LarkExaltation

Yeah Okay, it’s nine weeks and three days early but I’m SO excited about this! A month or so ago a friend and I were talking about going to the beach. Samuel has been begging (as much as a four year old can remember to beg about something he’s never done before) to go but my only problem was trying to find a time when PD would be out of school and not working. I finally decided on labor day weekend, birthday weekend. He said it shouldn’t be any trouble for him to take off, and I don’t think the world will end if my kindergartner misses a Friday. I think he only missed two days of school last year, and only one of those was for being sick. I don’t imagine this year will be much different.

So I’m taking my sweet little family to Gulf Shores! Why am I so very excited you may ask? I’m the normal amount of excited for the trip itself, but yesterday after I booked the house (really a side of a duplex) the company who rents out the properties called me and said that the house would not be one of their properties come mid August and asked if I wanted to cancel or find another place. I wasn’t quite grasping the thought of not getting to stay there yet. “so… what does this mean to me? you’re saying i can’t stay there?” and he said that he wouldn’t want to risk it with the other company taking the property. Yesterday I took this as someone else renting it, but this morning I think he just wanted to keep the business. I asked him if they had anything comparable, that I was looking for something as close to the beach as possible. He showed another to me. A little more expensive per night, so he first thought to give me a free night to make up for the cost, but then after he realized it was only for the weekend he decided to give it to me for the same price as the other. I’m so excited, the whole house to ourselves! right across the street from the beach! I can hardly wait!

I’ve been using a lot of exclamation points lately! hehe!

and in my email this morning… Lands’ End beach towels on sale! hehe it’s like they can read my mind.

I think this is going to be something that we do every summer.

I’ve been sleeping like the dead lately. I have no doubt it has much to do with the move last week. Most evenings I can’t even pull myself to organize a room. The good part about it all is that the kids have been sleeping well too. On occasion Sam will get up asking for water, or Libby is frustrated because she can’t find her paci, but over all we’ve been getting good rest.

Miss Libby turned 18 months old yesterday and the only picture I got was her with an ice cream covered face. (pic to come, i can’t find my card reader) We went to dinner with some friends and walked around the mall a bit. Mike got a great shirt with Fezzik from The Princess Bride on it that says “Anybody Want A Peanut?” I tried my best to find a picture of it but I’ve had no luck. I may just take a picture of it. It’s great! We sat around thinking of all the other shirts that could come from that movie. And this morning when Mike and I got to work, we found most of them online. Yeah, I know, but it was early, we had the whole rest of the day for serious work. Ya know, like now!

I had an appointment yesterday that was a little freaky. I’m 17 weeks along and I truly expected to get a recording of the heartbeat to post here. The doctor couldn’t find it. At seven and ten weeks when this happened with Samuel and Libby I kind of expected it, but being almost halfway though this, lets just say I was surprised and a little concerned. The little stinker was hiding from the doppler. The doctor thought he could hear the baby swooshing around, but we just couldn’t get to the angle for the heart. So he ordered a quick ultrasound to check it out. I had about a ten or fifteen minute wait because the girl was backed up in her work, but once I got in there I convinced her to check and see if she could determine the sex. The bambino is still turned the “wrong” direction for it, so we’ll have to wait until July and my next appointment when we plan to do another ultrasound for measurements and to see what we’re having. Maybe I can find a way to transfer our video tape to digital. I keep saying I’m 48% sure that I saw girl, but that doesn’t mean I’m thinking 52% boy, that just means I’m 52% unsure.

only time will tell.

as of 1030ish last night.

well… we’ve moved. across the hall. and probably the hardest move we’ve ever done. we had a few major setbacks, but this morning i turned in the keys, the carpets were cleaned and judging by the look of the budget truck sitting outside, the ladies moving into our apartment got there just after the carpet dried. i’m not as sore as i thought i would be, but PD assures me i will be tomorrow. he did such an amazing job! in three hours yesterday he managed to move all of the furniture, with the exception of the couch and entertainment center, by his self. i swear the man is superman! i love him so much. we also couldn’t have done it without the help of amazing friends and family. i’m so grateful for them all. the kids seem to be adjusted well, no major meltdowns. this morning samuel woke up in his bed in his new room and said “what? i’m in the next one!” i just smiled. their room is a bit smaller, but they also have too many toys and clothes. so we’ll probably make a goodwill run this weekend. seriously, how many pair of pants/jeans does a four year old need? not that i don’t appreciate the fact that he has surplus. we’ve been given almost everything since he was born. my boy has been well taken care of. which is a good thing, because i think having a girl is going to be a tad more expensive.

right now the baby’s room is a “catch all” and i’m really looking forward to getting it straightened out and ready. i’m not quite to the halfway mark, but as much as i can get done early the better. and it will make a nice play room until the baby does get here.

i have a confession to make….

for the past five months we’ve been mooching off of someone’s unlocked wireless internet. well since we’ve moved we have no connection, so i had to break down and order dsl. the hubby is happy!

next adventure, buying a bigger vehicle.

There are NO boxes in the area free for the picking. I’m lucky to have had some family move recently and are willing to save what they have for me. I really don’t think I’ll do much “packing” for a move across the hall. I feel so unprepared, but how much can you really do for, putting things in a box, walking them over, putting them where they go? I hope to have most of it done before the guys come to move the furniture. Then all I would have to do the next morning is clean before the carpet guy gets there. I did send PD for some new laundry baskets to help with the “packing”, we were needing them anyway, so it’s not ONLY for the move.

Saturday after a good bit of organizing we took the kids out to Nana’s house and blew up their Jump-O-Lene and filled it with a little water to let them splash around. It took a couple of slips for Libby to get her sea legs, but she started splashing around like her big brother.

Sam pretending to be Mongo (the big gingerbread man from Shrek 2) falling in the moat saying “Beeee Gooooood”

(i have no doubt she’s trying to tickle his bare belly)

Libby hamming it up for the camera “Eeeeee!” (her version of Cheese!)

Yesterday we took the kids swimming. It was so very bright, and hot! And now Libby is very brown. We slathered both kids with SPF 50, and we weren’t out that long. She’s going to be so dark by the end of the summer. Everyone was exhausted after. We all had a good nap once we got settled down. Then the rain came, and that didn’t make us any more interested in getting up and around. I think Libby’s nap was even a three hour one. I managed to get a few more things organized before I finally laid down.

We finally got Libby to start closing her eyes for prayers. At the dinner table we hold hands, and so now any time I say “now lets say prayers” she grabs my hand. We added in “now close your eyes” (something we haven’t really had to think about because Sam’s been doing it since before Libby was born) and she closes them very tight and turns her head away. It makes me think of a little ostrich. She’s too cute.

Today is the first day of VBS at our church. Sam is entering Kindergarten next year so he is able to attend, yay! I know he’s going to have so much fun. I wish I could be there with him. I pick him up at noon, and take him to daycare. I know he’s going to want to stay with his cousins and Aunt Andrea, but it’s just the way it has to be.

This morning, leaving Andrea’s house, I noticed a little nest in the corner of her carport. Five little baby birds! She told me that when she took a picture of them, the flash made all five stick their little heads up. So I had to try. I couldn’t get any more than two. This was the best shot. I’ll try again later this week to get a better angle.

(an exclamation stolen from a brother of a friend)

This has been the most hectic chain of events and the most perfectly laid out plan. It has been totally God sent.

So my mom and every other fifth person has told me that we’re going to need to find a bigger place to live. Tuesday evening after work, a day I had spent hours trying to figure out what exactly we’re going to do and when, as I do not want to move with a newborn, I get home from work, and our neighbors across the hall are moving out of the, get this, three bedroom apartment! I knew instantly that it HAD to work out. I started going down the list; we wouldn’t have to rent a truck, we wouldn’t have to hire piano movers, we wouldn’t have to seriously pack, it gives me an opportunity to clean out the kids room, it’s sooner than later and one less thing I have to worry about. The next morning I call our apartment manager and say hey this is our situation but I have a great idea, we can move into this one across the hall since they’re moving out. She was dumbfounded. Had no idea they were moving. But, it has all worked out. It will be move in ready at noon on the sixth and we’ll have our carpets cleaned for the new tenants on the seventh! Yes folks that’s right! She already has someone moving into ours! There is no way this can not work out. I’m excited and scared and stressed and motivated. I’ll be able to get the baby’s room ready and we’ll have more closets!

More to come…