Support.

  I'm blogging from the cozy queen sized bed in my sister's guest room tonight.  Feeling sad and grateful and happy and tired and lonely and cozy.  Is it normal to feel all those emotions at once? I'm really missing Matt right now.  After a yummy dinner at my sister Lara's house everyone snuggled down to watch Willy Wonka (not the weird Johnny Depp one...) and I felt sad.  I wanted to snuggle into Matt's arm and watch it too.  Instead I snuck upstairs and caught up on the latest episode of Nashville (guilty pleasure). I'm sure it's the holidays around the corner that bring hot stinging tears to my eyes while I think about Matt lately. The past 11 years together have left me feeling like I'm not quite whole when we are apart, which has been too often this year.  This brings me to my family.....
  It's amazing how the blessings pour in and help to fill up the sadness.  The week I was preparing to leave Oklahoma and come to Lara's house I got a phone call from her.  She was letting me know Steve (her husband) wanted to fly out to Oklahoma and drive the kids and I back to their house in Utah so I wouldn't have to drive alone.  Who does that? Steve, that's who.  It was like a million pounds were lifted off of my shoulders.  I've been at Lara's for a little over a week and it has been so wonderful.  The kids have been having such a great time with their cousins and I've loved being with 2 of my sisters.
   I'm so glad my Mom was thoughtful enough to give me 4 sisters, and Daniel was thoughtful enough to add a 5th.  Living away from them makes me so sad and I have daydreams about all of us living on the same street.  There's a set of sisters in our neighborhood who built their houses next door to each other and their kids can run back and forth between their homes through their backyards.  I am secretly SUPER jealous of them.  I want that.
   I'm feeling very rambly and scattered right now.....so I guess this is the point I'm trying to make.  I'm having a hard time and really missing Matt.  However, I've been so blessed by family and friends to feel like I don't have to carry the burden alone.  Every direction I turn my life is being blessed by others.  I don't know what I've done to have so many people in my life who care about us.....but I'm grateful.

Homeschool update:
The good: my kids are so easy to teach! We have been able to come to Lara's house for a few weeks and just bring school with us.  Get our work done in the mornings and play all day! Couldn't do that if it weren't for the freedom of homeschooling.  I'm loving most of the curriculum we are using and I'm so impressed with how fast they learn.
The bad: not much to report.  It has been a slight battle to get them to do school while we are on vacation.  It's getting easier being with them so much, but still is not something I'm totally used to.
The ugly: I'm pretty sure my face wrinkles have doubled in the past 2 months.

Macaroni

 Tonight I stood over the garbage can, giant pot of 3 hour old macaroni and cheese and giant serving spoon in hand, shoveling that cold mac n cheese into my mouth....off of the giant spoon.  A spoon so big I had to open my mouth as BIG as it would go to eat off of it.  I had walked over to the garbage originally with the intention of scraping the old leftovers out of the pot and into the trash....but as I looked down at that cold macaroni my stomach growled and I realized I was SO hungry.  Like, I need to eat this cold nasty old dinner right this second kind of hungry.  Like I've been lost in the woods for three days with no food kind of hungry.  Tonight was my second time making that Kraft delectable delight since Matt left....yesterday.  So yeah, things are going good. 
   As I inhaled my cold pot-over-the-trashcan dinner I thought to myself, "what brought me here?" Then I remembered what brought me here:
1 bowl of cereal thrown on the floor this morning
25ish 2 year old temper tantrums
3 cups of water dumped on the floor that were found on the counter by said 2 year old
10ish screaming matches between Hallie and Chase
1 hour of time-out for Hallie and Chase
3 loads of laundry washed, folded and put away
3 toilets scrubbed
1 little boy's closet sorted though with clothes that are too small stored
2 children home schooled
3 stinky diapers
2 loads of dishes
3 pumpkins painted
1 shower for Mom
2 hours of fun with friends
2 trips to sonic for diet cokes
20 different items finally put in the attic where they belong
1 chat with Matt who arrived at his destination safely
3 children bathed, teeth brushed, jammied, and into bed
3 sets of prayers
1 scripture study
2 sets of crying children who miss their Dad
3 sets of kisses
3 sets of hugs
....................and a partridge in a pear tree

I swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

 Lets dig right into it.  We have withdrawn our kids from public school and started on a home school journey.  Before I tell you how it's going let me tell you how I came to this decision. 

  I have been interested in, and tossing around the idea of, home school for about a year now.  No particular reason why....just kept popping up in my thought process.  Every time I began to consider this as an option the self doubt crept in telling me, "you can't teach your kids! You're not a teacher!" and "You can't teach your kids! You got kicked out of college!" and "You can't teach your kids!  You would kill them if you were with them that much." and "You can't home school, your kids will be social weirdos!"  As each of these negative thoughts entered my mind, it confirmed to me that homeschooling was just not for us.  Plus, they both loved school....no point in messing with that.  So for a year I managed to successfully talk myself into staying with the public school system. 
  This school year however things started to change.  Hallie's school last year was kindergarten through second grade.  This year, she moved to the school next door which is for third, fourth and fifth graders.  From the first day of school there was a change in her.  Previously she had breezed through school, always testing waaaay above grade level and loved by her teachers for her happy, positive attitude.  All of a sudden she was overwhelmed and frustrated with math.  She would come home and spend hours trying to do her homework with Matt or I helping.  Matt would get frustrated because he didn't understand what was expected in the homework and ask me to take over.  I would take over and be just as confused as Hallie.  It was a nightmare.  I wrote to her teacher (who I love and is an excellent teacher) and she said this was all new to her also, all the kids were struggling.  Hallie would be up every morning at 7:30am, out the door by 8:00, home at 4:00, chores, dinner, piano, homework, shower, scripture study, prayers, teeth, bed by 7:30.  Rinse and repeat. She was scheduled from the time she rose in the morning, until her head hit the pillow at night. Everyday I would get a phone call from the office that Hallie was in the nurses office with a headache.  Days of tests she would be a nervous wreck, leaving the house in tears for fear of failing.  My daughter had gone from a child who LOVED school.....to a child who was having panic attacks on a daily basis.  She was a stressed out mess.
    At the same time she was having panic attacks over Math she was coming home bewildered by her English.  "It's kindergarten spelling words!" she told me kind of excited.  When the first spelling test came home as a multiple choice test she pulled it out and declared "We don't even have to spell on our spelling tests!" This just all seemed so wrong to me.  She went from never having a problem with math to a total disaster and from the gifted program in Germany for her outstanding reading/writing/spelling abilities to kindergarten multiple choice spelling tests in third grade. The answer was whispering every day in the back of my mind: HOME SCHOOL.
   Matt was getting ready to leave us for a 6 month deployment.  This meant he would be gone for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.  The thought of not being with family for those holidays made me so so sad.  But that 20 hour drive to California or Utah just wouldn't be worth it if I couldn't stay for quite a few weeks.  I talked to both the kids schools about the possibility of missing the couple of weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break and was met with less than helpful administrators who weren't the least bit compassionate about our situation.  Again the whisper entered my mind: HOME SCHOOL.
  I watched the Monday through Friday schedule of my kids and my heart hurt for what seemed to me to be a lack of opportunity to just be..... kids.  Play outside, build forts, cozy with Mom on the couch and read a book, paint, play tag, sleep in, find frogs, etc.  Again the quiet whispers. 
  Before I could take the leap though I had a few issues I needed to work through.  Feelings of self deprecation.  Feelings that I wasn't patient enough, smart enough, etc.  When I finally sat down and went over my list of reasons why I thought I shouldn't home school I realized all but one of them came back to my feeling inferior.  This is where a little prayer came into play.  As I prayed over this decision in my mind I saw myself as my Father in Heaven sees me.  I am smart.  I can teach these children....probably better than any teacher could, because I love them in a way no teacher ever will. Their success in this life is my number one priority during the short 18 years they live in my home and I am able to have an influence over it. 
   I am capable of patience.  This is an opportunity to continue to develop that talent and hopefully learn to love the time with my children.  I am their Mother, and when it comes to their well being I knew I could and WOULD rise to the occasion. I remembered that I was trusted to raise these children and that if I chose to take their secular education into my own hands....I would have the support of a loving Father in Heaven who knows so much better than I do what I am capable of.  Basically I felt peace about my decision and determination in a way I don't think I have ever felt it before. 
  The only negative that didn't have anything to do with ME was a fear of my kids becoming social outcasts.  This is what I've always been told about home schooled kids.  If they don't go to school....they don't function in society.  I believed it.  However over the past year I have been so surprised as friend after friend have told me, "I was home schooled" then I thought to myself, "hmmm, and you seem so normal....you must be one of the few normal ones."  My kids are very socially confident and appropriate, I was afraid to mess with that.
    This is where I have arrived with the whole "kids need to be socialized" thing.  I think it's bull.  Is it healthy to lock your kids up in the house where they have zero interaction with the outside world? Absolutely not.  Is going to school where you learn the pecking order of "the biggest and loudest and prettiest and most popular rule the school....the rest follow or are tortured" the healthiest way to socialize a child? I think not.  My kids will receive ample time to play with friends and take part in age appropriate activities.  And so...I decided to let that one go.  I do have a friend on "your kids are getting weird" watch though.  If my kids start turning into weirdos, she is to notify me immediately.  I know she will.
  And the last little bit of peace I needed came in knowing this: IF THIS IS A DISASTER- THEY CAN GO BACK TO PUBLIC SCHOOL NEXT YEAR. I don't hate public school.  I have loved my kids teachers....all of them! However I knew the time to try this was NOW.  I had a bit of a "now or never" feeling about it. 
  So I picked Hallie and Chase up from school a few weeks ago and asked them if they would like to home school.  We discussed the pros and cons of staying in public school, and homeschooling.  I ultimately made it their choice because I didn't want to start off our education at home with a battle.  They needed to want it as much as I did.  I was shocked when they both very quickly decided they would like to give it a try this year.  So with fear of judgement from friends, family, peers, and the schools we withdrew from school. 
  The past few weeks I have never felt so much support for a decision I have made.  There have been a few comments here and there of a negative nature that hurt so badly....mainly because I've gone into this on such unsteady feet.  When those words knock me down I've brushed myself off, told myself what other people think about this does NOT matter, and continued forward trying to stay positive. 
  So how is it going? Well....that's where the title of this post comes into play.  I'll keep you posted! I will be totally honest with you about the good, the bad and the ugly. 

The good: I have LOVED the positive 1 on 1 time with Hallie and Chase.  I'm amazed by their bright minds and the things they already know.  It has been so so exciting to begin gathering information and pouring knowledge into those little heads.  Taking on the mantle of TEACHER has caused me to start looking at everything in our day to day lives as a teaching/learning experience in a way I never have before.  I love it.  I love the curriculum we are using (Read The Well Trained Mind to learn more about the approach we are taking).  All electronics are off until 3:00.  We spend our time reading together, learning together, exercising together, etc.  After 3- the time is ALL theirs. 

The bad: Remember that patience thing I was talking about?  It HAS been an adjustment being together so so much.  No longer having the "me" time I had everyday during Paige's nap.  I know my limits though.  When Matt leaves I'm going to schedule a weekly "me" day and get a sitter.  I know I will need it.  Hopefully we will adjust and that aspect of things will get easier.

The ugly:  There isn't any yet, but I promise I will let you know if there is.  Well....I never made it into the shower today.  That was pretty ugly.
 
 

OKLAHOMA

Lets talk a little about Oklahoma. 

   Kelly and I (one of my best friends from HB) were reminiscing a while back about a conversation we had back in High School.  It went a little a little something like this:
"Where does everyone in the world want to live? America. Where does everyone in America want to live? California.  Where does everyone in California want to live? Huntington Beach.  So we pretty much live in the best place in the world."
    haha.  How naive we were! Don't get me wrong here- I LOVE Huntington Beach and miss it a ton.  However my eyes have been opened since those tender teenage years and I've learned a few things.  There is beauty everywhere, sometimes you just need to be willing to go out and find it, or to simply recognize it all around you.  We have loved every single place we've lived (except Rexburg, Matt hated Rexburg).  So let me rephrase, I have loved every single place we've lived.  There has been something fun, unique, beautiful, peaceful about every.single.place. 
  Here's where I'm going with this: When we found out we were moving to Oklahoma I can't begin to explain the reactions we got from people.  "Oklahoma? Ohhhhh, I'm SO sorry!" like our dog had just died, or it was a prison sentence.  Every time I got this reaction I replied with a simple question "Have you ever been there?" The answer was always the same.  "No."  So I disregarded their statement and continued to look forward to our soon to be life in Oklahoma.
   This brings me to point of this blog post, I LOVE Oklahoma.  Who knew, right? I really really love it here.  I came here knowing nothing of this state and continue to be impressed with this place we call home.  After the tornadoes hit this year I was on the phone with my Mom and she asked me "WHY on earth would ANYONE live there!?"  My answer just popped out of my mouth without thinking twice "Because of the people."  Seriously, Oklahoma has seen some turmoil.  The tornadoes here destroy homes every year, and yet....the area keeps growing.  It was amazing watching the news and seeing first hand the local response from our community after this years devastating tornadoes.  There weren't people crying for FEMA or the Red Cross.  There were churches opening their doors, people running to the aid of their neighbors, donations pouring in, congregations banding together to serve their brothers.  We were commanded to "Love One Another" and Oklahomans know what that means.  I feel blessed to live amongst these people. 
Here's a few more things I love about Oklahoma:
*Estate Sales! Seriously- I'm addicted.
*The food.  There are so many fun restaurants and random food stands to try out. They never disappoint!
*My neighborhood- I have a really beautiful neighborhood with great neighbors and an awesome pool!
*Thrifting.  Some of the best I've found.
*The country feel.  Who doesn't love a cowboy?
*The state fair.  Love it.
*My church family. 
*Our home.  I love love love our home.  I will hate to leave it in a few years.
*The super long falls and super long springs.
I could go on and on.  Instead I'll share pictures of the latest love we discovered- Turner Falls.

 Last Friday we skipped town and drove and hour and a half away to Turner Falls with our good friends The Davis'.  It was such a fun day.  Karen was toting her 6 week old baby with her and they were such champs out in the heat.  I stole the above picture from Karen.  We parked ourselves under this tree for a few hours with our picnic lunches and let the kids (and the husbands) enjoy playing in the waterfall.  It was a perfect day.

 Another area of the falls had this big natural spring lake with water slides you could fall to your death on slide down VERY fast into the water.  There was about a 15 foot drop from the bottom of the slide to the water.  The kids were terrified.  haha.

 They were also very brave at times. 

 I love my girls.

At the conclusion of our day we went and got some AMAZING barbecue followed up with some delicious "fried pies".  (I'm telling you people, the FOOD here!)

 

Aren't you kind of wishing you were here in Oklahoma too right now?  I TOLD you!

 

Hello summer, we've been waiting for you.

Welcome to our summer.   

Being outside and in our swimsuits is our favorite family pastime.

Preferably at a beach.

This splash park turned out to be PRETTY awesome though.

I think we will be spending a lot of our summer here, watermelon in hand.

I purposely cut HUGE watermelon slices for photographic cuteness purposes, and it did NOT disappoint.

Just look at all this kid/watermelon deliciousness.

I'm in love with Chases hair right now.  It has the perfect amount of flip to it.

Paige spent her day wandering from one spray/squirting device to another...giant watermelon in hand.

I love this happy girl.

Once Paige had taken at least one bite out of every watermelon slice we had, she decided it was time to include bunny in the fun. 

Have you met bunny?

Bunny is Paige's favorite person.  She can't function without bunny.

I have a spare bunny so while I'm washing one (bunny gets FILTHY) she can have the other.

I'm an enabler.

I have bad dreams about bunny disappearing and having to face the wrath of Paige.

Not really.

By the time we were ready to leave bunny weighed about 10 lbs.

SOAKED.



Oooooh she's yummy.

Paige really likes the taste of splash pad water.  It's the best kind.  Straight from the Swiss alps.

Seesters.

Chase and his buddy Hayden

It was a good good day.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Matt was home, but I guess we can't have everything!

I still blog....sometimes.

 

 

Life is really good.  I look around me everyday and feel overwhelmingly blessed. 

I have beautiful, happy, healthy, smarty, funny children.

I have a funny, handsome, good, hardworking husband.

I have a dog that's soooooo much better than the last one.

We have a beautiful home.

We live in a wonderful neighborhood.

I kind of love Oklahoma.

We love our Church and the friends we have made there.

The Lord has truly blessed me.....and I'm grateful.

 

Of course things aren't always roses and sunshine, and I hope I don't let off a false sense of perfection, because things certainly aren't perfect. 

However I'm still grateful.

 

 

 

Paige is all of a sudden the funniest little toddler.  She's talking more and more everyday and the things that come out of her mouth make me bust out laughing all day long.  I love spending my days with her....now.  If you had asked me a month or so ago about Paige I might have tried to give her away.  She spent a solid 5 months being AWFUL.  She screamed that high pitched-want to claw your ears out so you can't hear it anymore-scream all.day.long.

It was a hard 5 months.

But we seem to have turned a corner and left the she devil behind.  Thank goodness.

 

Hallie is awesome.  That's really all I can say.

I like hanging out with her!

If I was 7, I would want to be her friend.

She's kind, and funny, and smart, and thoughtful.

 

Chase is also awesome.  He is super smart and really funny.

He started winking at me last week and it makes my day when he does it.

He's going to be a lady killer.

He's also the neatest little boy I've ever seen. 

I watched him this morning after he got socks out of his top drawer, he noticed some of the drawers on his dresser weren't all the way closed.  So he closed them all.

This might not seem like that big of a deal...unless you saw Hallie's dresser which looks like it has been ransacked. He makes his bed every morning (without being asked) and his bedroom is always spotless.  I'm thinking there might be a little OCD there, but if it means a clean room....

I'm cool with it. :)

He's just a pleasure to have around.

Sometimes Paige gets outside naked.  She's got such a cute naked bum and gigantic belly button, I can't bring myself to clothe her.  She's going to hate this picture when she grows up.  :)

 

 

I guess after living in Germany I feel like my blog is going to always seem boring compared to the adventures of the past 4 years.  I'm so so happy though, and I'll keep blogging the day to day.

 

In other news:

Matt came home last week and told me that he is pretty much going to be gone for the next 8 out of 12 months.  Blurg.

I start crying when I think about it too much.

He's looking at a 6 month deployment coming up and a 2 month training before that.

THIS is the part of the military that's lame.

Although we have managed to dodge the long deployment bullet for the past 6 years.

I guess it's our turn.

To make me feel better you can all send me packages during his deployment to perk me up.

Isn't that a good idea?

I like chocolate.



Life update.

So amongst all of this moving back to America, living in a nasty apartment, building a house, buying that house, etc, there has also been a lot of growing up going on around here.  My kids....they just keep growing.  In some ways I love it and in some way some ways I really really hate it. 

Paige: Oh my Paige.  She's a joy.  Except for right now.  She's currently screaming her head off in her bed because it's nap time.  However, when she's NOT screaming bloody murder...she's a joy.  She's picked up a new language.  I'm pretty sure it's some tribal dialect and she's a genius.  No one understands her.  Except for maybe some obscure tribe in Africa.  She immediately mastered the stairs in our new house.  Well, going up them anyways.  She falls down them, which is very sad to witness.  She's 14 months old and still nowhere close to walking.  She has taken the whole mobility thing MUCH slower than her older brother and sister.  I'm OK with it.  She also loves her pacifier and her bunny.  She sucks on her binkie and rubs the ear of her bunny on her cheek.  It's really cute. She loves to cuddle with her Mom, and crawls away as fast as she can from her sister.  Hallie kind of smothers her with over the top protection.  She loves Hallie and avoids her at the same time.  Paige has been the baby that I have enjoyed the most.  I'm sure the 4 year gap between Chase and her helped.  And my being a baby PRO at this point.  She's just a huge blessing and I thank Heavenly Father every day for her.

Chase:  This boy is an interesting one.  He loves school and loves rules.  He's REALLY good at following rules (at school anyways).  He wins citizenship awards and holds a kindergarten record for the most "caught doing good" tickets.  His teachers both at school and at church always comment on how well behaved and smart Chase is.  And then he comes home.  And we get a whole different Chase.  I get eye rolls and arguments.  Not all the time, but a lot of the time.  It's like I witness the constant battle between the angel and the devil on each shoulder.  And then, at bedtime, I lay down next to him in his bed and tells me about his day.  He tells me how much he loves me and that he's lucky I'm his Mom.  Then I remember why he's my favorite child.  Just kidding.  But our nightly ritual of cuddling up together and discussing his life is one of the highlights of my day.  I love getting to know Chase and try to understand how his mind works.  He has a big heart and a serious stubborn streak.  He loves Hallie and wishes she would give him the kind of attention she gives Paige.  He's really smart.  He does things all the time where my jaw drops and I think to myself, "Is that normal?" I have a different sense of responsibility when it comes to Chase.  The thought of teaching a boy to become a man is a big deal.  Teaching him to be honorable, hard working, kind, loving, smart, well rounded.  He's lucky his Dad is such a good example of all of those things. 

Hallie: Hallie has a special place in this world.  She's magnetic.  People are drawn to her.  Kids want to be her friends, boys want to be her boyfriends (UGH), people around her want her attention.  She has a really kind heart (except for when it comes to her brother).  She's really thoughtful of how her words and actions can affect other people's feelings...in a way that's way beyond her years.  She has a real gift with people.  It's hard to teach a kid like her how to be kind without being taken advantage of.  How to be nice, but to stand up for yourself and be assertive.  She's run into problems with boys at school saying really inappropriate things to her.  I didn't think I'd have to teach my 7 year old how to deal with sexual harassment....but it's a sad reality of this world.  She's kind and she's beautiful, I think boys are going to be a problem for many many years.  We are thinking karate might be a good option.  Seriously.  Hallie is also really smart.  I've struggled with keeping her challenged because Oklahoma schools are a bit behind the school that she came from.  Every Monday she comes home with her new spelling list, I test her on them, she gets them all right, then I throw the list in the trash.  I'm not stressing about it, but am doing some extra things at home to try to keep her mind busy.  Like having her play lots of video games.  haha.  Just kidding.  Hallie coasts through life for the most part, and is an amazing little girl. 

Matt: He's awesome.  I got lucky with this guy.  He was definitely made to own a home.  Since we moved in a week and half ago there has been a constant buzz of power tools coming from the garage.  He's building things, tweaking things, staining things, nailing things, selling things, organizing things, fixing things.  Just being a busy body in general.  And he's so happy.  He is upgrading to a different position on the jet at work and is between trainings.  He finished the academic part of his training and is waiting to start the flight portion.  During this in between time....he's been around A LOT.  It's been great that he's been able to get so much house stuff done without having to worry about silly little things like work.  He's a great Dad....his kids adore him.  I'm blessed to have him in my life. 

Me: Hmmm, I'm good.  Life is good.  I drink a lot of diet coke these days.  I'm pretty sure I'm giving myself dietcokecancer.  I'm planning to quit, eventually.  Once it's time to start trying to get pregnant again I'll quit.  I sound like a smoker.  In other news, I'm back to my prepregnancy weight.  I guess we can thank diet coke for that.  haha.  I have a personal goal that I will not get pregnant again (with any of my kids) until I've lost the weight from the last pregnancy.  It's my way of keeping myself in check I guess.  So I lost the Paige weight and was faced with the idea of another pregnancy.  Then I got all my household goods delivered last week that I hadn't seen since I left Germany.  That shipment was full of clothes that finally fit me again.  Then I decided the pregnancy could wait a little bit longer.  I want to enjoy my clothes for a little bit.  That, and we are getting a puppy.  I know I know, we like to learn hard lessons more than once.  I've done A LOT of homework and I'm hoping that this breed will make a difference in our experience.  We're picking up our chocolate colored cockapoo puppy next Friday.  She will be 9 weeks old and our kids have already named her Blu.  I figure 6 months of training this little girl before I consider another baby to add to the bunch.  Go ahead, tell me I'm crazy.  It's mostly Matt's fault really.  When I found Polly (our beagle from hell) and new beagle loving family, Matt promised the kids a new puppy when we got to Oklahoma.  This puppy, he promised, would never EVER be given away (he said as he glared at me).  So here we go, dog round 2.  This time, dog for life.  So I determined to be a puppy training maniac so we don't have to deal with the same issues we dealt with with Polly.  Plus, if you're ever considering getting a beagle....DON'T. 

So that's what's going on with us.  Life is good.  We love Oklahoma (way more than we thought we would), we love our church here, the kids love school, I love my house, Matt loves me, we are full of love.  Overflowing with it.

Oh yeah- and I love having a dishwasher again.  Lots of love.

I bought a house.

hello. We bought a house.  Can you believe it?  We went from living a completely debt free life, to having A LOT of debt.  But we OWN a house.  I've never signed my name so many times in my entire life combined.  My hand hurt when it was all over, but I also owned a house when it was all over.  I mean, WE owned a house.  And it's a really beautiful house.  We love it.  Although we didn't at first.  Let me take you back about 9 days........
We signed on our house on Thursday, Nov. 15th.  I wanted to wait to move us out of our apartment until Friday.  Not an option for Matt.  We WERE going to sleep in our new house on Thursday night.  So after we finished signing our lives away and had our house keys we went and got bug bombs (foggers) and set them off all over our apartment. 
Have I mentioned that our apartement was infested with spiders AND roaches?  It was bad....really really bad.  We didn't want to bring a roach party into our new, beautiful home....so we tried to kill them off (or at least send them running) long enough to get our stuff out of the apartment and into the house. 
Thursday is kind of a blur of a really bad headache, buying a house, bug bombing our apartment, moving into our house, and going to bed.
Friday is when the real party started.
Friday morning bright and early our movers arrived with ALL of our belonging from Germany that had been sitting in crates in a storage unit since it arrived in America from Germany.  It had been almost exactly six months since we had seen our belongings.  It was pretty exciting.  All day long, box after box after couch after table came flowing though our doors. 
On top of all that the brand new washer, dryer, and refridgerator that we had purchased were all getting delivered the same time our belongings were.  And our internet was being connected.  And I bought pizza for EVERYBODY (because one thing we've learned about movers: treat them well, and they'll treat your stuff well).  It was a crazy day.
Another note worth mentioning.  We have a well and a septic.  This girl from California has never experienced either.  We had been warned that at first there can be some "sand" in the water from the well.  All we needed to do was keep running the water to "clear the well".  So we did.  It ran and it ran and it ran.  All the showers, sinks, and tubs.  And as it ran......it got worse.  Not better.  And not only did it get worse, but the constant running of the water was causing the septic tank to over flow which is connected to the septic sprinklers (which I lovingly call our "poop sprinklers")causing an alarm to go off and the sprinklers to run and flood our backyard.  See the problem?
Our water was starting to look a little something like this:

Because of our "sandy" water my washing machine kept getting clogged and wouldn't work.  Which meant after months of using a laundrymat.....I still had to use a laundrymat.  I cried.  A lot.  I had no water, no washing machine, a poop flood in the backyard, and I didn't want to own a house anymore.

Saturday was a whirlwind of unpacking and dealing with kids and Matt planting new trees we had bought.  Excellent timing with the trees, let me tell ya.

Sunday brought with it new fun.  After the well man had been here for 4 hours he was able to get our water fixed and running clear.  I celebrated that night with a bath in my big jacuzzi tub.  When I got out of the tub and walked into my bedroom I took one step onto our bedroom carpet right into a huge puddle. 

What the??

Why is my carpet soaking wet?  I kept walking.  Why is my carpet soaking wet all along the bathroom wall?  My stomach sank.
"MATT!!! The bathtub is leaking!"
He stepped into the puddle and realization came over his face as well.  He removed the paneling from the front of our bathtub and sure enough....water was leaking from the pipes, under all the cabinets, under the wall, and into our bedroom carpet.
Then I started crying again.
"I HATE our house!" or something like that may have come out of my mouth.
This is when we start thanking our lucky stars that the whole house in under warranty for 1 year.

Bright and early Monday morning there is a whole crew in our house ripping up carpet and fixing our leak. 

However the washing machine repair man couldn't come until Wednesday so I was back off to the laundrymat.  Crying.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday consisted of lots more unpacking and assembling of furniture.  By Wednesday afternoon our water was running clear, the leak was fixed, the septic had stopped running constantly, and the washing machine was working.  My world was starting to look much better. 

And since Wednesday things have kept getting better and better.  I love our new home.  All the "kinks" have been worked out and we are so happy here.  I'm not afraid to let Paige crawl all over the house for fear she'll eat a roach or something.  She's loving the freedom.  She immediately mastered the stairs and only wants to be upstairs in the toyroom. 

The kids love their new rooms and having all the toys back. We have a second living room upstairs that has been dedicated as the kid room. There's a huge walkin closet up there where EVERY toy in the house is. The Wii is up there, all the movies, a 50inch TV, our old couches, it's pretty much kid heaven. And Mom heaven because I can't hear them fighting. :) 

We still need to hang pictures and organize closets, but we have made a lot of progress.  Here's a few shots from around the house:

Down stairs living room.  AKA- my happy place.  No kids allowed.  :)

The kitchen.  AKA- my other happy place.  I'm in love with my kitchen.  So much in love it makes me WANT to cook.  And have cute little people sitting on the bar stools talking to me about their day while I cook.  I love it.

The girls room.  A few people have asked why I have the girls sharing a room when we have an extra bedroom.  I believe in sharing.  I think it teaches valuable lessons that they will carry with them into their adult lives.  When we have another child (if it's a boy) he'll share with Chase.  I think too many people don't understand the basic principle of sharing and it hurts friendships and marriages.  There's your lesson for the day.  :)

Chase's room.  Desperate need of color or pictures or SOMETHING on the walls.

My blue front door that makes me so so happy.  Did I mention that they put the wrong color of carpet on the stairs?  They're a different color than the rest of the carpet in the house.  How does that even happen?  Still need to deal with that one.

Thanksgiving night we had a special visitor show up.  Charlie elf came to visit.  He reports back to Santa everynight if the kids are being good or bad.  Every morning when the kids wake up they go looking to see what he was up to while they were sleeping.  Everyone knows how much Elves like syrup.

Looks like Charlie (that's our elf's name) was photocopying his bum while we were sleeping.  Trouble maker. 

And closing out this blog post is a picture of sleeping Chase with his big balloon muscles.  I love him.

We like, we like to party.

 So there are some perks and drawbacks to being the #3 child.  Trust me, I know. 

Perks for Paige: She can make as big of a mess as she wants with her little cake and I don't care.  I've come to realize just how washable children are.  Go to town.

Drawbacks: When you turn 1 you have no idea it's your birthday so you don't really get any presents.  Is that terrible?  You may also have to get 5 immunization shots on your birthday when you're the #3 child because your mean Mom schedueled your well child check up on our birthday.  Never would have happened to #1 and #2.  Poor Paige.

Perks: Your Mom realizes when you're #3 just how short babyhood is and eats up EVERY second of it.  You are doted on and adored day in and day out.  By Me, Dad, Hallie and Chase.  You are spoiled rotten.

Drawbacks: You get your birthday blog 3 weeks late because your Mom is slacking.

Perks: You are the only child who actually GOT a birthday post this year.

 

 

Perk: You are the cutest baby ever.

 

I don't really know how I can describe this baby to you.  Anyone who has met her already knows.  She is the sweetest, happiest, cutest baby ever created (sorry Hallie and Chase). 

When Paige joined our family (a little over) a year ago she healed a part of my heart that was still aching from a lost pregnancy.  She brought peace into our home and so much extra happiness into all of our lives.  Hallie and Chase LIVE to make her laugh and keep her happy.  Hallie is her protector and CONSTANTLY accuses me of not watching her close enough (eye roll).  Hallie actually told me she was didn't want to start school this year because she was worried something would happen to Paige because I don't watch her good enough.  One day, when Hallie came home from school, Paige had a little bump on her forehead and Hallie freaked out at me.  It clearly confirmed her suspisions that I do NOT watch this baby. 

Seriously?

Does she realized she survived to be 7 with me as a Mom?

Bless her heart.

Back to Paige.

I love this baby.

Happy birthday beautiful girl!