Dear House

Dear House, Its true that our time together has run its course and soon we will be parting ways. The therapist in me needs some good closure to our relationship to end it in the spirit in which we have enjoyed our time together. So I thought I'd share some goodbye thoughts with you.

You were a great starter house for us and the memories we've shared together are some of my most cherished. I finally felt like an official grown up when we first met and now I'm a mom and am into my 30s as we say goodbye. 

You were a welcomed sight at the end of those days during that challenging first year out of grad school.    When I was first working with children and adults victimized and hurt often in their own homes, I would crawl into bed and be thankful for the safety and security I felt with you and deeply wanted all people to have place that they could call a real home; a place to find comfort and replenishment from the wear and tear of the world we live in.

You were the site of countless friend gatherings, enjoying new year celebrations, wedding showers, birthday parties and just for no special reason get together's as well.  You saw us through some of our most joyful times of bringing home our first family dog, the rasacal of a puppy, Rory:

Once we passed the puppy test we decided it was time for the real deal. You were the setting the night we found out we were expecting our Ava bear! You were where we brought her home too that first day and where she continued to grow through her first 18 months. You were there through the sleepless nights and first steps. Her laughter and first words echoed on your walls.  You were also the just perfect place to celebrate her one and only first birthday party.

So dear house you will always have a special place in the life of this family for all those reasons and more. You see you were more than our house you were our home. You were just right for just the right time for us. No matter what stress we faced or bad days we had we could count on you to be here at the end of each day to wrap us in your comfort and security (and when needed you also could be counted on for an amazing bubble bath!). I will remember you fondly and even though the new house is bigger, newer and nicer - I have to confess there is part of me that will miss you! Good-bye house, thank you for the blessing you've been to this family. 

Sugar Sugar

I enjoyed a day off with Ava last week and we made some from scratch Sugar Cookies with icing for a baby shower we were having at work the next pay. These turned out great! Ava calls them "cake" and requests them frequently this week as I kept some aside for her and Ryan. We found the recipes online and they did not disappoint! I like the all recipes site because you can change the quantity of cookies you want to make and it will adjust the ingredient amounts for you! The cookies turned out thick and soft and the icing dried to a wonderful sweet, shiny hard topping. Printed out both of these for my cooking binder. 

cookie link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/detail.aspx

icing link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sugar-cookie-icing/detail.aspx

well I think it's going to happen!

Now that we are through most of the inspections, I think it's going to happen. We put an offer in a post-foreclosure home and looks like soon it will be ours! I am posting a video tour of the down stairs mainly for my family out of town who would like to see it. It is very hard to not get emotional about these things when your thinking this is what I want my forever home to be, the one our children will build life long memories, where we will post heights on door posts, celebrate holidays, and birthdays and Lord willing where we will bring more babies home too....but I tried to hold off  too much of that until we were through the inspections. So now I am just really thrilled that it looks like its all going to work out. It will be hard to leave this home but I'm glad we won't be saying good bye forever as we will keep this house as a rental property. Expect a pretty sappy dear house post soon, saying goodbye will be bitter sweet (mostly sweet) :0)

Things I'm most excited about for the new house:

• enough rooms that one will solely be a play room that I am so excited to create.
• having a walk-in pantry and a giant walk-in closet in our bedroom.
• all the windows and natural lighting.
• being out of the city more, more of country feel while still not being too far out.
• The beautiful open kitchen and the island.

18 months!

Ava turns 18 months this week! Here's the highlights for this stage...

• She continues to add words each week, some recently are "church" and she tells Rory to "hush", she calls me mostly "mom" now, sometimes still "mamma". So cute when I'm in the other room, she'll call out "mom, mom, mom" as comes and finds me. 
• rocking and shhhhing her babies to sleep is still her favorite pass time, She likes to use Rory's dog bed for her baby bed.
• She might just turn into a banana, she eats 2-3 whole bananas a day. She's showed an interest in strawberries and grilled sweet potatoes are her other current fav. She also loves to put cherrios or teddy grahams in her yogurt when she eats it these days. (see picture at the bottom of this post).
• She now wakes up from naps usually saying "up" instead of crying to let us know she's awake. 
• We shared a first together, we fed giraffe's at our zoo last week. (see top pic).
• She can tell you a wide array of animal noises, although the lion is her favorite, her little growl is pretty cute. 
• She had her first ear infection this month which got her first antibiotic, I paid extra to flavor it strawberry at the drug store, she seemed to like it pretty well, she would often sign more after she got some. 
• Her hair is getting long, trying to hold off cutting it and hoping her bangs will catch up. 
• I catch glimpses of a little girl at times when she's playing on her knees with pig tails in her hair. (see middle pic). 

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

Lately I've been having that feeling. That how to get it all done, my mind continuously plotting, planning and organizing to try manage my time to squeeze it all in feeling. I feel like in that frenzied state, the things that start get cut to "get it all in" are actually the very things I hold most dear like peaceful time with family, quiet time in bible study, real preparation time for the children's bible class I am teaching at church, those unplanned but looked forward to long talks with a friend... I also notice I get snippier and more irritable . I don't feel like over-extending myself helps me in anyway become who I want to be. So upon reflecting on this I've decided to simplify, simplify, simplify. I say this as we are in a stressful but special time of hopefully buying a home and its our busy time at work. For those very reasons its a prime time to get started. So I said "no" a few times last week, re-arranged some things at work and am more thoughtfully considering what to fill my schedule and time with. We enjoyed a slower paced Sunday and Ava and I had a quiet but fun day together today. The slower pace is already extending a calmness that I have missed. I look forward to hanging onto to this and continuing to be more purposeful with my time and energy. 

I thought these pictures from this weekend went well with this theme. Ava fell asleep on a run, reminds me how children of this age are in that blessed place of not planning, plotting or organizing, they are just present in each moment. Relaxed enough when things are calm and quiet to easily drift to sleep...is there anything more calming than watching your child sleep?

I keep telling her a pager is really not as fun as it looks:

Do you find yourself over extended? I feel like as women in this culture its an easy trap to fall into. What are ways you avoid this trap?

Soap not Dope

Well it happened again, I left him home alone, someone came to the door selling something and he bought it. It will surprise most of you that know my fiscally minded husband that this is a recurring phenomenon at our house. Just the other day a lady came to the door who is part of a soap not dope program. At one point in the sales presentation she told Ryan she was pregnant but also took a smoke break later? (He didn't find it odd till after she left that those things shouldn't go together) Ryan says she was an excellent sales person, the right amount of persuasive but not pushy. I have to say I don't really mind. While we have some differing views of giving, Ryan says he prefers to give people money who are trying to do a job rather than those just standing at the street corner. So when someone seemingly down on their luck comes by to sale something he feels compelled to buy it. I have to say this is challenging to many of us who do the opposite (give money when we have it on hand to those asking but hide in our houses when someone rings the door bell). So I think there's room for both these ideas on giving and as usual Ryan challenges me to think about this in a different light. 

Here's the quick shot I got of Ryan (who did not want his picture taken) when I got home and said oh I will be blogging about this and held the bottle up for the appropriate blog worthy photo:

Here's our 40 dollar of purple cleaning magic, suppose to last us a year, we've used it on everything, so far pretty impressed with its versatile cleaning abilities. Supposedly its no toxic, she licked up a bit of it during the presentation to prove it:

Pumpkin Patch

My work had a little party at a local pumpkin patch Friday Night, all kinds of firsts for Ava, she liked some better than others. The weather was awesome and the farm wasn't very crowded since its so early in the season.  

Ava' first pony ride! She got confident enough to even wave at me towards the end. 

We ended the night with a hay ride, close to her bed time. She wasn't so into the ride ended up snuggle up with her head on Ryan's shoulder towards the end.