Sweet and Spicy

That's still our Julia!

She loves playing with the boys but boy will she scream at them.  She makes up games that usually get out of control and end with her hitting them, yelling, running in her room and slamming the door, or all of the above!  She also gets very mad and me and Matt several times a day, usually for things like not hearing her when she was talking and asking her to repeat it.  Yeah.

But the sweet side?  Oh my goodness- that girl's heart!  She HATES for anyone to be upset.  This little lady will crank out a hand-drawn card in 2 seconds flat if anyone is mad, sad, fell off a bike, etc. She is just so sensitive and attuned to everyone's feelings.

And you hear it's good to talk about your feelings, right?  Well she's got that down.  And more.  Example goes something like this:  "Well the thing is that I like my friends but it's just that sometimes they all want to sit beside me and they say, 'I want to sit beside Julia!  I want to sit beside Julia!' and I want to spend time with all of my friends but I just can't sit beside all of them and sometimes I just want to sit beside Dhilan but all my friends want to sit beside me and I like them but I just don't like when they do that and they like me but it's just hard when they all want to sit beside me because the thing is..." and on and on.  You get the picture.

She can go deep too.  Yesterday in the car, some of her thoughts, which she freely shared in monologue when I told her I was losing my voice and would just listen, were these:

"I'm going to give you and Daddy a present, but it's not going to be like a card or a toy or a movie.  It's going to be loving you."

"So God gives us gifts, but they aren't like cards.  It's like the Holy Spirit."

Her favorite things:  My Little Pony (the only thing she will ever pick to watch on tv), her music (she loves to go in her room, put in a cd and rock out...or twirl like a ballerina), friends (she does not know I exist when she's with little girls), drawing, playing in her room, eating snacks, hearing stories of when they were little (and retelling them to anyone that will listen), playing with grandparents, her stuffed animals, wearing dresses, smelling her little string of a night-night, praying for our sponsored kids.

She is doing awesome with reading.  She also loves to play the spelling game, which means I tell her to spell a word and she does.  Or sometimes she tells herself to spell a word and then does.  She says all the time, "Well I just need to practice my letters and numbers."  It is a whole different world from the boys!

She is my shopping partner extraordinaire.  Sure, she gets tired and whiny when we're on our 4th store, but going to one or two places she is great.  She loves to help me pick out things while giving a running commentary in a grown-up sounding voice like, "Well, this might be nice!" and "Well, let's not get that this time.  How about you can get it the next time?"

A few months ago, the bedwetting alarm worked it's magic and we are a pull-up free house!  She was very good about it and so sweet when I'd get up with her.  I would be half awake and she would be giving me hugs and saying she loved me.

Other random quotes:

"I hope I NEVER forget not to touch a dead bat."

"I shouldn't have written 'Daddy' on Daddy's valentine because I might forget which Daddy it's for."

"Mommy!! Gray is saying something inappropriate!!"

"Mama, when can I take my eye drops out of my ear?" (meant the cotton balls holding in the ear drops)

"Look at us looking like chickmunks!" (using the photo booth program on my computer)

"No I don't mean any of that!  It's like the RAIN pedals!" (meant puddles)

"It is familiar that you can dribble a basketball and not a football." (she has her own meaning of the word familiar)

"I feel jealous because Dhilan wanted me to play with him earlier and I said no but now I wish I did.  Anyway he's a friend and I don't want to let a friend down."

"My heart is broken because I am sad to leave Mimi."

"If they are real, aliens probably don't live here in Hillsborough...probably like in Durham at other people's houses."

So far this year...

Well I love this blog, but lately I have loved the idea of it more than the actual writing of it!  But things are starting to settle down around here so I thought I'd try to get down a little of the first 4 months of this year.

2015 began with us getting settled back in at Cindy and Barnette's after our visit to Rock Hill for Christmas.  We had a Jen Hatmaker HGTV marathon and then watched a comedy show to bring in the New Year with Matt's parents.  I'll let you decide which of those Matt enjoyed the most.:)

Life in Hillsborough was good.  Cindy and Barnette were very gracious to let us bring our loud, messy family to disrupt their order!  It was nice having more adults to visit with, grandparents to share some of the playing with and listening to the kiddos, etc.  With the cold and snowy weather, I spent a lot of time by the fire crocheting things for our new house.

We played games.

Did a little working out.

Went to museums and a farm.

We were probably a bit spoiled, except for Matt, who remained busily finishing up his last semester.  We did enjoy taking lots of walks and of course checking on the new house progress, which came to a bit of a screeching halt during the bad weather days.  And the kids (and adults) had a great time sledding and playing in the snow on our many canceled school days!

Highlights of January:
-I had a fun breakfast out with the ladies from my small group.  I think we could have sat and talked all day, which is just not something I get to do often these days.  I have really enjoyed being part of that group and it has helped CGS feel more like our church again.  I also had a dinner with the rest of the ACT leadership team.  We had gotten busy and didn't really know where to go with the group.  It had been wonderful to educate ourselves and our families on the issues we explored but we weren't getting many new folks and at this meeting we decided we'd just find things to do with existing organizations and share those ideas with everyone.  In the end, it has kind of fizzled out and that's okay.  It served it's purpose among our group of friends and I think we do live differently now that we know what we know.  But most of my volunteer energy is being poured into Kids' Night Out stuff, so I am happy to have my "thing" and that be enough for now.

-Joshua and Matt got to go with a boys' group from church to do some service in the church and then rock climb.  Julia got to go to her twin friends' Anna and Sage's superhero birthday party.  She chose to be spiderman and was adorable.  Joshua reconnected through skype with his friend Dvir from Israel who moved here for their first grade year.

-Matt and Todd added Stacy and Amy to the group of gym owners, which relieved me of my duties as financial person and gave Matt mostly the job of programming workouts while others worried with the other aspects.

Highlights of February:
-We went to some friends' house for the Super Bowl.  The boys were so into the game, though Joshua was really upset at the loss.  The next day when he got in the car and I asked how his day was, he answered with, "He should not have thrown that pass!!!"  I still don't know that he's over it!

-Matt and I went to a very fun "Newlywed Game" shepherding group party.  We ended up winning the game by matching our answers to questions like, "What percent would your wife say you do of the housework?" (answer- 10%!!) or "When is a memory your husband has of you that he won't ever forget?" (answer- when our kids were born) or "What quality would your wife say she most values about you?" (answer-reliability)  So many laughs we had that night.  Can't wait to do it again next year!

-Matt and I went to several Duke games.  The first couple of games I was silently pulling against Duke (I'm an underdog kind of girl), but by the end they had grown on me.  The UNC game went into overtime and was super fun to watch.  Crazy loud!

-We all went to the Family and Friends Day at the nursing school.  The kids loved it more than I thought.  Joshua actually really enjoyed a lecture on obesity he went to with the adults.

-We visited Rock Hill and celebrated Amanda, Maddox, Sawyer, Carly, and Graham's birthdays, ninja turtle style.  Kids had tons of fun together as always.  The boys went early because Julia threw up.

-Joshua got another xray and we found out he is progressing but slowly.  We were told to stay the course, which was good news and bad news.  Joshua has been on crutches at school since September and won't have another xray till June, so he'll finish the year still not being able to do a lot of the things he wants to do.

Highlights of March:
-Matt started his preceptorship at Duke Regional.  14 twelve hour shifts, that usually ran much longer.  It was a big adjustment for him to be on his feet that long and figuring out sleeping when he had a night shift.

-Julia got to go spend the weekend in Rock Hill by herself.  She was a little hesitant to say goodbye to me, had a great time, and cried almost the whole hour and 15 minutes back home from our meeting place.  She is a big crier with goodbyes!

-Gray had his birthday which went well.  He had several boys over to play basketball, a little video games, eat pizza, and just hang out.  He had lots of fun and it was nice and laid back!

-Julia got to have a few playdates with her friend Addie and little sister Ava (and I got to visit with her mom).  She just cannot get enough of her little girl friends, though preschool has expanded her horizons to boys as her friends too.  My friend Rebecca's little boy Dhilan is a fav.  We went to their house for lunch and Dhilan exclaimed, "Julia's here!  Oh yeah, baby!"  Another day she went over to play and he asked her to snuggle with him while they watched a movie, to which she gave him a quizzical look and then said, "ok".  I found them huddled on one of the couch when I picked her up. So sweet!

-Gray got glasses!  We knew that was coming, but weren't quite prepared for the cuteness.  Of course he forgets to wear them about 50% of the time:)

-The kids and I went to Rock Hill for Spring Break.  We dyed eggs, visited with Constance, Oli, Cheryl, and Grandmama, played outside, celebrated Daddy's birthday, and went to Amanda's.

Highlights of April:
-We had a really nice Easter day going to church and then a lunch and egg hunt with our shepherding group.  The kids really enjoy friend time and I thought it was nice to share a holiday with friends, which we haven't really done since the army days.

-We moved!  I spent a few weeks moving stuff myself while Matt was busy with school and then he finally gave the word that he had time to help with the big stuff so away we went.  I told myself I would not get caught up in getting settled and be so obsessive(we're going to be here a long time I hope, so it's okay if it takes a few months to get unpacked, right?).  That idea went right out the window and, with my mom's help, everything was unpacked within the first week and here we are at almost 3 weeks and pretty much good to go.  Sure there is garage organizing to do, and a pile of books to be put away in the area I call "around the corner" (which is probably why it's not done yet!), but mostly we just have a few things here and there that most folks have on their to do list even when they haven't just moved in.  I think it went okay, though.  I didn't take many breaks, but it's good to be done and I even picked up a book to read the other night!  We love the new house.  Can't even believe how nice it is.  We have so much space, though some rooms are smaller like the kids' bedrooms.  We have lots of neat spaces to go-- a chair fits in our bedroom, we have a screened porch, front porch, and a deck, there's a window seat, a spare bedroom, and a little nook upstairs ("around the corner").  Matt has his beloved study.  It's really just the nicest house for us and I hope we use it well!

-Gray had a friend's birthday party at the museum and I helped at his Science Day at school.  He sang in a music program at school one night.  I went on Joshua's field trip to the museum and helped with his Econopolis at school (a fun day of kids running their own little stores and buying from others with fake money they had been earning).  Joshua got to go to a neighborhood friend's birthday party at the bowling alley.

-Matt finished his preceptorship and school work.  He was so happy to be done and has really enjoyed having so much free time.  And I would definitely have to adjust my answer to that Newlywed Game question about helping around the house.  No more 10%!  It's nice to have help with things like putting the kids to bed and the handyman jobs I fumble through.  He also got a job at UNC pretty easily, which we were very proud about!  He's so enjoying his break but feeling good about his new job too I think.

-Julia got registered for kindergarten!  She was happy to be there and did well not being too shy--even made a new friend.  I loved seeing the many KNO kids that go there.  Looking forward to this change, though we will miss Hillandale too.

May: 
Now it is suddenly May and it's hard to believe the time has flown by so quickly.  We are spending a lot of time outside these days- gardening, playing basketball, relearning bike riding after not having them for 6 months.

We attended our neighborhood yard sale Saturday and it was good to meet many of our neighbors, who were very friendly.  There are lots of boys around that we hope to get together with our boys!  I also could walk down and visit with some of the friends I've had for years.  Love being able to see them so easily.  Gray may have had the best time of all at the yard sale.  He said God answered his prayer that he would have something to go to like Joshua's Econopolis.  He had been saving his money and he was wheeling and dealing, buying everything from stuffed animals to a baseball helmet and metal bat.  He and I even dropped Julia and Joshua off at our house and went to more houses because he was so into it.

This week we are looking forward to celebrating Matt's graduation and Mother's Day with both sets of our parents.  I got Matt the gift of Brad Paisley tickets for the following weekend with several other couples.  Yes, Jeannie, I did finally tell him via a puzzle of Brad Paisley's face as you suggested.  He was not nearly as amused with it as he should have been!  But he's excited about the concert.

Julia and I will finish up with preschool this month.  It's been a huge blessing to be a part of it.  My friend Rebecca has planned and taught everything while I have assisted and subbed on occasion.  The kids need it so much and I'm very thankful these few were able to attend.  We will also do our last tutoring session next week until end of summer, but will continue to do KNO events over the summer.

School will be over before we know it and we don't have a whole lot of summer plans.  Matt will start his job in early July, so we're kind of waiting to see how that goes.  It's been an eventful year and I'm looking forward to slowing down and everyone having more time to enjoy being together.  With me looking for a job in the fall and Julia starting kindergarten, there will be plenty of time ahead to be busy!

Birthday Fun!

A lot has happened in the last month.  We moved out of our house the week before Christmas, which was pretty exhausting.  We moved in with Barnette and Cindy, which went well, but took time to get all our stuff organized and settled.  We headed to Fort Mill to celebrate Christmas, which was a fun whirlwind as usual.  And we came back home and got ready to celebrate Julia's 5th birthday.

In all the excitement of the move and Christmas and travel, I hadn't had the mental capacity to plan a big party for Julia, but she was happy to do a little tea party with the cousins and go out to dinner that night.  All was going smoothly till we got the call that the cousins had come down with the flu.  Julia was napping so I didn't have to break the news to her yet and decided to try to get some friends to come over and fill in for the cousins.  By the time she woke up, I had about 5 kids ready to party and she was fine with the change of plans.  Then as I fixed supper and made her cake, I heard Matt comment on one of Julia's eyes being red.  Sure enough, it was red and had some yellow stuff around it so we very sadly told the friends we probably couldn't have the party.  Julia said, "This is going to be the worstest birthday ever!"  But we held out a slight hope that maybe it wasn't pink eye and decided to wait and see in the morning.

This morning was dark and dreary and we slept in a bit.  When I made it up to see Julia about 8, her eye looked almost normal.  I was excited, but realized we had a party to plan for that morning, which I had done very little to prepare for!  And Julia reminded me that she had wanted egg and bacon muffins for breakfast, which I had forgotten and not made ahead of time.  So Barnette helped me make breakfast and Cindy and I scrambled to get the party food ready and all worked out just fine.

Before the party, Matt came home with balloons and we let Julia open her gifts from us--a sticker book, Merida and her mom dolls, and a big Elsa that sings, which Matt had picked out.  Well we have heard "Let it go!" more times than we can count today, but Julia was very happy with her new little friend.  She brought Elsa out to eat, thinking that "people" would want to see and hear her.  We did hear our waitress singing "Let it go" as she walked back to the kitchen.

Julia had a variety of friends come to her party--a friend from Sunday School and her siblings, a friend from small group, a friend she took ballet with and her sister, and the twin girls of my friend that does KNO with me.  It was a good group and the girls enjoyed playing with princess dolls for the first hour.

Then we ate and played some more.  The brothers wreaked a little havoc on the party when they started hiding from the girls, which caused the girls to run through the house chasing them.  Julia got upset and said the girls were doing things to hurt the brothers and she did not like that!  She loves those brothers.  One friend of mine and her daughters stayed late and Julia seemed happiest then, having someone to play with and a little bit of calm.  Earlier I found her sitting in a chair smelling her night-night, which must mean she felt a little overwhelmed.

She certainly felt overwhelmed with the attention she got at cake time.  She did not want to blow out those candles!  I gave her several options--someone blow them out with her, her blow them out, someone do it for her--and she wanted someone to do it for her.  I had plenty of volunteers for that job!

At the end of the day, she said her favorite part of her party was the dessert!  We had a nice dinner out and she opened a few more presents from family and headed to bed.

Catch up part 4: Julia

Last in age, but not in spirit, is our girl Julia.  Never have so many personality types merged in one little body.  Sometimes I find myself thinking Julia is the sweetest little soul I've ever met.  If you do anything nice for her (even letting her taste a small bit of what you're cooking together counts), she is almost frantic to immediately return the favor.  A lady that works at the carpet store gave her some Halloween candy and on the way home she was very insistent that she make and mail her a picture.  She is always wanting to make pictures for people.  She hates to disappoint.  She will say something is "interesting" if she thinks it's weird.  I did my hair all crazy yesterday and asked her what she thought (jokingly).  She made a face and then corrected herself and said, "It's nice."  She loves to help around the house and is especially concerned with giving the boys their stuffed animals and making sure Joshua gets his medicine.  She loves to share any special thing she gets.

And then there's another side.  She can be the rudest thing you ever met as well.  She will absolutely do a teenage flip out on me if she is trying to explain something and I don't remember or understand what she's talking about.  "No!!  You don't UNDERSTAND me!!"  Boy am I tired of hearing that phrase.  She will completely reject our affection--especially Joshua's and Matt's.  She will scream at the boys and order them around.  She is feisty.

Her favorite thing is to play with other little girls.  She is in heaven when she gets friend time and when it comes to girls, she has never met a stranger.  She will grab the hand of a girl she barely knows and before you can blink your eyes they are best friends.  She likes to play anything pretend and loves to get giggly and silly.  We spent Halloween going trick-or-treating with our small group and she stayed in a pack of girls having the best time.  When I talked to her, she immediately dropped her smile and gave me the cold shoulder.  She hates when friend time is over and gets rude or sad.

And then there is the other side.  She will not look at/talk to/acknowledge anyone she doesn't know well who is not a little girl.  Everyone thinks she is so shy and she absolutely plays the part everywhere we go, even towards other moms that she sees often.

She has been going to preschool this fall twice a week.  It's a little class my friends and I are teaching for the KNO kids and she loves it.  She especially likes picking up Francisco and getting to play with him in the car.  She talks his ear off and he seems to like her company too.

When she doesn't have friends around and the boys are playing something together or are at school, she almost constantly asks/whines for me or Matt to play with her.  It's usually a pretend thing and she will wail that "the game" isn't over when we try to quit.  Her other favorite things are drawing and watching My Little Pony.  She likes being read to too and is getting pretty good at reading short vowel words.

My girl is a lot of fun and I love who she was made to be.  She has gotten to be babied for so long now--much longer than the boys who were the "little ones" for only a couple of years--but she is growing up and I know I can't hold onto the baby days for much longer.  I do look forward to watching her grow and learn and become more and more her own person.  She is quite a character!

Catch up part three: Gray

Gray started second grade this year and was raring to go.  The first few days as I asked him if he had a good day, he would say, "Of course I did!  You don't even need to ask me that!"  I wondered if it was a honeymoon phase, as he had quite a few problems last year, but hoped that he had matured a lot and would be smooth sailing this year.  He made a couple of new friends and seemed to be playing with them a lot on the playground, whereas last year he often played alone.  And then after being dry most every night (if I woke him up to go potty when I went to bed), he started wetting the bed every now and then, and then every night.  He started getting yellow dots on his behavior chart.  Towards the end of the summer he had suddenly began having some really sweet moments with Julia, where he would gently teach her things and enjoy playing with her, but those became few and far between this fall.

All of it came to a head at his parent conference where his teacher showed me some of his work that either was kindergarten level or he just didn't do.  She shared how she can't get him to listen when he is reading and it's time to move on and how he doesn't focus during group learning time and can't get his work done and gets a little crazy sometimes in class.  It wasn't a huge surprise, but definitely hard to hear and I didn't know how to react.  Why is he struggling so much?  His test scores are through the roof, so it's not too hard for him to do the work.  Is he not getting enough discipline?  Did we do something wrong?  After lots of research and prayer and talking to others and doing an evaluation, I do think that he has a form of ADHD.  He struggles to get his brain to focus on uninteresting subjects and tasks, but hyper focuses on the things he enjoys.  And that is just him.  I came to think that we just have to help him to function better despite those challenges and then encourage his strong suits so he can excel.  In many ways, I see myself in him, which helps me to relate instead of criticize his nonconformance.  

So far it's been hard to get any kind of concrete help at school.  His teacher says she's working on a different behavior chart for him, but I haven't seen that happen yet.  Some days he brings home a perfect spelling test with small, neat handwriting.  Other days he has butchered a worksheet by scribbling all over in messy handwriting with a crayon.  Some days he fixes his lunch and does his homework in mere minutes without me asking, but other days I tell him 10 times and it takes hours to get his work done.  The pediatrician recommend a full evaluation and I hope we'll be able to do that next year.  Until then, trying to figure him out and how I can be the best mom to meet his particular needs.

Gray is generally a sweet and happy boy, which his teacher affirmed as well.  He loves to laugh and have fun--doesn't like for things to get serious.  He can be very emotional when there is conflict and is very affectionate.  He is so creative and likes to plan things to do, go get the required materials, and do just as he planned.  When we came home from a field trip to the Eno River about early American life, he gathered some sticks and tried to make his own trap.  After making a mask at a Thanksgiving party at school this week, he came home and made his own.  He likes a balance of being alone and playing with others.  He enjoys shooting baskets and hitting baseballs.  He gets completely lost in his reading.  He likes playing video games.  His artwork has an abstract look to it--not precise and measured lines, but creative and free.  He loves to make things.  We've gotten him a bedwetting alarm and he has now been dry most nights for a few weeks.  He loves his sticker chart for the alarm.  This boy has such an interesting mind and I look forward to seeing how he develops and uses it.  Gray is well-liked by everyone and has lots to offer the world.  Love him so much.

Catch up part two: Joshua

Joshua started third grade this fall.  He was very nervous to go back to school, though he knows most of the kids in his grade and gets along well with everyone.  He quickly adjusted of course and has the nicest teacher.  He made a new best friend Seamus, who is technically autistic, though I can't tell.  And he kept his two "old" best friends, Anthony and Joel.  He was able to have all three boys come over on his birthday for an early release day play date.  They made Mindcraft crafts and played the xbox--a little something Matt picked up when he dropped me off to shop at Kohl's :).

This fall Joshua has had probably the biggest challenge of his little life.  He started limping back in September and we thought it was a pulled muscle.  But it wasn't getting better, so we took him to see an orthopedist, who agreed it was nothing...until he took an xray and found cause for concern.  He put  Joshua on crutches, which Joshua accepted with tears...he didn't want them because he didn't want to be different at school.  We were nervous about the prospect of him having the disorder the doctor suspected.  Kids at 9 that get it usually don't have a good outcome and often it's a lifetime of problems.  We went to the annual Hike for Hillandale the next day and sat with Joshua while we watched the rest of the kids run and play.  We noticed a boy in a wheelchair being wheeled out to watch as well and it was a good reminder that we have much to be thankful for.  Joshua has had 9 years to run and play and will be able to again, while this boy never had and never will.

The kids at school have been great with Joshua.  I saw that first day that they were concerned, caring, and thoughtful.  They love helping him and his teacher says his crutches have almost taken on a persona of their own!

We did get the diagnosis of Perthes disease a few weeks later.  The LORD really prepared me to hear it and accept it with an attitude of peace and thanksgiving.  I had just been in Greenville with Jeannie for an adoption conference and the morning I was to come home, I felt very overwhelmed about something, which I eventually pinpointed as fear over Joshua's upcoming Duke appointment.  I kept praying, but thinking, "I don't know what to pray," over and over.  Do I pray that it's nothing?  Is that what is best for him?  Does that bring God glory?  Is it a selfish request?  Do I ask for Joshua to face this trial?  What I want most of all is for him to know God, but it's too hard to ask for hardship for your child.  I just didn't know what to pray.  I went to church with Jeannie and lo and behold, the verse for the sermon was about the Holy Spirit praying for us in our weakness when we don't know what to pray and even one of the examples preached about was a medical situation where you don't know whether to ask for healing or not.  I was so blessed to see God hearing my confusion and fear and speaking to me.  I don't have to know what to pray--the Spirit will do that.  God knows my weakness and I need to just trust him.  I was ready to do that and did not face Joshua's diagnosis with fear.

I am very thankful to report that our last appointment found the doctor very pleased with Joshua's progress.  His range of motion had significantly improved in those 4 or so weeks and the doctor doesn't see any reason that he will have to have surgery at this point.  Hopefully not much of the bone was affected.  Joshua believes that God is healing him and said so just last night.  I pray he is right and that this experience keeps drawing him closer to God.

Joshua is growing up so much.  He has been so resilient with his leg issue--physically he has done really well, but he also has rarely complained after almost 2 whole months on crutches.  He still can be irritating to his siblings on purpose and has sharing and control struggles, but he also is very sensitive and kind-hearted.  He really cares about doing good and feels sorry when he has messed up. He is very soft toward Julia especially.  And me.  I thought at 9, he would be growing apart from me and instead he seems even more affectionate and sweet.  When we're just hanging out at home, he wants to snuggle up to me and give me hugs and kisses.  He still wants me to sing Jesus Loves Me every night and the other morning cried because he had wanted me to come up and wake him up in his room.

These days, Joshua loves playing the xbox and still loves legos.  He's been riding his rip rider to get his bad leg back in shape and is reading often--he's on the last Harry Potter book.  He likes to draw sometimes and is still quite a hoarder, not wanting to even give up the wrappers to his Halloween candy.

He's doing so well at school.  We had his teacher conference a few weeks ago and all the feedback was glowing.  He makes friends easily, does the most advanced work of the kids in his class, is always well-behaved.  It's nice to be able to count on him to do well without even putting any pressure on him.  So thankful for him and looking forward to seeing God work in his life.

Thanksgiving morning catch-up part one: end of summer

Well ever since I figured out how to print my blog, I planned to keep regularly posting so when I inevitably forget all the good stories, I will have a record.  It's Thanksgiving and I haven't written anything since July.

On that note, I woke up this Thanksgiving morning feeling reflective and thought I better catch things up or it will all be forgotten.

We finished out our summer with Matt going to Nicaragua.  It wasn't all he hoped it would be, as he got far less hands on clinical experience than he wanted and there was 20-something year old drama that he quickly tired of.  He was ready to come home after the first week, but overall I think he took away some good experiences.  Talking with their driver was one of his favorite things about the trip I believe.  The four others of us picked him up very late at the airport and we were so happy to have him back.  He had gifts for the kids and the next day, gave us a little slideshow report of his experience.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I had been working really hard getting the house ready to sell.  The back story to follow, but somewhere in there we had a great weekend trip to the Sound.  The kids had been asking to go back every month since last year and were so excited.  Gray got to use his birthday coupon to go 4 days early with the Moores, Mimi, and GrandGene.  He had a bit of a tough time when we arrived and really needed some alone time at first.  We did all the usual Sound things--crabbing, kayaking, playing at the beach, visiting the aquarium, and feeding sea gulls.  Fun, fun!!

Back to the house story:

Somewhere in August, we were still tentatively making plans to build again and be neighbors to the Stewarts.  Our house is just the right size for us, but we had high hopes of community in our neighborhood and though we got 3 new neighbors in the last year (out of just 5 other houses in our culdesac), that just wasn't happening.  Not that our neighbors aren't nice, but we just don't see them and also longed for the kids to have neighbor playmates.

Then one day while driving in the neighborhood where Barnette and Cindy live, along with most of my friends, I noticed a house for sale that was actually close to our price range.  I looked at it online and it wasn't super pretty, was dated, and had some quirks, but I still wondered.  And then I saw it.  Across from where I went to Bible Study each week for the past few years was the remnant of a house that had burned down.  I heard the people would rebuild but it had been awhile and there stood a real estate sign.  One thing led to another and we decided to try to buy it and go ahead and sell our house.

What I want to remember about this situation is how God worked.  Back when we were looking for land for house #2, we almost bought the last lot in that neighborhood, a few doors down from Matt's parents, where we could still have Barnette be the builder.  I was elated at the prospect of living right down from several close friends and by family too.  I'd been dreaming of having close neighbors for years and was really excited to see that come true.  But it wasn't to be.  Our offer was too low and we couldn't afford it.  I was sad, but moved on.  Sort of.  There was another time that I found a townhome in the neighborhood that was for sale and convinced myself we could move there.  Cue the daydreams of community again.  And the disappointment of reality that it wasn't going to be.

But then here is that lot.  And what was peculiar about us finding it was that the friends I talked to who lived right by it--three separate friends--were shocked it was for sale.  They thought the sign was a builder one, not a for sale one...though as soon as I saw it, I assumed for sale.  Even a friend of mine who works with her husband on their building business saw that we had bought the lot and said they would have bought it had they known it was for sale.  It had been listed since April and no one knew it.

And then there is the location.  It's across the street from my Bible Study leader of the past couple of years and beside her is another good friend that I don't see much anymore, but really like.  If I sit on the porch (which survived the fire) and look to the left, I can see my closest friend Robyn's house.  And then a short walk around two corners and we're at Matt's parents' house.  Couldn't ask for a better location for this one lot in all the neighborhood that we could build on to be located.  Surely it's God answering my prayers in his own way and timing.

We will be sad in some sense for the boys to leave their school.  Actually Gray says he's ready to go right now.  But even Joshua, who has made great friends, knows he also has friends at his new school and is feeling fine about the move.  And being at Cameron Park resolves a lot of the tension that I have felt with being so invested (through KNO) in the children that go to a different school that we do.  Now we will have these kids in my kids' classes and I can go volunteer and see them and keep up with their progress.  This summer I felt God show me that ministry is important and a valid factor in making life decisions.  I can be more invested now that I am closer to their community.  I also know several of the teachers at the school and sooo many more families than I know at our school, even after 3 1/2 years of going there.  And for my ACT group, 4 of the ladies of the leadership team live in our new neighborhood and the other 2 live in that direction.

So here we are in November, getting ready to move in a few weeks.  Our house took a month to sell.  Short, right?  But for me it was agonizing.  I did so much work leading up to it and thought it looked really good.  But then it went on the market and we got very few showings and I just hated the waiting and keeping everything clean and watching the deep cleaning that I had done get dirty again and not knowing if the quirks about our house would keep us from ever getting a buyer.  I was downright anxious at times--like feeling a little crazy anxious.  But I had made a cd for the car and one song in particular really spoke to me during that time:  "I'm restless, I'm restless till I rest in You O God."  I knew that no matter what happened with the house selling I would not be at peace until I rested in God's goodness and sovereignty.

Our buyers are a family of 4 that we would probably be good friends with if our lives intersected.  Barnette said at the beginning of the selling process that he imagined our buyers would be like us and he was right.  The mom and dad are small business owners of a running/racing store.  They were concerned with green building and had lived in an efficient house before.  They have two girls that are elementary age and serious gymnasts.  The day we signed the papers, they brought the girls over and Julia took them upstairs for a dance party in her room.  After they left, she asked if she could invite them to her birthday party because, "I haven't had a playdate with them in such a long time!"

We closed on Halloween and are renting the house back from them, which feels kind of strange.  I have been packing every day since Halloween and starting to feel ready for the move.  Our house was started a week ago and will begin being framed tomorrow.  Lots of excitement this fall and really the move is just one of the big things that I'm thinking of this morning.  But 4 people are ready for breakfast and there are casseroles to bake, so the rest will have to wait...