Change is a Comin'

Today is the calm before the storm. Maybe a hurricane. Not sure how many days of calm left.

This I do know: one week from today, my life as I know it will look like an explosion. An explosion of boxes, junk, things, and stuff here, there, and everywhere.

As organized as I try to be, the facts are these:
1) I own too much stuff (better said: too much stuff owns me)
2) I have 2 days to move all said belongs to another venue.

I've packed up most of the non-essentials. I plan to be living "hotel-like" by the weekend. So today, I'm enjoying life in this house. Nine years of memories stored away here. It's been a good home. A safe home. A home that is still standing despite my lack of knowledge or my lack of time to properly care for it. It was our first "family" home. We walked in with a 3 year old and a 1/2 year old. We walk out with a 12, 10, 7, and almost 5 year olds. Moving in, we had to "child proof" everything. Moving out, we don't need to child proof anymore. Crazy!

I've loved this little cottage. It took 9 years to finally rid this house of blue, but it was accomplished. The previous owner liked blue: bluish gray carpet, blue trim outside, blue bedroom, blue kitchen, blue counter tops, blue bathrooms, etc. Funny thing: I've changed everything to various shades of brown. Guess everyone has their color?

Lots of good memories were made here. Glad I've documented some of them with pictures and scrappybooks. This has become HOME. Remind me why I'm leaving again? (I'm obviously NOT a fan of change, yet the change is a comin'. Buckle your seatbelt, Julie girl, you're headed on a rollercoaster. AND I don't really like rollercoasters.)

You Know you're O-L-D when...

You know you are O-L-D when your oldest turns 12 years old! Seriously, that's a decade plus 2! You can no longer be a "young" mom if your kid is past a decade, because that means you are also a decade plus 2 older! Gulp!

Today my "old" son was ordained a deacon in our church. This means he has new priesthood responsibilities. (If I was "cool" and knew how to do it, I would paste a link to lds.org explaining all about deacons. However, I haven't reached that level of "cool" yet.) It's a big responsibility and a "coming of age" process. I'm very excited for him. I just can't believe he's that old. (And thus, that I am as well!)

It's a Crazy Life, but it's my Life

Wow! What a month! A month ago: we found a house, put an offer on a house (offer was accepted), put our house up for sale, got an offer on our house, had the flu crash through our household, and still maintained our crazy typical life schedule (except for when we quaranteed the house during the "FLU.").

We've definitely been blessed. In fact, in it own painful way, the flu ended up being a blessing in disguise (long story).

Poor Chad, though. He had to celebrate a "Happy Barf-day." We ended up celebrating 4 days later when all of us could look at cake and WANT to eat it. The flu made it easy to diet, but definitely not a recommended diet method. Not fun at all.

Now I have to think about moving all my junk. I'm pretty sure I have TOO MUCH JUNK. We've lived in this house for 9 years. That's a long time to collect junk. No matter how well I've organized the junk. Moving it just proves how much junk owns me. It's not going to be pleasant. Oh well.

Things that needed to be remedied...

I had an interesting conversation with my daughter the other day. (Truly it was a bit horrifying if you know anything about me...). Here is goes:
Girl: Mom, I want Dad to teach me how to use the basket.
Mom: What basket?
Girl: The one in the backyard. Hey, Mom, can girls play basketball?
Mom: Of course!!
Girl: Well, what do girls wear when they play basketball?
Mom: A uniform.
Girl: Like a cheerleading uniform?
Mom: Gasp, choke, gasp!

Clearly, my daughter has seen too many boys basketball games (and never a girls basketball game). How could ME of all people have never show my daughter a girls basketball game? Oh the shame! Guess what got added to the top of my "to do" list?

Puke!

In the last 90 hours, I've seen my share of puke. What we thought was food poisoning for Jason on Friday night has begun to look like a virus. It seems that you feel yucky for about 8 hours (with puke and the big D) and then your done. That's the blessing.

The bad news is that it seems to be contagious. About 41 hours after Jason, Matt suddenly got sick. His was the sweetest smelly puke (he had just eaten sugar cookies and valentines candy). Sorry, probably TMI, but what's a blog for if not to tell-it-like-it-is.

About 30 hours after Matt, Jenna started to puke. Four hours after Jenna, Trevor joined in the fun. That was a LONG, "fun" night. I think I got 3 1/2 hours of sleep.

Needless to say, I kept them home today. No more spreading germs. No more puke. I hope the school appreciates that. (AND I hope we didn't pass it to someone unknowingly when we didn't think it was a virus!) If so, I'm sooooooo sorry.

If You Had Told Me Then...

Hello little long lost blog. Yes, you have been abandoned. In fact, it's just not you. The laptop has been abandoned this week. The children may also be feeling a bit on the back burner.

You see, it appears that we are moving. Why? Well, that's a long story. I started to type it out and realized how late it was. Too late for long stories. Too late for stories that bring the emotions to the surface. It's a good kind of move in that we are choosing to do it (not being forced into it). However, it's a sad kind of move in that we are putting distance between our dear friends, ward family, and neighbors.

It's a decision that has been building for about 3 years. I can now see in retrospect how I was being prepared for this change...especially in the last 6 months. However, it did all fall together quickly in a matter of days. If you had told me a month ago that I would be on THIS path, I would have NEVER believed you.

I've spent the past two weeks getting my cute little cottage ready to sell. I've been granted "working" angels who made this all possible. I cannot even begin to tell you of the generosity and work ethic of my sweet parents. They have spent nearly everyday working on my house. There is no way I would have survived this week without them. What an incredible blessing they have been!

We will finalize more details this week. There is a large path of "unknown" in my way, but I am amazingly feeling peace. (SO unlike me! I'm not particularly fond of unknown paths.)

I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who cannot always remove our obstacles, but can grant us the tools to make it through.

Although I feel good about the move, I still feel pain/sorrow in accepting the "change." So for now, I stock my car with tissues, because that's when the tears seem to surface.

More later...

READYMAN (and WO-man)

 

Good thing Matt and I went to scouts this week.  Good thing I’m the Den Leader, so I HAVE to learn in order to teach.  Good thing we are working on the Readyman Activity Badge.  Our scouting skills were put to good use today.

Matt felt down the stairs (backwards) with a chair (did a few flips on the way).  His head hit the wall.  We have a huge hole in the drywall where his head hit.  He has a nice goose egg to prove it.  His head hit between the baseboard and the window ledge.  On this window, it’s a small space.  It really quite a miracle that his head didn’t hit the window ledge.

So, how does one fall down the stairs with a chair?  Let’s just say his" “fade away jumper” on the nerf hoop (on the outside of his bedroom door) led to a disappearance down the stairs.  The chair was an innocent bystander that was brought along by accident.

We heard the thumps and the screams.  Tompa saw the legs flailing in the air.  I was quickly going into panic mode.  It’s what I do best in these situations (just ask Chad), especially when I saw a heap of my son at the bottom of the stairs.  Matt had hit the panic button before I could.  The wind had been knocked out of him and he was struggling to breathe.  Then, the READYMAN kicked in.  (If you don’t know what Readyman is, then you haven’t been/known a Webelos Scout.)  We had just learned in scouts what to do in an “emergency:”  Be Strong.  Be Calm.  Be Clear.  Be Careful.

I swallowed my panic and engaged my “calm mother voice.”  I reminded Matt of his Readyman skills and he instantly started to calm.  We started to review the steps and he knew what to do…  (Thank you scouting!!).  He calmed, gained his breath back, and we were able to assess the situation.

In the end, I think that kid is one watched over kid.  Two inches in either direction could have ended in a much different result.  The  chair fell beside him instead of under him.   His head hit the drywall instead of the wood ledge.  No blood.  Nothing broken.  His muscles and ligaments will definitely feel it tomorrow.  Tonight, we feel blessed.