Big Projects

I love my husband. Unfortunately he has this strange habit of starting projects at the wrong times. There have been multiple times my parents have been at our house and he's started a project that included shutting the water off/wet paint in the guest room/strange smells and loud noises during their visit. Then there was the time he started laying floor tiles in our bathroom while I was in labor. That was fun.
We have decided that it is best if we sell our home. We've called real estate agents to come look at the house, and E scheduled the first one for Wednesday morning. Our house is not ready to show, and I got right to work on throwing things out and cleaning. E started on every patching/painting/caulking project we have in the whole house. Right now, the furniture is all pulled away from the walls in the living room. The stove and microwave are unplugged and sitting in the middle of the kitchen. The bathroom ceiling has been torn up and a pipe was broken when it was overtightened.

There have been more messes created than I've been able to clean.
The appointment with the agent has been rescheduled.

Old Friends

While attending Church, I saw a good friend from my childhood. (Hi Carrie! Did you find me?) She came over and promised to get together to chat. We took our kids (her four and my 2) to the park and had a wonderful 2 hours of visiting. I had not seen her since she was pregnant with her last child (who is 3.5) and haven't talked to her since her oldest (9 years old) was 3 years old. I had a really good time, and don't want to let that much time pass again.
This brought up 2 thoughts:

• Carrie is on facebook. If I was on facebook. I could keep in touch with her and other friends from my hometown.
• I don't want to move and leave my new found good friends behind :( I am a better person because of the good friends I have made in the last couple of years. I have been blessed with great friends throughout my life. I always feel sad when I think of friends I have moved away from because life happens and I lose touch.

What's happening at grammy's house today?

R told me this morning that he's getting a "new daddy." He told me a "new daddy" and a "new house." I explained to him that dad is coming home in a couple of days and he will get to have his same dad. After a little more back and forth, he gave me a big "ohhkayyy." (You know the kind that is an "I get it."

M has been carrying the phone around since we got here. She hasn't caused trouble until a bit ago when I heard her dial 3 tones. She dialed 811. Too close for me. She lost her phone privileges.

Cousin M is sleeping over tonight. We're going to have tons of fun.

Vacay

As my hubby packed up and headed to California for a week with his brother, I chose to take the kids to my moms. There is plenty to do at my home, and I'm having a hard time relaxing, but the kids are having a blast and so are my parents.I did get to sleep in yesterday, and who can ask for more than that? We will play at the park, swim in the pool with cousins, and try to relax.

How did we start E's vacations? With a layoff. Along with many others at his company, E was laid off. This will be okay, as we are planning on moving but it does tighten the budget up a bit and adjusts our timeline.

FF: Nakee Art

working on the potty thing + art project=



It's cute when you're almost 3. Much older than that, I don't know...

De Stuffing

I'm working on packing up our lives. We have a LOT of stuff. And I am so emotionally attached to a lot of it. Cutsie teacher things that I can maybe someday use with my kids that I would be very happy to schlep around with us wherever we go. But I know that is not a good idea. I know that E has a similar problem, because a lot of his boxes hiding in the storage room contain years of art projects and art supplies. Most of which I have never seen. I'm working hard to get rid of things because I really don't want to get rid of most of my food storage. We're going to be starving student types. We can eat food, not old teacher supplies and art projects. It is hard to think of going from 2280 square feet of living space to 900. (We're trying to find a place that is big enough, yet cheap enough. I do not plan on going that small, but I'll not say "never".)

So, I feel like an episode of Clean Sweep or Clean House. I'll do my best to work through this. I'm sure those that help us move will appreciate it.

Something's brewin'

These last few months have been...(pause while I try and find the right word)..hard. Lots of sickness, lots of bills, E is not happy at his job, he's trying to decide what he wants to do for the rest of his life, and so on and so on. Being a grownup is hard. We've been praying for help knowing what we should do. There are lots of options, but choosing between "good and good" is harder than the whole "good vs evil" thing. I had decided that I was going to start a preschool in our basement. I was excited and doing prep work, but something just didn't feel right. I told Ethan that I felt like we were supposed to be moving in a different direction. His response was that he felt something was brewin'. Something big was waiting just around the corner. That night he opened his email to find scholarships in the horticulture/science field that he's been wanting to do. Enough to cover tuition for a year. So, we've decided to pack ourselves up and move.
It really feels right. E is really excited. I'm feeling sad. I was just making good friends, I have a family doctor that I trust and like, we are so settled and comfortable here. It will be a good adventure and it will push us out of our comfort zone.

FF: My favorite from this week

If I were into silhouettes, I would totally use this one. If for no other reason than the ponytail. What a growing up girl.