What a Sweet Big Brother

I am so proud of my firstborn son. He is already proving himself to be a protective big brother to baby Tex. We took the kids to The Midwife Center earlier this week to get them familiar with the birth center.

The Midwife Center (TMC) has 3 stories but is also very thin. The first floor has the 3 birthing rooms, the 2nd floor has the waiting and exam rooms, and the third floor is administrative rooms. As we walked in there was a sign up that a mamma and baby were sleeping which means that there was a birth there in the last few hours. I told Ewan that we needed to be quiet walking up to the 2nd floor so as not to disturb this new baby and its mamma. He said very quietly, "Mom, I can't wait to meet our baby and see him."

This is a side note:
We have talked with him about possibly being at the birth. Ewan is super excited about this but we are still trying to figure out how to work it out logistically. I think that Ewan would feel so bonded to this baby and would think the world of being at the birth. The only glitch is that in order for him to be there he needs to have a special friend to look out for him the whole time. We are concerned that he will be too demanding of Jon's attention and will constantly pull Jon away from his duties of being my labor companion. My mom is planning on coming up and she would be an ideal friend for Ewan but again Ewan may ignore her to demand Jon's attention. We would also need someone to hang out at the house with Isaac but we don't know anyone well enough to ask them to do that. What if I labor in the middle of the night? We aren't sure if we want to wake Ewan up and take him down to the birth center in the middle of the night. Who would we call to come and stay with Isaac in the middle of the night? I want it to work out but we don't have deep enough friendships with enough people to ask so much from them. Any ideas? It is something I am praying about.

Back to the original story:
I laid him down for bedtime last night and we talked again about the baby. He mentioned again how excited he is to meet his baby brother and shared about how he wants to hold the baby and give him lots and lots of kisses. He asked if it is okay to tickle the baby too. I don't know where he got this phrase but he said he would help "shush him down". Ewan is very curious about how much the baby will talk and cry. He thinks that if the baby cries then he needs to "shush him down". I should have asked for clarification about what exactly shushing him down entails but I think it has something to do with telling the baby not to cry. Ewan also pointed out that it is very important for me to carry him in the sling and to feed him. My 3 year old is telling me how to mother?

Now that my belly is so obvious I think Ewan is more attentive to the baby. Ewan knows that the baby will come soon and that my belly will only continue to get bigger. One of the last things he does before going to bed is to give me hugs and kisses. He also give baby Tex hugs and kisses by lifting up my shirt, kissing the belly, hugging it, and lastly praying for the baby. The prayer usually goes something like this, "God (looking up at heaven and hugging my belly), please help baby Tex to grow big and strong. Amen." Isn't he sweet?

I Went Back to the Store and Some Pregnancy Complaints

Well, I went back to the store yesterday and asked to speak with the manager after I scanned the store and did not see the woman who offended me. A woman who turned out to be the assistant manager said she could help me.

I explained the situation and what the woman had said and she informed me that the woman who was "helping" me was actually the store owner. Oh my! This assistant manager was very nice and told me that sometimes the owner lacks tact in her interaction with clients and other employees. She said that she didn't want to come to the owners defense but she thought that in the store owners mind she probably thought she was being funny and making a joke. The assistant manager was very apologetic and totally understood why the owner's comment was so offensive. She was also very thankful that I came back to the store to inform them of my complaint rather than bad mouthing the store or never shopping there again. (I never said I would go back to the store to shop though.) At the end of our conversation she said that she would slap the owner around for me. Apparently the owner was in Chicago.

I hope that they do tell her what happened and why I was offended by her comments. I can understand why it would be a difficult conversation for them to have with their boss but they would really be doing her a favor. I was a little disappointed that the owner wasn't there to talk to directly but I did feel better after I left the store.

Some pregnancy news......

I "failed" (anyone else hate that word?) my one hour glucose test and have to take the 3 hour test tomorrow. I have read that 85-94% of women who take the 3 hour test pass it so there is a good chance that I don't have gestational diabetes. When I went to my appointment yesterday and did my urine dip the test strip said that I was dumping glucose in my urine which has never happened before. I have been doing some research on the gestational diabetes issue and I don't feel very concerned about it. Apparently it became a standard test to give to pregnant women based on some studies that had very poor variables and control. The standard treatment (cutting out sugar and in some cases eliminating calories) has not proven to lower c-section rates or large for gestational age babies (LGA). I'll let you know how the test goes.

Also my blood count is a little lower than the midwives would prefer. It has to be at least a 9 to birth at the birth center and mine is a 10.1. I am increasing my iron supplement and have added chlorophyll to my diet. Chlorophyll is a blood builder and I add 1 Tbsp. of the concentrate to water or juice and drink it. It doesn't taste bad at all--in fact it kind of tastes like green tea. Chlorophyll is good for your blood count and for helping moms not lose a lot of blood after the baby comes. Hopefully with the increase of Floradix (liquid iron supplement that doesn't cause all the typical side effects aka constipation :() and the addition of chlorophyll my hemocrit numbers will increase.

(This picture is where I wanted to be last night as I was falling asleep)

Lastly, it has been very warm up here--warmer here than in Dallas ironically and our bedroom should be called the oven. Jon and I have 2 clocks in our room that have the indoor temp. on them and even with the air conditioner turned on Jon's clock says the room is 90 and mine says it is 85 degrees in here. Jon's clock is by the window and mine is more in the middle of the room. Needless to say I did not sleep with any covers last night and contemplated sleeping on the bathroom floor because it has tile and felt cold to the touch. I think part of the problem is that there seems to be only 1 air vent for our bedroom that used to be 2 bedrooms and someone knocked a wall out between the rooms to make one large room. The other problem is that the two windows in our room face the sun and have some very thin roman shades on them from IKEA. They do absolutely NOTHING to block out any heat. The other downer is that it seems as though the people we bought the house from decided to take down the ceiling fans and put in some "modern" track lighting so there are no ceiling fans in the room of hot torture! Why someone would take out ceiling fans in the hottest rooms of the house is beyond me. You are currently reading the rants of a very pregnant, very hot momma that finds herself contemplating either sleeping on the bathroom floor or perhaps even the basement because it is so much cooler down there. I know the weather is supposed to go back down to the low 80's rather than the low to mid 90's but I am pretty sure that in July and August there will be more 90 degree weather and I will only be getting more pregnant and more HOT. Imagine in your head some major weeping and gnashing of teeth! We decided that we are putting up some blackout curtains on the windows to hopefully keep out some of the heat.

A small praise....I finally found my missing box of spices! Woo-hoo! Somehow it got moved down into the basement and a small investigation on my part led me to find the mysterious missing box. I was greatly relieved! Still missing is a pot lid and a corning ware dish....

In Case You Work at a Women's Clothing Store....

And you happen to see a very pregnant woman browsing the non-maternity clothing section, out of kindness to the woman please do not say to her, "Can I help you with something?" then look at her belly with child and follow up by saying, "Oh, we don't have anything that will fit you--it looks like you are limited to handbags, jewelry, and shoes." It doesn't make the pregnant woman feel very good--or like she will want to shop at your store ever again.

Yes, this happened to me today. I don't think the woman was trying to be rude but it came across as rather offensive. I know I am a sensitive person but there was a little something in her tone that bothered me.

Jon said I should have looked down at my belly and acted shocked as if I didn't know I was pregnant until that very moment. If only I thought quicker on my feet....The only response I managed to give was, "Well, sometimes it's nice to know what is out there."

Anyone else have any other ways to respond?

Added pictures

If you scroll down to the posts about the move I added some pictures (finally). Enjoy!

A Perfect Father's Day! Church, A Smoker/Grill, Steak, Star Wars, and Fireflies

Well, Amelia added me on as a contributor to our family blog (since apparently I don't have the capacity to post on my own "deep theological thoughts" blog very much. SO, here's my first family post:

I had a GREAT Father's Day!
I got up at "butt-early" to tend to the awake children but was soon joined by my lovely wife and my wonderful mother-in-law.
We went to church at the same church we went to last week (St Stephen's). Unbeknownst to us, they had videotaped the kids the week before and apparently one of the kids they taped was Ewan! So, here we are in church watching this tribute Father's Day video which was clever and moving and up pops my son! They asked him, "What do you like that your dad does." He says, "I like the tackles!" =)
Also at church, they had my boys make "hand-print" Father's Day cards and the boys gave them to me and said, "Happy Father's Day" and gave me BIG hugs. Very sweet. (Of course, Isaac's sounded more like "Happy Fawder's Day"...

We went home took a nap and when the boys got up I showed Ewan some of Stars Wars Episode 1. (Amelia already wrote about that.) It was fun to snuggle up in the big recliner together and watch his face light up!
Then went to Lowe's where I got to pick out a new, small grill. Also, my mother-in-law, Janet, got us a smoker, too! (And then she helped us cook on it the next day and MAN! Tasty!!)

Then, we went to eat at Texas Roadhouse where I had a mug of Texas beer (Shiner) and ate and excellent Chicken-Fried Steak! Whoo-hoo!

When we went home, it was late and the sun was starting to go down, and Ewan saw FIREFLIES (for the 2nd time in his life). And THIS time, he wanted to CATCH them! So, I said, OK, and off we went. I got a jar from the basement and put some holes in it and we ran around our huge, joint backyard (there are no fences between us and three of our neighbors) and caught fireflies. Ewan COULD NOT have been more excited and more happy!!

We caught as many as we could; 12 or so, until we couldn't see them any more (except when they blinked). We took them inside and went straight to bed. Ewan wanted to put the fireflies on the nightstand while we read books together. He was still in high heaven!...

He said in super-fast speech: "DadthefireflieswanttoreadPoohbear?" (turning to them) "DoyouwanttoreadPoohbear?Theysaid'yes'TheylikePoohbear.Theywanttoreadwith us.Canwesetthemonthebedwithus?Ormaybeonthenightstand?"
After reading books by "Firefly", I tucked him and explained something:

"Dad, can my fireflies stay in my room tonight?"
"Ewan, if we keep the fireflies in your room, they might be dead in the morning because they haven't gotten to eat what they were eating outside."
[Eyes wide. Stunned. Sadness and Problem-solving brain in high gear.]
"But Dad, I want them in my room and I don't want them to die."
"Well, buddy, you can keep them in your room, but you need to be prepared that they might be dead when you wake up; OR, Daddy, can take them outside and set them free and we can catch them again sometime."
[Eyes smaller. Brow furrowed. Thinking. Feeling his desires out.]
Quieter..."Dad, let the fireflies out." Resigned... "We can catch them another time."
"Okay"
[Apparently my sensitive-heart son is more of a "catch & release" than "eat 'em up" kind of a hunter]

Now, normally, Ewan tries to come up with 50 reasons for me NOT to leave his room. But that night he said:
"Dad! Go! Set them free!"

And when i tried to tuck him in more and pray for him he just said, "Go!!"

So off I went! I forgot to turn on his white-noise-maker!

It was a truly great Father's Day!

But I'm Not Too Widdle

Isaac is becoming such a big boy these days. In all of the transition of moving we decided to move him to a big boy bed and out of the crib. Originally we wanted to wait to move him until he was closer to 3 years old but since he had been sleeping on hotel beds and air mattresses and doing well on them we figured there was not much reason to go back to the crib.

Isaac has reached an age where he loves to do and say anything that Ewan does--with one exception--I think Isaac has learned how to avoid getting in as much trouble as Ewan by disobeying (notice I say as much). He still gets his fair share of time outs. A lot of the time Isaac will join in on Ewan's jokes, questions, demands, or follies. Basically, Isaac does not realize that he is younger than Ewan and honestly, sometimes it is easy to forget that he IS younger than Ewan because their language skills and pretend play is so similar.

On Sunday, Father's Day, Jon thought it would be fun to let Ewan watch some of Star Wars Episode I with him while Isaac was still napping. Jon thought that Ewan was old enough to start getting embedded with Star Wars culture and that the only thing that might possibly scare Ewan was Darth Mall (or however you spell it). Ewan got to see some of the movie and really enjoyed it. He thought Jar Jar Binks was super funny and loved all the space ships and "funny animal guys".

When Isaac got up from his nap the first thing Ewan told him was that he got to watch a fun movie about space ships and funny animal guys. This, of course, sounds incredibly appealing to Isaac who also likes space ships and funny animal guys. Isaac turned to Jon and wanted to know if he could watch the movie too. Daddy had to tell him that he was too little for now. Isaac is in the middle of figuring out what is scary, pretend scary and real scary.

As I was laying Isaac down for his nap today he said to me out of the blue, "But I'm not too widdle to watch the movie."

Mommy: What movie?
Isaac: Star Wars
Mommy: Hmm...
Isaac: Mommy, I'm a big boy--I'm.not.too. widdle.
Mommy: Oh, Isaac, you are such a big boy in so many ways! You sleep in a big boy bed, wear big boy underwear, and go peepee and poopie in the potty. But Ewan is older and there are some things he gets to do now that you don't get to do yet.

It is tempting to try to let him join in on the fun but I think it would be wise for us as parents to allow his mind to develop more and give him time to have a better understanding of pretend vs. reality. Like I said, sometimes it is easy to forget that he is 1 year younger than Ewan and what a big difference it is developmentally.

For now I relish those sweet moments of conversation and hearing that 2 year old sing-songy voice with the lisp, w for y sounds, and d for t sounds, and w for l sounds. My "baby" is going to be the big brother soon--the middle child. He is going to seem so much bigger than he is once baby "Tex" is born. It seems likely that once Tex comes that Isaac will also begin to see himself as bigger than he really is and that it will be harder to convince him otherwise. Those will be good times. Good times.

Don't Pack the Potatoes!

As we were unloading the truck--i say we--I was directing people on where to put things. Someone walked by saying, "something is leaking in this box and it stinks". As he walked by I got a whiff and boy was it stinky! I thought that something jarred from the pantry had broken and gone bad but couldn't think of what would make that smell.

The boys needed constant supervision and were also very clingy so I couldn't go into the house without them following me. They needed to stay out of the way of the unloaders. My mom graciously took on the challenge of checking out the foul smell from the box.

She opened the box to find a bag of potatoes that had gone putrid. Apparently they don't do so well in a hot truck. Thankfully they were sitting on top of a breakfast in bed tray (a Mickey Mouse one from when I was a kid) and the putrid juice landed in the tray and managed to peel almost all the paint off. I don't think it will be a collectable item any more. As soon as she opened the box all 3 floors were filled with the horrific, gagging odor of rotten potatoes. She threw the box outside (where it still remains) and tried cleaning off anything the puke potato juice on. The only item that was ruined was the Mickey Mouse tray. If that tray had not been there to catch the juice it would have leaked through the box and stunk up the whole truck and probably ruined whatever boxes were underneath it.

As I was clearing out the pantry and fridge I thought--its potatoes--they last forever. Well, apparently not so when you move across the country DON'T PACK THE POTATOES!

Since Day 3.....

We spent Friday taking it easy. We were all recovering from the drive and the boys were still recovering from their dumb virus so we didn't do much. We spent a lot of the morning on the front porch on the swing and meeting neighbors.

Two seminarian families live behind us and have kids around the same age. One of the families, the Driscolls, invited me to come to a jewelry party that night because other seminarian women would be there too and she thought I might enjoy meeting some other women. She made the point for me not to worry about buying anything--to which I said, "don't worry, I won't." I went and had a great time. One great thing about being here is that there is an instant community with lots of potential friendships.

We went to the hardware store and bought paint for the boy's rooms and for the kitchen. The color in there was too loud for me. I like the color but I felt that after a while I might feel like the kitchen was yelling at me all the time. I picked an olive green color instead. Something warm and inviting. I think it will look nice with the stainless steel appliances that are already in there.

Yesterday, Ewan went to play at one of our new friend's houses for a few hours while Jon and I painted and Isaac napped. Normally, I would feel weird letting my kid go to someone's house (without me) I had just met the day before but both Jon and I felt comfortable with it knowing that they were right behind us and that we would be spending a lot of time with these people. Ewan had a great time and wanted to go back today.

We had to use a primer on the kitchen and one of the bedrooms upstairs before we could paint so that is making the painting process take much longer. One of the bedrooms was baby poop yellow and red--the red very similar to the red wall in our house in Dallas. It took 2 coats of primer to cover it up. We basically have the kitchen done and are aiming to finish one bedroom tonight. Speaking ofwhich--I better go help Jon soon.

The boys are finally getting on track with their sleep schedules again--although the room we are staying in is VERY bright in the morning and Isaac has been waking up at 6am which basically means we are all up between 6 and 6:30. It does give us an early start for the day though!

We visited a church today and really liked it. Jon wants to check out one in our neighborhood that has an emphasis on urban ministry. I think we will go there next week and then go back to the other church the week after.

It is so fun to be in the city--we can walk to the school, post office, health food store (not that I have been there yet but it is just a few blocks away), the hardware store, movie theatre, pharmacy and lot of other places.

We have a "Y" shaped staircase that leads from the first floor to the second floor. One part leads from the foyer to a platform and the other leads from the kitchen to the platform that leads up to the second floor (i hope that made sense). The stairs that are from the kitchen to the platform are VERY steep--I mean 1.5-2X the height of normal stairs. I discovered today that my legs are sore from going up and down these stairs. It is a built in exercise machine. Hopefully it will help me from gaining too much baby weight-hahahaha!

Jon is waiting on me to help paint--

Our truck gets here tomorrow and a bunch of people are coming to help unload it. I have my first midwife appointment, and am picking mom up from the airport. Tomorrow will be very exciting and I am glad our stuff is getting here because I think I have reached my limit of camping out in our house. I know sitting on the floor while you are pregnant is good but I am looking forward to something soft to sit on too! My bootie is achin' for some soft cushions......

Day 3

Well, we made it. Both boys got fevers of about 101 and were pretty miserable the second part of this leg to the house. We were all pretty tired.

We did drive through a teeny-tiny part of West Virginia on this trip too. I didn't realize we were going through WV until the last leg of the trip.

We got here and made it to Target to get air mattresses, sheets, towels and enough groceries to last for breakfast and lunches.

We were all totally excited to have finally made it after all the planning.

The boys picked out their rooms and ran around the house getting familiar with their new territory.

We decided that we should all sleep in the same room until our "stuff" gets here so we have been piling in the big room on the second floor (soon to be the master bedroom with a sitting area).

We ate dinner, gave the boys some medicine, and went to bed.

Day 2

I did want to mention that we are driving through 6 states on our trip: Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Arkansas was yesterday's trip and it just seems like there is NOTHING in Arkansas. It is a very pretty state but when you spend 5 hours driving diagonally across the state and hit less than 5 major cities it is pretty boring. Pretty, but boring.

Isaac woke up this morning limping. At first we thought it was an ant bite on his foot but as the day wore on he could not walk on his leg without crying. We have pretty much narrowed it down to his fall from the bed but we are not sure where exactly the pain is coming from. There is no bruising, swelling, or redness anywhere. We have felt all along his leg and feet but he does not cry out at a specific place. We are perplexed! As the day wore on I noticed that he was probably running fever as well. His cousins had some fever virus last Friday and they played together all morning. We discovered right as Ewan was going to bed that he has a fever as well. Thankfully it is only fever but you all know how fever makes you feel. We were praying that they wouldn't get sick on this trip.

Anyway, here are the high points of our trip today:

1. Leaving Arkansas
2. Entering Memphis, Tennessee--what a beautiful city! We couldn't resist stopping at a few places on our way through.


We went to Graceland and spent $36 in 36 minutes. We paid for parking, took some pictures, bought an Elvis CD, and saw the actual house from the road. We would have had to pay $25/person and wait forever to get to the house. We didn't have time to do that nor did we want to pay that much.








Next stop: National Civil Rights Museum. We saw the hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. We got some cool pics and went into the museum part just to see the lobby. There is an amazing sculpture in the entry way and the whole feeling of the museum is powerful. I felt a powerful wave of emotion just standing there. We both want to go back to the museum and see the whole thing. If just standing in the entry was powerful, I can't imagine being able to see the whole thing. It was really fun to tell Ewan, in kid terms, about MLK about what he means to us and how he is one of our heroes.













Final stop: Sun Studios--where Johnny Cash got his start and recorded his first record. Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbisson, Johnny Cash...all those guys got started there. They were playing Johnny Cash as we walked in and Isaac said, "that's Johnny Cash." The workers got a kick that a 2 year old would know that. We didn't have time to go on the tour but we did get to poke around a little, get some pics, and got a t-shirt. We all had fun together at Sun Studios. Johnny Cash is part of our family culture and it was fun to go and celebrate that part of history together.












3. Seeing Tennessee, Beale street, and the Mississippi river.

4. Air conditioning in the car.

5. The boys napping for an hour!

6. Magnetic "fishing" puzzles by Melissa and Doug. My mom put together fun packages for the boys and we pulled out some new books and these puzzles today. They LOVED the magnetic puzzles and played with them several times throughout the day. Go Mom!!

7. Driving along the river near downtown Louisville to find dinner. Apparently we are staying close to the river next to a very posh area. I suggested that we find the hotel and then find a place for dinner nearby. Little did I know that as we drove down the road we would be passing country club after club and mansion after mansion. We were beginning to think that even if we DID find a place to eat it would cost an arm and a leg but finally we found a local joint and ordered food there. It was quite the beautiful drive though. Who knew that Louisville was so pretty?

8. Getting to the hotel.

9. Two boys who are real troopers.

Low Points

1. Isaac's limp required him to be carried everywhere today.

2. Both boys running fever at the end of the day.

3. Totally tired and sick boys=whining, complaining, and just not feeling good.

4. Sitting in the passenger seat with the sun beating down on me for about 3 hours. Thank God for air conditioning!

5. Having to leave our fun dinner find right on the river because we realized both boys were way too tired and not feeling well to be civilized. It was such a beautiful day to sit outside and enjoy the end of the day. We got our food to go.

6. Still feeling emotionally constipated.

7. I forgot to mention this in the last post. As we were about to head out on the road we got a call from the truck company telling us that our truck would arrive in PA over the weekend and would not get dropped off at our house until Monday. We were hoping it would get there on Friday which is why we decided to arrive by Thursday. That means once we get to PA tomorrow we will be on air mattresses for 4 nights. We knew that could possibly happen but were hoping for the best. We will have quite the adventure living in an empty house! It will give us time to paint the boys rooms though before the furniture arrives.

8. The time zone change means the boys didn't get to bed until almost 9:30 again (WAY past their normal bedtime). I am ready for normal life to start again!!!!

I think that summarizes our day--I gotta get to bed. Please keep praying for us. Overall, everyone is doing well and having fun together. We need those boys to get better quickly. Tomorrow is just 6 more hours of driving. We aren't making any fun stops so we can get to PA early enough in the afternoon to run all our errands.

Blessings to you and good night!

Day 1 of the Big Trip

Tuesday

We started out with the best intentions of leaving my mom's house by 9am but had no luck doing so. Jon was feeling stressed out that we were not leaving as early as we had planned and the tension was in the air. It didn't bother me that we were off schedule. I think it was because I was just HOPEFUL we would get out the door at an early hour. I also think that actually getting in the car made the move so much more real. It has of course become more real with every step--packing boxes, loading the truck, moving to my mom's etc. I haven't been able to emotionally engage with leaving my friends and family thus far because there has been no space for reflection. It has been getting through the next 2 hours. There have been moments of sadness but mostly life has been full of taking care of all the little details. Unfortunately I rediscovered that when things get really stressful and I get emotionally constipated my stomach rebels against nature and I find myself in the bathroom more often than I would like. Perhaps that is my body's way of providing reflection time??

Anyway, gathering up all our stuff in the house took a while and then Jonny had to pack it in the car. It is a good thing he is gifted at packing the car (and the truck for that matter). We had to get the car inspected on our way out of town because it had expired in May and we didn't want to drive all over the nation with an expired sticker.

We arrived at the inspection place around 9am and had to wait for about an hour before the inspector guy touched our car. Finally he got to our car and I looked out the window and saw him driving around the inspection store in OUR car talking on HIS cell phone.

What in the world? Isn't there something wrong with someone trying to do a car inspection whilst talking on their cell phone?

A few minutes later the guy came in and wanted to talk to Jon. Jon left to talk to the guy and came back in a few minutes later almost in tears because the guy failed the inspection. Terrible timing! Jon was irritated at himself for waiting to do it at the last minute and irritated at the guy because they disagreed on the issue. The car makes a creaking noise when you turn the wheel all the way to the right or left and they guy said the car slowed down and that the noise indicates some kind of problem. Jon didn't feel the slowing or "binding" as the guy called it. The guy admitted he was not a mechanic and couldn't diagnose the problem but insisted that there was a problem and failed the car.

That meant we had to go to a different inspection place and see if it would pass there. Thankfully the wait at the second place was about 10 minutes and the car passed just fine. By this time it was 11am and we decided we should go ahead and get some lunch. Einstein Bros. was across from the inspection place so we ordered some sandwiches to go and were on the road by 11:30. Tuesday was our longest leg of the trip so Jon and I were anticipating a fairly miserable experience.

The boys have not had their regular routine for several days in a row and have been missing out on probably an average of 2 hours of sleep a day. Most of you know we are sleep freaks and don't let the boys miss out on sleep very often. We also value friendships and relationships and wanted to get all the extra time with friends and family before moving. Because of their lack of sleep we thought the boys would be delirious, whiny, toddlers the whole way.

I know lots of you have been praying for us (and the boys especially) and I have to say a thank you to the Lord because they boys did AWESOME in the car. They were totally content to read books and play with toys. They didn't even fuss about music in the car. We were able to listen to mommy and daddy music with NO whining!

I think the highlight of their day was sleeping in the hotel. They thought the beds were cool and of course LOVED having the TV. We tried putting them in the same bed but that was too new and stimulating so we each slept with a kid. It turned out to be a good thing because Isaac is very touchy feely with his feet at night and I think it would have bothered Ewan. Isaac also fell out of the bed around 5am. Jon put him back in bed--no harm done--or so we thought.

And that takes us to Wednesday.....

The Move

The truck is packed and on its way to our house. Jon, 3 of our friends, and his dad helped load the truck this past Saturday. Jon, one of the Jarrods (there were 2 helping), and Josh stuck it out the whole day. They other Jerryd and Jon's dad had to take off at various points. They started at 9am and finished at 6pm. I have pictures but unfortunately packed my picture downloader thingy mabob so I will have to post pics later. I think one of the things that saved the day was that Jarrod had forearm forklifts. Those things helped the guys get the heavy stuff out of the house so much easier than just lifting it. I highly recommend them. It was a very, very long day but everything got on the truck and we had about 6 inches to spare--praise the Lord!

We left the house on Saturday around 7 pm and it was pretty messy. We were planning on going back on Monday to clean the house, do touch ups, get the carpets cleaned etc. Wouldn't you figure that on Sunday we were sitting in church and get a phone call from the showing service letting us know that there would be a showing Sunday afternoon??!! The house was a disaster with trash all in the kitchen (from when I cleaned out the fridge----peeeee-ew!) and messy carpet. Nothing for 2 months and then someone comes to see the house on the worst possible day. We haven't heard any feedback from the visitors. We do have a potential rental situation in the works but nothing definite yet. We should be hearing from the potential renters soon.

Monday was spent doing all sorts of errands and mostly cleaning the house and getting it back in tip top shape.

That takes me to Tuesday...and the next post.....