Ah, Life....

So, I think it's almost been a year since I last wrote. You can tell how exciting my life is. :)

Anyway, this is what's been happening...

1) We found out the week of Christmas last year that we are expecting our fourth child. Two weeks ago yesterday, my husband found out the gender, but it is still a secret to me. If you want to know, contact him or my sister...but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't tell me.

2) March was quite eventful in that Mike was quite busy working to prepare for our annual student convention that took place the last week of March. We had almost 250 students this year. Phew!

3) The convention ended on Friday, and we left on Saturday with the juniors and senior of the academy, bound for Washington, D.C. We had a great time out there, but I sure did miss my kids. I hadn't been to DC since I was a kid, so I really enjoyed (though didn't care for all of the walking) visitingthe monuments and museums. I definitely had a great appreciation for it as an adult than I did as a child.

4) April has blown in with a flurry of activity preparing for a national conference that will be taking place in nine days. AGH! Working for the church in the finance department (and recently taking over ALL of the responsibilities), this has been a lot for me. I enjoy the busyness, but after awhile, it takes a toll. Oh, well. Two weeks from today, and it will all be over.

5) May will mark the graduation of our "little" Leah from kindergarten. I still just cannot believe that I am old enough to have a child in kindergarten. Where has the time gone?!?! We are excited, it's just a little surreal for us.

Well, that's been our life and a little of what we are looking forward to. Thank you for taking the time to stop by for a visit. I'm a little humbled and amazed that someone would actually want to read about what's going on at the Bragg compound.

Keep in touch.

Getting back in the swing

So, I'm determined to get back into this. I realize my life can be boring at times, but writing give me an outlet.

January 2010

Hooray! It's February. We have three months left until the time we meet our addition, and we are ever-so-excited.

We started off our new year with two belated Christmases. We enjoyed the time spent with our family, and of course the food couldn't have been any better. My sister surprised me with an iPod touch. Wow!

Shortly thereafter, we said our earthly goodbye to Mike's grandma. Following a short illness, Grandma went Home to be with the Lord. I have learned firsthand why Jesus said it takes the faith of a child to be saved. Leah has no problem believing Grandma is in Heaven with Grandpa; that she doesn't have to use her walker anymore; and that she has no more ouchies. We will miss her greatly.

My pregnancy is going well. Somehow, over Christmas vacation, the baby "popped out" and became active. :) I had forgotten how fun it was to feel my baby move. We had our "peeking" sonogram in December. Michael was impatient and wanted to know the gender of the baby. I, on the other hand, am content to wait. So, if you want to know AND you can keep a secret, ask Michael. As of today, I have 12 weeks to go. Yay!

Our litle family is doing well. Michael is busily preparing for our school's convention is in March. Since we host it, there are many details in which to be involved and oversee. Leah is ever-growing and finding ways to amuse us. She is still tall and skinny. :) She is already looking forward to when she turns 5 so that she can go to school with Daddy. Kara is our resident comedian. She loves to follow Leah around, yet she makes it quite clear that she is still her own person. I am still working two days a week...for now. Probably sooner, rather than later, I will be working half days at the church and finishing my work at home.

I think that's it. As always, please keep in touch.

01-01-2010 (Wow! That looks weird!)

Happy New Year! One of my New Year's resolutions is to keep up with this silly thing more often. I feel like my life is pretty dull; therefore, I don't feel the need the inflict you with boring details. However, I'm thinking at least once a month I can get on here. We shall see. Maybe more often. Either way, I figured the 1st day of the month was a great place to start.

Since our last post, not much has changed. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and of course we had to show off our house. My family was most gracious to "Oooo" and Ahhh" at appropriate times. :)

December was a whirlwind filled with many basketball/volleyball games; some sickness (maybe more than I can care to remember); and lots of fun memories.

For Christmas, Mike's family (us included) rented a cabin/house/chalet/shack (as Kara called it) by Tablerock Lake in Branson, MO. Although we had plenty of sleeping space, we were a little disappointed in the living/dining area. For 11 people, there was one couch and 1 chair in the living area. We either sat on the floor or used the kitchen chairs. However, it was a beautiful resort, we had a white Christmas, we were surrounded by beautiful scenery, and most importantly, we were with family. We had many nights of either late-night swimming (indoors, of course) or Rook games. How fun!

I was able to host the New Year's Eve gathering. We had a late service and meal at church, then we headed to my house. Well, actually, we were divided. Mike and Leah headed to the skating rink (a church New Year's tradition); Kara and I headed home (Kae had a fever); Mom and Dad came with me; my nephews and their dad joined us later; Rachel and Dois and Jason Lowe joined even later; and Mike and Leah made it home around 11ish. We had a serious game of Rook going surrounded by munchies!

As for the house, we are STILL unpacking boxes. Since I finally have storage space now, I'm trying to unpack only ONCE. So, I wait until I find the perfect spot for "stuff" and then unload. We are slowly getting there. I received many decorations for our house for Christmas, for which I am extremely grateful. I can't wait to put everything up on the walls.

As for 2009 memories/2010 goals, I can only say Thanks to the Lord for His many blessings. God has been so good to us. I think of the song "I Have Been Blessed". That song covers every aspect of our individual/collective lives. We have nothing to complain about. No matter the circumstances, God is still good...ALL OF THE TIME! We are looking forward to Baby #3 (Mike knows the gender; I do NOT!); we will hopefully buy a van in the spring (our car will be paid off...praise the Lord!); we will continue to improve our house (will that really ever stop?!); and lovin on our two beautiful girls!

Thanks for reading my ramblings!

11-22-2009 - Finally IN

Oh, my word! What a lot of hurdles, triumphs, challenges and changes have come about since my last post. I believe I saw the last post was on September 25th. Here's what's been happening since. **WARNING** This will probably be lengthy. :)

We moved out of our apartment on October 1 and moved in with my parents. We were hoping to move by November 7th. Although we combined two households into one, my paents were very gracious, and we didn't feel out of place. My father-in-law arrived in town shortly after that to help us repair the primary bathroom. There was a hole in the floor beside the bathtub and the tub was sinking. Bottom line: there was rotten wood underneath the whole bathroom. Therefore, we (I say we like I helped...yeah, not really...well, not at all) demolished the bathroom all the way down to the studs. The finished product? I have a brand-new bathroom. Woo-hoo! It's so pretty. We also replaced a front windown that was broken, repaired the garage door and purchased a new thermostat.

From there it was a waiting game. We encountered many obstacles with trying to close. "This" wasn't just right, we were missing a receipt for "that". However, the worst was the sellers chose a title company that couldn't prove they were licensed to write a title in IL. :) You gotta find humor in that. Anyway, everything finally settled down, and we closed on the house two weeks ago from yesterday, November 7th. Since that date, my brother-in-law and Mike have been working around the clock (or as much as Mike's schedule would allow) to get things ready. They ripped out all of the carpet (we found a mess under the carpet in the master bedroom), fixed the flooring in the MBR, painted EVERYTHING in the house, purchased-primed-painted trim and new doors and moved us in. What a transformation! The house looks beautiful. Oh, least I forget, a man in my church converted our electricity from fuses to breakers, plus repaired or replaced many other things in the house. From the looks of it, I feel like I live in a new consruction house.

In the midst of all of this chaos, God has led us every step of the way. We received small (and unexpected) blessings, which we could only attribute to God. He has been so good to us. We pray that we focus on the good things and not on the few "bad" things we had.

Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and support. We are so thankful to be here.

09-25-2009 Catching Up...Again!

Okay, so I have been remiss in my "blogging" duties. It's been over three weeks since my last post, and it has been a busy roller coaster ride. Let's take this one topic at a time.

-The family...The girls are doing just great. Every day with each of them is an experience. They keep me on my toes, but they also keep me laughing (the latter is probably their saving grace). Kara is learning to defend herself. She has also learned she can be the instigator. She and Leah now compete frequently. Leah is growing up so fast. It never ceases to amaze me the idiosyncrasies of life that she comprehends. She is SO smart. Mike is in full-swing with school. In fact, the school just began it's candy sale...much to the parents' chagrin. :) My turn will come soon enough. :( Basketball season will begin, they he will REALLY be busy. I have been quite nauseous with Child #3. Some family and friends have decided this is because we are expecting twins. Others say it's an indication of a boy: different pregnancy than the girls. Some just say it's a different pregnancy. I have an ultrasound scheduled for September 30, at which time I hope (and pray) to confirm the existence of ONLY one little baby. We will be happy ANY way, having more than one would just definitely be a shock...to say the least! :) I am eagerly anticipating my 13th week (only 4 weeks away) in hopes the nausea will subside. We shall see...

-The house...Now this is REALLY where the roller coaster began. To try to explain everything that has transpired with the house would take me many days of typing. Bottom line? We are on course to move out of our apartment next Thursday to move into my parent's house. We have some things that have to be fixed in the house in order for us to close (a pro AND a con). The house passed a major sewage/sewer/septic test this week. We were really concerned about that. Wanna know irony at it's best? The house has a NICE pool in the backyard. Guess where part of the leach field is...yep...under the pool. Long term, that's not good. So, we will AT LEAST have to move the pool, if not get rid of it. :( *sniff* Again, we shall see. That's really everything in a nutshell. There are boring details to describe the ups and downs, but there really not pertinent. So, hopefully in mid- to late October, we will be able to move in! Woo-hoo! I do know that God has/had a reason for all of this to turn out as it has. Some things we have been able to see why, but the others we are just trusting God and His timing. He's worked too many things out for us to not have faith. He has been so good to us and our little family. Thank you for your continued prayers. I know the peace that I have could have only come from God.

09-01-2009 - Just Catching Up!

Well, since my last post, we have all healed. In fact, we came down with the flu on Tuesday, and I was headed to Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH) by Thursday afternoon. I wouldn't really recommend that. :) Some teenagers had won an overnight trip during the previous year's candy sale. We arrived there late Thursday evening and spent the day at the Park on Friday. We left Friday afternoon and arrived at a decent time that evening. By Saturday, I was WORN OUT!

Saturday, we spent the afternoon and evening at my sister's and brother-in-law's house. He and Mike were working on the third installment of our church's 40th Anniversary. Long story there. Anyway, we included a mini celebration of my parents' 45th Wedding Anniversary.

Sunday, Mike was out at the house with my sister and her boyfriend. He has many investment properties as well as flips houses for a living. So, we were totally welcoming his opinion on the house. As the home inspector said, it is a good house, but it DOES need some work. We have a budget, and we are just hoping everything will fit into that budget. It is an investment, so things may not get done right away, but they will come in time.

Monday and Tuesday (today) were quite normal. Our realtor called today to let us know that the owning bank is having issues with the deed (the house's title). Apparently there was a 2nd mortgage taken out on the house, and when it was sold at the sheriff's auction, all of that information was not immediately known and cleared. So, now they are just getting there documents in order. We still do not have a signed contract from them. On one hand, that has been nice, since we "only" have 10 days from their signing it to back out if we wanted to. This has given us lots of time with lots of "eyes" to look at the house. On the other hand, our hopeful closing date of September 29th is probably not going to be realized. The big bummer about that is we are supposed to be out of our apartment by October 1st, and our landlord won't extend our lease unless we extend it until March 1st. UGH! What a mess! I know God is still in control though, and Mike and I both have a peace about all of this. We just wait on Him.