TTT: Season 2, Episode 13

Better late than never! ...

1. Square One. Yep. Back to square one. In the house hunt, that is. The past few weeks I've blabbed on and on about how we found a house we love and had put some offers in on it but were waiting to accept their final counter offer until we got Mark's first paycheck...yada, yada, yada. We expect that first check to be rolling in tomorrow.

And found out that the owners accepted an offer from someone else Tuesday night.

Let's just say that yesterday was not a good day. I woke up to the email telling me that my little house was no longer available. How dare they do that to an emotional pregnant woman! The whole day ended up being rough. Tough pill to swallow. Mainly because I've felt all along that this whole finding-a-new-house thing was mainly my responsibility. I took it upon myself. Sure, Mark likes to be involved and wants to help make the decisions, but after all, I'm a homemaker. He works so that I can stay home, care for our children, and take care of our home. So I really took this whole house hunting project on as "Mark will start his new job and try to get into the swing of an entirely new medical community and practice and I'll find us the perfect house and get it all established." To say it felt like I dropped the ball is an understatement. Especially since there's no "back-up" house. Nothing we liked just as much or second in the running. At least not in our price range. Just our little house we had our hearts set on. There's still the original "dream house" but unless we magically stumble upon an extra $10,000.... we're back to square one.

I know. There are greater tragedies. And thank God we have my parents here with their doors opened for us to stay. But really, I had my heart set on getting into our new home and settled down before the new baby gets here. If things are stressful now, can you imagine trying to move into a new house and get it all set up with a three-year-old, a two-year-old and a few-week-old? The thought alone makes me nauseous. We still have a little bit of time. But supposedly down here things take about forty days from contract to closing, so right now we're looking at mid to end of May. And a few weeks from now, make that June. Same time as we're expecting our little man to arrive. We trust that the right thing is going to end up working out for our family. It's just so hard not knowing how...or when...or where...or....

2. The poor, abandoned house on 72nd. I knew leaving our little home behind in Lubbock just two days after accepting an offer on it would be risky. Even though it wasn't getting shown anymore, knowing our luck, I was certain at least something would happen to it while we were away. Something destructive that I'd have to figure out how to fix from afar prior to the closing.  Something like this:

Good ol' West Texas wind. That and an unlocked, extremely poorly made particle board shed door don't go well together apparently.

My brother Dave has been checking on our house regularly to make sure everything is ok and stumbled upon this on Sunday. Knowing that we have all kinds of stuff stored out there and not wanting to leave it open, I began wracking my brain trying to figure out a way to fix it without hiring a local handyman that would charge me way more than it actually costs. Someone who actually had the tools and skills to fix it.

Enter male super hero extraordinaire, my cousin's husband, Joe. When he's not busy performing orthopedic surgery on the poor unfortunate souls in Lubbock, he's doing things like making a custom Murphy Bed or designer outdoor dog resort. Or creating this cool window in our house. He's got the skills, he's got the tools. To think he'd have it completely done within twenty-four hours was just out of my imagination. But apparently super heroes are not subject to time restraints and thus, the following evening his beautiful daughter, Vanna White Shelby sent me this pic of the new door.

How glad am I to have friends like them who drop everything in their free time to help me out. And how sad am I to know that right now I don't have that here. Boo.

Dear Joe, I realize your parents live down in the Houston area too. Please consider moving to The Woodlands so we won't have to go without the world's best handy man. That, or make sure you're passing through any time our new little house (that we're hopefully going to find) has a problem that we can't fix. Sincerely, Laura

3. The Little Man. It's hard to believe that I'm nearing the end of my third pregnancy. Wasn't it just yesterday that I found out I was expecting? In some regards, I feel sorry for the little fella. The world outside his little comfort zone has been quite a whirlwind. Not the laid-back-take-care-of-yourself-because-your-pregnant kind of world. More like chaos-crawling-around-on-floors-painting-packing-cleaning-searching-fretting kind of world. I suppose that helps explain the lack of weight gain (for me). He, somehow, doesn't seem to mind. In fact, I went to my first OB appointment down here in The Woodlands on Tuesday and right now everything looks just fine. His heart rate was 138 and my uterus measured just right. My blood pressure was 108/70 which is stellar for me. No signs of any rising...yet. He's moving around like a champ and, like most babies, loves to do it the most when ever I finally sit down and relax. He's used to the roller coaster during the day and creates one of his own when the one I create finally slows down. To the unsuspecting, it's still hard to tell that he's even in there. I asked my mom if I honestly looked like I was pregnant. Her answer was, "Uh....kind of more like what people look like right after they've had a baby. Not right before they have a baby."

"Pudgy" or "Chunky in the mid-section" would have sufficed. Or even "nice muffin top." Nothing like being long waisted and pregnant. Despite all the shenanigans going on in our lives right now, we really are looking forward to meeting this little guy and welcoming him into the world. Most importantly into our family. Regardless of where we are living or whose house we're squatting at!

Hope everyone has a good week....hopefully I'll still be able to post next week. Big week ahead! I leave on Tuesday to head back to Lubbock. Packers on Wednesday, movers on Thursday, closing on Friday. Sad...our little life in Lubbock really is coming to an end. But it's good to see that it's all going so smoothly...at least on the selling side of things.

Leaving Lubbock: Part 1

I'm a little bit behind with this "series" of posts. Ok, probably more than a little bit, considering we've been here in The Woodlands for nearly two weeks. And the party I write about in this post was held a little over a week before we left. But have you ever moved before??? It's busy! And exhausting! So that's my excuse for being so far behind.

Our wonderful friends in Lubbock threw us the neatest little going away party two weekends before we left town. We are so, so very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends in Lubbock. If only they could have all come with us to The Woodlands! We already miss them all so much. There's lots of pictures in this post...you'll have to forgive me! And even at that, there's so many wonderful people who aren't pictured that were there that I wish we had paused and taken pictures with! Here we go...

The hostesses put together the best food buffet ever...filled with our favorite Lubbock-only foods! What a great idea!

The lady that made our wedding cakes is the best baker ever. We've ended up turning to her for cakes to celebrate all occassions so having a Kerry-cake at our going away party was the perfect touch.

Kolbe was beside himself when I told him we weren't going to be blowing out candles on this cake. But Mom! All cakes are supposed to have candles! So Miss Erin scrounged up a few and we sang "Say Goodbye to Kolbe" and let him blow out the candles.

And of course Rudy had to have his turn too.

Andy and John got in on the festivities...and Joe was clearly having the time of his life in the background!

Hopefully we'll be reuniting with this sweet couple (Conner...er, Collin...and Anna) this summer for their wedding in San Antonio.

Girl buddies- Erin, Karen, and me...starting to work the pregnant full-face.

This absolutely had to be documented--Kinsey actually let Mark hold her! It's a first!

Because Dave lived with us for most of Kolbe's first year and a half of life, these two are the best of friends. It will be hard to be away from "Uncle Dang."

Us with the Bergmans...(how fair is it that my husband is about fourteen shades tanner than I am!?! Not at all!!!) I'm going to miss my dear cousin/stay-at-home-mama confidant, Mandi. Thank God for text messages!

Ever since Kolbe was a baby he's been attached at the hip to "Uncle Bean." He adores him. And to me, this picture of these two shows it all.

See! He and Rudy both think Ben is the coolest!

Baby John was about to get in his jammies and had never experienced crawling on a cold tile floor. He had to bear crawl it to the carpet as fast as possible!

And then spend some time laughing at his godfather, Uncle Marky.

Lubbock has been heavily populated by Hefferlys since Mike's arrival in 1999. Twelve years later the total drops from what was once five to now only two. And give it about two more years and I think we'll be extinct.

I love Uncle Dave!

Me too!

Us with our dear friends, the Johnsons...weekends will be lonely without yall!

And the last crew standing at the end of the night! Seriously...this was around midnight and we still managed to get a fairly good shot with the camera propped on the counter!



We loved our special little going away party and feel so blessed that God gave us such a wonderful extended family to experience the first years of our married life with in Lubbock. These are the people we love and our children love and we will miss them terribly.

TTT: Season 2, Episode 12

1. The House Hunt. After last weeks disertation about not having to have the "dream house" at such a young age and being willing to settle on a "good enough" house for now, we did not put an offer in on the "good enough" house. Because right after my blog post, our realtor took us to see one last house that she found in her system. It was the only house we saw on Thursday...and the only one we needed to see 'cause we absolutely loved it. While still a little over our price range, we decided to put an offer in on it and the past week has been back and forth negotiations with the owners. Unfortunately, right now we're kind of deadlocked. They really have no reason to move right now other than that they want a bigger house in The Woodlands, so basically they aren't desperate to sell. And we, while we are desperate to get in to our own place ASAP, are not desperate to get ourselves into a financial situation that we can't handle. Let's just say that we're really close to taking the deal. Hypothetically, we should have enough each month to make the payment comfortably and we should have enough for the closing costs and required down payment. We're just a little gun shy. Right now our budget, like I said, is a hypothetical. We haven't received that first paycheck yet so we're not one hundred percent sure what the income is going to look like each month. And while everything is moving right along with the sale of our house in Lubbock, we're not one hundred percent sure what we'll be walking away with on closing day. Thus, we don't know exactly how much we'll have available for closing costs down here. I'm not really a fan of hypotheticals. Some of you might think I'm crazy...just go for it! Have a little faith! While others of you might think I'm smart...better safe than sorry...be cautious till you know for sure. Both are probably correct. And Lord willing, this awesome house is the house that's meant for us. But right now, only time will tell. Hopefully within the next week or two we'll have the on-paper evidence we need to take that leap of faith and commit to our new home in The Woodlands. Pray for us!

2. Our new environment. Mark started his new job on Monday and so far, everything is going really well. Of course, it's an adjustment for everyone, but for the most part it has been a smooth transition. Dada is back to work and Kolbe and Rudy are back to "school." "School" is what we refer to as structured learning time each day. We had several months of this routine back in Lubbock and then it all just went to pot when we decided we'd be moving. The focus turned to getting the house ready, moving, and such. But with such instability overall right now, I thought now would be a great time to get back into the swing of our previous normalness. It helps. A lot.

As does the nice, warm weather we are surrounded by down here. Don't get me wrong...I know "nice" in Houston turns in to "miserable" fairly quickly. But right now it's certainly tolerable and we've been able to spend a ton of time outside. We take at least one, often two trips to the park behind my parents' house each day and the boys have been fishing with Mark multiple times. Also at the park behind my parents' house. And it's quite easy to say that the fishing at our little pond in Lubbock doesn't hold a candle to this place! In all the trips back in Lubbock they didn't catch a single fish. Collectively, over about three or four trips, I think we're at around fifteen fish here in The Woodlands so far. You can literally dangle a line with a piece of corn attached down into the water and pull out a fish. The boys love it. Mark being the main "boy" in the group. And yes, it is quite humid down here...we've been in shorts and t-shirts every day since we arrived...and yes, the mosquitos are already out (for real!)...but we're loving the time to spend most of our days outdoors taking in nature. What a beautiful place in the spring time!

3. Randomness.
Bad. We all know that I'm not exactly the biggest pregnant person ever. Like even with Kolbe and Rudy when I did gain normal amounts of pregnancy weight, I never got huge like most pregnant women get. And when I lay down, it's even less pregnant looking. Like full term you can hardly even tell I'm pregnant....it all just goes off to the side kind of. Anyway, that's my defense for a little problemo I'm having. As all the books and websites and doctors say, when you're pregnant you're supposed to sleep on your side. It's best for baby, best for you, yada, yada, yada. The problem is, every single night I fall asleep on my side and wake up face down on my stomach. Most people as far along in their pregnancy as I am would find that to be impossible. But somehow I end up doing this every night, several times a night, and continue to sleep comfortably. I wake up to go to the bathroom and find myself face down. I've tried positioning pillows and all that jazz to quit my bad habit but to no avail. And really, I didn't worry much in the beginning because I had no baby bump, but now that  I do...and I can literally feel him squirming around in there as he's smashed up to the mattress, I'm starting to feel bad! Like I said...random...just thought I'd share.

Good. My mom, Kolbe, Rudy and I got a special treat on Tuesday: we got to talk to my brother, Mike, on skype! As most of you know, Mike has been deployed to Afghanistan for a few weeks now and is over flying his plane in the war. While it's easy to send letters and emails, or even have a phone call, there's something so special about getting to actually see someone. To watch him move, hear his voice, see his expressions...and know he is ok. It's something we marvel at and are so thankful for now. 'Cause when my dad went to the war back in 1991, there was no skype. We didn't even have a family computer yet. And certainly didn't have cell phones yet either. Sure there were letters and packages. And we always prayed to God that we'd be home when Dad happened to get a chance to call. Which was like maybe ten times the entire time he was deployed. But my, how technology has changed the way we stay in touch, especially with the people who sacrifice so much for the good of others. What a special treat for us! And hopefully, in some small way, it helps him too. Please pray for all of our soldiers and their families who miss them so.

TTT: Season 2, Episode 11

1. So much has gone on in the past week that I really can't even process. Right now it's total mental, emotional, physical overload. Every now and then I just have to pause and think Ahhhhh! I feel out of control! But I suppose I knew it would be like this. Kind of. I'll give a brief run-down for record keeping's sake:

Wednesday: (as in last Wednesday) We got our first offer on our house and made a counter-offer. I didn't want to mention it in last week's post 'cause I wasn't sure if it was going to go through or what.
Thursday: More showings of the house, so more cleaning. More packing.
Friday: Packing. And good times with a little stomach bug for me. Perfect timing. Dinner with friends and family one last time.
Saturday: They accepted our counter-offer! In under a month's time on the market, our house is under contract. Yea!!! Many props to St. Joseph for his intercession! Packing, cleaning, and a little Asmussen family going away party. Oh, and my last trip to Bahama Bucks. Red Raider with cream.
Sunday: Mass at St. E's. Lunch with friends and family at Spanky's. Brief nap for the boys and then time with G-ma and Papa Jeep for the evening. And yummy dinner at Orlandos for our "last supper." Very emotional farewell to end the evening.
Monday: Off to The Woodlands! Nine hours later we managed to survive the trip. I spent from west of Abilene all the way to Houston in the throw-up car with the two boys. Kolbe barfed twice. Once in a bag, once not so much. Such a lovely scent. The car has been airing out ever since. But thank God for leather seats!
Tuesday: Mark and I met with a mortgage lender first thing in the morning and got approved for our new mortgage at an awesome rate. (Yea!) Then the house hunt began. We saw nine houses and fell in love with one that we later discovered was totally out of our price range...especially considering the insane taxes here in The Woodlands. (Boo.) Had a pow-wow with the realtor and asked her just to focus on the ones in our realistic price range so we wouldn't needlessly fall in love anymore.
Wednesday: Looked at ten more houses. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. So much to look at and consider. Found another one we really like that is in our realistic price range. Thinking...thinking...thinking... On the way home from house hunting got our inspection report from the casa back in Lubbock. Tried to jump back to seller mode from buyer mode and process the whole thing. Ugh! There's so much to deal with!

And here we are. About to go look at a few more houses before our realtor has to go out of town this afternoon. I need a nap. And really, a margarita. But I'll hold back for a few more months.

2. Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Pinkie and Pa have been getting to spend a little a lot of time with the boys while we house hunt. Kolbe is loving it all but Rudy has really had a little bit of a hard time with it. He was very emotional the first day when we were out looking. Very sensitive to the fact that Mama and Dada were missing. And very aware that we weren't going "home." I honestly thought Kolbe would be the one to hit the ready-to-go-homes first but instead it's the little guy. It made me really sad Tuesday when we got home from eating out...he rode in my parent's car and as we got into the driveway, he immediately ran over to our car and started pulling on the handle saying, "Home. Home." Then yesterday morning he woke up and crawled up in bed with me and said the same thing. It's amazing how babies can sense that something is definitely going on. That their world is changing. That the normal they always knew is no longer. And it makes me hate that we're doing this to him. I know, I know. He'll be ok. A week or two from now he'll be used to the changes and it won't be so bad. It's just a lot for a little mind to process right now. So much so that his sleep has gotten totally out of whack. I'm not sure how this is even humanly possible but he's had a total mess of a time attempting to adjust to the day light savings time change. Instead of wanting to stay up all night and thus sleeping in late, he's waking up even earlier than ever! Like up at 6:00am. Which just a few days ago was 5:00am! How do you possibly managed to adjust in the opposite way!?! Ugh! Go to sleep, little fella! It will all be alright. Really. I promise.

3. I debated writing about two things for my third thought. Either the emotions of saying goodbye or the drama of house hunting. I think I'm ready to stop being sad about leaving and focus on the here-and-now for a bit. Besides, I'm sure I'll be writing about how much I miss everyone here in a week or two when all has settled down and I'm not as overwhelmingly busy and have time to miss the normalness of our world back in Lubbock.

So back to the house hunt.

Do you know that feeling when you're in the store and see something you love that's just a little more than you were wanting to pay??? Or say if you're looking for a new car. You decided you're on a minivan budget, but man, that extended Tahoe sure looks awesome...and would make me look like such a cool mom! It's only a difference in monthly payment of like, oh, two hundred dollars or so...

We're having a little bit of that problemo with the ol' house hunt. When we told our realtor our original price range, she (like I'm sure all realtors do...) extended the range of homes we looked at to include home that were over our price range. Like $25,000 over our price range. She went into the whole dog and pony show of how you don't have to offer them the full price and a lot of them have been on the market for a long time and are anxious to sell and they'd be willing to really negotiate with you and...

So of course almost every house we saw on the first day fit in to this category. At least $20,000 over our goal price range. And I have to give her this...almost all the houses in this area are priced like that. Hello! Have you ever been to The Woodlands!?! Let's just say that we are on the very low end of the totem pole.

Four or five houses in, we went to see a house that we just totally fell in love with. Ahhhhh...heaven. It had literally everything we would want or need in a house and needed absolutely no help what so ever. That dream house feeling. So surely since it's probably been on the market a long time and they're anxious to sell, and, and, and...we'd be able to get a great price on it. Just to find out it's only been on the market for six days. Six. If someone offered me twenty thousand dollars less than my asking price on day six, I'd laugh. Trying to remain hopeful, we went home to crunch numbers only to discover that really, it was completely unrealstic, just as we had predicted.  Frustrated, we insisted that the following day, we only be shown houses that were realistic for our budget. But of course, with the images of our dream house forever burned in our minds. If only she hadn't shown it to us....

The homes the following day were rocky at best. Issues ranged from absolutely no backyard what so ever, to completely junked out foreclosure nightmare, to way-too-far-from-work-and-my-parents-to-be-worth-the-better-price, to Uh, I'm pretty sure there's no way our kitchen table would even fit in the space. So frustrating to find that the only things in your price range in a very elite part of Texas are things that would require thousands to fix or worse, couldn't be fixed at all. But alas, the very last house of the day was one where we finally saw a little light at the end of the tunnel. It's adorable. And aside from one of the bedrooms featuring cotton candy pink walls, really had absolutely nothing we would just have to change.

But, admittedly, that little let-down of It's just not the dream house was in the back of our minds. It's impossible not to compare! The biggest, most obvious element being a huge gameroom area in the dream house. It was set up perfectly to be a gameroom/school room/ office/ sewing room. Even having a little niche completely shelved out for my sewing business and big enough to fit a table where I could leave my machine set up and ready to go. I'm telling you. It was the perfect house in a dream world.

But the truth is, Mark and I are twenty-seven and twenty-eight years old. A lot of people aren't buying their first house at that age, and we're on our second! And certainly, very, very few are buying their "dream home." Of course, we see it and there's that human desire to think Oh, I want it so bad! Why can't we have it now? It was made for our family!!! But in reality, we want it now. We don't need it now. The other house we like meets every need our family has and then some. Sure, I'll still have to drag out and store away my little business every day. And that dream playroom will have to continue to dwell in bedrooms and cleverly stored in the family room. That, or the "formal dining room" that we have no formal dining room furniture to fill it with anyway could be that room...and be the first thing you see when you enter our home. Hi! Welcome to The Asmussens! Want to step on a handful of legos on your way to the kitchen??? But hello! That's where we are at in life! Really, who is coming to our home that we're trying to impress so much that this would be a problem? We are a young, married couple with two, soon to be three small children.

And besides, we certainly don't have to live in this house forever. In fact, the only thing that is holding us back from truly being able to afford a dream house at such a young age is the exorbitant student loan payment that we are making every month on Mark's student loans. (under-grad and grad adds up to be a lot, lemme tell ya...like student loan payment larger than mortgage payment) But guess what- ten years from now all of those loans will be paid off. And we'll be left with a huge increase in expendable income. And heck, if we decide we want a different house, we can go get a different house! And you know what, we'll then be the old, old age of thirty-seven and thirty-eight.

Kind of puts things in perspective. Sure, it's easy to want the Escalade when everyone around you is driving one. But I'm pretty sure Mark and I are cool enough to roll in the swagger-wagon for a while and be completely fine with it. Hey, it's not so bad being exactly where God wants you to be at each stage in life. We're just starting out. We're just beginning. And we have a long, long way to go. But when the right time comes along to change from the "young couple with a handful of little bitty ones" to the "relatively young couple with a pack of tweens and teens," the real "dream house" will be ready for our little family. (ok, I think we're probably already classified as a big family...)

TTT: Season 2, Episode 10

1. The Lenten season is upon us! Always my favorite time for reflection and putting things in perspective. 'Cause really, I make a much bigger deal out of pretty much everything in life. And in comparison to what I should be focusing on...really... Essentially nothing is nearly as important...er, dramatic...as I make it out to be. Perspective. That's what I'm trying to focus on. Realizing that whatever it is I might be dealing with is exactly what God wants me to be going through. Sure, some things are hard. But really, I'm highly blessed and have quite the wonderful life. I do, I do. And all because of a sacrifice so many years ago.

So what am I giving up? Well any form of food or eating is definitely out since my goal is to gain weight and it's not working. So I'm going to try to work on something that's really shameful and ridiculous for me as a mother.

My language.

Ugh. I'm ashamed to admit that I have a three-year-old and a two-year-old running around and I still manage to let what I consider to be quasi-cuss words slip. You know... the words that are socially all over the place but I certainly don't want the boys repeating. It's horrible...and I'm really embarrassed that I haven't stopped these words sooner, but the truth is, I'm such a social talker that it's so easy for them to just pop out! More specifically, we've got "crap," "freaking," "pissed," and "hell." As in "what the hell!?!" I know. Some of you are cringing that I still say these things...and even let them slip in front of the kiddos. And maybe, just maybe, some of you are thinking Doh! I do it too! So that's my goal. No more bad words! Bite my tongue!

2. I had a special little moment with Kolbe last night. I've been able to feel our baby move for quite a while now. And from time to time Mark will have the patience to feel him too. And then there's Kolbe. I'll put his hand on my belly and he'll hold it there for approximately five seconds and then start squirming. Or I'll say, "Oh! Did you feel that?" and he'll say that he did even though I can tell that he didn't. But last night the baby started moving quite a bit while I was putting Kolbe to bed. I had him hold his hand on my belly and all of a sudden I got the eyebrows-shoot-up-mouth-drops-open-oh-my-goodness-what-was-that! face. It was priceless. He's so excited to get to take care of his baby and just can't wait to see him. He even tells me: "Mama, then I want to hold the baby but not till after they clean him off. 'Cause he'll be real, real, real, real dirty." (the results of seeing pictures of Rudy all messy just seconds after they pulled him out) Can't wait to see these two guys together. And Rudy too! He's not going to know what to do!

3. This week has be so. much. fun. Not like Six Flags fun. Like man-I-really-appreciate-my-friends fun. Like this-is-exactly-how-I-wanted-to-go-out fun. Like wow-God-really-has-blessed-us fun.

Our friends threw us a really great going away party on Saturday and it was awesome! A chance to see and chat with all of our close friends that are still here in Lubbock. And to add to it's awesome-ness, they "catered" it with all of our favorite Lubbock foods: Spanky's cheese sticks, One Guy's pizza, Rosa's tortillas, Caprock Cafe's queso, my cousin Mandi's guacamole, my Uncle Chris's BBQ... oh and, a most delicious cake from our favorite baker, Kerry. She made our wedding cakes, and man, nothing can compare! And since then, we've had dinner with different friends every single night. We've really loved getting to spend quality time with everyone we care about...and not having to cook every night isn't so bad either! Suh-weet!

And really, this is exactly how I wanted to leave. Knowing that we spent quality time with the people we love and care about. And not feeling like we left anything undone. Just three more days. Filled with packing, packing, and more packing. And possibly a little more partying too! This time next week we'll officially be Houstonians...eek! (strange, scary, exciting, weird......)

TTT: Season 2, Episode 9

1. This week has been so exciting (cough, cough) that I don't even know what to write about. Blah. I mean, I guess some stuff went on... Mark and I went out to Plainview to help serve the Agape meal at Raider Awakening. That was fun. Always great to see old RA friends and witness a tiny little portion of such a wonderful retreat. And we went to lunch with all the Lubbock Gaschen family members (my mom's side of the family) on Sunday. Also fun. Haven't seen most of them in a long time. After that we were trapped inside for a wicked dust storm for the remainder of the day. Can't say I'll ever miss that in Houston. On Monday I took the boys up to the bank to visit my old boss. Good to see old friends. And sad to say goodbye. Two trips to Target that day too. Never a bad thing.

Oh, and on Tuesday we went to my twenty week appointments at my two doctors to see our little guy. He's a twelve ouncer now. And a thumb sucker. (Better than the paci obsession? Hopefully.) Got in slight trouble over the fact that I've gained zero pounds. Zero. Pretty impressive. I thought it was one or two...and really I think it is...they didn't start tracking me until I was like thirteen weeks, and surely I gained one or two, right? Supposed to be eating 2400 calories a day from here on out. I'll try, but all this cleaning and stressing over moving and selling the house probably isn't helping much. Really, I'm not trying to not gain. I guess I'm just not really paying attention to eating at all. And like the doc said...the baby is going to get what the baby needs. So really it will just be me that suffers. Doh.

And yesterday we finally had another showing at six in the evening. Thankfully, the realtor called me early in the morning which gave me the whole day to clean the two weeks worth of gross we'd built up. Glad we broke the streak of days without a showing. But still no offer yet. Trying to be patient.

Anyway, I guess we have been busy. It just feels like nothing is happening because the major things that are looming in the distance aren't happening. You know...selling the house, finding a new house, moving to Houston, starting the new job, moving in to the new house. Yadayadayada. Just waiting for it all to happen. But I suppose the most important thing right now is for me to focus on enjoying the remaining eleven days we have here in Lubbock.

2. Eleven days! Ack!

Just want to make sure to treasure the time we have with the people we love while we have the chance to do it. 'Cause once we're gone, it's not ever going to be the same. Sure, we'll come back for visits as often as possible. And hopefully some people will come to visit us too! (hint, hint) But really, the normal-ness...regularity...familiarity of getting to be with the people we see all the time will be gone. Seeing them all will become a special occasion...not "just the norm." Ugh, I don't like the way that sounds. It will be "Hey, we're coming to Lubbock the 18th through the 26th. Will yall be in town so we can meet up?' instead of "Hey, yall doing anything tonight? Want to come over for burgers?" Obviously, I'd prefer the second scenario. And I'm sad that it's inevitably going to turn into the first scenario. Boo.

I'm sad.

3. Ok, tired of talking about that which is obviously ruling my life right now. And I'll talk about my little sewing business for a tick. I put it on hold for about a week and a half at the beginning of February while we were getting the house ready to put on the market. But then once all was done, I found myself with (as I've mentioned before) plenty of time to kill. So I've had a chance to get a lot of sewing done and man, the shop has been busy! In the short month of February alone, despite the temporary shut down for home improvements, I managed to have forty sales. Forty! And seriously, with as expensive as a major move like this is, I'm so grateful for the extra money. Cha-ching! And yes, the sewing machine is going with me to Houston to live at my parents' until the house sells, 'cause God knows I'm probably going to find myself with quite a bit of time on my hands once again. So glad God has brought this little endeavor into my life and glad I've stuck with it.

This time next week we'll be a mere few days away from moving. Hopefully I'll be emotionally stable enough to write. But no promises.