Part 4- It happens so fast...

***Sidenote:  I really don't mean to drag this out and irritate you all! Rachel's bed and the computer are in the same room, and I only have limited times of being on it.  Ideally I would write when she's sleeping, but it just doesn't work! Please forgive me :)  ***

We have left the party, I had all the kids in their carseats, about to pull out, when Josh calls and says that his parents are about 45 minutes away and I need to leave now.  Already on top of it, I feel like I'll be there in plenty of time!

For extra time though, I decided to take a back road that is more of a straight shot to their house.  This road always makes me a little nervous. It's got alot of curves, and it's real narrow. On top of that, I didn't realize that they had just repaved a portion of it.  I was nearing the end of the road, and my phone rang.  I glanced down for a second to find my phone, and my right tire went a little off the road.  This happens sometimes because the road is so narrow, so it wasn't a big deal.  But I was on the new portion that was recently paved, and there was a big drop off.  When I tried to get back on smoothly, there was a lip and I just couldn't get it back on the road. 

All of a sudden, I tried to pull it back on and I swerved back onto the road.  Out of fear, I swerved back the other way and overcorrected. I went off the right side of the road again, and then lost all control.  We swerved back into the road almost sideways, went several feet, hit a curve in the road sign, and into the right ditch and hit a fence.

It happened so fast. So fast actually, that my phone was still ringing.  I was in shock of what just happened.  I picked up my phone, saw that it was Denise and answered.  The babies were screaming, and I was freaking out.  I tried to open my door, and I couldn't.  I just remember saying to her, "We just wrecked, and I'm stuck in the car.  Send somebody." This must have freaked her out, looking back on it.  But all I could think about was getting to the babies and getting out, and I was stuck!  I knew she would let Josh know. 

I tried opening the passenger door, and it was stuck too!  I climbed over the seat, and went back to the babies. They were all crying.  Hannah was hysterical, and Elijah was starting to calm down when I got back to him.  I got them both out of their seats, and saw that they were ok.  The only door I could get open was the left sliding door.  I got it open and then got the two older ones out.  Rachel was wimpering the whole time, and when I got to her I realized that her side door was what hit the sign.  The window had busted, and she was completely covered in glass.  I just grabbed her whole seat, and we all made it to the side of the road.  I just wanted to be as far away from the van as possible, because I didn't know what was damaged or if it would catch on fire or what.  (maybe I watch too many action movies..)

We got far enough away, and I picked Hannah up.  Eli and Rachel were calm now, but Hannah was still screaming.  I realized she was physically ok, and just real scared.  I held her for a while, and she calmed down.  I sat her down on the grass, so I could check on Rachel.  She was laying there perfectly content, but with glass covering her.  I carefully got her out of her seat, and got most of the glass off of her.  I looked her over for cuts, and she had one small scrape on her forehead.  Otherwise she seemed to be fine!

At that time, a man came walking up.  He said that he lived a little ways down, and he was outside and heard it all.  He had called 911.  Another man pulled over to help.  These two men were soooo nice.  They just talked to me and calmed me down.  Hannah was still crying a little, and I realized that she had lost a shoe in the whole ordeal.  One of the men saw and went and found it for her.  They got me to sit down. And then Josh came.  I started to calm down then. 

A policeman showed up, and I told him what happened.  Then an ambulance came.  They looked over everyone, and looked over Rachel.  He cleaned up the spot on her forehead, and said that it was just a small scrape.  Everyone was very friendly and just wanted to help.  Josh's parents came too, because we were going to need a ride home.  The policeman came back over and said that looking at my tire marks, it looked like I just overcorrected like I said.  But because we were in the county, we had to wait for the State Patrol to come before we could leave.  So we just all sat and talked for a while waiting.

The policeman also said that I held control really good, because looking at my tire marks we should have flipped.  I know this isn't true.  Because I remember when we were going sideways, I just let go of the wheel.  I wasn't controlling anything.  I know God was there protecting us.  He was holding His hand on top of the van.  And looking at where we landed, He guided us into that ditch.  We landed RIGHT between two large trees. Directly in between so that I couldn't open either side door.  It would have been so much worse if we had hit a tree.  We hit the sign so hard, that it crushed the side door and shattered the glass, but I honestly don't really remember hitting it.  And He placed a shield over Rachel.  She was literally covered in glass, but had one nick that never bled again after it was cleaned.  We all walked away with not even a bruise.  God was definitely protecting us.

 

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part 3- Finishing up the makeover!

Ok, so where did we leave off?

We had worked all day Friday, and I left around 9 that night. There was still a hole in the wall, but Josh was going to stay late and work on it.  All of the painting was pretty much completed, except of course for the rail that hadn't been built yet. The only other things needed to be done were moving furniture back into place, hanging pictures on the walls, and of course, ALOT of clean-up.  I needed to go home and get the kids in bed.  They did super awesome all week, but I could see that it was starting to wear on them.  We also had a birthday party to go to the next day, so I wanted them to be refreshed for that.

So, the plan for me was to go home that night, and not come back in the morning.  They could do a lot of work themselves, and I could give the babies a much needed break and an early nap before the party.  Then I would go over there after the party to help with last minute cleaning, and picture hanging. We had plenty of time because we didn't expect his parents back until late the next night.  Seemed like a great plan!

Josh stayed and worked on the rail until late that night, and then woke up and went back over there in the morning to finish.  Everything seemed to be going smoothly, and we just did our own thing at the house.  Until I got a text message from Abbie.  They had just heard from her parents, and they were going to be home around 4. "Um, what???"  "4 in the afternoon?" "Yep."  We weren't ready! 

So, the only thing they needed me to help with was hanging the pictures, so Rebekah came over and watched the babies and I ran over there.  Jacob and I were flying around the house! We were a great team! I told him where, and he would just put a screw in, and up went the picture!  Probably not the best way to do picture hanging, but it was working!  We got all the pictures up in record time, and I came back home to get the kids ready for the party.  Rebekah had fed them and put them down for naps, so things were still running rather smoothly for this bump in the road!


Oh yeah, and they had finished the rail AND painted it the night before! This was what I walked in on, and was so proud of my husband. It looked amazing!

 
As Josh was finishing up with the rail, and Abbie was cleaning, me and Jacob hung pics!

.

So off we went to Thomasville for the party.  It was kinda nice getting out of the chaos for a little while. I had just planned on leaving the party a little early so I could make it back in time. The kids had a great time! They played on the swing set and ran around, but the most fun was had on the bouncy house! (But only when all the other kids were off of it! haha)  We had cake, did presents, and then it was time to leave.  I left around 3:30, and Josh called as I was pulling out and said his parents were about 45 minutes away.  So I had plenty of time to get there right when they came in! 

TO BE CONTINUED...

Sorry...

Sorry for the delay readers.  Life always comes first. :)

The next part of the story is still the hardest for me, so I'm trying to get it all in perspective!

Be back very soon!

Part 2 -What did I get myself into?

Well, my story left off with the first day of the remodel for Josh's parents! That first day went really good.  We got a lot accomplished, and everything seemed to be going as planned.   The wall got torn out, and Abbie and I made a trip to Lowe's to buy the paint.  The next few days is really all a blur! We did a lot of organizing, and painting.  And more painting.  And did I mention that we painted?  It felt like it was endless! 



During this time, I was over at their house from 9 in the morning till 9 at night! It was insane, and very exhausting.  Josh came and went as he could.  He had another Lowe's interview first thing Monday morning, and then had another meeting with a potential job later that afternoon. He went to both, and they both went really good.  He found out that the other job was with a construction company out of Atlanta that are renovating the FEMA offices in Thomasville.  The head guy liked him, but he had to pass a background check before they could let him work.  So now it was just a waiting game.  He had a few side jobs that he was doing, and was also working on the rental house in Valdosta.  Well, the FEMA guyed called him back and said that he was going to hire him temporarily until his background check came back!  So he started working for them on Thursday!  Lowe's also called and said they would like to give him a position after some paperwork came back through.  So two job offers, but nothing permanent.  So we were really still waiting on both.

The whole week, I was also still reading through The Total Money Makeover. I couldn't put it down!  I was so excited to start it, especially now with a new job on the horizon.  Josh and I talked about budgets, and what we could do to get the ball rolling. I even started thinking about selling the van, and buying something less expensive to get out of the car payments. By the way, I LOVE my van.  It takes a lot for me to consider doing this.  We eventually decided to keep it because of its reliability and the fact that we only had a little over a year of payments left on it. I was more than ok with that. Just the thought of getting rid of it made me sad.

So the week was rolling along. We were still painting, and quickly running out of steam! We needed reinforcements!  Aunt Jan came by and said she wanted to help, and it couldn't have come sooner. She, her two boys, and her husband (a professional painter) came to help.  We were sooo grateful! They helped soo much, when all we wanted to do was quit! 

More and more people started coming by and helping out where they could, which was an amazing blessing.  Then Denise, Jacob, Malachi, and Rebekah also came down at the end of the week.  This was really what we needed.  People with fresh vision!  People who weren't tired of working! :) 

Friday we all pretty much worked, and Josh came that afternoon to finish the wall. We still had a large gaping hole in the wall.  I was getting nervous.  I left at 9 or so, and there was still no rail.  And his parents were coming the next day! Luckily they weren't going to be home until late the next night.

 TO BE CONTINUED....

So many thoughts..Part 1

Well, I know I haven't blogged in a while, but things have really been crazy around here lately.  And I just have so many thoughts these days...good and bad..about everything.  I honestly don't even know where to begin.

Well I'll start at the beginning.  One night, when Josh wasn't home (some sport calling him away..) I was super tired and really just wanted to relax in the bath with a book.  So I got all the babies in bed at a decent hour, but I couldn't find a book to read.  I started searching the book shelf, and all by chance (or maybe not!) I found Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. I think we've had this book for about 3 or more years, and I've skimmed it but could never really get into it.  Well, this time I had an INTENSE desire to read it! So I drew my bath, and relaxed with reading it. :)  I immediately saw some of the things he talked about in our lives, and I got super excited!  I wanted to do our own makeover!  So when Josh got home, we talked about it..and he said he's been wanting to do something too! We talked about the steps and what we were going to have to do.  We decided right then and there that we were going to take control of our finances, and get back on track.

All around the same time, we found out that the construction company that Josh worked for was slowing down.  They had several jobs lined up, but they were all falling through.  And the bossman told Josh that it looked like they might be out of work for the next 3 months.  Not good. Not good at all. Immediately Josh started looking for another job. He applied for several jobs online. The next day Lowe's called him in for an interview.  That same day, a friend was generously giving us a stove for our rental house, and she told Josh about another job that might be available.  He went in for the interview with Lowe's and it went good. Then he called about the other job and was scheduled to meet with the boss on Monday.  Things were going good!

That same weekend, Josh's parents left to go on a cruise for a week.  We had been planning for a while to do a home makeover while they were gone.  Josh's mom had this plan of tearing down the wall between the living room and den, but it just wasn't happening for her.  So the kids left in Moultrie decided that we would do it for her while she was gone, and repaint the den, living room, and kitchen as well. They left on Sunday, and we started the demo. It surprisingly didn't take long at all to tear the wall down.  But looking at the gaping hole, I started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into.  I went home that night and said to Josh, "We just tore your parent's wall down." It was definitely surreal. There was no going back now...

Here are a few pictures of the first day!

TO BE CONTINUED....