A New Beginning

The truck is packed.

It's "on its way".

We are still in Connecticut.

Our last night, not in our apartment, in a hotel.

Tomorrow, we drive away.

Away from the only place Kolby has known, away from our life for the last three years, away from the familiar.

Our new adventure begins, come along for the ride!

Drew Graduates From Yale

The Dean of Architecture asking the President of Yale to grant the degree of Master of Architecture.


The Dean of SOM asking the President of Yale to grant the degree of Master of Business Administration.


Drew's class from SOM graduating.


Sir Paul McCartney receiving Doctorate of Music.


Cesar Pelli (whom Drew worked in his office) receiving his doctorate of Fine Arts.


Sage drinking water.


Sage and mommy waiting for the diploma ceremony to start.


Sage napping on Nana during the diploma ceremony.


Kolby napping on mommy.


Sage being held by Drew in line for the diploma.


Drew and Sage walking across the stage towards diploma. Kolby was sleeping so he didn't get to walk across with Drew.


Drew receiving his diploma from the SOM Dean.


The Family

The day was long but short. The boys didn't go to the morning ceremony on Old Campus, the 307th graduation of Yale. Our good friends, James and Kim graciously watched them and shuttled me and them around. They went to the diploma ceremony at the School of Management and were invited to walk across the stage with Drew. Sage napped perfectly right before and Kolby conked out right as they started handing out the diplomas, so he stayed with me. I must say, they both behaved wonderfully and made a too long ceremony sitting in the sun enjoyable.

I am so proud of Drew. I don't think I realized how much work and effort it was going to be for him to complete graduate school. In a way, I felt like our whole family should have walked across the stage with him. Drew did a tremendous job of balancing school and family. He went to school in the early morning and was home almost every evening for a family dinner and bedtime. Words can't adequately describe the amount of pride that I have for Drew.

We made it!

I should be packing but this is more fun

This lovely picture is me and Drew in his dorm room at Iowa State. There is something in particular that I want you to notice. Drew's eyebrows.

Here's the story. The summer before this picture was taken, he worked at Mt. Carmel Bible Camp in Alexandria, MN. He used Sun-In. He claims that Sun-In misted down from his hair to his eyebrows. On one occasion, he said that maybe some Sun-In got on a q-tip and onto his eyebrows.

He still gets teased. Mainly by me when we find old pictures. I think his eyebrows stayed this white for the next 3 years.

The Beginning of the End

We have had a few lasts here already. Some of them on purpose, some of them unknowingly. Yesterday, we went to NYC via the train for the last time. We played in Central Park, saw Thumbelina, the worlds smallest horse, ate lunch with some friends who moved from Iowa, and picked up my mothers day gif. It was a great exhausting day.

A week or so ago, we went to the library story time for the last time without realizing it. It was sad as I looked back and didn't even get to tell Miss Mary, thank you for making story time so fun for my boys, we won't be coming back. I thought we would go the next week but circumstances kept us from going.

This morning, we went to our church for the last time. We are excited to find a new church in Houston.

I don't know when Sage played with his Little Tykes firetruck for the last time. We had to sell it. Moving into a town home without a garage and without a yard of our own, we have to get rid of quite a few outdoor toys. Drew had to deliver it Friday night as I put the boys to bed. Sage was so sad. I was so sad for him. We were both crying. He kept telling Drew "You don't have to deliver it!" Sage wasn't asleep when Drew got home and he started telling him again not to deliver it. Drew replied with "I think it is time to get you a bike!" We haven't heard another word of being sad about the firetruck. And no, we have no idea where we will keep the bike, but we will figure it out later.

I think some of the things will be easier if we don't realize they are our last time. We have a park a couple blocks away, the park where both boys learned how to slide, to swing and both love that park still. I don't want to know when the last time we go there will be.

On Saturday, Drew's parents arrive for his graduation, after that, nothing will be the same. We are giving them our room and taking an air mattress in the boys room, his brother will sleep on the couch (if we still have it). Friday night will be the last time we sleep as a family in our little apartment, like we are supposed to be.

I am excited for the new adventure that awaits us, but I am a little sad to be moving too. I haven't written too much here about what a surprise moving to Houston is. I knew we were open to moving anywhere but assumed we were moving to Minneapolis. Close to family. But, we are moving the same distance away, but in the opposite direction. And as we have gotten ready to move, I have realized how much I have liked living in New Haven. It took me awhile, but I like it, I do.

We sang "I Surrender All" for our closing hymn this morning. And I was thinking, I haven't surrendered all. I have held on to many things. My kids, my husband. I don't surrender them. I want to hold them tight and keep them with me always. I haven't surrendered this move. I want to do it myself.

All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain

I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,
I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

Refrain

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

Refrain

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

Refrain

All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!

So, this week, I am going to work on surrendering. All. Because I want to. Because I know life will be easier if I do.

Random and Slightly Boring

I went to the grocery store hungry this morning. I just needed a few things, here was my list:

dishwasher detergent (the main reason for going)
hamburger buns
snacks (for the boys)
sour cream

I know, it is a totally random list. But, it all made sense in my head. I came home with all those items, plus some. Like:

oreo cakesters
chocolate chip cookie dough
ice cream sandwiches
cherry coke

As I write this I am eating an oreo cakester and they were a lot better when I tasted them at Sam's a month or so ago. Bummer.

I did also get some vegetables so I can fix the most perfect bagel sandwich ever. Veggie cream cheese, tomato, cucumber, lettuce and green pepper. I usually get whole wheat but I was in a hurry and grabbed plain, not quite as good, but they will do.

Here is the list of things that I am procrastinating doing while I read blogs and write this:

pack bathroom
pack clothes
make list of things to take in car to stay at house with nothing
pack dining room closet
pack boys closet
pack boys clothes
pack desk

And now, I have made myself feel guilty so I am going to go sort out and pack the bathroom stuff. Right after I...

Add a Week!

This morning I had my last OB visit here. I can't say I am sad. When I was pregnant with Kolby, it was common to wait an hour or two to be seen and I always had Sage with me.

From the ultrasound last week, they moved my due date up a week so now I am 13 weeks! That means, that I am officially, by some books, through my first trimester!

I gained a week of pregnancy and 1.5 lbs. The heartrate was 148, if that means anything to you.

But, now I passed my goal of not wearing maternity clothes until after 12 weeks!

Yesterday

Yesterday was my birthday. 29.

Drew temporarily forgot. Sage reminded him. It sounds worse than it was. I had bought my own present about a month ago so he didn't really have any prep work. And the day before, he was taking his last final from 7 pm - 11 pm and studied all day.

And we were still laying in bed when Sage reminded him. So, to give him the benefit of doubt, I am sure he would have remembered before the day was over, probably pretty quickly after getting out of bed.

The most exciting part of the day was getting an ultrasound. I am 11 weeks along. We even got a 3D ultra sound, a perk of going to a research hospital!




We ended the day with a family dinner to Friendly's and then to the Awana Awards Ceremony where unknowingly to me, I had to hand out the Cubbies awards. I got promoted from helper to teacher in January when the teacher had to take a job and couldn't make it to Cubbies anymore. I was not sad to see Cubbies come to a close. Some nights, I thought, I should have been a preschool teacher but most nights I was thinking how much longer until their parents come?

Looking Forward

Saturday, Drew's first free Saturday, was great.

I slept in! Until 8:30!

I showered, with the door closed!

I went grocery shopping, by myself!

Drew grilled pork chops.

It was a great day.

I look forward to many more Saturdays like that. But, I wonder when they will come. Soon, we need to start packing. And then it will be unpacking and painting. We were talking about what we want to get done realistically in the two weeks that we will have before he starts work in our new house. I said, paint the boys room, our room, living, dining and kitchen. My first priority will be the boys room because I read that will help them adjust better. Then I can slowly unpack, organize and get us settled. While working on organizing the living room/ play room so it doesn't look like a play room. Because right now, our living room is over taken by toys. And it bothers us. There isn't enough toy storage so some of it just sits on the floor and it never really seems "picked up". I know, it is just a time of life.

I am concerned that I don't realize how much work the next month or two is going to be, how stressful it will be on our family to move.

Last time we moved, Sage was just 10 months old and it took me 5 days to unpack the kitchen!

How do we paint major rooms (living, dining and kitchen) in our house with children under foot? These three rooms are all kind of connected. It will be an experience!

We are so excited. Any ideas on paint colors for me? We are going to get a khaki couch. So, no khaki walls, maybe a light chocolate brown?

Plan B

I have been following Audrey Caroline, Bring the Rain since about March. It is written by Angie Smith and at the time I started reading she was pregnant with Audrey Caroline and they knew that Audrey wasn't going to survive outside of Angie's womb, the doctors told them maybe two minutes.

Sweet Audrey was born on April 7. She lived for 2 hours 27 minutes.

There is a video made about their story here. It is about 20 minutes but so worth your time.

The biggest thing that I took away from the video is that God doesn't have a Plan B for your life. You may think you are on Plan B, with whatever it is that you are going through, good, bad or ugly. But, God always knew that you were going to be right there. This might not be the path that you saw your life going or maybe there have been obstacles in your path. But, God knew they would be there. He planned for you to go through them.

Your life is God's Plan A. My life is God's Plan A.

I didn't have the childhood that I would have liked. But, it was God's Plan A. The childhood has led to relationships that look different than I would like them to look. But it is God's Plan A.

And you know what? God's Plan A, is a lot better than my Plan B.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know that plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me wen you seek me with all your heart.

On Fire

Drew usually puts Sage and Kolby to bed. The other night, he read them Clifford, The Firehouse Dog. After the story, Sage was asking a lot of questions about fire and why we want to get out of a fire. Drew explained how fires can hurt us and burn our skin.

Then it came time to pray. Drew was praying, Sage was looking around, not seeming to pay attention, then Drew said "God, I pray that we can be more on fire for you." Sage looks at him, says "No!" and bursts into tears, full sobs.

Try explaining an analogy to a three year old.

The Countdown in ON!

Not for moving.

Drew will be done with studio Thursday.

THURSDAY!!!! Glorious Thursday.

I don't know how to explain my excitement to you. This is the last Saturday that Drew will be gone all day at studio. The last Saturday ever. Next Saturday, he won't go to studio. Amazing.

He has been getting up at about 4 every morning so he can go to studio, today included.

We have been married almost 6 years and every Saturday during the school year, he has been in studio. So, I'm sure he missed some Saturdays, but I don't think this semester, maybe year, he has missed a Saturday.

It is pretty easy to feel sorry for myself on Saturdays. It is easy to feel lonely. Every other husband is home with their family, hanging out, doing chores, maybe going for a walk, but not mine. It is just another day to be home all day alone with the kids.

I'm ready for a normal Saturday.

I have big dreams. Maybe Saturday mornings we can have a big family breakfast, maybe I can do all the grocery shopping on Saturdays,maybe we can walk to a coffee shop and then a park, maybe we can sleep in, maybe we can go to the pool together, maybe... the possibilities are endless!

Most likely, we will be spending time packing before we move, unpacking and painting after. But, it will be together.

The Mall Time Warp

What happens when you walk into a mall? It feels like time stops. And then when you go to leave, time didn't stop, it sped way up!

Take today for example. I had three stops to make. 1) Gap charged me when I tried to return something a couple weeks and I didn't realize it until I got my credit card statement 2) Two year old picture of Kolby at Kiddie Kandids 3) Borders Bookstore to look for the Berenstain Bears Moving Day book.

We got there a little after 11, which was a late start because Kolby had physical therapy this morning. We left at ten minutes to two. What happened?

I was planning on getting Kolby's picture taken first thinking that we would have to wait an hour. He fell asleep right as we got off the exit for the mall and amazingly stayed asleep in the stroller for 45 minutes.

During that time, Sage and I shared pretzel bites and lemonade, looked at a really cute dress that was way overpriced at New York and Company, did the Gap return and found a pair of jeans on sale for Sage for next year. He is also going to wear them this spring because he has exactly 4 pairs of pants that fit him and one pair went MIA. Then we looked at H&M and I was so excited to find a gray linen A-line skirt for $9.90, until I tried it on. Then I was bummed. Kolby woke up! Sage had to go to the bathroom. We went and got Kolby's picture taken. We didn't have to wait for the pictures, it was really fast since he only cooperated for 6 pictures. Then Sage had to go to the bathroom again. (After a lot of prodding from me and telling him he would get a stomache ache and not want to eat lunch unless he did. And while Sage was busy on the toilet, Kolby pressed the Emergency button that calls Security!) Then we decided to eat pizza for lunch. Pizza from Target, not Sbarro. Sage insisted. Then we got the stuff we needed at Target. And then came home.

That paragraph up there apparently took 3 hours.

So I was sitting in the back of a police car...

Wait, maybe I should start at the beginning.

The boys and I were playing out in our back lot (it is a lot, not a yard, there is no grass). Sage was playing baseball, then he was playing soccer, then he was playing that he had to go inside to get his soccer buddies. Kolby was sitting in the fire truck on the porch. At one point, I saw a man walking along the street that is diagonal from our apartment, not unusual, people walk along the street all the time. He was walking by the empty lot. I noticed that he stopped at the entrance of the lot, by the column and kept glancing in our direction.

At first, I thought that he was using the entrance column as his personal urinal. Disgusted, I read a couple more paragraphs in my book. Kolby was starting to walk down the stairs, so I started to help him. Sage was inside gathering his "buddies". All of the sudden, I realized that he was not urinating. He was doing something else with that same part of his body. And I got really disgusted, especially since he kept looking at us. I swooped up Kolby and we went inside. I told Sage that we had to stay inside for a few minutes. And then the passing thought of I should call the police turned into action. Everyone should have the non-emergency police number programmed in your cell phone.

I called, reported that a man was pleasing himself on the street diagonally in the back of our back lot, left my name and number, gave a description and that was that. Civic duty done. Or so I thought.

About an hour later, Drew had come home and taken Sage to play baseball in the grass (he was very excited about playing in the grass, I know my kids are so deprived). I get a call. It is the police, an officer will be out front in a few minutes to pick me up and take me to id the man. Um, okay. I called Drew back since Kolby was home with me. I was confused. Did I just sit in the back of the car and they show me a picture? It ended up that I went for a ride in the police car. They had picked up a man matching my description in the projects, a whopping 4 blocks from my apartment. On the way, I asked, he won't see me, right? Oh, no I was assured.

So, I was sitting in the back of the police car and she parks about 50 feet in front of another police car. She tells me that they are going to get him out of the car and then she will come back to me and I will tell her yea or nay.

It was him.

And he totally saw me. He had to be able to, I mean, I could see him.

Anyway, not the point. They got the creep and apparently, this was the second complaint of this nature for him. The officer told me that he had been going on about his small, well, and how everyone knew it and he always got made fun of for it in prison and so on.

Civic duty done.

I didn't think quick on my feet trying to explain to Sage what was wrong and why I had to call the police. After I tried my best to explain, he burst into tears and I said "I'm sorry he scared you." And he said, "He didn't scare me, you did!"

The things I'll do to protect my kids.

Later, Drew said, why didn't you just tell him he was breaking the law? Right, wish I had thought of that!

After that, I wasn't so sad that we will be moving.

You Could Win A Thousand Dollars!

How? Shannon is hosting a haiku writing contest about your mom. CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS!

Here is mine.

Taking care of me
A full time job for no fee
Oh the joy and glee


As you can see, I am clearly going to win with that little bit of wit, but I think you should enter too. You have to enter before 8 pm tonight. It looks like you can enter as many as you want! I might have to go write more...

(Go Brad! Enter under Al's blog or as yourself, whatever. I know you want to.)

We're Almost Homeowners

Almost. We overnighted the papers and large check today.

It took us twice with the notary to get the documents right. The first try, they were printed two sided and before sending, we checked if that was okay. It wasn't.

So, it took us an hour and a half to go through 84 pages of paperwork, twice.

Did I mention the boys were with us?

Running around?

And the milk and eggs were in the trunk of the car for about 3 hours?

Not the most fun day.

But, by tomorrow, we should be the proud owners of our townhome.

The Setting:


The Townhome:


I'm already dreaming about paint colors and how to decorate bathrooms!

From the Mind of a 3.5 Year Old

Sage really likes to take books to bed and he really likes to use a flashlight to read them. Last night, he was looking for a flashlight, found one and then realized that it didn't work. Drew said "It has no batteries." Sage then asked if we could get yes batteries.

*******

The other night after dinner, we were talking about what Sage wants to be when he grows up. I said, maybe you can be an OB/GYN and deliver babies. And he responded enthusiastically. I kind of giggled and said maybe you should be in the delivery room with mom. And he said "And then I will say, I will go get my mail truck!" It took us a minute to realize that when we were saying deliver the baby, he was equating it with delivering mail! If only delivering babies was as easy as delivering the mail.

*******

Sage got some new sunglasses the other day, little aviator glasses. He was wearing them around the house saying "I am rock and roll!" If only he hadn't lost them the same day we got them, I would show you a picture.

Kolby's Big Bed

\
Apparently, he prefers the floor!

Also, I am entering these into a contest over at 4tunate. All you have to do is dump your camera and email her your favorite pic that you snapped! And, since they are so cute, I posted them here too.

The Flash Comeback

The year, 1989

The event, Awana Pinewood Derby Race

The winner, Flash - my car


(Flash is the red car on the far left, the red track.)


The year, 2008

The event, Awana Pinewood Derby Race

The winner, a Cubbie named Joy with a Doc Hudson car


(Sage setting up Flash for one of his four big races)

The Rundown:

Race 1- Flash crushes the competition, mom smells victory!

Race 2- Flash comes in second by a bit, mom settles down

Race 3- Flash races on the far right track and flies off! Sage reminisces later saying it was like The King crashing in Cars. I agreed except that the Flash didn't actually cross the finish line, mom feels slightly cheated thinking the lady that was supposed to help set up the cars, jipped us, mom smells conspiracy.

Race 4- Flash barely takes second, like good thing there was a machine to make the call or mom might have protested. The dad of the little girl's car who won that race actually pumped his fist in the air and shouted "Yes!" (His daughters car took third, cheater)

But man, let's remember that Flash is nineteen years old! I'm thinking in six years when he turns 25, I will register him as a classic.

Thanks mom for boxing up Flash with his original trophy.

We were pretty excited to open that box an hour before heading to the Pinewood Derby and I think it was God watching out for a certain little boy who had a blast and told everybody that he won! (all the Cubbies got a prize for participating, so in his mind, he won!)

He's A Growin

Kolby.

At his two year appointment, he is 35 inches tall, and weighs 35 lbs. That put him in the 50 - 75th percentile for height and off the charts for weight. As in, not chartable. As in, weighs more than 100 percent of other two year olds. And do you know what his pediatrician said?! "He is so trim now!" That was before he knocked her over while giving her a hug.

I noticed it was getting increasingly difficult to shove his foot into his size 6 Extra Wide shoe. Finally, today we made it to the mall with the sole purpose of getting Kolby shoes. Size 8.5 Wide. Sole purpose, get it!



Notice a difference? The gray one is the new shoe. Why yes, that is black sharpie marker on my table and no, magic eraser didn't work.

And because Stride Rite had a buy one get one half off sale, the cutest green crocs complete with a football thingy. (What do you call those?) Actually, I fully intended to buy him the crocs too, I just settled on green because of the sale.

Helping

cheese pizza, yum!