at their age so they develop a love and a heart for it), but I think she did okay. As I mentioned in a previous post, she wanted to play "buy food for the food pantry" with her coins a few days after that, so I gotta pray it's somewhat sinking in!
Other fun firsts: Audrey's first dentist appointment (she did great!), my first painting canvas party with some women from Bible Study, our first visit to an alpaca farm, Luke's first trip to a pumpkin patch, and Luke's first Halloween.
We also celebrated my father-in-law's birthday with a fun trip to a local airport. We watched planes take off and land, played on the playground they have there, and ate lunch at an on-sight restaurant. He loved it and we loved watching him enjoy every minute of it.
On top of all that, David and I even managed to squeeze in TWO dates this month. The first was spent shooting at a gun range and then we ate dinner and the second included Christmas shopping and Bonefish Grill followed up by Five Spot yogurt. Both evenings were divine. Turns out that eight years of marriage and two kids later, I still really like the guy.
In addition to two date nights, I also enjoyed two girls' nights out! I did the Masterpiece Mixers painting class and the next week enjoyed dinner and dessert with one of my closest friends to celebrate her birthday. What can I say, we were CA-RAZY social butterflies this month!
Audrey also stayed super busy with school activities. She had picture day, her "Letter P Party" that I got to help with (see previous post), and Grandparents' Day. For the latter, her Grandmom, Grandpa, and Grandma Gloria went to her school for a special program. Her class and two others sang 4-5 songs then they all ate lunch and did the hokey pokey together. I wish I could've been there to see it, but parents were not invited. :( I did get to see some great video my Dad took for me and it was so precious! At the end of the month, she had Mother Goose Day and dressed up as Little Miss Muffet complete with a bowl and spoon for her curds and whey.
We soaked up plenty of the gorgeous fall weather with lots of trips to the park and picnics outside. Later in the month, we drove up to a pumpkin patch we discovered last year and did all the corny fall family fun stuff - picking out pumpkins, going on a hay ride, navigating a mini corn maze, eating BBQ and hotdogs for lunch, racing ducks, etc. I live for those cheesy family memory-making days.
We ended the month with a wonderful Halloween night. The weekend before, we let Audrey paint her little pumpkin and then the evening before, we carved our big one. The night of, I made "mummy dogs" (hot dogs wrapped in strips of crescent rolls) for dinner and then we dressed the kids up in their adorable costumes - Minnie for AJ, Mickey for Luke. Starting out it was a little slow and we had to walk quite a ways in between houses to find people that had their porch lights on. At one point, David took Luke back to our place to get the van and come pick us up to find another neighborhood. We decided to turn down one more street in ours and we ended up hitting the jackpot. It wasn't that we wanted a ton of candy for our three year old, but we did want her to have the experience of getting five or six houses in a row. We finally got that and she absolutely loved it. She was so excited and talking a mile a minute as we parked the van and walked from place to place. She kept commenting on how beautiful everything was and how neat it was that we were out after dark. She thought the trees looked a bit spooky, and she sure was glad to see someone had left some lights on for us. It was adorable. Luke enjoyed watching all the action first from the stroller and then in my arms. Everyone raved about how cute they were. About 45 minutes into it, we decided we'd had enough and headed back home. When we got there, David took Luke in and I took AJ to three more houses. We got home around 8, handed out some handfuls of candy to the few trick-or-treaters who would brave our nearly dark cul-de-sac and steep driveway. We let her pick one treat and she chose a blue tootsie roll pop (I think last year's selection was an orange one?) and ate it all the way...even the nasty center part that no one likes! We got to read two bedtime stories in an effort to help her calm down and she told me it was "the best night ever." She was asleep within ten minutes of turning out her lights - a rarity for her. I think all the fun coupled with the fact that she probably walked over a mile up and down hills tuckered her right out.
On the house/moving front, we don't have a lot of news. The latest is that we did receive the loan commitment letter from our buyers' lender and that we did get an extension from our sellers. We are still in the process of seeking an extension from our sellers' lender for the short sale again and we're also begging for a firm closing date from our buyers' lender. The best case scenario right now looks to be around the week of Thanksgiving. After this disastrous ordeal, unpacking boxes in our new house would be a perfectly acceptable way to spend the holiday!
Now, on a much funnier note, here are some quips, quotes, and other don't-wanna-forget stuff from this month:
The month began with Audrey and I participating in a food drive for CIA (Compassion in Action service day) at our church. I wanted to stretch this experience for her as much as I possibly could, so we started by walking around and counting the houses while she made tally marks on a notepad. A few days later, we printed out fliers and stuffed them into people's mailboxes together. On the first Saturday of the month, we took her little wagon and dragged it around our section of the neighborhood, looking for bags that people had left out. As I suspected, there was not much participation. And by "not much", I mean any. When we were far away from the house, I texted David to run a bag of our donations down to the front of our neighbor's house just so AJ wouldn't lose all faith in humanity. As we rounded our corner and she trudged along, I explained that some people might have already given to their church. She was disappointed and then her eyes fell on the lone bag sitting by Ms. Gail's curb. Bless her heart, she was so excited. And we narrowly avoided a jaded three year old. :) We took our donations to the food pantry and she helped the other volunteers and me sort the food and throw out the expired stuff. It wasn't as super fun for her as I'd hoped it would be (because I think that it should still be all fun at their age so they develop a love and a heart for it), but I think she did okay. As I mentioned in a previous post, she wanted to play "buy food for the food pantry" with her coins a few days after that, so I gotta pray it's somewhat sinking in!
Other fun firsts: Audrey's first dentist appointment (she did great!), my first painting canvas party with some women from Bible Study, our first visit to an alpaca farm, Luke's first trip to a pumpkin patch, and Luke's first Halloween.
We also celebrated my father-in-law's birthday with a fun trip to a local airport. We watched planes take off and land, played on the playground they have there, and ate lunch at an on-sight restaurant. He loved it and we loved watching him enjoy every minute of it.
On top of all that, David and I even managed to squeeze in TWO dates this month. The first was spent shooting at a gun range and then we ate dinner and the second included Christmas shopping and Bonefish Grill followed up by Five Spot yogurt. Both evenings were divine. Turns out that eight years of marriage and two kids later, I still really like the guy.
In addition to two date nights, I also enjoyed two girls' nights out! I did the Masterpiece Mixers painting class and the next week enjoyed dinner and dessert with one of my closest friends to celebrate her birthday. What can I say, we were CA-RAZY social butterflies this month!
Audrey also stayed super busy with school activities. She had picture day, her "Letter P Party" that I got to help with (see previous post), and Grandparents' Day. For the latter, her Grandmom, Grandpa, and Grandma Gloria went to her school for a special program. Her class and two others sang 4-5 songs then they all ate lunch and did the hokey pokey together. I wish I could've been there to see it, but parents were not invited. :( I did get to see some great video my Dad took for me and it was so precious! At the end of the month, she had Mother Goose Day and dressed up as Little Miss Muffet complete with a bowl and spoon for her curds and whey.
We soaked up plenty of the gorgeous fall weather with lots of trips to the park and picnics outside. Later in the month, we drove up to a pumpkin patch we discovered last year and did all the corny fall family fun stuff - picking out pumpkins, going on a hay ride, navigating a mini corn maze, eating BBQ and hotdogs for lunch, racing ducks, etc. I live for those cheesy family memory-making days.
We ended the month with a wonderful Halloween night. The weekend before, we let Audrey paint her little pumpkin and then the evening before, we carved our big one. The night of, I made "mummy dogs" (hot dogs wrapped in strips of crescent rolls) for dinner and then we dressed the kids up in their adorable costumes - Minnie for AJ, Mickey for Luke. Starting out it was a little slow and we had to walk quite a ways in between houses to find people that had their porch lights on. At one point, David took Luke back to our place to get the van and come pick us up to find another neighborhood. We decided to turn down one more street in ours and we ended up hitting the jackpot. It wasn't that we wanted a ton of candy for our three year old, but we did want her to have the experience of getting five or six houses in a row. We finally got that and she absolutely loved it. She was so excited and talking a mile a minute as we parked the van and walked from place to place. She kept commenting on how beautiful everything was and how neat it was that we were out after dark. She thought the trees looked a bit spooky, and she sure was glad to see someone had left some lights on for us. It was adorable. Luke enjoyed watching all the action first from the stroller and then in my arms. Everyone raved about how cute they were. About 45 minutes into it, we decided we'd had enough and headed back home. When we got there, David took Luke in and I took AJ to three more houses. We got home around 8, handed out some handfuls of candy to the few trick-or-treaters who would brave our nearly dark cul-de-sac and steep driveway. We let her pick one treat and she chose a blue tootsie roll pop (I think last year's selection was an orange one?) and ate it all the way...even the nasty center part that no one likes! We got to read two bedtime stories in an effort to help her calm down and she told me it was "the best night ever." She was asleep within ten minutes of turning out her lights - a rarity for her. I think all the fun coupled with the fact that she probably walked over a mile up and down hills tuckered her right out.
On the house/moving front, we don't have a lot of news. The latest is that we did receive the loan commitment letter from our buyers' lender and that we did get an extension from our sellers. We are still in the process of seeking an extension from our sellers' lender for the short sale again and we're also begging for a firm closing date from our buyers' lender. The best case scenario right now looks to be around the week of Thanksgiving. After this disastrous ordeal, unpacking boxes in our new house would be a perfectly acceptable way to spend the holiday!
Now, on a much funnier note, here are some quips, quotes, and other don't-wanna-forget stuff from this month:
- Audrey has an imaginary dog named Abraham. Or should I say, she HAD an imaginary dog. Apparently he died this month. Not to worry, though. She assures us he's going to come back like Jesus is.
- Luke cut his first two teeth this month! The first (lower left) was on Saturday, October 13th and the second (lower right) was on Friday the 26th.
- When we were working on a hide-a-picture/I Spy book together, she found something really tough right away. She declared, "I have eyes like a penguin!" "Do you mean, eyes like a hawk?" I asked, laughing. "Yup!" she said.
- Audrey asked me how long she was going to live with us and I explained that she would stay until she was grown up and out of high school or college. She started crying and said, "No, Mommy! I'll be too scared to live alone. I want to stay with you and Daddy!" I promptly answered with what any good parent would have said and promised she could stay with us forever. Let's see if she still feels that way in ten or fifteen years!
- We were driving down the road the other day and she saw a cemetery and shouted "My school!" All you can really see as we pass her school from the main highway is a cemetery, so now every time she sees one she thinks it's her preschool! What a weird association for the poor girl!
- When reading one of her Fancy Nancy books, she suddenly points to two words on the page and says, "Does that say 'Mrs. Glass?'" It did! She found out just by sight and then sounding it out.
- Audrey asked who got up with Luke at night when he cried and I explained that Daddy and I took turns. She said that we should give each other high fives in the middle of the night when we work as a team.
- Luke's hair is getting thicker and longer. The other day I noticed it sticking up a bit in the back and it melted my heart. He looked like such a little boy with a tiny cowlick!
- When leaving the mall, Audrey begged David to pick her up, saying, "Carry me, Daddy. My legs are tired!" Then, she added for good measure: "And I really like cozying up to you."
- We were driving down the road and talking about being patriotic and flags. All of a sudden, Audrey busted out with the pledge of allegiance in its entirety. Apparently they say it every day at school and she already has it memorized.
- Luke is getting such a personality...and a temper. He will pitch quite a fit now if you take something away that he was playing with. He'll also be in the middle of a huge tantrum and stop the second you pick him up and smile two seconds later. He's a wonderful baby, but I do believe he's got just a touch of spoiled in him. :)
- Instead of saying "sweep it", Audrey says "broom it" and I don't correct her because I think it's adorable.
- One night we were talking with Audrey about how Luke was going to be her kids' uncle when she had children one day. She got very upset and nearly started crying, saying that she thought he was going to their daddy. She didn't understand that brothers and sisters don't grow up to marry each other. We decided to table the discussion for another time.
- One morning I was dancing in the kitchen and danced over to the table to take her a napkin. I was holding a butter knife up in the air as I did so, and she strictly cautioned me that I "shouldn't dance with knives, Mommy!"
And, to close, my favorite:
- We had her parent-teacher phone conference late last week. Mrs. Lindsy was very complimentary and said Audrey does really well following directions, participating, etc. She said the one thing she's trying to work on with her is "getting her to be three...and play more" because she's "quite the little adult." Uh-huh. She also said she's gotten very good at rhyming words and will often rhyme in conversation. For instance, the other day, AJ told her that her hat was "itchy, itchy, b*****!" The teacher was cracking up about it and knew it was completely innocent. So, goals for us to work on: Drop the potty mouth. Act like a kid. Got it.
October 2012 and Halloween albums are up in the Picasa gallery! Enjoy!
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