We've Found Our Home!

Interior Photos

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth we've finally found our new home. It took some patience and diligence to agree on the price. You see the home was way out of our price range, I don't even know why we looked at it, I think because we desperately wanted to be in that neighborhood even though we didn't think we could afford it. At one point we even walked away thinking that we just weren't going to be able to do it but, they came back twice with lower offers. (Twice as in two times!) My agent was in shock, apparently that never happens. We had warned her early on that God seems to do some wild things in our lives when it comes to real estate.

It is centrally located. Right near all our activities and work. So hopefully we can cut down on filling up.

Some details about the house...4 bedrooms 2 1/2 baths, almost 2800 sq ft. Master bedroom is downstairs and all hardwoods downstairs. His and Hers vanities and closets and a jacuzzi tub in the master bath. Large bonus room and new frieze carpet upstairs and a side entry garage. We close on the 28th of August. Anybody with a pick-up (or a sweet Lincoln Navigator with push button, fold down seats) is expected to be at my home bright and early. I promise pizza and back rubs.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouraging words! Tiffany and Joyce (my agents and friends) thank you for all your hard work and dedication and sacrifice. We couldn't have done this without you two. We love you both, even your "business" side.

...That kinda sounded like an acceptance speech...

Real Estate Rollercoaster

Most of you know that we've miraculously sold our home...
We made a commitment to list our house for 90 days. In today's market, we're told, that it takes about 6-9 months to sell your home, so if it sold then it would be God's will...right? Well...our home sold on the 90th day! We literally showed our home 4 times. God just loves to mess with us.

So now comes the fun part right? WRONG! Turns out that not everyone out there realizes that I have very specific needs for my home and those who have a home that meets those specific requests need to sell me there home for the price I want it for! That seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Yes, I am a little irrational right now but in my defense it is not entirely my fault. I'm a little panicked that registration day for school is about 2 weeks away and we are for all intense and purposes, homeless. Or are about to be.

We could probably get everything we wanted if we built in some of the new developments around town but that would mean being displaced for an undetermined amount of time and being in a treeless neighborhood surrounded by Mexicans with hammers and Porto-potties on the lot across the street. Or we could buy an older home in an established neighborhood surrounded by large shade trees on a peaceful court but then again, said house would have hunter green counter tops, brass light fixtures and mysterious stains on the shag carpet. It's enough to make me lose my mind!

Anytime I get a little "uncomfortable" I (eventually) remember that God is on His throne. I feel VERY hypocritical saying that right now because my memory failed me last night as I laid in my bed sobbing and full of fear because things weren't working out according to my Plan A...or B....or C...you get the idea. Evidently, God is teaching me about faith, trust and patience. Did I mention I've never been very good at any of those things when the chips were down? My good friend Ann brought a little perspective to the table this morning...THANK YOU ANN!

In conclusion, please pray for us as we go on this "adventure". Pray that we'd remember who's in charge and that we'd sit back and enjoy the ride as we watch God do His thang.

Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

Happy 9th Birthday Weslee Cole!

On July 17, 1999 my life as I knew it changed forever. At 9:45 am, after 10 hours of labor, my son was placed in my arms. We were in love! At 7lbs and 1 ounce never could we have prepared ourselves for the emotions that rushed through us the first time he opened his eyes and looked right into ours. How could something so tiny rock your world so hard? Steve and I were in awe. Isn't awe one of the most incredible emotions? We spent countless hours staring at that tiny little thing with his giant eyes and bald head. I have the home movies to prove it. With pure elation and pride we toted car seats and diaper bags and proudly wore infant carriers and burp cloths.

I look back now and laugh at those times. I can remember feeling overwhelmed at times and other times I thought I had it all figured out. Little did I know what God had in store for me...

Since that time we've added a few more to our quiver but those subsequent birthing experiences didn't quite compare to that first time. Through Weslee, God has taught us countless lessons of faith as we rushed out little man to the ER in the middle of the night. Wisdom when we couldn't soothe his crying. Patience after we told him a thousand time to stop throwing his toys at the TV. If anything we've learned to pray without ceasing. That, after all, is one of the job requirements of parenting. The thing I'm so thankful for are the memories. I remember sitting around the dinner table when I was a kid and listening to my brothers tell horror stories of how they swung from the chandeliers and landed in the giant bowl of potato salad in their Sunday clothes. We laughed and laughed. I'm thankful that I can look back on some of those disastrous moments we've had and laugh about them, even though at the time the humor of the situation may have escaped me.

Being Weslee's Mom is a blessing I never could've imagined. God knew I'd need help after his siblings arrived and Weslee has always been there for me. He's changed diapers, applied band aids, done dishes since he was 2 (I also have video to prove this) and was always my informant. He adores his brother's and sister and loves to go paint with his Dad. He loves football and rollerblading and is a straight A student with very little effort. He's sticking to his original career goals of Marine Biologist. He's completely fascinated with sea life, especially sharks. He wants to get his SCUBA certification as soon as possible so he can begin his research. He has a soft spot for the underdog and he's willing to risk life and limb for the chance to crack up his baby sister.

Thanks Weslee for blessing us these last 9 years! Your future is bright buddy, we look forward to the next 9 years.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.

Aly's Mind

1. Today I went to the grocery store with a list of things I needed and STILL I forgot to buy juice! It was on my list.....HOW did I forget it???!!!! Absolutely infuriating!

2. Isn't this weather unbelievable? Went to the park with Ann and her boys today just to enjoy the beautiful day. All 5 boys decided they needed to pee so they all lined up facing the trees. Where is my camera when I need it!

3. I HATE dealing with car salesmen....BLECK!

4. Phineas and Pherb is the most annoying cartoon....make it stop!

5. Should I dye my hair red? Steve thinks not but I looked HOT as a redhead.

6. Happy 80th birthday Daddy! I miss you and love you!

7. Taking all the kids to NCG tonight to see Wall-E. C'mon, we'll be there at 6pm and back home for pie and ice cream after.

Car Shopping

So, we've decided it's time to buy a new vehicle. Mainly because the Lexus spends more time in the shop than in our possesion and because it gets about 5 miles to the gallon. So now I'm going to lose all my cool status by returning to the mini-van. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make in this tight economy, not to mention I'm sick of my kids falling out of that big ol' SUV. We've spent the last month researching what would be the best ride for us. After talking to our mechanic (who also happens to be my cousin) we're stearing clear of all things Dodge and Chrysler. I don't care for the Toyota's suspension, all the Toyotas in my past provided a pretty rough ride.

That leaves me with the Nissan Quest or the Honda Odyssey. Being that I'm making such style sacrifice I want ALL the bells and whistles, DVD, power sliding doors, power liftgate, Bose speakers and an ipod doc. I need some advice and helpful tips to help me make my decision. I'll admit I'm leaning towards the Quest because its body style is kinda cool and edgy, as edgy as a minivan can be I suppose....

Happy Fourth!

So today is Independence Day. Admittedly it is one of my favorite holidays. It's not that I'm super patriotic or anything it's just that I have a lot of happy memories associated with this time of year. I had my first flirtatious encounter with my hubby at Ben & Darla's annual 4th party and 3 years later at that same party I was 9 months pregnant with my first son.....I could go on and on.

Last night we went out on Old Hickory Lake to watch the fireworks over Fairvue Plantation. I love boaters, they are some of the friendliest people. Perfect strangers waving at each other as we pass by. Okay, so some of them were a little tossed but still, very lovable. We tied up with a couple of houseboats and kicked back while the boys jumped off the back of the boats and swam around.

This year we're celebrating the fourth like any red blooded American would by stuffing ourselves with vats of potato salad and blowing stuff up. If that doesn't scream Independence than I don't know what does. In the south we are fortunate enough to have access to some pretty sweet pyrotechnics that are illegal out west so there is always some story on the news the next day about some inebriated, moron who blew off his thumb. God Bless America!

So here's to being American, pass the ribs!

I CAN do all things....

READ THIS BEFORE YOU WATCH THE VIDEO...

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?' The father who, despite having a heart condition, says 'Yes'. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.'To which, his father said 'Yes' .

For those who didn't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island Father and son went on to complete the race together.

How much more does our heavenly Father do for us?

Cumberland Falls

Last month we loaded up the trailer and headed up to Cumberland Falls, Kentucky for our first camping trip of the season. It is SO beautiful! Despite the cool, drizzly weather we had the first day we had and awesome time. Cumberland Falls is the only location in the western hemisphere where you can see a Moonbow. If you go during the full moon, which we didn't, you can witness this phenomenon. Next time we go we hope to catch it.
Cooking hot dogs & s'mores over the campfire-YUMMY!

We hiked some really pretty trails that wound through the woods and up and down some great elevations along a river. Cumberland Falls is known as the Niagara of the south. In total my little guys did about four miles one day and two the next day. We're proud of our little hikers! We can't wait to return.












Little Izzy came along too and those little legs worked so hard. Although, anytime a butterfly flew by she'd hop off the trail into the woods after it. Silly puppy!

I learned how to skip rocks too. A skill that has always escaped me. Apparently it's all in the wrist. Which leads me to ask why is it so fun to throw stuff in bodies of water? I found myself searching for an object everytime we approached the river!

Famous of Infamous?

Most of you know that we're now rockstars. We had alot fun shooting this last week. Kolby has shown some interest in acting so this was a good start to his resume.

The weirdest thing happened at church on Sunday. A guy comes up to me and ask's "Hey aren't you the Walker Chevrolet girl?" I wasn't quite sure how to react so I smiled and shyly replied "yaah"

Oh yeah...I know, I know...I didn't put my seatbelt on but that was because I only drove 15 feet!

Introducing.....

I wanted to take a moment to introduce the newest addition to my Tennesee family,


Asher Lee Seymour


He was born last thursday June 5, 2008 at 4:44pm weighing in at a whopping 5lbs 2oz, 17 inches long!


He is technically my 2nd cousin but since his Mommy, Maria, is more like my sister than my cousin I will from here on out refer to him as my nephew and I am a very proud Auntie! I guess the reason we are celebrating so much is because it took a very, very long time for him to arrive. You see right about the time Steve and I were considering trying for a girl one last time his mommy & daddy were hoping also for a little one of their own. Even though Maria and I wanted to be pregnant together, God had other plans.


So, we began praying....fertility tests, various drugs, hormones, turkey basters, little plastic cups, tears and hope and more tears. Maria had been in and out of stirrups so many times she could have been a serious contender in the Kentucky Derby and I think she was a stock holder in EPT. After about three years they had given up hope in the medical professionals and decided to go it alone. One evening last fall I was driving down the bypass with my whole crew when I got a phone call. It was my Aunt....


Me: Hey!


Aunt Patti: Hi......Maria?


Maria: Guess what?!!!????


Me: (holding my breath)....yeah?


Maria (screaming): YOU'RE GONNA BE AN AUNTIE!!!


Me: (swerving into the shoulder)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Steve: Pull over you're gonna wreck!!!!!


Then the tears and I think we all cried continuosly for the next nine months while we watched Maria waddle around as the most darling, glowing pregnant woman. I swear you have never seen someone so happy to throw-up in all your life! God had answered our prayers. Last Saturday, May 31st we threw her a shower. I call it that but is was so much more. It was truly a celebration to honor our Maria and our Lord for his generous gift.


Asher made a grand and early entrance into the world. Throwing us all for a loop. Leading up to his birthday we all headed to Baptist Hospital in the middle of the night because Maria's water broke a month ahead of schedule.....more praying,


"Dear Lord, we know you are on your throne and you didn't bring us all through this for the last few years to have it all crash and burn just as the finish line was in sight. We praise you Lord, put your hands on that tiny life and protect it"


A couple days in a hospital bed and then the docs decided it was showtime. But we knew better, God had ordained June 5, 2008 as Asher's birthday from the beginning. It was such a special day of laughter and pillow adjusting, phone calls, foot rubs, pain, epidural, good ol' pacing, nervous daddy's and then.......that first sweet cry and of course, tears. I felt so blessed to be included. Maria is an overjoyed mommy and Asher is the sweetest, tiniest, peanut.

We praise you Father!

Genesis 30:13
And Leah said, "Happy am I! For women have called me happy." So she called his name Asher.

Morning Breath

Yesterday morining our darling Bailee crawled into bed with us for some snuggles before she started her day. As Steve and I were discussing our plans for the day Bailee decided to chime in...

"Oh yuck! You bref stink! I gotta go or I might fro-up!"

Our Thoughts & Prayers are With the Chapman Family

Our hearts are heavy at the tragic loss of little Maria. His tiny "Cinderella" has gone home to be with Jesus. When I heard this all I could think about was the post I'd seen yesterday on my brothers blog.

Hoops & Yoyo

I love these guys. I hope y'all enjoyed the campfire stories. This other one was too funny not to post. Enjoy


"Gotta love the salty strips of love!"

Tennessee Aquarium

Last Wednesday we decided to surprise the kids and take them to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. Anytime they are driving us and each other nuts we know we need to stop the business of life and spend some time together. Not only that we wanted to support Weslee's long time career goal of becoming a Marine Biologist. So on Tuesday Steve and I plotted and planned. We decided not to tell them but to wake them in the morning and surprise them. I left a series of hints and arrows around the house leading to an envelope filled with "Top Secret Documents" (pamphlets from the Aquarium). Shocking that I was able to pull something that creative off isn't it? Needless to say they were surprised and delighted and mostly stoked that they didn't have to go to school.

If you've never been to the aquarium it is definitely worth checking out. Downtown Chattanooga is darling and very clean. The aquarium is right up next to the river and next to the river is a series of piers and parks with big grassy areas for picnicking and playing. There are lots of great restaurants and cute little shops and street performers everywhere. It's a great walking city.

We started out the trip in the Ocean life building where we got to pet rays and sharks. There were a few kids running through the exhibit and running over my kids that I was tempted to "bump" into the shark tank but I controlled myself. My favorite moment was when a Ray swam over to me, I reached down to pet it and it came up out of the water and splashed me. After that we inhaled some lunch (have you ever seen Joshua eat!??) and went over to the River Life building. It is filled with long ramps that stretch between the exhibits through dark corridors. Translation, "run"ways of death. We survived with a few bumps and bruises and inspite of that they loved it! We saw lots of sea horses and snakes and every size turtle you can imagine. We also petted some sturgeon.....caviar anyone? After that onto Ben & Jerry's, in order for Joshua to enjoy himself we must feed him often or it's just not pretty. Next, over to the IMAX theatre to watch Sea Monsters in 3D, VERY COOL! I highly recommend catching an IMAX 3D flick if you can handle it. Apparently some people (Kimmels) get motion sickness....wussies! It was so fun to watch the kids duck and sway to avoid the various sea life swimming at them and to watch them try and grab the little babies swimming by. After that we had dinner at Friday's where the kids had "Worms and Dirt" (Chocolate pudding topped with crushed oreo's and loaded with gummie worms) for dessert. The manager and our waiter took bowls outside where the loaded them up with fresh dirt and squirted some whipped cream on top. My kids stared out the window in horror. Joshua said, "This is the best day of my life!"

Check it out if you get a chance.

Camping

So camping season has officially begun and many of you know and are quite shocked that I enjoy camping. We will be taking our first trip in the next few weeks. (Call me if you wanna join us) Camping was a big part of our summers when I was a kid. Some of my best memories growing up were of camping trips. There are certain foods we'd make only on camping trips. My Daddy would always win the pancake contest with his fluffy buttermilk concoctions. And of course who can forget nights around the campfire? Tromping out into the woods to find the perfect wooden skewer and sharpening it so you could blacken the perfect hot dog. I love that smell! I am quite the s'mores aficionado by the way and I have an old pie iron I inherited from my folks, I can whip up a mean cherry pie with some slices of bread and some butter and some canned cherries.

We were hard core tent campers back then. Now that we live in the south and the weather is not quite as predictable as it is in California we have resorted to "sissie" camping. I say that negatively but in all honesty I love my 23' expandable trailer. It's the playhouse I never got as a little girl. I have decorated it and outfitted it with matching dishes, silverware, sheets and towels. We just grab our clothes, load up the fridge (that's right no leaky, muddy coolers) and hit the road. What is it about eating outdoors? The food is almost yummier. I don't have to worry about anybody spilling something on the carpet or knocking something off the wall. Outside is our boys natural habitat. Our favorite thing to do is to head out for an early morning hike to build up an appetite and then come back to camp for a hot breakfast of biscuits and gravy.......mmmmmm.

This year we plan on doing a little rafting and rock climbing. The boys have all conquered the rock wall at the mall a few times and are anxious to try out the real thing. It's been a few years since I strapped on a harness but I am pretty excited about tearing up my hands on a few local spots I've heard about. I don't think the kids are quite ready for the class III and IV rapids on the Ocoee but maybe we can find something a little more tame to test them out on.

I am so stoked to make some fun memories with my kids this summer. If you've never tried camping or have and it was a disaster you need to tag along with some pros like us. We'd love to show you the ropes.

I think the thing I love most about camping is that it takes us away from all the daily distractions. TV, telephones, computers and forces you to really TALK to each other. You'd be amazed at how close you've become when you return from a weekend away.