Too Busy

Wow- it has been a little crazy and I have not had time to write. Annelise's modeling party went really well. She looked like a pro on the catwalk. Some of the other moms asked if she took classes there, and I said "No, it's just in her blood...." I'll post some pictures later. It was very cute. Brian and I have been busy picking things out for the house. We like to have it all done way before we actually need it. It makes the process a little less stressful. I haven't really thought about the house for the past few days, though. It just seems like a pipe dream right now- just hasn't sunk in that we are going forward with it, I guess. I have this nagging feeling that we are just never going to build it, and I know that is just silly. Probably a result of it taking us 8 months to find the land and I am just used to feeling that way. Anyway- I am excited when I let myself start thinking about it. Emmaline is particularly excited, which is weird, because I would think she really wouldn't care about it. She talks about it a lot - also weird because she doesn't really know what it's going to be like. But it is funny to watch her and how animated she gets about it. We had "family night" last night and we watched "Game Plan". It's a newly released Disney movie and it was very very cute. I am so glad that the girls are old enough to watch something we can all enjoy, now. I was almost suicidal during the "Wiggles" phase that Annelise went through when she was little. We still haven't found a church. So far we really like the big one we went to a couple of times. I didn't think I would like a big church, but this one has a good feel to it. Right now, we feel like we denied our girls for so long at our last church, it is now all about them and what the church can offer them. This one we have gone to and like has a good kids program, and A and E both loved it there. We'll see how it goes over the next few months. Anyway- I have got to go clean up this house. It has been neglected and is a total mess. I feel like I am in sort of a "down" slump right now. I really have no reason to be, so I hope that feeling goes away soon. Maybe cleaning up will help!

And Now the Chaos Begins.....

We met the developer, our builder and his wife (who is also our real estate agent) at the lots this morning. Everything looks really good for going, so we are going to go! We signed the contracts and now the insanity starts. This Saturday, my friend/architect is going to meet us for lunch with her hubby and 2 boys and we are going to take her to the lot to have her look at it after that. She is going to work on the plans, and in the meantime, our builder is going to be getting the septic tank people out there for perk tests and whatever and he is going to start grading and I don't know what else. My head started spinning with all the stuff that needs to be done before we can build. But, I am very excited and hope that all this small stuff goes quickly. The girls are with Aunt Libby tonight and I am going to The Diva's daughter's pageant at her school. I am thrilled about getting to sleep in tommorrow. My friend Sweetness had surgery today, so I went and picked up their 2 boys and Brian picked up dinner for them from us and The Diva's family. It has been a long day. I think I could quite possibly go to bed right now and sleep for about 20 hours. I ordered Annelise's cake this afternoon- the grocery store has these cool new cakes made from cupcakes and it had figurines of all the Disney Princesses on them. I love that I don't have to cut it up and get it all over my hands! I think Brian and I will go around tommorrow and look at stuff for the house. (Flooring, lights, etc...) We like to get stuff picked out early so it isn't such a daunting task when the time comes. I asked the builder if he thought we could be in before Christmas and he said he doesn't see why not. I am really looking forward to getting settled- and we haven't even broken ground, yet. I am going to start packing up stuff I don't use- you can never start that too early! Here I come, fine china!

Cruisin' Along

So, the developer calls us back and we make a verbal offer and he makes a counter offer and we met in the middle. Now all we have to do is draw up the contract and everybody signs and that is that. Excited, but not looking forward to all the small detail work that has to be done before construction actually starts. My architect friend has to come see the lot and see how the house should be placed. Then our builder is coming out to make sure everything we want to do is do-able. Then we are going to move a few trees and etc., etc...... I just want it to start. But, I know all these things have to be done first. I am in a yucky mood because I haven't slept much the past 2 nights and woke up this morning with a sore throat. The girls were horrendous yesterday while I was working - Annelise drew on Emmaline's clothes with marker and spilled a ton of water on her dresser and just left it there , to name a couple things. The house was a huge mess when I got done working and I am so tired I just do not care right now! I really want to crawl on the couch with my soft white blanket and watch something mindless on TV for several hours. That is a pipe dream. I have to go finish cleaning out Annelise's room while she is at school, and I am sure I will have to entertain Emmaline somehow this morning. She lasts about an hour before she gets lonely and needy and wants me to be with her. So- I am going to get to it. If I sit too long at the computer I may end up on the desk asleep!

Lots To Tell-

So much to update on for the past few days. I'll start with Annelise's trip to Gattitown the other night. We went and had a great time and the snow held off until we were walking out the doors to leave. It was just barely snowing, but you could see it well in the lights. Annelise got sooo excited. A few months back on Emmaline's birthday, I mentioned that there was a beautiful sunrise that morning and Emmaline decided that was God's birthday present for her. Well, Annelise recalled that on the way home from Gattitown. This is how the conversation went : "Emmaline, remember that sunrise that God gave you for your birthday?" E: "Yeah." A: "Well, look what He gave me!! Thanks God, I love my present, the snow is beautiful!" We laughed and laughed at her. We had fun and she loved loved loved her microscope. Brian actually made himself bleed so she could see what red blood cells looked like. (That is love, folks.) They are being particularly good this morning, which is a blessing since Brian is at work today. We are getting ready to decorate some gingerbread men cookies. (I know, a little late, but they are so bored with cabin fever.) Anyway- on a different topic- the developer called us back the other day. We were just about to call him to tell him about the concerns that we had when he called us. We didn't say anything about our concerns because he started talking and we were just listening. He told us that he had a long conversation with his partner and they decided that they loved the traditional home style and that it was what they wanted to do with the neighborhood. They both live in colonial/georgian style homes. He told us to go forward with the house, that he loved it , and to do hardiplank or whatever we wanted. We were just amazed. We asked him "What if the other builders want to come in and do a different style?" He said they would just have to get over that and work with the style we have chosen. We were excited, but slightly confused. So, we told him we needed to pray about it a little more and we would let him know. Well, we went and looked at some gorgeous pieces of property yesterday- just to make sure this is what we wanted- and we both just kept coming back to these lots. So, we went to the lots after looking all day at the other stuff and we knew that it was the right thing to do. I am soo excited. We called the developer and left a message last night, so hopefully we will hear from him today. I can't believe we are actually going to start on the house soon! I am on cloud nine. Now I am on a mission to get this house cleaned up and cleaned out over the next few months. I have neglected it for the past few weeks and I am about to go crazy with all the clutter!! I think that is all the updating for now. It has been a very eventful week-end! Oh, well- off to change the sheets and also to start attacking Annelise's room! (I'm feeling brave today.....)

Happy Birthday Annelise!!

Oh, this time 6 years ago I was in a hospital room falling head over heels in love with a sweet baby girl. She was so soft and cuddly (still is when she isn't rolling her eyes at me...) She was such a good baby, too. I cannot believe how fast 6 years has gone! She is 1/3 of the way to being an adult! She woke up to balloons in her room this morning, as she has since she turned 1. She thinks they are from the birthday fairy, who leaves them for her at night. Tonight, if the ice and snow don't come early, we are going to Gattitown to celebrate since her actual party is not until the 27th. We are going to go ahead and give her her present tonight. She asked for a microscope, so she got one. I figured she is going to be so involved in her modeling party that she won't even notice what she gets there. This is the first year that she has invited friends from school. She has turned into quite the diva this past year. It is now a daily ritual for her to come home from school and immediately change into a sequin or sparkly sundress (with 20 degree weather outside) and put her tiara on and also apply some hideous light pink lipstick and enough jewelry to make Little Richard jealous. She still says she wants to be a doctor, scientist, karateo when she grows up. She has done so much this past year- started soccer, learned how to ski, lost her first tooth,and now she is playing basketball for the first time. I can't quite figure her out. One minute she is in her tiara and lipgloss and the next she is in the backyard digging for worms or baiting a hook with a cricket at the lake. But we are so thankful that God chose us for her parents. She is so loving and mothering and so funny. She is a good shopping buddy and a great pal to watch a movie with. When someone is upset, she is the first one to console them. When someone needs an opinion, she is the first one to give it. And when there is a competition, she is all about winning it. Wow, I shudder to think what the next few years hold. I pray that God gives both of us enough grace to love each other through the teen years. I hope Annelise has a wonderful day today. My sweet first born baby.

Glitch in the Plans....

Well, the lot isn't looking so good now... The developer wants to find a "registered" architect to do the approvals, which he is probably not going to get, because most architects who are registered are not going to bother with a side job like this. He also is having more and more reservations about the style of our house. He now says he doesn't want us to do hardy-plank, and he doesn't want it to be white. Neither one of those things is a huge issue for us. We weren't planning on doing white anyway, and we are not opposed to doing painted brick. However, it just sent up a red flag to us because we are afraid after we bought the lots and started to build, the developer would try to get us to change more and more about the house. He has already mentioned that he really wanted to do a European style neighborhood because that is what is selling right now. SO- we are going to talk to him later this week and tell him that it just doesn't look good. I think we are going to have to just find land outside of a neighborhood and build whatever we want. It is a letdown, but we really want to be sure. Sometimes it seems like we are just never going to build this house! To make it worse, the girls have been out of control this week end. They have been fighting and are being totally defiant. And Brian is getting on my last nerve...... I think I need to go away for a few days all by myself!! On a good note, I have made it to the gym every other day for the past week and I have been very good about what I eat. I am on a mission to be totally back in shape by the time we go on our cruise in June. I am just in a funk right now and I don't want to be around anyone........ Oh, well- I know that this too shall pass. Tonight is basketball practice for Annelise. (Emmaline quit the team, by the way.- I'm ok with it, she is really young.) Annelise had her first game this past Saturday and scored a basket. I was so proud I almost cried. My baby scored her first points in a sport that is very close to my heart! She did really well. She is so tall, she got about 90% of the rebounds just standing there with her hands up. I just hope she learns to love it like I did. I am trying hard not to push her. For now I am going to try to avoid human contact until my mood gets a bit better. I am cleaning up this morning. I think if I could get rid of about half of our useless junk and clean out some stuff, I would feel better. Well, back to the gift wrap closet.....

Too Easy

This is a picture that is very similar to the house we are going to build. We won't have the widow's walk on top or all of the second-story porch, but otherwise it will look a lot like this. The color will also be a bit different. We are going to go with a light khaki or a dark cream color. Things are working out in a way that I cannot believe. The developer called us yesterday and told us about what the architect had said about approving our house. The architect he was using actually said we should paint it dark brown , or just paint the middle dark brown and do the wings in white. Well, I saw a red flag there and thought to myself "This is just not going to work out." The developer said our architect, who is one of my best friends, should call his architect and discuss the house with him. I said okay, but was already getting disappointed and thinking we were going to have to look somewhere else. I told my friend/architect who this guy was and she told me they had fired him from her company she works at because he isn't even a real architect and didn't even have a college degree in architecture. Well, Brian felt like we should let the developer know since he has been so nice to us. We figured we would call him and tell him and he would probably say, 'Well, thanks but he is the one I am using for this job.' Much to our surprise, he apologized profusely and said he had no idea and said he was not going to use this guy. Wow. Then, as if that were not enough, he asks if our friend/architect would be interested in taking the job. Double wow. I called her last night and she is interested and is going to call the developer today (per his request) and talk to him about it. Now, my only big concern with this neighborhood was that the houses would not blend well. With my friend doing the approvals , and knowing how tasteful and how picky she is, that concern would be completely gone. If I could have written the way I wanted everything to turn out, I would not have even dreamed it would be this great!! My friend is supposed to call me after she talks to the developer and let me know how their conversation went and if it goes well, we will be making an offer this week! This has just been amazing. All we really had to do was make that first call and then we just sat back and watched God work from there. I know that there is still a chance that maybe their conversation won't go well or something, but I predict that it will go great. We wanted to be sure that we built this house in the right place, and so far everything is pointing to 'Go'. We are going to do a little extra praying and after that we will move forward with our plans. I just hope my poor architect friend doesn't feel pressured to hurry on our house - she is really busy with work right now and I don't want to put any additional stress on her. I am allowing myself to get excited about this, though. So- I hope she calls soon and tells me that the conversation with the developer went well!

Good Start

So far, this week is off to a pretty good start. Last night, Brian and I took ALL of our Christmas decorations to the office and put them in the office attic. Since we will hopefully be moving before next Christmas, we went ahead and put them there and we will get them down next Christmas and take them to the new house. That way it is less stuff to move when the time comes. (And trust me, moving just the Christmas decorations is no small task!) We also took ALL the recycle stuff to the deposit center last night. The recycleables had started taking over our garage and we could barely walk out there. We had to take my SUV and Brian's truck (both of which were slap full) to get all of the decorations and recycle stuff out. Big mark off the to do list. Today I got a few things done while the girls were at school and now I am supposed to be working. : ) I plan to go back to the gym tonight to resume my pain and torture. We took my parents to see the lot we are looking at yesterday. (They actually asked to go see it!) My mom was being so calm about it and talking about how much good Brian and I could do at a church that was trying to grow and how we could help with children's ministry at some of the smaller churches. I was in shock because I know that she and my dad are both sad that we won't be able to continue going to their church. Then she got kind of quiet and a few minutes later she started ranting about how we were moving too far away and how she would never see us and my sister would never see us and yadda yadda. I knew it had to be too good to be true. I think she held it in as long as she could. I explained that we were actually going to be 7 miles closer to her, but it fell on deaf ears. When we got to the lot, she just looked around and said "Well, it is beautiful, but it is too far and it just won't do." We were all just laughing at her. I am really happy that she at least tried to be okay with it for a while. It made me feel a lot better because for some reason, even though I am 33, my parents approval is still very important to me. So the fact that they are ok with us staying out towards this side of town took a huge burden off of me. Now the only thing we have to do is call the developer to see what he and the architect decided about the house. We are going to wait a couple of days and give them some time to talk about it before we call. I am really excited, but if they say no, I will know it was not meant to be and we will keep looking! We also found a church out there that we are interested in visiting. My cousin goes there and we have gotten the "inside scoop" from him. It sounds like our kind of place, so I think we will check it out this Sunday. Plus, it is only a couple miles from the lot we are looking at. It just seems like there is a tremendous amount of potential for some of our answers out there right now and I am really enjoying that feeling. Oh, well- I guess I need to go actually work and see if there are any moms to call back......

Property Update

So, this is the lot we are looking at. It is actually 2 lots that we are going to combine. The big oak would be in the right front corner of our lot. (I am totally in love with that huge oak tree.) The pile of mulch is where the original homesite used to be. The combined lots would give us 1.3 acres. We really like it a lot. We met with the developer yesterday morning and he was very nice and sounded excited. We would be the first house in there, so we would get to set the tone for the rest of the neighborhood. There are so many of the "European" type neighborhoods going up in this area- it is almost impossible to find one that has traditional/southern-style houses in it. So, we gave him a picture of a house that will be very similar to the one we want to build and he is going to show it to the architect who is approving/reviewing all of the houses that will be built there. I think it is extremely cool that we may get to have a hand in deciding the style of a whole neighborhood. I mean, seriously, what are the chances of being able to meet with a developer and be the first to choose a lot and decide the house-style? We are excited at the opportunity this is giving us. Anyway- he is supposed to call us next week and let us know what he and the architect have decided. It is so close to the girls school. It will be nice when they are teenagers and live close to their school friends. They can drive to each others houses or if they want to go to dinner after football games I don't have to worry about them driving a long way back home late at night. I think it is the best decision for them. We are sad that we won't be able to go to my parents church. (This is 5 miles closer to them than we are now, but still about 20 miles away.) But, we feel that God just has other plans for us. If everything goes well then we could purchase the lots in the next couple weeks and start building in February. (Exciting, but scary, too!) We will see how it all unfolds.... Today has been a pretty good day. We had breakfast with friends and took them to see the lot. They all liked it a lot. Then we went to pick up the girls at my parents house and ended up driving to Tryon with my mother and the girls and went antique shopping. The girls were pretty good, considering they were going on little sleep and no naps. They were each allowed to pick something out at one of the low price antique stores we went to. Annelise chose an accordion cloth fan (the kind that every diva carries in case the vapors come over her) that said "Barcelona" on it and had pictures of Spain's landmarks on it, and was trimmed in lace. Emmaline chose a Tweety Bird glass. ( Don't ask- I don't know why she does the things she does- except that she was thirsty at the time...) We went to eat at a little pizza place there and Emmaline fell asleep on the way home at about 6:30. She is in bed snoring peacefully now. I won't be far behind her- as there is nothing on TV tonight and all I have to do in the house is clean- which I am not doing tonight!! Then it is up early and to church for the last Sunday of the study we are doing on discipleship. Hopefully I will have some updates, soon for the other stuff!

Happy New Year!!

Wow, I can't believe it is 2008. Time is really flying lately. I hope that it slows down at some point along the way but I have a feeling it won't. 2007 was a "wacky/weird" year to say the least. Lots of crazy stuff and lots of heartache but also much joy and many blessings. This year in particular I truly feel that I am starting a clean slate. We are (God- willing) going to build our hopefully final home. (Laugh as you all may....) We will become a part of a church family again some time this year. (Just not sure where, yet.) So many things to be excited about that this year will bring. I know a new year means new challenges, too, but I am not worried about those because I don't have to handle them. I just feel like this year a lot of things will fall into place for us and also that some of the loose ends from last year will be neatly tied up. I am looking forward to 2008 and what it holds for us. I have a sense of peace about it. As for the land front- we found a lot that we both loved and we have been to see it several times. We would be the first ones to purchase a lot in this subdivision, so we would get first choice. Our builder would be allowed to build our home, too. The lot we like is the original homeplace that was on the property before it was developed. I will try to post pictures soon. We want to buy 2 lots which would give us 1.2-1.3 acres. We are meeting with the developer in the morning to talk about it, so we are really excited. It is only about 4 miles from the girls school- which would be amazing. We wouldn't be able to go to the church we like, but I feel like God may have just sent us there temporarily to heal and get refueled and take what we learned to another place. I don't think it was a coincidence that we started going there the very Sunday that the study on discipleship started and this Sunday is the last one for that study. Things just seem to be falling into place. Anyway- we will see what the developer says tommorrow. If anything is not spelled correctly or I have used bad grammar, please excuse it. I have periodic issues with insomnia and the past 2 weeks I have averaged about 4 hours sleep a night. Last night it was about 3 hours. Then this morning, I was the first to get up and I thought it was unusually cold in the house. I just decided it was probably because it was 16 degrees outside and forgot about it, only to realize a little while later that the heat had broken down sometime during the night and it was about 57 degrees in our house. The guys from the heat and air place are coming by here this afternoon to fix whatever it is. Hopefully it is just something minor!! Hope everybody had a great New Year's day and that the New Year holds something wonderful for each of you.