1. I suppose I could have stayed up late last night and gotten my post done, but considering I had just been discharged from the hospital a few hours earlier, I decided sleep was a slightly more pressing matter and opted against non-essential journaling. Yes, I got to spend Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon at the local hospital with a bad case of gallstones. Leave it to me, I tell ya. Actually, Mark and I were totally thrilled that it was just gallstones and not something else. Because as Wednesday morning wore into the afternoon I really wasn't feeling well. It had gone from uh, I think I have a really upset stomach to oh dear Lord, this is starting to feel just like what it felt like before Kolbe was born. I developed really sharp sustained pain across the entire top of my abdomen that would not pass and only got worse. Needless to say, I started panicking. Surely this wasn't HELLP syndrome happening all over again...and this early in the pregnancy! Mark came home from work and rushed me to the hospital where I was "that patient" who was dry heaving in a trash can making horribly disturbing noises and begging for someone to help me. After getting an IV started with pain medicine and something to stop the violent act of barfing up nothing, they were able to check my blood pressure. Totally normal. And rush my blood off to the lab. Liver enzymes came back normal too. Actually slightly low! With the threat of HELLP seeming to be out of the way, they did an ultrasound on my abdomen and found a happy baby boy squirming around and balloon that was supposed to be solid black on the screen that was instead decorated with lots and lots of polka dots. A lovely "hot gallbladder" as they called it. Luckily, this was not an obstetric emergency at all. Just something that could have happened at any time to anyone and just chose to happen to me at not exactly the best time. 'Cause normally they would just do a simple laproscopic surgery to remove the gallbladder and I'd be on my way. But at this far into my pregnancy, they wouldn't be able to do it laproscopically and would have to make a major incision to get to it. Plus, the anesthesia and swelling would put the baby under a lot of pressure and could induce preterm labor. No thanks on either of those. So instead, I'm left to eat a low-fat, low-spice, bland diet until after the baby arrives and I can safely have the surgery. Though lent just ended, it looks like I'm now giving up fried foods and all things yummy for the next eight weeks or so. Boo. But I'll gladly do it to not have to endure that sharp pain again and keep our little guy safe for a few more weeks. Just another medical dilemma to add to my repertoire. I jokingly told Mark that I ought to have them go ahead and take out my appendix while they're in there. I've already had the tonsils and adenoids removed. Now the gallbladder. Surely the appendix is the next useless organ to try to do me in!
2. By moving to a community like The Woodlands, we knew there'd be the temptation to "keep up with the Joneses" from time to time. But we had no idea that it would kick in before we even got settled into our own house. About sixty dollars, one helmet and a twelve inch bike later, we've already fallen victim to the curse at least once. My parents' street is packed with little boys. Really. There's Joey, Timmy, Lucas, Noah, Liam, Collin, Kolbe, and Rudy...all under the age of five. And that's just on my parents' end of the street! The boys have loved having other little boys to play with but we quickly discovered that all the other three-year-olds already have real bikes with training wheels. Not measly tricycles like Kolbe. They would all go racing down the street and Kolbe would be left in the dust, peddling his heart out and getting nowhere. Feeling the pressure for a "real little boy bike" from Kolbe, we broke down and headed to Academy for the grand purchase. After an hour or so of assembly, he finally had his bike. And within a day or two could give Lance Armstrong a run for his money. The daily routine has now become at least two to three bike rides per day. And we're not talking just down the street and back. Pa takes him on these roughly two mile treks, broken up by time at the park, of course. And Rudy does his best to keep up on the little bike Kolbe got when he turned two that's more of a tricycle but appears to also have training wheels so he always chooses it over the faster, standard tricycle. Has to be as much like big brother as possible! So while yes, it makes me cringe to think that the only reason we felt so inspired to buy the bike was because "the other kids his age had one," I must say it's been a more-than-worth-it purchase. Provides endless hours of entertainment. And might I mention, children who ride bikes for long periods of time take fantastic naps!
3. Did you have a good Easter? We sure did. Heck, the overload of chocolate is probably what led to the aforementioned gallbladder attack! Nevertheless, it sure was fun to see the boys get into the holiday and start to understand the meaning behind why we celebrate it. We spent lots of time reading Easter books. The inquisitive Kolbe loved to ask the same questions every time: Why did they do that? Why didn't they like him? How did he come back to life? Where does Jesus live now? While Rudy would just frown and say, "awwww..." on pages when Jesus died and then cheer wildly when he was raised from the dead. And repeat over and over "Jesus. Cross. Jesus. Cross." Simple and innocent, yet somehow, they get the point. They were at about the same level with the whole Easter egg hunt idea. Kolbe was all over it. Rudy was thinking You want me to do what? Why? It's so fun watching these guys grow up. And exciting to see them learn and celebrate all the traditions that are so dear to us.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
TTT: Season 2, Episode 16
1. Finding Time. Yikes! I'm getting more and more "laid back" with my weekly post and trying to have it done by Thursday morning. You'd think that by living with my parents and having help with the boys more often that it would be the easiest time for me to write ever. And I really thought that this week would finally be more relaxed and afford me a little more "me" time. But as I've discovered, this whole moving-to-a-new-city-selling-a-house-buying-a-house-having-a-baby scheme I've got going on here is just one thing after another. Non-stop. So last night when I went to ponder what I'd write about today, I found an email in my inbox from our lender at the bank asking for a whole plethora of additional documents...to have to him by noon today. Why anyone thinks that giving someone a deadline that's twelve hours away to collect a bunch of financial documents is a feasible request is beyond me. So this morning was spent scrambling to get the documents, scan them, send them, yadayadayada. Oh, and make it to a 10:20 sonogram as well. See? Never ends. But all's well that ends well and we're just hoping it all ends well.
2. Gunny. Quite the momentous event occurred for one, Rudy Mark Asmussen, this week. Most of you are probably aware of my child's addiction to his pacifier "Gunny or GunGun" and our blatant disdain for the vile thing. To be real honest, I always thought that the whole my-kid-refuses-to-give-up-his-pacifier thing was a bunch of hog wash. Be the parent! Just take the thing away from him! After all, Kolbe did have a pacifier that he loved to chew on, but since he wasn't able to suck until after his first year of life, it wasn't very difficult to give it up. I had no idea how strong the sucking addiction could be. So when Rudy came along, I had no problem letting him have one. And let me just remind you...in my own defense...that I had two babies. A fifteen-month-old and a preemie newborn. Both still requiring baby care and attention, neither one able to adequately communicate (in words) with me, etc. At times I was desperate for a little peace from one so I could tend to the other. So the paci became a little bit of a crutch for me as well as the tyke. But then the attempts to get rid of GunGun began and so did the nightmares. To say that Gunny had become Rudy's attachment item (such as a blankie or stuffed animal) is an understatement. We'd catch him doing bizarre things like rubbing it all over his cheeks and forehead. Crazy, I know. A few months back we were finally able to get it to where he understood that he could only have Gunny when he was sleeping. He had to be in bed and if he got out of bed, he had to turn Gunny in to the powers that be. He became OK with this system, though any time anything emotional happened, he still asked for it.
Then on Monday when Rudy woke up from his nap, he came to give me a few cuddles and as I took Gunny from him I told him that it was stinky and nasty. I told him that we needed to throw GunGun away because it was yucky and big boys didn't need a GunGun and since Baby Brother would be here soon and Rudy would officially be the big brother, he didn't need Gunny. Without any prompting, he walked over to the trash can, took the lid off, and threw Gunny in. I was shocked, to say the least. Not wanting to abandon the open door, I cheered for him wildly and decided we had to go with it. After leaving the room I snuck back in and removed Gunny. (Lord knows he'd go looking for it later...) And that night was the first night without the beloved GunGun. There certainly have been tears and lots of clinging to Mama as he goes through withdrawals in order to fall asleep...I've had to talk him down from the ledge a time or two. But after a few days, he has stopped asking, and when he does, he's willing to accept the fact that the trash man already came and took Gunny away. Whew. Finally jumped that hurdle. And really, we should have done it a long time ago, but with the moving and all the other changes, I couldn't bare to add any more emotionalness to the situation. I'll definitely be re-evaluating my view on the paci once the baby arrives. But then again, in every sonogram we've had he's been a thumb sucker so we just may not have that problem!
3. Holy Week. In the Catholic Church, this week is known as Holy Week. The days leading up to Easter. Such a great time for reflection, adoration, praise, awe, and appreciation for what Christ did for us so many years ago. Ironically, as a child, I cringed when my parents loaded us up in the van to head to every single event held at the church during that week. Now as an adult, I yearn to go but find it next to impossible during my current season in life. My good friend Melanie posted this quote on her facebook page this week:
"It is most laudable in a married woman to be devout, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. And sometimes she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping." -St. Frances of Rome
I've found a lot of solace in that quote this week...how cool, right!?! 'Cause so many times I've been plagued with that feeling that I'm just not doing enough in my relationship with God because I'm constantly taking care of the house, tending to the babies, handling the myriad of other duties (as mentioned in #1, for example) instead of truly diving in further to my relationship with the one who has given me all of these blessings. But really discerning the notion that I am exactly where God has put me for a reason has been eye opening. Just because I'm not at each of the "public events" doesn't mean that he isn't alive and meeting me constantly in the five minutes it takes to run the vacuum, the moments that I lie in silence waiting for the babies to fall asleep, or even the few seconds it takes to fill yet another sippy cup. And just because by the end of the day when I'm so exhausted that I crash instead of thumbing through a Bible study doesn't mean that I'm not growing. In fact, these years of straight service just might be similar to the many years of unrecorded time in Christ's life where he too was "just in service." My time will come some day when I'll be able to attend each and every religious event I've every wanted to partake in. I'll gladly go. And probably sadly miss the ones that used to keep me from them.
2. Gunny. Quite the momentous event occurred for one, Rudy Mark Asmussen, this week. Most of you are probably aware of my child's addiction to his pacifier "Gunny or GunGun" and our blatant disdain for the vile thing. To be real honest, I always thought that the whole my-kid-refuses-to-give-up-his-pacifier thing was a bunch of hog wash. Be the parent! Just take the thing away from him! After all, Kolbe did have a pacifier that he loved to chew on, but since he wasn't able to suck until after his first year of life, it wasn't very difficult to give it up. I had no idea how strong the sucking addiction could be. So when Rudy came along, I had no problem letting him have one. And let me just remind you...in my own defense...that I had two babies. A fifteen-month-old and a preemie newborn. Both still requiring baby care and attention, neither one able to adequately communicate (in words) with me, etc. At times I was desperate for a little peace from one so I could tend to the other. So the paci became a little bit of a crutch for me as well as the tyke. But then the attempts to get rid of GunGun began and so did the nightmares. To say that Gunny had become Rudy's attachment item (such as a blankie or stuffed animal) is an understatement. We'd catch him doing bizarre things like rubbing it all over his cheeks and forehead. Crazy, I know. A few months back we were finally able to get it to where he understood that he could only have Gunny when he was sleeping. He had to be in bed and if he got out of bed, he had to turn Gunny in to the powers that be. He became OK with this system, though any time anything emotional happened, he still asked for it.
Then on Monday when Rudy woke up from his nap, he came to give me a few cuddles and as I took Gunny from him I told him that it was stinky and nasty. I told him that we needed to throw GunGun away because it was yucky and big boys didn't need a GunGun and since Baby Brother would be here soon and Rudy would officially be the big brother, he didn't need Gunny. Without any prompting, he walked over to the trash can, took the lid off, and threw Gunny in. I was shocked, to say the least. Not wanting to abandon the open door, I cheered for him wildly and decided we had to go with it. After leaving the room I snuck back in and removed Gunny. (Lord knows he'd go looking for it later...) And that night was the first night without the beloved GunGun. There certainly have been tears and lots of clinging to Mama as he goes through withdrawals in order to fall asleep...I've had to talk him down from the ledge a time or two. But after a few days, he has stopped asking, and when he does, he's willing to accept the fact that the trash man already came and took Gunny away. Whew. Finally jumped that hurdle. And really, we should have done it a long time ago, but with the moving and all the other changes, I couldn't bare to add any more emotionalness to the situation. I'll definitely be re-evaluating my view on the paci once the baby arrives. But then again, in every sonogram we've had he's been a thumb sucker so we just may not have that problem!
3. Holy Week. In the Catholic Church, this week is known as Holy Week. The days leading up to Easter. Such a great time for reflection, adoration, praise, awe, and appreciation for what Christ did for us so many years ago. Ironically, as a child, I cringed when my parents loaded us up in the van to head to every single event held at the church during that week. Now as an adult, I yearn to go but find it next to impossible during my current season in life. My good friend Melanie posted this quote on her facebook page this week:
"It is most laudable in a married woman to be devout, but she must never forget that she is a housewife. And sometimes she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping." -St. Frances of Rome
I've found a lot of solace in that quote this week...how cool, right!?! 'Cause so many times I've been plagued with that feeling that I'm just not doing enough in my relationship with God because I'm constantly taking care of the house, tending to the babies, handling the myriad of other duties (as mentioned in #1, for example) instead of truly diving in further to my relationship with the one who has given me all of these blessings. But really discerning the notion that I am exactly where God has put me for a reason has been eye opening. Just because I'm not at each of the "public events" doesn't mean that he isn't alive and meeting me constantly in the five minutes it takes to run the vacuum, the moments that I lie in silence waiting for the babies to fall asleep, or even the few seconds it takes to fill yet another sippy cup. And just because by the end of the day when I'm so exhausted that I crash instead of thumbing through a Bible study doesn't mean that I'm not growing. In fact, these years of straight service just might be similar to the many years of unrecorded time in Christ's life where he too was "just in service." My time will come some day when I'll be able to attend each and every religious event I've every wanted to partake in. I'll gladly go. And probably sadly miss the ones that used to keep me from them.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
TTT: Season 2, Episode 15
Barely squeaking this one in as time runs out!
1. Wrap Up. After typing last weeks entry with just my thumbs and one eyeball on an iPhone in an airport terminal, I did, in fact, end up making it safely back to The Woodlands and my little family that I missed so greatly. It was quite the whirlwind trip and I was so glad to see my little ones upon returning. But the few days after returning, I was plagued with the landslide of let down after a momentous occasion. You know, where you totally build up all your adrenaline to get through something and you manage to get through it and then you're just totally wiped out. So I've been trying to rest. Trying to get things back to normal here at my parents' house. Trying to re-establish a little bit of a routine with the boys. That and other things like getting our new house inspected, getting all of our documentation together for the loan on the new house, going to doctors appointments to check on the new little fella. Just because one big event ends doesn't mean there aren't a few more on the horizon. The baby is doing well, by the way. Getting stronger and stronger...I'm almost to the point where I look forward to him not being able to move around as much! Some of those jabs are rough! And my blood pressure is staying in an okay range right now. Just nine more weeks till I'm thirty-six weeks. With all that has gone on, this has got to be the fastest pregnancy ever.
2. The New House. I mentioned it briefly last week but was still somewhat in the is-this-really-going-to-happen mindset. By now, it's definitely a reality. We are buying the "dream house." The one that we just loved that we were mad at our realtor for even showing us because it was out of our price range and we couldn't help but compare every single house to it. The one that we imagined ourselves living in ten or fifteen years from now.
On the Saturday before I left for Lubbock, Mark and I went and looked at a house that had just come on the market that day. It was in our price range and the online pictures looked nice, so with our hopes up, we decided to check it out. As Mark accurately said as we drove away, "It's forgettable." We spent the rest of the afternoon debating whether or not we were being too picky. Should we just settle on something that "would work" for now with the thoughts of moving in to something different later? Or should we just keep looking and hope to find something that we could see ourselves in for a long time? We just couldn't see ourselves putting an offer in on a house that didn't hold a candle to either the "dream house" or the house we had previous been offering on. Especially when many of them were asking the same price. Our realtor suggested that maybe we should just put an offer in on the dream house even though it was out of our price range and see what the say. After all, an offer is better than no offer at all. I argued that at the top of our budget, we'd still need them to come down roughly fifteen thousand dollars. Having only been on the market for about twenty-five days, who in their right mind would take that!?! Mark was in agreement with the realtor...what do we have to lose? It's not like we're meeting these people in public and they're going to spit in our faces or something.
To make a long story a little bit shorter, after several days of going back and forth and lots of pestering our loan officer to crunch numbers for us, we managed to score the house we thought we'd never be able to get. Apparently, with a move to Wisconsin just weeks away, these owners were desperate to sell their home. And with the help of their company's relocation service, they were able to meet us where we needed to be to make it happen. Again, never in a million years...
But when all is said and done, here is where we'll be living in just a few short weeks:
More pictures and details to come soon!
3. Our Newest Godson. This time last week, I let on about a special little miracle that was in the process of taking place for our dear friends, Ben and Erin Johnson. Ben and Erin have been eager to start of family for several years now and for reasons known only by God, it hasn't happened. Our friendship with them grew from casual acquaintances to hang-out-multiple-times-a-week over this three year span so we shared in much of the ups and downs, hopefuls and heartaches of the journey. Mark and I never could quite figure out how they could tolerate to be around us as our family continued to grow, but in some stories, certain relationships are just meant to be. And that's just how God brought us together.
Ben and Erin began to be open to idea of adoption over the past year or so but were finding it difficult to figure out how to make it happen with such high costs. In one of the more unique stories I've ever heard, God amazingly brought them to a young pregnant mother through one of her high school friends that happened to be a part of the youth group that Erin helps out with. Within two weeks of hearing this girl's story, Ben and Erin became the parents of her biological child. Jacob Cole was born Saturday morning and weighed just three pounds and nine ounces. Due to the birth mom's struggle with pre-eclampsia, he was definitely early and is receiving care in the NICU. While I couldn't be there for the event (and what a tease!...I had just left roughly ten hours earlier!) I was blessed to get to spend the middle of the night hours texting back and forth with Erin from the waiting room getting the play-by-play as he was welcomed into this world.
Ben and Erin became the legal guardians of Jacob Cole on Monday morning. Mark and I feel so blessed to get to be part of such an amazing story and are honored to serve as Jacob's godparents. (That makes five male souls that we are responsible for lifting up now...Kolbe, Reagan, Grant, John, and Jacob...girls are just not in the cards for us!) We love this little guy already and can't wait to meet him face to face.
Welcome to the world, Jacob Cole Johnson! You are so loved, so wanted, so special, and so blessed!
1. Wrap Up. After typing last weeks entry with just my thumbs and one eyeball on an iPhone in an airport terminal, I did, in fact, end up making it safely back to The Woodlands and my little family that I missed so greatly. It was quite the whirlwind trip and I was so glad to see my little ones upon returning. But the few days after returning, I was plagued with the landslide of let down after a momentous occasion. You know, where you totally build up all your adrenaline to get through something and you manage to get through it and then you're just totally wiped out. So I've been trying to rest. Trying to get things back to normal here at my parents' house. Trying to re-establish a little bit of a routine with the boys. That and other things like getting our new house inspected, getting all of our documentation together for the loan on the new house, going to doctors appointments to check on the new little fella. Just because one big event ends doesn't mean there aren't a few more on the horizon. The baby is doing well, by the way. Getting stronger and stronger...I'm almost to the point where I look forward to him not being able to move around as much! Some of those jabs are rough! And my blood pressure is staying in an okay range right now. Just nine more weeks till I'm thirty-six weeks. With all that has gone on, this has got to be the fastest pregnancy ever.
2. The New House. I mentioned it briefly last week but was still somewhat in the is-this-really-going-to-happen mindset. By now, it's definitely a reality. We are buying the "dream house." The one that we just loved that we were mad at our realtor for even showing us because it was out of our price range and we couldn't help but compare every single house to it. The one that we imagined ourselves living in ten or fifteen years from now.
On the Saturday before I left for Lubbock, Mark and I went and looked at a house that had just come on the market that day. It was in our price range and the online pictures looked nice, so with our hopes up, we decided to check it out. As Mark accurately said as we drove away, "It's forgettable." We spent the rest of the afternoon debating whether or not we were being too picky. Should we just settle on something that "would work" for now with the thoughts of moving in to something different later? Or should we just keep looking and hope to find something that we could see ourselves in for a long time? We just couldn't see ourselves putting an offer in on a house that didn't hold a candle to either the "dream house" or the house we had previous been offering on. Especially when many of them were asking the same price. Our realtor suggested that maybe we should just put an offer in on the dream house even though it was out of our price range and see what the say. After all, an offer is better than no offer at all. I argued that at the top of our budget, we'd still need them to come down roughly fifteen thousand dollars. Having only been on the market for about twenty-five days, who in their right mind would take that!?! Mark was in agreement with the realtor...what do we have to lose? It's not like we're meeting these people in public and they're going to spit in our faces or something.
To make a long story a little bit shorter, after several days of going back and forth and lots of pestering our loan officer to crunch numbers for us, we managed to score the house we thought we'd never be able to get. Apparently, with a move to Wisconsin just weeks away, these owners were desperate to sell their home. And with the help of their company's relocation service, they were able to meet us where we needed to be to make it happen. Again, never in a million years...
But when all is said and done, here is where we'll be living in just a few short weeks:
3. Our Newest Godson. This time last week, I let on about a special little miracle that was in the process of taking place for our dear friends, Ben and Erin Johnson. Ben and Erin have been eager to start of family for several years now and for reasons known only by God, it hasn't happened. Our friendship with them grew from casual acquaintances to hang-out-multiple-times-a-week over this three year span so we shared in much of the ups and downs, hopefuls and heartaches of the journey. Mark and I never could quite figure out how they could tolerate to be around us as our family continued to grow, but in some stories, certain relationships are just meant to be. And that's just how God brought us together.
Ben and Erin began to be open to idea of adoption over the past year or so but were finding it difficult to figure out how to make it happen with such high costs. In one of the more unique stories I've ever heard, God amazingly brought them to a young pregnant mother through one of her high school friends that happened to be a part of the youth group that Erin helps out with. Within two weeks of hearing this girl's story, Ben and Erin became the parents of her biological child. Jacob Cole was born Saturday morning and weighed just three pounds and nine ounces. Due to the birth mom's struggle with pre-eclampsia, he was definitely early and is receiving care in the NICU. While I couldn't be there for the event (and what a tease!...I had just left roughly ten hours earlier!) I was blessed to get to spend the middle of the night hours texting back and forth with Erin from the waiting room getting the play-by-play as he was welcomed into this world.
Ben and Erin became the legal guardians of Jacob Cole on Monday morning. Mark and I feel so blessed to get to be part of such an amazing story and are honored to serve as Jacob's godparents. (That makes five male souls that we are responsible for lifting up now...Kolbe, Reagan, Grant, John, and Jacob...girls are just not in the cards for us!) We love this little guy already and can't wait to meet him face to face.
Leaving Lubbock: Part 3 - The Little House on 72nd Street
Today officially marks one month since we drove away from our little house on 72nd Street. In some ways it feels like a lifetime ago...so much has happened in just one month!...and in others, it still feels like yesterday. The exciting news is that we've found a house here in The Woodlands and are under contract to close on it on May 19th. We can't wait to be in our new home! (pictures to come soon)
But our little house on 72nd Street will always hold a special place in our hearts. Out on the street in front of it is where I agreed to be Mark's bride one warm May afternoon in 2006. Within it's walls a couple became a family...the place our two precious boys came home to. It's where our journey as parents began. Where so many memories took place. We will miss it dearly!
The Sunday morning before we left, my brother and sister-in-law, Andy and Abby, came over before mass to snap a few pictures of us out front. Our final memories of The Asmussens, proud owners of 4825 72nd Street.
Friday, April 8, 2011
TTT: season 2, episode 14--- FIVE THOUGHT FRIDAY!!!
1. It's official: yesterday was my first lapse of three thought Thursday since it started over a year ago. But I said at the beginning of this year-- no guarantees. So glad I went with that disclaimer. So I thought we'd go with five thought Friday. Two bonus thoughts, but all five shorter than my usual rants. Why? I'm typing this on a dadgum iPhone while sitting in an airport terminal for a longer-than-necessary amount of time. The saying "I'm all thumbs" will have to suffice to explain any typos. Really. As I type, it's all thumbs.
2. Another safe explanation for any typos is that I'm writing this using only one eye. No, I didn't have to give one up at the closing on our Lubbock house (though I'm convinced that may have been easier...). Wednesday was fine. Busy packing with two nice mayflower movers. Thursday I spent watching four strapping lads disassemble our house and load it all onto a truck, while a nagging pain developed in my eye. By dinner time, it was swollen, painful, and gross. By this morning it was swollen completely shut. So I went to my closing looking like a major creepo. "No, I'm not weeping over the sale of my home though it does both excite and sadden me. And no, it's not even because I'm having to sign 'Mark Dwayne Asmussen by my agent and attorney-in-fact Laura Ellen Asmussen' every single time I sign my own name to a document." I spent the hour and half after the closing not celebrating but having a doctor examine and treat my grossly infected sty. You know, sometimes I look at the always daily shenanigans I encounter and just ask WHY!?! This thing is painful. And gross. And annoying! Ugh. Goodbye, Lubbock. Thanks for the sweet dust storm that I'm CERTAIN caused this!!!
3. I'm sure you've gathered from #1 and #2 that we did, in fact, sell our Lubbock house. Done deal. Off the books. One MAJOR thing out of the way. One less list of issues, one less realtor, one less major responsibility. Ahhhhh.
4. here's the deal with the bonus thoughts: to get the GOOD, juicy details, you're going to have to come back next week. They're just too good to limit to a thumb-typed, iPhone written explanation with limited verbiage. They both deserve the best, most over the top flowery words that I could possibly come up with. Especially #5.
But we are on #4.
Right in the middle of the chaos of packers, movers, closing, leaving my babies and husband for three days...We got a house. Not just A house. THE house. The original love house. The one I wrote about on week one of looking that I said was our dream home that we definitely couldn't get now but hopefully, maybe, someday down the road. THAT one. Like I said, it needs many more words to describe how and why. But who'd have thought that 'someday' would be just a few weeks and not years and years!?! My heart skips a beat, I tell you.
5. There are two people who I love who are as dear to my heart as my own family. Two people who are Mark and my best good friends (as Forrest Gump would say.) Two people who are the kind of friends you have in high school that you are inseparable from, though we only met as grown, married adults. Two people who, to me, deserve the world. Two people who have been very, very blessed for many years though we've spent these past few praying most especially for one certain blessing. Two people who, after tonight, just might receive that gift.
My heart is so fully overjoyed.
2. Another safe explanation for any typos is that I'm writing this using only one eye. No, I didn't have to give one up at the closing on our Lubbock house (though I'm convinced that may have been easier...). Wednesday was fine. Busy packing with two nice mayflower movers. Thursday I spent watching four strapping lads disassemble our house and load it all onto a truck, while a nagging pain developed in my eye. By dinner time, it was swollen, painful, and gross. By this morning it was swollen completely shut. So I went to my closing looking like a major creepo. "No, I'm not weeping over the sale of my home though it does both excite and sadden me. And no, it's not even because I'm having to sign 'Mark Dwayne Asmussen by my agent and attorney-in-fact Laura Ellen Asmussen' every single time I sign my own name to a document." I spent the hour and half after the closing not celebrating but having a doctor examine and treat my grossly infected sty. You know, sometimes I look at the always daily shenanigans I encounter and just ask WHY!?! This thing is painful. And gross. And annoying! Ugh. Goodbye, Lubbock. Thanks for the sweet dust storm that I'm CERTAIN caused this!!!
3. I'm sure you've gathered from #1 and #2 that we did, in fact, sell our Lubbock house. Done deal. Off the books. One MAJOR thing out of the way. One less list of issues, one less realtor, one less major responsibility. Ahhhhh.
4. here's the deal with the bonus thoughts: to get the GOOD, juicy details, you're going to have to come back next week. They're just too good to limit to a thumb-typed, iPhone written explanation with limited verbiage. They both deserve the best, most over the top flowery words that I could possibly come up with. Especially #5.
But we are on #4.
Right in the middle of the chaos of packers, movers, closing, leaving my babies and husband for three days...We got a house. Not just A house. THE house. The original love house. The one I wrote about on week one of looking that I said was our dream home that we definitely couldn't get now but hopefully, maybe, someday down the road. THAT one. Like I said, it needs many more words to describe how and why. But who'd have thought that 'someday' would be just a few weeks and not years and years!?! My heart skips a beat, I tell you.
5. There are two people who I love who are as dear to my heart as my own family. Two people who are Mark and my best good friends (as Forrest Gump would say.) Two people who are the kind of friends you have in high school that you are inseparable from, though we only met as grown, married adults. Two people who, to me, deserve the world. Two people who have been very, very blessed for many years though we've spent these past few praying most especially for one certain blessing. Two people who, after tonight, just might receive that gift.
My heart is so fully overjoyed.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Leaving Lubbock: Part 2- The World's Best Bubble Bath
Our very last night in Lubbock we spent with Mark's parents enjoying as much time as we could together. We had fun hanging out at Miss Lora's house and then enjoyed a wonderful dinner of all-you-can-eat spaghetti at Orlando's, a favorite Lubbock restaurant. Afterward, we returned to Miss Lora's house to take part in a G-ma tradition...bath time!!! G-ma has always given the boys the best scrubbins and they just love getting to take a bath at her house. Typically she gives them a bath in the hallway bathroom but decided to treat them to a special bubble bath in the master bathroom that has a jetted tub. The pictures suffice to show that the jets turned a little bit of bubble bath into a ton of bubbles! Though it was the hardest goodbye of all and ended with plenty of tears (at least from the girls involved!) it was such a special night that we'll always hold dear to our hearts.
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| Kolbs and G-ma |
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| Cheesy Face! |
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| Look Ma! I can do it too! |
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| Orlandos! |
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| Bath time! |
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| Obviously, no one was having fun! |
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| Mark trying to show his parents how Face Time works...we're trying to convince them to get some kind of Apple device so we can see them any time we talk! |
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| G-ma was lovin' it too. |
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| And because that many bubbles are nearly impossible to rinse off, they just had to take a shower too! (and don't be fooled by the crazy face...they were having a blast!) |
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