Catching up....REWIND....

Rewind….Saturday Aunt Carol came to visit. We went to dinner and then sat up until 2:30am talking. She spent the night and on Sunday we rested and watched a movie. I love spending time with her! WE are good for each other.

Monday I took Sparky to the VA hospital in Kansas City for an appointment. We had lunch and back to Warrensburg we went.

Catherine is doing well at college. She is not homesick yet. She is meeting lots of new people and seems to be settling in. She joined a Christian group on campus and was excited that she found them. They met for the first time Tuesday and she had a great time. I worry, but we have to let her fly!

The dad of my sweet friend Kathy passed away Wednesday. He had a heart attack and the complications got worse from there. Her mother has been sick for several years and with this happening I am worried about her mother. Kathy has such a sweet spirit and I love her dearly.

Larry is still in Hawaii. He is working loooong hours and is getting very little sleep. He had to be at work at either 5 or 5:30 this morning, Thursday. YUCK! He does have a day off on Saturday and he says he is going to sleep and go shopping for me a surprise! I LOVE surprises!!!!!
Today I cut grass which takes quiet a while. It was SO dusty and windy today. When I came inside I was covered in grit. My eyes were full of grit too. Even my ears were full…how gross is that? I’ve also practiced on a new item for my embroidery business. (Well, it’s almost a business) We’ve had severe thunderstorms this evening and is supposed to continue all night. We need the rain!

We are still trying to sell the house on our own and have now gotten an MLS. I have filled out pages and pages and pages...23 to be exact. Some of it was confusing and very time consuming. Anyway, I finally got it done and it should be showing up within 3-5 days. The sooner...the better! Keep those prayers going up! Mike and Shelly still have their house on the market. They had a showing tonight and I am hoping to hear from her tomorrow with good news!

Well, I guess this has not been the most exciting blog. I am having some issues with my thyroid and I am just drained and my energy level is negative 5. I’ve been working on some blogs that I hope to get on here soon.

Kim

Happy 18th Birthday and enjoy your new adventure of college!

Catherine at her early Birthday dinner before Larry left for HI. We gave her a combo of b-day and off to college gifts. We had a large box full of stuff from band-aids to a lock for her lap top. Here are the towels I personalized for her.

Today Aug 21st is Catherines 18th Birthday AND she left for college today. Scary! She has never driven in Kansas City and she had to go through KC to get to Maryville which is where her college is. She made it through but she was scarred to death! She was not scared to leave for college…she was dreading the driving part.

Tuesday I took Catherine to get a fridge for her dorm. I also helped her get some other stuff that she needed. I need to back up a bit though. On Wed night Cat brought Laura over here to try on some jeans we had gotten her. Well, when they pulled out of our driveway she had a flat tire. She pulled over and called me. I went over there and Catherine was getting her donut and jack out. Problem with that was, the donut had a large slit in it. There were no lights at all so I had drive back over to our house. She and I attempted to take the tire off with no luck. I sent her back to her moms in our car. The next morning we had the car towed to the shop because it was already to go in for work that day anyway. Ok, the car is in the shop. We were taking Cat’s house key to her moms house to the middle school to drop it off for Sean. Cat took it off her key ring and dropped the key. She saw it and tried to get it however it fell even further. So here we are in the school parking lot with out butts sticking out the door trying to get the key. You are probably thinking, “what’s the big deal, where the heck is the key”? I’ll tell you where the key was…it was UNDER a metal plate that the electric seat track was attached to. We used anything we could to get it out…no luck. We went over to the auto shop where her mom works to get wire to try to get it out. No luck there either. John, the mechanic, had to take the bolt out that was holding the seat in and finally got the key out. What a beginning to the day! Finally, we made it to Lee’s Sumitt, MO to do some shopping. We had lunch at Culver’s. For you GA folks, he closest one to you is in Northeast KY. Anyway, we talked about a lot of stuff. We covered all the Do’s and Dont’s. We discussed ideas and plans. I gave all the “Momma Talks”!

Ok, now to Wed…I took Catherine to get her savings account closed and open a new savings and checking account at a bank that is also in Maryville. Interesting explaining banking to someone who is clueless on how it all works. We did some more shopping for her necessities. We had more talks about money and about her getting focused. She will even tell you that her hair is brown but she has blond roots. Her grades in high school were very good but she can be an air head and she makes fun of herself. Gotta love a teenager!

She is off to begin her new journey. She is planning to be a Vet which is what she has wanted to do since she was 5 years old. We are praying for God’s guidance and protection. It is just amazing that she off to college. She asked us about a week or so ago if we were going to be sad and miss her. We told her of course we will miss her and will be a little sad but we are also excited for her. We are excited to see her go off and begin a new chapter in her life that will shape the rest of her life.

My thoughts at this moment… It’s hard to explain to an 18 year old the importance of the decisions they make as they leave high school. I mean, the choices and the roads they take at that point really does determine so much of their future. Thank goodness for many of us that God shows mercy and gives us opportunities to make some changes alone the way and sometimes make corrections. Right now, I can hear my Momma saying, “Kimberly, if you will just listen to me, I can save you a lot of heartache”! Why oh why did I not listen to Momma on that one!?!? However, all the ‘stuff’ I’ve been thorough has made me the Kimberly I am today. Hind sites 20/20. You know how you hear people say, “If I knew then what I know now” OR “If only I could go back and change a few things”. But, we can’t go back, only forward. I’m just thankful that after all of my decisions in the past, both good and bad, and some other things I won’t go into, that the road led me to here. It led me to a wonderful, loving husband who is a Christian man and I now have 4 children who needed me as much as I needed them. Yes, I would make some changes to the past if I could but I would not change the fact that I am married to my Prince.

So, if you have a teen that is approaching life after high school, don’t waste a minute preparing them. Equip them with all the knowledge and confidence that you can. Stress the importance of decision and cause and effects. Most important…Start praying for all that NOW. (and start a savings account)

kdp

Home from visiting our Next Home!

On Tuesday morning Larry drove to work, Ft. Leavenworth, and I went later and picked him up around 12pm. We had lunch and off to Ft. Riley, KS we went! Most Army Installations are in the middle of nowhere and Ft. Riley is no exception. Much of the ride is green fields as far as you can see. Larry has not been at Riley since 1989 so things have changed since then to say the least. We drove around taking a look at the Post. The Historical housing is where we would live if we live on post. Those areas are so pretty. It is a pretty post and very BIG! They are making a lot of changes and doing a lot of building. They are in the process of building a new Commissary (Grocery Store) which is very good thing!

Before I go any further I have to tell you that I let out a little squill when I saw a Cracker Barrel sign a few miles from one of the gates. I know some of you are wondering why we love CB so much. I don’t know, the food is good, reasonably priced, you get choices of veggies and I like to shop there!

We checked into our room at the Lodge on post, unloaded our stuff and left to meet Mike and Shelly for dinner. After dinner, they introduced me to an ice-cream place called Stone Cold. Yum Yum! It was SO good! Later Larry and I made it back to our room. Once having a second look..OH MY…it was not the cleanest place I’ve ever been in. We have stayed on different post and bases before but our rooms were never quiet like this. Mike and Shelly stayed there before and their room was fine. I won’t go into details but let’s just say we got a refund for the second night and went elsewhere.

Wednesday morning we met with a lady to look at the historic housing on post. The homes are absolutely beautiful. The beauty and character of the homes was amazing. There were of course some downfalls to the homes as well. We loved the homes; however, they won’t work for us. We were SO hoping that it would work perfectly and be done with it but that was not the case. After looking on post Larry went to meet a few of the guys that will be working for and/or with him. I went to the library to search for homes online for us to see. After his meeting and my web surfing we had lunch and hit the road.

We visited a tiny town just outside one of the gates called Ogden. We had high hopes of living there but we were disappointed and must report that Ogden is a “no” unless a new area pops that we missed. (Which I doubt) We went to Manhattan looking for homes which is really the area we would like to live in. One problem is we want to live on the west side of Manhattan which is closer to the post. The homes we found on the west side that we liked and felt like were good neighborhoods were a wee bit expensive. Is that not always how it works?!?! There is one that we have our eye on but just did not want to pay the price they are asking. We had dinner at CB and we were off again to visit homes in Junction City which is right off one of the gates. Actually, JC was one of the areas we were trying to decide if we even wanted to look at homes there. Well, we did to get an idea of the area. We found 3 homes in JC that we are interested in. It’s one of those towns that you have to pick and choose the areas you feel comfortable in but aren’t most towns like that? We also keep telling ourselves, “It’s temporary” but at the same time we want to feel safe and enjoy our lives.

Thursday we headed back to Leavenworth. I dropped Larry off at work and I headed to Independence and Lee’s Summit to do some birthday shopping for the girls. Eventually Larry and I met back up at home. We went to eat Mexican and made a trip to Wal-Mart. After the wild and crazy trip to WM we went home. I started to embroider two sets of towels that we got for Catherine to take to college. I finished them and now here I am, bloggin’.
Oh, the most important event today….Molly came home from her Nana Beckies and was reunited with her Mommy!!!!! Larry picked her up from Beckies and on the drive here he put me on speaker phone and I was talking to her. He said her ears were perked up, her tail was waggin’ and she was looking around for her mommy! I sure do miss that fur ball when we are apart but Beckie spoils her just like we do and I know she is wonderful and loving hands.

To sum things up…We have no idea exactly where we will live. We still have some time and until our house sells we can’t do anything anyway. We do think we will enjoy living in the Ft. Riley area and look forward to the move.

We are having another open house this weekend and maybe we will have lots of traffic and even a buyer.

Keep praying for all of us that are trying to sell; Momma and Jeff, Tim, Loretta, Mike and Shelly and Us.

Parr Family Reunion 2008

Aunt Carol, Aunt Dorothy, Sparky & Gus. (Merril, Dave and an infant sibbling are deceased)

Larry, Sparky & Terry

Well, we are home from the Parr Family Reunion in Nebraska.

When we picked up Sparky and Terry on Friday I was in the back seat because Sparky can get into the front seat a little better and he would have more leg room. He does not like it when I have him sit in the front. We stopped to have lunch and while we were eating he said, “When we get back in Mountaineer, you can get in the front and sit with your husband”! I said, “Nonsense. I like being in the back because I can read my book and not get car sick. AND, I can reach the snacks and cooler full of sodas”. He grumbled yet he sat in the front. Why are older people so hard headed when it comes to little things such as that?

On the way there we went through the small town of Stanton which is where Larry’s grandmother lived before she passed away. We took pictures of the area and then headed to our hotel. We had dinner and went back to our rooms to rest up for Sat.

On Saturday morning our phone rang around 7:30am. Sparky did not like the continental breakfast the hotel was serving so he wanted to go out to breakfast. So of course we took him to breakfast…which mine was horrible. Saturday afternoon was the reunion which was in Madison and we were staying in Norfolk which is only about 15 miles apart. I asked Sparky on Friday if I needed to get the address for the hall where the reunion was to be held. He said that he knew where we were going. Against my better judgment, I said ok and I didn’t get the address. Well, on the way there Sparky INSISTED I sit upfront so I did. We were pulling out from the hotel and I said, “Sparky, you should have sat up here to give driving directions”. He said, “Ah, just use that thing up there to tell you where to go”. (He was talking about the Navigation system.) I told him that it can’t help us because we don’t have the info to put in it for it to help us. (Of course that meant that he was not sure which way to go.) He said, “Well, just to toward Madison”. Just so you readers will know, there were no signs pointing to Madison. So we asked what direction that might be. He said left…however, it was right. SO, we turned around. Of course, we still did not know exactly where we were going. Once in Madison, we went down a couple streets and we kind of just found the place. Of course he knew it when he saw it. Also, I took the opportunity to mumble in a low voice, “Told you we should have gotten the address before we left”! Ha!

So we went in and had lots of hellos and hugs. Several of the women were sitting with a large tub full of OLD pictures. They were separating photos to give to all the children of Ella and Frank Parr, aka Larry’s Grandparents. Later on, it was dinner time. OK, I have a question…How come at family reunions do the families of each child sit together. Isn’t it a ‘reunion’ and we are to ‘reunite’? Hey, my family is just as guilty as the next but is that not interesting? We come together once every blue moon and we sit with the people we see the most. No problem with that but is it not funny how that always works out? After dinner we chatted some more. I sat down with Aunt Dorothy who is the oldest sibling and who I just adore, and we looked at some of the photos. She wanted to be sure that we had pictures as well. She is just a sweetie! Of course if you have talked with me or read my blog you already know that Aunt Carol, which is the youngest, and Larry and I are very close. I call her Aunt Carol because I am so close to her and I really feel that she is “My” Aunt Carol.

All of us “out of towners” stayed in the same hotel except for Aunt Carol who stayed next door. After the official reunion was over, the ones staying at the hotels all met in the lobby. We sat and talked until around 11:30pm. Looong day! On the way to our rooms Sparky told Larry, “If it’s ok with Kim, let’s go to breakfast at 8am”. So, we did. When we returned to the hotel after breakfast all the gang were in the lobby and we sat and chatted and said our goodbyes.

On The Road Again…We went by the house where all of Sparkys brothers and sisters were born except Aunt Carol. Yep, born there…no drugs…no epidurals, no nothing.

The trip home was good. We normally stop at Cracker Barrel at ‘least’ once when traveling. So Sunday afternoon, we had a late lunch/early dinner at CB! Yummy! It was great! We were on the downhill stretch…almost home.

The downfall to going out of town…I missed Shelly’s baby shower! I just keep telling myself that we are all moving together and I get to play “Aunt Kim” to him once we are all settled in our new homes. AND, I missed seeing Tim and Connie. (Long story but we were all in the same state and did not get to get together!)

Tomorrow, Tuesday, we are off to Ft. Riley to see housing on Post and to check out the surrounding area including housing areas. Mike and Shelly are there and we may hook up with them for dinner while we are there.

Stay Tuned for Riley updates!

Catching up and getting ready for the Reunion

The search continues for a buyer for our house. The family that looked at the house on Monday will not be the new owners. I talked with them Wed. evening and it is out of their price range. They are so sad that they can’t get it. He said that he wanted to tell me that they absolutely loved the house and it is worth every penny we are asking for it but he would not insult us with an offer. They had only good things to say which made us feel good about all our hard work. Of course we were down about it but they are just not the right ones I guess. Boo Hoo!

Another negative; We have a second fridge that went out. We had someone look at it and the compressor is out. Replacing the compressor cost more than a new fridge. Ok, we are not the smartest people on the planet but doing the repairs would be stupid.

Thursday…Today I was getting ready for our road trip to NE. As I’ve said before, we will attend the Parr family reunion on Sat. Of course we would like to be at the reunion but the most important thing to us is making sure Sparky is there.

Molly is staying with her Nana Beckie of course. We are droping her off on our way.

I talked to my Aunt Jean today. (Her name is Imogene but we call her Aunt Jean.) I don’t know if I put it on the blog but she fell a couple weeks ago and fractured her hip. We were SO thankful that it was fractured and not broken. Anyway, she is doing a lot better and is able to do somethings on her own again. Growing up, I would spend several weeks in the summer with her. She will be one of my topics once I have time to blog on more subjects than our house.

Well, I guess I need to wrap things up and head to bed.

Talk more later and will update on the reunion.

kdp

No buyer yet...however blessings are pouring!

Well, we have not heard from the family that looked at the house on Monday evening. We are not writing them off just yet. Really, the house and timing is just prefect for them so I still think there is hope!

I contacted Terry & Jerry, the couple we met at Cracker Barrel that I told you about yesterday. I wanted to thank them for taking time to pray with us and also give her our blog address so she could keep up with us. Terry replied to my email and was so excited to hear from me. To sum up the email she said that they often pray with people and don't often get to follow up and that they really want to keep in touch with us. She also said that she has chosen Larry as her soldier, to be his prayer warrior, including me and the kids. That was such an awesome email to read and it totally sent chills up my spine. I read her email to my Momma and of course she cried. I think Larry was surprised, yet humbled. We know we have our friends and family praying for us but when a total stranger wants to take you under their wing and be a warrior for you...WOW!

Another subject...Larry's family are from Nebraska. This coming weekend we are going to a Parr Family Reunion which will be held in NE. We leave on Friday and will return sometime Sunday. I volunteered to embroider an afghan to use at the reunion. I'm not sure if it will be raffled or what but anyway I got it finished today. I have been SO stressed about it. My laptop has been in the shop twice and the problem was nothing they even worked on. It was the battery which was sending surges that made the LT lock up. Anyway, in the process of them "fixing" my LT, they removed ALL my programs...including my embroidery program! What a PAIN! I loaded it on our home computer so I could get the afghan started. Anyway, I got it done today and it is a load off my mind. I had ONE afghan therefore I had ONE shot at getting it right while using the home computer which is not totally set up for my business as I would like. I am putting a picture of the afghan on the blog. I was proud. It was a very large project though it might not look like it in the picture. There were 17,800+ stitches to make this. If your not sure...that's a LOT of stitches!

Thank you again for the prayers and for the encouraging emails. We love you all dearly!

kdp

Wonderful works of God!

You’ve heard many times, “God works in mysterious ways”. Well, he absolutely does. Today, Monday, Larry left bright and early for work and called me once he was there to let me know that he had gotten a date mixed up. He thought that Wed. was the day that he had to be at work at 5am but instead it is tomorrow, Tuesday. So since we are 1 ½ from his work, he was going to spend the night at a buddies house on Tuesday which turned into tonight. So being the wonder wife that I am, I met him about half way with clean clothes and the PT clothes he needed. To catch you up, we have both been worried about the sell of the house and our last open house was not so good. Anyway, we decided to meet at Cracker Barrel for dinner. As we were leaving the restaurant a couple was walking out ahead of us and held the door for us. The man reached to shake Larry’s hand and thanked him for serving our country. As we walked across the parking lot we continued a conversation with them and they introduced themselves as Jerry & Terry. They were asking questions about Larry’s job, asked questions about the soldiers in Iraq, etc. They seemed very nice and in the conversation they told us that they with The Christian Motorcyclist Association. Before we parted, she asked if she could pray with us. She also asked if we minded holding hands because she is a hand holder and of course we did not mind at all. She said such a precious prayer! Very sincere and humbling prayer and it touched us both deeply. We talked for a little while longer and before parting, she gave me a card with her phone number and email address. She said anytime I need her to pray for us or I needed support to email her. I told her that we do have a prayer request; we need our house to sell so we can begin our new journey. She pointed up at the sky and said, “OK Lord, You heard that, Kim and Larry need their house to go”! We all laughed but we knew that she would be praying for us without a doubt. When we got to our car we were both just amazed at how that whole conversation happened. Then, Larry went back to work and I went back home.

About 15 minutes after leaving CB, I had just hung up from talking to Beckie when I got a call from a man about the house. He wanted to know if it is still available. We made an appointment for tomorrow for him and his wife to see it. Then he asked since I was not there, did I mind if they drove over to see the outside and just walk around. Of course I said it was fine. I had about a 45 minute drive home and about 15 min. or so after I got home they pulled up which was much later than they had expected to be there. I invited them in to go ahead and see the house. They loved the house! They are planning to come back tomorrow in the daytime to look around and want to bring their kids too. They asked all the appropriate buyer questions and seemed very interested. He also asked if the price is firm & when we needed to be out. OK, I am NOT saying they are the ones to buy the house. AND I am NOT saying that we met that couple, they prayed with us and there came a family to see the house. BUT I’m NOT denying that that could just be the case. This just might be the family to move into our beautiful home. It could even be God saying don’t get discouraged, I hear you and I’m working on it. It could be a booster for our hope. It could be many things but regardless, we are so thankful that we met Jerry & Terry and we are so thankful for the couple that looked at the house tonight. I’ll keep you posted!

I talked to Momma today and she pointed out that we all have our homes for sale. Larry and I have our house, Tim has a condo in Gainesville (totally remodeled and beautiful) and Momma and Jeff have a condo in Destin for seale. So, if you are looking for a condo in those areas, give them a call. Plus, our friends Mike and Shelly really need to sell their house in Kansas City. As I mentioned in other blogs, they are moving to Ft. Riley too. Their house has been on the market for months so please put them on your prayer list for a buyer for their house. Oh, also if you are looking for a house in Gainesville, Momma Lo (Loretta) has a house for sale. Hey, I might open a realestate company. Ha!

Well, the last few days have been discouraging but this evening, the positive thinking was back! Thank you all for your encouraging emails and prayers. Please keep the prayers going up!

Blessings to all!

Kids and Open House

Here are my babies...who are not babies anymore!!!!! I've heard parents say that in the past and I've heard my Mother say that about me but...I don't like that they are getting so big! Good thing is, they are like I was with Momma and Daddy...I LOVED to be loved on (and still do). I didn't care if Momma kissed and hugged me in front of my friends. Tim on the otherhand...Not So Much! He told Momma one time with his teeth clinched together, "I'm not a baby"! Me, nope, bring on the lovin'! I hugged everybody and still do. Our house is a huggin' place. Oh, back to the kids...all 4 of them are still huggin' and lovin'! Yes, even Sean! Of course when his sisters come at him, he is not crazy about that and tries to avoid it whenever possible!

Laura and Catherine are back from youth camp in Colorado. Laura was baptized and Catherine rededicated her life. It’s great to know with Catherine leaving for college in 18 days that she has recommitted her life to Christ. They had a great time and from what they have expressed, it was very eye opening.

Open House…Very disappointing! On Saturday, we had a lady stop by and she loved the house but I think it is not in her price range. That was it, 1 person. Sunday, nobody came. We were pretty bummed! We know that God will send the right family at the right time. However, God knows we are human and our human side wants it to happen in our right time. I’m just concerned that the percentage of people that might be looking in our price bracket is a low number of families. Actually, we’ve heard that several times already and we just put it up for sale 9 days ago. In many many ways, the sooner the better for us! There are a lot of things that I cannot begin to explain but getting the house sold will start the ball rolling on all the things we have to do to get from point A, to B to C…to Settled!

Another reason for the house to sell…We plan to take leave and visit GA and maybe Momma in FL before we settle back in KS. Maybe 10 days (14 if we can push it). That is IF the house sells in the right amount of time. So okay friends and family…that gives you more reason to pray for us! (That is if you want to see us. Otherwise, never mind! Haha!)

I guess this is one of my shorter blogs. Just updating this before I get in trouble!