All Moved In

Well, we're here!!! We finally got internet, but since we're so busy unpacking still, I haven't had a chance to update you all. Things went surprisingly well with the move, and we were actually down here earlier than planned. We loaded the truck in an hour and with a lot of help, had the truck unloaded in 20 minutes. You read that right, TWENTY MINUTES!!!!!! :) Amazing. Now the big task is getting everything unpacked and in their proper places.

We discovered something I didn't know about the house, and something I'm way too excited about. I have... and brace yourselves for this... an automatic garage door opener, with a garage I can drive into. Do you know how awesome this is? Really, do you!??! I'm way too pumped about it, and probably need to bring down the excitement one or two notches. Other than that, everything still has exceeded our expectations. We've had dinner with my folks a few nights already, Forrest's parents are coming down tonight, and his dad tomorrow night... So things couldn't be better. Well, they would if I came across a box labled "Friends from VA".

Well, back to the unpacking!!!

I'll update later with pictures!!

Friends

Last night, I had dinner with Beth and Sarah. Shepherd joined us, as Forrest had to work late (poor guy is so stressed out at work, not to mention trying to get the house packed up at night). Anyways... we met for dinner and had a great time talking and laughing, and mainly watching Shepherd spaz out because it was way past his bedtime. At the end of the night, we said our goodbyes, discussing ways to get together. We hung around outside until it was obvious we needed to go . I turned and as I walked away I cried.

You never think you're going to meet such wonderful people online. I've always had the opposite experience. I used to meet guys online and date them. They always ended up being such jerks and so I grew weary of meeting people online. But I got over that, and I'm so glad I did. I've never had friends who would dare to be as honest with you as these two are. to say in the same breath, "I'm so happy for you, but so pissed off that you're leaving." I guess some people would be hurt by that, but it meant so much to me. Because I totally understand that feeling. I'm so happy to be moving home, but so pissed off to leave my friends behind. It's that honesty that makes me love these two.

Anyways, I really didn't want this to turn into some glorious lovefest about my friends, but maybe somehow this will encourage someone out there to take a step to meet someone. To open up and let go of their reservations to make new friends. Too many women out there never step food foot (thanks for the catch, Justin) out of their homes to meet new friends. They spend their lives alone (save for the company of their children, husbands and family) and never experience the true joy that comes with friendships. I know, because I've been there. I've stayed home, holed away, afraid of putting myself out there for fear of being hurt, slowly growing more and more alone. I'm so grateful for the friends I have now, and know that I don't have to go through this motherhood thing alone. So, to my friends.... Thank you. :)

Lost and Found

They found Michael Auberry. Being from the triad area, my heart and prayers have been with his family and with him the last few days, and it's wonderful to have such a positive outcome to this story.

Crazy Busy

Well, things around here have slowly deteriorated into chaos what with the packing for the impending move and all. Our house is in shambles, and my internet connection dies tonight. Yes... I will be without the net as of 11:59pm tonight... unless I can find a connection to bootleg with our wireless card. Either that or I just have a new excuse to go to Panera.

Shepherd's been sick this past week too, which explains a lot of the previous entry, what with the lack of sleeping and the general fussiness. The worst part is that it doesn't seem to be getting any better, so we're back off to the doctor's office this morning. Then it's back to the chaos of packing and trying desperately to finish the laundry so we can pack it all up....

Daylights Savings: Just another scheme to drive mothers nuts

I type this sitting in my car in front of Panera bread, totally ripping from their free internet. Why am I sitting here? Because Shepherd refused his nap for the third day in a row, and in an effort to maintain my sanity, I put him in the car, grabbed my laptop, and drove around until he fell asleep. Right now, I have his favorite song on repeat, and he's zonked out in the backseat. For three days, I've not gotten a chance to nap, as I usually do. For you pregnant women out there, you know how nutty this can drive you. Not only has his nap schedule screwed up, but he's now wanting to wake up at the ungodly hour of 6 am (he was sleeping until 7 am before the time change) (so, technically speaking, he's now waking up at 5 am) (I'm so screwed).

I've read all of Moxie's posts on Daylight Savings and kids, and honestly, I'm so turned around. I figured at first I'd try the whole, he doesn't know the time has changed, he'll go down at 8, wake up at 8 (he was going 7 to 7) and all will be fine. The only problem is he now wants to go down at 7 still (6 pm before the time change) and wakes up an hour earlier. So he's sleeping less at night, and he's sleeping less during the day. The part that really sucks about all of this is that he's also trasitioning from two naps a day to one. He kicked his third nap to the curb a month ago with no trouble. I figured he'd do the same with this one, but obviously it's more of a problem than I'd thought.

I guess I should add that our lives are total chaos right now too, with boxes everywhere, and things thrown hither and yonder as we sort and pack. I'm trying not to let it get to me, so I can't imagine how it's affecting him. I'm sure he's confused as to what's going on, but there's no way for me to explain to a 12 month old that we're moving and things will resume to their normal state in a few weeks. Oh well...

At least with the time that he's not napping he's a totally cutie pie, learning so much, so fast. Today he spent 15 minutes sitting in my lap, playing with my face. I started teaching him the names for the parts, like nose, mouth, and eye, pointing out his as well. After a while, I asked him where his nose was, and he pointed to his nose, and said "nuh". So smart!! It's alarming how fast he learns these things. Over the weekend, we taught him how to sign "bunny rabbit" and he loves pointing to the bunny on the cover of one of his books, then signing his sign. Too cute!! :) So I guess I should take the good and leave the bad. Although it would be great to get a nap every now and then.....

The Dichotomy of Leaving

I've started this post 3 or 4 times, and never can come up with the right words. The past several weeks have been insane, and all the things I wanted to blog about, I haven't been able to. You see, we've been in the process of looking for jobs in North Carolina. Once we found out that I was expecting in September, we realized quickly that we needed to move. We can hardly afford living in Northern Virginia with one child, much less two. Not only that, but Shepherd is getting older, and we really want him to know his grandparents. Being so far away has limited his time with them, so moving closer to home would be a huge blessing.

We started the process fully aware that it might take some time for Forrest to secure a good job. We didn't want him to take just anything, it had to be great. The first few places he contacted weren't hiring, but were extremely excited about him being back in the area (read: Forrest ROCKS at what he does and people were WISHING they could hire him) (he's going to kill me for that comment). Anyways... Forrest heard through a friend that a firm near our families was hiring. He contacted them, and immediately they set up an interview. He loved the place, he loved the place, and they made him an offer. We hemmed and hawed for about a week, trying to decide what to do. Was this the place for us? Was this it? And finally, decided that this was it. That he'd take the job and we'd move.

I told some friends that I was surprised by my initial reaction. I was excited to be closer to home, to be in North Carolina again, where the pace of life is much, much slower, where my kids will know their grandparents, and where rent was WAYYYY more affordable. Yet at the same time, I was sort of bummed to leave some dear friends that I've met, and grown close to, especially in the past few months. I know these types of friends are hard to come by, and these two are one in a million. There are many other friends we've made in the past 6 months, and they will be hard to leave as well. So in lieu of singing the Hallellujah chorus 2 octaves higher than necessary, I found myself torn between these two emotions. I love my friends, yet I hate living here. I'm excited about moving home, yet terrified I won't make new friends like the ones I have. I've offered to pack my friends up in a box and move them with me, but they objected with some excuse about having a family to take care of, or something lame like that. :)

So anyways, I guess this is all to say that we're excited about moving. When I think about the house we're going to live in (yes, we already found a house to rent!) (a real live house) (with a back yard) (and a garage) (at 25% less than we're paying for our current 2 bedroom hole in the wall) I get really excited. I can't wait to have a place to let Shepherd run around. I can't wait to be close to my mom and dad. To be close to my in-laws. To be somewhere familiar again. To be home.......

Yes, this is our real live house.... I can't wait

Busy Bees

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, and thank you for all your suggestions for things to do. Liza suggested some DC stuff... which normally I'm game for. Only thing is I live a good 30 minutes from the District. However, on Tuesday, I didn't let that stop me, and Shepherd and I spent the afternoon at the National Zoo. All in all it was a great afternoon. Shepherd loved most of the animals with a few exceptions. T

he toucans were fascinating at first, but when they started flying around, they spooked Shepherd a little. Then the otters put on a show for us by swimming back and forth, swimming directly at the glass. It did look as though they could come through the glass and tickle Shepherd to death (Otters are so dadgum cute!), but I guess from his perspective they looked as though they could eat him. Finally, the Tiger was a huge hit..at first. The poor guy was starving and pacing back and forth in front of the door where I guess they feed him. After a few minutes, he let out a huge roar, which scared Shepherd to death. Shepherd started screaming, and I started walking quickly away. Some idiot thought it was hilarious, and egged the tiger on by roaring back. They roared like that until I was out of sight, but mind you, had Forrest been there to walk Shepherd away, I probably would have had words with the idiot. What kind of jerk thinks it's funny to scare a baby??? Moving on... Our favorite part was the sloth bears and the fishing cat, to which Shepherd repeatedly said, "tat! tat! tat!"

Needless to say, he was worn slap out that night (I was too for that matter). Then yesterday, we went to our bi-weekly MOPS meeting at church, where he had a blast running around with all the other little munchkins his age, and I had a blast eating breakfast on my own without little man while visiting with other grown ups. Today, was Gymboree, which Shepherd TOTALLY LOVES. It was his birthday gift from everyone... and he totally made use of his time. I'm guessing I'll get a good nap out of him this afternoon.

Anyways... that's what we've been up to lately, and I'm sure one of these days I'll post something a lot less boring, but I thought I'd bring folks up to date.