Hyperdrive

Hyperdrive. That's what life was been like lately.

Due to a number of reasons, the main ones being the impending arrival of another little one and the fact that the boys are now able to escape their room at any time of the day or night, we decided on Sunday afternoon that some major room switches needed to be made. As in, we were going to move all our stuff from our bedroom downstairs to the boys' room. The boys' beds were going to be moved into the Drama Queen's room while her newly-painted bed was constructed in the same room. All their belongings and toys were to be moved downstairs to our old room for a playroom. Oh, and since we only came up with this solution on Sunday afternoon, we had a day and a half basically to get the majority of the work done. Thankfully my father-in-law came over and pitched in with all the heavy lifting and carrying, which I myself could not do due to the giant belly jutting out in front of me. My mother-in-law took the kids all day yesterday to get them out of the way and give us the focus we needed to get it all done. I'll tell you one thing - I have not been this sore or this tired in a very long time!

And today was the first day of school for the Drama Queen. We made the decision to homeschool her this year. The dining room is decorated with educational Busytown posters, a big white board, and various other schoolish things. I think our first day went amazingly well, and despite my exhaustion, I had a great time teaching her today. I'll share more about our homeschooling in the next post, accompanied of course by "first day" pictures and all the hoopla. Tomorrow, the Beast begins his fall semester in the blended class at ESD.

Oh yeah and the Nerd is going out of town with his dad this weekend for a Men's Conference. Life is not showing any signs of slowing down! And although this preggo lady is craving naps more and more often, I still wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Farewell to the Condo

Four years ago, a young couple madly in love and pregnant with their first child purchased their first home - a lovely condo just minutes from his work and in a safe, happy neighborhood. The wife pictured their life there, carefully decorating each room to feel like home and going for long walks with the angelic baby and dog in the neighborhood. Every room was painted the exact colors she wanted before they even moved in. They knew that with the baby's arrival date in just 3 1/2 weeks, they were cutting it close, but they were confident that they would be able to finish the nursery and make the new house a home in time.

Three days later, at a routine doctor's visit, it was discovered that the wife had lost all her amniotic fluid and the baby was in danger of strangulation via the umbilical cord. A C-section was immediately scheduled for the next morning, and two very overwhelmed and under-prepared new parents took their tiny baby girl home to the condo. Between the physical complications of the C-section and the emotional complications of new parenthood, decorating and finishing the condo got put on a back burner. Poor Baby Girl didn't even have a finished nursery until she was four months old.

However, the condo was still the perfect home. Baby Girl had her very own room with attached bathroom for lots of bubble baths and playtime. The condo felt roomy and cozy, and the new father could even come home from work for lunch to see his wife and play with his little girl.

Then, life happened. Two more unexpected pregnancies suddenly made this a family of five. Now three rambunctious little ones shared Baby Girl's room, which seemed a lot smaller with three beds in it. Instead of roomy and cozy, the condo felt stifling, with the walls closing in. The perfect home was not so perfect anymore.

The family decided something had to be done. In the shaky real estate market, it didn't look like selling the condo would be an option, as they would lose a lot of money. Decisions had to be made, and the right opportunities had to be there. They theorized that if they could get someone to rent the condo for the same amount of money as they would spend to rent a bigger home for the family, they would not lose any money each month and be able to maintain and improve the condo until the market was better for selling. It was a nice plan, but it was certainly not the easiest one to work out. Timing was crucial - finding the renter and a place to rent at the same time was challenging.

To make a long story short, it did happen. The husband's parents ended up renting the condo. After a LOT of house searching, the family found a bigger, three-bedroom house with a backyard to rent. The most chaotic week ensued, with the moving of two families, cleaning of two places, and doing some renovations to the condo. It wears me out just telling you about it!

And I still have a bunch of boxes to unpack and rooms to organize. . .

We Are Here!

The Drama Queen is a movie fanatic - she has several favorites that she watches over and over again. Wall-E, Meet the Robinsons, Monsters Inc, and many others have been practically memorized by her (and us, her ever grateful family that gets to endure the same movie over and over again.)

One night at her grandparents' house, she got to watch "Horton Hears a Who", and it quickly became a new favorite. She would go around reciting lines from the movie and begging to watch it again. She loved the microscopic Whos living quite content in their own tiny speck of a world, unaware that a much larger and more dangerous world existed.

A few nights later, I put the kids to bed and went downstairs for some much needed me-time. It was not long before I heard "Momma, I need a drink" and "Momma, pleeeeeaase can I have some juuuuuuuice?" I ignored them, as we have a no-drinks-before-bedtime policy at our house. The pleas got louder and more drawn out as they got more desperate for Momma to come to their room. Then there was silence.

"Good," I thought. "They've given up and finally gone to sleep." And then I heard a very quiet "we are here." There was more silence and then: "we are here! we are here! we are here! we are here!"

The Drama Queen had not given up on getting my attention. She remembered that the Whos in "Horton Hears a Who" realized their dangerous situation and had to come together as one, shouting "We are Here!" in an attempt to get the attention of the outside world before it was too late. :)

And so I say, "We are here!" I have not been blogging the last few weeks due to moving, house renovating, catching up on Etsy orders, etc. But I am back, I am still here, and have many things to share in the coming days.

I sit here now in my new living room. On one side, I gaze out through the sliding glass door at the bleak Oregon clouds, with the sun trying its hardest to get a peek through. On the other side, I survey a mountain of boxes yet to be unpacked and a pile of laundry waiting patiently to be washed.

I must get busy, but I just wanted my bloggy friends to know, "We are here!"