90 days and a lifetime ago...

Wow, almost 90 days since my last post. So much has changed it seems like a lifetime ago. Tim and I went to our counselling and although it ended up only being 2 sessions, it was amazingly effective and enlightening. In the course of the last 3 months we decided to do a couple of major renovation projects on our house, the replacement windows and the deck. Then we talked about moving to a newer house a few miles away. We talked about moving to Raleigh. We had talked about Raleigh before and realized that if we ever planned to move "away", then this is the time. Abbie really wanted to finish elementary school with her friends, so we thought we should stay put and enjoy our recently completed renovations for one more year.

During the "to move or not to move" discussions, I had also realized that it made no sense to be so stressed about making the right or wrong decision. I stopped and gave it back to God. I prayed and asked God to open my eyes to His plan, and help me to see the path He layed out for us. Once I did that, nearly immediately, our whole world changed.

A day or two after we decided not to sell, I emailed our realtor and asked if she would keep us in mind should she come across a buyer that was not finding what they were looking for and she thought our house may be perfect for them. Her response was, "Well, actually, since you mention it..." I did not respond to her right away. Iwanted to talk to Tim about it first and see if he was interested in going ahead and letting this couple see the house. Before I even mentioned it to him, I got an email from a lady through Zillow.com. I had posted our house with a "make me move" price and she wanted to find out if we were serious about selling. After hearing the story of these 2 couples, I realized it was the same couple. They came to see the house and about 5 days later, they made and offer and we accepted.

We had about 1 week to find a house in Raleigh if we had any chance of qualifying for the tax credit. We made a family trip and actually made an offer on a house, but it ended up not working out. Then I made a solo trip. No luck. Tim's schedule opened up on April 30 so we decided to try one more time. This time, the last house we saw, I think it was about the 16th -one that I had previously deleted from the realtor's selections-knocked our socks off. We sat down with our agent to write the offer around 3:30. We headed home and had to pull over along the way to finish our negotiations. We made it back home and waited for our agent to email us the final contract that had to be printed, initialed, scanned and emailed back to her before midnight. Did I mention that the homeowners were on vacation in New Mexico and had to be located in the dining room of their hotel to receive their faxed contract to sign?? I clicked the send button and got the final contract to our agent at 11:55 pm.

So ended the first chapter of the next phase of our lives. The 3 weeks since then have been filled with inspections, appraisals and boxes, dotted with baseball, t-ball, and softball games.

Just under 3 weeks until the big moving day. So much to do...

Grateful Friday

• I am grateful that i sat down to talk to Tim for a minute this morning before I left the house with Cameron to go get doughnuts for his class. I got caught just behind a serious 4 car accident.
• I am grateful for the laugh I got in the Starbucks drive-thru. The driver got a cup of whipped cream for her eager 4-legged passenger. It was pretty cute watching the dog get so excited to see that cup. He was lapping up that whipped cream before she even got the window closed :)
• I am grateful for the one-on-one time that Tim and Abbie will get tonight at the first annual Daddy-Daughter Dance at her school. Mommy is also very excited to get to play dress-up with her life-sized Barbie. You never get too old to play with dolls, right?
• I am grateful that my mom is picking up Cameron's birthday cake on her way over so I won't forget.
• I'm grateful for the Moravian Chicken Pie and Macaroni and Cheese I picked up for dinner. Side Note: sign spotted at the Moravian Church when I drove by with my pie in the passenger seat: "Get to know us, we are more than just Chicken Pies"
• I'm grateful for a husband that actually suggested and is open to seeing a marriage counsellor to help us navigate some bumpy roads we've been travelling for a few months. We need a refresher course on priorities and communication skills.

Grateful Birthday Friday

Today I am most grateful for my baby boy, he turns the big "4" today! My baby is growing up too fast! I remember all the chaos surrounding his birth as if it were yesterday. An induction a day earlier than expected, an epidural that wouldn't take (then wouldn't wear off), a near emergency C-section, then a quick push and poof! there he was :)



Cam-Cam! Where do I even begin with you boy?? You are a giant jumble of contradicting personalities.



You are "NOT A BABY", but I think your only level of speech is whine. I would never call you shy, but sometimes you hide behind me all day, not coming out even for Pappy. There's no one that makes you as mad as Cooper does, but you love love love your big brother and sister...maybe your sister a little more since she snuggles you and doesn't really mess with your toys. As soon as Abbie and Coop leave for school, you're asking when they will be home...at least a couple dozen times...an hour!



Your favorite food is rice and pintos from Chipotle or a cheeseburger Happy Meal. I think you are literally scared of food with "color". You are by far the pickiest eater of the 3 of you kids. I can't get you to drink a fruit packed smoothie or eat my veggie-laced spaghetti. If it's green, you won't even LOOK at it.



Playtime is still all about Thomas. You've had Thomas birthdays for the last 3 years. Thomas trains and tracks all over the house, Thomas movies in the DVD player, Thomas coloring books, Thomas shirts and jammies.



You're a lefty like mommy and daddy. You love to color and have displayed your creations all over the playroom walls...no paper required :(



Your best friend is Connor and his cute little way of saying your name comes out sounding kinda like "Gremlin" which I find totally appropriate. You have a funny little way of blaming your body parts for getting you in trouble: my legs don't want to go to bed yet, my brain wanted me to eat another cookie, my arm just wanted my toy back!!!



I love you so so much my baby boy. I hope I'm not spoiling you since you are my baby, but I almost don't care. You are my sweet Gremlin with the crazy faces. Happy Birthday!

Cameron doing laundry

After we got Cooper's room put back together, we took all the dirty sheets down to the laundry. Cameron started shoving them into the empty dryer. I said, "No, no those are dirty. the dryer is for the drying the wet clothes." To which he replied, "Okay, then I'll put these in the wetter."

Things I learned before lunch today...

Today I decided that I didn't need Tim to be here in order for some of the Honey Do List items to actually be completed. Today I separated Cooper's bunk bed into twins and rearranged his room. I hated that bunk bed. It's one of my biggest cases of "buyer's remorse". What I learned today comes courtesy of that crappy bunk bed:

• I will never buy another bunk bed
• When it comes to furniture, it's not worth saving a little money. Buy quality pieces that will grow with your child and not have to be replaced. In the end, you'll probably spend the same amount anyway, or maybe even less!
• Crappy furniture is still heavy
• Even small mirrors are heavy
• 3 year olds are always in the way when you are trying to move something heavy

I wish I could've seen my face....

Well we finally had "the talk" last Friday. No, not that one. The guy at the Tae Kwon Do place showed me the payment options for signing up for classes. It's completely ridiculous. For both Abbie and Cooper it would be $258 a month, minimum 12 month contract. I know my mouth had to have fallen open. I couldn't even speak. Speechless I tell you. I don't even want to continue with the free month because it will only get their hopes up. There's a reason they don't put prices on the website and arrange an appointment to discuss pricing with you behind closed doors where you can be seated when you find out.

There is another place closer to our house that I am going to check into. They don't have prices on their site either, but they specifically state NO contracts.

Hi...YAH!!

The kids have their first group Tae Kwon Do class today. I haven't seen them this excited about anything in a long time. Abbie has never moved so quickly to get her room cleaned up. We went Monday to get their uniforms and have a private intro lesson just for them to get used to it. I wish I'd inconspicuously pulled out my phone and gotten a quick video but I was trying not to distract them, since they were learning about the 3 "focuses", mind focus, body focus, and I think eye focus was the third one. Hey, I wasn't the one who was supposed to be paying attention!

Cameron was so cute doing his little "chops" and "kicks". And it was no surprise to me that he was the loudest at the "Hi-YAHs". One time when they were taking turns, instead of doing a "chop" he yelled his Hi-YAH and threw out both arms with full Jazz Hands, a bit more like "boo I scared you" than martial arts. Again, the video would have been much cuter.