Month of Moving

Well, the moving is in full force.

We will be moving out of our house in the latter part of the week.  The specific day is still to be determined by a few different factors, but more on that later. 

I spent the end of May and most of June in a slight (or not so slight) panic, because there was so much to be done.  We were swamped with the paperwork and to do's of starting our life in London, while still living our life here, and completely physically and mentally exhausted.  So around the house, we were getting NOTHING done.  

We had energy explosion from this one,

and the constant cleanup from this one.

By the end of the day, Chris and I were both completely spent.

There was a week where we had been looking at houses in London, and every single day I said to Chris, "After the kids go to bed, we need to sit down and make a list to help us in this housing search, of non-negotiables, niceties, areas, etc."  Every night, neither one of us could do it.

Then July came, and the help that we had been waiting for descended upon us.

In 21 out of the last 23 days, 7 different people came to help us.  Lovely, wonderful, helpful helpers.

Justin drove 10 hours, was only here for 1 full day, but helped me haul tons of things from the basement, talked me down about if I wanted/how to sell them, staged them for me to get pictures, and moved them into the garage.  Then he and Chris took a full truck load to Goodwill and another full truckload to a dumpster.

Patsy came and played tirelessly with one or both kids while Chris tried to finished up work at the office and I sorted through and packed up the kitchen.  She took Jayce for a few outings, made dinner, and even let Chris and I get away for a movie, the first in forever, and it didn't even matter that it was an incredibly stupid one.

Chandra came while Chris and Jayce were away, and helped me sort through my craft room, one of the trickiest to pack up, took down and packed up the decor, the kids' rooms, cooked yummy goodies, loved and played with Hannah, and basically gave me 4 days of free therapy over sweet coffee. :)

Jody and Christine came, brought us a big check, and took our car.  I was sad to give up a car that I loved so much, but selling it to some good friends seemed to cushion the blow.

Christine also made me so happy by offering to take some family pictures of us, something that I have wanted her to do for about 5 years since I first saw her in action, but we have never been able to pull off.  She helped me go through the basement as well, making me pull the trigger on a few things that I had been putting off, and this time Jody rode with Chris for a run to the thrift store and to drop off another load of trash.  And our babies, Charles and Hannah, played.  Their due dates were only 1 day apart, but their birthdays are 2 weeks apart, and we couldn't stop comparing them to one another despite ourselves.  

Then Mom and Chelsea came for a week and helped us finish up the packing.  

We cleaned the basement all the way out, cleaned out tubs and refilled them, labeling the contents and then added ship or store in large black marker.  

We packed clothes and vacuumed out the air, removed everything from closets and drawers, removed nails from walls and curtains from rods.  We emptied every cupboard, basket and drawer, and then did it again at the end of the week with those large piles of random things.

We also had some fun.  The mall, the museum, sprinklers and water guns, we built a bear and got serenaded by Jayce.

Now it is the last week of the month, the week that we move.  

I'm hoping that it goes as smoothly as possible as we attempt to tie up the loose ends, keep the kids happy and under control, and nurse our sentimental souls.

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Miscellaneous and Blog Change

I have come to the realization this past month, that in order to keep up on the blog in the midst of selling the house, changing jobs, and moving to London, I'm going to have to change up the format of my blog a bit.  

My previous goals have been, catch all the way up, pictures, and 2-4 times per week.  I want stories full of the important details, edited and relevant photos, milestones, funny quips, accomplishments small and large.

The past month has been full of craziness and transition, and the next few will be as well.  It only makes sense that there would be some transition here too, right?

My new goals, which I'm hoping I'll stick with if I put them out there.

 

1.) 3 times per week.  I'm going to go ahead and forgive myself for not telling the whole story most of the time, but try to still tell the important part of the story.  We're about to go through lots more transitions, and I don't want the events, and my thoughts about them, to get lost in the dizzying busyness of it all.

2.) Pictures, by whatever means possible.  Yes, this means you, instagram.

3.) Catch up.  Yeah, I know, that never worked for me before.  But I still think that those pictures of all of the kids at the farm, and Hannah's birth story, and pictures of the interior of the house that we are about to move out of are all still entitled to their day in the sun.  So stay tuned.

Linking to Miscellaneous Monday.

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Father's Day Questions

This post is pretty belated at this point.  I know I've been saying that a lot lately, but still.  

For Father's Day this year, among the gifts I had Jayce answer a few questions about Chris, and typed his answers exactly as he said them.

(Jayce's voice is in red.)

** I think I've explained this before, but "bellies out" is what Jayce calls he and Chris' playtime.  It started when he was around 2 years old, Chris would come home from work, get attacked by Jayce, and say, "Hang on a minute buddy, let me change and then we'll wrestle."  So, in Jayce's mind, the evening has 3 events: 1.) Chris arrives home from work, 2.) he takes off his shirt, 3.) they play.** 

Anyway, after I had asked my questions, Jayce decided that he had some questions to ask me as well.  Luckily I still had my computer out so I could record them word for word.

Mom, what will we travel in?

Car.

No. Airplane to London.

What if somebody is stuck on a roof, what will a fireman use to get the people off the roof?

Ladder.

No. You were close, but they will use a firetruck to get a person down from a roof.

If a door is locked what do they use to put out a fire?

An axe.

Right.

What if something is broken and it's going fast and making a messy mess, what do firemen use to fix something that's making a messy mess?

I don’t know.

Tools.

What makes the planet? What makes the houses?

Wood.

No. Workers

This boy.  His whole world is about wrestling with his dad, and miscellaneous fireman information. So funny and so fun.  I love it.

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Our One Year Old Girl

Miss Hannah, you are one.  A year ago we were so excited to meet you and discover everything about you.  And now, a year later, we know you.

Things like your hair.  Some babies have no hair, some babies have long hair, some babies have short hair.  You are one of the short haired ones.  It's more of a light brown than a dark blonde, and mostly straight, although right after bath time it flips around your ears, and is the only hint of any curls on your head.

Your eyes are so pretty, and so different than we had expected.  For some reason we assumed they would be like mine (green), your dad's (blue) or like Jayce's (light blue), but they are their own color.  A gray that is both blue and green.  If the light is in front of you they seem so light, but if it's behind you they seem very dark.

You are your own little lady.  Whatever your mood is that day, or that moment, you give it all you've got.  There is no lukewarmness about you and our discussions about you often reflect that.  

It's always, She is such a rascal!!   or  She is just so stinkin' sweet!!

I was so excited to take monthly photos of you, and this was you almost every month (starting around 4 or so).  Grabbing the plastic corners of the calendar and ripping them off.  Also, grabbing at the edges of the paper, crumbling it up, and rarely looking at me, etc.  I love the way the monthly calendar shots turned out as a whole, but I'm also glad to be finished with that little project. 

 I think you are too.

 At your well visit, I was happy to discover that you aren't quite as tiny as I've been panicking about.  Not that tiny is bad, but for a few months you weren't gaining weight and I was stressed about it.  (I brought this up with the doctor and he reminded me about how you were sick frequently over those months, and how that affected your appetite.)  So we've been glad to see your appetite dramatically improving over the past month or so.

You are 29 1/2 inches long, 48th percentile.

You weigh 18 lbs, 14 oz, 32nd percentile.  Sooo close to 19 lbs!

In fact, there are plenty of days where Chris will say, jokingly, "Erin do you feed her during the day?!"  

You still hate anything that could fall into the "baby food" category, and milk, but you love adult foods.  You want breads, meats, cheeses, fruit, dessert (and lots of it).  You don't want applesauce, you want a whole apple that you can gnaw on.  The other night you swept your Mum Mums and strawberries from the top of your highchair when you saw your dad bring in burgers from the grill.  Which you promptly gobbled up.  It's kind of crazy.  You often yell when we bring out the food at mealtimes or will immediately come crawling over to us if we walk into a room eating something.    

You took to drinking out of a straw immediately, the first time we offered it, much like how you took to the sippy cup the very first time.

You communicate with us.  

If you are in your crib and you are dirty, you will throw your bear and pacifier out of the crib, almost as a form of protest, like "well I'm not going to sleep in these conditions," and then yell for us. 

But if you throw your pacifier out "on accident" you will yell "Uh oh" until we come up and give it back to you.  

You call for da-da, mom-ma, and Ja!  for Jayce.  You'll say buh buh (not really like buh bye, it's more just the b sound), but you sweetly wave goodbye and goodnight to people all the time.  You also answer the phone a lot, with or without something that looks like a phone.  You will stick a hand up to your ear, cock your head to the side and say, Ah? Ah!  It's sweet.  We do this a lot.

You also have this conversation often with your dad, especially in the car.  

Da! Da-da?

Ha-nah.

Na-nuh. (pause) Growl noise.

Growl.

Then you go through a series of your other noises, trying to get him to say them back to you.  Tongue clickling, lip blowing (I don't know how to describe it, that brrrrrrrr motorboat engine noise?  I don't know.) lip smacking, sniffing loudly, etc.  You have lots of tricks and you run through them.

Your crawling took off just after 11 months.  It seemed so late but boy are you fast now!!  You still aren't really interested in walking, you get very nervous if you don't have something to put each hand on as you're cruising around, and if I'm close enough, you will grab at my shoulders and just sort of fall forward so that I'll catch you and hold you.  Actually, this is okay with me, the not walking now, thing.  I spend a lot of my day grabbing you away from the steps (which you climb quickly), gross things that seem to attract you like a magnet (the trash, toilet bowl, dirty dishwasher), and the many things that you love to unpack (diaper basket, laundry basket, my purse, the diaper bag), so I can't imagine if you were walking instead of crawling.  

You love to imitate noises right now, and laugh at how funny you are when you do so.  Or you laugh at us laughing at you, either way, it's all the same.

You have 8 teeth, 4 on top, 4 on bottom.  You still nurse about 4-5 times a day: when you first wake up, before your naps, and before bed.  Oh yeah, and the middle of the night, because you still aren't sleeping all the way through.  So help me Hannah, I will get REM sleep again one of these days.

Happy 1 year birthday my dear.  Looking forward to many more days and many more years of life with you.  We love you.

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Moving to Twickenham and Other Things

(I wrote this post the last week of May, upon returning from a vacation where we learned/decided that we would be moving to London at the end of the summer.)

This week, upon hearing the news of our move, my friend asked me, "So are you just constantly looking around wanting to pack things up?"

I quickly answered, yes.

But that's not really the whole story.

Yes, I am constantly looking around and wanting to pack.  And evaluating what needs to be packed to go with us, or stored for when we return.

I am constantly thinking, would it be more expensive to ship it in dollars, or to purchase a new one in pounds?  Should I sell it and use the money now, or store it so that I don't have to re-buy it whenever we move stateside again?  But what if my tastes have changed then, or it becomes damaged over time, and then it has just been an unused waste of space?

I am doing this almost all of the time, with every item, in every room.

We have some flexibility.  We've been blessed with a set amount of "moving expenses."  I mentioned this to a friend, and she said, "Oh good!  So someone can come box everything up and move it for you."  

Unfortunately, no.

When we lived in Cincinnati, and were preparing to move to Edinburgh, some good friends of ours were moving as well.  He had gotten a job at a medical practice in Georgia and the practice was paying to move he and his family down.  I watched in envy as a team of movers walked around their home, wrapping delicates in bubble wrap, boxing up books into sturdy boxes, and loading items efficiently into a truck.  I remember thinking that I hoped to be able to move like that some day.

But sorting through our items, and deciding what to keep/store, keep/take, sell, give away can't really be done by a team of movers.  

Also, the penny pincher in me doesn't want to waste a dime paying someone else to do what I can do myself.  Rather than pay a professional to lighten the packing load here, I'd rather use that money to bring a few of our most cherished items with us.  Or to purchase a few things there to help make our home more cozy.  So we will be the team of movers.

In between thinking about the sorting, packing, storing, selling, and shipping, I'm thinking about big things and little things.  

There things and here things.  There things, like researching schools and getting on waiting lists.  Here things, like well visits, dentist appointments, and kids passport applications.

Then there are little things, like canceling magazine subscriptions and store credit cards.   

And everything in between.

I admit that at night I crash hard, as soon as my head hits the pillow.  I'm sure it has to do with my brain moving in a million different directions all day long, while my body is moving in a million directions as well, after one or the other of the kids.  

I'm also putting forth a lot of energy trying to be present with the kids.  EVERYTHING in their life is about to change, so I'm trying to give them ample normal time, with mom's love and attention during the day.  I'm keeping my computer upstairs with the door closed, and my phone in the other room, so that I won't be tempted to check the links to houses and flats that Chris sends me during the day.  I have several lists stuck up on the fridge, and writing down things like, "look up cost-buying vs shipping for glider" keeps me from running up to do it right then.  I'm having to prioritize my activities during their nap times so that I can get things done then.  

Anyway, for now, we are holding it together.  We've trusted in God's will and timing in the sale of our house, and in finding this job, so I'm sure that we will make it through the move as well.

So forgive me if I seem a bit glassy eyed or harassed.  Chances are, I'm feeling a little of both.

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On Change, Part 2: Getting A Job

(I wrote this post on the evening of Chris' job interview, May 23.  Part 1 is here.)

As I said previously, we signed the paperwork for the sale of the house on Tuesday, and on Wednesday we received news that Chris had been shortlisted for a job at a school in London.  

The interviews would be the following Wednesday, so they arranged for him to interview via Skype.

When I found out when the interview was, I was furious.  (I exchanged several non-ladylike text messages with Chris after he told me.)  We were headed out to Florida in the next few days, a drive which would take us over 15 hours and require 2 nights in hotels while we were en route.  Due to the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend, we only had 4 full days in Florida, and the interview was going to be smack dab in the middle.  I was furious, not with Chris, but that our 4 days of what was supposed to be stress free, job free, non-work and family-only time was now going to be interrupted.  I was sure that the cloud of upcoming interview/post interview was going to negate the stress-free beach days we had been eagerly looking forward to for months.  

Chris promised me that this wouldn't be the case, that he didn't feel overly attached to this job or burdened to prepare largely for it, and that this wouldn't distract him from the family time that we had been planning.  I was glad to hear this, but still not happily on board.

As we drove, Chris would periodically try to start conversation about this job in London and what our lives would look like there, and I didn't really participate.  In my mind, there was no way this job was going to happen.  In terms of jobs and opportunities like this, I tend to take a "We'll just wait and see" approach.  Though it is impossible not to start thinking about what your life would look like when looking at new jobs and opportunities, I try to stop myself from going very far down that train of thought.  Chris has had a few opportunities in the past that he/we were extremely excited about, and when they didn't work out it was a very hard crash. So I know that my gut reaction of "let's not count our chickens before they hatch" is mostly motivated out of a sense of self preservation for he and I both.

Also, there have been opportunities abroad in the past, including in our beloved Edinburgh, and we had mutually agreed that our days of living overseas were behind us.  So I didn't see how this job opportunity really changed anything.

We arrived in Florida, had a few days of beach and water fun, celebrated Jayce's birthday, talked about the job opportunity occasionally but not predominantly as I had anticipated.  Each afternoon Chris would stay in the condo and nap while the kids napped, and I would go over to the pool to have some time to myself to process it all.  I remember the first day, grumpily flipping past any song in my itunes that was British or reminded me of our time in Edinburgh.  But the second day I listened to them, and relaxed into the idea of possibly having a British existence once again.

I thought about a conversation that Chris and I had several years ago, where we each acknowledged that our home towns, though we loved them, didn't really feel like "home" to us anymore.  We had lived away for so long, we had changed, the cities had changed, and they just didn't have that warm "homey" feeling anymore.  Lincoln didn't really feel like home, Cincinnati never did for Chris, but Edinburgh did, to a degree.  This was the first time that we recognized that the feeling of "home" that we used to associate with a place, we now found in one another, corny though that may sound. I decided that if this job were to work out, IF, then we would be just fine, and probably as happy as ever.

On Wednesday morning Chris had his job interview.  He had arranged to use a conference room at the condo where we were staying, and the kids and I played at the condo while he interviewed.

When he came home he told me a bit about it.  He was excited.  He told me it went really well.  He told me about some of the questions and some of his answers.  He told me about the overall tone of the conversation and about the interview panel.  He told me he had a really good chance of getting it.

While we were still talking the Head of the School called him and offered him the job.  In less than an hour after the interview.  

He stepped outside to the patio to take the call and when he came back in he was beaming.  

He started telling me about the position that they had offered.  It was, is, unbelievable.  He had applied for a teaching position at a lower level, but they offered him one at a higher level.  It involves most all of his strengths and passions.  Research, writing, supervising, teaching, leading, directing.

On top of that, they wanted him.  The first words out of the guy's mouth were, "Chris, we love you."  It was not a situation where, they needed someone to teach the Bible, Chris could teach the Bible, so that was that, but a situation where they wanted him.  While they were talking in his interview, discussing his areas of expertise and interest, and he shared his research passions and future projects, they got excited about what he was doing and going to do, and wanted him to partner with him and have him be a leader at their institution.

Chris told me about the position that they had discussed with his eyes wide, still reeling from it all.  And I said, "Well...that's it.  We have to take it."

Even I was surprised by my seemingly sudden change of heart.  Chris was very surprised.  But, in my mind, particularly on the heels of Chris having worked at a school where they were not always enthusiastic about his strengths or successes, the opportunity to work for a place that was so excited to have him do exactly what he is passionate about, gifted in, and called to do, well that is a no brainer for me.

Every few days over the last few weeks I've thought to myself, "Ahhh, that was fast!"  But I didn't realize quite how much until I started typing it out on here.  So excuse me for the dates, but.

April 22, call realtor to put house "quietly" on the market.

April 24, a few showings are lined up.

April 25-May 6, we are out of town, the house shows multiple times, including to a double showing to one couple.

May 8, the interested couple puts their house on the market.

May 10, they make us an offer.

May 14, we accept their offer.

May 16, Chris finds out about a job interview the next week.

May 23, Chris interviews and receives a job offer.

Apparently this is what's next for us.  And I can't stop singing Kanye.

Who's the hottest in the world right now, just touched down in London town...

Linking to the Wiegands.

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On Change: Part 1: Selling a House

We have some changes happening around here.  Big changes, and I can finally talk about it and publish this backlog of blogs that I've been sitting on for a while.  I hope you'll bear with me as I break it up a little. :)

Chris and I have felt for a little while now that it is time for a change for us and our family.  After many many discussions, we decided that it was time for us to move on from our life in Lincoln.  We did not have a specific place or job in mind, but we knew that if an opportunity were to come up that required us to move quickly, that home ownership/ a mortgage could be a real burden.  So we decided to put our house up for sale.

Chris talked to his dad one evening before we listed the house, and his dad commented, "Yeah, you could put your house up for sale and that would be like you putting out the fleece."  

That is kind of what we thought too.

We tend to be Do-ers more than Trust That Things Will Work Out-ers.  We also are Have Everything Completely Planned Out-ers, so this was completely new territory for us.

 That weekend, we called the realtor who had sold us our home and told her that we would like to sell it.  We told her that we would like for it to be "unofficially" on the market, meaning that if she knew of buyers who were looking for homes in the area and our price range, that we would like her to show it.  But we didn't want a sign in the yard or a listing on the website.  We live in a small town and we didn't want people asking a lot of questions or getting the wrong idea, so this was our way of "kind of" puting it on the market.

That was on a Sunday.  On Wednesday we would be leaving town for the next 10 days for work and personal reasons, so we gave her a key to get into the house if neccessary.

On Tuesday afternoon Chris called to tell me that there were already people interested in seeing the house.  

Me, laughing: Well, they'll just have to wait about 10 days and they can look all they want.

Him: Well...I already told her it would be okay for them to come by...

Me: You have no idea what you're asking.

I thought for a second about how I needed to finish packing the kids and I for our multi-stage road trip, which included 28 hours of driving time (not including stops), a race, visiting both families, and culminating in the kids' birthday bash that I was planning. My mind was fully on the trip, and our house was a wreck getting ready for it. 

My mind was not on getting the house show-ready.  It would be a struggle to get it tidy, let alone deep cleaned with sparkling bathrooms/floors/countertops, de-cluttered, de-personalized and beautifully staged.  It was just not going to happen.  Not in a day, not with two kids at home, and not with everything else we had to do that night.

But Chris assured me that he had warned the realtor that we were unprepared to show it so quickly and that it would look very lived-in.  We gave it a quick tidy that morning in between loading the car, (leaving very much to be desired, in my opinion), and rushed off for our trip.   

While we were away, we were informed that one of the couples had come to see the house twice and were very interested.

When we returned on Sunday, 10 days later, we were told that the couple were listing their house with the intention of buying ours.

On Thursday, the couple made us an offer.  

On Friday, we countered.

On Saturday, they made us their final offer.

Sunday was Mother's Day.  I asked, for my gift, that we do not discuss the sale or non-sale of our house at all.  I didn't get my wish.

On Monday, we accepted their offer.

On Tuesday, we signed the paperwork.

Whew!!

I mean, seriously?!  What in the world?  In less than a month, without advertising that our house was for sale, without putting our best foot forward in showing it, and in the middle of a "real estate slump," even when other houses on our street had been for sale for months, we sold our house.  

And then we held our breath, because now what?  We were out of our house, a home that we loved, and had no idea what was next.

Hannah was sick on Tuesday when we signed the paperwork.  She and I had picked up Jayce from school, came home to meet the realtor and Chris at the house to sign the papers.  As I tried to put my hesitations out of my mind, I fretted over how she was burning up in my lap.  (It turned out that she had a 103.9 fever.  Yikes.)

She ended up being fine, but I threw myself into panicking over this fever and it kept me from thinking about the huge decision that we had just made, and what we would do next.  Luckily, I didn't have to wait too long to.

The next morning, I was at McDonalds with a friend when Chris texted me that he had been shortlisted for a job.  I mentioned it in passing to my friend, and we went back to talking as our kids played on the slide.  I barely gave it a second thought.

I didn't know that this opportunity was the "what is next" for us.

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