Lasts

This is our last week here in Scranton. (I hope you don't feel like I'm beating this into the ground) but I'm sentimental about things. :)
I want to make it enjoyable and memorable. i want to enjoy this whole experience of moving and take it for the fun adventure with my family that it is.
This weekend was wonderful and I feel blessed.
Saturday was spent with family at Chuckee Cheese. Richard's brother and family that live about an hour and half south of here, came up for the afternoon. They have 3 boys and it was so much fun watching them interact together. Plus Richard's sister that lives here came with us, she also has 3 boys.  Carson loves his older cousins and had a lot of fun running around Chuckee Cheese bringing me tickets that his dad had won. :)
In the evening our wonderful Young Married's sunday school class had a dinner planned at a mexican restaurant. We got the best babysitters ever (our dear,dear friends Sandy and Gavin ps. they are getting married!!! wooohooo!) and our boys were well taken care of. We enjoyed ourselves with wonderful fellowship and were truly blessed by our dear friends.
Sunday our church gave us surprise flowers and a gift. We once again felt so blessed by our wonderful body of believers. We have made lasting friendships and we will cherish them forever. We will cherish the memories that we made here as we move on.
Looking forward to this week - it will be busy with last minute stuff, canceling things, setting things up at new place, packing, trying to sell more items on craigslist,  last time visits with our good friends. trying to fit in our lasts with everyone and for everything. Richard has only 4 days of work left (and we don't even know for how long, btw pray it's not too long :) ). This is our last Sunday night here in Scranton. WEIRD!

My heart is filled with Joy, and Sadness, Excitement  and Anxiousness. But mostly tonight I feel BLESSED. 

10 random Friday List

I think every day I have random stuff going through my head that I want to blog about. so today I just wrote down everything i could think of in a list. So here you go! (ps does anyone else think about blog posts all day long? it's as bad as Facebook Status updates)
1. peaches are NOT GOOD when they are not ripe enough, found that out the hard way today
2. 3 weeks is way too long to have to pack, at least for me, I have everything in boxes and still have a week to go, and am just thinking about everything and can't do much else. I prefer one week, not prolonging it so much. :)
3. my boys are super cute
4. I think I will take a nap this afternoon - and we have a date night tonight
5. my husband is AWESOME. doing so much for our family. working long hours and figuring out our move and our new life
6. I feel like I need a nap every single day (and also so thankful to a friend for watching the boys this morning)
7. Landon is climbing up our stairs regularly, hopefully no falls before we move out
8. I ate a fluffer-nutter for the first time in YEARS and it was so good.
9. I'm so excited to live in Colorado again and start everything over again and get a new routine, a new grocery store, new church, new people to meet, a new-not-as-hilly running route. this is exciting to me.
10. I'M VERY SAD TO SAY GOOD BYE TO MY LIFE HERE!!! I've done this a lot in my life, but this time it seems the hardest. And maybe b/c I''m the one in charge and the responsible one not just the child following the comfort of my parents, maybe b/c Richard and I have been shaped as a couple b/c of where we have lived this whole time. Maybe b/c my 2 sons were born here. Maybe b/c Carson has no idea that in a week he won't be able to see his friends here that he asks about daily. maybe b/c I have no idea when we will be back. maybe b/c this is the longest I've lived in one city or one house. And maybe it just seems hard b/c with time the sadness always goes away so i can't remember what it was like.

How!!!!???

How does a room look like this so fast???

I thought we were packing or something???? Maybe I should start packing up the toys, that might help. :) All I did was take a shower. Beware when coming to my house in the next week and half - you never know what you might find.

What a nice weekend

In the midst of chaos and moving we decided to make one last trip to Boston. I have family there and sorta grew up there while my parents were in the states. So I have many friends there, and Boston will always hold a special place in my heart b/c of the family/friends that I have and the fact that we got married there. We decided to move far away to Colorado - then realized there was only a few weekends left and we had to fit "going to Boston" in one of those weekends. So, in the midst of "lots to do" we took a break and a last minute trip to "vacation" while trying to move cross country- you know b/c that's how we role. :)

We left on Friday afternoon and got to my Aunt's house around 9ish. We love catching up and chatting with her, but got to bed before midnight because we had an early morning. We left about 8AM on Saturday to drive up to NH to see "the trailer". :) I had been up there many times, but Richard had never been there. I have many fond memories of playing in the lake, and going to get ice cream in the town of Meredith, and was so happy he got to experience it.  we also decided very last minute to stay the night up there and had another relaxing morning waking up to the bright morning sun, getting an iced coffee and sitting by the lake swimming. We could not have asked for more perfect weather for our time in NH. It was wonderful to spend the time with my Cousin (who is my age) and his wonderful wife (who is my friend) and watch our kids interact and meet their new baby! Auntie Terre is a wonderful host and had plenty of food for us and we were very well take care of.

Sunday afternoon we drove back down to Boston to visit another of my lifelong friends, Lydia. We stayed with her overnight, and attended the church service at the church we were married in, and got to see many old friends. It was bittersweet knowing that we don't know if/when we will come back to this place. But we do know that we will always keep a spot in our hearts for good ol' Boston.

Monday - Richard, being the wonderful husband and father that he is, willingly watched our two boys and Lydia's boy so we could go on a 5 mile run in the beautiful sunny morning. Then we went and spent time with my Grandfather. What a joy to talk with him and spend time with him. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of him with our family. :( I will regret that. As he gets older we cherish the little bit of time that we get to see him. And we are also so grateful for the wonderful meal at the Cheesecake Factory that he took us to. :) I think he was appalled as he watched Carson put the salt/pepper shakers up to his mouth to "drink" them. (no thanks to Carson's cousin on the other side of the family that taught him that. :) hahahaha) Both boys were very tired and hungry and any parent knows that's the perfect meal to eat out at a restaurant. :) but overall they did good. And we enjoyed ourselves in the company of Grampie.

WE left in the afternoon and got home around 7:30ish.

It was a wonderful weekend away. We were relaxed and really enjoyed our time. We were able to forget about what lies ahead and fully enjoy our time - BUT we were also able to nail down an apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is the biggest answer to prayer - b/c anyone who has done a move like this knows, it is way better to actually move into a place, and not try to stay with someone and dump your stuff off somewhere then move it again. now we have a place to tell people our new address, I can do a "change of address" and we are much more relaxed about getting there. I wish i could explain to you how much of an answer to prayer it was - but I'm afraid I would not be able to convey it acurrately - so just know that we were hoping for a miracle and God provided just what we needed and wanted and asked for!!!! He is so good, and confirmed to us in that way that we are doing the right thing!!

Psalms

We will be visiting my Grandfather this weekend before we move very far away from him. And we will also be seeing some good friends, my Cousin and family (also good friends) and my Auntie Terre. (and hopefully a few other people too)
I will be off of blogger for this longer weekend. But I leave you with this verse that lifted my spirits today

Psalm 9
Vs 1. I will praise you O Lord with all my heart, I will tell of all your wonders
vs 2. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High
Vs 9. The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble
Vs 10. Those who know your name will trust in You, For you, Lord have NEVER forsaken those who seek You

Honesty

just going to be honest right here on my blog - this seems to be a distinctively harder week for me. Richard has worked longer hours than normal (which i guess is a good thing b/c his work has been too slow lately), I have been overwhelmed emotionally with conflicting emotions (happy to be starting new and happy to start our lives in CO helping the church plant, but sad to think about leaving my friends and the comfortable life I have), worries about the future, packing, kids etc.
I read THE PERFECT post tonight here
and I was convicted of my sin! How many times this week have I responded to Carson in frustration over hearing him say the same thing A MILLION times before I even have a chance to respond yes or no? How many times I have been "irritated" at Landon's lack of napping or his crying b/c he's stuck once again under the table and charis? How many nights have I been frustrated that Richard is not home and I have to do the whole dinner/bedtime routine by myself? How many nights have I fought the lack of desire to read to my child so I can just sit? How many times have I voiced to Richard when he gets back from a VERY LONG day at work, that there is so much to do, that I've done all the packing by myself? Instead of showing him love and bearing all things? I'm almost in tears with conviction of my actions and attitudes tonight.

So as i sit here by myself I plan to embrace Richard when he gets home late, when he really needs my embrace b/c he has worked his "butt off" this whole week, and just be still with him and thank him for his hard work. I wish i could turn the clock back and hold my sons a little longer, spend a little longer on the floor reading the same book for the hundredth time instead of getting up to wash the dishes.
God help me to love all things, bear all things! help me to show my family love! Thank you Lord for your grace in my life. Thank you for loving me and saving me despite my sinfulness.

New day

That's what I'm hoping for when i wake up . . .
Now - realize I'm trying desperately to put all this in perspective, to hold to the truth of the gospel on each aspect of my day, to glorify God, and to try to be optomistic about my day but . . . (maybe this will be humorous to some, and probably to me in about 4 days)
Started out all "gung hoe" with making muffins and baby food, played in the pool in the yard with the boys then put them down for naps. Then it all turned around . . .
1.Plans for running with a friend postponed b/c Richard worked late
2. Consequently , no supper made b/c I'm bummed he's gone and don't know when he'll get home
3. Boys are cranky due to lack of good naps
4. 2 unexpected prospectors (of renting the place when we move out) show up unannounced. i thought my Landlord said he would give them my cell to call me directly to set up a time? Well, nope - gotta show my very messy 1/4 packed apartment to complete strangers with cranky kids trying to eat cantaloupe
5. due to the "visitors" and "trying to eat cantaloupe" nothing else for supper is made, and momma is hungry, and we all know what happens when momma gets hungry

picture this rotated to the right

6. here is a picture of the bathtub that i find when i start the whole bathing process. (and everyone knows, I do not like giving the boys baths, it tires me out and is hard for me to do b/c they don't seem to like it either, hmmm, maybe that's a coincidence) yup you guessed it, shaving cream exploded, how does that happen?

hopefully i can show this on my blog

7. My poor Landon's back got sunburned, he was bent over the side of the pool most of the morning playing, and his back was exposed and momma didn't notice :( Poor little guy!!!
8. and let's just add one more thing to top it off - this is the 3rd day that I have not had any iced coffee!!!! (I have had coffee just not my favorite) Isn't that some sort of record or something. :) (jk)
But really, I need to take advantage of them these last 2 and half weeks b/c they don't have Dunkin donuts in CO!!!! (good reason to splurge every day before we leave) (Richard is happy about that one. :) )

HERE'S TO HOPING TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY, AND MAYBE I'LL GET AN ICED COFFEE