The Beach

Luke quickly discovered he had a love for sand.

We went to South Padre Island yesterday. Luke was hilarious. He hated the water. From the moment it touched his feet he took off screaming and running. He spent the majority of his day chasing/feeding the seagulls and rolling around in the sand. I'm not kidding, as you will see, the kid would just lay in in the sand. I couldn't believe that he would sit there and let seagulls eat out of his hand but was terrified of the water touching his feet. Tyler had a blast as well but he is in that "I hate the camera and the fact that my mommy takes 10,000 pictures" stage so I didn't get many good ones of him. We also forgot how strong the Texas sun can be. Before we left the house, I put 50 spf on the boys and they still got burned!!! Needless to say, today has been a barrel of laughs recovering from too much sun and hurting skin. I did manage to get all three boys to take a nap at the same time...that has only happened one other time so I was a happy camper.

We have discovered that Luke is incredibly determined. Here he is chasing seagulls, convinced he would get one if he kept at it long enough.

Still running....

Friends

My best friend, Crista, and her family came to see us on their spring break this week. From left to right the kids are Luke, Noah, Caleb and Tyler. Missing from the picture are Jake and Elli (they just adopted a little girl from Gautamela).

The Wind

Since we have been here the winds have been a little out of control. We went to the park the other day and poor Lukey could barely walk the wind was so strong.

We Made It!!

Our new Texas terrain...mesquite and cactus!

Well, we are finally here in McAllen. We (me, my brother Jamie and Jake) left Georgia on Thursday, the 13th at 4:00 am and arrived in Houston 13 hours later. Ben’s sister, Emily, got married that Saturday so Ben flew in from McAllen Friday morning and we stayed for a couple days. It was a very sweet reunion between Ben and the boys…I don’t think I have ever seen Tyler run so fast when he saw him at the airport. Sunday morning the whole family, along with my mom and dad, did the last 7 hours to McAllen. I was a little shocked my first couple days here. Not because of the mesquite trees, cactus or palm trees but because of the constant 50 mph winds. Apparently, that is not normal but it has been going on for a month now. We felt like we were in a hurricane. On Monday and Tuesday, the wind kept taking the power out. I also experienced the worst Wal-mart of my life. It was like the day after Christmas times three. I didn’t know that many people could fit into one place. I had been warned against the McAllen Wal-mart and it didn’t register why until I went. The people are perfectly nice…there just happens to be thousands of them! Oh yeah…it was also 95 the day we arrived. A cold front came through yesterday so now our high is only going to be in the low 80s…I can handle that. I guess it is a good thing we grew up in Texas because we are getting introduced back to the heat very quickly. The boys may not adjust as quickly. Both of them got sunburned the first day we were here and the next day I put 50 sunscreen on them and Luke still got burned! These towheads don’t stand a chance. My parents left yesterday so today is our first day alone. We went park exploring and thought we hit the jackpot until we got to the playground and thousands of little nat like creatures swarmed us and stuck to the sunscreen…it was a pleasant experience J. Next week my best friend Crista and her family come down…we will brave the beach then. I will continually update this blog so please check back as often as you can. Please forward this to anyone you can think of. There are so many people that I do not have their email addresses.

One last thing…thank you so much to our Georgia family. There is no way I could have handled this move without your help. I was overwhelmed at your generosity and consideration while I was a single mom for a month. Thank you for forcing your help on me…I don’t delegate so well, I appreciate your help. We love you so much and already miss you.

Emily's Wedding

Cousins...Noah (Stover) and Tyler, Luke and Annabeth (Stover)

The flower girl and the ring bearer...what a pair!

We are Moving!

Ok, it has been awhile since we posted last but it is with good reason...we are moving to Texas! Don't get too excited yet though. We are starting out with a temp assignment in McAllen (yes, the city practically in Mexico) for 6 months....then we have no idea. We have several opportunities. One, we are up for a store in Nacogdoches. Second, we could go interim manage a store in Alabama or third we could get offered this store. Bottom line is we have no idea and we are completely trusting the Lord. This is a huge step of faith for us. We are giving up our house in Fayetteville, putting most everything in storage and hitting the road. It is incredibly bittersweet. I go from being completely excited to so sad I can hardly stand it. We LOVE Georgia and the family we have made here. Next week is going to be very difficult.

Ben is already there and has been for two weeks. The boys and I leave a week from Wednesday, my brother is flying in to drive with us. We make a quick stop in Houston for Emily's (my sister-in-law) wedding and then we head down south. We would appreciate your prayers!

I'll post an update when we get there. Starting next week our email we no longer be stov275@bellsouth.net or our home phone 678-364-9838. We will be using this account (email: stoverfamily99@gmail.com) and our cell numbers 678-416-6788 (Ben) and 678-416-6789 (Amanda).

Talk to you soon!