A month we want to forget!

I mentioned in the Easter post about hitting a deer in Cherry, but there's more to the series of unfortunate events that took place between March 29th and April 27th.  We call it the month we want to forget.

Thursday, March 26, we closed on our new home in Richmond, TX.  This was the perfect home in a great neighborhood in a cul-de-sac, with a pool.  It was a bit earlier than we initially thought we would buy a house, but God knew what was in store and knew we needed this house before "we" were ready.

Sunday night, March 29th, Cooper started barking at the front bay window (like normal) but this time, he jumped up and broke a window.  This wasn't the first time he had broken a window but this was the first time he sliced his foot open.  He had a 4 inch long cut along the top of his left paw that was bleeding out everywhere.  So between cleaning up the glass, the blood, and wrapping his foot, it was an eventful hour.  At least the kids were in bed asleep.  B had to take Cooper to a 24 hour emergency clinic where he got about 10 stitches and a cone around his neck.

Poor guy was limping around the house for a few days and didn't get much sleep with his cone, but it eventually healed.  4 days after the foot slice, is when we hit the deer with Cherry. 

We were able to drive it back to TX and we took it into the collision center so they could assess the damages.  Our insurance paid $30/day for a rental car so we had most of it covered.  We were given a Toyota Sienna that was great except it didn't have a DVD player. We found out Friday April 10th that Cherry was totaled (tear) and we had 30 days to find another vehicle to replace our beloved Cherry.
Fast forward to April 13th when we have AC for the week  AC and Jennie drove to Beaumont with A/W after the boys spent the week in MS with the grandparents.  Monday, R was in school like normal and we decided we would eat lunch with B at CBS.  While driving on Fondren, I start to hear sirens, so I pull over a little on the side, but I'm in the left most lane, so I can't really go far.  Then I see this black SUV screaming up the passenger side of us, and then cut across in front of us, go over the median, and continue driving against that side of traffic.  Right behind the black SUV, like 5 police cars came up and I was completely stopped, but one of the police cars bumped me.  It was a big enough bump that we all felt it, but I figured it wasn't going to be a lot of damage...however, we were in the rental.  So I just went straight to B's office because I wasn't really sure what else to do.  Now, I realize I should have pulled over and called the police, but they were dealing with a much bigger problem than me at the moment.  After getting Bryce, it turns out that we were not the only cars damaged in this high speed chase, and we were directed to the group of police officers where they finally caught the bad guy. 

They wrote up a report and we were home in time to get R from school.  In addition to the high speed police chase, our air conditioning wasn't working in the rental house, so we had all the windows down, trying to get a breeze.  It was hot though, and were dealing with the beginnings of pollen.
So Wednesday of that week, while at Bible Study at SCBS, we find out that B's mom (Gran) is in the hospital (we knew she was sick) and had some pre-diabetic test results.  She had double pneumonia  and diagnosed with congestive heart failure.  All the "cool kids" were very concerned, so Thursday morning, B told me that we needed to go to OK to be with his parents.

I totally agreed and AC was leaving anyways, so our plan was to pack up the family and drive to Edmond.  Anna made a good point though and offered to watch our kids so we wouldn't have them as a distraction.  I was so glad she did that, because it was better that they stayed back.  So Thursday morning, I drove AC to Beaumont to meet Jennie, then back to Houston to pack.  When I arrived home, just in time for R to get out of school, our toilets started to back flow again all in the guest bathroom (the second time it's done that).  I didn't have time to deal with that, so I just put towels on the floor and turned the water off.  Lorenzo was going to dog sit for us, so we let him know he couldn't flush or shower...yuck.  It was just not high on the priority list at the moment.  We dropped our kids off with Anna at Beck Jr. High because Avery was having her dress rehearsal for Legally Blonde.  I think we arrived in Edmond at 2:00 am Friday morning and it was just in time because Vicki was discharged from the hospital Friday at 10:00.  We got her home and settled in her chair.  We had to do breathing treatments every hour and she was supposed to get up and walk too.  Once we got into a routine, she was comfortable with, B and I went to the grocery store so I could get things to make some meal for them.  I was able to cook 5-6 meals, but in small portions that filled their freezer.  There's no way I could've gotten all that cooking done with the 4 kids with us.  So, again, I'm thankful that Aunt Mo kept them for the weekend.  Unfortunately, while she had them, R and A both had puke episodes, so Paul M did quite a bit of cleaning around their house.  We missed our kids, B had to work, and we needed to get our kids out of Anna's house, so we drove home Sunday night and got our kids from Anna's around 2:15 am and back to our rental at 3:00 am.  I let R sleep in a little before taking her to school Monday morning (April 20) and to make sure she didn't puke, and poor B ended up taking a sick day because 2 kids were puking, he hadn't had enough sleep, and he wasn't feeling good either.  Just 2 days later, April 22, the 3 kids and myself arrived back to our hose after playing with some friends, and our front door was wide open and Cooper was walking around outside.  I thought maybe I had not shut the door all the way when leaving, but it turns out, that our house was broken in to while we were gone. Thank the Lord, it didn't happen while we were home, but I feel confident that whoever it was, knew we would be leaving.  Cooper is officially the worst guard dog ever.  The only things taken were my jewelry box, earring box, and our fireproof safe.  Oh, and my pillow case.  Once I realized what had happened, I called B and the police.  B rushed home and then we waited an hour before the police showed up.  He walked through the house and then took some notes about what was taken.  The likelihood that the bad guys would be caught was low, but we still had to file a police report and then work on our renters insurance.  The front door had been kicked in, so the lock was broken. The dead bolt still worked, but not from the outside, so every-time I wanted to leave the house, we had to go out the back door and around the side gate.  Our renters insurance replaced our personal belongings, but not the door.  B was very upset (obviously) so he was ready to move into our new house like yesterday.  I asked him to give me a week and I could pack up the house...so that's exactly what we did.  We spent the last weekend in April van shopping and then we bought Storm on April 27th.  We named her Storm

to remind us of the month of storms and how God provides and gives us strength and never leaves us during our storms.  It's a 2006 Honda Odyssey, just like Cherry except with a navigation system.  I'm loving Storm.  Then we packed up our house, and moved out of the rental on May 2nd.  Yep, May 2nd, we spent our first night in our new house, and have loved every night since. 

God knew we would want to move earlier than June 30th, and it only took a few bumps in the road, before we knew it too.