The Why and Bye---Game Changer.

Well now most of you know we have moved to Haskell. If you didn't read the post below!

A lot has been on my heart since leaving Deleon. I have struggled with my relationships with my old friends. I have struggled with the move. I have struggled with the thought of having to find a new church. I have struggled with the fear of being disappointed and I have struggled with the fact that we left Deleon and really didn't tell anyone why or bye. So here goes the why...

We were happy and content and loving Deleon and the new friends we were making. I invested a lot of time into a new organization there, I was finally not going to be the new coaches wife, my kids finally weren't going to be the "new kids" and we FINALLY had a summer vacation...

Back up to March---Jeremy receives an email from an athletic director, whom he didn't know, for a position that he didn't apply for, in a town that we have never considered moving to. Haskell, Texas. He read the email and didn't give a second thought to it, our baseball season was in full swing and he happen to mention it to me in passing. I didn't think anything of it and forgot. A few more weeks go by and Jeremy is contacted again, again we blow it off and kind of laugh about it. Baseball season is almost over, school is wrapping up the last few weeks and were getting even more excited about summer break that we don't have to move!

Now its the end of May, Jay's teacher calls me with a situation that has happened with him and two other girls, while being supervised by the teacher something happened that never should have been allowed to escalate to the point that it did. We approached the teacher, who was asked to leave school immediately, principal and superintendent and she assured us that the correct people would be notified. We trusted her. I felt as if it was my fault some how, even though the teacher is the only one that could have prevented what happened. My heart was broken, I trusted the teacher, principal and superintendent. The teacher is still teaching with no repercussion and the superintendent did not follow through with her promise. Regardless we were going to pray and overcome what happened and continue living in Deleon. Then Jeremy's current athletic director was interviewing at other school and that always scares a coach, you never know who might become your boss at the very last minute....The day our current athletic director interviewed our new athletic director called Jeremy and asked him to come one more time to interview, so he did! We cried and prayed and cried some more, we did NOT want to leave Deleon. We loved our students, athletes and parents there so much. We prayed for clarity, guidance, and specific answers and God answered our prayers! We said goodbye to a few special people in our life the day we left and haven't heard from anyone but them in Deleon since we left. I am sorry to those that we didn't say bye too, it was a hard move, it was selfish, we were broken and hurt and didn't even know what to say to anyone. We felt God moving us and it was completely against our will but we prayed so much that He would make it clear to us and He did!

Fast forward, Jeremy is the new head baseball coach at Haskell ISD. We found a huge house in Weinert, Texas, a very small (pop. 179) community about 8 miles outside of Haskell. The boys love it here. They play from sun up to sun down. I have already made several friends here. The women in Haskell are very close. The kids are good. We are happy. I know that God has a plan for us and we will continue to pray for clarity and that we are following His will. We have tried 3 different churches so far and have found one we really like in Anson.

The boys are loving being close to family. They stayed with my mom last weekend. We have Sunday lunch with my granny and pops every Sunday. Went to church with my aunt and uncle. Had breakfast with my great grandma last week. I can run and see my sister anytime I want/need too! It's so much neat being close to family and I am so grateful for the time we weren't close to them to make me realize how precious it really is to be closer to family.

Just over 2 weeks and Finn will be here! We are so excited as is the rest of Haskell! We are finishing his room this week and maybe I will get around to posting a picture or two. I still have to finish his desk and get something for the wall still. Its hard decorating a teenagers room that you have never met before! He is planning on playing football, cross country and baseball and we will see what else he gets into once he is here and settled in. It so strange having a kid in high school but I am looking forward to it so much. Friday nights are going to be that much better when "our" kid is on the field!

Jeremy started two a days today, tomorrow is my day to fix the coaches lunch! I can tell the coaches wives here have a special bond. We are all choosing a day and fixing our coaches lunch one day each week. Tomorrow they are having BBQ chicken sandwiches and I made some sugar cookies for desert! I think I may send some muffins for breakfast too! I just ordered our wife shirts and every wife ordered one! Its so neat to see the wives so bonded. It is hard being a coaches wife and without the support of the others who are living it, it is that much harder. I am already so grateful for this group of women and the other friends I have met so far. This is the most welcomed we have ever felt. I feel like we have lived here forever already. God has blessed us.

HEALTH UPDATE---Jaxon's test are going to be August 11th at Dallas and hopefully we will get some answers right after the test. We are also testing him for a milk allergy to see if that may be the underlying issue!

I think that's all that's going on now...I am going to try to blog regularly once school gets back in session! If you made it this far...thanks for reading! :)

A New Season

Of course its been a while since I last updated. I always have good intentions and just never follow through with committing time to our blog. Well its that time of year again, some it means summer vacation, relaxing, enjoying soakin in the sunshine--for us it means moving. But this time were going home, back to our old stomping grounds. My family will be 15 miles one direction and Jeremy's will be 15 miles the other direction. (With the exception of our parents but we will be 3 hours closer to them, too!)

Right before we left for Coaches Outreach, where we had a fantastic time meeting some great new friends we got some big news and had to make some BIG decisions!

We are moving to Haskell, Texas, another rural town with the typical small town vibe, county seat, good ole' rodeos and packed stadium for Friday night lights. This move has been a bit different than the others, in a sense that we were NOT looking to leave Deleon. We are so happy here in the smallest friendliest town in the world, but the Lord has other plans. Plans to prosper us, He says! We have prayed and cried and prayed some more and we know without a shadow of a doubt the Lord is moving us from Deleon. At this point in my life I have learned that being a peace in my soul doesn't always mean we will be "happy" about it. Peace is a feeling of contentment, of reassurance that the Lord is right beside you and is guiding every step off the way, He is the light to our path. I am not saying you cant be at peace and happy at the same time because that's what I have always been before, but I think I'll just call this phase growing pains. It hurts, mentally, spiritually, even physically moving boxes hurts. The pain will go away and we will be stronger, happier (again), and we will be with our family. I haven't lived this close to my family, most importantly my sister, since I left for college 8 years ago! I do often think about running to town to have lunch with her, sister mani pedis. Visiting my great grandma in the nursing home, doing her nails and hair, taking her treats. Meeting my grandparents for lunch. Having family birthday parties. Did I mention our gorgeous house, that really just fell in our lap!? As our time in Deleon comes to an end and this chapter closes, its hard to put down the book, I am ready to turn the page to see what else God has for us! Patience is not my strong suit. We will be leaving Deleon July 18th ish and getting our new house on August 15th, so in the meantime we will be floating around semi-homeless. So prayers for patience is appreciated! I have had a lovely group of girl friends that have encouraged me over the last few weeks and has held my hand as I dove into God's word seeking guidance! Thanks Debbie, Jennifer, Caitlin, Christine and Amy!!!

Health is usually the thing I always blog about so it wouldn't feel complete unless I updated you on Jaxon! He will be having some swallow studies and scopes done to figure out if he has acid reflux and/or asthma.. right now its looking like both. We spent some time in the hospital this month for a few very scary days but he is doing much better now! The test will hopefully be completed before we move to Haskell since the hospital is about 4 hours away from our new home!

And the last most exciting news is we are going to be gaining another team member from.....get ready, GERMANY!!!! We are going to be hosting a foreign exchange student. His name is Finn Gotte. He will be 16 when he gets here and hes hoping to be classified as a senior but were not sure on that yet! He is an awesome soccer player and has played against other countries all over the world, unfortunately Haskell does not have soccer at the high school level but he is anxious to play other sports. We got to meet him via Skype yesterday and he is so polite and seems like a great kid. We met one of his brothers and his mom too, they are so sweet and we were all smiles meeting and talking about what we all expect, the weather, different places in US, school, sports he may play and the list goes on. He is anxious about coming to Texas. He wants to better his English and experience America, TEXAS style, maybe even ride a horse! We can't wait to meet Finn in real life, hopefully you will get to meet him too! We're am thinking "Welcome to America" party at the new house!?!?

In the meantime we are headed for vacation with my dad, step mom, brothers and grandparents. I am looking forward to spending a few days just with my boys and my main squeeze. I love being on vacation with them! We leave tomorrow for Ruidoso, NM for some much needed relaxation!

For now that's the big news on the Kirk team (who will be changing their colors and mascot out soon!).

Will this season ever be over?

So I noticed I haven't posted in a while, I never realize how long its been until I log in and notice that months have went by since I have had time to sit down at the computer for a few moments.

Baseball is in full swing around here. The big boys (Varsity) post season fate is in the hands of two other teams and what their records will be at the end of the season. So for now we wait until regular season is over and then we will find out if we get to go to the playoffs. Our baseball parents have been amazing this year, we have some that take pictures for the teams, some work in the concession stand, some keep books, help with the field, some do our sounds system/announcing, some have painted, decorated the field before games, some entertain Jaxon, and we always have a full crowd of supporters, no matter how cold or hot or how far of a drive!! As a coaches wife I don't have any complaints and its safe to say were blessed with a great team and parents and that combo makes for a much happier coach.  As for the little boys (Jay's baseball team, the Outlaws) we have our first game on Saturday. Jay was 2 for 2 at their first scrimmage and is excited about another full season of baseball ahead!

Now for the life of a coaches wife review: its GREAT! Life is good! We will be here another year! This is the first time we have been at one school for more than one year. I cant wait to welcome the new coaches wife in (if there is one) and see what next year has planned, I am so happy about seeing our 8th graders go to high school and to continue to build friendship here. Our boys have formed some lasting relationships and so have we. Its been a long time since we have been somewhere were I have close friends, ones that I can call anytime day or night and been somewhere long enough to know who you can and cant trust. Good solid friendships make life so much easier.

We have had our fair share of doctor appointments, therapy, emergencies, etc this year and someone has ALWAYS stepped up to the plate to help our family out. I will be forever grateful of everyone here. Jay and Jaxon have had some medical issues that we are still trying to work out, I will post below if you are curious about it, but I know if it weren't for this community life the last few months would have been much much harder!

On a happier not we ran in the Fox Trot 1 mile fun run as a family and Michael got to join on his bike. He has always wanted to go with us but never been able to and now that he has his bike, thanks to everyone who donated and a local PT that ordered and assembled the bike, he was able to join us!

Now for Jay--its a long story! About 5 weeks ago we noticed that he had been really tired, he fell asleep on a Monday night like normal and didn't wake up until noon on Wednesday with the exception of a few hours of being awake. We took him to our family doctor and he ran some labs and everything was normal. Fast forward to the next week and he did it again so our family doc sent us to Cook Hospital ER and he had some more lab work done and CT scan and some heart test ran. Everything was normal except his heart rate was unusually low, so we were referred to a pediatric cardiologist at Cook. We went to the cardiologist last week (4 weeks after everything started) and he informed me that the labs from the ER were NOT normal and his thyroid hormones was elevated. Our family doctor didnt run test on his thyroid because its so rare for a child to have a thyroid issue, but of course if its rare, one of my children will probably have it! We will see a pediatric endocrinologist next week on the 22nd to see what the game plan is. In the mean time he takes a lot of naps at home and school and is much more sluggish than usual.

Next on the line up is Jaxon. His physical therapist is concerned with his muscle tone on the right side of his body. We have been in therapy for almost 9 months and he has progressed but a lot slower than most. His slow progression could be from his prematurity, a small brain bleed he had a birth, or just that he is slower than other babies his age. We will see a Neurologist a Cook Children's on Wednesday to rule out an neurological problems (hopefully)!

I am looking forward to summer break, to get our daddy back for a couple of weeks! Coaches Outreach for just Coach and I, our mini vacay next month to Great Wolf Lodge and summer vacation to Ruidoso! Our summer is almost packed and were still 45 days away..but who's counting!?