Well, I miss everyone.  I miss my house...but it's all good!  Thankful to be with my whole family!

So Josh was able to fix the van...amazing!  We traveled east late Sunday evening and arrived safely at our destination.  The hotel we normally stay at had to empty their pool.  3 kids staying in a hotel for a week...we gotta have a pool.  We drove around checking for hotels for about an hour(thank goodness the kids were asleep after all it was midnight or after...don't ask) and got nowhere.  All the nice hotels with good reviews do not allow pets.  All the creepy, poor rating hotels allow pets!  We finally said the heck with it and pulled into a nice hotel.  It said "Please, no pets" as you enter the front doors!  We checked in anyway and snuck Lady in the back door!

It was all fine and dandy until Monday morning when housekeeping was knocking on all the doors in our hallway to see if they could come in and clean.  Now, we all know what dogs do when there is a kncok at the door!

I was panicking!  Called Josh at work and told him we needed to come up with plan B!  (we are pretty familiar with plan B!)  To make a long story short-he called the front desk and we discovered that they recently changed their policy and that Lady was more than welcome!  Whew!  Thank God!

Monday was smooth otherwise.  I found a car online that I wanted and as soon as Josh got home from work we went to look at it.  4 hours later we were pulling out of the parking lot with a Ford Freestyle!  I am a lucky girl; I have always wanted a stationwagon and now I have one!

Our salesman, Brian was great!  Had lots of good stories to share and super nice and accomidating to our 3 kids and dog.  Yes, our darn dog goes everywhere with us becasue she is nuts.  Brian insisted the dog come inside while we did the "paperwork".  So there we were:  Joshua whizzing around the showroom in his wheelchair, Lady pacing back and forth panting...we made lots of friends:)

It turns out that friendly salesman Brian is a part-time assistant youth pastor.  God is good!  I have been looking for a church and haven't felt "led" to check any of them out.  Brian invited us to come to church-he said we will love it there.  He told me a story about this little boy named Joshua that went to church there.  Joshua had lots of medical issues and was told he wouldn't live past the age of 5.  The church held a fundraiser every year to help Joshua's family with medical expenses.  Well, Joshua went to Heaven a couple of months ago:(  He died at age 15.  The fundraiser is coming up and they are looking to help local families with their medical bills who have children with disabilities.  I felt overwhelmed with emotion when Brian was telling me this story.  I could have cried.  Not becasue I thought we could get money to help with our medical bills but becasue I was amazed at how the Holy Spirt works.  Incredible.

Brian even invited our family over for a cook-out at his house!  Wow! Nice guy!

On Tuesday I was up bright and early!  I finally have a car and you better believe the kids and I were going to go see the world!  Ate breakfast, got ready and away we went!  Drove around in Canfield; a nice, safe neighborhood that I would like to live in.  The unfortunate thing is safety comes with a price!  The challenge is trying to find something affordable and pet friendly and safe and clean...thats not too much to ask is it?

Found an adorable house for rent so I immediately called.  I was crushed when I heard the lady's voice exclaim a confident "$1300 per month". Ugh!  Keep looking!

On the bright side we got to visit Los Gallos for dinner!  Woohoo!  It was delicious as usual!

Wednesday has been good!  The kids and I went to Kohl's.  I am starting my end of season clearance shopping for the kids.  Today I shopped for Emma and Ella's next summer wardrobe.  I let them pick things out but they had 3 rules to follow:

a.  It has to be on the sales rack
2. It has to be under $10.
d.  No skimpy clothes!  (yes, i had to tell emma no to the black lace skirt that barely covered her bottom)

[did anybody catch that? a,2,d.  a little humor there:) made ya laugh!]

We did so good!  We got 23 items for $430.00.  But wait...those items were all on clearance so subtract the $   380.00 in savings plus the 15% coupon I used and you get $136.00!  We got back to the hotel and the girls put on a fashion show.  They looked so cute and they were so excited.  We don't shop much and it's so awesome becasue they genuinely love and appreciate what they got today.   The  only bummer...they can't wear the clothes until next summer because we bought the next size up.  We always try our best to make choices that favor modesty.  I am trying to teach the girls that their body is something special that should be saved.  I am trying to teach them that they don't need to wear short shorts and belly shirts!  They are very receptive to the idea and are learning quickly.  I am hoping that if I teach this early enough it will help when they grow into young women.

Ella on the other hand enjoys being naked, lol!  She understands that that is acceptable at home and takes full advantage of it.  She is running around naked as I type:)

This is our last night in a hotel this week!  praise the Lord.  My germ problem has been at full throttle.  I have not taken my flip flops off since we checked-in to our room Sunday evening.  The thought of my feet touching the carpet almost sends me into shock.  I am sitting in a chair in our hotel room and I put my quilt that I brought from home over the chair before I sat down.  Headed home tomorrow evening!  Until next time take the time to {stop and smell His roses.}