Bye California

4 years ago...we moved from our very first non rental home into our 2nd home in cozy little neighborhood to a cozy little home on California Dr. We were so excited to be able to spread out...to have room to play, to have a bedroom for each of our boys, to have more space. When we moved in I was shocked at how quickly we filled our home--it was bursting at the seams with Life. It was fabulous. We missed our big gorgeous yard from Pippin Ct. but we loved our "big" new home more. Our argument was we LIVED in our house not in our yard. And it was true...our house was lived in. A lot. A brand new baby was brought home to it, that brand new baby learned to crawl, walk, and talk there; 2 kindergartners marched off to school there, a wonderful husband began a wonderful new career there. 4 brand new pets were acquired there...1 was lost :( Friends.for.life. were made there. Memories of screaming, giggling, happy children were created there. I found more of myself there--loved more of myself. Loved more of my husband and became a better wife. I cried leaving--I hoped I wouldn't but knew I would. I cried more for that home than our first--and I didn't expect that.
We are in between homes and this is hard. It's hard to leave a home not knowing for certain you have a new one to go to. I know I have A home to go to but I want MY home. I am so excited for what Robert and I envision our new home to be. Things we knew our previous homes were not. We see our kids romping in the woods behind the house. Building tree houses and making friends and growing and growing. We are both so excited, excited for each other, for our boys, and our family. We are sad, sad for each other, sad for our boys, and ALL of our family....leaving Tennessee. Leaving our home...on our own adventure. Our own Life. It's scary, it's exciting, it's sad, it's lovely and wonderful...and terrifying. But oh are we excited.
Bye California....thank you for helping us grow, thank you for being Home.

For those wondering--the Uppercase Living lettering over the fireplace says--"HOME-where your story begins."

The one over the couch, under the office doors says.."Life is not measured by the number of Breaths we take, but by the Moments that take our breath away."

Funny Face

I am taking a break from packing...which by the way sucks--big time. The kids are being fabulous and staying out of the way. We close tomorrow, YIKES. We have to be out of "our house" which will no longer be "our house" by 3pm Sunday. I am not feeling too emotional about it just yet...but I am sure I will. I did when we moved from our first house 4 years ago. I surprised Robert then by crying, it was our first home. The only house Jakeb and Zachary knew...it was a hard move for them at the time. I am concerned about how this will be for all of them, especially Gavin. This house is the only house HE has known. We moved here 2 1/2 months before he was born. He has never moved, he doesn't understand the concept just yet. What makes it harder is that we will not be moving into "our new home" but instead Robert's parents house for the next 2 months. It will be ok, we will be house less for about 2 weeks...as we are set to close on the new house in Alpharetta on April 15th--provided everything goes as planned.
The house is a wreck--boxes and random things all over the place. Instead of loosing my mind like I want to I just keep reminding myself to keep moving and getting things done. It's a slow process but it's moving along. Fingers crossed I can keep my emotions in check on Sunday...I think I will be ok...I don't feel quite the attachment to this house--but I would like to take my Maple, Tulip Poplar, and Magnolia tree in the back yard. Those 3 trees were planted just a few weeks before Gavin was born. They are growing like crazy as is he and I wish I could take them with me...but they are just tree's and the new house has a yard full of them.
I asked Gavin(aka casper) the other day to make a funny face for me...the first was slightly silly...the last was hysterical....then we all joined in...



Meet the Master at the Funny Face...

I am forseeing Braces in this one's near future...big ones...

JAB

The oldest-aka Jakeb--had a birthday this past week. His 8th. 8 years ago on March 20th he popped into this world with his temporarily cone headed self. Quite the kid he is. He marches to his own little awesome beat. He's always been a wee bit different and I personally think it's fabulous. I hope one day he sees that too. He's sensitive and exceptionally compassionate. Caring and kind. Sassy and smart. At 8, he is reading well beyond his grade level and has yet to make anything less than a 100 on every single spelling test in the 2nd grade. He's apparently caught up with whatever itty bitty bit he may have lacked in his writing skills--as he consistently tells me his teacher is complimenting him on them. He continues to wake at the crack of dawn..every.single.day. Especially on weekends. He wakes up chipper and happy and silly. The rest of us do not. The night terrors he has had in the past seem to have all but disappeared. His asthma and breathing issues of past winters are completely gone. He tried out piano this past year and has moved on to guitar and seems to be excelling with it. He has so much sass and attitude recently that I am dreading him at 13...but hopeful that he will get it all out of his system before then. Though I know it's unlikely. He is still sticking with karate and says he would like to continue on and get his black belt after we move. He is still Mr. Serious and at times is quite the stick in the mud...but can get giggly for sure. He's very proud of his rock star hair. At 8 Jakeb Anthony is an amazing little boy--I love watching who he is becoming every day.

St. Pat

Over the past years of my life I never recall doing much celebrating for St. Patrick's Day...my celebrating consisted of trying to remember to toss on green and call it a day. Maybe in college some celebrating occurred but I don't remember it--which doesn't mean much, after all I was in college.
But it seems this year a great deal of celebrating has gone on--just not here. I did remember to put the boys in their best (and only) green--well Gavin stayed in pj's all day, which is what he does most days, the lazy bum. He did manage to force himself into clothes long enough to take Jakeb to guitar and he did agree to a green shirt AND he did put on green pj's for the night (the second we got home), by his choice. He's festive. But I am not kidding about him being serious about his pj's. I have read many a blog about how the leprechauns visited homes leaving things in a great deal of disarray. Green pancakes, green treats and various other celebrations have occurred. It's cute...I will step up the game next year...if I remember. Apparently leprechaun's had a wild party and ransacked Jakeb's class last night--which is incredibly cute. He was impressed. Zachary said they didn't come to his classroom which is a bummer for him. Guess they got tired. I don't blame them really visiting 45 classrooms would get exhausting.
I am very ready to be home....in our new home.

Achoo take 2

8:37pm Gavin just walked in to let me know "I bless you'd on my pajama's, dey are wet" I had him let me feel since I am certainly positive that a sneeze on your pants wouldn't require a change like he is insisting is necessary. Besides he had NO problem wiping his bless you all over my pants earlier today. But the kid is serious about his pj's and moisture so I felt the minuscule droplet and told him I think it's fine. He is now in his bed sobbing. Being a bless you'ing 3 1/2 year old is emotional.

Bless You

Gavin refers to sneezes as "Bless You"...as in "I just bless you'd". Since he sick and snotty he's been bless you'ing double time over the past few days. His reaction this morning was quite comical. He has been playing the Wii while I scan documents and make phone calls (the joys of moving and financing a new home) and he was very displeased with him self for bless you'ing on the Wii remote. "Aww..I just bless you'd on the REMOOOOTTEE!" As he brings it to me he states: "I am going to have to wipe it off on your pants" Gee is that the case? Fortunately it was just slobber and not snot, I would have been none to please to have snot smeared across my beloved sweats...slobber I can handle, snot I cannot.

Super Sunday Sixteen.

1. Started a Tuesday's 12 a few weeks back...couldn't get past #3. What's up with dat!?

2. So here's the deal...we'ze have a contract on a house in Georgia. Rock on. It's fabulous. I will show you pictures I promise.

3. Did I mention it has brand new Frize' carpet? Why yes, yes it does.

4. I will get way more excited and 97.4% less on edge once our current home closes. Until then I am walking ball of nerves...more than normal.

5. I hit a breaking point on Friday. All is better now.

6. Gavin and Zachary have Strep. Zachary started running a fever Wednesday while we were gone...Dr. Friday. Strep. Gavin woke up with a fever last night, sore throat, and discovered a rash on his body at the Dr. Strep and Scarlett fever as a result. Good times.

7. Despite it all you would not have a clue they are sick. Just as ornery and wild as always.

8. I suspect Jakeb to become ill at any moment, quickly followed by myself...or me first then Jakeb. Either order really...just that I am sure we too will fall ill.

9. Have I mentioned Jakeb will be turning 8 on Saturday?! Because OMG, Jakeb will be 8!

10. Aside from all this moving, we will be celebrating Jakeb's birthday by taking a brief jaunt to Chicago for a long weekend. Yes this will be at the worst/best possible time ever.

11. We will make a trip to Legoland Discovery Centre while we are there. Jakeb is an avid Lego'er and is thrilled.

12. I am just thrilled to get a break from it all...AND I get to hit up Chicago with my boys--all 4 of them.

13. Then it's home to pack like mad and get the heck outta dodge.

14. I cannot WAIT for June.

15. But right now I am just counting down the days until March 26...one hurdle at a time.

16. Whew I made it to 16. Gonna go snuggle with my hubster before he jumps on a plane for Seattle bright and early in the morning. Did I mention I can't wait for June?

March?

March is almost halfway over....and I am not sure I have taken any photos of my boys this month. That certainly means I am insanely busy and distracted...because that never happens. Here's us in Georgia in February....er, them.

Whistle while you work

On a not so stressful note...Zachary learned how to whistle, he is very proud of himself and walks around whistling. I will let you know when it gets annoying.

Holy *Explicative*

I am sure the 3 of you may be wondering where I have vanished off to...um right into the world of "OMG, what did we do".
You certainly recall the recent turmoil riddled posts of recent weeks regarding "to move or not to move". Right so the final decision was to list the house and see what happens, well a contract is what happened. ELEVEN days later. To say we are shocked is putting it mildly. I mean this is 2 for 2 of selling a house in record time. I am thinking we know some good tricks or something. HOWEVER. By selling the house in record time this means we are going to be 2 months shy of the end of the boys school year....which deems us a 2 month sleepover with the In laws. The panic over this has subsided...I *think* my OCD tendencies can handle living out of boxes for 2 months...but just in case please pray for my sanity.
So this sends us to Georgia several times in the past weeks house hunting and checking out areas. This isn't quite as straight forward as it seems...at least not for me. I am a planner...I like to know the ins and outs of things before I make a decision. I like to research, I like to KNOW. Well I don't KNOW that this is right...I don't KNOW that the town(s) we are looking at are ok. I just don't. So relaxing on this is hard for me. All 3 of my boys were born in the same hospital in Nashville as I was. Aside from a brief stint in Indiana and a brief stint in Florida both when I was a young child...TN has been my home for my entire life. Middle TN to be exact. I have lived in the same city for the past 12 years. I thought moving states was easier....apparently I a bit more emotionally stuck here than I thought. This is hard. All of that said I am trying to not freak. We narrowed it down to 2 cities...we found a house in a different one. Not cool. The house rocks, brand new everything. We put an offer thru this morning...we will see what comes of it. Upon leaving the house yesterday we drove on down the 4 miles it was to the school. Now the house we chose is addressed for a decent size city in Georgia...however it's just over the county line for where most of the city is...if that makes any sense. Basically it's about 10 min away from "town"...but not really. Anyway right so it's a bit out...so we treck over the school...which we pass. We pass the school because it's so old it almost looks like an abandoned building. I said OMG and my stomach hit the floor...Robert has about the same reaction but instead has sense enough to go into the school. While I sat in the car freaking out. He comes out grinning and says it's the cutest little school...and little it is. Their current school has 9 kindergarten classes this school has 3. There are 9 2nd grade classes this school has 2. So aside from outwardly appearances I think it's probably ok...maybe great, I don't know. Typically a smaller school is a good thing...I am banking on that being the case. It's the smallest oldest school in the county. Let's hope that my thinking a school has to be brand new and pretty to be great is just me being a snot and is wrong.
So basically it's full on freak out mode here. I have googled Target and it's location to offered on home. I have about 5 options all being about the same distance as our Targets now. Publix is right across from the school....Malls are just a brief jaunt down country roads or GA400. And lest we forget Ikea...yes this is a mere 45 min drive, and this makes it all ok. Almost.

Prayers

I cannot stop thinking about this sweet baby girl and her family....
Layla Grace or Layla Grace on Twitter.

What plagues me more is this is not the first story of a baby with this horrible horrible disease...yet this is the first time I have read it can be caught with a simple urine test. Often babies are born with it, why is this not being made routine.