Day 13

Good evening all!  What a hot saturday it was....for much of the United States there were many heat records broken far and wide!  Here in Texas it was a sunny 96-98 for most of the day and we will take it considering places like Las Vegas and Arizona were 118+!  We accomplished quite a bit today on our first saturday as home owners.  As with all homes that come with a yard, lots of things needed fixing and tweaking so that is what we spent most of the morning doing.  Sprinklers got fixed over the course of the day, I did some shopping to gather more items for around the home, and we all worked to put this place together as best as we could without our stuff in the home lol.

I began my morning playing with Star Wars action figures with Joel.  Whenever I am asked, "Mommy will you play with me?" I try my hardest to always answer with a yes and get down and play for at least 20 minutes.  Those moments of playing are so precious and they are going to be gone before I know it!  I must say, my impressions of Yoda and Chewy are really improving!  I did a mean C-3P0 this morning as well!  We re-enacted scenes from The Empire Strikes Back.  My kids are totally obsessed with Star Wars.  I knew a lot of people that had kids who were 3 back in the day that loved it.  Connor likes it, but Joel understands the story a bit more and I even got him saying, "Do or do not, there is no try." LOL I am raising my kiddos to be nerds and proud of it!

The painter came today and now 4 out of the 5 rooms upstairs are taped off.  The master bedroom is still available so that is where Connor sleeps.  Joel sleeps on the large puffy couch in the family room, and we sleep on an aero bed in the guest room downstairs.  Hopefully we will look back on all of this and have those "remember when" moments!

We had an amazing lunch today!  There is a place that you can create your own salads or order one of the many pre-selected ingredient salads.  The place also comes with soups, a variety of wraps, and has the best ice for drinks around!  I love the tiny little pellet ice that is nice and crunchy.  It makes drinks so cold and they are perfect bite sized pieces for when you get to the bottom of the drink...ever have that kind of ice?  If not, they sometimes have it at AM/PM or even hospitals lol I first began my love affair with that kind of ice at the hospital where I had Joel.  I also had every single surgery there, so I got to have it quite often with apple juice a couple of years ago!  Happy moments at the salad place!

Connor took THE longest nap today.  We were driving home from shopping and literally one second he was chewing gum and talking and the next I told him to look out the window because there was a herd of Texas Long Horns in the field...I looked in the rear view mirror and he was out!  4 HOURS later he finally awoke with a happy attitude and ready for dinner...fine with me!

Well, tomorrow is a day of rest.  Tomorrow is probably going to be rather boring without any books, tv, or quite toys from our church bag to keep the kids entertained.  Hopefully it will all go well and we can come home and take naps...that will pass the time and I am ALL for that these days!  Have a great night all for tomorrow begins another week and 4th of July is coming up!

Day 12

I took a nap today!!! SUCH a happy moment!  2 hours of catching up on a whole lotta sleep we aren't getting these days.  It felt so good!  Connor snuggled down with me and it was so nice to have a nap buddy!
As I sit here snuggling with my two kitty cats who are rubbing their cheeks on the computer I am thinking back on my day and the happy moments that flowed.

This morning I found out that the mirror that I had put on hold at Pier One was available (I was the second person to put it on hold so if they had picked it up I would have been out of luck.)  But I was able to get it and bring it home so YEA!

After dropping the mirror off at home, Connor, Joel, and I headed to a neat place that is an indoor jungle gym from floor to ceiling (the ceiling was about 50 feet tall!) We met with my former realtor and her kids there.  All of the boys had so much fun playing and climbing, which eventually led to a nap for Connor so good times had by all!  Kristen and I had a great time talking and catching up.  I feel very blessed to have so many friends here already and I haven't even met people from school or MOPS yet!

After nap time we headed out to dinner (seriously there are so many restaurants here it is nuts! At least the moving company is paying for us to go out each night lol).  We found a Mexican restaurant and really loved it!  I think we will be back to that one soon.  After dinner we went to the movies and David got to see Monsters University with us.  He really liked it and it was so nice to have movie snuggle buddies!

So now we are home and everyone is sleeping everywhere lol.  I am looking forward to a month from now having the place painted and the furniture in place!  For now we are living a fun adventure and enjoying it.  Everyone enjoy the weekend!

Day 11

Good evening all!  Or...all y'all :-)

Today was a hot one out here and I read that it is going to be a hot one in the west as well!  The kids are getting a little more used to the heat.  For me it is HEAVEN because I have had hardly one flare since being here!

We had a lazy morning but then headed out to an indoor play area that was so much fun!  I had gotten this place off of Groupon and it did not disappoint!  There were indoor jungle gyms, ball pits, trampolines, and rides.  The kids wore themselves out and Connor even fell asleep on the way home...his second nap since we have been here woo hoo!  The poor kid has nowhere to take a nap these days because of the painter and electricians.  The electricians did finish at the house today so now Connor can probably get a good nap in (and hopefully me too!) tomorrow in the guest room.

All of our ceiling fans were installed today.  SUCH a happy moment to have more air flow through this place!

We went to dinner with David at a place near his work that gives employee discounts even!  It was a yummy BBQ place and now we have eaten at one more great restaurant...oh the CHOICES out here!
When we were almost ready to go Joel told us how cold he was and when we went outside he smiled a great smile and said "aaaah that's better!" Guess he is getting used to the heat already lol.
We had a nice drive home and I found some more radio stations that I really like.  There are several talk radio stations on the FM dial that are Christian talk radio and have various sermons from pastors all over the US doing their public speaking.  They are great to listen to and it kept the kiddos quite for the whole ride and Joel even said how much he liked it!

We came home and put the kiddos to bed and it LOOKED like we were going to get to bed early lol.  It is only 11:30 so a bit earlier tonight.  We just need to work ourselves off of CA time for good one of these days!  Have a great night all and I hope you all had days filled with Sunshine!

Day 10 WOO HOO!

Wow, it amazes me once again just how fast time flies when I am blogging.  I swear I wake up, live my day, and then ready to blog again!  Today was a fantastic day and I really accomplished a lot for the home.  Some ceiling fans are up, some decorations were bought and put up, and I am looking forward to posting some before and after pics here soon!

This morning I had to get up bright and early to get a 24 inch pole for one of our ceiling fans as they did not have it at the Home Depot we went to last night.  After that I drove through Einstein Bagel and got us some breakfast!  I feel so lucky to live near one of these places again!  David and I spent many an ASU morning eating breakfast from there.

The electricians and painter came today.  So yesterday, the painter accidentally walked around the upstairs through dark blue paint and walked it all over the carpet....not exactly something I was going to share on my happy moment blog!  But I am REALLY pleased to report that with some "Goof Off" and "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser" (that part was my idea)  the navy blue paint is gone and my carpets are once again restored to their former glory!  HAPPY!  As a happy bonus, the painter, whom we call "Mr. Mike" is thrilled to have discovered what "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser" is.  He is now fully aware of the miraculous works of that mysterious sponge!

We did lunch and dinner with my mom and Alice tonight.  It was their last evening here with us as they will be flying home tomorrow.  We have had a lot of fun shopping and discovering the MANY restaurants our town has to offer!  We will all be sad to see them go, but are so thankful for the happy moments we all made together.

After dinner I went to a person in our congregation's home and had a meeting on the upcoming school year.  Connor is going to be going to a co-op preschool one time a week and another preschool 3 times per week somewhere else.  They do full day kinder out here in Texas so I want him to be as ready as possible when the time comes!  I am so thankful for the new friends I am meeting!  These ladies were funny and fabulous!

This evening, our good friends that we have known for years and who I basically grew up knowing their parents AND their children got to come over for a tour of the home and a visit with my mom and Alice.  It was really nice to see them and they brought over another Aero Bed so Joel doesn't have to sleep on the floor anymore!  He is SUPER happy about that LOL.  We were rotating Joel and Connor on the floor but Connor slept so much better in bed.

Speaking of bed, it is once again almost midnight.  I SO look forward to the day that I can get to bed at a decent hour!  There is just so much to be done each day and any break I get I savor!  One final happy moment of the day was that our home in California closed today.  I hope the new people living there enjoy each moment and have lots of joy in their "new" place!  I am also so grateful that I can now pay off our credit card bill!  That thing was getting out of control and we just kept saying, "Well, hopefully escrow will close soon!"  It did and we are all good.  Have a happy night all!

Day 8 June 24

 So for some reason day 9 published before day 8 so here you go!  Well, in all days it is really important to reach deep and find those happy moments!  Thankfully we had a lot of happy moments today before all of the bad came rolling into us, but I am grateful for the laughs along the way!

We headed to the mall yesterday and went to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (that's right they have them here lol) with my mom and her best friend.  It was a nice time and then after that we went and saw Monster's University...what a CUTE movie!  Connor snuggled on my lap and almost fell asleep at one point.  I am going to miss movie snuggles when both boys are too big to want to do that anymore!

After the movies we headed out to get Connor a hair cut...well...didn't work out too well.  Then we found out the moving van stuff is STILL in California and no idea when it will be here...oy

David got home from work late so the boys and I did some laundry and grabbed a lot of little stuff from our mini fridge we bought to put together a bit of dinner.  It has been fun trying to figure out what to eat lol.  I am so thankful my kids aren't too picky of eaters because dinner consisted of yogurt smoothies, organic juice, popcorn from the movies, american cheese singles, frozen waffles (that are currently in the fridge and were microwaved) squeezy thingys (those fruit and veggie mashed stuff that you squeeze in your mouth from a tube), and apples.  So it was a little of this and a little of that but it got them not wanting more food so it worked!

This whole moving journey has been really interesting so far.  About 7 months ago I prayed to God and told him I couldn't do this unless everything went perfectly smoothly....I said this prayer several times mind you.  Well, apparently God took that as me asking for a challenge because EVERYTHING one can think of going wrong pretty much HAS gone wrong, but we are still here, still in the house, and hoping to have our stuff sometime in July lol.  Everything DOES work out in the end and that is the most important thing.  I hope you all have a wonderful night and looking forward to tomorrow!

June 25th

Well, here I am at almost day 10! Can't believe it!  So LONG days of getting the house together and today was another one of those days, but many happy moments in between.

This morning we hung out at the house until about lunch time and then we tried a new sandwich place that was really good!  After lunch we took off and got Connor a haircut (FINALLY!) and did some shopping for some items at Target.  It turns out the moving van isn't coming until about July 8th for sure so we had to get some provisions to get us to the van date.  I got some really nice towels for our bedroom so excited about that!  There comes a point, however, when all one does is shop shop shop and it gets a bit monotonous.

We went to a British pub for dinner tonight that was delicious!  It is fun to get to go and try new restaurants!  During dinner, one of our neighbors and new friends from church called and said that they were bringing dessert over.  So we came home and they brought the most amazing brownie/cookie cups for us.  We got to chat and I found out the lady and her daughter (who is married and living with her parents) watch the Bachelorette together and I get to go watch it with them next week! WOO HOO!  That show is so much more fun to watch with other people!  So we had some amazing dessert, great conversation, and they brought over a pan, some cups, and some bowls to get us through till the moving van gets here....so happy!

After dinner and visiting, David and I headed off to Home Depot, sans kiddos, to do some shopping for the house.  Things like a new thermostat, toilet stoppers, and ceiling fans for the electricians to install in the morning.

Life is keeping pretty busy, but we have made sure to have time for the kiddos, spend time praying together, play together, and have some fun.  David is off on Friday so I look forward to doing some fun things with him and the kids!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Tuesday and looking forward to getting to accomplish what we need to in order to make this house a home!

Day 7 June 23

Hello all!  In the house with internet now so time to post some happy moments from day 7!  Bullet form today folks...aren't you excited?!

• Sunday we woke up early and headed to church for the first time in Texas as a family!
• We finally made it after a couple of clothing hiccups but it was great to be there!
• Joel said he LOVED primary and he has NEVER said that before.  I think what really helped was he knew kids there from playing with them earlier this week.  He had not played with kids in his last primary for over a year so going there was not fun for him because all the other kids went to school with one another and hung out with each other....it made my heart to happy to hear how excited he was for his new class!
• For dinner we went to an AMAZING restaurant that serves fried chicken and all the country fixings.  It was so fun and they had dancing that Joel went up and got to participate in the hokey pokey!  The kids had a really fun time and I am so grateful they were able to create some grandparent memories.
• We got to go to bed early Sunday so yea for that!  We have all been getting to bed so late, so very thankful for a restful sabbath day!

Day 6

Well we didn't get home till a little after midnight tonight.  It was a LONG day full of getting things done but things with the house are moving along!  I can't wait to see what this blog looks like almost a year from now!

So today I met with the painter (he is the one so getting started tomorrow!) Met with a garage door man who told me the garage door is pretty much on its last leg.  And I met with an energy person for the attic who is going to install an attic fan so yea for the energy bill being lower this summer!

The kids got to play in the hose/sprinkler set up that my mom's best friend bought them.  They had fun but I think Ginger had even MORE fun!  That dog loves the water!  So after the boys were done there, Joel asked if he could take a bath in my tub, so upstairs we went to fill it up, turn on the jets, and they had about 30 more minutes of fun.  I was trying to do lots of things to keep them busy in that empty house while I met with different people!

So this evening after David got off work, he met up with us at this FANTASTIC restaurant out here with my mom and her friend and the boys.  We had a really nice meal and fun talking.  It is just so great to have my mom and her friend here!  I am so grateful they were able to come out and enjoy the area and see where we live...every kid wants their parent to see their new digs and be happy for them.

After dinner, my mom and her friend watched the boys and David and I went out and finally saw Man of Steel!!!!  It was so great to go on our first date night in who knows when!  It was OK...I am a
Superman purist so having Calel called "Cal" and having him kill someone, have his father not die from a heart attack, and have some weirdo story with WAY too much CGI and not enough showing the actor fly like they used to in the old days...well, it was OK.  The best part was being with David and also seeing Superman throw an alien into a Lexcorp tanker...at least we know Lex Luther is around!  It was a great night with David and we went to the hotel to pick up the kids and then back to the apartment.  The kids had a super fun night and everyone is so tired.  Tomorrow the couches are coming, the washer and dryer are coming, the painter begins his work, and David is moving everything from his apartment to the house!  So we will have quite a bit of kitchen stuff over there.  Looking forward to the moving van getting here next week so we have other stuff lol.  Well have a great night all and looking forward to getting busy putting the house together!  Oh and the kitchen table comes tomorrow too!

Day 5

I spent money today....a whole lotta money.  Not sure if that is a happy moment or not lol.  We needed a washer and a dryer, so spent money for that.  We needed a couch for the family room, more money.  I guess I would not make a great millionaire who spends money like crazy because it truly is not my favorite thing to do.  I am excited to have found some really good deals and I ALWAYS ask if things are on sale or if there are discounts, and I got everything either at a discounted price or on sale today so there is that happy moment.

I am looking forward to all of the items showing up on Saturday.  Still lots more to do with the house, but taking it one day at a time.  I am just so thankful we HAVE a home now!

My mom and her best friend flew in today and we had some happy moments of eating lunch, shopping together, eating dinner, and showing them around the house.  The boys are SO happy a couple of their favorite people have come for a visit and it has been super fun to have them here!  I just wish I had more furniture for them to unpack.  The moving van might not get here till next Wednesday so for right now I have a very empty home!

Ginger got to play at a doggy daycare today and she is passed out tonight.  So happy she got to get out and meet some new friends as well!

Well my friends that is about it for tonight.  I am fighting a pretty major migraine and looking forward to going to bed.  On the happy side of my health, not one RA flare since being here in Texas!  The head is amazing for my joints and I have one HAPPY body right now!  Y'all have a good night and looking forward to more happy moments with my kiddos and family tomorrow!

Day 4

Good evening all!  Well bedtime has arrived for us here once more in central North America lol.  Today was filled with fun in the sun and some funnies!

We started off our morning by heading to the house to drop Ginger off...there is so much more space there for her to chew her bone and run around and I think she makes too much noise on the second floor of David's apartment with hard wood floors!  After dropping her off we headed to meet up with some new friends and do a pool day with other Ward members.  Since this was my first invite going somewhere of course I was nervous to meet people, but everyone was wonderful and I met some really bubbly people and the kids had THE best time swimming for hours and meeting new friends!  Meeting new friends can be hard sometimes.  But what I have learned is keep it simple, ask people all kinds of questions, and make sure to complement them, genuinely find something you really like about them or their children and say something.  "Be kind and friends will follow"  Hasn't not worked for me yet!

After our fun day swimming and meeting new people, we headed over to a paint store to get some information and cards from painters.  Well, I had an interesting experience that is funny to me at least.  I am Caucasian.  I speak maybe a freshman grade level of Spanish.  Today, I am not sure what language some of the painters were speaking on the phone.  I am also a speech therapist and I have dealt with MANY MANY cases of articulation problems.  But when you combine someone who barely speaks English with a Texan accent....you have a WHOLE lot of me saying, "What?!  What?!  I'm sorry I didn't understand that last part."  It was awful and funny!  I finally did find a painter and I look forward to having him help us out soon!

After making calls to find a painter, the kids and I drove through McDonalds and grabbed some late lunch.  We drove over to the big pond area near our home and ate lunch in the shade at a picnic table.  It was so quiet and beautiful!  There were cranes eating fish, ducks swimming, and my little kiddos being BEYOND quiet.  I just watched them eat mostly and soaked in the peaceful moment! There are times in my life when I pray so hard that I have the opportunity to rewind and look back on in Heaven....that moment of my little ones munching on food in one of the most beautiful places was for sure one of those treasured moments!

After lunch we headed back to the house and I let the boys and the dog get their wiggles out some more.  Then it was home for naps and I got a GOOD one today!

Tonight is hopefully one of the last nights in our apartment.  We are hoping to get some people to help us move out of here and into the house with what we have on Friday night.  Fingers crossed it all works out!  Like I said we live here with hardwood floors covering most of the place and the people above US are crazy noisy!  They vacuumed at 1 in the morning yesterday and David said that is normal....yeah, time to get OUT of living in a place with common walls!  Have a great night all and catch me tomorrow....my mom and her best friend are coming in for some Texas fun!

Day 3

We are in!  The money funded this morning and we met the agent with keys, garage door openers, and other keys today!  What a fun and excessively busy day it was!

My realtor brought her son with her this afternoon and the boys had SO much fun running all over the house!  When we first went in Connor took a look around and then yelled, "We have STAIRS!"  It was so precious!  Joel and Connor and the other little boy had a great time and Ginger got in on the playtime action as well!  She ran like a mad dog all over the grass over and over again and had THE best time in her new back yard!

After our realtor and son left, we headed out to mail some documents for our home back in CA and  eat some lunch.  It was a great lunch and then David headed back to work and the boys and I ran some errands.  We had to get the water to the house turned on and it took a bit of doing because I thought I left my wallet back at the house so we drove all the way back there, then back to City Hall.  They had a library there and have a summer program with tons of fun things to do for the kids.  There was even a puppet area with a theater and the kids had so much fun having me sit and watch them perform with several other boys.  These are the moments I am so thankful for the most!  Some of the other moms were staring at their phones as their kids did puppet shows, but I kept my phone down and off and watched with awe as Joel and Connor got along, laughed their heads off, and had lit up eyes the entire time as they saw me truly watching them!

After the library we headed over to a snow cone place and it was pretty hot by then so it tasted SO good!  Then back to the house to get Ginger and then back to the apartment.  By then it was 6 O Clock and I didn't get to go out to another town and find a painter but you know what?  I got to watch my kids laugh and play and we got the water turned on....total success of a day!  But that is not all!  So they have been begging me to go to a movie and there is a theater really close to David's place.  So we headed over and watched the move Epic.  What a neat movie!  I texted David that he could join us after his work class and he was able to make it just after the movie had started.  The boys were so happy to have us all there together!

Life is super busy right now.  There are about a million things to do a day, but I am so thankful I took the time today to just BE in the moment with my kiddos.  I don't regret not getting other stuff done at all.  It will all fall into place somehow.  Overall I think the kiddos are getting used to getting to bed at about 8-9 PM right now which two hours earlier in CA is their old bed time.  I am going to have to work on slowly moving it up, but I am thankful they went to bed with ease tonight!  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer night and have wonderful dreams!

Day 2

It is a bit surreal to be typing on here again but such a joy to be doing so!  Well, it certainly was an interesting day.  I spent most of the morning praying and hoping for some sort of resolution today.  I was so shaky by the time we got to the escrow office to sign the papers (I guess all of my thoughts of I will be OK no matter what happens wasn't too true after all lol)  We signed the papers and let Joel and Connor play with electronic devices while we signed away.

Our realtor took us to lunch afterward and it was a really cute 50's style diner place that was delicious!  She knows good food!  After lunch, David headed back to work and the boys and I headed to the apartment.  We had a few hours of down time as the boys played with various toys, one another, and I got to catch up on some episodes of some of my favorite shows on HULU....LOVE that site!


I finally got the boys out to the mall and we did some walking around and dinner there.  After two complete melt downs for Connor, David drove him home and Joel and I did some shopping.  It was SO nice to find a bathing suit with only one of my kids with me and the one NOT yelling, "Mommy why are you naked?!!!!"  Such a fun experience the last time at Target LOL

Tonight we are still in the apartment hoping the funds get wired in the morning and that we get the keys and garage door openers to the new place!  We are signing documents for the home in California tonight because they are hoping to close by the end of the week there!  FINE with us!  I am so thankful to be surrounded by my furry family as I write this.  I am so thankful to have our little family all back together again.  Off to sign some paperwork and then bed.  I am finally getting on Texas time a bit!

Day One

Welcome back all!  PHEW, what an interesting past 6 weeks this has been, but we made it to Texas!  I am happy to have this blog once more and I can't wait to see what the next 365 days of our lives here in the Dallas area brings.  I am going to try once more to post my happy moments for the day.  Honestly I wish I could have started this blog a few weeks back because, like the first 365 days, our lives have been filled with turmoil and trials beyond comprehension!  If we had a nickel for every time we have heard the phrase, "I have NEVER heard of people going through something like this!" we might have enough for a down payment on a home!  Onto the home situation, just one of many crazy happenings, 60 days ago we bought a home, or signed paperwork to.  At every corner the sellers have threatened to put it back on the market.  They didn't like it when the inspector came in, they were livid over the appraisal, and Friday when escrow was supposed to close, our lending didn't come through, for a RIDICULOUS reason, and they got angry about that.  So we signed an extension and escrow is supposed to close tomorrow.  Well, then their Realtor told  us that they said NO and that they are going to just put the house back on the market.  They somehow managed to take the lock box off of the home and have also removed the For Sale sign.  So tomorrow the future of our lives literally hang in the balance of a very UN-balanced human being.  We have prayed long and hard and feel peaceful about whichever way this thing goes tomorrow.  That isn't to say we are happy or stress free about it, but we will like everything will work out somehow.  So, would you like day one of happy memories?  Well wait no longer!

We drove from Amarillo to David's apartment today and enjoyed lots and lots and lots of car time together! Thankfully we had more time to spend stopping and taking breaks so that helped the antsy kiddos and dog a lot.  We started out our morning with breakfast at Cracker Barrel for Father's Day and it did not disappoint! Then we were off!  We stopped at a really fun rest stop with a park, doggy area, and indoor area for kids.  It was fun to have a decent break in our day and the kids looked a lot for Rattlesnakes (thank you huge WATCH for Rattlesnake sign at the playground lol).  Alas we did not find any snakes, but we did spot a really pretty!

We stopped another time at this town called Memphis, which was kind of like a 50's style ghost town.  Not sure if everyone was just gone for Father's Day or what, but we ate lunch in the town square and not a SOUL was around!  For those of you that watch The Walking Dead, I truly expected a walker or two to pop out at any moment!

A really happy moment was arriving at the apartment and getting to see the cats once more!  I missed them so much!  They both cuddled and snuggled with me and we all enjoyed checking out our rooms and looking through the apartment.  It is off to dinner for us and then BED for two VERY cranky boys.  Saying lots of prayers that no matter what happens tomorrow, we can feel at peace and that A HOME will be provided for us.  It will all work out and I will keep you posted!  Blessings to all y'all!