Leaving on a jet plane...

Again...

I don't know how folks who travel regularly with work do it! I'm headed out this afternoon to Atlanta for more training for work. (I should be SO well trained by the end of all of this!) and again, I'm SO sad to leave! Leaving my daughter and husband (and doggie) is hard!! Secretly, I should be excited because I will hopefully have a few low key days in a hotel room & training room to relax without all the other responsibilities that come with everyday life at home/work. And I am secretly a little excited...a teeny, tiny bit excited. Because I'm exhausted!!

We moved into our beautiful new house this weekend!!! It has been a whirlwind of a move (even though I didn't "move" anything since I had to work and am pregnant). My mom was SO much help to me I can't thank her enough! My patience was thin all weekend, hers...it was immense! I don't handle moves well. Mostly because I'm a perfectionist. I want it all moved, everything put in it's proper place and I want it to go smoothly and seamlessly. Yep, I know, that's asking a WHOLE lot for a move! How many moves ever go exactly as planned?!? Needless to say, it's not perfect yet...surprise, surprise, right? ;-)

Really, our move went well. I can't say enough about my husband and his ability to just buckle down and do things. He and a few guys moved all of our stuff in just about 1 day. AND without one ounce of complaint. He's SO patient and laid back it kills me! Really, that's where all my stress comes from. I know, it makes NO sense...but it does to me and I'm not going to waste your reading time explaining! :-)

Anyway, credit to my mom and husband! My mom spent all day with me on Saturday and part of the day on Sunday helping us clean and unpack! She's a work horse! and Justin...he's a patient, hard-working man (when he wants to be, of course! - and he was this weekend!).

We did take a few breaks over the weekend to have some fun...not that a new house isn't fun (cause it IS!!! I LOVE OUR NEW HOUSE!!). We headed to some friends house on Saturday night for a crawfish boil and then to Palm Sunday service Sunday morning. Both were a lot of fun and between the 2 days, I've never seen Ruby Belle have such a blast! I'll post more on these when I return!

Either way, the weekend is over, I'm totally exhausted, we're "kinda" unpacked, I'm packed and ready (with my heels in the ground) to head to Atlanta after work today and will return to more unpacking late, late Thursday night. Hopefully, I'll be recharged on Friday morning to get started!

It's (almost) ours!!!

here it is!! our new home!!! well, not yet. we close on April 15th, THEN it's our new home!!! I don't think that day could come any faster :-) we are super stoked about this place! mainly because it's ours, but also because we love it, we feel like we've waiting and played the house bidding game for TOO long (really it wasn't THAT long, but it felt like it), it's in a great neighborhood, and it's going to be just perfect for our little family!! We put offers in 3 different times (on 2 other houses and this one) before we scored on this one! 4th times a charm! the house is not as big as some we looked at and a little more pricey per square foot than some we looked at, but it's NOT a "fixer-upper" like some we looked at either. We like to fix things up and were a little hesitant on this house because there's really nothing to "fix up," but I think in the end it was the best deal. The bonus is that we won't have to fix much up and really that's probably smart considering we have a 1 1/2 yr old and a new baby on the way soon!! Praise God for knowing what's best!!

check out the pics below! The current owners have great taste!

The front. You can't really see it from here, but it's got a pretty good front porch to just hang out on.

The kitchen! I can't wait to hang out here! it's so cute and open!! and it's really inspiring me to start cooking!!! The den. There's also a formal living room, but this will probably get the most use while the kids are young!

The backyard! I love it!! I can't wait to watch our kids play here!!

moving day #2...

We sold our house!!! yippee!!! such a relief! well, really the relief comes Feb 25th when we actually close and the deal is done!

but for now, we have to move! ... the rest of our stuff. we only moved the necessities when we moved to Shreveport so we had to move the rest. and it was a lot. well, it seems like a lot while you're packing and moving, but when you see your life packed into a 22 ft moving van, it does seem a little sad maybe. First though, we had to get through the snow! NWA got 20-24" of snow in various sections of the area just 2 days before we headed up there. I believe the last time they got anywhere close to that much (I think it was 15-18") was back in 1968. crazy stuff!! we only got to see the remnants when we arrived on Friday and here are some pics from Saturday...melting was well underway, but still there was SO much snow!! we got stuck a couple of times, but made it out alive :)

actually the packing went very smoothly....thanks to my wonderful packer of a husband and our amazing friends who helped us get the entire house packed in less than 12 hours (excluding sleeping time!). special thanks to my friends who came over to help me with the final packing and Justin with the moving since i'm pregnant and couldn't be a whole lot of help! i can't believe we did it! exhausting!

Moving day

Moving day has come and gone, but now we're all setteled in, so i thought i'd catch up on blogging. SO much has happened in the last few weeks and it's been a bit crazy.

really though, i can't think of much to say. we moved. it was fun, crazy, busy, hectic, not fun, etc. like moving always is. it was pretty successful...except the grill flew out of Justin's truck on the way down, but otherwise, successful. My parents came up to help us pack and move. they were a ton of help! we (my mom and I) packed the first day while my dad played w/Ruby Belle all day, then justin, my dad, and mom all moved the stuff into the appropriate truck. We borrowed a motorcycle trailer, had my dad's truck, justin's truck and my car, loaded them all up to the top and headed south! that's pretty much how it went.

(sorry for the picture quality...iPhones only do so much!)
My little packing warrior...yes, that bow has only been worn once and here it is!

playing in the empty (and no longer child-proof) cabinets!

then we immediately unloaded all we had...which was a much quicker process especially since we had Ty and Stephanie to help unload.

and we only had so much to unload since we're staying in Ty and Stephanie's mother-in-law suite. we'll now call it the Smith's Suites.

it's actually pretty cozy! it's 2 rooms...one for us and one for Ruby Belle. our room contains the living room, bedroom, and kitchen complete with a mini fridge. then there's also a nice size bathroom. really, it's cozy...but not in a terrible way. i have only been here a week officially, but i really do enjoy it. it's SUPER easy to clean such a small space (and also easy to destroy just by walking in the door) and it's kinda nice to walk down stairs to see my brother and sister-in-law. they have already entertained twice since we've been here and i think we have the best room in the house! we can come down for the fun, and then go back up when we're done! no driving, no clean-up (yes, Stephanie, i promise one day i'll stay up long enough to help you clean up!!), no packing the kid up to go somewhere and even better, we can just put her to bed upstairs and head to the fun downstairs!! oh, and to top it off, they cook often...and we have reaped the benefits a few times!! i must say it's a pretty nice treat for folks who rarely cook!! ;) we're gonna have to take them out to dinner soon!

the Magic of Christmas

i woke up alone this morning...Christmas morning.

first because i couldn't sleep at 4:30 (pregnancy insomnia), then at 6:30 because work called, then just on my own. As i lay there, deciding on whether to get up or not, i couldn't stop thinking about how i missed being there to see my sweet 15 month old daughter's reaction to Santa Claus. and, of course, i was sad. but i knew she was in good hands and having a great time. She and my husband went to Branson to stay with his parents, brother and sister-in-law (Brandon and Jamie), and their 2 kids (Mason and Mallory) because i'm on call and have to work.

i worked all day yesterday and will be working from noon until 6:30 or so tonight. sad about this because i missed my favorite church service of every year...the candlelight Christmas Eve service. But, all of that is ok with me because i DO love work (well, it's kind of a love/hate relationship), and i do love my staff. so, spending Christmas with them isn't so bad. it's quiet, easy and someone's got to spend Christmas serving those who are in the hospital on Christmas! I've tried to remind them over the last several days, that although they may not want to be at work during the holidays when everyone else seems to be off, neither do the patients. and that's who we're here to serve and the least we can do is smile and make their day a little brighter. not sure how much that worked, but most of them seem to be in good spirits.

again, i'm sad...because it's the last Christmas i'll be spending with them. yep, the move is SO upon us. T-6 days and counting. you think i need to be packing? um, yep, but instead i'm sitting her reminiscing, listening to Christmas music, and blogging! (and just finished the huge pancake i cooked for myself!)

as i was also laying in bed, thinking about the reason for the season and thanking God for his Son, i opened my eyes and saw white! ... just a little bit of white, but enough to call it snow flurries, and have a dusting on the ground! a nice, and seemingly magicaly, treat for my last (lonely) Christmas in NW Arkansas.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season! Merry Christmas!!

(Ruby Belle is!! enjoying an Oreo at her daycare Christmas party!)

the countdown is on...

so, we're all set.

It's been a while since i've posted about our upcoming move...well, really i only posted the initial celebratory post. so, update:

1. official move date - Dec 31st

2. we have not sold our house here yet, so we'll be living with my brother and sister-in-law, Ty and Stephanie (we can't thank them enough for allowing us to be live-in roommates in their "MIL above garage studio apartment"...i mean, really, they JUST got married and even agreed to this!)

3. we are praying we sell our house within the next 2 months so we won't over stay our welcome and so we don't have to get into a lease/rental contract at another place.

4. justin and i both have jobs...and we start Jan 3rd! (poor planning on our part...why move on a Friday and plan to work on Monday?!? i don't plan on up and moving my whole life again, but i would definitely do a few things differently!)

5. Justin will be working at a local law firm and is set to take the LA bar in Feb.

6. I will be working with a contract foodservice company (different from the one i work for now, sadly), and will be working with nursing homes. (currently i work as the Director of Foodservice in a hospital) The plan is to work in a nursing home until we aquire a few more in the area and then i will be the manager over the foodservice in a couple nursing homes within driving distance.

7. Ruby Belle is all set for new daycare...not our top pick, but this is the story. i called 34, yes 34, day cares/Mother's Day Outs before finding one that could take her in January!!! I've been on the list at 3 day cares since September, but started calling again at Thanksgiving b/c the waiting lists were still...waiting. 34!!! (apparently i need to go ahead and get her on a list for preschool somewhere!) Anyway, we're staying on the waiting lists at the top 3 picks and will move to one of those in the Spring/Summer when supposedly they will have an opening!

8. Maggie (my dog) is set to move with us.

9. Keek (justin's cat) is hoping to be adopted! we hate to do it, but i'm allergic to Justin's cat, and we've decided that this was a good time to part ways. (man, that sounds so heartless!) I think we found a home, but nothing is set in stone.

ok, i think that covers it.

in the meantime, there will be lots of tears. well, there already has been...and there will be more. it's really exciting to move closer to family...and what i've wanted for a while, but it's also really hard to leave a life you've built in a place you've lived for the last 13 yrs! (wow...i'm getting old!) really hard.
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