Alek Is Walking

I can't believe how fast my baby is growing up. He started taking steps here and there about two weeks ago and now there's no stopping him. If he's walking and falls, or sits down to play with a toy he has to crawl until he can get to a wall or piece of furniture and stand up again. But that's the only time he crawls these days.

Here's a quick video of him walking. (He's 10.5 months here)

I'm In Love With A College Student!

Casey has decided to go back to school. He's taking online classes from Colombia College. Right now he still has a few general education classes to take but his goal is to get his bachelors degree in business administration or marketing. He isn't exactly loving every second of it but I'm really proud of him for making the effort.

I Just Love Lists

I can't believe this is the first time I've posted a smiley list this year. But I have so much that makes me smile that I can't NOT do one.

-Jace has such a tender heart. He always watches out for Alek, he is always so sweet when he plays with him.
-The way Camden sings with all of his heart. Just today he was singing, "Happy Birthday to Grandma!" and yesterday he couldn't stop singing, "No one likes a brownie face, change it for a mile." He also loves Ring Around the Rosie's, but he pronounces the word ashes wrong, he says asses instead. It makes me giggle every time. I love it.
-Alek is walking all over the place and he's getting fast too. I just love watching him go.
-Jace and Camden played so well together today.
-Alek has learned to wave, he also nods his head yes, usually when I tell him not to do something.
-This Conversation in the car:
Jace-Mom, did you know that Tyler in my class has the chicken pox?
Me-Oh really?
Jace-Yeah, so he had to stay home.
Camden-Oh! I LOVE those chicken pops!
Jace-No, it's not something good.
Camden-But I like chicken pops, they're good.
Me-Laughing and telling Jace to let Camden say that if he wants to.

-Our latest snowstorm didn't bring as much snow as predicted.
-I recently discovered the heated steering wheel button in the car
-Casey, Jace and Camden all thanked me for the dinner I made tonight.
-I got a new toothbrush that I love.
-New sheets.

I know I'm forgetting some things but I'll stop there. My brainstorming has suddenly turned to a light drizzle.

Thanks For Asking

After my last blog post, my dear friend, Clancy, asked, "Are you ok with all of it?" It wasn't until I read her comment that I realized that I completely left my thoughts/feelings out of that blog post, and I'm not sure why.


Maybe it's easier to share news like that without letting emotion get involved. Or maybe, I haven't let myself think about it enough to really know what to say. Or maybe I'm not sure how to put my thought into words.


Of course the decision to sell our house didn't come easily. There was much discussion between about it in our house for months. So while this may come as a shock to some of you, it's not like we didn't see it coming. It was something we knew might be a possibility for a while now. Because of that, the decision was a little easier to make. In fact, making the decision to list our house for sale didn't make me as sad as I thought it would, in some ways, making that decision came as a relief. Like I said, we knew it might be a possibility for a while. So even though this was a house with a hand picked floor-plan and custom interior features, I never really let myself get attached to it. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the kids.


That's the part that's been hard for me. The kids love it here, especially Jace. (But it isn't the house they're attached to, it's the neighborhood.) He has made so many friends here and loves having most of them close by. He also really loves his teacher and has done really well in kindergarten. I hate to take him away from all of that. Just days after making the decision to sell, I was driving somewhere with the kids in the car and Jace was talking happily about how much fun he had playing with his friend earlier that day. We hadn't told the kids our decision at this point, and thinking about how sad it would make him to leave his friends almost made me start to cry. And maybe if I hadn't been driving at the time, I would have.


Surprisingly, that was the most emotional I've been about all of this so far. But I think that could change when it's actually time to move. For now, a decision has been made, and that's the easy part. I'm sure this won't really feel real until the time comes to move. For now, I kind of have a "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" mindset. I can't think about it all at once. We don't know when we will actually move, or any of the specifics about it, it's too much to consider. There are too many possibilities and scenarios for me to run through them all right now. It doesn't make sense for me to concern myself with that and worry about what may or may not happen.

I've been trying to stay positive about this and looking on the bright side. For example, at least this made me really clean my house and post pictures of it. That's something I've been meaning to do since we moved in. So, until it's time to move, I'm going to enjoy being here.

For Sale

We just listed our house for sale. I might as well get this out in the open for anyone out there who doesn't know yet. (Apparently some news travels fast.)

You might be wondering why we're selling our house after being here for only six months. It's because we haven't been able to refinance our construction loan into a traditional mortgage. We moved in on the construction loan with plans to get our mortgage taken care of shortly after moving. But things have not worked out in a way that has made that possible.

During the time we built our house, the mortgage industry was on a steady decline. A mortgage that we could have easily obtained at the time we started the building process is now impossible to obtain. Really impossible, as in, certain loan programs don't even exist anymore.

And it initially looked like we would have plenty of time to handle that since the bank we were with was allowing us to make payments on the construction loan until we could get a traditional home loan. But then, that bank went under. It was bought out by another bank who is not being as easy to work with. We are still trying to come up with an arrangement that the bank would be happy with, but in the meantime, we decided we should try and sell our house.

Here are a few pictures if anyone out there is interested.

Master Bedroom

Master Bath (well, part of it anyway. A wide-angle lens would have been really helpful on this one)

Bedroom

Bathroom

Front Entry

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Good shot of living room, dining room and kitchen

Built-in desk area in upstairs hallway

Guest Bathroom

Laundry Room

Other areas that are not pictured include two additional bedrooms, a guest room and a large mudroom,as well as a half-bath. There is also a formal living room just off of the front entry. The house has a full, unfinished basement, it sits on a 0.5 acre corner lot and has garage space for 4 cars.

A New President

I'm not exactly sure what I want to blog about today's events, but I feel like I can't completely ignore current events in my blog. It might be interesting to look back on this someday and see what my thoughts were on this historical day. Now I just need to try and put those thoughts into words. I've actually been thinking about this (off and on) since the election. I was going to post something then but I wasn't sure what to say or how exactly I feel about this. And I'm still not sure what it is I want to say, so I guess I'll just start typing and see where this goes.

I did not vote for Barack Obama, needless to say, I do not have the feelings of hope and adoration for the new president that many people across the nation have. But I do have feelings of hope and adoration four our country. I have pride in our country and all that it stands for. I love that we have a process in place that allows us to vote government leaders into office even though that vote may not always go the way I voted. And even with a president in office that I didn't vote for, I have hope that this great country will continue to be the wonderful nation it always has been; the land of the free and the home of the brave. And I am glad that Obama has brought new hope to many who have all but given up on our country and its greatness. I hope Barack Obama can live up to those expectations. He has a huge responsibility and a tough road ahead of him. I do not envy his position or responsibilities. I truly do wish him luck, and all the best as president. Our country deserves a great leader, I just hope he can fill those shoes.

Happy New Year!

I just love New Years. I love the freshness of this time of the year. I love the potential a new year brings and the hope for something great, something different, something better. Or, if last year was great, then the hope for more of the same.

I'm not typically one to make resolutions. More often than not, I don't last long and then the rest of the year is spent regretting the fact that I failed miserably at achieving goals made so early in the year. But this year I want to give myself something to work toward. This mid-January resolution of sorts needs to be something doable and something that can't be ruined by one bad day, one tiny slip up; the way that sneaking just one little m & m could ruin a no sugar goal for the whole year. This has to be something so worthwhile that I'll keep at it, and so important that it won't be forgotten before the end of the year.

What I've come up with may sound trite but I assure you and more importantly, I know for myself, that this isn't just some rhetoric I'm putting out there to make myself look or sound any certain way. What I want to achieve this year, for myself, is to be a better wife, a better mom, a better sister, daughter and friend. And I can't leave myself out of this, I want to be a better me as well, if that makes sense. This is something I know I can truly work on every day, and it's important enough that I will stick with it throughout the year. I'm not demanding perfection of myself in any way. I simply hope that at the end of 2009 I can say that I did my best, and that I improved,whether a lot or a little, in those aspects of my life.

I'm looking forward with anticipation to 2009 and all it has to offer. Hopefully this year will be full of love, joy, happiness, and wonder. Unfortunately, I am aware that it may bring sorrow, grief, and pain as well. But that's the magic of not knowing exactly what's in store for each of us this year. So, here's to growth and change this year in whatever form it may come.

Manic Monday: Cell

It was hard for me to decide what to blog about on this word. The word cell has so many different definitions, but the one that interests me the most is the definition related to biology; as in a, "usually microscopic structure containing nuclear and cytoplasmic material enclosed by a semipermeable membrane and, in plants, a cell wall; the basic structural unit of all organisms," Courtesy of dictionary.com.

Using the word cell in a biological sense brings to mind exotic sounding words like Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, and ribosomes; and their accompanying cartoon drawings from a biology 101 text book. But that's not why I like thinking about cells. The truth is, I'm fascinated at how tiny and efficient the working parts of our bodies are. I think it's amazing that there are so many different types of cells with their own unique functions within the body. Even within our blood there are a variety of different types of blood cells, there are also different types of cells in our bones. Some bone cells produce new bone cells, other bone cells break down old bone cells to make way for new ones. There are actually five main types of bone cells alone. Isn't that incredible?

I really could go on and on about how unique the cells in our body are to their locations and functions but I think I'll leave it at that. There is so much about the human body on a cellular level that I find fascinating but I won't bore you with all of it. I know not everyone finds it as interesting as I do. So...thanks for humoring my nerdy side for a moment. I hope I didn't bore any of you to tears.

Christmas Pictures

I took some pictures of the kids in their new church clothes the Sunday after Christmas. These are some of the better shots. With Casey's help, and some really cute subjects, I didn't do too bad this time. But don't worry, I'm not going to quit my day job to be a photographer anytime soon.

(I like how you can see their reflections on the glass in front of the fireplace on this one.)