Nostalgia

I’m really not sure what it is…. And, I’m also sure you people with older children will laugh, but I have been SO nostalgic lately about EB growing up. I’m usually not a “cup half empty” kinda person, but I found myself thinking how EB will be four in December and that only gives us one more year until she’s five and then the dreaded “big girl school.” I can’t handle all of that. Sure, I know we have like months and months added to a couple of years, but… Do you KNOW how fast time goes? Have you checked up on the date lately? How she is three and not one or two is BAFFLING to me. How she can carry on a full conversation (without even taking a breath all while sometimes arguing), grasp concepts, connects the dots (not literally) from point A to point B…How did we get to this point? Her memory, in case you haven’t been called out by her, is as sharp as an ol’ tack, darnit!

I was looking on the dreaded Pinterest and saw something about a “30 day mom challenge.” I can go either way on these little “challenges,” but I read it for reading sake. One of the suggestions said (just get ready), “Calculate how many more weekends are left until your child graduated high school…” then I closed the link. I’m sure it would equal like 9823452430 but still…REALLY? I was horrified. So, this weekend, we’re going to Hawaii.

Ok…. Or to the playground, but still! MERCY! I LOVE to squeeze her little arms and/or thighs and she always stares at me like something is wrong, but I just LOVE those little arms, legs and hands. They have almost completely lost their baby fat, but they are so tiny and those little hands are so precious (I think the BARBIE pink chipped polish adds character).

Really, the lesson for me in this was just to soak in those moments. I preach it and practice it A LOT, but it was a subtle reminder- or an abrupt head on collision with an 18 wheeler. No… no, I will NOT be calculating how many weekends we have left until she graduates because we’ll just enjoy each little day and not worry about tomorrow. Thanks Pinterest. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a biblical, spiritual or life lesson in #8, but I found it anyway. She is a precious little blessing.

21

Well, the halfway mark has come and gone. It has nothing to do with me waiting to make sure all is well before I say that or post a pic, but EVERYTHING to do with me forgetting to take a pic, or fighting the battle with my assistant (old and young) or digging my camera out of wherever it has been hiding at that moment.

Hard to believe how quickly time is flying. Of course, when trying to explain this timeframe to a three year old, it comes out more like, “Well, we have A LOT of hot days before he can come. We have to go to the lake and to the pool A LOT of days before he’s ready.” I think it’s a good thing I’m so cold natured, or does that even matter at this point? Don’t answer that.

I feel great. In one week alone I gained 3 lbs. YIKES! There are a few things different this time that I’ve finally put my finger on (yes, after 20 weeks. I’m very observant, you see)…

1. He is SO low. While this isn’t true for everyone, this boy is RIDING LOW. Whew. We’ll see if this proves to be an issue when I hit the 30’s (weeks, I mean).
2. EVERYTHING is so salty and it drives me NUTS. I am NOT a salt person. I rarely cook with it (my poor family) and I DEFINITELY never ever add it to food when it’s on my plate. So, you can imagine how this is going over with me. Chips make my mouth feel like it’s shriveling up…or something. With EB, salty foods just thrilled my soul. 
3. ALL.I.WANT.ARE.SWEETS. It’s bad…so very bad. How good are they? YUM! With EB, sweets made me feel blah. So, we have definitely seesawed this time.

 There, that’s three. That’s enough for the ol’ blog for blog sake. Bottom line, I feel great and all is well. He’s a mover and shaker… probably because I cram sugar down my throat all day. I’m sure it will not impact my weight AT ALL!

Here we are for documentation sake. What's funny about this is I was posed up, smiling big, newly applied make up and ALL.... I had us all staged, the camera JUST right, the timer ready and, low and behold, Gus popped in too...PERFECT, right? Well, it never occurred to me to check back and make sure it looked ok. SO, here we are...err...kinda. However, the more I think on it, I really like this "angle." Also, don't be jealous of my gauchos!

 Happy 21 weeks, baby boy!

EB-isms

The past three days this girl has been ON. Every word out of her mouth has us in stitches. She really has no idea what she’s saying, I don’t think (or hope), but she says them VERY timely and it gets us. 


EB: I like your dress. You look so pretty, mommy. 
H: Aww. Thank you sweet EB. It’s just a skirt and you’ve seen it before. 
EB: Well, GO ON GIRL (with JUST enough umph to know she’s heard that before). 
H: (while laughing) Huh? What did you say? 
EB: GO ON…. You know, like GO ON REEEEEAL FAST. 


EB: When my baby gets here, I’m going to HOOOOOLD him. I’m going to FEEEEEED him (be my guest, sister-girl). I’m going to ROOOOOCK him. I’m going to SIIIIIING to him, [she starts singing REALLLY high pitched], “Don’t cry little baby….don’t cry anymoreeeeeeeeeeee.” Preach it, sister...err...sing it!


I have this pearl necklace that I’m now on my third version of because of some little hands. I took it off the other night and she picked it up and started swinging it. I asked her TWICE to put it down and she finally did and said, “Shhh…Listen, mommy, we don’t need to fight about this anymore. It’s ok.” REALLY? 


I LOVE the threes. I REALLY REALLY do….All for reasons listed above. She did point out someone’s WAY too long hair the other day as well as the very overweight person dining next to us, but…you know…it’s just part of it. Yes, we corrected her QUICKLY. My poor mom has a bag of tales all too similar where she has also experienced public humility from her sweet grand. Whew.

Moved

Well, here we are knocking on a month of being in our new-to-us house. I really can’t tell you a whole lot about the last month, to be honest. We’ve worked hard (some of us harder than others considering the 20 week state some of us are currently in). I told someone I was going to start a “This old house” segment on the ol’ blog…. Don’t put it past me JUST yet. I’ve failed to take my camera out at certain stages to photograph the progress/process, but I’ll try to do better. You know, since you care so much, but it will be fun to look back on when we are retiring and we FINALLY have everything like we like it.
So, this will likely be a longer post than I had intended, so let me see if I can hit the high parts. Basically, the Lord very much went ahead of us and moved mountains so quickly that we just looked eerily similar to bobble heads for a good, solid month. We listed, had a contract and had to be out of our house in about a month.

Cue the hysteria .

Let’s back up, we built our house right after we got engaged.
We loved it. We loved the neighborhood. We loved the location. LOVED LOVED LOVED our neighbors. However, it wasn’t zoned and meant we needed to choose a private school (let me say, we have NO problems with private schools and thought LONG and hard about what we felt was best for our family before we listed our house). We also knew we had a while before all of that….Well, along came EB. So, it was incredibly bittersweet to sell that house because it was “ours.” We put our big boy/girl panties on and did it.

Late last summer, we found this house. It needed some major work, but I loved the idea of it. I loved the potential. I loved that it could be LOOOOOONG term for our little family (even including Gus Black). However, the fall is insane for both of us and listing then just wasn’t even an option. We decided to watch it and if it was meant to be, it would still be around in January. Low and behold, January came and there it sat. A relocation company had taken it over and had done some of the work that was on our “immediate” list. We got our contract, made an offer and there the drama alllllll began. We fought them…withdrew….rates dropped….fought them some more… went a week without hearing anything. Oh that’s right, the week BEFORE we were supposed to be out. It became a joke that we were COMPLETELY and TOTALLY homeless. Battled some more. Demanded answers. Got none, of course. Finally, got an approval the SUNDAY before we closed on Wednesday. No pressure. In the mean time of all of that drama of not knowing what this relo company was doing, we looked at EVERY.SINGLE.HOUSE. in our price range in the area we wanted to be in as back up. Whew. We looked..and looked..and looked..and guess what? Looked some more.

There were options. We made a couple of offers, but we were late to that party and they were already under contract and/or they couldn’t meet us at our price point (really, this was all the Lord's hands at work teaching us to be patient). While the frustration grew, my visionary skills of looking at older houses and seeing their potential was becoming a little bit fuzzy. At one point, I COMPLETELY refused to look at another house. We took a break (it lasted a weekend, but it was a BREAK).

This is long, so to make a longer story short, it worked out.

I could see us there, felt like that’s where we needed to be, but just needed someone higher than us, our agent and that company to work it out. He did. We closed on our beloved little house on Tuesday (I may have wept at the table when the couple asked me about our neighbors), closed on the new house Wednesday and moved in. Woke up in a new world on Thursday morning. So, to break this down, we listed, had a contract, bought, sold, moved and woke up in a new house all within a month’s time. I loved it so much, you see, I didn't even take a final picture like I had planned... I was inside crying while JB was growing very impatient with me sitting in the moving truck. It may have been the wee hours of the morning..say 1:30 a.m.

Sigh…..and so it begins. A new life. We are MAYBE five miles from “home.” MAYBE?! I’ve had to go back twice and I cried both times. That house was just special. We started our marriage there. We brought our dog-child home to that house-Who proceeded to chew up EVERYTHING we had worked so hard to build. We brought our baby home there. We celebrated SO many holidays, “rights of passage,” fun times, good times, our first marital bliss arguments….. MEMORIES!!

(Evie's last morning in "her" house)

It’s alllllll good. We are SO thankful for this “new” home (I laugh so hard saying ‘new.’ If YOU only knew), new community, new neighbors, new streets to ride a bike on or to chase walk Gus. This house will be special too. Right now, we are just very very very thankful and in awe of the blessing. We are adjusting, settling and processing. I CRIED about EB and Gus. I was SOOOO worried about her. I was SOOOO worried about explaining our new “home” to her. Wouldn’t you know, she transitioned better than the dog, the ADULTS and anything else that came along?! She hasn’t missed a beat.

And this weekend… I picked out (maybe?) baby bedding to bring a new babe home to a new house in just a few short months (gasp). And so it all begins…again…. Does ANYONE know where I put the box of plates and eating utensils? Kidding.

And.... You don't get a picture because, afterall, this is the blog..and...well...that just isn't safe is it. Stick around, I just may do a "This old house" series... Just think mid-70's and you'll have visions of our project list.

And the winner is...

We are so excited, overjoyed, over the moon, thrilled and elated to shout from the rooftops about a growing, healthy, baby….

B O Y !!!

Did I mention we're excited?! OH MY!!

April

…spring weather…Easter…a new house…a new home…almost halfway through another pregnancy. WOW. Time is slipping quickly.

I think I said at least three times this past weekend, “Can you EVEN believe it’s Easter? If I would have told you by April you would have sold, purchased, moved and done it all before Easter, what would you have said?” This was a constant conversation in our house and in my head this past weekend. UNREAL.

We’ll get to the house stuff later, but it was Easter this weekend (in case you missed that memo). It is the most emotional holiday for me, I do believe. I come face to face with what my faith really means and have to ask myself some hard questions that are often faced with some not so pretty answers, but it’s good….very very good. We have SO much to celebrate, don’t we, every single waking breath of every single day?!

Here’s a few pics from our weekend.

(the only way this cheater would stop cheating...Looking straight into Millie's eyes)

Finally, tomorrow is a big day for Baby Black.... I hope "it" performs and I can report back with fun news. EB will be excited to share her news with you.

It's Friday...

Our lives have been CRAZY for the past month. Absolutely crazy. I let this season slip right by after I made a commitment to not let it happen. Evie is at such a precious, impressionable age and I let our lives get too busy, too full and too chaotic. I’ve been convicted about that this week. So, I was reminded of this…… It’s almost four minutes long, but the message is so powerful and such a wonderful reminder of what this weekend means to me.