18th Aug 2008
Would you like to know what the coolest thing about this fall is (will be)? Purple clothes! Not just purple clothes though, purple ruffled clothes! Nice feminine ruffles in a deep purple! I’m excited because purple is a color that looks good on my skin tone. Just flip through the newest Sephora mailer thingy and you will see these pretty clothes. Also purple eyeshadow is in this fall! I’m pretty sure I have some deep purple eyeshadow around somewhere. This is great because highly pigmented colors actually show up on my skin.
Update: I am ahead of my time
Of course, I don’t know where I’m going to be wearing makeup seeing as I’ll really be a SAHM starting tomorrow. Maybe we’ll go walking at the short pump town center in the fall?
Something else I need this year: a pair of jeans or two. I don’t have a single pair to fit me, only my cropped NY&co pair. I’d really love to find a pair that fits exactly like my cropped pair on the top, but are trouser cut below that.
WHOA!!!! Charlotte just took 2 steps on her own!!!!!!!!!
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17th Aug 2008
Just a quick post.
Watching the olympics right now. Frog is asleep, but sleeping lightly. Move date is still 8/29 and we have a LOT to do until then. We’ve signed a lease on a place down in Richmond, and we’re still praying that this house sells.
I’m done with teaching tomorrow, Adam’s last day is wednesday. I’m trying to figure out the timing of all the things that need to be done. We need to get the brakes done on my car, have our ceiling fixed where we put that new light in, and take more loads of breakable stuff out of this house. I really want to make sure my Christmas houses don’t get broken– I’ve put so much work in to them! We also have about 2392423 cans of paint downstairs that need to get discarded somehow. I know we can’t trash them, I think we take them to a landfill? I don’t know.
Man, I wish I was ripped like these gymnast girls. They’ve got some incredible arm muscles!
Watching this makes me see how similar musicianship and athleticism are. I suppose I’ll blog on that later when I’m actually functional and thinking.
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10th Aug 2008
We’ve been busy, as you can imagine. We have found a place to live down in Richmond. Its really close to the store, about 5 miles away! Adam has never lived that close to work before. Its a little townhouse which is a bit smaller than the one we have now. We think that we’ll live there for a year or so, then think about if we want to buy a small place (depending on how the market looks) or possibly rent a small single family home. This neighborhood seems really nice, and the current renters really like it, and are moving because they bought a house.
Our tentative move date is August 29th. This week the movers will send someone to survey our house. I need to go through all the rooms and start deciding what gets moved by us (because its too fragile, sensitive, etc) and what we allow the movers to pack and move. We also need to store some stuff down at the lake house, as this townhouse has practically no storage. This would be a great reason to rent a small single family home when this lease is up, because of the storage issue.
Adam’s last day at his current store is Aug 17th Aug 24 Aug 20th(not so bad…), and then he’s off. I have not decided on a firm date to hand my students over to the new teacher I’m finished teaching this weekend. By the way, I’m really excited about the new teacher– she’s fabulous and talented and I’m blessed to have her there to hand the kids off to. I’m leaning towards an earlier end date for teaching, because I really need the time to get this house in order.
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5th Aug 2008
Its changed a bit.
No corporate housing now. Instead, we are getting enough money to cover a couple months rent. I knew this was the smarter option, and apparently the girl who does the moving stuff realized too. So we were bumped up to a higher package. This is good and bad:
Good: We only have to move once. This is very important.
Bad: We have to find our own place. But thats not all bad, I’d rather that than some pseudo-hotel place anyways. I was not looking forward to living out of a suitcase.
We’re going to look at a place (or more, if we can find something else) on Friday.
Proverbs 3:5-6 jumped out at me today. Then there’s always Romans 8:28, and Phil 4:6-7
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5th Aug 2008
My response comment grew long enough for a post 
CIO would be the wrong way to parent our child for sure in our circumstances. There’s the vomit factor (extended crying = vomit everywhere) and the falling out of bed factor, since theres nothing to stop her from rolling to the floor. Its only a 5 inch drop to soft carpet though. I usually check on very vigorous crying, but now she crawls back into bed if she slips off.
I can’t say whats right for nighttime parenting for each family. I know that neither Adam or I could listen to our child cry for a long time and not comfort her. There are drawbacks to our arrangement, just like there are drawbacks to a traditional American arrangement. I’m prepared for the reality that we may wean her out of our bed and have some nights of crying. But I hope that thats when she’s older and I can explain it to her and have her understand.
I’m not judging anyone’s parenting style, and I’m certainly not saying everyone should co-sleep. We’re lone rangers with the attachment parenting thing here. Its probably my own paranoia, but I do feel like people think we’re crazy. Our decisions have been based on what we instinctively felt was right for our baby. We didn’t read parenting books*. Long after Charlotte was born I read a few baby sleep books and learned that we’ve been following a parenting model without even realizing. I’m used to some weird looks, and I’m sure people think we’re weird for what we do.
I remember bringing our little frog home and laying her swaddled in her bassinet. She was so tiny, and it seemed like she was swallowed up by the empty space. Adam started crying, and he said we couldn’t leave her there. I was so relieved and we slept on pins and needles, but together that night. The next night we got our snugglenest which we LOVED and all was well.
It seems like there’s very little support in this country for co-sleeping families. There are lots of beautiful cribs out there, and very few good co-sleeping beds. Perhaps there isn’t a market for that kind of thing, or perhaps no one has been creative enough yet.
I’m not being very clear here. I wish I could say this all better, but we’ve just gotten more news that he thrown us for a loop, and I’m scrambling. I hope this was a good answer though.
*before she was born. We WILL read some parenting books that address older kids. We just didn’t read ones about tiny babies, because we kinda already knew our way around babies
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4th Aug 2008
We still don’t have any more details about our move. You know as much as I know. I do have to say a couple things though
1. God is completely amazing.
2. I am thankful for family, particularly my Mother-in-Law
I was telling her today that we’d probably end up seeing them MORE than we do now, since we’ll end up spending the night there at least once a month so we can come up and see them and our friends. Usually when I get off the phone I say to Adam “do you realize I talk to and see your mother way more than you do?” and he thinks that is funny.
Frog is having sleep problems lately. Naps are still good, but bedtime is….ugggggghhhh. When Adam is home bedtime could be anywhere from 7pm to midnight. She misses her daddy so much, and she wants to be with him every second she can.
Tonight, I started the bedtime routine around 7, and she finally went to sleep around 9. Despite this, we’re still pretty set on no Cry-it-Out. We don’t believe that its fair to make a little baby do that. Its apparent now that frog wants me there with her when she sleeps, but I tend to think this is a phase rather than some kind of manipulation, and we’ll tough through it. My thoughts on this phase are that she’s teething and she gets overtired (I may need to tweak the bedtime routine) and then she wants me for comfort. There’s nothing wrong with that, and that is part of my job as her mother, to help her go to sleep. I do believe she’ll learn to sleep on own, and mostly she WANTS to be on her own. I usually want to snuggle, and she’s the one wiggling away. When she teethes though, she’s super clingy. She has been sleeping either tummy down with her head on my tummy, or lying on my arm. Either way is uncomfortable for me, because I’m a tummy sleeper. But its okay, I’ll do what I need to do so she gets some sleep.
I think I need some co-sleeping friends to fellowship with. Its nice to talk to people who are/have gone through it too. We were talking to a girl at the eye doctor’s office who co-sleeps, and our eye doctor and his wife co-sleep with their daughter too.
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2nd Aug 2008
We found out today whats going on.
We’ll be going down there no earlier than September 1st, but no later than September 15th. We’ll get 60 days of corporate housing, and then we need to find our own place.
We REALLY need our house to sell. It’ll go on the market shortly (probably this week, I hope). You can continue to pray for us the following ways:
Pray that our house would get a buyer fairly quickly.
Pray that the whole process goes smoothly.
Pray that God would be glorified through our decisions
Pray that we’d have patience with each other during this stressful time
Pray that OUR HOUSE WOULD SELL!!!
Thats all for now. My ankle feels a bit better, and my eye drops drip down the back of my throat somehow, and they taste disgusting. I hate wearing my glasses all the time.
Gotta go, somebody is crying to be let out of their high chair.
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1st Aug 2008
We have no news to report at the moment.
Yesterday we went down to Richmond to check the area out. My contact was bothering me, but it wasn’t that bad so I left it alone. I took it out last night and my eye was killing me. Went to the eye doctor today and it turns out I have a scratched cornea. Fun. Then, as I was leaving the eye doctor, Adam (who had taken frog outside for a change of scenery) came up behind me and called my name. I whipped around right as I was stepping off a step, landed badly and twisted my ankle. Its not my day.
I need an ace bandage, and some more advil.
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31st Jul 2008
Here’s the deal.
A few months ago we found out a Richmond store would be opening. We looked into the area, and decided it would be a pretty good place to live (know the area, lower cost of living) so Adam updated his papers to say we’d be willing to go. We weren’t picked. A month or so ago, all the stores got an email asking for people who would be willing to go since there was a shortage. Adam emailed and said he’d like to go, only he was concerned that a certain someone would be the boss, and he can’t work with her again (Alexandria, crazy stress, remember?). So the big boss took that as Adam being difficult, and Adam was told he’s ruined all chances of transfer and too bad. We were okay with that, trusting that God knows best for us. Fast forward to 3 days ago, and Adam receives a call out of the blue from the Big Boss asking him if we’d be willing to go. This was completely random, and completely directed at us, not a general call for someone to transfer.
Although this is huge, and has disastrous potential, there is potential for disaster down the road if we stay here too. We’re taking a chance either way, but this circumstance is so random, and such answered prayer, that we do believe this is from God. Everyone who has known our situation thinks so too. When I go over it all, I realize how can this NOT be a sign? Adam really believes this is the best thing for our family, and I am trusting him, and God and we’ll do it.
So, the open date of the store is sept 26, and the date for employees to report is Aug 15. This means we have to move fast, which wouldn’t be a problem. Except we have this house!! This house, ugh. Anyone want to buy it? Anyways, the Big Boss is trying to get us approved for 90 days or so of corporate housing. This means we could live rent free, but I don’t think we can make this mortgage payment for much longer. Remember, I lose my income when we move, as I’m not teaching here anymore. So we’re waiting on word of our housing situation. Today we’re going to drive around the area of the new store and get our bearings and check out the area. We know our way around, but we have never looked at it thinking that we’ll live there.
Things that are up in the air:
what date exactly do we move, when do the movers come?
do we get corporate housing?
Do we get to pick our corporate housing? Do we put some stuff in storage, if so, does TJs pay for that?
Do they pay for the second move (out of corporate housing, into a permanent place of our choosing?)
What is Adam’s actual start date at the store? Is it the same as the other people?
Thats about it for now. So many people have emailed, facebooked, etc, that I’ll keep updating here rather than replying to every message because as you might imagine, we will be EXTREMELY busy in the coming weeks
Oh– I might need someone to take over my studio of kids. Any takers? I have someone in mind, who I’ll be contacting shortly. But I don’t want to leave them hanging right before the school year starts.
If you’re a born-again, please keep praying for wisdom, discernment, and a smooth transition for us.
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29th Jul 2008
We’ve been asked to transfer to Richmond. We need to go ASAP. This came out of the blue, we weren’t actively asking God to do this. You can pray for us in a couple ways:
pray that we’d clearly discern God’s will for our lives
pray that we’d make decisions that are honoring to God
pray that this brings us closer to Him
pray that our house sells!!
pray that the move itself goes smoothly.
pray that our decisions bring God glory!
I’ll write more later. I just fell asleep with daddy and frogs. Frog fell asleep on the carpet at the foot of the bed mid-play, and I had to pick her up and put her in bed. So I need to get myself showered and drink a bunch of water and go to bed because I’ve been neglecting those basics to pace the floors, plan, and pray.
If you’re really interested in details, call or email. We’re around, although I anticipate shutting off the home phone soon (we were going to do that anyway and go with cell phones only).
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