There's no place like home...

We've moved! Saturday was the day we bribed, I mean, asked our friends to help us move from the condo into our new home. There were 13 of us, and there's no way we could have done it without each of our fabulous friends and their muscles! I'm especially grateful to my sis-in-law who took the kids outside and kept them from being trampled, and for my dear friend (who also called our condo 'home' for a few months last year) who packed some of the remaining loose items so well that I knew exactly where they were when I needed them as we unpacked. We were done in just a few hours with the big stuff, but we still had to return to the condo for some of the remnants and to make sure there weren't any buffalo-sized dust bunnies lurking in the corners for the new owner...

As expected, I was a little bit emotional about 'saying goodbye' to what had been our home for six years. I admit to being a sentimental fool, having to be the last out the door so I could have my one last long look at the place we have been doing life for more than half our marriage. Lucy was just a little bit teary as we pulled away, and I tried to be genuine in my feelings and reassure her that I was a little sad, too. She recovered pretty quickly, and then made up a song to sing to me. She sang that it's okay to be sad to say goodbye to the condo, but to be happy because we have a new house to call our home. She also told me to let her know anytime I was sad and she would sing to me again. It was so sweet, and it definitely helped!

Sunday was a fun day of unpacking and trying to locate things we needed. The kids were quite helpful, as you can see.

Mostly I feel like we were pretty organized, but I admit to spending a very frustrating half hour searching for the bag of screws so we could hang the paper towel rod in the kitchen. Ugh.

We met quite a few of our neighbors during the first two days we called this place home. On Saturday we met many of them out front as we were unloading the truck and assessing the piles in the garage. But on Sunday, the weather brought the whole neighborhood out in our backyards and on the roofs as we stood in a virtually windless place and watched a tornado forming just a few miles away! The beauty of the open landscape of Colorado allowed us to see this amazing natural phenomenon, and with our new house up on a hill, we had a bird's eye view as it tore into the landscape on the other side of town.

People saw us come out and shouted their hellos and waved to us over the fences or from their rooftops. One neighbor joked that we should have waited a week to move in, just in case the neighborhood wasn't here after the storm. It gave me goosebumps to watch, and we are so grateful to know that because it touched down in a rural area, there was no major damage and no injuries or loss of life.

We all went inside when the hail and rain came, but having a front porch allowed us to show Lucy the marble-sized hail.


An hour later, the setting sun returned and shone in stark contrast on the dark storm clouds that had passed to the east. A beautiful double rainbow, pictured here from our front porch, was the perfect way to end this first full day at our house, and a humbling reminder of God's promises to us.

Tomorrow is The Day

Tomorrow we sell our condo and buy a house, all within the span of about three hours. I've been packing like crazy, while still trying to keep my kids happy. Really, it's been a pretty good week, aside from one or two moments where I was so overwhelmed that I wanted to just crawl into a hole until September.

Today I got enough done that I decided we needed a break and I took the kids to the pool after naptime. It was great fun, and both of them were loving it. (Josiah sometimes isn't so sure of the water, but today he was all smiles.) As we swam, with the pool completely to ourselves, my mind kept coming back to all the little things that I will miss when we move. Today, it was primarily the pool! But I also thought about the great expanse of green grass in view from our windows where Lucy loves to play with her neighborhood friends. And the friends themselves.

I've been so excited to move into our new house! The more I tell people about it, the more I can hardly wait to settle in. But inevitably, change is hard, and as reality settles in, the sentimental side of me peeks through the cracks of my excitement. I'm just hoping I can hold it all together through our hours of closings tomorrow.

Use it or Lose it

As a member of our museum, I get a magazine each month with upcoming events, interesting scientific articles, etc. As I was browsing it over my bowl of cereal this morning I read the following tip for exercising your brain:

"Pack Your Bags: Planning trips, going to new places, and having engaging experiences with different people helps keep your brain stimulated and healthy."

With all our travels -- and assuming that packing for a move counts, too -- my body may be weary, but at least my brain is being stimulated. Looking at my schedule from July and for August, I'm on my way to becoming the next Einstein!

Somewhere in middle-America

I could barely remember my own blog address tonight as I sit here in Omaha, Nebraska, in a hotel room with my kids sleeping and my husband watching the Olympics. That's how long it feels since I've blogged! We have had a pretty incredible 10 days in the midwest, and we're on our way home, taking this break for what we hope to be a good night sleep.

There's so much that I'd like to write about, but I'll have to save some of the fun stuff for later. Since the month of August began, we have spent three whole days on the road in Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Day Four will be tomorrow as we finish our drive home. The kids have been phenominal travellers and we are so pleased with how well they have done as we've dragged them all over creation.

The purpose of our trip was to participate in the joyful celebration of John's sister's wedding. Since she planned to get married in Wisconsin, just two hours' drive from one of our favorite families, the Joneses, we made a sort of vacation of it. After spending a day on the way with John's grandparents and parents, we arrived in Madison and spent four days soaking up as much time with each other as we could. They also planned a day with us at the Wisconsin State Fair, which I can only describe as artery-cloggingly delicious!

Not only did we spend wonderful time with the Jones family, but our paths also crossed with dear old friends, the Kabuthas, who live in Kenya. They just happened to be in the US this summer, and just happened to be driving through Madison on the last day we were there. It was a brief but refreshing time, as it has been three years since we last saw them, when our daughters were the ages that our sons now are.

I could have stopped there and felt my cup was full, but on our last night in Madison, I also got to spend several very fast hours sipping coffee with my childhood neighbor and best friend Jess, who I reconnected with this past fall. This was only the second time I've seen her in the last 19 years, and it was such a sweet time togehter. I felt my cup was overflowing.

To top it all off, yesterday was my sister-in-law's wedding. John's youngest sister, Anna, was only 12 years old when I met her, but yesterday it really hit us both that she's no longer 'little.' She was radiant as a bride! The two days of rehersal and wedding festivities was exhausting and yet seemed to pass too quickly. Lucy did a truly beautiful job as a flower girl, and Josiah was a trooper through it all. (We took upwards of 800 photos, but you'll have to wait to see them until I get home and can sort through the best of them.)

We will finish our drive tomorrow, then as soon as we are finished unpacking from our trip, we'll begin packing for our big move which will take place in less than two weeks. Hmmm. I might not be blogging as much as I'd like to, but I'll at least update with some photos and maybe a few fun stories from these travels.

Good night from Omaha...

Teachable moments

I have begun the process of packing to move. I grab tiny pieces of time between my motherly duties to wrap, pack, tape, and label. Today during Josiah's morning nap I took the time to pack some of the things in my china cabinet, including the tea cups and saucers that I treasure as an inheritance from my grandmother. Lucy came over to ask about the pretty cups, so I started to tell her about them -- what kind of flowers were painted on them, where they were from, which was my favorite -- and our conversation went something in this direction:

Lu: So, are these from my grandma?
Me: No, they belonged to my grandma, Grandma Opal Emiline, your grandma's mommy, who you are named after.
Lu: Oh. [thoughtful pause] Is that your grandma that died?
Me: Yes, honey, she died when I was 13, and now she's in heaven with Jesus.
Lu: Oh.

I glance over to see that she is starting to tear up through a fake smile. I put the cups down and knelt down by her so I could see her at eye level.

Me: Does it make you sad to talk about my grandma?
Lu: [now letting her true colors show and bawling] No, I'm not sad!
Me: It's okay to be sad when we talk about people dying, because we miss them.
Lu: I'm not sad about that [sob, sob], I'm sad that I didn't get to color with my friend Jenna.

Too often I try not to let my emotions show in front of my kids so they don't think I'm a blubbering mess, but recently I've begun to realize they need to see that it's okay to let emotions out and be real and honest about them. When I heard this response from Lucy, I knew that it was time for us to have a good cry together, and particularly for her to see me cry. Friends of mine know that it's my policy that no one cries alone in my presence, so you can imagine when it's my own daughter it doesn't take much to get my waterworks going.

We've had a similar conversation before, and it has been hard for me to choose to talk about my grandma. It's been 20 years, but there are times I think about her and still miss her. There are definitely times when I wish that my husband could have known her (to see where my mother and I get some of our quirks), and especially that my children could have known her. But today I sat on the floor by my innocent 4-year-old and grabbed a kleenex for each of us.

I told her a few stories about the many times I spent with my grandma, and I told her how much I loved her. We went upstairs and I dug out some old photos of me with my grandma when I was Lucy's age. We talked about how my brother (her Uncle Scott) and I would spend the night with my grandma and grandpa and play in their yard and eat sweet treats that my mommy didn't usually let us have at home. And I told her that I was sad when my grandma died because I knew that I would miss her. But I also told her that because she is with Jesus in heaven, that we would see her again someday.

Then Lucy surprised me by asking questions about heaven. She particularly wanted to know what my grandma was seeing up there, and if she would still be there by the time we arrived. It was a unique opportunity to open up my Bible as we sat on the floor and read scripture to her about heaven and eternity. I read a few verses here and there from Revelation -- ones I though she could grasp, mostly pertaining to the streets of gold and the pearly gates, etc. She just soaked it up, asking to hear more. I skimmed and read aloud as much as I could.

We heard Josiah waking up, and our special time came to a close. We dried our tears, and I returned to my packing and Lucy to her play time. But just a little while later she surprised me with a picture that she drew and had placed on the fridge. To the untrained eye, it's a bunch of scribbles and lines, but she showed me what each little mark meant: it was a drawing of my grandma in heaven, on a street of gold, with her arms open wide because she loved me. She had me help her spell out "HEART" with stickers, because then I would always know that my grandma loved me even though she is in heaven now.

I was so touched by this, and so pleased to know Lucy was listening -- really listening. And I was so thankful for the prompting to use this moment to teach her something of lasting value, instead of choosing to do it 'some other time' because I had so much to try to accomplish today.

Sharing this story takes more time out of my very busy week of furnace cleaners and house inspectors and packing to move and preparing to leave for a 10-day trip to the Midwest on Friday. But I also want to encourage you to grab a hold of those moments when they present themselves! I know how easy it is to let life slip by just by being busy. It seems that over the last few days thoughts of life and death and eternity have presented themselves in the lives of so many people around me, and I'm so grateful I had this opportunity today -- and that I chose to use it -- to talk with my daughter about her great-grandmother and eternity.

Good grief

My dear friend Jen told me a few months back about the battle her college roommate/maid of honor/best friend was fighting. Last fall, at age 32, Leslie had a brain tumor removed, and over the course of the last few months, what started out as a bothersome sinus problem became the fight of her life as cancer overtook her lungs. I got the news yesterday that Leslie 'defeated cancer,' though her body did not, as she went home to be with the Lord on Saturday night.

As I've been following her husband's blog for several months, I've been amazed by the perspective he and Leslie have had about life and death. His honesty through these struggles have taught me so much. If you have a minute (and a box of kleenex), his last blog post is worth your time. A few days ago he also posted a link to this essay with an amazing perspective on cancer's unexpected blessings.

I am rejoicing that Leslie is indeed free from pain, free from gasping for air, free from fear. But I grieve on behalf of her husband and her 3-year-old son, the rest of her family, and my friend Jen who will miss her best friend.

Happy 1st Birthday to my Baby Boy!

A year ago we welcomed sweet baby Josiah into our family. Look how precious and tiny he was that first day, weighing in at 7 lb 1oz!

We had a very relaxing day today, and I spent some time reminiscing about how everything went on the day of his birth... How I woke up feeling like I was going to be pregnant forever (even though I still had 10 days until my due date), and how the contractions I was having at noon were 20 minutes apart and not very intense... how John finally came home at 3:30 because I told him my back hurt and I could use a rub, and how he finally convinced me to finish packing and get in the car... how I cried as I said goodbye to Lucy when our friend picked her up, and how I thought it could be days until I saw her again... how I became unable to make phone calls on the way to the hospital (during rush hour) because I had to start to focus on breathing, and how we got to the hospital at 5:15 p.m. and had to check in at the ER... how the hallway down to the delivery rooms seemed miles long, and how I barely had time to get into the gown... how it seemed like an eternity until my midwife arrived from the building nextdoor (though John says he couldn't believe how fast she got there), and how less than 10 minutes later, at 6:18 p.m., we were holding our baby boy!

And look at him today! Today we celebrate a very fast and very fun year with our bundle of snuggles and lovin' -- our sweet Joey.

Home Sweet soon-to-be Home

The last two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind for us. From selling our condo, to starting our search for a new home, to leaving our kids for the first time on our trip to California, to coming home and searching some more... it feels like this amount of activity should have been spread out over several months, not just a few days!

With my parents still here for a few days after we returned from our anniversary trip, John and I were able to go together to look at 16 different homes. We quickly narrowed it down to three that we liked the best and revisited those yesterday afternoon. One of them stood out to us, head-and-shoulders above the others, and we were in solid agreement that it was our desire for this be our next home. We took a walk with our whole family around the neighborhood, we spent a lot of time praying throughout the day, and we asked some of our friends and family to pray as we made this decision. And then we made an offer. Several times this morning we went back and forth with the sellers, and they finally accepted it, so... the house is ours!!!

It's still sinking in, and it will probably take packing and moving in to truly feel real, but in this moment we are very pleased and praising God for so many things: that my parents were here and could watch the kids while we looked (and their joy and willingness to do so!), the relatively fast sale of our condo enabling us to do this, finding a house in such a short amount of time, a real estate agent who has been so fantastic in every aspect of this process so far, the fact that we love a house that's actually in our price range, a closing date that works perfectly with the sale of our condo, and the fact that the sellers chose to work with us over another comparable offer we were told was on the table as of last night.

And it goes beyond that for me, in thanking God for the ability to upgrade to a beautiful home on one income, for a husband who has a tremendous amount of financial sense so we are in the position to make this move, for a relatively short 9-mile commute to John's office (though we've been so spoiled by being just one mile away for the last four years), for the excitement of making new friends with our neighbors and seeing what is in store for those relationships.

In looking back at how this has all played out, we can see that God's hand has certainly been in it all, and He is SOOOO good! As one dear friend put it, it is a sweet victory of God's provision!

Californi-aahhh!

If you read my blog entry six months ago, you might remember that my husband was surprising me with a trip to California to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary! Is knowing about an event six months in advance really considered a surprise? It was to me! And those months flew by before we finally purchased tickets for us and made arrangements for our kids to stay behind for our first vacation without them.

This past weekend we took our trip -- It. Was. Fabulous. We had such a wonderful time in beautiful Dana Point, Southern California! We spent our four days there lying in the sand, sleeping, eating, laughing, reading, digging our toes in the sand, watching surfers, breathing deeply, wading in the waves, reminiscing, and wondering about what the next ten years might be like.

We had dinner on our anniversary at the amazing Cannons restaurant on the cliffs above Dana Point Harbor. John managed to get us a table at the window.

Love was in the air! There was a wedding reception that we could see going on below on the terrace, and dining next to us there, we met another couple who was also celebrating their anniversary on that same day. Ten was a big milestone for us, but this couple was celebrating 66 years of marriage! They were so sweet! We had to have our picture with them.

(We had several conversations with them throughout the evening but realized at the end that we didn't know their names. Our guess was Horace and Mildred. Turns out their names are Don and Kris. Reality is boring! We decided to call them Horace and Mildred anyway.)

Back at home, Grandma and Grandpa were taking such good care of our kids that we considered staying and extra day or two. Not really, but they said the whole weekend was far easier than they anticipated, and that our kids were absolute angels. We loved hearing that they all did so well, especially because it means that there is a possibility of doing something like this again in the future!

And for those concerned for how Josiah would do in regards to nursing, everything turned out far better than I had hoped for. Within an hour of returning home, he took to nursing again like a fish to water. [Insert BIG SIGH of relief here.]

It's hard to believe that this trip we looked forward to for six months is behind us, but we have plenty back at home to keep us busy, and plenty more to look forward to in the days ahead.

Pitter Patter

He's walking! Josiah took his first independent steps today! He has seemed ready to go for at least a week, standing from a squat, bouncing on his knees, and balancing. And he gets that mischievous look in his eyes when he does it. With our anniversary trip coming up in a few days, John and I were a little afraid that Grandma and Grandpa would be the first witnesses of this milestone and that we might miss it. No more worries. Look at him go!