Tonight, I'm sitting on my lovely cushy IKEA couch while I type. Jesse's sister, Rachel, got a new laptop this holiday season, after her old laptop broke. Jesse, being both bored and always inclined to take things apart to see if he can fix them, did just that. There was one little tiny piece that needed to be re-soldered, and voila, it worked again! Rachel was generous and let us keep her old laptop, which is just almost like a second Christmas. I can sit on my couch and do my computer stuff! Instead of in a hard chair under a drafty window!! Granted, it's a very slow machine, and definitely acting it's age... but so is the desktop computer I've been using: Jesse's hand-me-down after my computer died several months ago. (It's so tempting to think of buying a shiny new computer with tax returns this year, instead of putting it in savings in case this unemployment thing drags on forever...)
Anyway. That's not the reason for my post. I just had to gush about it for a minute. Because it feels so luxurious to not be chained to a desk. Even though I still have to be chained to an extension cord, because the laptop battery needs replacing. ;)
The real reason for this post is bedtime. "Duh," you're thinking. "That's the title of the blog post, after all!" Well, you're right. I'm being obvious. But bedtime this week has been such a great discovery! Let me tell you what bedtime has been like for about the past year:
It would take no less than an hour. Every. Single. Time. Sometimes it would take at least twice as long. It always involved sooooo much singing, reading, soft music, fans blowing for white noise, laying down and cuddling, shushing, heating up rice bags, and on and on and on and on. Melinda and Jacob would giggle and play and turn their lights on and climb furniture if we dared leave before they were completely settled down. Alex would take a maddening amount of time rocking, patting, nursing, etc. before he would finally, finally fall asleep and leave us to our treasured, quiet, adult time. And often, he would wake back up and need even more rocking, patting, singing, nursing, whatever before he would fall back asleep.
When we moved to Colorado, we continued - as closely as possible - to follow those same routines. But somehow, in a rather sudden way, Melinda and Jacob stopped needing all the jumping through hoops for bedtime. It might have been the very old-school GloWorms that we started giving them when we left. Or the change of location. But at any rate, as soon as we started living in our condo, once we left them in bed, they have generally stayed in bed. Every now and then someone gets up to use the potty, or to complain of an aching leg, but it's the exception. And they even stay all night. They aren't waking up in the middle of the night to come lay in our bedroom anymore. They stay in their own bed until they wake up in the morning!! It's heaven!!
But Alex continued to give us problems. I ended up finding a good compromise by taking my iPod Touch with me when I would lay down with him, so that when he took an hour or so to fall asleep, at least I had something to do. Mostly I would read my scriptures on my iPod, but sometimes I listened to a podcast or an audio book, or would sneak in a game or two. But a few nights ago, Jesse's sister Rachel, brother Ben, and his wife Brea made arrangements to come over and play Settlers with us after the kids were asleep. I was anxious to play, and Alex was taking for.ev.er. to fall asleep, just being wiggly and goofy and not laying still. After they had been over for 20 minutes, and I was getting more and more anxious to get out there and play, I finally gave up. I set up the baby gate in our door, made sure Alex had everything he needed, and left. He protested loudly for about half a minute, and got quiet. About a minute later, he cried halfheartedly for a few more seconds, and then I could tell he walked away from the door and climbed in bed. He was completely calm in only about 2 minutes from the time I had left my room.
I did it again the next night. He reacted about the same way.
I did it again last night. I hadn't even finished filling up a glass of water in the kitchen before he was calm and quiet.
I did it again tonight. And again, he protested very loudly when he knew I was leaving. After all, he's had me tethered to him since he was a newborn infant, me not leaving until he was good and asleep. It breaks my heart a little to walk out the door when he's basically screaming for me to stay... BUT, it wasn't even a full 20 seconds before he stopped crying and went back to bed. And that was the last peep I heard from him.
Can I just tell you how freeing it feels to not have to waste an hour or more of my evening time to get him to sleep? My quiet time starts at 7:30 now, instead of 8:30 or 9:00pm. It is marvelous. So wonderful.
I have no idea if this will last forever... but I hope it does. Also, I used to pick him up and lay him in Jacob's bed after he fell asleep, but I'm too nervous to do that after he's fallen asleep on his own, lest I wake him and have to calm him down again. So I can't go rummaging through all my sewing stuff that is being stored in my bedroom while he's in there asleep. Maybe I'll get up the courage to try moving him soon, but for now I'm just enjoying the fact that he's big enough to go to sleep on his own, with so very, very little complaint. It's like I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Think about going away for a night or two. Contemplate life with a hassle-free bedtime routine. Mmmm. Good times.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Handmade Christmas
Disclaimer first: Yes, I realize it's been two and a half months since I last updated, and we've gone through a move and a whole slough of changes in my family, and I haven't documented any of it on my blog. On top of that, there are birthdays and holidays I haven't covered. I'm hoping against hope that I'll play catch-up after the new year, and you'll all be so sick of my posts that you'll be begging for me to go back to this nearly quarterly update thing. ;) But in the meantime, I thought I'd cover some stuff that I want to show off now, and not later.
Since Jesse is out of work and we don't have an income beyond unemployment, which, predictably, doesn't cover all of our costs, I decided to make a lot of gifts for the kids by hand this year. We were able to buy some things as well, thanks to some money that my mom and dad sent out, and they also got gifts from Newson relatives... but I was really excited by the things I made by hand this year. So much that every time someone asked me about my Christmas, all I could remember were the things I made.
I started the sewing binge by finally making Melinda, Jacob and Alex some stockings to match the pair I made for Jesse and myself before we had any kids. Here are all of our stockings lined up: Jesse, Becky, Melinda, Jacob and Alex. Melinda and Jacob picked their own accent fabrics from Grandma Newson's stash:
For Melinda, I made:
A fuzzy/corduroy blanket. Honestly, even with sale prices at Joann's Fabrics, the fabric for this was a splurge. But the embroidered corduroy was on sale for the same price as regular corduroy, and I made it big enough that she'll be able to enjoy through adulthood. And I hope she will. I keep wishing I had made one for myself. ;) It was also, by far, the quickest of all my sewing projects. I finished it in one night. And note of interest-- I didn't realize that the embroidered corduroy was not as wide as the pink fuzzy material. My mother-in-law Nedra happened to have a darker purple corduroy in her fabric stash that she generously let me use to supplement what I had purchased (she also did this with various other fabrics for other projects I had!). I *love* the way it turned out... it's like I did it on purpose.
I also made Melinda a matching scripture tote. We got her a new Bible and Book of Mormon, and I took the leftover corduroy and some hot-pink knit and made a tote bag to fit them snugly. It was my second time ever making a tote bag, and only the first time without someone to guide me, so the process of figuring out measurements and everything took me quite a while. It was a two-night venture. And the embroidered pocket still ended up lower than I meant it to. Oh, well.
For Jacob, I made a scripture tote as well. He loves it to pieces. The fabric I used was purchased earlier in the year when I spotted it on etsy.com. I fell in love with it (I *adore* the owls and woodland creatures, and color scheme in general!), and knew I would think of something to use it for eventually. I was leaning towards a cuddle blanket, but this works just as nicely. I very nearly finished Jacob's scripture tote in a single night, thanks to figuring out the process and measurements when I had made Melinda's tote. I only wish I had thought to reinforce the handles a bit somehow, as they're flimsy with just a single layer of cotton fabric.
One idea I had for all three kids was to make a set of bombs. Like I've mentioned before, my kids just love watching and playing video games. Jesse's made toys for them before, like foam swords and cardboard/duct-tape shields, and Metroid "guns" out of drink bottles, and they always love pretending with them so much. So one of the games they love to pretend is The Legend of Zelda. It's got a lot of fantasy elements in it, and you often need to use bombs to clear a pathway, etc. in the environment. So I found a pattern for sewing balls, and then we used braided cotton rope to make a "fuse". Nedra had some fabric pigment markers that we colored orange, yellow and red on the ends of the fuse, to make it look like they were lit. Then we also made a bag, since you can't have bombs without a bomb bag! They knew what these were the very instant they opened them up, and have enjoyed playing with them. I only made three bombs, one for each kid, but Jacob wants me to make more so he can keep more in the bag while someone else is playing with them. Also, this is the best picture I got of them, since I forgot to take a picture when I made them.
I ended up having enough time on Christmas Eve to sew a few very last-minute ideas: A Zelda hat for Jacob, and a couple keys like you would find in one of the dungeons in the game. I'm glad I got to do those, as Jacob has been running around in full Zelda gear the last few days: Hat, bomb bag, keys, sword and shield. He keeps telling me that he wants a whole costume, though... But that's more work than I can handle at the moment. I'd like to make him a harness to attach his sword on his back at some point, however.
Alex's handmade gift was quite an undertaking. I thought it would be quick...and it wasn't. I made a Mr. Potato Head completely out of felt and velcro. It's a lot of fun, and I'm glad I made it, but whew, I'm glad it's over!! (It's just one Potato Head, with multiple pieces.)
I was also going to make pajamas for all three of them with some fabric that Nedra and my sister-in-law Rachel picked out for me, but I simply ran out of time to even attempt it. Hopefully I'll get to it before winter is over, though. :) Binge-sewing kind of got me looking forward to more projects again. I've been designing a make-up organizer in my head, and I also need to finish up the baby blankets I promised to my sisters before their daughters have their first birthday!
Since Jesse is out of work and we don't have an income beyond unemployment, which, predictably, doesn't cover all of our costs, I decided to make a lot of gifts for the kids by hand this year. We were able to buy some things as well, thanks to some money that my mom and dad sent out, and they also got gifts from Newson relatives... but I was really excited by the things I made by hand this year. So much that every time someone asked me about my Christmas, all I could remember were the things I made.
I started the sewing binge by finally making Melinda, Jacob and Alex some stockings to match the pair I made for Jesse and myself before we had any kids. Here are all of our stockings lined up: Jesse, Becky, Melinda, Jacob and Alex. Melinda and Jacob picked their own accent fabrics from Grandma Newson's stash:
For Melinda, I made:
A fuzzy/corduroy blanket. Honestly, even with sale prices at Joann's Fabrics, the fabric for this was a splurge. But the embroidered corduroy was on sale for the same price as regular corduroy, and I made it big enough that she'll be able to enjoy through adulthood. And I hope she will. I keep wishing I had made one for myself. ;) It was also, by far, the quickest of all my sewing projects. I finished it in one night. And note of interest-- I didn't realize that the embroidered corduroy was not as wide as the pink fuzzy material. My mother-in-law Nedra happened to have a darker purple corduroy in her fabric stash that she generously let me use to supplement what I had purchased (she also did this with various other fabrics for other projects I had!). I *love* the way it turned out... it's like I did it on purpose.
I also made Melinda a matching scripture tote. We got her a new Bible and Book of Mormon, and I took the leftover corduroy and some hot-pink knit and made a tote bag to fit them snugly. It was my second time ever making a tote bag, and only the first time without someone to guide me, so the process of figuring out measurements and everything took me quite a while. It was a two-night venture. And the embroidered pocket still ended up lower than I meant it to. Oh, well.
For Jacob, I made a scripture tote as well. He loves it to pieces. The fabric I used was purchased earlier in the year when I spotted it on etsy.com. I fell in love with it (I *adore* the owls and woodland creatures, and color scheme in general!), and knew I would think of something to use it for eventually. I was leaning towards a cuddle blanket, but this works just as nicely. I very nearly finished Jacob's scripture tote in a single night, thanks to figuring out the process and measurements when I had made Melinda's tote. I only wish I had thought to reinforce the handles a bit somehow, as they're flimsy with just a single layer of cotton fabric.
One idea I had for all three kids was to make a set of bombs. Like I've mentioned before, my kids just love watching and playing video games. Jesse's made toys for them before, like foam swords and cardboard/duct-tape shields, and Metroid "guns" out of drink bottles, and they always love pretending with them so much. So one of the games they love to pretend is The Legend of Zelda. It's got a lot of fantasy elements in it, and you often need to use bombs to clear a pathway, etc. in the environment. So I found a pattern for sewing balls, and then we used braided cotton rope to make a "fuse". Nedra had some fabric pigment markers that we colored orange, yellow and red on the ends of the fuse, to make it look like they were lit. Then we also made a bag, since you can't have bombs without a bomb bag! They knew what these were the very instant they opened them up, and have enjoyed playing with them. I only made three bombs, one for each kid, but Jacob wants me to make more so he can keep more in the bag while someone else is playing with them. Also, this is the best picture I got of them, since I forgot to take a picture when I made them.
I ended up having enough time on Christmas Eve to sew a few very last-minute ideas: A Zelda hat for Jacob, and a couple keys like you would find in one of the dungeons in the game. I'm glad I got to do those, as Jacob has been running around in full Zelda gear the last few days: Hat, bomb bag, keys, sword and shield. He keeps telling me that he wants a whole costume, though... But that's more work than I can handle at the moment. I'd like to make him a harness to attach his sword on his back at some point, however.
Alex's handmade gift was quite an undertaking. I thought it would be quick...and it wasn't. I made a Mr. Potato Head completely out of felt and velcro. It's a lot of fun, and I'm glad I made it, but whew, I'm glad it's over!! (It's just one Potato Head, with multiple pieces.)
Detail of the pocket... I made just a basic pocket first, and I could barely fit my hand in it... forget about 16 stuffed pieces!! So I cut it out and added a bigger pleated section that I hand stitched on. Because there was no way I was unstuffing the thing so I could rip out the pocket and sew one on with the machine. Just my luck, the new pleated pocket fits the pieces exactly.
I was also going to make pajamas for all three of them with some fabric that Nedra and my sister-in-law Rachel picked out for me, but I simply ran out of time to even attempt it. Hopefully I'll get to it before winter is over, though. :) Binge-sewing kind of got me looking forward to more projects again. I've been designing a make-up organizer in my head, and I also need to finish up the baby blankets I promised to my sisters before their daughters have their first birthday!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Shocking!!
I have a blog!! Who knew?!
I promise I think about updating almost every day.... but then I don't. I *could* use the "life is busy" excuse, but who am I kidding? I make time to play a few rounds of Bejeweled every day, and update my Facebook status... yet I don't stop over here to write a few words about my day. Or my week. Or apparently even my month. I just haven't been able to commit the energy to put my thoughts into so many words, I guess.
Anyway. I obviously don't have quite enough free time to sit down and really blog about my last month or two or three. Even though I want to. I want to share all the pictures and videos from Jacob's birthday two whole months ago. All the fun photos from the last-minute summertime things we did before Melinda started school. All the details about how very much Melinda's enjoying Kindergarten. All the leaps and bounds Alex is making into toddlerhood. But those will all have to wait.
For now, I'll fill you in on the life-changing details that you may not be aware of if you don't keep up with me otherwise. Since Jesse lost his job last month, and our apartment lease ends on October 31st, we need a place to live. We still have our condo back in Louisville, Colorado, and our renters' lease was up on October 1st. Since Jesse wants to work in Colorado ideally, and we'd honestly both love to settle there with our family, it makes sense to go ahead and go back. So that's what we're doing.
On October 27th, just over a week from today, we'll be getting a moving truck through ABF, and packing it up. We've been slowly packing our things in boxes over the last month (and boxes + kids make the best entertainment ever!!), but we'll really crack down hard for the rest of the week, beginning the fun of living out of suitcases while we pack away everything we don't absolutely need. Our goal is to be on the road by the 28th, maybe the 29th, depending on how long it takes to clean up after ourselves. ABF drives the moving truck for us... we just have to get ourselves there. It's a 26 hour drive, if you ask Google Maps (by way of I-70), and we're thinking of trying to make it in two days. The longest road trip we've taken with the kids was about 9 hours, and they did great for that... but who knows how they'll tolerate a 14+ hour drive. We'd love to get at least as far as St. Louis, Missouri on the first day, but really, our plan is to go as far as we can, till we can't stand it anymore. We just want to get the drive over with, save a few bucks on less hotel nights, etc. And, if we have a reeeeeally long first day, if we need to take 2 more days, at least they will both feel nice and short by comparison.
I've been trying to get rid of a lot of things in preparation for our move, but apparently nobody wants my stuff. ;) I took all the baby clothes out of the closet, sorted them, washed them, and took them to a consignment store across the street. They only took about 1/3 of those clothes, because they have ridiculously high standards. I tried listing a bunch of stuff on Craigslist, too, but only got one bite. Thankfully, that was on my biggest bunch of clothes, and I got myself $40 out of it, but I really wanted to get rid of it all. And I will, one way or another. If nobody wants to buy them, they're going to be given away for free. I'm not hauling them halfway across the country to store in a condo almost half the size of where we currently live. I'm keeping the boys 2T clothes for Alex to grow into, but everything else is going. And someday, when we have another child, I'll have tons of fun getting new clothes! Hopefully it will be a bunch of baby girl clothes, because seriously -- getting rid of the baby girl clothes is breaking my heart in strange, nonsensical, unreasonable ways. I'm not a girly girl, I didn't dress Melinda like a girly girl, but oh, I love those adorable little outfits.
I've also been trying to get rid of a few toys and pieces of furniture with varying success. Since we won't have a playroom, the toys will belong in the kid's bedroom. Maybe a few of them will be allowed in our living room, but I've rather grown to like having the toys stored out of my living space at the end of the day. And I won't be taking my desk with me. It's too big and bulky, and starting to look really shoddy anyway. All that lovely top-quality veneer has been peeling off. So we'll take Jesse's desk, which will disassemble nicely for moving, and we'll come up with some creative way to have both of our computers in the living room, somehow.
We also just passed on Alex's high chair. He's apparently such a big boy these days that he's been in love with sitting on a grown-up chair. Well, standing more than sitting. The first time I let him sit at the table at an adult chair, I gave him a shoebox to sit on. He LOVED it. Every time he went to the table after that, for the next week at least, if the box wasn't sitting there waiting for him, he looked around for it expectantly with an audible harrumph. Because he is so entitled to sitting like a big boy at the table! At least, he thinks he is. ;)
Anyway, bottom line is that we're getting ready to go. We've been saying our goodbyes, prepping ourselves emotionally as well as physically, and we've got all of one weekend left in Maryland. It will be incredibly sad to leave the good friends we've made here. It will be hard to say goodbye to the place I gave birth to all three of my children. But... we've missed Colorado so much. We've been aching to go back. Now we're actually going! It would be lovely if it were on a more positive note, but we're confident that the employment piece of the puzzle will work itself out with time. I know we're following the path the Lord wants us to take. And while we wait to figure out the how and why of it all, we'll very much enjoy living close to relatives - Grandma and Grandpa Newson, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Ben and Aunt Brea - and being in our old stomping grounds. Plus, the weather these days is practically chasing me away from Maryland. It's been rainy, gray, and cold for almost 4 straight days. And here I thought I got away from Seattle years ago!! Granted, the autumn colors are just starting to show all their glory... but I need the sun. NEED IT! Doesn't matter if it's cold or hot, just give me anything but gray. All gray does is make sad things even sadder. And saying goodbye to your home and friends from the last six years is sad enough.
In the meantime, please do keep us in your prayers. I'm sure it won't be a perfectly smooth transition (Melinda's already completely up in arms about having to switch to half-day Kindergarten once we get to Colorado), and we're very concerned about the van's ability to make the trip. It's been giving us so much trouble the last several months. Jesse keeps saying we may need angels to carry it... or that we'll get all the way to his parent's house (where we'll be staying until our things arrive with the ABF truck), and the van will just heave and fall to pieces as soon as we're in their driveway. The good news is that we'll be able to walk pretty much anywhere we need to go, from our condo. But, please keep our safety and sanity in your prayers- we'd appreciate it so much. Being stranded in the middle of Kansas because of car troubles, with 3 kids in tow, in late October, is not a trial I would like to experience.
I probably won't make any other updates until after we're in Colorado, and probably not until after we're at least mostly settled. Adventure awaits us! May we greet it with happy hearts.
I promise I think about updating almost every day.... but then I don't. I *could* use the "life is busy" excuse, but who am I kidding? I make time to play a few rounds of Bejeweled every day, and update my Facebook status... yet I don't stop over here to write a few words about my day. Or my week. Or apparently even my month. I just haven't been able to commit the energy to put my thoughts into so many words, I guess.
Anyway. I obviously don't have quite enough free time to sit down and really blog about my last month or two or three. Even though I want to. I want to share all the pictures and videos from Jacob's birthday two whole months ago. All the fun photos from the last-minute summertime things we did before Melinda started school. All the details about how very much Melinda's enjoying Kindergarten. All the leaps and bounds Alex is making into toddlerhood. But those will all have to wait.
For now, I'll fill you in on the life-changing details that you may not be aware of if you don't keep up with me otherwise. Since Jesse lost his job last month, and our apartment lease ends on October 31st, we need a place to live. We still have our condo back in Louisville, Colorado, and our renters' lease was up on October 1st. Since Jesse wants to work in Colorado ideally, and we'd honestly both love to settle there with our family, it makes sense to go ahead and go back. So that's what we're doing.
On October 27th, just over a week from today, we'll be getting a moving truck through ABF, and packing it up. We've been slowly packing our things in boxes over the last month (and boxes + kids make the best entertainment ever!!), but we'll really crack down hard for the rest of the week, beginning the fun of living out of suitcases while we pack away everything we don't absolutely need. Our goal is to be on the road by the 28th, maybe the 29th, depending on how long it takes to clean up after ourselves. ABF drives the moving truck for us... we just have to get ourselves there. It's a 26 hour drive, if you ask Google Maps (by way of I-70), and we're thinking of trying to make it in two days. The longest road trip we've taken with the kids was about 9 hours, and they did great for that... but who knows how they'll tolerate a 14+ hour drive. We'd love to get at least as far as St. Louis, Missouri on the first day, but really, our plan is to go as far as we can, till we can't stand it anymore. We just want to get the drive over with, save a few bucks on less hotel nights, etc. And, if we have a reeeeeally long first day, if we need to take 2 more days, at least they will both feel nice and short by comparison.
I've been trying to get rid of a lot of things in preparation for our move, but apparently nobody wants my stuff. ;) I took all the baby clothes out of the closet, sorted them, washed them, and took them to a consignment store across the street. They only took about 1/3 of those clothes, because they have ridiculously high standards. I tried listing a bunch of stuff on Craigslist, too, but only got one bite. Thankfully, that was on my biggest bunch of clothes, and I got myself $40 out of it, but I really wanted to get rid of it all. And I will, one way or another. If nobody wants to buy them, they're going to be given away for free. I'm not hauling them halfway across the country to store in a condo almost half the size of where we currently live. I'm keeping the boys 2T clothes for Alex to grow into, but everything else is going. And someday, when we have another child, I'll have tons of fun getting new clothes! Hopefully it will be a bunch of baby girl clothes, because seriously -- getting rid of the baby girl clothes is breaking my heart in strange, nonsensical, unreasonable ways. I'm not a girly girl, I didn't dress Melinda like a girly girl, but oh, I love those adorable little outfits.
I've also been trying to get rid of a few toys and pieces of furniture with varying success. Since we won't have a playroom, the toys will belong in the kid's bedroom. Maybe a few of them will be allowed in our living room, but I've rather grown to like having the toys stored out of my living space at the end of the day. And I won't be taking my desk with me. It's too big and bulky, and starting to look really shoddy anyway. All that lovely top-quality veneer has been peeling off. So we'll take Jesse's desk, which will disassemble nicely for moving, and we'll come up with some creative way to have both of our computers in the living room, somehow.
We also just passed on Alex's high chair. He's apparently such a big boy these days that he's been in love with sitting on a grown-up chair. Well, standing more than sitting. The first time I let him sit at the table at an adult chair, I gave him a shoebox to sit on. He LOVED it. Every time he went to the table after that, for the next week at least, if the box wasn't sitting there waiting for him, he looked around for it expectantly with an audible harrumph. Because he is so entitled to sitting like a big boy at the table! At least, he thinks he is. ;)
Anyway, bottom line is that we're getting ready to go. We've been saying our goodbyes, prepping ourselves emotionally as well as physically, and we've got all of one weekend left in Maryland. It will be incredibly sad to leave the good friends we've made here. It will be hard to say goodbye to the place I gave birth to all three of my children. But... we've missed Colorado so much. We've been aching to go back. Now we're actually going! It would be lovely if it were on a more positive note, but we're confident that the employment piece of the puzzle will work itself out with time. I know we're following the path the Lord wants us to take. And while we wait to figure out the how and why of it all, we'll very much enjoy living close to relatives - Grandma and Grandpa Newson, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Ben and Aunt Brea - and being in our old stomping grounds. Plus, the weather these days is practically chasing me away from Maryland. It's been rainy, gray, and cold for almost 4 straight days. And here I thought I got away from Seattle years ago!! Granted, the autumn colors are just starting to show all their glory... but I need the sun. NEED IT! Doesn't matter if it's cold or hot, just give me anything but gray. All gray does is make sad things even sadder. And saying goodbye to your home and friends from the last six years is sad enough.
In the meantime, please do keep us in your prayers. I'm sure it won't be a perfectly smooth transition (Melinda's already completely up in arms about having to switch to half-day Kindergarten once we get to Colorado), and we're very concerned about the van's ability to make the trip. It's been giving us so much trouble the last several months. Jesse keeps saying we may need angels to carry it... or that we'll get all the way to his parent's house (where we'll be staying until our things arrive with the ABF truck), and the van will just heave and fall to pieces as soon as we're in their driveway. The good news is that we'll be able to walk pretty much anywhere we need to go, from our condo. But, please keep our safety and sanity in your prayers- we'd appreciate it so much. Being stranded in the middle of Kansas because of car troubles, with 3 kids in tow, in late October, is not a trial I would like to experience.
I probably won't make any other updates until after we're in Colorado, and probably not until after we're at least mostly settled. Adventure awaits us! May we greet it with happy hearts.
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