found a place

We have decided to rent a garden home (duplex if you are from Kerrville) from our friend, Kathy Glenn at church. It is very close to where we live now so Ben can still come home for lunch each day and we get to have the dogs in a real backyard. We feel it was totally God b/c I offered to teach last week at church and I was teaching for Kathy. Before service they were asking for prayer requests and I asked for prayer for a place to live and Kathy said, "guess what!!" So, more details will come later, but at least we know where we will be for the next six months. God is soo good to our family, he is so faithful!

not sure yet!!

OK, everyone is asking and we are not sure yet what we are going to do. We only have a handful of homes to choose from, and we do not want to settle. We have decided to rent for awhile, not sure how long and not sure where. We have a friend who has a duplex she has offered and I have been riding around with an apartment locater person in her bright yellow bug. We are praying for the Lord to lead us b/c this is a super tough decision! We want to be in a great neighborhood and we would like a bigger house than what we are in now. But, b/c our house did not go up that much in value over the past 7 years we do not have enough of a down payment for the home we want to be in. So, we decided we would rent, put the difference in savings and my salary from teaching into a separate account and as soon as we find what we are looking for we will move. Please continue to pray for us, it is so different when your decisions are not just based on you, but on your children. The past two weeks have been incredibly tiring and emotional. I did not know I was attached to this house.

Contract Pending

We have been in negotiations since last Friday with a couple and we accepted a contract on our home this morning. If all goes well, we will close on our house, October 11th. Thanks so much to Nora Wall and her team, if you need a realtor in the Austin area she was amazing!

taking some time off

I just wanted to let everyone know some big changes are taking place in the Richards' household. Over the past week Ben and I have had to make some big decisions and we are still trying to make them. Then, last night we realized we were trying to make the decisions and not trusting God to lead us. For this reason, I have decided to take some time off from the computer while the girls are gone this week and really pray and dig deep into His word, call it a fast. Please do not be offended that I have not read or commented on our blog sites this week, I will read them all as soon as I get back to the computer. I will still be checking e-mails and running business on the computer, I am just going to try to use my free time to seek God instead of relaxing on the computer. If you want to agree with us in prayer we need:
1) knowledge for the right direction
2) humility to act on his plan
3) peace with the Lord's direction
4) please pray for our friend, Shelly too. She is a young mom with two children - one school age and one preschool, who recently had back surgery that did not go as according to plan. Her recovery is not going well and she is unable to walk without pain.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Landry and my Mom made me a cake this weekend for my birthday. Landry stirred it up and she put the candles on my cake. If you are trying to count the number of candles there are 24, God bless my child!! So, I have decided I am 24 this year, do not want to disappoint a two year old.

things heard around our house

Tonight at dinner Ben got the Ranch dressing out for baked fries and LE said "Daddy's ketchup."

Tonight's dinner prayer as told by LE - "Jesus, food, Mommy, Daddy, Bella, Landry, apple juice, chicken, fries, carrots, Blythe, Garret and LeeLee. Amen" - she is saying thank you for...

Last night I was watching a training video from the church with our Pastor, Pastor Joe. LE climbed up in my lap to watch too, and said " I wanna watch Joe." did not have a clue she knew he was. Then, today she asked to watch Joe at lunch.

house for sale

Our house is officially on the market.

Mack Brown Women's Clinic

My neighbor and good friend, Jane invited to the Mack Brown (University of Texas football coach) Women's Clinic tonight. We had a great night of food and desserts and were introduced to this year's coaching staff. Coach Brown had this ginormous line of psycho ladies lined up, literally 100's of women lined up for autographs and pictures during the night. Jane was a sweetheart and offered to wait in line with me so I could get an autograph, but I told her it was OK, I would have gotten it for my brothers and they had one already. The highlight of my night came after the event. Jane and I went to the Bevo Museum in the bottom floor and we were walking around. We were enjoying a night out without the kids and I am a history nerd so I was enjoying the knowledge. (Did you know the Schreiner's donated two Bevo's?) I noticed her and I were 2 of 4 people in the museum by the time we were finished reading so I decided to go back up to see if I could get a closer glimpse of Mack. As I walk off the elevator there he stands with his wife Sally and two or three other coaches. He walks over to me and greets me and hugs me and asked if I was looking for him. "Did I come back for an autograph?" told him yeah, but he was going home so it was OK. Nope, he signed my name badge and thanked me for coming. We chatted a bit about Colt McCoy and his team and then he held the elevator for me and I rode the elevator down with him, his wife and a couple of his coaches. I know a couple of famous people and famous people usually are not this nice, especially not at the end of the day and especially when there isn't a crowd watching their every move. He was genuinely nice, I mean exceptionally nice. I was a fan of Longhorn football before tonight, but after my evening I LOVE LONGHORN FOOTBALL.
They invited all of the player's moms to the event and there was a question and answer session. I had no idea all of the things they did for the players. Each player has one of 7 support adults who help them transition into college life and then if need be into the NFL. The players have their support person's phone number to call any time of day. They are like their mom or dad on campus. She was telling about one of the kids who came from a town of 600 and his dorm had 3,600 students. Two players came out and answered questions Chris Ogbonnaya and Robert Killebrew. They had door prizes, super nice door prizes, but we did not win any. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a blast. Thanks Jane! I will be waiting for my pics, I did not take my camera after last year's game when they told me I could not take into the stadium!
Marissa, you are my special guest next year!

Landry's birthday party

Richards Family Four

Birthday Cake- notice the bears in bikinis??

The Harris Family

Megan and Emily

The Gumpls








A.J. Tanguma

Uncle Greg and Adom

We had such a blast at Landry's birthday party. We want to move to an area with a nice pool or picnic area and have more get-togethers. I think the party was so much fun because all of our immediate family was able to make it. Landry has 6 uncles and they were all there to spoil her. It is so weird to live with siblings for 20 plus years and then to only see them once a month. Ben and I are so blessed b/c both of our parents are still married and we are so close to all of our brothers (I am the only girl). I am doubly blessed b/c I still have 3 of my 4 grandparents still living and my Granny was able to come to the party too! Landry had such a great time with her friends and she loved her presents. Mimi made the best cake ever with teddy grahams dressed in bikinis to match our hula by the poola luau theme. Thank you to everyone who made her day so incredibly special.

Happy Birthday Big Girl!

Wow, what a year! We asked Landry how old she was today and she said three (because yesterday we told her she was two)! I love you, big sister!