and we successfully moved across the country again

i haven't posted anything here since the end of april! i just haven't been into blogging over these past few months - it must be a combination of moving across the country, pregnancy, being the primary caregiver for two small children, and i think i got tired of blogging, too. anyway, today i feel like posting, so i might as well do it.

let's see...well, we successfully moved across the country - our new home is in northern illinois. in mid-june, after a substantial interview process and many fraying nerves on our (mostly my) side of things, jeremy was offered a job at a "continuing care retirement community" here. there was a LOT of excitement and even some tears when that job offer came. we had nothing holding us back so we packed up and left our rental house in south carolina in TEN days.

the whole process was not for the faint of heart. whew! we packed, planned, and packed some more. our kids conveniently attended a VBS at love's preschool each morning that last week, so that gave us some kid-free time to really get things done. unfortunately, on the second to last day, another child bit jobot's arm (hard - he had a bite-shaped bruise for over a week!), so that soured his experience a bit. he still talks about how "that kid bit me mom". poor guy.

anyway, eventually somehow everything got packed and loaded (not thanks to the moving helpers we hired to load the truck - they did a terrible job). we even got to make a call to 911 just before loading the moving truck when jeremy disconnected our dryer and it caused a very significant gas leak, which we were unable to stop. two firetrucks came with sirens blaring and at least six firefighters jumped out in full gear. it was slightly embarrassing (as the neighbors came out of their houses to see what was going on!), but more humorous, and definitely a memory maker.

and finally, after a lot of stress and chaos, we were driving out of columbia for the last time - jeremy in the budget moving truck, and i in our minivan with the two kids.

we left south carolina on friday afternoon and arrived at our new, temporary home on monday afternoon. the drive was LONG. the unfortunate part was that both kids were throwing up throughout the entire drive, sometimes in the car. (fortunately, we had somehow kept our cleaning supplies accessible). at one point we were stopped in a parking lot while love stood in the parking lot and vomited into a bucket while i tried my best to clean her car seat, which was also covered in vomit.

it was also a challenge being pregnant, as i had to go to the bathroom more often than usual, and stopping for a potty break was not easy. i either had to take both kids into the bathroom with me or wait for jeremy to catch up with the moving truck so he could stay in the car with the kids while i ran into the restroom. i usually chose to wait for jeremy (he was often only 10 - 15 minutes behind me), but that was often very uncomfortable. ha! and then there was the day where we were unable to call each other on our cell phones because we were out in the middle of nowhere, so that didn't help.

i had a supply of activities for the kids to do, as well as several thrifted toys, but it was just a long, long trip with two little kids in the back seat. there were a lot of whining, tears, screaming, and demands from the back seat.

i was VERY relieved when we arrived here. the place where jeremy works has retirement homes and they have generously allowed us to live in one while we search for a place of our own. it made the move so much easier to have a place to live provided for us rather than having to search for a place to live from afar.

we have been living in this nice little house since the end of june. and when i say nice little house, i mean, a house that is really much too nice for our little family to live in. there is white carpet in the dining room (and through the whole house, except the kitchen), so that has been a bit nerve-wracking. also, the house is furnished which has been really nice (our stuff is all in storage), except the furniture is in pristine condition. also, this house only has two bedrooms, which has worked much better than expected, but has still been a challenge. we have been so grateful to live here, though.

in mid-july, we found a house to buy and if all goes as planned (which it seems like it will), we will be closing on friday and moving in on saturday. the whole story of how this all came to be is quite amazing and clearly God-led, even down to the little details.

it's been a strange summer of transition and we are so eager to settle into this place long-term. jeremy's job is going very well and he is really enjoying it and getting a lot of positive feedback. jeremy and i both really enjoy the demographic of the people who live here. the kids and i have gone visiting in the assisted living a couple of times here and it is so much fun to bring joy to the lives of the people who live there. when i was younger, i always dreamed of having little kids to bring around to visit the elderly, so in a funny way it feels like a dream come true for me too. it will be a lot of fun to have a teeny tiny baby to take visiting.

otherwise, we went to a church this last weekend that seemed like it just might be the right fit for us. we are starting to know our way around here pretty well as this is an easy city to navigate. we still feel like we spend a lot of time on the phone for various moving-related issues, but that should be calming down soon. moving is SO much work! we have found a few great parks and places to spend time together, and we also still have a lot to explore. and the best part of moving here is that my family is only a little over an hour away! we have spent several weekends at grandma's house this summer. when this job was a possibility, we didn't allow ourselves to get too excited about living so close, but now that it is for real, it is so nice. in many ways, it still feels like a dream to be this close to family. we do not take it for granted after all these years (especially this last one) of living farther away!

(fun at grandma's!)

i still don't really have any friends here, but i will be attending MOPS next month, and if we end up going to this church that we visited on Sunday, there will be a lot of opportunities to meet people. i haven't felt desperate to make friends as this has just all felt like a time of transition, but i am feeling very ready to start to find my place here. i have been keeping busy with getting ready to home school love for preschool this year. we are both excited about it, and obviously jobot will be a part of our little school as well. i have planned out the whole year (putting together curriculum, printing necessary documents, prepping art projects, and gathering supplies). i know that once baby gets here, everything will be more challenging, so at least i am prepared for the whole year of preschool.

anyway...hopefully there will be more updates on this blog in the future.

(30 weeks along. oh yeah, and it's a girl!)

surprise!

i don't know who still reads this blog, but i thought i should at least write a post to say...

baby #3 is on the way!

this is a surprise baby - ha! we were shocked to find out that i was pregnant and are still a bit shocked, all these weeks later. i am now 13 weeks along and due november 2.

i was really sick until about two weeks ago and am thankful to be feeling more like myself these days. it's all a bit overwhelming, and exciting, and more overwhelming and more exciting. i often think to myself, "THREE? and this close together? how?" but the reality is, many have done it before us and survived, and many have even had three at once, so we will be okay i think.

our house will just be louder, more chaotic, messier, and more joyful and full of life!

snow, and other stuff...

it's about time for a post on this blog.

the big news this week is that it snowed here! i was hoping it would snow while we lived here, and it did! i was most excited because love has been wishing for snow. she spent tuesday afternoon and evening peering out the windows to see if the snow had started to fall. it didn't start snowing until after she was asleep. i was so tempted to wake her up, but i resisted (that would have been a stupid move on my part). when she woke up on wednesday morning, the first thing she did was jump out of bed and look out the window. she was absolutely thrilled to see snow on the ground and was ready to head outside immediately.

we got about three inches i think. the bad part was that there was freezing rain before the snow, so the roads were slippery. of course, in a place that is not used to snow, this "storm" was a huge deal. it was all over the news and the city shut down about 8 hours before the storm even began. the big thing when there is snow is that people mob the stores to buy milk and bread. it was even reported in the news that stores had ordered extra deliveries of milk in preparation for the storm. unfortunately, it was too late to get extra orders of bread delivered, so i'm guessing some people had to tough it out being stuck in their houses for two days with no extra bread. i find this whole phenomenon hilarious and mind boggling. what in the world are people doing with all this extra milk? before the "storm" hit, we were low on milk, but there was no way i was going to the store to fight the mobs just to get a gallon of milk. i would rather live without for a couple of days. to me, the whole thing just shows how reliant our society is on grocery stores (a fact i already find sad anyway) and what consumers we are. also, how we are not used to being without things that we "need". anyway...enough of that soapbox. it's just funny.

even though love was ready to go outside immediately upon waking up, she waited patiently for breakfast to be made while lovingly gazing out the window at the snow. jeremy got to head into work a little later than usual, so we had a bit of a slower morning.

after he left, i began the process of bundling the kids up to go outside. whew! since we live in south carolina, we didn't have any snow boots for the kids to wear. we did have two pairs of rubber rain boots (one in love's current size, and one a size larger), so we used those. i layered up the socks and even put a pair of my wool socks on each kid. jobot was able to wear his slippers inside the boots, so his feet stayed nice and toasty. we did have winter coats, hats, and mittens for each kid. no snowpants, though, so both kids wore a pair of jobot's wind pants as well as two other pairs of pants underneath. the wind pants were a little short on love, but they worked.

once the kids and i were dressed in our hodgepodge of winter gear, we headed outside for some fun in the snow. as soon as we got outside, both kids immediately started eating the snow. and ate, and ate, and ate. it was so funny! love and i made some "train tracks" in the snow in the front yard and puffed along the "rails" for a while, taking turns calling out "faster" and "slower" and adjusting our speed accordingly. love was most fascinated by the (tiny) icicles hanging off of our roof and i found myself using a pool noodle to get some down so we could collect them in a bucket.

by that point, jobot had stopped eating the snow and was back to trying to do his usual outdoor activity - using a little shovel to scoop up dirt and put it in his wagon. he was quite perturbed that there was snow in the way and became quite crabby. i tried to convince him to scoop up the snow and put it in the wagon, but i was unsuccessful. he cried a lot and did not have much fun.

after about 45 minutes we came inside (picture me walking toward the house with two crying kids - jobot repeatedly falling down in the snow - as a couple walked by with their dog and found it all quite amusing) and the kids had hot chocolate and snacks. our neighbor brought over some warm muffins and sat and visited for a while, and another neighbor took me up on my offer to watch their six-month-old baby while he took his older child sledding. we had a house full of kids and neighbors for a bit there and it was fun - it felt homey and neighborly and warm and cozy.

surprisingly, there is still a bit of snow on the ground today, but i think this is probably the last we will see of snow for a while. it's supposed to be in the mid-60s tomorrow, so the snow will definitely be gone by then.

in other news...these kids are both at fun stages right now.

jobot is at one of my favorite stages. he is twenty months and his vocabulary grows every day. he is so proud to try out new words. the other day i asked him a question and was shocked when he responded with, "no thank you mommy". when asked a question, he has also started responding with "hmmm...huh....mmmm..." jobot wants to eat all. the. time. the first word out of his mouth every morning is "EAT!" this morning we had pancakes for breakfast and he ate FIVE of them. he had a doctor's appointment on monday and once again he was off the charts for height and weight. the pediatrician said that he is proportional and that if he keeps this rate on the charts, he will probably be about 6 ft 4 in, which is how tall jeremy is. love and i are going to be surrounded by tall men.

he is a loud and busy boy. he makes anything into a hammer and goes around "fixing" things in the house. he is very interested in music, so i have been making an effort to play more classical music in our house during the day. it's nice for everyone. i have even seen him look at a page in a book that has pictures of instruments and start swaying like he is listening to music. i am curious to see if anything will become of this music interest. he got a tambourine/drum for christmas and it's one of his favorite toys. he has started singing and jeremy and i were shocked one day in december when we were listening to christmas music and he actually started singing along to "ave maria"!

he currently spends his days throwing toys and stuffed animals in his crib so they can go "nigh-night". he constantly asks for bandaids, even when he doesn't really need one. due to his daring nature, he does bleed several times a week, so i guess that all makes sense. he wears his bandaids with pride. he also wants to take baths all the time - he walks around the house saying "ba-ub" (bathtub) and looking at us with hopeful eyes. the other day jeremy started a bubble bath and jobot was so excited that he dove right in, clothes and all!

love is also at such a fun stage these days. in many ways, it's a challenging and dramatic stage, but she is becoming such a lovely young girl. when i drop her off for preschool, we almost always talk about being kind to other kids, and she says, "i am a kind girl, mommy". and she is, too. we have had several playdates lately where i have seen her being kind to others, without any prompting from me. it makes me so proud of her. although she and jobot fight (even the classic both kids pulling on the same toy screaming because they both want it), she has many moments of being a kind and caring big sister. there is a boy in her class who has some special needs and behavioral issues, and i am so proud that love is the one the teachers have seated next to him at the table. i have been so pleased to see her interact with him and be so loving and encouraging. makes my heart want to burst with love and pride for her!

we had some free movie tickets and i recently took her to the movies for the first time to see "frozen". she was so excited and sat on my lap the whole time. it's so fun that she is getting old enough to do those kinds of things.

just after christmas we (finally) moved love from a crib to a bed (our guest bed). this involved switching the kids rooms and rearranging a bit. it has made our house more functional and has worked really well. love was so ready to make the transition that it has gone smoothly for all of us.

she currently asks multiple times a day, "mommy, tell me a story about when somebody got hurt." we share stories of our childhood injuries (most involve falling off of bikes!) and she is fascinated by these stories and wants to hear them again and again. if the story we tell isn't interesting enough, she lets us know that she would like to hear a different one. ha! so, a lot of our life seems to revolve around injuries these days...either jobot is getting hurt, or we are telling stories about people getting hurt.

she is also really into playing with her train set these days. for some funny reason, her favorite character is "diesel 10". she often says "no mommy, i'm not karis. i'm diesel 10." she pretends that she is him and "chuffs" around the house using her "wheels" to get around. she recently used some of her christmas money to buy a wooden diesel 10 to add to our train collection.

love is very particular and orderly and recently made a block border for our living room rug (see photo below). she often heads to her room saying that she is going to "organize sometheen". jobot, on the other hand, is quite the opposite, which causes some tension in our home as he undoes whatever organization love has set into place.

also...that slide has taken up residence in the middle of our living room. it was a christmas gift and the kids love it and play with it every single day. for the first week or two after we got it, we had to put a blanket on the slide and give it a good night kiss at the end of the day or jobot would throw a tantrum because he had to stop playing with it.

these days are full and busy, but in many ways, it feels like we are currently in a good stage as a family. these kids bring us lots of joy and humor and we have so much fun watching them grow.