Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The last two days

The last two days have been full of trying to keep my house clean, and getting things set up for our move to nashville. As with the army we are in a hurry up and wait period. We have a house and Brad has done an amazing job of getting everything set up to be switched over to our name. He has had all our paperwork in for the movers to come for several days. He recieved an email saying that they had got the request, but now they have to send everything "up the chain" to be approved and then it comes back down the chain to contract out a moving company. So now we are in limbo. The good thing is that Brad will be able to live in our house, and be close to work, saving us LOTS of money in gas. The kids and I will also go up friday and help him get everything situated, take him some staple items, pots and pans, air mattress, food (we have to have our deep freezer defrosted before they will take it), uniform, towels/washclothes, etc.

So we are working with all the different aspects of our busy hectic lives. And as usual something always has to go wrong with something. Nothing with the house is bad, last night Abby and Tyler were "walking" through her room when they ran in to each other. Mind you Tyler is literaly half as tall as she is, but somehow when they collided it broke her tooth. Like not just chipped the top, but the enamel came completely off the front of her tooth. Now she is not in pain and she has done a pretty good job of not touching it so she is going great. We will go to the dentist tomorrow morning and probably get the tooth capped to cover the nerves. No big deal, it is a baby tooth, so it will cause no major damage.

Then Toby got all the tile laid in the bathroom and is coming tomorrow to grout the floor and finish the craziness, that is our second UNUSED bathroom. So maybe before we move I will actually be able to take a shower in there for the first time since we moved here in April of 2007. The good news is that it will be done and behind us.

Tyler is growling at me, I guess that is my cue to yet again cut this to an end and go play with BABIES! And no offense that is sometimes so much more fun!

Monday, September 27, 2010

I actually have time to breathe?

I can not believe it, I am actually sitting down with time to breathe how ever short it is I am going to enjoy it.

I have to start off by saying a HUGE Thanks to by brother-in-law Toby! He has graciously given up a portion of his extremely busy schedule to come help us finish some upgrades we started on our house. Now my dad and Brad started tiling the 2ND bathroom right after Tyler was born, I'm talking the week after Tyler was born, which has now been 17 months. Brad has been so busy with his old job that he has just not had the time to complete it. So Toby has offered to come finish it for us, and I truly can not tell him how much I appreciate his time, work and effort.

Now Toby has a heart of gold and is a true gentleman! Respectful, loving, and funny to boot. Although I have never seen it, I can tell he is sensitive when the time is right. He takes care of his mother like I have ever seen any young man do. He is family oriented and just a joy to be around.

Tammie, is an angel that I am never going to be able to replace, she has at the drop of a dime turned her life upside down to help me with the kids. She has them today, so that I can clean make sure my house is in order before the move. Last week she gave up a day of work to come watch them so that I could go to the doctor to have a routine check up, no second guessing, just instantaneously. I know that I am going to be only 2 hours away from her, but she is going to be missed tremendously.

After getting midway through my cleaning today, our realtor called saying that someone was going to look at the house today. Let me remind you that we only last night put the house on the market. She is pretty excited about it, saying that he had to find one this week, but I'm trying not to get our hopes up. I'm trying to be realistic and know that it could take months for the house to sell. I can't tell you how happy it would make me if it sells earlier though. I will be more than happy to not have two house payments to pay.

After the realtor put her sign in the yard, the neighbor came over asking about it, and said that she and her sister where looking to buy as well. At this same time we had some lady also nearly cause several wrecks as she was trying to get the information from the sign. So we may be lucky enough to have interest early, but from what I understand, most of the interest will come early and then die down and have no interest for a while. So we will just have to wait and see what we have in store. I'm leaving everything up to God, and knowing that what is best for us will happen when it needs to happen.

But for today my breathing time is over. I must be on my way to go meet my munchkins! I have enjoyed the quiet today, but it is very very weird! I miss the LITTLE noise.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

And now it begins!

The adventure is finally beginning to start.

We have found a house to rent in the nashville area! It is going to be perfect for us, lots of space, and an unfinished basement for the kids to play in, a huge front yard with covered patio in the back, very close to brads office, 10 minutes to downtown, and 10 minutes to brentwood. Also in the exact area we were trying to get one. (I will post pictures when I can get them on the computer that Brad has temporarily stolen to do homework.) The actual house itself is just bigger than the house we have, maybe a 100sqf.

We also have finally gotten our house on the market. Today a very sweet and honest realtor/broker (not exactly sure what that all means but) came to the house to look and give her opinion. She was very patient, asked all sorts of questions, explained EVERYTHING, spent probably two hours with us going through everything. Needless to say I think she is going to work her butt off to try to get this house sold. We are very lucky in the fact that we have quite a bit of positives in the house. Although old, we have just over 2 acres of land, are close to all the new stores, just outside of the city limit, in a safe and established neighborhood, and a single level home with an open floor plan just to name a few. We are very hopeful that this house will sell quickly, but then again completely realistic that it may take months to sell.

We were not planning on moving so soon, as we had figured it would take us several weeks to find a house that we could afford and would be in a good safe neighborhood. But I truly think that God has us under his wing and is taking care of us. I don't think I have ever felt so content with where we are in our lives. It finally seems that we are where we need to be. It feels like everything is falling into place as it has always been planned this way. We know that we are going to have tough times, but we will be okay. Everything is going to work out how it is supposed to work out.

I'm so very sorry! I'm going to have to go, I am getting side tracked, I want a fresh warm biscuit and a yummy fresh warm doughnut. That is all I can think of! Thank you food network!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The sweet things that kids say

Abby Kate is 4 going on 25, I think it is a girl thing but I'm not sure. Most of the time she and I butt heads like crazy, and she will admit to you that she "listens to daddy better than mommy!"

Most of the time she is too rough for me, and not to mention TOO loud, but I still love her, and when I can get her to sit still long enough to snuggle I try to take every opportunity to do so. That is unless Brad is here, she is very much of a daddy's girl.

The whole point of this post is how much she is learning and her cute little brain and the way it works. Abby started a new school this fall that we are all absolutely in love with! I am actually very upset that she will not be able to continue here esp. since they are trying to get the certifications to be a homeschooling umbrella school.

She is so interested in the teachings that she is learning from the bible. They have weekly bible verses that they have to memorize and she spouts them all off randomly. But that is not the coolest part.

She was learning about the story of Noah's Ark and she just loves it!

She will explain to you that God choose two of each animal to go on the ark. She understands that these were the only creatures to survive the great flood. But then there are those silly unicorns, and she has it all figured out! When she came home to tell me the story, she asked me what I thought about why there are no more unicorns, before telling me the story. Of course, I was not exactly sure how to answer this, and I just told her that they were imaginary animals. The response I got has made me chuckle every time I think about it.

Her response, was that Noah tried to get them on the ark, but they were not doing what they were supposed to be doing and goofing off so the missed it. Of course this is pretty good thinking for a 4 yr old, and I asked her where she got that and she said that Mrs. Missy at school had told her that she was not sure, so Abby came up with how they didn't make it on the ark. (I'm assuming they were learning the letter U this week, as they started off with all the "bowels") Since this conversation, when she is not listening and misses something, this is what we talk about, how the unicorns were not doing what they were supposed to be doing.

Then Abby has really been concerned (for lack of a better word) about how babies grow in the mommies tummy and how they are born. She understands that she and her brother were both cut out of my belly and that that is not the normal way babies are born. They are either "pushed out or breathed out" which again makes me laugh.

The very first week of school they talked about how God made all things in 6 days and rested on the 7th "and when he saw what he made, he said and it is good." They talked about this process for a week or so and so it all made since to her. Now granted, the bible never specifies how long a day was, (which always threw me for a loop as well as a kid) and she has very little awarness of concept of time. She understands that there are so many days in a week and the new day starts when you get up in the morning, but other than that little bit, it is all irrelavent to her.

While at her nanny's this past weekend, she and nanny were talking about babies and why it takes them so long till they are born. Nanny tried to explain to her that God wants to spend all that time on them because he wants them to be perfect, and it takes a while for them to grow to that. Abby just doesn't understand this, because "but God made the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th and it was perfect, so why can't he make a baby in 6 days?"

I know every person says that kids say the cutest things, but sometimes, I truely wish I could record things whenever I needed, like carring around a tape recorder in my back pocket.

This is just one of the wonderful reasons I truly enjoy being a mommy!

I love my ABBY!!!!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Finally

I finally got the computer back and want to write something, but I really can not think of anything worth writing.

Brad got home friday night after work and we went out to dinner. We had mexican, I will be so happy when I live in a town, that can serve more than just beer. Upon returning from the restaurant, we were outside long enough to give the dogs water and move the trash can back to its proper place, when Brad got stung by a yellow jacket, on the lip!

We have had the bug people come spray for these like 3 times and they just will not go away! This is making life hard, because they are making homes right where the kids can play, which in turn means I have 2 very fussy,stir crazy kids, not to mention mommy! Tyler being the worse of the two, since Abby goes to school two days a week. But anyway back to the sting!

Luckily Brad is NOT allergic to bee stings, but man did his lip swell up! He immediately came in and took about one and a half times the benadryl the bottle tells you to take. (my mom said he could even take more, she is a nurse practitioner) But I am sure glad he didn't take more, he was out almost immediately. I was kind of understanding, but kind of upset as I just wanted to spend some time with him, needless to say he went to sleep at 7pm on friday night. If you ask him he was just dozing, but that was not the case, I would say his name maybe 5 times before he would wake up, and no I was not whispering, as any of you that know me know that whispering is not something I know how to do.

Needless to say I didnt get to spend any time with him, but when he woke up saturday morning he was so much better. His lip was still a little swollen but not enough that you could tell just by looking at him, and the pain had gone down tremendously! So all in all my big baby is doing so much better!


Thursday, September 16, 2010

The process of moving.

We all know that moving is stressful no matter what! Luckily ours is not quite as bad as normal. We do not have to go through the process of actually packing boxes and trucks. Another great thing about the army.

The stressful part for us is the actual finding a tempory place to live while we wait for our house sells. Our issue is that Brad and I think completely differently. He is looking for the cheapest place in a good neighbor hood which is great, but more than likely means we will end up in an apartment. Now dont get me wrong apartment offer a lot of good features, not having to fix things or pay for those fixes, no lawn care, most have pools and/or playgrounds. But more than likely any apartment that will work for us will not be on the bottom floor, which means me and my gimp butt is going to have to lug a 28lb child up and down stairs anytime we leave, in snow, rain and heat. And my biggest issue, when bringing in groceries I would have to climb stairs mulitple times, and most importantly, leave young children in a building that I may/maynot be able to see. As well as them being unsupervised, which I can tell you is NEVER a good idea.
If we felt comfortable enough to rent our house that would take a olot of the problems away, we would have a bigger budget to spend on housing, but there are too many uncertainties that we can't afford with renting. I would love to take the quick way out of this payment, but what happens a year down the road when the tennant decides thay don't want to live/rent here anymore. Then we will be stuck back with two mortgages and be hurting even more than we will be selling. What about repairs as well. We would be responsible for those as well. Granted Nashville is only 2 hours away so we could get here to fix things, and we have lots of very handy family here. But they are not responsible for fixing everything that breaks, and I WILL NOT rely on them to do so. That is just abusing them and their abilities. For this reason we think it will just be easier in the long run to just sell the house, and not have to worry about it. We realize this could take a while, but if we can make it work then we are going to be golden.
Idealy we would be in a house, and this maybe completely possible! But we are going to have to do a lot of looking. I also have no problem being in a townhome, that I would have a designated parking spot, and not have to climb stairs to get in the house. That way I could atleast keep a close eye on the front door of the house and leave it open and hear the fighting mongrels! We would also have a little bit of a back yard so that the kids could play, and be somewhat restrained. We also want to be fairly close to Brads office so that we are not spending even more money on gasoline getting two and from work. Now I know this is being picky and "snooty", but I honestly have the best interests of our kids at hand (and my sanity). I just want us all to be happy, and as I have said before, the first part maybe hard, but the long picture is going to be well worth it. The opportunities far out weigh the negative for our family, and it is only temporary. We can do anything temporarily! As long as we are all together and healthy, we will be great!
I appreciate your thoughts, prayers and support! We could not do this successfully with out them! Thank you so much.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Newly promoted Staff Sergeant Warren

Remember yesterday when I told you I was going to make a post daily? Remember that? I do and am now kicking myself in the head. Okay not really but you know. Back on point, I fully intend to get something posted everyday no matter what it is! You will have to bear with me though, I will be posting from my cell phone. That's right thank goodness for my android. This means that spelling and grammar and editing are pretty much out the window for the most part.

Brad told me quiet a while ago he was going to be taking our computer to work with him for a while so that he would be able to do homework in his spare time. A completely legitimate excuse right? Right!

Now we do have another laptop, but it is confined to a desk with a screen that does not stay up, it is being held up by the wall behind it, (not to mention that it poops on itself anytime you try to open more than one tab and just use any sort of Internet. But hey no big deal, the apple computer is just a luxury I don't really need it, I can do everything I need to do on the old one or my phone). This computer has also been designated as Abby's computer. So whether she is using it or not we get yelled at for touching it and then she immediately decides that she needs to play some type of game because we sit down at it. You know she is only 4 for another 2 months!
But again back to point, Brad is getting promoted with this new job which is amazing! If we were still "Real Army" not just national guard, he would probably have just gotten promoted as well, so we are still on the same track that we should be. (As you can tell I am extremely proud of him). Brad's new job is and AGR job, which is Active Guard Reserve. This means that he is active duty military but is paid by the National Guard. We get all the benefits of active duty military, minus the moving, (and hopefully as many deployments! It is very unlikely with this unit, so as long as he doesn't transfer he should not get deployed.)
A lot of the reason we got out of the military was the constant moves and threat of deployments. I know for me personally, we were told that we were on the list for a tour in Korea which would not have been a problem if I had not been expecting, and him scheduled to go as well. I know that A LOT of my friends have sacrificed their time with their families to do as they needed, but I had an extremely hard time with, especially being dual military! I can not tell you how proud I am of all the WONDERFUL parents that have graciously gone overseas whether it was to participate in missions in hostile territory or to serve a one year tour in Korea! These men and women have my utmost respect and admiration! Thank you for being brave enough to do something that I could not emotionally do!
The active component of military offers so many great benefits, most importantly being health care! We all know how horrible health care can be, both with coverage, monthly payments, co-pays, and deductibles! The health care the military has can not be beat. Yes it is frustrating having to get referrals for everything and only having a handful of doctors/clinics to choose from, but if you are patient you can find something that will work for your situation. The positives FAR out weigh the negatives! The health care is one of the best benefits you can get. Not to mention the stability! Unless you are trying to get out (even then it doesn't always work) you really can not get out until your contract is up. There are obviously ways out, but as long as you are doing what you are supposed to do, just like at every other job in the world, you can't be let go just because the company is down sizing, or your position is being abolished.
Active military is not for everyone! It is going to be frustrating and hard at times. But when you have a positive outlook and know that you are doing the best you can, the military can only make your life easier. We know that for our family, no matter how much others don't agree, that it is the best for us. The benefits far out weigh the negative. The fact that we are secure financially, with health care, and are able to confidently take care of our kids makes the military the right place for us. We are so thankful for this opportunity that has been bestowed upon us.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

things that I am going to work on

I realize that it has been almost 3 months since I have posted anything here. It like usual has been a little crazy around here. I've had a lot of trouble doing much of anything with my foot, much less trying to get something coherent written. So I am going to try to get something no matter how silly, irrelevant, worthless, put up every day. I know I said this last time I posted, but I think since the kids go down for a nap everyday at the same time, I should be able to take just a few minutes to let you all know what is going on in our life that day.

First things first, I have to tell you how incredibly proud of my hubby I am! He has gotten a new job that is going to be so much better for us all the way around! He will be working full time with the 129th Army band in Nashville TN as the supply sergeant. This means that we will be moving to Nashville in November. We have been trying to move there for almost 3 years and can not be more excited. We are all very excited about the opportunities that will be opening up for us there. Brad is going to be much happier (and me) as he is not going to have to work 7 days a week. He will be able to take vacations, and have holidays and days when federal offices are off off. I think the thing he is most excited about is that he is going to be able to play more in the nashville area. He as we know is one of those sick people that can play anything. He is a vocalist/guitarist/saxophonist. He has already been told about people that want him to come play and we are not even there yet. He has missed playing more than anything. Since he will be working with the band he will be able to practice on a daily basis, and not have myself and kids yelling at him when we need things. This is Brads biggest dream, playing, he could never be more happy than when he is playing music!

Next on the list, my foot, I broke it July 15th and as of yesterday it is just now starting to heal. The good news is that I am finally able to put light weight on it. I am extremely hopeful that I am going to be able to get back to a normal routine and help my husband get stuff done around the house. Brad has been doing almost everything for the last 3 months. I am truly lucky that I have such a great hubby and he has done so much.

Other things on the list to work on is getting on a better schedule so that I have extra time. I need to find a schedule that will work with possibly homeschooling Abby completely on my own for a while, because of the move. Organization, of everything. Although most of our stuff is organized it is not always the most functional because of how it is organized. We have a very cute house, but not necessarily the best lay out for our particular family and it makes it hard to make everything functional. We will also be going through EVERYTHING we own to see if we actually use it on a normal basis or if we can donate it to goodwill. I would love to be able to have a yard sale but do not have the time or effort to put toward it, it is a huge amount of work. Finding a new church home in a new city. I'm very nervous about this one, we have finally found a community that we feel comfortable in here. I have a bible study with ladies and other mothers that I absolutely love. I know I will be able to find a new one, but it just makes me nervous!

With the whole move the only thing that I am worried about is finding new groups of friends for myself and Abby that I feel comfortable with. I'm not worried about finances (we will make it work, we can live without lots of things that we have and be perfectly happy), I'm not worried about the actual move, I know that this is the best thing we can do for our family and that it will all be ok. I am worried about the social part of it. Although I am a very social person, when meeting new people, I am a very shy and uncomfortable person. I'm glad that I do know a lot of people in the Nashville area, but just not knowing that I am going to have to get to know new people is a bit unsettling. But once again it will be okay! All I can do is pray for strength and confidence.

I am hopeful for a smooth transition for us all. I know deep down that everything is going to be okay and be better for us in the long run. We are going to be okay. WE will all be together and have a better family outlook. We are going to be fine! As long as we are happy and healthy that is all that we need!

I'm sorry this is random and probably incomplete. But thank you for sticking with me!