New Car and Debt-B-Gone

Isn’t it pretty? That there GMC Acadia is our new car! With another kiddo on the way, and questionable tires on our old car, we have been in need of more stability and space while on the road. So we traded in the Jeep and got the Acadia last weekend (thank you Employee Pricing/Cashback Event) and with it we crossed an item off our “Do Before We Die” list. That item was paying cash for a vehicle, but to be fair…we must give credit where credit is due. Josh’s parents sold some property near their home in FL and gifted their sons with some money from that sale. That money enabled us to get the new car sooner rather than later, and even better…it also allowed us to entirely pay off a chunk of debt we have been carrying around for a LONG time. Over the past 6 years, just when we were on the brink of finishing it off, something big and expensive seemed to turn up that needed more immediate attention… moving, adoption, master’s degrees, moving again, finishing our upstairs so we could sell this house, downsizing to one income instead of two, you get the drift). So while the new car is fun and exciting … what really felt liberating was paying off the credit card once and for all. It makes a significant difference in our monthly budget and we are so, so thankful to Josh’s parents for the kind gift. We are now debt-free (excusing a very manageable and quickly diminishing student loan still) and it is feels so satisfying and empowering! With the sale of our house in Sept. and what is leftover from the gift from Josh’s parents, we say “Hello, Dave Ramsey Baby Steps 3 and 4!”

On another note, just to keep us grounded, we managed to put the first scratch on the car. Can you spot it? Look closely on the left. We have the touch up paint on order already. :)

WPTM #3: Fascination

What Parenting Teaches Me #3: Fascination

I was thinking about all the little things in a day that fascinate Noah, really impress him. Things like watching my hair fly when he blows on it, that echo in the bathroom I wrote about last week, the feeling he gets when he burps, on/off switches....the list goes on and on. The list, to me, is a bunch of overly simple things, but to him these things are genius and hilarious and totally enjoyable and amazing to witness. And I thought - you know what...that is just like I bet it is with God again. We are awestruck by things to which we give him credit, as well we should (miracles, weather events, details in nature, the intricacies of our bodies, changes in people, different people's talents, etc). To us, these many things are incredible and amazing...but I bet from God's perspective it is just child's play compared to what all else he has yet to reveal to us (heaven, spiritual activity around us, the vastness of his goodness and love, the weight and power of his justice, etc) . Don't you think? My point is just that I have been reminded (again) how much bigger God is than I can even imagine. And interestingly enough (I just now thought of this), I am reading Job at the moment, which is a perfect complement to this point. Coincidence, I think not. :)

Back on Track

Hooray, things are getting put back together this week after they seemed to fall apart on us last week. The couple buying our house have been able to find some resolution for the issues they met, provide us with more earnest money, and set a new closing date for us all to count on - September 9th. So we are working toward closing on our house in TN on the 10th. And it looks like I will stay in town through that following weekend with Noah while Josh meets up with all the installers, movers, and appts. for the new house as well as paints rooms and fixes things that need attention right away.

In other news...we have decided to just have Anna delivered here in AL with my current doctor. At my appt. on Monday, my OB suggested we pick a date to have her induced if that would work better for us considering all the chaos surrounding the move and being so close to the due date. At first, this option really unnerved me (you know, CHOOSING to go into labor any sooner than I have to - how masochistic is that?!) ... but when I weighed all the information it really makes the most sense for where we are right now and will alleviate a lot of unpredictability. So at my next appt. I will let my doctor know that yes we would like to stick with her for the delivery and go ahead and pick a date to induce. She likes to induce 7-10 days before the due date, so this will put us at Sept. 22 or 23rd. Wow! It is exciting to think about, but very, very freaky to me.

Ugh...Change of Plans

I have already had a good cry over this this morning, and am now in better spirit and perspective about it, but it looks like we will not be moving for another couple weeks. We were supposed to close on our house here in Athens on Wednesday, but the buyers have had a problem with the company that was buying their house and are in turn appealing something to do with the price they were getting for their house. They have assured us they are still coming, still buying our house, they just need up to 2 more weeks to complete the appeal process. We considered moving on with buying our house in Gallatin, but long story short - that did not work out. Instead we have had to un-cancel everything we had arranged to cancel here for next week and of course cancel everything we had set up to begin and install in our new house for next week as well, not to mention postponing the closing on the house in Gallatin (which was met with as much positive enthusiasm as we had when we heard the news ourselves). The most stressful part of all this undoing is not knowing where we will be on any given day in the next month...which is not comforting at this point in my pregnancy. And knowing that EV-ER-Y-THING in this house is packed. Everything!! But...no worries, we will survive on paper plates, plastic cups, and disposable cooking dishes because I simply refuse to unpack stuff now.

And if this hold up does last a whole 2 more weeks, there is a good chance I will stick around the area (staying with my parents) until the baby is born. Who knows. For the moment, we are just praying the buyers can clear up the problem in a matter of days, not weeks. Pray with me!

Will keep you posted.

Best and Worst Decisions

On Sunday night in Life Group, as on opener to the new study we would be beginning (The Best Question Ever by Andy Stanley), everyone in the group shared what they considered to be the best decision he/she ever made (excluding spouses and salvation, of course). I, for the life of me, could not narrow it down in the five minutes I had to think, so I answered some mediocre response about completing my masters degree. But it bothered me all night because something like that just doesn’t measure up to what I should look back on as the best decision I ever made in my life.

The following morning, I woke up before Noah and COULD NOT go back to sleep for thinking about this very thing. What IS the best decision I ever made? And I finally wrestled down a list of 3 best decisions I ever made, but interestingly enough, 2 are linked to decisions I most regret as well…which by the way, was a WAAAAAAY easier list/answer to come up with. Why is that? Anyway, here they are –3 regretful decisions and 3 best decisions in my life so far…

Decision # 1 that I really regret is short and well, not sweet, obviously. I wish I had not dated a certain someone I did in college. In retrospect, that relationship compromised/ distracted me spiritually, stunted me socially, limited my involvement with other activities I wish I had participated in, and ultimately ended very ugly. And since it was for the duration of my entire freshman year, the effects of it were still felt for years to come.

However, this also leads me to introduce Best Decision #1 which was to finally face the facts and just end that relationship altogether. Enough said.

Decision # 2 that I really regret is NOT going overseas to teach after I graduated college. I was given the opportunity, I was single, I was very excited and interested in it, but in the end I caved in to discouragement I received. I knew when I declined the job that I would probably never go again, and that has turned out to be true. You start a different life and it just isn’t feasible to later pick up that one you passed up to begin with. (The salt in the wound of this poor decision of mine is that this very job, with this very organization, was the one best decision that another girl in the group named. Ouch!)

That dominoes into Best Decision # 2, which was still going off and living on my own in a brand new place after college (Atlanta, Ga…just because). Just about everyone was amazed at the fearlessness and independence it took to just pick a random place and go live there all by myself – knowing no one at all. But I found it exciting (and obviously, as clear second to being overseas). I got my own apartment and thoroughly enjoyed not having roommates for once. I began my first teaching job, and soon after, met the man that would become my husband (something I thought to myself could happen the very first time I saw him across the room).

Decision #3 that I regret for now is not having done more to put myself within reach of a personal dream/goal I have had for awhile – and that is becoming a published children’s book author. Fortunately, this is one that I can still commit to and attain, so I think I will. I just can’t name a specific time-line yet.

And finally, Best Decision #3 was choosing adoption for our family and our lives’ direction. Like teaching overseas, I (we) received much discouragement and funny looks as we moved forward with the process, but this time, I (we) stuck to our guns and what we knew was put on our hearts (first individually and then as a couple) by the Lord. And while the risks of adoption, especially adopting older children, scare many, the Lord has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity about them. We choose to yield to Him only in this decision, and trust Him more than our own understanding. Adoption fits us, excites us, and blesses us. And we are eager to meet the next children joining our family this way. We are proud of how adoption shapes our testimonies, defines our life goals, and mirrors the love the Lord has poured out on us all.

And there you have it. Now I can stop turning this question over and over in my mind.

Rude Awakening

I should be a real grump today…I had several rude awakenings this morning, but you should know that I have overcome the impulse to feel sorry for my uncomfortably pregnant and sleep-deprived self. Go ahead…cheer for me now. :)

This is how my morning went starting at the wee early hour of, oh, 12:30 am. Yes, that’s right…just after midnight. (Don’t even get me started on how many bathroom trips I had already made since going to bed to begin with.)

Rude Awakening #1: I, for some unexplainable reason, start coughing and cannot stop. There is a spot in my throat that just will not clear. Good grief. So I drag myself out of bed (which, at 8 months pregnant, hurts in places I won’t name here) only to have to unpack an already packed box to find some Halls throat lozenges. And for those of you who have known me in the past 2 years, you would also know that I have trouble sleeping anyway. I take a Unisom every single night just to get to sleep…Every, Single, Night. And as you would imagine, that pill is not going to still be putting me to sleep at that hour of the morning. So I lay in bed sucking on my nasty throat drop, awake for the next hour. Thankfully, Josh is not snoring at this point. That is another blog post for another day, poor guy.

Next, Rude Awakening #2: Not his fault, I know, but Josh had to get up at 3:30 this morning to make a flight to Utah where he will be for the next 4 days, something I have dreaded for days already. So I am awake in bed the whole time he is showering and getting ready and getting out the door. It doesn’t matter that he is as quiet as a mouse, which, to his credit, he is. It just doesn’t take much to wake me up is all. I lay awake for another half hour or so after he’s gone.

Finally, Rude Awakening # 3, which I will rename Rude-although-precious-Awakening. I hear my baby boy shouting – suddenly, earnestly, desperately – at the top of his 2 year old lungs over and over again. Ok, Ok, I’m awake already – what is wrong with my son?! And then I realize what it is he is shouting. It sounds something like this: “Aaah toe!” pause, “Aaaah toe!” a little louder now, pause, “Aacko!” more like a shriek this time. Ah yes, there it is – ECHO! That boy is trying to recreate an echo in his bedroom. You see yesterday, Noah discovered that our just emptied guest bathroom across from his room makes a loud echo back when he calls into it. He and his daddy did that over and over yesterday. Over and over, I tell you. Which is not at all annoying, only adorable and as enjoyable as ever watching my toddler discover something simple that fascinates him and causes him to giggle and feel so powerful. So anyway, I let Noah beckon an echo in his bedroom for about 15 minutes before I finally made my way into his room. Awake for good, but, more importantly, not grumpy.

Needless to say, I napped while Noah was at Mom’s Morning Out today. I love whoever invented that program.

Pregnancy Brain

I think I had a brain blip yesterday similar to what I read in pregnancy books is common to pregnant women. Absentminded, forgetful, clumsy type thing.

I waltzed myself right into a men's bathroom! It wasn't until I made eye contact with the man standing at his urinal that I realized I was in the wrong place. Oh Lord, how embarrassing!!

I let out a surprised "Oh!" and hightailed it out and across the way into the women's restroom where I took a LONG, LONG bathroom break so as not to face that man again. And thankfully I did not. But still, so embarrassing!

The Year of Pleasures

This is the title of a book I just finished reading today. It is the first book I have read in awhile that I just had to mark in as I read it. By that, I really just mean underline stuff. I like to underline things that I think are written well, things that I really identify with, things I want to remember, and things that get me thinking. I think my underlining tendencies are a distant cousin to my list making tendencies.

In this book, the year of pleasures is just another way that the main character spends her year of grieving after her husband, John, dies of cancer. In the scene where Betta realizes the moment has come and her husband just passed, the description was so vivid, so apt, so heart wrenching that I couldn't help but underline the whole thing. --- "But he was gone. I clasped my hand tightly over my mouth and felt a trembling that started deep inside and moved out to make all of me shake. I had a mighty impulse, it truly was mighty, to rise to my feet and howl. To overturn the chair and nightstand, to rip at my clothes, to bring down the very walls around us. But of course I did not do that. I pulled an elemental sense of outrage back inside and smoothed it down. I forced something far too big into something far too small, and this made for a surprising and unreasonable weight, as mercury does. I noticed sounds coming from my throat, little unladylike grunts. I saw that everything I'd ever imagined about what it would feel like when was pale. Was wrong. Was the shadow and not the mountain."

Something Betta's husband used to tell her that I really liked was----"We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give."

Betta's husband wanted her to be good to herself, be happy, do what made her smile. After he died, Betta found slips of paper with notes to her... and one to her was about a quirky affinity she had for green bowls - all sorts and styles- but often would not spend the money on. The quote is my favorite from the book, because it speaks of course about more than just green bowls, it just depends on who you are. --- "Take the green bowl. Take all the green bowls; love what you love without apology."

Betta decides to look up her old college roommates that she hasn't seen or heard from in years and years. --- "I wanted suddenly - intensely - to know where those women were. We could truly talk, I thought; they would still be able to hear both what I said and what I meant. It was Kierkegard who'd said that if a friendship is true, it doesn't matter how much time has gone by, you just pick up where you left off. " I can think of a good solid handful of girls in my life of whom this continues to be true. What a gift.

" ' Healing hurts,' someone at John's service had told me. ' But hurting heals.' " True dat.

LOVED this small glimpse into John's character that Betta recalls when she cannot find the coffee filters in all her packed boxes of stuff --- "Once, on a cold winter morning when we were out of both filters and paper towels, John had tried to use toilet paper. Then he'd used a strainer to try to separate the coffee grounds and disintegrating paper from the liquid. Then he'd tasted it. Then he'd gone to the store. And since the wind-chill was forty below, he'd bought lox and capers and beautiful bagels and gourmet cream cheese and roses and a type of wild rice we'd been wanting to try. That's the way he operated. Use errors to your advantage." Isn't that just great!!

And finally...this one answers a particular thing that people do that is on my pet peeve list (ooooh, I should blog about my pet peeves!! - no I won't do that) ---- "Don't let your habits become handcuffs." Preach it!

Anyway, this author was one that I actually had to read from while taking one of my graduate courses because she also writes about writing. So it was cool to read one her novels and see that yes she is qualified to write about how to write. Oh yeah...her name is Elizabeth Berg. :)

My Morning Out

Well, actually, it's called Mom's Morning Out, but that's just a minor detail. The important thing is that Noah started going again today and he was oh too cute with his new bookbag. We kissed his diaper bag goodbye at last and traded up for the goods that the 2 yr old kiddos are sporting to school.

Even cuter was when I put the bag on him packed with his lunch, drinks, and other such necessities. The poor baby started falling over backwards!

Anyway, his first day went off without a hitch, he didn't cry when we dropped him off, and even better than that is what his teacher said when I picked him up and asked how it went. "Wow! Noah is just so obedient!"

Ahh, music to a mother's ears.

No Laughing Matter

Just look at the seriousness in those eyes! Today Noah got his first official "boo-boo." Oh sure, he has had his share of bug bites that he picks at and we call them boo-boos, but this was his first trip-and-fall-that- warranted-a-good-cry boo-boo. Which, honestly, is not bad for being 2 years and 3 months old!

Josh would just like to say, though, at this point in the commentary, that - he told me so. And I will have to admit that - he did. He did not like when I bought the boy a pair of crocs despite his warnings not to. And sure enough, the crocs got his stepping all messed up mid-run, so Fine, Fine, I say. No more crocs. ......... For awhile at least. :)

Kiddie Carnival

We took Noah to the Kiddie Carnival here in Athens this past weekend. It is put on by the Lions' Club and it is just too adorable and so, so cheap - tailor made for little kids and toddlers. It was such a fun time, Noah is going again this weekend with his Mimmie and Papa. Here are some shots and videos of the all the fun...