Update

Everett's birthday ends the "birthday season" in our household.  He got a cool bat cave/batman toy.  And he had "Captain America banana cake." He asked for "Captain America, banana, ice cream cake," but what can you do?  I threw it together before Dad left for work.  Yep, birthdays were simple this year, for hopefully obvious reasons.

Speaking of which, it was really hard to have Daddy grab a slice of cake and rush off, unable to celebrate on the actual day.  Our whole family is very tired.  When all of this started, I was determined to be out of here, and living in our new town with my husband, no later than October - in an apartment if nothing else.  But that's not really an option.  The Lord keeps reassuring us that it's almost over, he has a buyer prepared for us.  We've prayed repeatedly about whether or not to drop the price, and have been told to remain faithful and patient.  He has even given us a time frame, for which I am very grateful.  I see that as a miraculous amount of mercy.  But we're all very tired still the same.  We're tapped out.  If we got an offer tomorrow (which I'm faithful is an entire possibility, especially considering we had another showing yesterday) it wouldn't be soon enough.  Another 4 to 5 weeks, best case scenario till closing, is not soon enough.  We're all very tired... wait, did I say that already?  

We spent the last week and a half aggressively house hunting.  We found a place that I'm very excited about.  It'll take a LOT of work to get into, just cleaning and painting, maybe some minor remodeling, to get it to stop smelling.  It's a great price, well worth it.  We just don't want to move stuff in only to have it all absorb the smoke smell.  So we wanted to buy it and get to work... but that's not really an option either.  We can't get approved for acceptable loan terms w/o being under contract with our current home... foiled again.

Oh, PS, the company that has employed Chad for the past 6 weeks just sold.  He just left a job b/c management changed for the worse.  And it sounds like this new company is NOT a good fit either.  So he may be job hunting again w/in the next year... but after a bit of time on our knees, we are reminded that we've been led to this point and not to worry about it.  We feel good about continuing with our current plan.  Not only am I at peace with this new situation, I feel like it will lead us to something even better.  For example, the lady that's over the W-ton offices feels the same way that Chad does about how things should be done; it's a really great professional relationship.  And she carries a lot of clout.  She is talking about, if things go badly, buying out the W-ton locations.  If that were to happen, we'd need/want to buy in as well - which is the exact position we hoped to one day be in.  Or maybe it will just lead to another job entirely that's somehow more perfect for us.  Who knows, but we feel good about it.  It's just another ironic, faith testing, plot twist. 

Homeschool is going just fine.  It's actually really great, except that it's another responsibility.  Last year, I only had to teach for a month at a time before another mom would take over.  And I'm feeling like it's time for some other mom to take over now and give me a break.  Not gonna happen.  So we took a couple of days off (shh, don't tell the state.)

Calvin is teething like a beast.  But hopefully these last four are it until his toddler molars.  HOPEFULLY.

Oh, and Chloe's getting baptized this coming weekend.  So I'm trying to coordinate with another family who's daughter just turned 8 and get that planned.  SHEESH it involves a LOT of people!  And house guests.  Yeah, this week's not going to be stressful at all ;)  It's exciting though.  So that's what's up with our family.

Birthdays, Birthdays and Birthdays

So August pretty much involved waiting for someone to buy our house and waiting for Chad to move out and start his new job.  But aside from the yucky stuff, I had my 29th birthday, which started our family's "birthday season."  Chad gave me an IOU for an iPhone which comes out next week.  So we can get it next week.  (I'm excited.)  And his mom sent me a gift card for Massage Envy (wahoo!)

A week later, this chubbo turned a year old.  I can't believe it's been a year already!  He is chocked full of personality now.

 He likes to pounce on people.

 and make silly faces.

 This one's his favorite.  It's his goofing off smile.

I've got to admit, it was pretty sad how little mental space I was able to devote to his birthday.  But he got a cake.  And I happened to get the rocking horse out of the attic that day.  So what else does a growing boy need?

 The cake was pretty funny.  At dinner, we gave him a few pieces of salad.  He thought that was a cruel trick.  So when I put the cupcake in front of him, with blue sprinkles, he looked at it like, "yeah, I'm not falling for that one again folks."  But finally, he got a little frosting on his thumb and ended up putting it in his mouth...

  ...and liked it.

 Then it was, "back up or you might loose a finger."

 Then I tried to take his last month-by-month picture.  Yikes!  Most of them were about like this.

  But eventually we wore each other out, and I got this one... though, I can't figure out why my blog pics end up darker than the originals.

I don't have the patience or time to load all 12 months, so here's the every six month comparison... always a goof.

 Today, 5 days later, came Chloe's 8th birthday.  She wanted her ears pierced.  So yesterday, we did that and we went to spend her birthday money.  We had a fun day.  We started with Taco Bell for lunch.  It's her FAVORITE, but I always deny her because it gives me a stomach ache.  But I have to admit, what I had yesterday was really good and didn't make me sick.  Then we went to the mall for the piercing. She was nervous!

 Thankfully they did them at the same time.  But she had to old Daddy's hand.

 She was posing for her AFTER picture, but wasn't happy or breathing until they showed her the mirror.  When she saw it, she smiled so big.  It was priceless!

 And she had to get some love from Daddy.

 She was excited to look at earrings, but decided to spend her money on a toy.

 So we then went to Toy's R Us.  Shockingly, I was the one who helped the kids find suitable toys.  That's usually very much Daddy's department... you know, since he still buys toys for himself from time to time.

 Today Chloe got a movie, card, and a cake.  We kept the cake a secret.  She wanted an ice cream cake, but didn't know we got one.  So tonight, I made cupcakes for me and Calvin (since we can't have dairy) and she assumed that was it.  So she was pretty excited to get exactly what she wanted... on every front.

 This little girl is getting too big, too fast.  I think she was about 4 years old here.

A Minute to Breathe

Now that I've gotten a minute to breath... here's what's been happening.  Chad was interviewing casually for some time for a new job.  His has gone rapidly down hill after the hire of an office manager that thinks he's not worthwhile.  We didn't think we'd get an offer that paid as well though, so moving wasn't no my radar.  But he interviewed with a place just before Memorial Day weekend.  It's a cut, but not as drastic as some of the other offers.  Over the long weekend, we decided to take it.  

Over that weekend too, we went to Charleston with my brother's family.  We are SO happy they now live close enough to go to the beach with them!  We hit the aquarium:

 And the beach, of course:

This was Calvin's first time.  Of course, he spent his time eating sand, happily.

 And we hit the pool:

Our kids get along so well.  It's wonderful!

 As soon as we got back, we got to work on the house.  We had to paint over the bright yellow kitchen.  Actually, this picture looks pretty pale... hmm.  I bet this is the yellow from the previous owners... yep, mine was brighter.

I did a pale, minty, grey-ish green.  With the other rooms, I'd say it's not a great choice, but oh well.  It made us all sad to see the yellow go.  We also had to paint over my trees in Calvin's room... also sad.  It's been a process, letting go of our first house.  We moved a ton of stuff over to storage - basically worked our BUTTS OFF for a month.  We were in a huge hurry b/c summer time is moving season here, in a big way.  We didn't want to miss out on that.  My mom came for a week to help too.  So glad she was available to watch kids while we painted the deck and whatnot.  It was stressful.

 Speaking of which, I wish I had pictures, but I don't.  If you have an old deck, in need of some new life, I've got the product for you - Behr's "deckover".  It's really thick and fills in cracks and splinters (our poor kids were always getting splinters!)  Seriously, when we moved in we thought, "that's gonna have to be replaced."  Now it's "ah, nice deck, got some years left."  And NO more splinters!  It's a beast painting a deck, but it looks great now.

Anywho, Calvin turned 10 mo.  (sorry for the lack of edits; I don't even have his 10 mo. off the camera yet.)

 So we worked like dogs, from sun up to about 10pm every day to get it listed... and now we wait.  It SUCKS!  We've been listed now for 3.5 weeks with not a single showing.  I took two weeks just recuperating.  But last week, I was done sitting around trying to keep the kids from making a mess, unable to pull out anything to do, for fear of making a mess - just waiting.  So we went to the beach by ourselves.  It was a total bummer having to leave hubby behind, but I'm glad we did it.  I needed it and came home feeling pretty good about everything, happy to see hubby.

He'd suggested that we take a Saturday and just go to W-ton to play and explore since the kids and I hadn't been there.  So yesterday, that's what we did.  Tons of people I know go, often.  And EVERYONE raves about it.  I was excited and expecting to fall in love right away.  Did. Not. Happen.  It rained the whole time, of course - finally completely fed up with that btw.  And the town is not that cute.  Still, even with a less-than-stellar first impression, it's far better than F-ville, b/c there's actually stuff to do.  And then we meandered through some neighborhoods in the school district we'd like... that was discouraging.  To spend what we want to spend in that school district, it looks like we'll be getting a dump, in a dumpy neighborhood.  We drove home, tired, hungary, and still NO CALLS for our F-ville home - further proof that we will Loose Our Shirts on this move.

But last night, in His infinite mercy, the Lord reminded me that even the best people get discouraged sometimes and that He's in still charge.  He's testing, teaching us to extend our faith... meaning this will NOT happen on my timetable.  And it WILL suck not living with my husband for the forseeable future, and we may be starting over financially, but in the end, it will be blessing... ok, it was comforting at the time, if only marginal.  UPDATE:  The next day we got our first showing.  It was a soldier over seas who's wanting to buy (site unseen) - his agent.  It's between our house and one other.  Crossing our fingers and praying really hard.  But even if he decides not to buy our house, it was very kind of Heavenly Father to send him.

Highlights

I'm determined not to let this blog go all together.  And since the school year is almost over, hopefully it will improve?  Don't hold your breath.  Anywho, you didn't miss much blog-worthiness over the past two... and a half months anyway.  Here it is in pictures.

I had fun taking pics of my boy while we laid in bed.  We spent lots of time playing in bed, before he started trying to roll out of it... These are my two favorites.

 And playing:

 He turned 7 months old in March.

 This is his biggest schtick.  When he's tired or you talk to him in just the right way, he cocks his head to the side in a I'm-so-cute kind of way.

 This is our spring project.  Chad built this climbing net.  And as you can see, I've been painting... still.  I've just got that top portion left.  I probably won't post pics since you get the idea here.

 In April, I took a weekend trip to GA.  I had my sister take some Mommy/Baby pics, since those are hard to come by around here.  These are some of my favorites.

 My mom had gotten these fun nail polish pens.  So we had a painting party.  It was so fun!  Sorry, no pics though.  Chloe had my sister do each toe and finger a different way.

We also went to the temple to do some work for my Grandmother who passed away last year.  It was SO nice!  We all felt like, when it was done, we hadn't really noticed how much of a hole there was in our family before.

 And this month, Calvin turned 8 months old.  He's eating, well, everything we put in front of him.  He's hit a growth spurt again since this picture.  Seriously, everyone at playgroup today said that he'd grown just since they'd seen him on Sunday.  I noticed it overnight.  12 mo. clothes now.  He just finished cutting his 7th tooth with another that looks like it's on the way.  He's still working on the whole crawling thing.  Pre-k started winding down in April, and we quit at the start of May.  So Everett's bored.  But I've finally got Calvin on a good, definitive sleep schedule.  He still wakes up at night though.  Which, I kinda like a once-a-night wake up.  It's the one time I get to just quietly nurse him, with no where to be, no distractions - no trying to roll away and take part of me with him, as he does during the day.  It's nice.  What I don't like so much is the 2-3 time wake ups when he's teething or colic-y.  Colic you say?  That's right.  It's usually not a problem.  In fact he got much less anti-snuggly and violent once we got it under control.  But we recently discovered he's allergic to wheat as well as dairy.  Fun times.  (I thoroughly dislike the solid food phase.)  Anywho... oh, he has learned to hug!  Big news!  It totally makes my day when I pick him up and he squeezes my neck so tight I think he might actually choke me :)  He also kinda gives baby kisses.  He's still working on crawling.  It's so cute to watch him try.  The other day, I had him in a very shallow bath, just watching him play.  He got on his tummy, lifted his hands and kicked his legs out, as he often does.  This time though, it sent him sliding across the tub.  He giggled and kept trying to make it happen again.  It was so fun to watch the wheels turning.  Poor thing couldn't figure it out though. :)

As for Chloe, 7 1/2, she's looking forward to being baptized this fall.  But even more than that, looking forward to school ending.  She's burnt out and comes home grouchy a bit.  She still loves her teacher though...

As I said, school is over for Everett, 5 1/2.  He's of course bored.  But makes the most of it, mostly by watching TV.  As soon as Chloe gets home, he's itching to play with her.  But she just wants to chill.  It's tough.  We're all looking forward to summer.

February

This month, we've pretty much hibernated.  We've had lots of cold and rain, so... we also haven't gotten out much b/c it's been my month to teach pre-k again.  It went well... honestly I don't have much to update on.  So here are some fun pictures:

Calvin makes a funny squinty face when he knows I'm about to pull his shirt over his head.  This is kind of it.

 And he makes this lips-tucked-in face a lot, he's usually only got one sock on and loves the Johnny Jumper.

 Chloe ached for some snow.  All were excited when we finally got some, even though it didn't stick.

 Calvin likes the mirror on his exersaucer.  It's cute to watch him look at himself.  The other day in his high chair, he also noticed a little bunny that's sewn onto the pad right behind his head.  He completely turned around to try and get it.

 And Calvin turned 6 months old yesterday.

Look at that tongue!  It's a big one.  Of course he spends most of his time chewing on his toes these days... oh, and he got his first meal.  My baby's growing up.  It's bittersweet.

 

What a beautiful baby!