Duh

I think the most annoying part of moving is not knowing where anything is.

Well, it's not that I don't know where my stuff is. I know it's all in boxes. The annoying part is not knowing which box it's in.

For example, last night I wanted to find a spoon to eat some soup that Aaron and I had bought for dinner. Perhaps I should have labeled the 328 boxes of stuff from the kitchen a little more descriptively than just "kitchen." Dang it.

After struggling to remove the packing tape from the top of approximately 7 of the 328 boxes labeled "kitchen," I gave up on finding a spoon and settled for an ice cream scoop. Yep. I ate soup with an ice cream scoop. That rhymes.

Here's the moral of the story: When you move, label what's in the box - not just where it goes. Duh.

God=Santa Claus?

A conversation that occurred yesterday between Sam and my mom:

Sam: (out of left field) "You know, God lives in your heart and you can talk to Him any time you want."
Mama: "That's right! You can talk to Him any time."
Sam: "Yeah. And you can ask Him for stuff."
Mama: "Well, what do you ask Him for?"
Sam: "The other night before I went to sleep I asked Him for candy and presents."
Me: "God isn't like Santa Claus, Sam!"

Habitat for Humanity Restore

After Toby and I dropped Sam off at school this morning, we went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore on Wendover Drive in Charlotte. It's kinda like a thrift store, but cooler. I first discovered this place a few months ago when Tonia and Sean took me there.


Here is a description of Restore that I jacked from their website: "The Habitat ReStore was opened in 1996 as a fundraising division of Habitat for Humanity Charlotte, supporting the mission to develop a community with people in need by building and renovating homes, so that people can live and grow into all that God intended. All of the merchandise is donated by individuals and corporations and then sold to the public. The profits are used to build Habitat homes."

Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Anyway, Toby and I walked around the store for a bit looking for hidden treasures to fix up and put into my new house (I love refinishing wood and fixing up old stuff). Restore had everything from furniture to tile to lighting fixtures to doors...and the list goes on and on. I didn't really see anything I had to have today, but I'm sure the inventory there changes quite a bit since new things are donated daily. Go by and check it out for yourself.

Oh...and make sure to stop in to Julia's Coffee Shop (located in the same building as Restore) to get a snack or an awesome drink (today I had a skim half-mocha half-white chocolate coffee!). All the proceeds from Julia's go right back to Habitat for Humanity to help build houses :)

A Trip to Urgent Care...

As if I don't have enough craziness going on in my life right now, I had to go to Urgent Care this morning to have stitches put in my right hand.

I'm probably one of the clumsiest people you'll ever meet. I think it comes from trying to do too many things at one time.

I was making pancakes for the boys and unloading the dishwasher at work this morning. I grabbed 2 glasses out of the dishwasher, took them over to the cabinet to put them away on the top shelf, and they somehow managed to shatter and come crashing down upon my right hand.

My first thought was, "Shoot. That was Liz's favorite glass."

My second thought was, "Ewww...is that a bone?" I looked down at my hand to see 2 cuts on my hand; one on the side of my index finger and a deeper one on the palm-side of my thumb. Before it started bleeding, all I saw was white flesh and perhaps a bone.

My third thought was, "I can't deal with this right now. I have too much to do this week!"

Don't forget...I was making pancakes while all of this was happening. The glasses shattered everywhere - on the counters and floor, in the pancake mix, and onto the pancakes I had already made. Everything went into the trash.

I wrapped a paper towel around my wounds and began to clean up the glass. When I realized the bleeding wasn't stopping, I took another look at my fingers and got a little freaked out. I decided to call Liz (she's a doctor) and asked her what to do. She came right home, looked at my fingers and decided I should go to Urgent Care for some stitches.

Here are a few of the highlights from our trip:

• Sam asked the doctor 538 questions.
  
• Toby wanted to run around everywhere...and got very grumpy when Liz wouldn't let him. You would have thought he was the patient by the way he was screaming.
  
• Sam thought it was hilarious that I had to get 3 shots of lidocaine in my hand and a tetanus shot in my left arm. Yeah. Very funny.
• Toby ate almost my entire stash of snacks from the diaper bag. Food always makes the wait go by faster.
  
• Liz is a great comforter. She wanted to make sure I didn't have to see the doctor by myself - so she and the boys came with me for moral support.

The doctor put 3 stitches in my thumb, gave me a tetanus shot, and sent my on my way.

Aaron is off today and plans to move everything from our apartment to our new house. He already moved all of the big stuff this morning (thanks, Robert!) but we still have some packing and moving to do tonight. Since I'm supposed to "take it easy" (the doctor said so!), I'll be packing and Aaron will be lifting and moving boxes as well as painting. We'll spend our first night in our new home tonight!

Painting Our House...

Whew! What a weekend!

I'm so exhausted. And tired of painting.

The good news is that we painted the entire downstairs area (the half bathroom, dining room, great room, kitchen, and pantry) and the walk-in closet in the upstairs master bedroom this past weekend. I absolutely LOVE the colors!

The bad news is that we still have some trimming and touch-ups to do.

We still need to paint the master bedroom by Friday so Aaron and I can move our stuff in. I have a feeling we'll be at the house after work every night this week.

It's amazing how putting a little paint on the wall finally makes the house feel like it's ours!

Thanks to Robert, Sean, Courtney, Ben, and Jessica for coming over to help us paint! We couldn't have done it without you :)

I'll post pictures soon!

It's Official: We're Homeowners!

Closing wasn't half as bad as I imagined it to be! I've heard so many horror stories about the bad things that could happen right before or during the closing of a home, but ours went very smoothly. Thanks to our friends for your prayers and excitement :)

Let me take a moment to give props to our agents Eric Phillips and Larry Hubatka and our mortgage lender Bill Coughlin. They're freakin' awesome.

Eric and Larry did a great job of helping us figure out what was important to us in a house, finding potential properties, showing them to us, taking care of all the tedious paperwork and scheduling, and, most of all, putting up with my never-ending questions and phone calls. Thanks, guys! We've already referred you to lots of people! That means we get a cut of your commission, right? Juuuuuust kidding :)

Bill is awesome, too. Not only is he an incredibly helpful mortgage lender, but he has also become our friend. He's trustworthy, dependable, and just an all-around great Christian guy. Bill met with us 2 weeks before closing to make sure we understood all of the documents we would sign at closing. He didn't have to come with us yesterday, but he did. Bill has done everything is power to make us feel comfortable with the entire house-buying process and we can't thank him enough for it.

It was wonderful to have our "entourage" with us at closing yesterday. Because they did their jobs well, Aaron and I had a great closing and are now happy homeowners :)

Up next: PAINTING. I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories for you on Monday. My mom changed her plans for the weekend and is staying in Charleston...so it's just the kids this weekend, y'all. Hopefully the next few days are more like a really really long party instead of 2 days in Hell. We'll see. I'm trying to be optimistic. The worst-case scenario is that Sunday night rolls around and we haven't finished painting any of the rooms and our new house is unlivable and in complete disarray. Good thing we don't have to be out of our apartment until February 6th!

I know I've been writing a lot about the house lately...so I promise to have more cute stories about the boys next week. Toby has been a lot of fun this week and he's learned lots of new stuff (i.e. blowing kisses, shaking his head "no", running to the kitchen the moment I show up in the morning because he knows I'll give him his sippy cup of milk, etc.). More to come next week...

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Aaron and I are closing on our new home at 4:00 this afternoon. I've been counting down for about a month now...and I'm so glad the countdown is finally over! Please pray that closing goes well this afternoon.

Aaron, Courtney, and I went to Home Depot on Tuesday night to buy paint. And paint brushes. And drop cloths. And blue painter's tape. And disposable paint trays. And caulk. And some other stuff I can't remember.

$350 later, we walked out with 11 gallons of paint (and painting supplies) for the great room, dining room, kitchen, half bathroom, master bedroom, and closets. We're planning to paint all of those rooms this weekend.

Stop laughing. We're ambitious.

Honestly, I felt a little presumptuous buying paint 2 days before closing. The house isn't officially ours yet...and I won't believe it's ours until we're standing in it tonight.

My mom is coming this weekend to help us with, well, everything. She's so wonderful at entertaining guests at her own house...and she wants to come help us feed and entertain our friends while we work hard on the house all weekend. Who knows - maybe she'll even do some painting! My parents love to take care of other people and I feel so blessed to have their support during this crazy time.

My dad is staying at home to spend time with my brother this weekend. Bryn will be home from the Citadel until Sunday...so I'm sure they'll get to spend some good time together. I can't wait until my entire family can come together and stay with us!

The boys and I are off the ImaginOn for "picnic story time" today. Except we won't have a picnic during story time. We're going to Brixx for lunch - and I'm ordering a Caesar salad. Hopefully that won't remind Sam that he thinks Toby's new name is "Caesar."

CAESAR!

Sam and Toby have changed so much since I first started watching them. Toby's getting bigger and smarter - and that changes lots of things:

1. Sam and Toby actually play together now. Now that Toby is mobile, he and Sam love to chase each other around the house. It's the cutest thing ever. Between Sam's contagious belly laugh and Toby's excited screeches, I can't help but smile when I hear them play together.
   
2. Toby gets in to a lot of stuff these days. Whether it's the stairs or the kitchen cabinets (or eating by himself), Toby is bound to make a mess wherever he goes.
   
3. Toby wants to do everything his big brother does. If Sam goes down the slide, Toby wants to go too. If Sam wants to read a book to himself, Toby wants to read the same book. If Sam is drinking milk, Toby has to have some too. Sam has always been very patient with Toby...but now that he's into everything, Sam isn't so tolerant.

Last Thursday, as the boys were chasing each other around the dining room table, Sam began calling Toby "Caesar." No joke.

I have no clue where he heard the name "Caesar". I asked him where he learned that name and his static answer for every question prevailed. "My Brain!", he exclaimed. Of course. His 4-year-old brain.

Occasionally I'll take the boys to get pizza at Brixx in downtown Charlotte - and I always order a Caesar salad. Maybe he learned about Caesar at school. I have no idea. All I know is that when Sam screams "CAESAR! CAESAR!" at the top of his lungs, it cracks me up.

Sam is currently playing with a miniature pin-ball machine he got for his birthday last month. Toby is pounding on it with his fists. "This is NOT a drum, Toby!" says Sam. Ah, the joys of siblings!

Final Walk-Through

Just when I thought I had escaped the wrath of the sickness all around me, it caught up with me. Big time. Between sleeping in the same bed with my sick husband and taking care of Toby while he was sick, I came down with a killer chest cold by Wednesday of last week and was pretty useless until Saturday or so. I feel much better today, though. The boys and I are going to Discovery Place to play this morning!

Aaron and I had the final walk-through at the house on Saturday! The sellers had a few things to fix before closing on Thursday...so we went to check it out.

Evidently our friend Courtney (who is studying Interior Design at Winthrop) read my blog last week and sensed my panic about choosing paint colors. Here's the message she left on my Facebook page:

If you need any help picking out paint colors/furniture etc...call me...I would love to help! I not only make decisions and delegate but I paint too...so let me know if you need any help!

SWEET. She makes decisions, delegates, AND paints. Courtney is officially our interior designer. She went with us to the house on Saturday and we picked out most of the paint colors. We'll go to Lowe's tomorrow after work to buy the paint.

Our friend Sean also joined us at the final walk-through. Aaron and I love the Lyon family as if they were our own...so it was nice to have a wiser [but not so much older :)] friend come check out the house with us. Aaron and I feel so blessed to have friends who want to celebrate with us during this exciting time in our lives. We're so overwhelmed with everyone's desire to help us paint and move...and we don't know what we'd do without you!

Sam and Toby have been pretty low-key lately. I keep my ears and eyes open for cute stuff to share with you, but to no avail. Hopefully they'll do something silly today and I'll have something to share in my next post.

Controlling the Chaos...

I have an issue with messes. I can't stand them. But that doesn't stop my life from spiraling into unending messiness.

My car is a disaster. I can't walk through my bedroom without stepping on clothes or shoes. No matter how many times I put away Aaron's saline solution, contacts case, deodorant, or pomade in the cabinet, they always end up back on the counter. There's a stack of important papers on top of the filing cabinet from the past 4 months that haven't been put away yet. We won't even discuss my obsession with keeping the kitchen clean.

In addition to my messes at home, I'm the nanny of a 15-month old child who feeds himself...and makes a really big mess every time. Liz has no problem letting Toby feed himself foods like spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and oatmeal. I, on the other hand, usually stick to "cleaner" foods such as pancakes (with no syrup!), cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken, fruit, or left-over pizza. I know he's gotta learn to feed himself sometime...and I'd be a bad nanny if I let my issue with messes trump his need (and desire) to feed himself horribly messy foods. *Sigh*

I think my issue with messiness really has to do with another (larger) issue in my life: the need to be in complete control at all times. Annoying, I know. But at least I admit it.

I'm positive that my desire to always be in control annoys my husband more than anyone in the entire world. Aaron and I came across the revelation that I crave control when we were going through premarital counseling with Larry Brey.

My obsession with perfection in school, cleanliness, punctuality, and always keeping busy come from my desire to not be a disappointment to myself or others. I've always pushed myself so hard because I wanted everyone to be proud of me. It made me feel good inside to think of my accomplishments and know that they were a product of my hard work.

But this mentality causes HUGE problems. When I base my self-worth on what I can do instead of what God can do through me, I become someone I (and my husband) don't like. Nothing I do in my life is a result of my hard work; it's all a blessing from the Lord. Period.

So - all that to say this: I'm going to try to let go a little. It's okay if the apartment is messy once in a while. I'll make a conscious effort to not get upset with Aaron if he doesn't do something the second I ask him to do it. I'll survive if I must sit still for longer than 5 minutes without doing something or going somewhere. I'll even try to let Toby feed himself oatmeal. And then I'll change his clothes.

I'm Not A Slacker...

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in almost 2 weeks...but lots of exciting stuff has been going on lately! Let me fill you in...

Remember that house in Fort Mill that Aaron and I went to look at on December 21st (read House Hunting Day #1)? We made an offer on it on December 28th, received a counter-offer from the sellers on January 2nd, and we signed the contract that night at 10:30 pm! We absolutely LOVE the house and can see ourselves growing there in the upcoming years.

I've been wanting to share the exciting news with everyone I talk to, but my better judgment led me to believe it would be best to lay low until most of the major details had been worked out (house inspection, termite inspection, final paperwork with our lender, etc.). Closing day is on January 24th (10 days away!) and Eric says all that's left is to show up at the attorney's office (and sign our lives away, evidently). I won't believe the house is ours until we're standing in it on the 24th, keys in hand.

The house has everything we wanted:

Aaron's list of must-haves

• a 2-car garage
• a fenced-in backyard (to house the future German Shepard puppy he's wanted for his entire life)
• at least 2,000 square feet (well, almost)

My list of must-haves

• a spacious master bathroom with TWO SINKS, a garden tub, and a walk-in closet
• a big, open kitchen (that's where I spend a lot of my free time!)
• at least 3 bedrooms

I addition to our must-have list, the house comes with some excellent bonuses:

• a HUGE bonus room that Aaron has declared "Man Land" (except for the closet...I'm turning that into a really cute work area for myself where I can scrapbook, organize, work on photos, etc...which is another post entirely...)
• a huge storage shed in the back yard that matches the house
  
• a crawl space and an attic to store stuff
• lots of closet space!
• a small back deck and front porch

I don't think we could have asked for much more in a house. The location is awesome, the space is great, and it's a place we can see ourselves starting a family in the next few years :) Thanks to Eric and Larry for making the house-hunting process so easy and stress free. You guys rock!

Recently, my thoughts and time have been consumed by picking out paint colors for the rooms in our new home. Every wall is still the original white that the house was built with...so besides patching up some minor dings and nail holes left by the previous owners (which Aaron assures me is an "easy fix"), we have a clean palette to work with. I have a pretty good idea of what I want I want the colors to be in each room, but the hard part is picking out which tone of the color I want to put on the walls. Should I go with the lighter shade or the darker shade? What if the color I choose (and buy 2 gallons of) looks ridiculous and we have to repaint the entire room (and waste all that time, money, and paint)? Do I really want to go with brighter colors in the bedrooms or should I stick to neutrals? If I go with a neutral color, which one should I choose? There are millions of shades of neutral! My dreams at night have even been consumed with the thought of choosing paint colors. Silly, I know. Aaron is great at picking out color schemes...but he doesn't have any interest in discussing paint until we can go to the house again with Eric this week and actually see what we'll be painting. He's the logical one...and I'm the planner. Maybe it's time to enlist some help with this painting issue...

Here's a quick list of other stuff that has happened since I blogged last:

• Aaron hit a deer with his 4Runner on Saturday night. His truck is more injured than the deer was (I'll post pictures later...of the 4Runner, not the deer). He's now driving a Ford truck until his 4Runner is fixed. Praise the Lord for excellent insurance!
  
• Aaron's friend Robert came to work last week with some crazy virus and spread it to almost the entire Sunbelt help desk, including my husband. I had the day off on Friday...but instead of taking care of my usual 2 babies (Sam and Toby!), I took care of my big baby at home. Aaron hardly ever gets sick...but when he does, he's really pitiful. He had a 102 degree fever for 2 days...and somehow I escaped the wrath of whatever he had (which is an absolute miracle since I usually catch anything and everything going around).
• I spent half of my day off on Friday at the tax collector's office (to pay the taxes on my Ford Escape), the Rock Hill DMV (to transfer the title on the Escape from my parents to Aaron and me, get a new registration, turn in my old license plate, and get a new one), the Ford dealership (to get an oil change and a check-up for the Escape) and the vet's office (to get Hobbes' rabies shot). The entire morning was an absolute nightmare. I'll post all the details later. Maybe. If I can think about it for more than 5 minutes without becoming infuriated or nauseous. I'll just say that being an "official grown-up" (i.e. being out from under the shelter of my parents' wings) stinks sometimes...and I hate how people just assume I know how to do everything. Just because I'm married doesn't mean I'm a genius. And being 22 doesn't make me a genius, either. Grrrr!

Okay. That's all for now. How's that for 12 days of not blogging? I hope it didn't take you 12 days to read this post.

Bath Time With The Boys

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are usually bath days for Sam and Toby. They LOVE splashing around...and I love watching them play together.

I took the boys with me to Target on Monday to get a few things. As I was browsing through the baby area (the boys needed baby shampoo), I noticed a bottle of Spongebob bubble bath. Any of you who know Sam also know that he is obsessed with Spongebob...so I thought it would be a reasonable reward for good behavior. Our deal was that if he was a good boy, he would get to have a Spongebob bubble bath that day.

Monday was a rough day. No bubble bath for the boys that day.

Today was much better, though. After Liz brought Sam back from his 4-year-old check-up at the doctor's office (he got 3 shots and was soooo pitiful when he came home), he was ready for that Spongebob bubble bath.

I undressed Toby, Sam started the water in the tub, and Toby peed on the floor. And the bath tub. And the rug. I should know better than to take Toby's diaper off even 30 seconds before I put him in the tub. This happens almost weekly.

Anyway, I poured the bubble bath in the tub and the boys had a blast. Here are some pictures:

Most of the bubbles are gone because Toby ate them.

Toby's mohawk. His hair so getting so long! I keep telling Liz she should take him to get it cut. She says no. Period. :)

Sam stealin' some smooches from Toby.

Toby escaped from me while I was trying to put his pajamas on him. He darted to the bookshelf, pulled out this book, and dropped it in my lap. How could I resist reading a book to that cute face?