House Hunting in NC

     I spent the last week with Jordan, looking for a new house for our family in the Raleigh, North Carolina area- more specifically the Cary/Apex area.  He was given a promotion as  a regional manager for the mid Atlantic region.  He will cover from Pennsylvania to South Carolina and we could basically live any where in that region.  We chose to go to North Carolina for many reasons: Good Schools, pretty country, proximity to the beach, proximity to the Raleigh temple (its in Apex) but most of all proximity to family.  Jordan's parents will only be 3 hours away, his sister Lindsey and her little family 1.5 hours away, His brother Clayton 5.5 hours away and best of all, his sister Chelsea and her family 10-15 minutes away. We are so excited to live by cousins.  Even my brother Rich and his family are only about 12 hours and said they would dive down to visit us!
    This move and promotion come with a lot of emotions for me. Good and bad.  I'll start with the good, because Jordan thinks I've been a little pessimistic about things lately.  Jordan taking this position will mean more money for us and is a necessary stepping stone for him in his career.  I have no doubt he will be a great manager and will be promoted again soon.  I really am excited to live so close to Jordan's family. I hope this will really strengthen our relationships. I think living in the east will give my kids and myself more opportunity to have our testimony strengthened and more opportunity for missionary work.  It will be a blessing. The houses in North Carolina are generally pretty. With things like front porches, wainscoting, hardwood floors and coffered ceilings.  Raleigh is a melting pot of people.  about 100 people move there a day so its supposedly an easy place to make new friends and an easy place to sell your house (in case another move is in our future).
    After a week of house hunting, many tears from me, a trip to the Raleigh temple and seeing over 60 houses we found one that we think will be great for out family.  Since I'm trying to be more optimistic, I'll describe the things I'm excited about and try to be minimal with the bad.  The house has 5 bedrooms which Ellie and Reagan really wanted. They have shared since Reagan turned 2 and think its time for their own space. I think they will miss each other.  It has a finished attic space so the kids will have a place to hang out with their friends.  The yard is pretty flat so with a little work it should be a great place to play and hang out for our whole family.  It has some really pretty finish work and  I love the color of the hardwood floors and granite counter tops.  Its a brand new house. We will be the first to live there. so I don't have to move in and worry about cleaning other peoples dirt or repainting doors, mouldings.  It has a pantry in the kitchen that is pretty big.  It has a three car garage so we should have space for storage and a third car when Ellie gets one. It is one of the least expensive homes in the neighborhood so we can do upgrades without worrying about becoming to expensive.  We don't have a close backdoor neighbor to encroach on our privacy.  The neighborhood looks like it has lots of kids. There are lots of basketball standards and play sets through out.  Our house is right across the street from the neighborhood pool and park and just down the road from a new city park that's almost complete. We will be 5 minutes from the temple and a super target and movie theater. I have heard the ward is great and even have someone awaiting my arrival.  My friend from college, Renae Kirby has a good friend who lives there.  So after writing this list of good things about the house, I feel bad even saying anything bad about it.  So I think I won't.  It will be great and I'm sure we will love North Carolina, Apex and our new home.  We are supposed to do the final walk through next week and Jordan will take more pictures, but for now I have this one of the out side of it.

2532 Tuffeto Trace, Apex NC will be our new home.

Sleeping next to me

My kids love to sleep with me.  Almost every night Tess or Maddox slips into my bed and takes up my bed space.  Ellie and Reagan love to take turns sleeping in my bed while Jordan in out of town.  a lot of nights we end up with 3 or 4 people sleeping in my Queen size bed. Sometimes I have little (and not so little) hands falling over on me.  More often I have whole arms and legs falling on me and sometimes heads.  I usually have feet or bums poking into my side and drastically diminishing my sleeping space. I wake up all the time to my babies stinky breath in my face (poop sandwich anyone?).  Sounds like torture, but I have come to love it.  My favorite part is watching their beautiful peaceful faces on the pillow beside me.  They are growing so fast. Too fast. and Jordan and I sing a part of a country song Ellie once danced to, to each other all the time "let them be little, cuz they're only that way for a while". We are finding this song to be way to true.

Truth or Dare

Tonight Ellie invited some friends over from school to play games and have pizza.  For the first time, she invited boys!! She had Taft and Perry Cowley, Madeline Wood, Brinn Thornton, Afton , Jerom Schults, Grant Judd, Tyler  , and  Ammon Moritz over. They are all such good nice kids.  After playing out in our back yard for a bit, having some pizza, and playing just dance on the wii they headed to the park for night games. Since they are 11 and 12 I didn't want them there alone in the dark so I told them I was coming. Not one of them seemed to care. I was suprised. I took  a seat on a bench in the shadows so they wouldn't feel like I was watching their every move. after a minute they all came over and asked me which game they thought they should play.  again they didn't act like they cared I was there.  After a few games running around the park they wanted to play truth or dare and proceeded to sit about two feet behind the bench I was sitting on. I tried to give them a little privacy by listening to a book on my iPhone but they soon involved me.  Perry came and sat on my lap for one of her dares and then Grant came over sat beside me and them delivered the pretty smooth line "if you were a pirate would you put your parrot on this shoulder (tapping the shoulder closest to him) or this shoulder (tapping the other shoulder and ending up with his arm around me)?"  .  The kids thought that was soooo funny.  I did to.  These kids are so good an innocent and I love them. I hope Ellie and all my kids find a group of friends as good in NC. and that they stay this innocent and good forever.

Text to Jordan

I just sent Jordan this text and then I had the thought to blog it. It was kind of a great moment and not my finest at the same time:

I was just in bed when I had a thought to go check to see if the garage was shut. It's not a normal part of my routine when your gone or anything. It was open! At the same exact time I THOUGHT "thank you Heavenly Father" and SAID "holy shit". I hope Heavenly Father couldn't hear what I said over what I was thinking. I don't even swear. Not often anyway. I was amazed, grateful and scared all at the same time.

I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that protects me. especially when Jordan is out of town