Tennessee Living

I was gently prodded by my friend to write another entry.  I knew that it was time, but finding the time has been hard these days.  So here you go, dear Holly, and others who might be interested in how our lives are settling here in Tennessee.

“Settling” is still a good word to use because we certainly have not settled yet.  I’m having a hard time getting motivated to unpack all of our boxes knowing that we will very well be moving in the next year to a home of our own.  We are thrilled about this rental, it worked out perfectly when we got here, but know that it is not the house we want to live in forever.  I think my major complaint is that the kitchen is closed off to the rest of the house.  I spend most of my time there, so I don’t want to be stuck in a corner of the house while my children and family are in another corner of the house.  My ideal kitchen and living area is just one big open space. 

The area here is amazing.  We live in a great neighborhood where everybody looks out for everybody and most of our close neighbors have made their acquaintance and given us a hearty welcome.  We are within walking distance to a small park with a mile long fitness trail and lots of trees.  There is also a bigger park, within 5 minutes of driving, with a huge pond where people can fish and take home up to five fish a day if they want to.  Also, there are turtles in there and lots of other fun creatures that my children cannot wait to get their hands on.  We saw some older boys catching turtles and it is now one of Gabe’s big projects.  He wants to catch one or two and use our fish tank to keep them as pets.  I don’t think it’s a bad idea. 

At this park there is also a place called the “Board Walk.”  It is literally a board walk over a mile long that goes through a preserved wet land.  We have ventured there and what a wonderful place for Nature Study.  They even have trees labeled for people like me who are still learning how to identify trees.  I think the best time to go would be earlier in the day as to avoid people who don’t go by the rules.  It’s supposed to be a Nature walk, meaning that if you’re quiet, observing and not disturbing to the wildlife , you might actually see things like foxes, raccoons, deer, and other animals.  As it was, with barking dogs, screaming children, two girls who were chatting like they were a mile away, and some who were not obeying the rule of “No bicycles allowed,” we saw a squirrel.  Oh, yes before all of these disturbances we did see a deer and I was kicking myself for not bringing the camera because we were able to get very close and just stare at eachother for a bit before it pranced away.  I imagine we will be doing some Nature Study time there quite a bit.

The next best thing or coming in a close second is that the Library is five minutes away by car.  We just hopped in the car the other day and went to the library for a bit and came back home, all within an hour.  Unheard of in Ithaca.  I had to plan my whole day in order to make a trip to the library, with lunches and snacks and most likely incorporating a trip to the store because we were in town.  What a fresh breath of air.    

Lastly, the church we have been attending is really great.  The children’s ministry is huge and it needs to be because the amount of families there with more than two kids is astounding.  The pastor says that this is an area where it’s uncommon to find families with less than two children.  We are excited about our growth here and feel challenged already.  It’s also nice to be in the south where saying “God bless you,” is a common phrase. 

Personally, I’m doing okay.  I’m now in my third trimester and feeling pretty exhausted these days.  I have been set up with a doctor and things are going rather smoothly there, aside from some little bumps.  I tested high on the one hour glucose screening test so I had to go back for more extensive testing.  I’ll deal with that when I get the results back.

We are going to Georgia this weekend to visit hubby’s family.  He has been itching to see them for some time and seeing as we are now only 6 hours away, we made plans.  So far he has had no major complaints about his new job.  He will be in training for quite awhile and has been challenged in the complexity of this airport.  I think he’s excited to start “pushing tin” at a higher level then he did in NY. 

I’m going to start “homeschooling” Gabe in kindergarten when we get back from our trip to GA.  Most things that we are doing are actually things that all of the kids are going to benefit from, but I have a few planned activities just for Gabe so he feels that he is in “school.”  He just feels like he’s missing out when he sees the children coming home from school on the bus.  I’m still firm in my belief that he does not need to be away from home eight hours a day, 5 days a week at this point in his young life.  Of course, there are so many other factors when it comes to the educational philosophy I’ve been learning so much about.  Not to mention that when hubby starts shift work he will be gone during the hours Gabe would be home from school, there would literally be days of not seeing daddy.  Not something any of us wants to do.

The kids are begging for breakfast.  I’m feeling pretty hungry myself. 

Our lives in a nutshell.

 

On the move and thoughts

I’m suppose to be searching out potential rental homes for us in Memphis, but I’m growing weary as I just don’t know which houses are in good areas and where they are in relation to other things like parks, libraries, shopping and such.  So I am taking a break and am going to just write about things that have been on my mind to write about.

One thing that I have been frequently thinking about since we’ve been in OKC is the lack of pride they have in taking care of their land.  Particularly parks and playgrounds and other such recreational areas.  I was really blown away when the kids and I went to a nearby park that was recommended by many people to go to.  There was garbage everywhere.  It was sad when the kids were more interested in observing the trash that other people left behind than that of the natural environment.  We did manage to venture away from the highly polluted areas to a more cleaner cluster of trees.  The kids were so excited to see acorn tops and Chloe was exclaiming that she now had hats for all of her little dollies.  

I remember being a little annoyed when moving to NY that we were responsible for our own garbage when going to a park.  I guess I never knew any better, but now I can see how it all works.  If they don’t provide trash receptacles for you to throw your garbage into you are more aware of the garbage you have.  Add to that, the fact that there is virtually no debris on the ground to begin with.  It makes you feel good, like you’re doing your part in taking care of the world around you.

Another thing that has been on my mind is recycling.  To be honest, I was so turned off to doing this when we moved to NY.  When you live your whole life a certain way and then suddenly you have to change, it’s unsettling.  Well now, I’ll tell you what’s unsettling.  Seeing big card board boxes in our dumpster.  Seeing how fast our garbage fills up because we are not recycling.  Knowing that all of the things that I am putting in my garbage are going to a big landfill to sit for who knows how long, when it could have been easily reused.   Even my husband who was a little excited in the beginning to not have to think about the hassle of recycling is growing disgusted.  His comment the other day was, “Man, they use a lot of Styrofoam around here.” 

I sure hope it’s a bit different in Memphis, if not, I don’t know, I may have to see about making some changes.

Another thought, and I really hope it’s not bad to pray for this in our new home, but I love the dishwasher.  Holy Moly, I spent a lot of time doing dishes at our house in NY!  I am still amazed at how quickly I can clean up the kitchen after a meal and with a flip of a switch my dishes are clean in an hour.  Not to mention, it’s so much better on my hands.   I will really be sad if I have to go back to handwashing after being so spoiled here in the apartment.   

We are leaving here early Saturday morning to get to Memphis.  There is much to be done when we get there.  Aside from finding permanant housing, we have to begin pulling our things out of storage, I have to get in with VA asap to start my prenatal care (my last appointment was in May! Thankfully, baby is a gymnast so I don’t feel worried about it too much), I also have to get into a dentist, but that may have to wait until after baby (then again, after baby, there’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, Brad coming for New Year’s!). 

I also have to be thinking about getting Gabe into a loose kindergarten schedule this year.  Well, technically I don’t HAVE to, but for my peace of mind and my husbands I’m going to try and get my feet wet a bit.  I have a few things in mind for curriculum ideas as far as math and phonics go, and for other things like nature study, art and music study, literature, foreign language, etc, I’ll be using much of the guidelines on Ambleside Online.   And I am plugging away at Charlotte Masons first Volume.  Fascinating!

Back to my homework.  There has got to be a place that God has sectioned out for us, I just wish he’d give me the street name!

 

Whew!

WooHoo!  We’re back online again and so much has happened it seems.  It will take me pages to write in detail.  I’ll just give a few of the big pointers.

We had our big moving party on the 6th and so many friends showed up to help out it was unreal.  I left to get the pizza with Kate and when we came back about 30 minutes later the bulk of the house was in the truck.  I felt pretty unorganized toward the end because there were odds and ends that hadn’t been packed up yet and people were asking what they should do with them.  The only major thing that we really didn’t want on the truck was the power cord to our laptop.  Thus, I am now typing on our new laptop which was purchased shortly after we got to OKC.  ( Hubby needed a computer and our old one was on the fritz anyway.)  I love those excuses when you just have to buy something, thankfully, we budgeted pretty high for this move.

I held myself together pretty well, I think, when saying good-bye to all of my precious friends that night, but come morning when I came to the realization that we were getting on the road and driving away from our house for the last time, I couldn’t hold back.  I was literally bawling driving down the road.  We had prepared the children well, Chloe was chanting happily in the backseat, “I’m so excited to move to our new home.”  And when Gabe called me on the two way radio from the big truck, “How’s it going?”  I responded with, “Oh, I’m just a little sad,” which was an understatement, my face was soaked with tears.  Gabe then asked, “Why are you so sad, Mama?”  I said, “It’s just hard to say good-bye, I guess.”  His response, “But, we’re gonna love our new home.”  Like I said, we prepared them well, but I really didn’t know how hard it would be.  It really feels like I left a little part of me back in NY and it will always be there, and I’ll always be a little sad that I couldn’t take it with me.

The trip to Memphis went smoothly.  We traveled for about 6 hours that first day and checked into a hotel earlier in the evening to get a good nights sleep for more driving the next day.  We had the kids all excited about camping out in our empty house on an air mattress our last night in NY, but it was not a very rest-full sleep for any of us.  We were happy to crawl into real beds and sleep soundly, the kids even had bunk beds.

We thought we would put in a good day of driving on Sunday, but really didn’t expect to get there.  Well, when 9pm rolled around and we saw the sign for Memphis that read 199 miles, we were totally pumped to go for it.  Very weary and sleepy eyed we got there around 1am.  The next morning hubby had made a comment to his very evidently tired wife that we should have stopped somewhere and not driven the whole way.  I was happy to be there and glad that we didn’t have to drive anymore, but I really don’t know if it was worth it for the way that I felt that morning.  I was so zombied out, and to think, hubby unpacked the truck that day, all by himself! 

It turned out to our advantage because the next day we spent doing lots of fun things with the kids.  One of which was going to the Children’s Museum of Memphis and that was a big stress reliever for all of us.  It was much like the Science Center in Ithaca, much bigger, but not quite as educational it seems.  I don’t know, there just seemed to be a lot of fun things that weren’t particularly sciency.  Like a big theatrical stage with dress up clothes and props, a mini-Kroger grocery store with kid sized carts and check out aisles, a huge hamster maze/cage, a disco dancing room, and lots more just really fun stuff.  What we all needed after the trip we had just made.   

The next day we headed for OKC.  I would venture to say that that trip felt like the longest ever.  Somehow, all of us in the van and putting in seven hours of driving just wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be.  We all needed to be out of a moving vehicle.  Oh, we didn’t find out until after the trip to Memphis (which I believe was a providential blessing) that Gabe was not supposed to be in the moving truck unless he was signed in as an additional driver.  Woops!  But, it was great that he was so willing to ride in the truck because the trip for me in the van with the girls was really quite nice.  Gabe definitely adds a new demension to traveling which was some of the problem when going to OKC. 

So we are here now and tonight we get ready to pack up again.  Our downstairs neighbor obviously has no idea what a family of five sounds like and he is going mad listening to us tromping around up here.  We also have opposite schedules, he stays up late to listen to loud music and we are up very early to start our day.  Doesn’t mix too well. We are moving to a downstairs apartment tomorrow.  It makes me very happy that I don’t have to tell my two year old to tip-toe any more, like that really ever happened.

Two Days Later:

We are now in our new apartment downstairs and loving it!  We hear our neighbor upstairs every once in awhile, but can now see how annoying it would be to have 3 pairs of little feet and 2 pairs of big feet stomping around above you.  I’m sure our old neighbor is delighted as well.

I just have some random thoughts about being here and wanted to include them in this post.  Hopefully my following posts won’t be so long. 

First thought:  I was really scared about the heat when we first got here.  I kept telling myself, “This has been what you’ve been longing for, love it, love it!”  It wasn’t working the first few days, but now that my body has adjusted I really think I like it, a lot.  First off, usually if it’s hot the sun is shining, and the sunshine is so good for me.  (Coincidently, hubby says that he read that Memphis has more sunshiny days than Miami, Florida, woohoo!).   Secondly, if the sun is not shining it’s still warm and if feels good.  So yes, right now I’m convinced that I love it.  We’ll see when July and August role around. 

 Second thought:  I haven’t figured it out yet, it has only been today that I have had a chance to meditate and pray about it, but God is trying to teach me something about dependence, I think.  Here’s the story.  Since we have started this trip, I have been getting some really excruciating migraines.  You know, the ones that make you feel nauseous, and all you can do is close your eyes and lay there and not move.  My first incapacitating one was the Friday we got here, and what a blessing that my sister was here, I think I would have locked myself in my room and glued my kids to the TV if she wasn’t.  I recovered somewhat over the weekend and went to do some grocery shopping on Monday.  I picked up some staples and, of course, my life blood in the morning, coffee.   For a whole week, I was struggling with headaches every day.  I kept telling myself that something was seriously wrong, I didn’t remember ever having headaches like this.  Quiet time in the morning was so rough, and every day around 10 o’clock, I just needed to crash.  I’ve had a dependency on caffeine for the last 10 years of my life.  I’m not overboard, I just really love my morning cup of coffee and a cup of tea in the afternoon.  I promise that I looked at my package of coffee every morning, but it wasn’t until this very morning that the word DECAFFEINATED was blazoned into my brain.  I had a sudden mix of emotions.  Elation that nothing was seriously wrong with me and humiliation and shame (hubby has had to take up some slack for my headaches) that my lack of observation and utter ignorance was the cause of all my head pain and exhaustion.  The blood flow to my brain was next to nil for the last week because I was drastically weaning myself from caffeine and I didn’t even know it.  I would like to add that I really don’t believe that I had caused all the trouble, remember, I had headaches even before I started unknowingly weaning myself, but I’m sure that that was a contributing factor this past week.   Like I said, there is something divine to be learned here, but I’m still trying to figure it out.

Third thought:  I absolutely adore my children.  They have been through so much and aside from a few minor hang-ups they are getting along beautifully.  Praise God!  Oh, yes, and I have been feeling baby number four moving so much.  (I’m going to use “he” for simplicity sake, it is also an indication that I do think it is a boy, but I was convinced Sophie was a boy, so there’s my motherly intuition for you!)  Anyway, he moves a lot in the mornings, possibly more this past week trying to tell me that he needed his caffeine too!  Oh, that’s sad.  Last night hubby was able to maybe feel him slightly.  I’m just saying, he’s kicking hard… hmm my girls didn’t kick that hard.  Oh my, what is my last trimester going to by like!  It is a feeling I will try to treasure and cherish, no matter how uncomfortable.

Fourth and last thought for now:  My husband is my joy and delight.  I thought we would be tearing each others hair out by now, but God has given us the opportunity to grow closer and love each other more deeply.  

Much more to come on this lovely family adventure!

 

SOLD

Some very good news.  It isn’t final of course, but we think our house has a buyer.  The lady accepted our counter-offer and they do the structural on the house next week.  I don’t think they’ll see anything major, and the gal who’s buying has been through the mill before so we hope she won’t be too picky.  If all goes well, the house should be under contract before we leave.

We’ve got one week from today before we head out.  I’ve got a lot packed, but as soon as I pack one box I realize how much more we need to do.  Hubby got a stash of boxes for me, which is a big relief, I’ve been saying, “We need more boxes!” 

I’m praying for our family to stay connected and be a good family unit through all of this.  Yesterday I went to the park with the kids and it was just them and Mama time.  It was good because lately I’ve felt that they’ve been on their own a lot as we get things ready to move.

The plan is for us to head out on Saturday.  Hubby will drive the moving truck while me and the kids drive the van.  I’ve been establishing a plan that will best suit this situation.  And have been praying that the kids will travel well.  We hope to make it an adventure and not put too much driving time in in one day.  We’ll take three days to get to TN, stop there for a day to look around, have a down day and put our stuff in storage.  Then off to OKC.  I’m in the process of making a map for Gabe and Chloe to track where we’re going and where we’ve gone.  Including our trip to Montana, we’ll be going through about 11 different states.  It should be fun for all of us to learn a little about each one and make a trail as we drive through (we’re flying to MT though).  And Gabe is such a map guy, I think he’ll be pulling it out the whole time, “Okay, Mama, where are we now?”  (Sadly, I need a little refresher in US geography too!)

My pregnancy is going well.  I thought that I was gaining more weight than I should be, but I saw yesterday that my prepregnancy weight was 140 and I now weigh, at 4 months, 144.   I guess there’s just a bit more cushion from my last three that make it look like I’m gaining more wieght.  Ugh.  The kids are so involved and it has been really fun discussing with them about the little baby growing in my belly.  When at the doctor yesterday, Chloe tried to quiet the other two while the midwife got the baby’s heartbeat on the Doppler.  She said, “Shh, quiet guys, that’s the baby’s heartbeat.”  Then last night I showed them a pamphlet that I really like that has great pictures of the fetus in utero at early stages.  Gabe was enthralled.  He went through every picture with a very close eye.  And Chloe would say, “When will our baby look like that, Mama.”  Just really fun stuff.  I’m excited for this baby’s arrival for many reasons.  One of them being the childrens involvment and another reason is so that Sophie is not our last!  Oh, man, she is a riot, but just not suitable for the last child!  She needs a little compitition on the lower end to put her in her place.  I do pray that it’s not too hard on her though and that she will adjust well.  She sure does love babies, but I don’t know if she will after she see’s this baby needing so much of her Mama! 

There is much on my list of things to do today.  I hope to document our trip and if all goes as I hope in OKC, I’ll have much time on my hands to do so.  I won’t expect it, I’m just hopeful.  But, for now, I’m off to pack some more boxes (and pay attention to my son who is desperatly trying to conversate with me as I grow irritated because I can’t finish this sentence more quickly).

“Yes, son.” 

 

 

Hittin’ the ground running

I’m back from visiting Sis in OK.  I had a wonderful time, the baby was so sweet, Sis was really like an old pro, and Uncle Johnny was a very good and proud Daddy.  Everett really is a very good baby, I often wondered while I was there if I hadn’t read “Babywise” if I’d had a better first couple of weeks than I did with Gabe.  And to think, it was recommended to Sis from THREE of her clients.  She had warning way ahead of time not to even lay a finger on that book!

I have a continual prayer for them that they will adjust to life with a baby and a business and live their lives to the glory of God.

Now onto the title of this post.  We have exactly four weeks from today until we leave here.  We’ve got most of the minor touch ups done with the house that needed to be done if we leave here without the house being sold.  And most of the cleaning out of junk is done, so now we pack.  The trouble is that we need to pack for a six week vacation of sorts as well as pack up the house.  We’ll be staying in OKC with hubby for six weeks in a hotel/apartment gig and then we move onto TN.  We’ve got to find owners for our plants and fish.  I hate to see them go, but we don’t really have any other choice.  Unless, of course, if fish and plants can survive in a hot, dark storage unit for six weeks, yeah, didn’t think so.

We’ve had a few showings on the house, but no biters.  We hear from all of the Realtors that show it that it’s the best house on the market for the price.  The problem could be our location, it’s 20 to 30 minutes from any big town and with the gas prices going up…

Sophie’s second birthday is coming up.  She keeps saying “puppy” whenever I ask what kind of birthday she wants.  I love to make the cake of their choice (if it’s possible for me to do) so I’ll have to come up with some way to make a puppy cake.  I could use the standard pattern of the bunny or kitten cake using the two round cake pans, but I think I’m up for a bit of a challenge, so I’ll have to come up with something else, three-dimensional, maybe.  Oh, and she doesn’t just say puppy, she says, “Peek Puppee!”, I think I can do pink.

Gabe has been acting a bit distant since I’ve been back.  Hubby said he wasn’t exactly himself when I was gone either.  I’m praying for wisdom on how to handle it, I don’t want to treat it like it’s some kind of passing phase if he really needs something from me.  I just hope we can have a bit of normalcy before all of our lives are uprooted.  He was so cute when I came back.  Of course, I devoured them upon my return and was so happy to see them.  It was tough being away, but what a joyous feeling when you see them again.  Anyway, I was tucking him in that night and we always play this game of “I love you more,” so instead I said, “I missed you more.”  Now some Mom’s would break down at his next words, and although it stung a little, I understood.

He said, “I think you did miss me more.”  I said, “Really, you think so?”  Then he started to say something and then got really quiet.  I said, “What is it bud.”  He said, “Well, I was going to say something but it kinda made me sad.  I was thinking at the park today that I didn’t really miss you that much when you were gone.  I just loved Daddy more and not you and it made me sad that I thought that. “  Bless his little heart, I’m glad that he has a Daddy to love when I’m not there, I’m glad that he has a Mama that understands that sometimes boys get busy and have fun and play and don’t think about missing their Mama’s, I’m glad that he felt sad after thinking it because it says that he really does love me, and I’m glad that he didn’t miss me because it hurts to miss someone…I know.

 

        

 

The Latest

We didn’t get a letter, we got a phone call.  They didn’t say he would have to report to the facility in two weeks, they said he needs to go to the Academy first.  They gave him a choice of three dates.  Two in May and one in June.  He took the June date.

The Academy is in Oklahoma City and it lasts 6 weeks(I think).  He will have weekends off, but I’m pretty sure that will be filled with studying.

Things for us to be thinking about.

– My trip to see Sis, she is due in 11 days!

– Do we stay here if the house hasn’t sold or do we go to OK with hubby?  We could stay near Sis and visit Daddy on the weekends.

– Maybe we could use the time when Daddy is at the Academy to acquaint ourselves with Tennessee.

–Maybe we could go the Montana or Georgia.

Well, I’m sure we will have lots to discuss when Hubby gets home. 

Oh, yes I would like to start posting about some other news around here.  It is most probably my last so I’d like to have it documented.  We’ll be having baby number 4 in November.  Right now I’m feeling okay.  As the day goes on I start to feel less and less inclined to eat, but no major morning sickness as with all my pregnancies.  I am craving eggs though and I remember that craving with Gabe, hmmm, a boy?  Yum, I have to get off here and start my deviled eggs, I’ve been hankering for these for the last week.  Not sure what else we’ll have for dinner.  Deviled eggs and a salad?