19 More Days

We have a chain.

...A chain to count down the days until October 17th. 

The kids (mainly Makayla) and I colored and dated the strips of paper - 

and each day, we take one off ...getting closer and closer to the big day.

19 more days. 

19 more days until we move from this house to that house.

For weeks we have been talking about the "blue house".
For weeks we have been driving by the "blue house".

For weeks we have been visiting the "blue house".  

We've been picking out our rooms,

deciding where would be a good place to put our piano and the Christmas tree, 

trying to figure out what wall in the basement we would put our 125 gallon fish tank,

deciding what color we would paint that green in the kitchen, 

and rolling around being free in all of the extra space. 

For weeks we have been surrounded in boxes and packing up our things.

For weeks we have been dreaming about the future and what it's going to be like to make the "blue house" our house.

For weeks I have been locking up the memories of our time on North Monroe and forever storing them away in my heart and mind - our first house together, where we started our family, the smell of our home, Makayla's tree, all of the little things I'm going to miss about the North Monroe house and all of the things that make me love it.  It's been good to us and we're definitely going to miss it.

But it's time.

Finally.

For years, we have gone back and forth about selling our home.  There have been more than several homes that we've "loved" and that we've wanted, but it's never really felt "right" and I've always found a way to get out of it - to not move - to move on to a different house or deciding altogether that we're not moving at all.

I would convince myself to be content on North Monroe.
I would convince myself that we could be comfortable in our 3 bedroom 1 bath home.
I would convince myself that we don't need to move...that we have everything we need right here on North Monroe.
And that's true. 

But...

This "blue house" is different.
I feel in my heart that this is right.

This is what we want and this is what we need.

This is what we've been waiting for.

This is a good thing and I didn't want to lose it.

So moving from something good

To something better...

all I can say is, 

we are blessed.

We've worked very hard to get where we are so far and I can't wait until October 17th gets here when we can open the front door to the "blue house" and say Welcome Home! 

P.S.  I know that next year, our new home won't be blue, but it will forever be known as the "blue house" to our family!!

BOXES and BIRTHDAYS

It has been over 20 days since I've blogged.
Ugh.
That's not like me!...and there's a little part of me that feels like I'm drowning because of it.

Drowning in a sea of everything that means the most to me - life is going on all around me and I'm scared of forgetting it, scared of losing it.  

Sound strange?
I'm sure it does.

But without me making it a priority to set aside time to sit down and blog, I feel like I lose my perspective on what matters most in life. This blog helps me to not take for granted the little things and to be thankful in all things.  And it helps me to never forget...to never forget the things that I want to hold onto for...ever.  I want to remember how we felt on Mason's first day of preschool, I want to remember how we felt when Makayla lost her first tooth, I want to remember how we felt when Mia joined our family...
I want to remember all those conversations with my babies - the conversations that make me laugh so hard my lips turn numb, or the conversations that tug at my heart so much so that it brings tears to my eyes.
When I can't (or when I don't) document these moments in time - the milestones, the pictures, the conversations - our every day life, I feel like I'm drowning.  I feel lost.

Could I work on that?  Could I work on not feeling that way if I didn't blog?
Of course.

Do I want to?
I don't think so.
The reward of this blog is too great to give up.

What I, and my family, will be able to hold in our hands years down the road is not something I am willing to bring to an end quite yet.

So, with that being said, what's been going on for the past 20 days?

BOXES 

and
BIRTHDAYS!

In the midst of selling our home and buying a new one...

we've been surrounding ourselves with boxes...

and empty shelves...

We've spent the last couple of weeks packing -
Packing up our lives and packing up what's been our home for the last 10 years.

(more on this topic to come in the following weeks)

And in between the days of packing, we've celebrated a few birthdays!

Makayla turned SIX!

Grandma Curry turned SIXTY!

and Mason turned FOUR!

We Mommy and daddy opted out of throwing big birthday parties for the kids this year!

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't feel like having or not having birthday parties makes the day any more or less special.

The day is what you make it!

Makayla's birthday was a day for her!  We celebrated her turning SIX years old!
She started her day out with us singing "Happy Birthday" to her over cinnamon rolls,

and ended her day with us singing "Happy Birthday" to her over ice cream cake at Grandma and Grandpa Allen's.
In between, she celebrated with her friends at school with cookies and kool-aid.
We let her pick where she wanted to have her birthday dinner and she chose Olive Garden with Grandma and Grandpa Curry (good choice, baby girl!).  She ate all of her ravioli and the waiter delivered her a special dessert.
Between cinnamon rolls, ice cream cake, dessert at Olive Garden, goodies at school, and opening presents, she had a pretty great day!

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Grandma Curry turned 60 years old and we celebrated her birthday with a wiener roast with family and friends.
I put together a very special gift for grandma that included all of her grand kids (minus gage and reagyn) - "60 Reasons Why We Love Grandma".  It's a gift that came from the heart that she will cherish forever.

60 little tickets with messages of love and appreciation, tucked away in a jar with the hymn "Count Your Blessings" wrapped around the treasure.

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Mason's birthday was a day for HIM! We celebrated him turning FOUR years old!

His day started out with breakfast at Hardees (his choice) and ended with us singing "Happy Birthday" to him over cake with the grandparents.

In between, he celebrated with his friends at school with Spider Man fruit snacks and kool-aid.  

We let him pick where he wanted to have his birthday dinner and he chose McDonalds (big deal to him because surprisingly it's not a place we go to too often)

Between breakfast at Hardees, treats with his friends at school, dinner at McDonalds, cake, and presents, he had a pretty great day!

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life is good