A Piece of Spence Farm

My grandfather owned a produce/flower/christmas tree Farm in Woburn MA. He had lots of land in Canada where he shipped his trees from, he sold lots of corn and tomatoes and had many green houses full of flowers. He had a building where he sold retail produce and plants. The parking lot was always well landscaped with lots of flowers. As a grandchild most of my highschool work experience was from working at "the farm". (not as much as the other grandchildren b/c I lived overseas, but whenever we were in the states, he was willing to give us work) Spence Farm is in the process of being sold off now. All the land is almost completely gone now. :( This makes all of the family a little sad. We all have such great fond memories of "the Farm" and it is leaving a legacy behind in the Boston area.
When I was visiting the Boston area in May 2010 my aunt said I should go over and take some perennials from the over gown parking lot, that once used to look so pretty. I was so happy to be able to take a little piece of Spence Farm with me back to Scranton.
I had a perfect place for them in my front yard by the sidewalk where there happened to be 2 big holes. I couldn't wait to plant them and watch them grow. Of course Richard reluctantly helped me dig the plants up from the parking lot area, then figured out how to store them in the trunk without getting the trunk too dirty, then helped me replant them in our front yard. (and that my friends is true love!!!) i was so happy. Little did I realize that we would be moving in about 15 months. I was wondering if they would even come back the next year or if they actually did survive the trip to Scranton. But spring came in 2011 and lo and behold my plants came back, blossoming and looking great! I was ECSTATIC!!!!
Then we decided to move! Then we decided to rent an apartment in an apartment complex! Then it happened to be 1700 miles away! how was I going to take the plants with me? Would they even survive? Where would I put them when I got here? So many questions . . .  But I knew leaving them was dumb - then i was sure to not have them. I might as well try.
So after we packed the truck, I convinced Richard to dig them back up and put them in 5 gallon buckets with dirt and put them in the back of the truck. And at our stops, he even took them out of the truck so they could get a little bit of sun! :) (and once again, true LOVE)
By the time we got here they were looking pretty sad. :( As soon as we could we bought little planter bucket things and some more potting soil and replanted them. We do have a perfect little ledge for them where they get sun. They look terrible, and I'm afraid I will probably only have one, maybe two survive. I don't even know if they will come back b/c they are in pots. even though my family has a green thumb - i do not know that much about them. Wouldn't it be cool one day to plant them in my very own yard and always tell people that they are from my grandfather's farm!?!?!?!?! I hope they live . . .

really, lets be realistic - this one probably won't survive.
The only green you see, is Scranton grass/weeds growing strong

Among all those dead things in the bottom of the picture
I promise, there is little tiny new things springing up!
I hope its not grass!!!!! :(

I think this one might make it!

And I really hope this one does, it's the most promising

Anyone have any knowledge of whether they will survive in pots? I don't even know what they are. :( (my auntie terre might though) Should I really try to get them into the ground somewhere?

Red Light Green Light

I heard other parents talk about their kids having conversations with them in the car about stop lights while they are driving. I thought - Carson will never get to that stage. . . but alas he has. Just since last week he started noticing when cars are stopped at lights and when we stop and go at lights. But it's not as simple a concept as I thought it would be!!!! I have never heard other parents talk about this - but I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem.
I started out explaining - "see the light is red, so we stop, when it turns green then we can go" then I realize we are in the turning lane, so we just get a tiny arrow that he probably can't see.
Other scenario - we are going straight - so our light turns green, but he can see out the side and notices the red light for the other direction as we drive by, and is wondering why we are going if he sees the red light.
or a different scenario - we are going right and turn when there is no traffic coming even though our light is still red.
How do you explain all these concepts? I always thought it would be so simple - but it's really not! He yells everytime we come to a stop - "Car stop, Car Stop!!!!" And I say "when it turns green then we can go - oh wait, can you see that tiny arrow?" or "make sure you look straight ahead through daddy's head to see our green light".
Oh well, i guess by the time he's 16 he will understand the concept. . .

Estes Park

On saturday we drove up to Estes Park and spent most of the day there. It was a wonderful family day! We just saw the mountains and then walked around the town. It was something fun to do and we got to see some more of the area that we moved to. It's about an hour from our house. 

We can never get Carson to smile normal

This, my friends, is a perfect family picture!!!!!!

10 Random friday list

1. Customer service is awesome in fort Collins
2. Never noticed how "un friendly" people were out east until we moved to the West! The bank has a greeter that asks how your day is and if she can help you with anything. That's before you get to any tellers who proceed to do the same. The grocery store workers all are smiling and making sure you're doing ok, and having a good day!!!!! it's so noticeable and amazing!!!!! (ps. not that I dislike the east coast - but it truly is noticeable here)
3. Fort Collins has more restaurants per capita (sp?) than any other city in the US. (haven't truly verified that fact myself, but it definitely seems true) So my sister asked if everyone is "fat" here. And no they are not b/c of random fact #4.
4. Everyone is super fit here b/c everyone rides their bikes, hikes, or runs or rock climbs or something Like Every day.
5. My boys sleeping in the same room is getting to be more of a challenge than the first night! I hope they get used to it soon.
6. Living on the 3rd floor isn't as bad as I thought it would be, at least for now (granted Richard doesn't work right now so he carries EVERYTHING including the boys for me)
7. There are so many grass hoppers here!!!! I was running along a trail and they were just hopping left and right off the path as I ran by, and i kept kicking them in mid jump! It was sorta freaking me out
8. Evenings here are great for family walks
9. Richard has a job interview on Monday. Please pray
10. We miss our family and friends back East terribly!!!! (but thankful we missed both the earthquake and the hurricane)

Virtual Tour/ welcome to CO

 Here is the last picture of us entering Colorado. And might I add - If I thought Kansas was bad - Eastern Colorado was worse!!!!! But I would attribute some of the unfavorableness due to the fact that I was sick of driving and really wanting to be home!

 Fort Collins!!!!!

Our new Home Town

Today we had our first Dinner in our new home as a family together that I cooked! It was a good feeling. we had Cajun Chicken Pasta with chocolate Zucchini muffins. 

Thanks Richard for humoring me and taking this picture :)

Here is a Video of our new apartment - Mostly for my Mother. Hopefully it doesn't make you too Dizzy and you can see it good enough. There really is a lot more space than we thought at first Glance. And places always look/smell better once your own stuff gets moved in and put in place, and deep cleaning is done. There is more closet space than i've ever had in any house I've lived in, so that is super nice. And i think I will love having everything on the same level. The boys really are loving it.

I think I need to add a disclaimer - The kitchen is to the left not the right. :) I can tell my directions most of the time. :)

Something that makes my "mother" heart so happy - Today we were coming home from an outing "learning the town" and Carson yells "we're home!!!" I'm so thankful the transition for the boys has gone so smoothly!

We're here!

So i just want to let everyone know that we are here in Fort Collins. We are excited about our future. Fort Collins is in the Top 10 cities to live in is America!!!! And we are so glad to be living here. We are settling into our apartment and finding a place for everything. We will try to get internet set up as soon as we can, and I will be back to my blogging again! Thanks for praying! We are so thankful that God went before our trip and that we made it here so safely.
Richard and I are at peace with being here. We are confident that God has led us here, and we are confident he will provide for us. We are excited to get plugged in and involved in the church and meet the community around us! We have been blessed already by the 4 people that we knew before we moved here. they have helped us so much.

Thanks for staying updated.
have a great week!

update continued - Kansas is boring

We left Wataga IL, at about 9 AM on wednesday morning. But not without a little hiccup. As Richard was loading up our stuff he noticed our tire in the car was flat. We had run over a screw at some point. We were able to get it fixed fast and were very thankful that it happened before we left and at my grandparent's house where they knew where to get it fixed. Only set us a back a short time. (we had planned to leave by 8) we were on our way to Kansas City Missouri

Missouri!

We stayed the night here at our friends house from College. They are dear dear friends of ours. It was wonderful to stay with them and we enjoyed our short conversation with them. We were blessed by their hospitality

We woke up today and left Kansas City about 9ish headed for Colby Kansas! This was about a 6 hr drive that took us 7 hrs. (our stops just seem to take longer due to having to fill two vehicles and one of them diesel plus the truck can't go more than 70 mph)

this is my picture for Kansas! boy is this a boring state and so straight!

 We were aiming towards Colby Kansas and a hotel. We pulled into the hotel around 4pm ish. We made pretty good time. We are so glad to stay in this hotel. It's so nice. We got settled in, went and had pizza as a family. Carson has so much energy it's not even funny! As soon as we let him loose he runs and runs and runs and yells and screams and just goes crazy about everything! The hotel has a pool and we spent some time together there as a family! It's been perfect. Both boys have been sooooo happy tonight and it makes my heart glad to see them both smiling and laughing about everything. It's been a good family night.

I was more bored on the drive today b/c Kansas is a pretty boring state to drive through, so I tried to take a few pictures of our trip.

Carson a little annoyed at the sun on him

Landon in the mirror we have, that has helped me a lot!

A weird fire on the side of the road, kept me entertained for a while 

me- really bored

I have a cooler of easy food for us for our lunches. this has been great.
We stop at a rest area, let Carson run wild
and we save A-TON-OF-MONEY while we're at it

running

Tomorrow we have about 4-5 hours of our entire trip left! I can't believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're almost there!!!! It's amazing how much peace we feel about doing what we are doing. We don't seem to be too worried yet about how God will provide b/c we are confident that God will provide for us! WE are so excited to get to our new home. now that the major part of our move is over, and we are almost at our new place I am FILLED WITH EXCITEMENT!!! I cannot wait to start our life in Fort Collins and to get plugged in and involved at our new church!
Can't wait to update you all from our new Hometown!

Again - thank you all for your prayers. We are truly grateful for our wonderful family and friends. I know I've said this before but we are truly blessed by so many of you! Again the texts and messages I've been receiving from you all is so wonderful and encouraging! Thank you all!!!!

(ps. in the previous post richard pointed out to me - Look at how the weather gets better the farther west we go in the pictures of the state lines. He said "that's a sign we're headed in the right direction". :) We are so ready to be in COLORADO!!!!)

We made it through the hardest leg of the trip. We are so thankful to be done with it. We left PA about 4:30 AM and drove for 15 hrs!!!!! (normallly the trip takes about 12 hrs) We made pretty good time and the stops weren't too bad or too often - the truck is just slower. :( 

We are so so thankful that it went so well.  We were super tired and it was a long day - but the blessings were amazing. Our/your prayers for no traffic and good weather were answered. We were smooth sailing the whole way and we had no problems. The boys did great! very minimal crying or problems. They were pretty compliant and complained very little. We were so thankful. I received texts throughout the day from many friends and that was so encouraging to me!!!!! It was a wonderful surprise. 

West virginia - (only drizzle and didn't last long). The Sun was rising

OHIO

Indiana

Illinios!

Today we spent it with my grandparents. Richard and I slept a very full night. (about 9 hrs). And we even took a nap during the boy's naps. My grandparents are taking wonderful care of us. We feel revitalized and we're ready for another day. 

Tomorrow we hope to leave about 8 AM and drive about a 6 hr drive. (although it will take probably a while longer since we're in the truck) We will be in Kansas City tomorrow night. Still on our way. Thankful for how well things are going.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us. We definitely can sense them. We feel loved.

I'll keep you all posted on our next stop . . .

Touched, changed, BLESSED

Well, folks we are off!!!!
As I drive away from my home for almost 4 years my eyes are teary, but my heart is so full. Super excited for what lays ahead and the new adventure. New places to shop, new people to meet, new friends to make, new church to get involved in, new EVERYTHING!
But as much as I try to be excited - I am sad - sad to say goodbye. Sad to think that we left the house where I brought both my boys home from the hospital to, sad that the nice worker at the grocery store won't be able to say hi to my boys anymore, sad that Carson won't be able to run out the front door and play with his friends. Mostly sad to say Goodbye to my good good friends that I've made here. There is something unique about the bond that mother's make with other mother's. (I know that I will meet new mother's and have great new friends) but I am sad to say good bye. Church was hard (as expected) to say goodbye. I hadn't cried at all about this whole process (I hardly ever cry about things), but today was hard. and I cried. (I guess that's ok)

As I drove the 3 hours to my sister's house in the car alone (at least with no adults to talk to) my mind was going to all the wonderful ways we have been affected. We have been Touched, Changed, and mostly Blessed by so many amazing people in our time in Scranton.  It's wonderful to look back at how God led us there and provided for us when we stepped out in Faith almost 4 years ago, and that gives me strength and courage to know that He will always be faithful to me, even in this step of Faith!
God is good, and I have complete confidence that he will provide for all our needs, financial, emotional, and physical.
We are tired tonight - so we are going to bed. Please pray - for good sleep tonight (we're waking up at 4am to leave), good weather (it was not that great today), smooth driving, make good time, and safety. I'll try to update on tuesday with how it went.

this was what our living room looked like
right before we got it all loaded up

One of my traveling buddies
notice my Last iced Coffee for a very long time :(

This will be my view for a very long time

Thank you friends from Scranton. You have showered us with blessings as we left, and we are forever touched and grateful! All our friends are forever etched in our memories!

Update

Today was Richard's last day of work at Apex Restoration Inc. Kinda weird. We don't know when the next time he will be working again is, kinda weird! Although I will add - Richard and I are extremely thankful that today was his last day. This job has been a big part in our sanctification process and it didn't take a break from that in the last week he had to work there.

Tomorrow, my sis in law will take the boys for most of the day for us! And that, my friends,  I am extremely grateful for. Richard and i will work on tie-ing up all the lose ends in our apartment. Calling utilities, packing last minute stuff, cleaning, taking apart the furniture that needs to be disassembled, washing sheets and towels, packing all our stuff that we need the traveling week. you know, just little stuff here and there. :)
Saturday is the big day of packing the truck. We cannot say enough about our church family and friends and how they have helped us tremendously. A good friend of mine will watch the boys all morning so i can "oversee" the packing/cleaning process. (hahahaha).
Sunday -we plan to make it to church for our last time. that will be a very bitter/sweet day. And in the afternoon sometime head out to my twin sister's house about 3 hrs away.

Trip Plan
- Monday - Leave by 7AM (ish) and drive about 12 hours to my grandparents house in Western IL. Please pray for us on Monday if you think of it. 12 hrs is in a car with no truck and no small kids. I hope it doesn't take us much longer than that, but I'm expecting it to take a couple hours longer. I will be in the car with my 2 kiddos by myself (which makes "appeasing/entertaining" very hard) and Richard will be in the BIG truck with all our stuff. Pray the kids sleep an unusually long amount, pray for little-to-no construction and a smooth ride overall. This is the day I am most nervous about
-Tuesday- spend the day resting/visiting/relaxing with my grandparents and Cousins and Aunt and Uncle
-Wednesday- Do a 6 hr leg of the trip to Kansas city to stay with good friends from College
-Thursday- either a 10 hr trip to Fort Collins and arrive that night, or drive at least half way and stay in a hotel and finish the last leg on Friday. (this all depends on how our first day goes, and if we can make it to IL)
We hope to be in Fort Collins by Friday night! And then have a couple days of the weekend to unpack and get our barrings. Then Richard will hit it hard looking for a job on Monday. Pray for easy internet set up so that it makes it easier to search for things online. (even grocery store, bank and random info we may need)

Pray for a job for Richard - one that is conducive to him working at a church and helping and getting as involved as possible, but also provides benefits and sufficient pay to support our boys.

We are anxiously waiting for the day we arrive in Fort Collins and can start our life there!!! Carson says every day - "we going to Colorado?" it's so cute! but he did make sure that Landon, mommy and Daddy were going too. :)

I will try to post our progress in our trip as i can. I know my mom will be wanting to hear. :) We're very excited about our little adventure. I'm sure we will talk about it for years to come with our boys. Can't wait for it to be over though. :)

Gave up the Ghost

The truck that is - the truck gave up it's ghost. :( Sad day! it's been a good truck for Richard. He has enjoyed it. a ford 1991 Ranger 4X4.
Originally the plan was to try to sell it for about $1500 before we moved and try to get as much as we could out of it. We were praying for wisdom about what to do and when to try to sell it etc. We gave a huge long prayer request in Sunday school one Sunday. No lie - exactly 25 hrs later it completely died and will never be revived. It needs a new transmission and it costs too much money to be properly diagnosed and too much time to get it to a mechanic who can look at it. The engine is making a funny noise also, so that probably needs a lot of work done to it.

So hopefully today it will be taken to the Junk Yard. So sad to see a good truck die so suddenly. We will miss it. It was pretty much terrible timing b/c we don't have the time to put into trying to figure out how to revive it and we wanted to get rid of it anyways. God answered our prayers and sort of solved the problem for us. so we are down to one car. Which has worked out fine, b/c Richard can drive a company vehicle most days to and from work so I haven't had to take him or pick him up too much.

11 Months

I can't believe that Landon is one month away from being a year old! I can't believe that it has literally flew by. To think about everything we have done and decided and how our lives are going to change in this year. WOW!

I've also decided this is my favorite age! Their personality starts showing so much, well scheduled, moving around so therefore more content, they love you and show their love by hugging or smiles, you see them discover new things daily, and still they are relatively innocent and not defiant therefore more enjoyable. :)
And Landon is truly all this!!!! I have always said he is the easiest baby - and I really think he is. he rarely cries and is always super happy! He climbs the stairs and LOVES it!!! He stands and slowly moves along the furniture. I think finally he has officially caught up to his age (being that he was a premie). My doctor said by 1 year i wouldn't notice anything and it is true. Finally he doesn't seem a few weeks behind the other babies. He is a goof ball and always making funny faces so we laugh. he squeals and laughs and tries to get our attention. But most of all, what I'm finding out that I love about him, he cuddles!!!! When you pick him up he will lay his head on your shoulder and wrap his arms around you and sit there for a while. It's the best thing in the whole world. It's his quiet way of telling me he loves me and is happy with me and comfortable in my arms. I LOVE IT!!!

I saw the sweetest thing happen today (and it doesn't happen like ever! so I thought I would document it). Landon was getting scolded about not touching the outlet, and Carson went and sat next to him and proceeded to explain that he could get hurt if he touched it. Then Carson handed him his milk cup and said "that's milk, drink it out of here". And kept trying to tell Landon how to sip it out! I thought it was so cute!!!!