We did it!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Hubs and I went and "signed our lives away" :) today!  We are very excited...can't wait to share pics!

P.S. We won't be actually moving in until after the carpets are cleaned Friday.

Just so you know...

Hopefully by this time Tuesday I'll be posting pictures of our new house!!

As of Friday we are "most likely" signing papers sometime Monday!

I've hesitated to get too excited or post anything for sure for fear that we'll hit a snag or the whole thing would fall through.

We are super excited, the kids can't wait, and Hubs bought me a real life compost bin to celebrate! (I know, I'm probably the only person that thinks that's romantic! You'll also be comforted to know that he talked me out of "saving up" all of my "compostible materials" until the big move, and promises to buy me some worms to go in it as soon as we're moved!!) :)

So, hopefully soon I'll be blogging from my new, bigger (double the size) house, saving the world with my compose bin, reveling in the fact that the kids can "time out" in their very own rooms!

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us and such a great support through this process!

Women of Faith...

This past weekend was one I've grown to anticipate through the whole year...just me and the girls...and about 15,000 other women!! It's great!

Women of Faith was great this year!

Here's me and BFF...




One of the highlight of this year was meeting Sheila Walsh!! Sheila is the creator of Gigi, God's Little Princess...a wonderful book and DVD series that teaches little girls how special they are to God!



I tracked her down in the signing lines Saturday afternoon to beg a favor. Sheila also writes a boys series Will, God's Mighty Warrior...but there are no DVD's.

Ace loves Gigi movies...I am sure Sheila Walsh now thinks I'm crazy...but I asked her if she could please hurry up on Will movies, because until then, ACE is in the running to be God's greatest little princess! She laughed and said she had no control over it, but at least now she knows :)

One of the other highlights was Steven Curtis Chapman on Friday night. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when he sang Cinderella after sharing part of his family's story since loosing their little girl Maria. He is a very brave and strong man!

All in all, great weekend!! Already anticipating next year! It's just so much fun to hang out with all the fun ladies from our church family for 2 days!!

What you've all been waiting for...

Ok, I've gotten enough complaints...we'll go ahead and talk about it.

Bugs First Day of School!!

This is the bright eyed girl Monday morning before we headed out.

Now, I was kind of concerned about how mornings would go. Anybody who has experienced Bug in the mornings knows that she takes after her mom...hard to get up, and usually doesn't wake up with a smile. Well, kindergarten had done wonders. She hops right out of bed and is ready to go!

Things have been a little stressful in the mornings, just because we haven't moved yet, so we're having to drive about 20 min each way this week. Thankfully, we are set to close on the new house Monday, so this should only be for a few more days!

Here is the big Kindergartner on her way down the hallway...

and standing in front of her door..

.

She is all about taking her lunch, and usually finishes it on the way home from school (which drives ACE crazy!) I've got to remember to pack him his own snack for the ride home.

You'll be happy to know that I held off on the tears until we got back to the car and were on the road. It hit me for the first time the Tuesday of "Meet the Teacher Night" that, while we're excited about moving and getting the new house, we are moving to a new community and really don't know anyone there yet. So, it's going to be an even different transition into school.

On our way into school Monday she was almost bouncing up and down with excitement. She said "Mom, I am so ready for this!!" and when I picked her up, she smiled huge and said "MOM! I had a GREAT Day!!" Well, I guess you can't ask for better than that! Tears and screaming would have been much worse.

As for ACE and Hubs...

they couldn't get out of there and to breakfast fast enough! :)

ACE cried after we left Bug at school, telling us to go back and get her, but has adjusted quickly. Having him at home by himself has been a fun experience. We've never really had him by himself before, so it's been fun to see his personality take off...and, don't worry, he still manages to make trouble well enough on his own! (There's just no so much screaming and fighting...still plenty of jumping and crashes!)

My, oh my!

Our recent life changes have called for us to be home a lot lately, filling these...

The kids are going with the flow and getting pretty good about playing together in their room...and since we've packed up about 70% of their toys...they don't make too big of a mess! Yeah for us!

So, the other day, while Hubs was at work and I was cleaning the kitchen and sorting through stuff, I notice a lot of laughing coming from the kids room! I think to myself "Wow, they are having fun!", I'm loving that no one's crying or tattling or jumping off of the dresser or raiding the fridge...this is great, I'm thinking!

So, I go into their room, and find this....

...I'm guessing maybe the lack of toys is leading to extreme creativity...we may have to pull out some of those toys again after all. :)

Can I just say again that thankfully Hubs was not home...you know this because I haven't blogged about him having a STROKE!!

**In my defense...(and I only say this because I've had some negative feedback that my sweet, strapping son knows most all of the words to Mama Mia, and likes to have his big toe painted) that I drew the line when he backed up to me and asked me to "Hewp me cwose it" (wanted it buttoned) and intervened when Bug offered to do it, I also did not allow him to coordinate with the perfect shoes and accessories (which I'm sure, knowing his sister was coming up next)! We quickly changed close and got out of the house.**

Prepare yourself for total randomness.

Ok, I've been absent from blogging for a while...sorry. As I've mentioned, things have been crazy! On top of the whole house thing (which seems to be going really well btw) we have been trying to pack as much fun as we can into the end of our summer!

Yes, life as we know it ends at 8am Monday August 24th...it's called Kindergarten, and it's going to rock our world!

Gone forever are the random, spontaneous days of our previous life! *sigh*

So, I just downloaded 2 cards of pics and discovered that we've been really, really busy...so, I'll just randomly post a few events from the past weeks!

First, we are getting and Uncle Kris!

That's right...Aunt Bec's boyfriend Kris proposed last Friday! He surprised her and popped the big question at an event that she was singing at! Grandpa, Gram and Granmother were all there to see and got it on video! The ring is gorgeous, of course, and we're all very excited about it!


Next, and I know you've been wondering, "What about those sunflowers?" Well, wonder no more! ACE's sunflower that started out so little...well, it has grown to over 10 ft tall!

And was tragically taken up to be with Jesus last Wednesday after a very fast and violent storm that blew through town.


ACE actually thought it was pretty cool, and obliged us with a picture! Thankfully, the sunflower was our only loss...some of our friends were without power for 3 days and one had their whole fence blown over!

Now, we've also had several fun outings recently!

Last Friday (or the Fri before?) we took off to one of the kid's favorite places in the world...GattiTown...with my BFF and her 2 boys. Much fun was had by all, and in the end we ended up with a kazoo that was confiscated about 10 min after it was purchased (lest we all go crazy), a slap bracelet (which sent BFF and I into a long "remember when" of all of the different slap bracelets we used to own!), and about 20 dumdum suckers...which I am pretty sure were all eaten in the 5 min it took us to get to the mall...all for the "small" price I'm too embarrassed to post here (but it's all about the memories, right?). Here's the rowdy bunch all lined up (before we tortured them with hours of shopping, mostly for school clothes)...

I was very disappointed that the only pic I took that day turned out fuzzy!

Finally, after finding out that our contract was accepted on the new house, Bug and I spent Wed with our good friends Heather and Hannah! We had ate lunch and experienced our very first trip to IKEA! Wow, I had heard that it was overwhelming there, but geeze! For any of you who have never had the IKEA experience, beware...there is no easy way out when you and your tired kids have decided you've seen enough furniture wonderfulness! I almost broke out in "This is the store that will not end!" song about 3/4ths of the way through! :)

We had lots of fun, though! We found this super cute bed that would be perfect for Bug's new room!

She was so kind as to demonstrate how well she fit in it and tried her best not to smile while pretending to be asleep!!

The girls did such a good job being patient the whole day, they earned a ride on the Carousel!

Whew! That's a lot of fun...now, just to keep you on your toes...I'm saving the funniest picture I found for it's very own post!

So, stay tuned!!

Hot Diggity...

We might actually move!!

Heard from our realtor today that the contract we submitted last Fri for a house we looked at was accepted today!

Woo Hoo!

This has been a long time coming and we are excited!

So, I just thought things have been stressful waiting...now we're looking at moving as soon as the 21st...I'm sure the worst/best is yet to come! :)

Have a happy night!

Crazy, Crazy...

In response to my own husband informing me last night that he's disappointed in my lack of blogging, I've decided to surface from what's been our abnormally crazy life this week to say hi!
That's right, things have been crazy!!
I know some of you are scratching your heads, thinking..."When are things not crazy?!?!", but trust me...I've felt in the twilight zone this week!
First on the agenda, and I'm disappointed in myself that I don't have pics, is I am embarrassed to say...until last Sat. my kids didn't know what the lake was :) Saturday morning after Hubs headed off to work the kids and I decided to go to the movies, then Gram called. Our friends the Johnson's had their little camper at the lake and they were headed out to join in...did we want to come? So, I say,"kids, do you want to go to the movies like we planned, or would you rather go to the lake with Gram & Grandpa and the Johnson's?" which was followed by confusing looks and the response "what is the lake?"...that's when I knew for sure that I am failing as a parent!! I was practically raised at the lake!! We had a boat most of my growing up time...camping, tubing, skiing, friends...most weekends during the summer, and a few crazy, freezing, spring and fall trips...and I have never taken my own kids the 20 min drive to the lake!
Anywhoo, needless to say, they had a blast! Bug enjoyed walking the "seashore" finding "she shells", and ACE's highlight was when Grandpa took him to the bathroom and he might or might not have let loose on Ben's truck tires...oh the joys of being a little boy!
Second on the agenda, and I've hesitated to post it, is Fri night we put in an offer on another house...one that we really hope we get...and that could potentially close before the end of the month. Want to see me go crazy...just throw everything up in the air! Will we live here or there? Will bug go to school here, or there? Will ACE go back to preschool or do we start looking in the new place? Good Gravy! We can't even buy school supplies for kindergarten!
So, please pray for us! We turned in our life's info to the mortgage company yesterday (man, those people are nosey, wonder why!), and are trying to wait patiently (not one of my personal strong suits...my mom is prob laughing out loud right now) for some kind of an answer.
Ok, now that that's clear as mud, I promise some real posts and pictures...later!
Love you all!

A great cause...

I added the cool flashy button to my sidebar as a link to a cool give-away. It's for a sweet family that is raising money to help with their international adoption of a little girl named Lily. Go check out their site, and if you feel lead, enter the giveaway!

It's raining...

...it's pouring
I wish I was snoring...