Rambling on

Yep, that is what it feels like- rambling on and on and on with every imagainable level of the exchange student organization. There are just not words to say how frustrated I am with the whole thing.

Last Thursday I was told that a house was likely in a couple of days. Nope.

I was told that someone was here to get them into school. Did she do that? Nope.

Did she even try to get my student in a real school? Nope.

Did she go to the school that they are attending and find out why in the world they are just sitting them in a room with no books. Nope.

So, today I was told that I had to go get him into school even though the school has denied them access. Yep, I get to fight a school district with which I have no connection. That was what she was supposed to do. She gets paid for this.

Today she said she is doing the best she can since she has no electricity because her house was ruined in Ike. I am really sorry about that, but if she can't do her job, she should pass it on to someone else. This is just nuts. I have no life outside of dealing with this. I have used way too many minutes on my phone talking to them.

Tomorrow we work at the assistance league. That is so much less stressful.

not sure what is up with the way I am feeling

Furstrated- because of Ake and the lack of schooling and the lack of him having a place to call home for the next 10 months.

Sad- not sure why. I hate it when I am feeling like this. I miss Eric, but I don't think that is it.

I am worried about the money situation here at home and in the USA. I am concerned about the election and what that could bring.

I guess I am a little lonely, too. I have met a few people, but it takes time to form a bond. Thankfully, I have the internet and the friends I am attached to through it. It is just not quite the same. Not quite the same as going to McAlister's to split a sandwich. I miss walking into Wal-Mart or Target and actually seeing someone I know.

Wow, for someone who started out writing such funny posts, I have certainly changed my tune.

Charter Schools and Exchange Students Do Not Mix

Poor Ake. Today I picked him up at 3 like normal. When he got in the car he said that the teacher had told them if they didn't want to come to school tomorrow, they didn't have to. Now, I am not sure why they would do this. They are required to go to school. They can't be homeschooled. They are supposed to be auditing a high school. I found out today that today they did nothing. No work at all. Ridiculous.

I called the lady I have been talking to. She said that the kid from south Korea has a potential home. That is good for him, but I was assured Ake would be on the top of the list. She did say that she had several more possibililties. She said we might know something tomorrow. I certainly hope so. I am going to let him stay home tomorrow. I can't imagine why in the world they accepted the kids if they were not going to teach him.

So, tonight we are going to go to PeiWei. He likes it a lot. He was really upset- like tears upset. I thought this might help him feel a tad better. I am going to wash up the rest of his clothes tonight just in case. If he gets a house, I want him to be ready.

What a wild weekend

I finally recruited Dean to helping me hang all my stuff up on the walls. It looks great. He even hung all my photos up in the hall. Some of these never even got hung when we lived in the last house- the whole time. Granted, there was not a lot of wall space in the hall, but it is nice to have them up.

It really does feel more like home with our things on the wall.

We didn't do much else aside from just work on the house. We had intended to go to a festival yesterday, but JoyAnna woke up with a really, really bad headache again. She spent most of the day not moving. We went to a meeting for the yearbook, and she did play there. She really paid for it later when she was crying with it hurting. I guess I need to find a doctor soon.

Friday

Today was another long, long day. I got up early and started working on more unpacking, rearranging, and making this house look more like a home. I suppose I am staying here, I might as well.

JoyAnna had a bad, bad day with the hiccups. Very painful today. It makes me sad.

Ake went to a party after school. I have not heard from him. That is a little frustrating. I had setout everything for him to clean the bathroom when he came home from school. I guess he can do it tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am going to tackle more in the garage- fun, fun, not.

ARGH!

Ok, I am so frustrated. Why in the world did I ever agree to do this. I thought I was being nice. It started out fine, but now I am tired of it. I really tried with him, too.

Today I found out someone else is helping him find a house and a school. That is fine. Only thing they are looking for a Thai Family- he said it will be better for him so he can eat Thai food. If he wanted only Thai food, why did he come to the USA? I told him that sort of defeated the purpose. He was saying he didn't want to go to New Mexico. I told him today he should be glad of anything he gets at this point.

I have begged him to take one shower a day. I found out tonight he is just washing his hair in the mornings. He is using the handheld shower and leaning over the tub- it takes him so long to do that he might as well shower. I am just a little frustrated. I am certain my water bill is going to be outrageous.

Then, there is the cell phone. He talks for hours and hours on end. I do have a lot of minutes. But, never in all the years have I gone over. Now, I am using my rollover minutes. Doesn't make me happy. I have asked him to wait til after 9pm. Tonight I was gone, and he used JoyAnna's phone and talked for an hour and 45 minutes. Again, I am a little ticked off.

ok, I have vented now.

No Vampires

Where to start? It was a LONG day.

We had to get up early and hurry over to a project of Dean's. He had a blank spot against a black wall and wanted a plant there. You know Dean. It had to be JUST right. I went several places yesterday and couldn't find anything just perfect. Finally we found something at Home Depot. Of course it took work. Nothing is ever simple, right? That took us quite some time last night.

When we were finished, the cat was left outside. I fogot for a while. When I remembered, I couldn't find her. I looked and looked. Usually she comes running when I call. It was after 1 before she came when I called her. That left me really tired this morning.

After we delivered the plant, we went to the assistance league and worked in the thift store. We had tons of fun. The ladies were delightful.

Next we went to a meet a lady and her son to see about JoyAnna babysitting. He is quite the cutie.

We got home and it was time to start supper. Ake was cooking tonight. I cut up the pork and he fixes the fried eggs. I also cut the garlic- over 30 cloves! There will be no vampires here anytime soon. I think my skin smells like garlic. I feel bad for the kids at AL tomorrow when I fit them for clothes. I imagine I will still smell of garlic.

Tonight I got a call from the Exchange Student Organization. They sent someone to El Paso to deal with the issue. They are going to try and get them in a school - a real school. Good luck with that. I told them that Ake is great, but that he needs to get where he is going. Instead of putting him in a school here and having to move him again in a few days. She said they have a few leads on parents. She will try to get these to the top of the list. I told him she is trying to find him a place. They have one place in Las Cruces. We told him that woudl be great because we could still see him while he is in the states. He was sad. He said if he couldnt stay here with us, he would rather go to a different town.

I am praying he finds a place really soon.

Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

Yep, I still have boxes. Today I emptied quite a few of them. I am not sure I will ever feel like I am not living out of them. I still need a buffet or something similar so I can unpack my china and my Christmas dishes.

I guess one day I will finish- I am thinking of it like eating an elephant- one bite at a time.

Another exchange student got a house today. Not ours. Maybe tomorrow.

Was it Monday again?

We had an odd weekend. It just sort of went off in a blur. Dean worked real physical labor this weekend, so he was pretty tired. He wanted Chicken Enchiladas for super last night. You would think in a town that sells millions of enchiladas a day, you could find chicken ones with sour cream sauce. Nope. Haven't yet.

He invited Larry for dinner. He is living here without his family. He is also of Mexican descent. Dean forgot to tell me he doesn't like cheese or sour cream- two major ingredients in the enchiladas. He was very gracious and ate some anyway. I did offer to cook something else.

Today, we started over on the 'looking for a school' thing. So irritating. Poor Connie has been working like crazy to find them a school. Tonight Ake's mom called and wants to know why he cant go to school like another student can. Seems like a local World Heritage person has told her she can go to school. Connie tried again today. I guess he can work magic.

Tonight I wrote a letter and emailed it to the state department. I think they need to know how these kids are being treated.

another oops- posted to the wrong blog

Wow, I am not sure what was going on with that lady that gave us the free phones that day. I have about decided it was her last day at work and she wanted to go out with a bang. She gave us such high priced phones- and at no cost. AND she didn't do them where we had to redo our contract. Of course, today I had to redo our contracts when I added the insurance. This has been quite an ordeal

I think I did order my new phone today. I am not exactly sure since I didn't get anything on the email like I did last week when we ordered. If I don't get something tomorrow, I will call again.

Hopefully, I will soon have a new phone with decent reception.

oops- this is from Tursday- posted on the wrong blog

Poor Ake. He is miserable at school. It really frustrates me. Today he said he was sorry he didn't like school. I told him that was ok, and he said he knew it made me feel bad that he didn't. I told him I just didn't like him to be unhappy.

He is not feeling well today physically either. He dozed a lot. I hope he feels better tomorrow.

Today I sent an email to the organization who runs the exchange program. There are 8 kids here who still need a house for 10 months. Because the schools here will not allow them to attend the regular schools, I asked if they could be pushed to the front of the lines. I tried to explain to them that a charter school is not necessarily a high school as we all think of a high school. The kids are remedial and as a last resort for at risk kids. That is not these kids.

Two of the kids did get houses today, so we can only hope that the others will be getting one soon. I feel bad for the ones who are still here and are waiting. If they could go to high school, it would be different.

I just love the internet

Tonight I was cleaning out my email and saw an old email from a dear friend that I know only through the internet. I emailed her and she responded right away. I called her back and we had the most delightful visit. We had fun talking about people we used to 'know' over the internt. It was good to reconnect. I have missed her.


Ake still doesn't have a new home. His mom is calling everyday to the people there in Thailand. I have been emailing and calling from here. Tonight I saw an add in the local paper for host homes here in in El Paso. Not sure why that want anymore here since they can't go to to school. Very odd.

He told us on Thursday that they don't even have a teacher that explains anything. They have books and they get a worksheets- they look in the book and find the answer. What a great impression they must have of schools in America. Tonight he said how much he loved us and loved being here, but he knew he had to go so he could find a real school. I really hate this for him.

Blood from a Turnip

I have always heard that expression when it comes to paying out what you don't have. That is exactly the way I feel right now.

This move was supposed to change that. I guess it might have if the house had sold and we hadn't had those months of two of everything. Now, I feel like I am in quicksand. The harder I try, the deeper I get.

Ok, I am whining, I admit it. We are really trying so hard. Everyone knows how much I like to eat out. We are not even doing that more than once a week. For us, that is HUGE. Especially with no air conditioning. Can you imagine how hot it gets cooking in a house with no a/c?

I have spent the day on the phone trying to refinance/refigure all the bills so we can afford to catch up. I am frustrated and tired.

Please pray we can work this out and get back on our feet.

New Insurance and a Doctor Visit all in one day

On Monday night, JoyAnna was looking under the couch when her knee did something crazy and she started shreiking. Great. She used her crutches and wrapped her knee, but it hurt all day. Today was even worse. I called the office and yes, we did have insurance now. What is really bad is we had already met her deductible several times over on the old one, but now we are starting over.

I called the ortho hospital/clinic about an appointment. They did have an opening, so we made the appointment. I looked online and read the directions. We headed that way and followed the directions exactly. We parked as close as we could and went in. Nope- wrong place. The guy gave 'sort of' directions - ya know, the kind with a shrug and says "in the building behind us." Great. Off we went to what we thought was the building behind. Nope- it was the front side of the building. They don't look alike and have different names, but yeah wrong one again. This time the directions were a little better. We finally got there only a few minutes after our scheduled time. I am not sure why we felt the need to hurry to get there. They surely did not resond in kind. It was over an hour and a half before we were called back to xray. The another hour before we saw the doctor. We were with him long enough for an exam, some notes and a couple of Rx- one for meds and one for a brace. The brace helped immediately.

We then headed over to visit with Anne and family for a bit. She had had another stint yesterday, but she is home recovering very nicely. We saw enjoy them. Their daughter from NC was there, too. It was a nice visit.

Ake is sick- well I guess he was but is better now. He said last night his stomach hurt. He had a bag full of meds and asked me which of two he should take. I looked them up on the internet and told him one was better for stomachs. I wasn't sure if he needed anything that strong, though. This morning, he turnedoff is alarm and kept sleeping. I waited a bit and then woke him up. He was still feeling horrible. I told him just to go back to sleep. I had to go to walmart and run a few errands, so I picked up some good old Pepto in the pill form. I had him take that. It seemed a much safer option than the heavy duty stuff he had. He slept til noon when I woke him up for more pepto. This time he was a little hungry so I made him some toast and scambled 2 eggs. He went back to sleep right after.

He was awake when we got home a little after 5. I didnt think he should have anything heavy or spicy for dinner, so I fixed him some good old fashioned campbell's chicken noodle and some toast. That did not go over too well. He said he needed more. I tried to talk him into waiting and eating something after we were sure that settled.

I fixed some rice for him and he made an omelet with just eggs- and oil. He ate so much. I really hope he is not sick in the night.

Tomorrow JoyAnna and I go to assistance league to help clothe kids for operation school bell. After that, we are going to go help Dean work. He keeps firing the contractors because they wont keep to the schedule. Maybe we can help him out and take some stress off. maybe.

Finally a phone

Yep, I got the phone today. It works fine in the house for phone - HOORAY!! Thankfully, I have internet and am not relying on it for internet as I have not been able to connect. It is amazing to have a phone I can use in the house. I talked on it in the kitchen tonight while I cooked dinner.

AT&T - again

I woke up early this morning and called AT&T. I figured that no one was going to follow up on that last call since it had been way past 2 hours. After about an hour of being on hold with 2 different people and being told basically 'too bad,' I tried again for about the 1452nd time - only this time I called the department to close my service. She seemed to try. No one can tell why the lady gave us such nice phones. Neither could we, but hey we needed them and they were free :) I sent my phone back today. Hopefully, tomorrow they will mail me the new one. Of course it is doubtful since they said I needed to give them the tracking number which you cant get on a package like that. We will see.

Then I had to call the OTHER AT&T - you know the one for the house phone and internet? They have been billing someone else's dish network on my phone bill- to the tune of about 500! I have called several times to try and work it out, but hadn't happened. I think I finally have that worked out.

I have spent so much time on dealing with AT&T they should give me a free month of both. This has turned into something that is just crazy.

Still waiting on a call back from a manager from AT&T

Needless to say AT&T is not top of my list of companies I am extremely pleased with. In fact, they are pretty far down on the list. I didn't even bother today. Hopefully on Monday I will get someone who has an idea about what it going on and can get this taken care of.

AT&T know they have our hands tied. It is too bad they don't treat their prisoners, I mean customers, with more respect. I pay them a fortune to torture me. Not very smart of me, huh?

Very Disappointed in a lot of Texas' Response to Ike.

Direct Tv has has a non-stop station from Houston concerning Ike. We have watched it quite a bit over the last few days. We watched so many people tell the people to get out of the low lying areas. We watched Galveston be told to get out or face certain death.

I am personally offended that they so many people made the decision not to evacuate. I am even more offended that their failure to respect the authority and the warnings will cost the government and ME so much more money.

Now, the same people that didn't resect the authorities enough to follow what they asked are whining and complaining about the lack of water, food, and ice. Excuse me, but didn't they realize this was going to happen? If they made the choice to stay, THEY - not the government - should be responsible for providing.

This morning, on the houston chanel, local authorities were complaing that FEMA had not done enough yet. The storm hit yesterday. The streets are clogged with idiots who refuse to listen to the authorities and are out driving around. They are complaining that FEMA is not setting up the distribution points fast enough. There was a huge storm in Houston again this morning. Areas where the floods had receeded have flooded again. Places that were not flooded, now are. I can understand Fema waiting to make sure there are safe locations.

The people were warned repeatedly to have 72 hours of supplies. They are still below that. Give Fema an opprotunity to set up.

I was seriously hoping my state wouldn't be as offensive and act like they were 'owed' so much. Maybe Houston has forgotten that the entire Texas Coast was effected- not just them.

Dean had an interesting thought about the clean up in Galveston. All those big boats that are on the shore are probably insured. Shouldn't that insurance help with the cleanup - instead of just being pocketed by the owner? Charge the owners for cleaning up and let them pay it out of their insurance money - whatever. The government shouldn't have to foot the bill for everything.

Ok, I will get off my soap box. It just makes me sad to see people who were warned, now feel they are owed for their stuidity.

Ike

I really shouldn't complain about how bad AT&T Customer Service is, when so many are suffering so much from Ike. It is so sad to watch the news and to see how much of Galveston is just gone. Icons of the sea coast have just been washed away. It is unbelieveable to look at.

I know so many people lost so much. I feel bad for them. I can't imagine how miserable so many must be to be stuck without utilities or to be housed in a shelter.

I really do have so much to be thankful for.

I so wish I didn't have AT&T

The cell phone company giant AT&T is about on my last nerve. I have probably been on the phone with them for no less than 10 hours in the last week. After the time last weekend when I got the free phones, I was ok with it. I had spent over an hour on the phone with them a couple of weeks ago trying to get Eric's phone transferred over to an EP account.

Anyway, we got our new phones this week. None of the phones we got worked with the media packages we already had. I had to upgrade all of them- an extra cost I was not happy with. Because I have to pay more, I wanted to make sure the phone I had made the best of that package. The one I got, did not. It also had really bad reception in the house. You are allowed 30 days to exchange.

I called yesterday and they said I could go to the store and exchange it. I asked if I would have to pay anything if I did that and was told no.

Today, off I went to the local AT&T store. Just as I got there, I realized I Had left my chager at home. Back I went to home and then to the store. I got there and was told I needed my packing slip. Back again. This time I actually got to look at the phone. Notice I didn't say I got the phone?

Nope, this time they said I would have to pay 199 for the phone. Wrong!

I called AT&T Customer Service. I was livid. This lady was nice but the horrible phone disconnected us.

Again I called AT&T Customer Service. This lady was nice, too. She had me on hold. We had it about figured out when once again the horrible phone disconnected.

Again I called AT&T Customer Service. This time I got a young lady I have known since she was about 4. She tried, but they best they could figure out was for me to pay 100 and get a rebate - a rebate that would take 6-8 weeks to get back. I told her that was not what I wanted to do. She then told me I would get a phone call back from a manager within a couple of hours. It is has been at least 6 hours and no call back. Of course the phone is so bad, they may have called and I didn't get the call.

Today, I once again spent several hours on the phone with AT&T customer service and made 3 trips to the AT&T store. I still do not have the desired phone. Needless to say I am not happy with AT&T Customer service.

Rain and Mist on the Mountains

Today it rained- all day long. Because of that there is beautiful mist on the mountains. It looks so exotic- sort of like you would think you might see somewhere like Hawaii.

Because I had to go to the Assistance League for monthly meeting, we decided to leave the dogs outside. They, of course, enjoyed it immensely. Dazzle especially loves to be in the rain. That meant baths for them. They were sooo funny.

Ake went to a school today. I was hoping he liked it because it is close to the house. He did not. He did get a package from his mom today with more food sauces. We'll have some different things to taste now.

Tomorrow we have a farewell party for the exchange students. 4 of the students- all girls- have found homes. One boy for sure is going to stay here in EP. That leaves 11 that do not have homes yet. I am not sure why the exchange organization would send students and not have houses for them to live in.

The Cell Phone Blues

JoyAnna is not quite as happy with her new phone as she was just 2 days ago. She got the really cute Blackjack II. It is pink with graphics and just really cute. It does have a major issue. She uploaded a song for the tone for text messages. Pretty cool, or so she thought.

Problem is when she gets a text, the WHOLE song plays. You can't turn it off. If she gets 2 text messages right in a row, it plays 2 versions of the song. If you are on the phone and get a text message, it plays the song in your ear. It is posessed, she says. So, she may be sending it back.

I am sending mine back. Mine is cute, too. Mine has lousy reception. Plus, I had to pay extra for a PDA plan, yet this one doesn't even have good internet. It is going back.

We will probably both end up with a blackberry. That is what Eric got and he is really pleased.

New Phones

Our new phones came in today- just as we sat down for dinner. JoyAnna is really pleased with her blackjack. Eric really likes the blackberry he got. I got the Palm Centro. It is really pretty, but still does not have the reception I would like to have in the house. I am pretty sad that it doesn't have good internet too. They are supposed to call to check on the phones tomorrow. I guess I will order something different.

I spent so much time doing those presentations. So much time. We ended up putting 4 of them into the contest. I so hope they came out ok. I worked really hard on them. I am worn out. I stayed up way, way too late last night.

Dean's aunt is doing well. She went home from the hospital today. I am so glad she is doing well. She is such a sweetheart.

Game Wave

I am doing another product testing now. We have a new Game Wave. It is a really fun game that is played on TV with remotes. The game system comes with 4 remotes, but you can play with up to 6. Tonight they tried out Sudoku and Rewind. Sudoku was a huge hit. We were all laughing and trying to fill in the blanks. Rewind was a trivia game. Again, we were all laughing. Ake didn't get into this one as much since his native language is Thai. They enjoyed it so much, they didn't even watch monday night football.

If you are interested, here is a link to their site.
http://playgamewave.com/index.cfm

This would be great for family night or even to play by yourself. I think it is great because the games are non-violent. They even have a Bible trivia and a VeggieTales game.

Goodness, what a day.

Today was our first official day of 'homeschool' and like most things in our lives, it did not go according to plan. JoyAnna was up and getting ready for school when I was about to take Ake to school. Just before we walked out of the house, Uncle Jiggs called and said Aunt Ann had had a heart attack yesterday. Needless to say, school took a quick back seat. JoyAnna got into regular clothes and we rushed out of the house. Ake said "today is busy."

We made it home about lunch time. JoyAnna manged to get through her lessons fairly quickly. We did school, just not on the time frame we had planned.

Ann is doing really well. We saw her this evening and she is going to get to come home tomorrow.

I am working like crazy on presentations for the design awards for the architecture office. It is fun, but very time consuming. Not knowing the projects makes it more difficult. In the past, I have done them for projects Dean has worked on. That makes it a lot easier for me to do. They are due tomorrow, and I really need to be working on them, so I guess I will do that.

Fun at home

It was so very nice for JoyAnna to get home today. We picked her up at the airport and introduced her to Ake. We just hung out for a while and then headed to the grocery store. Ake wanted to cook for all of us again tonight. He did tone down the heat a little bit to make it better for her. She is not into spicy.

I called AT&T today to talk to the them about Dean's IPhone. He bought his on May 8, about 2 weeks before they stopped selling them preparing for the new 3G phones. He has lousy reception here in town. He has had lots of trouble with it. We have spent numerous hours on the phone trying to get it figured out. We even took it to the Apple store in Dallas. He has not been happy with it at all. The lady offered to replace it with a different brand of phone. We are really contemplating it. There is one feature the phone has that the other has and that is the ability for him to enlarge a drawing while he is in the field on a job. We spent over 2 hours on the phone today.

The lady we spoke to today was very nice. I told her we were having some problems with out family account since we trqansferred over. They were saying we were not eligible for new phones for 2 more years when we were due for them next month. Anyway, she was so very nice, she gave us 4 new phones of our choice. Eric and JoyAnna are so excited. Me too. I have been having to go outside to talk. Dean does too. JoyAnna's phone works fine in the house. I have a 14.00 phone, Dean has a 400.00 phone. Her phone that cost us about 49 after the rebates is much better on reception than either one.

I really called to get Dean some help, and instead, we got 4 new phones for the family account. Poor Dean.

I did send an e-mail to apple today. I told them if they had told Dean they were going to upgrade the phone, we wouldn't be in this situation. I hope they will replace it, but I doubt it. If they had told him, he would have waited and used his old phone until the new one came out.

Kind of sad that he paid that much money for an Iphone and a new Mac and is very unhappy with the phone.

OPI's new Nic Sticks

I am doing some of those try it out programs where you test new products. I received an OPI Nic Stick to try out. I really like it. I have never been very good at doing my own nails. I like this because the polish is in the tube and you just sort of draw it on. That is much easier for me to do. So, I am giving it a grade of an A.

I am worn out from Photoshop

I am doing a lot of photoshop for Dean's office. Because the built in mouse button on my laptop has worn completely out, I have to use a mouse. That is causing my shoulder and hands to hurt. I am just not used to it. I did it for about 12 hours today, so I am tired.

Thankfully, the man came and fixed the swamp cooler this afternoon. WooHoo! It is actually cooler already.

I think I am going to hit the hay a whole lot earlier tonight. I have done all I can do right now on those projects. I should get up and go to the gym tomorrow. I will probably not. I need to get the house all cleaned up for JoyAnna since she comes home on Saturday. Like she cares- lol. I guess that is just one more excuse not to go to the gym.

Silly Dogs

We had the slider open so that we were getting some air. I thought they were just outside enjoying the wind. Nope, they were stretched out in the grass enjoying the rain. silly, silly dogs :)

Swamp Coolers are not so cool

Especially when the are not working correctly. Dean climbed on the roof today and the water is not hitting the pad correctly. Therefore- it is HOT! Even Ake didn't sleep well from the heat last night.

Today I volunteered at the assistance league. I worked in the store for the first time. All clothes were $1. I scored some workout clothes- no excuse not to go workout now.

Dean has a new thing going on at work. It will be bringing in a steady income for a bit for the company. That is a good thing. It is a government job, and we can't go there or talk about the details, etc. Will be interesting. I am just glad there is going to be steady income coming in.

Tonight it is thundering. The dogs are loving this. The wind is really strong and they are running all around the yard. They love the back yard and have really loved the weather here.

Convicted

Convicted. That is really how I feel right now.
Moving here was really hard on me. I have made not secret about that. I haven't really been praying like someone who desires a closer relationship with the Father.
Sure, I pray when I go to bed. I pray at meals. I just have not been pouring out my heart to Him and listening to Him speak to me.

It is more than just praying about the election. It is communicating with God.

And so, I am convicted.