Victory Complete

Yesterday morning was Mark’s second, and final, exam that he needed to pass to officially start his new line of work.  And, yes, he passed!  We were all very excited to have this big milestone behind us, and we were proud of Mark that all his hard work and studying over the past few weeks really paid off.  As is tradition in the Simpson house, when we need to celebrate, we get donuts.  After getting the call from Mark, the girls and I buzzed over to our neighborhood grocery store for some donuts.  The girls were either really exited about their dad passing the test or really excited about the donuts because the top literally got ripped off the donut box as soon as Mark walked in the door.  I think we were all very happy!

Later that night, my parents came over to babysit the girls while Mark and I went out to dinner to celebrate.  We had a great evening out, and we felt a big sense of relief that the exams were over and a confidence in moving forward with this new journey.

A Visit to P.B.

Yesterday, the girls and myself and my mom took a trip over to southern Maryland to visit PB.  I got a lesson in how digital cameras work, we had lunch, watched PB feed his koi fish, saw his newest picture presentation, and even got to hear a little piano playing.  Even though our visit wasn’t the longest (because we had to get back on the road before Friday evening traffic started), it was really nice to visit with PB!

     

V is for Victory

Before it was adopted as a symbol for peace and friendship in the 1960’s, V was for Victory.  During WWII, the Allied Forces attempted to spread the V for Victory campaign around Europe as a symbol or Victory in speeches, on posters, on the BBC, etc. 

In our house yesterday, V definitely was for victory – ok, partial victory, but based on the past seven months, we’re claiming this a big “V” and celebrating it.  Yesterday morning was the National Safe Licensing exam that Mark had to pass to be a licensed mortgage loan originator.  He has been studying hours a day for three weeks to learn the material and pass this test, and he passed yesterday morning!  We were very excited in the Simpson household.  It’s a partial victory only because he has one more exam to study for and pass in order to be fully licensed, but we celebrated the milestone of getting this first obstacle behind us.  Since all of this information he’s been studying is completely new for him, we joke that the light is being shone into parts of his brain that have been sitting dormant for years.  The cobwebs are being shaken off, and I guess this is evidence that you can teach a kind-of-old dog new tricks (joking, of course)!

Killing Time

This afternoon, the girls and I spent a few hours over at my parents’ house.  Mark was spending the whole day studying for his upcoming exams, and we were looking for something to do .  While I was helping my dad organize on the computer some pictures from their three week European vacation, the girls got Mousey to play dress-up with them.  According to Nina, they were Moses, Miriam, and Moses’ mother.  The girls do love time visiting with their grandparents!

            

Groupies

Last night there was a concert in our community just for kids. It was supposed to be outdoors, but due to the heat advisory, they moved it to the high school auditorium. I don't think many people got the word, so there weren't that many people there. As a result, the kids that were there got up close and personal with the group Recess Monkey. I only had my phone with me for this video, and for some reason the sound didn't transfer over to the computer, but the song Nina and Lyla are dancing to is Knocktopus - a fast and funny song. The kids had a really good time dancing, and Nina even got a shout out from the lead singer for her dancing. If you watch the video, you'll see why. It's such a bummer the sound didn't transfer to the video, but you can hear the song by clicking "knocktopus" above.

Proxy Puppy

Our issues whether to get/not get a dog have well documented on this blog.  It even made its way into the last post.  After handing down our verdict last year, the dog requests still come multiple times in each week. I am starting to feel bad for Nina though. She's even lowered her pet standards to a rabbit or a pig. As of late, the wave of Nina's supporters seem to be gaining momentum once again.  But I ask, why do we need to get a dog when we have Lyla, a.k.a. the Proxy Puppy.  She even goes around the house barking and wearing a leash when Nina wants her to.  Sounds like the perfect puppy solution to me! 

Putting Down Some Roots

“When the root is strong, the fruit is sweet.”   - Bob Marley

It’s been a long time coming since Mark and I have been at the point of saying we’re (God-willing) putting down some roots. When this year started, we were nearly certain that we were leaving our home in Virginia for another destination.  The options varied from places we would like to live to places we’d really never wish to live.  However, we tried to keep an open mind and remember that geography doesn’t determine the people we’ll be.  That proved to be especially challenging when it seemed apparent that we were moving to Green Bay, Wisconsin. 

When this process started at the end of 2010, we thought making the move to college would be a fairly easy transition.  We thought that the experience at the pro level, and the experience playing professionally, would be good resume items.  Apparently, they're not.. :)  Mark was told from the start that it was a "good old boys" network - all about who you know, what alumni influence you have, which influential donors call on your behalf, etc. when you apply for an opening.  We found all those things to be true, but we also knew that if God willed us to be somewhere, His influence would be all that mattered.  That gave us a peace during the process. 

At one point in the spring, we thought we could be moving to Omaha.  Mark was offered a position as an asst. there, and he probably would have taken it, except for the fact that a school in NC that encompassed all of the things we hoped for, told him that he was at the top of the list for a job there.   Mark was granted some time from the Omaha school to make a decision, but then they turned around and offered the job to someone else without telling him they didn't want to wait anymore.  We took that to mean Omaha wasn’t the place for us.  Similar things happened during the past six months, and right when we were about to commit to an opportunity in Green Bay, the final terms of the offer were enough to make us see that we’d be compromising too much of what is important just to try to “make it work” when it was evident that wasn’t the place for us either.

The opportunity we most desired in North Carolina came so close to being fulfilled, but in the end, that didn’t either. 

The school in NC just three weeks ago called to say that Mark was very qualified, everyone had great things to say about him, he was their next choice, blah, blah, but the job was offered to someone else.  It was hard to get that news because that is really where we felt like we were meant to be. While this happened with the school in NC, Mark was approached about an opportunity to get into a completely new career path. It would be a business type opportunity in the area, and the guy he'd be working with is really willing to coach him along, mentor him, etc. as Mark's whole career has been soccer, and this is a completely new skill set. The timing was crucial because Mark probably wouldn't have seriously considered this opportunity at any other time in our process because we felt so led to college soccer, but since giving this opportunity a lot of prayer and thought, Mark feels really confident moving forward with it. 

It just all came down to the fact that he tried to do the college coaching thing for opportunities that came up over six months, and none of them worked out.  There were so many potential possibilities of things that almost worked out, but in the end, none of them did.  We just trust that the Lord meant that for a reason. It was like that dream had to totally die for the next new thing to come about. We get these little devotions called "Fresh Starts" every day from a pastor that Mark knows, and he sends out the Fresh Starts every morning to everyone on his distribution list.  Anyway, Friday's said this...

Sometimes you have to let go of a dream in order for something better to take its place.  But it isn’t easy.  After all, your dream is built on all your best hopes for the future.  Dreams are what make the present endurable, even enjoyable, as you look forward to a different tomorrow.  And when a dream dies, much of life seems to die with it.  But it doesn’t have to end there. 
Ask God to replace your dream with something better today.
Jesus put it this way, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone, but, if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).  He said this about His own death which was soon to take place.  In order for Him to make the most of the situation, He looked beyond the death of a dream to the better day which lay ahead.  He knew that Friday’s death would be followed by Sunday’s resurrection.  You can know that too, even though your dream may have died for now.  Something better is coming.

It was like the perfect description of what had happened with us.  So, we're good with it.  We're putting 100% of our efforts into starting a new path, and getting excited about the fact that we're staying put and feeling settled here finally.  I have no idea if it's a change for now and one day Mark will transition back to coaching, or if it will be a permanent change.  We're just going with whatever comes...

So, we’re finally putting down some roots and saying we’re, God-willing, going to stay awhile.  One thing I’m confident of after going through this process though is that roots can grow strong and the fruit can be sweet even if your physical home doesn’t have deep roots.  I really have come to appreciate the fact that stability comes from faith, and those roots can grow deep wherever you are.  Stability comes from committed family and friends who do life with you in meaningful ways, and even when we thought we’d be moving far away, we knew those relationships that had strong roots would still thrive over far distance.  But, for now, we’re actually getting excited about having some physical stability for our family also. 

Now, we’ve just got to come up with another excuse to tell Nina why now isn’t a good time for getting a dog.  For the past six months, we’ve told her that if we move, it wouldn’t be fair to get a dog now and put it through all the confusion of moving, etc.  Now that she knows we’re staying, she’s already mentioned that it means we’re ok to get a dog now…back to the drawing board of coming up with more excuses!

Summer Fun at the Point

For our last day in Gloucester Point, we walked down the street to a little sandy beach where the girls got to explore and get their feet in the sand and water.  There were tons of minnows at the water’s edge, and we tried several make-shift ways of trying to catch them.  Shenley and I determined that we wouldn’t survive very long in the wild (based on our ability to catch minnows with an empty Cheeze-It bag). 

          

    

After getting very hot and sandy down at the beach, we walked back to the house and jumped in the pool…what an ideal scenario!  Someone accidentally let a puppy in the pool though.  After swimming and some lunch, it was time for ice cream.  I can easily see why our girls didn’t want to come back home, but we had a great visit and a fun time, and we always look forward to our next installment of cousin time in the future.

Visiting

The girls and I arrived yesterday down in Gloucester Point to spend some time with Shen and the girls at her in-laws house.  We’ve had a great time so far.  Here are some of the pictures from today.

I loved Layne’s sleeper!  If you can’t read it, it says, “Me + my aunt = BFF.”  Emme conducted a little hair salon on Lyla, and the four big girls just had fun hanging out.

  

 

After the weather cleared up, the girls were in the pool again.  As soon as we got here yesterday, they were in the pool as well.  Lyla has gotten much braver since our last visit here over Memorial Day.  She had fun going off the diving board by herself and kicks around with her face in the water.

  

Nina played so hard also.  Between the swimming and the diving board, she got out a TON of energy!

Ryleigh managed to find a new way to have fun at the pool!

Layne is such a good little girl.  She is such a sweet and happy baby.  She visited out at the pool a little this afternoon, so I had to snap a cute picture of she and Shen.

After pool time and shower time, Vicki was reading a book to Lyla and Layne.  She got up for a minute after reading the book, and not two minutes later, I looked over, and saw Lyla asleep in the chair.  I think the activity today tired her out!

After a good dinner and some clothing design drawing, we sent the little ones off to bed and got to enjoy the beautiful sunset in back of the house. It’s been a great visit so far, and I know two little girls who are going to be rather sad to be heading home tomorrow.

July 4th

It was about time I got my camera back out, and July 4th was a good opportunity.  We’ve been busy, but I just haven’t had my camera with me when we’ve been out.  So, since we were hanging on our street for a July 4th party with neighbors, I remembered my camera part way through the evening and walked back to get it and snap a few photos.  After a great meal, the kids started things off with some sparklers and smoke bombs.

 

After the kids had their fun, the adults brought out the starter fireworks then graduated to the real thing when it got dark.  Even though the fireworks are technically illegal in VA, one of our neighbors goes to PA to pick up the good ones and put on a nice display.

By the end of the night, Lyla was tired from the activity, and she actually fell asleep on Mark’s lap during all the noise of the fireworks.  She’s scared of the noise they make, so Mark got her some earplugs, and I guess they did the trick!