Christmas 2013

Christmas was a bit of a blur this year. I feel like it snuck up on me and I was actually still shopping a few days before (normally I am finished shopping by November). But I’ve had a bit on my mind, and a ton of things to do.

In case you couldn’t figure it out, we did not get the house, but are still going through with the sale of our house to my brother. So literally in a mere matter of weeks we will be out of this home and into mom and dads. Gulp! So instead of shopping and wrapping gifts, we have been house hunting, and packing up our house and moving it into storage. It’s all going well though.

So Christmas was unfortunately a lower priority than normal. Things still got done. People still got gifts… they were just a little more generic (aka Gift Cards). The kids loved it all though. We started the morning at our house and then headed over to my parents until naptime. Back home for naps, then off to Joyce and Johns for the afternoon/dinner. It was a very family oriented day. It was lovely, just not very relaxing since we were going all over the place. Friday we went to Roberts for dinner and more gift-giving. Now we are just settling back into ‘normality’ and trying to wade through all the gifts, toys, boxes, and bubble wrap that is now our home.

Oh, and if you look at the top right picture of Mallory in the green mask... that's a mask/hat that mom knit her for her alter-ego-superhero that she created (and named): Superhero Leaf-Girl (she then added onto it... Superhero leaf-girl-peter pan-mike the knight). I love it! I especially love that there is absolutely NO reference to anything princess-y! Way to go Mallory!

We have totally been slackers in the baby-toy-comparison department.

Week 25: 13.5 inches the size of a butterfly art project Mallory did

 

Week 26: 14 inches, The size of the Little Peoples playground structure

 

Week 27: 14.5 inches the exact size of Mallory's "Baby Anna" (its' kind of creepy looking at the doll and realizing that my baby inside looks fairly similar)

A Little Scare

I had a very eventful day today. It started out fairly normal, I didn't have to work so the kids and I were running around doing Christmas errands and then we met matthew out at the mall so the kids could sit on Santas lap. Around 11:30 I took Mallory to the bathroom and I realize that I was having dome bleeding. I called my mom right away to talk with her. At first it was just a brownish discharge and soon progressed to is light red-red color. Mom immediately came over to watch the kids and I went into the hospital. Thankfully after having a full exam, an ultrasound and being monitored for 3 hours I was released. The only real abnormality was that BK3 is sitting head down directly on my cervix with no fluid cushion at all...which I guess overtime they worry about that causing my cervix to dialate (which it is not at this point)! We are all still unsure why I started bleeding but they think a big part of it has to do with all of my activity, stress and work. That being said I am going to try really hard to take it easy and not overdo it. Which is going to be difficult considering I love to work, I love to play, I'm packing an entire house, Christmas is one week away, and I'm pregnant. But like my mom said the most important job for me right now is to grow this baby so I have to remember that... despite my obsessive needs to be superwoman! :)

Past Weeks Update

Our life is steadily marching onward… still no concrete news on the house (should have a REAL answer by tomorrow). Regardless the packing is well underway! The new baby’s room has become the box-storing room and most of the paperwork for selling this house is complete!

Last Monday was my 33 birthday! It was a wonderful day. Just what I wanted… mellow, low key and productive! Mom came over and helped me start on the packing then dad brought over Chinese food for lunch. Matthew and I were given tickets to the symphony from my bosses so we went out to eat and enjoyed the beautiful child-free music! Best gift of all was that the kids were AMAZING! I mean very, very, very little whining, crying or fighting! (I wish that would have lasted longer then one day).  Today is actually our 7 year anniversary…no such luck on the kids being super good today (they are already little monsters).

This past week has been tough… Wesley came down with Croup and had to be put on steroids for the swelling/breathing issues. Mallory got the winter bug and has been coughing up a storm… so I guess it makes sense that they aren’t exactly the happiest of campers.  But they are getting better, and Matthew and I even took Mallory to her first Movie theater experience yesterday (while Joyce watched Wesley). We saw Frozen! She loved it, I loved it and Matthew loved the fact that we loved it. It was fun! She even woke up talking about it this morning.

 

Oh, we got our Christmas tree. That was another fun adventure. After getting it all decorated we had to removed about ever ornaments within Wesley’s reach because he wouldn’t stop playing with them. So now the bottom 1/3 is pretty bare. Now Wesley just walks around the tree with his fake saw (which I think is pretty clever considering it was a pre-cut tree).

 

The baby is getting bigger and bigger. 25 weeks along! I don’t have a 25 week toy picture yet… but here are the other weeks
23: 12 inches, the exact size of Dog-Dog (Wesley’s stuffed dog he sleeps with)

24: 12.5 inches… the size of one of Wesley’s semi-truck toys

A Leap Of Faith

I have so much that I want to write about… getting a tree, birthday, life… but I want to fist talk about the latest/ more nerve-wracking, exciting changes that are happening in my family’s life.  

About 11 days ago I met my dad for Sunday morning coffee (a tradition that we have on the Sundays that I have to work). It’s a nice little 45 minutes to just sit, talk and enjoy each other. He mentioned that he thinks it’s important that even though we aren’t in the market to buy a new house that I keep my feelers out there. And that was pretty much the end of the conversation. Later that day I had a slow moment at work (something that rarely happens) so I looked to see what houses were out there for sale in the area that we would like to live. And low and behold there was a home that looked great! A little over our budget… but just by a titch. It was a 4 bedroom 3 bath tri-level on 1/3 of an acre and double the size of our current home!

We thought that it would be worth a ‘look’. So a few days later we went to see it. It was one of those surreal moments where you walk in and it just feels ‘right’. The house needed a fare amount of work (inside/out and in the yard)… but the ‘bones’ of what we would want/want were all there. The next day we brought a ton of the family with us to see it. They all loved it too and my parents offered to help us with the monetary boost that we would need for 20% down. So, we decided that we would make an offer. Unfortunately that offer HAD to be contingent on us selling our house in 17 days. GLUP! Unfortunately there was an open house already scheduled for that coming Sunday. I had to work, so Matthew brought the kids and his dad by to introduce himself to the realtor (to make it more personal and all).

Well, just about that time I mentioned to Jeff and Lindsay (who have been looking for a house to buy) that we were going to be selling our house so that we could buy this new house (totally confident that we would get it). They came through and looked at our house with that BUYERS eye and decided that THEY would like to buy it… as long as we got this other house of course.  SWEET! We revised our offer that day to make it NON-contingent on the sale of our house… now we should be a shoe-in!

 Well multiple offers came in… and we got 2^nd place! Boo! I was so sad. Despite the fact we were told that about 1/3 of 1^st offers fall through… it meant we still lost. I felt like I was in mourning. Even though the house was never our, I had pictured us there. I had seen Mallory as a teenager with her buddies hanging out in the back yard. It just felt so ‘right.’ But apparently it wasn’t meant to be. So I grieved for that day and went to bed with tears in my eyes.

The very next morning the first thought into my head in a voice loud as thunder was ‘It wasn’t all about ME.’

WHAT???? How and when is MY life not all about me? And then it dawned on me, maybe it wasn’t about me getting that house, but about Jeff and Lindsay getting THIS house. Because never would we have considered selling if there wasn’t the REAL and tangible home for us to buy. But after that realization I felt great! Actually happy! Now I just had to convince Matthew that we should still sell to them. Just the thought of broaching the subject actually made me a little nervous.  I called him as soon as I dropped the kids off as I was heading into work. I started the conversation with; “Now hear me out…” (probably words that no spouse ever wants to hear). But after I gave him my selling pitch, he kind of chuckled and said that he woke up thinking the same thing! WHAT!?!?! Turns out so did BOTH my parents!!!!!! Ok we couldn’t ignore such a blindingly obvious message from God!

So I talked with Lindsay and she was thrilled and said that they would love to still buy it and even let us rent it back from them until we found ‘our’ home. Sweet! Later that day both mom and dad had the same thought of extending the offer to let us (all 4 ½ of us) come move in with them… rent free, until we found our new home and that way Jeff and Lindsay and Connor could move in ASAP. My initial thought was ‘gee, thanks for the offer, but I’m an adult…I’ve got a family, a job… heck I’m a doctor… why should I move in with my parents’. But then Matthew (of all people) brought it up and was actually encouraging of the idea. Save money. Help Jeff and Lindsay move in faster. Live-in-kids-help. Rent free. TEMPORARY!

SIGH!!!!!  Don’t get me wrong I LOVE my parents! I have been blessed! They are wonderful, helpful, caring and we have an amazing relationship. I guess I was a little afraid to ruin it! You know how it goes when you live with someone… things are always strained. But we met with mom and dad, talked out our worriers, concerns, expectations and we are going for it!

Yep. We are moving!!!!! We are still on the lookout for ‘our’ house (or there’s the chance that the 1^st offer could fall through)… but either way we are moving… in like 6 weeks! I get all excited and sick when I think about it! I LOVE this home! It was our first! We literally grew our family here (I’m actually starting to cry now… lets blame it on the pregnancy hormones). We have poured so much love into these walls… this yard… that it’ll be really hard not to be here…especially when I don’t have any clue where my family is going to be! But the joy I have when I think about Jeff and his beautiful family here is undeniable! So I know its right! It feeling like I’m not truly losing it… I can visit and help pick peaches and cherries and enjoy the home as it morphs into THEIR home!

So… The packing process has begun! Nothing like being 6 months pregnant, working full time, parenting, wife-ing (is that a thing?), packing and having NO idea what is next! But I guess that is the epitome of FAITH!!!!! So I have been essentially, constantly giving this entire situation over to God, knowing that I obviously have no control… and trusting that He does!