My house on the "hill"
My backyard at sunrise after our first frost of the season :)
Showing posts with label Journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Journey. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Fall: My neighborhood foliage is GORGEOUS
You would not believe the foliage here in North Carolina. I can't even believe it. It is so stunning! I take this road to my house every day and this is what I get to see. I just had to stop and take some pics to share with you. As someone who has not had fall in 10 years I can tell you I am giddy over it. Never really remember appreciating it when I had it. Funny huh? Enjoy the pics.
My house on the "hill"
My backyard at sunrise after our first frost of the season :)
My house on the "hill"
My backyard at sunrise after our first frost of the season :)
Monday, October 28, 2013
Family: Out with the OLD in with the NEW
I just spent an hour on a conference call regarding an upcoming parenting class that I am WAY excited for. This sounds like everything I have been trying to implement and change about the way I am parenting. I hope I get chosen for this in depth class. I had to apply and they are only accepting a small number of applicants. Either way I got enough out of the one hour class today to make some changes already. I feel so hopeful that THIS time I will be successful. Doesn't this sound wonderful???
Wish me luck and stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Wish me luck and stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Friday, October 25, 2013
Faith: Don't Worry!
Just about an hour ago I was starting to worry about something. Getting all upset, over reacting, full of anxiety and worry over the future. Then I sat down to check my email and came across a new post from Loving My Lot. I loved her post "7 Reasons There's No Reason to Worry" that I decided to share the list of 7 Reasons here. Find her blog here and subscribe to her posts :) Here is a little quote from Loving My Lot to help you understand what she is about:
From Matthew 6:25-34
1. Because if God has given me big, substantial gifts (such as my life & body), I can trust Him to provide for smaller, less substantial needs. (v25)
2. Because God is so sovereign He cares about even the insignificant details of nature. (v26, 28-29)
3. Because I am of great value to God. (v26b, 30)
4. Because anxiety does zippo to fix my problems or extend my life. (v27)
5. Because God knows what I need. (v32)
6. Because God’s kingdom and righteousness are more important than anything I could ever need or want. (v33)
7. Because tomorrow will bring new troubles I didn’t even see coming, so I might as well live one day at a time. (v34)
Reference: http://lovingmylot.com/2013/10/25/7-reasons-theres-no-reason-to-worry/
"I think these two things–my faith in Christ and my love for my family–are what have stirred my passion for biblical womanhood. With my whole heart, I want to embrace the role and calling God has for my life so that when I do finally see Him face to face, it will be with no regrets."
From Matthew 6:25-34
1. Because if God has given me big, substantial gifts (such as my life & body), I can trust Him to provide for smaller, less substantial needs. (v25)
2. Because God is so sovereign He cares about even the insignificant details of nature. (v26, 28-29)
3. Because I am of great value to God. (v26b, 30)
4. Because anxiety does zippo to fix my problems or extend my life. (v27)
5. Because God knows what I need. (v32)
6. Because God’s kingdom and righteousness are more important than anything I could ever need or want. (v33)
7. Because tomorrow will bring new troubles I didn’t even see coming, so I might as well live one day at a time. (v34)
Reference: http://lovingmylot.com/2013/10/25/7-reasons-theres-no-reason-to-worry/
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Faith: Give it a try...
Saw this today and for some reason it just resonated with me. This sort of reminds me of when I took a leap of faith, with... my FAITH! I love it. Here you are! Enjoy!!
Monday, September 23, 2013
Faith & Family: Home
I have to say, lately I think the enormity of the move we just made is finally starting to sink in. It must be a delayed reaction or something. I am not exactly sure. I just seriously can't believe it lately sometimes. I drive around and run my errands and go through the motions each day and think, where am I? How did I get here? Don't get me wrong, it is not that I regret the move at all, I just am shocked at how fast it all happened.
I found out on March 1st that my Dad had Brain Cancer. The "non-curable" kind. Whatever the hell that means. I don't give a shit if it is curable as long as it is livable. And it is... for how long we will have to see. God willing, I will have my Dad for decades to come. But when I returned from my Dad's surgery in Boston, Jimmy mentioned maybe we should reconsider a move to Charlotte to get closer to my family. We had tabled that discussion about 5 years earlier. I immediately blew him off. "No! We are not moving. We are happy here. We love it here." He kind of laughed and said "Honey hear me out". He made a good case about why we should reconsider it (and he seduced me with images of FALL and FIREPLACES), but the best one was when he said, "Something in my gut is just telling me we are supposed to do this. That I am supposed to make this happen for my Family" As I learned from my friends, The Wilsons, recently, you don't ignore something like that. So we agreed to start looking into it. Just considering it. Jimmy even let me tell my Mom and swear her to secrecy. 2014 I told her. Summertime. Right after school gets out. A few weeks later, Jimmy shocked me even further when he came to me in April and said, "screw it. If we are going to go, let's just go now. Let's get out there before school starts this Fall- 2013!!" "No way! Not gonna happen that fast:, I said. "Let's try", he said. And it did happen. Every step of the way, I reminded him God will either bless it or block it. We kept praying on it, and kept looking inside ourselves for clues as to what we should be doing.
And it went so smoothly. All of it. Everything fell into place exactly as it needed to. And so that was that. My house was sold in 24 hours and the house I bought in Charlotte, sold in 24 hours. Funny huh?? And just like that we had an official move date. Now I am starting to finally understand why my friends were so distraught. I said to Jimmy, I am not dying I am just moving. We will still be friends. We will stay in touch. But I get it now... It is because they didn't really have time to prepare. I told them in mid April we were considering moving to Charlotte in 2014 and we were driving away 3 months later in July. They barely had time to process the news and say goodbye before we were gone. And I think I must have not really had time to process any of it either. Till now. I still look around sometimes at the greenery, at my neighborhood, even at my house every time I pull up to it and still think, where am I? How did I get here? Is this really where we live now? Did we really just do this? It is not sadness I feel, just awe. Maybe a little anxiety mixed with a little excitement mixed with a little wonder mixed with a little fear. It just doesn't seem real yet. We were happy in Arizona. We were settled. We were planted. We had set down roots and watered them. We had bloomed. We were a part of a community. Part of groups. Part of a Church. I was about to start a position on the PTO Board. We had friends and family of choice there. All my favorite places, restaurants, shops, and fun little places to take my kids. It was all so comfortable. It was so familiar. It was so us. But you want to know a secret??? I never called Arizona Home.
It was a pet peeve of Jimmy's that I would not call Arizona home. We lived there for almost 10 years and the only place I ever called Home was Boston. I would say to my kids, "Girls we are going home to Boston" when I booked us flights, and Jimmy would laugh and correct me and say "Honey, this is their home. They are born and raised in Arizona. Boston is not home to them." I would think, oh yeah whoops!! I would talk about going home all the time and he would say, "Honey you are Home." And he was right of course. Home is where my heart is. Home is where my kids and my husband are. But home to me will always be where my Family is too. My parents, my siblings, my Papa, my nieces and nephews, cousins, friends etc. Maybe if my parents didn't still live in my childhood home that I grew up in, I wouldn't still call Boston home. Or one day when I am old and my parents are no longer with me, maybe I wont call it home anymore. But right now, it is "Home" and I think it will forever be...
But a funny thing happened. I moved from Arizona to Charlotte and suddenly when I talk about Arizona... you guessed it... I call it HOME!!! So now I have TWO homes. Boston and Arizona. So what made this place that I never called Home in the 10 years I lived there, suddenly home to me?? I have realized lately home truly IS where your heart is. But you leave pieces of your heart in many places. Some of my heart is with the love I left behind there. The people places and things that we met and experienced there. The friends and loved ones waiting for us to return and visit. Sometimes it takes moving to realize how lucky you were to have those things. It takes flying the nest for you to realize that nest will always be there for you to fondly remember and to visit when you miss it. There will always be couches and bedrooms willing and ready to take us in when we come visit. There will be open arms there to greet us. There will be warm smiling faces and hugs and genuine happiness to reminisce and reflect. To tell old stories and belly laugh till your cheeks hurt. That sure sounds like going home to me...
And after writing this blog post I searched for a quote I could include and this one popped up. I think it summarizes what I wrote above just perfectly!
I found out on March 1st that my Dad had Brain Cancer. The "non-curable" kind. Whatever the hell that means. I don't give a shit if it is curable as long as it is livable. And it is... for how long we will have to see. God willing, I will have my Dad for decades to come. But when I returned from my Dad's surgery in Boston, Jimmy mentioned maybe we should reconsider a move to Charlotte to get closer to my family. We had tabled that discussion about 5 years earlier. I immediately blew him off. "No! We are not moving. We are happy here. We love it here." He kind of laughed and said "Honey hear me out". He made a good case about why we should reconsider it (and he seduced me with images of FALL and FIREPLACES), but the best one was when he said, "Something in my gut is just telling me we are supposed to do this. That I am supposed to make this happen for my Family" As I learned from my friends, The Wilsons, recently, you don't ignore something like that. So we agreed to start looking into it. Just considering it. Jimmy even let me tell my Mom and swear her to secrecy. 2014 I told her. Summertime. Right after school gets out. A few weeks later, Jimmy shocked me even further when he came to me in April and said, "screw it. If we are going to go, let's just go now. Let's get out there before school starts this Fall- 2013!!" "No way! Not gonna happen that fast:, I said. "Let's try", he said. And it did happen. Every step of the way, I reminded him God will either bless it or block it. We kept praying on it, and kept looking inside ourselves for clues as to what we should be doing.
And it went so smoothly. All of it. Everything fell into place exactly as it needed to. And so that was that. My house was sold in 24 hours and the house I bought in Charlotte, sold in 24 hours. Funny huh?? And just like that we had an official move date. Now I am starting to finally understand why my friends were so distraught. I said to Jimmy, I am not dying I am just moving. We will still be friends. We will stay in touch. But I get it now... It is because they didn't really have time to prepare. I told them in mid April we were considering moving to Charlotte in 2014 and we were driving away 3 months later in July. They barely had time to process the news and say goodbye before we were gone. And I think I must have not really had time to process any of it either. Till now. I still look around sometimes at the greenery, at my neighborhood, even at my house every time I pull up to it and still think, where am I? How did I get here? Is this really where we live now? Did we really just do this? It is not sadness I feel, just awe. Maybe a little anxiety mixed with a little excitement mixed with a little wonder mixed with a little fear. It just doesn't seem real yet. We were happy in Arizona. We were settled. We were planted. We had set down roots and watered them. We had bloomed. We were a part of a community. Part of groups. Part of a Church. I was about to start a position on the PTO Board. We had friends and family of choice there. All my favorite places, restaurants, shops, and fun little places to take my kids. It was all so comfortable. It was so familiar. It was so us. But you want to know a secret??? I never called Arizona Home.
It was a pet peeve of Jimmy's that I would not call Arizona home. We lived there for almost 10 years and the only place I ever called Home was Boston. I would say to my kids, "Girls we are going home to Boston" when I booked us flights, and Jimmy would laugh and correct me and say "Honey, this is their home. They are born and raised in Arizona. Boston is not home to them." I would think, oh yeah whoops!! I would talk about going home all the time and he would say, "Honey you are Home." And he was right of course. Home is where my heart is. Home is where my kids and my husband are. But home to me will always be where my Family is too. My parents, my siblings, my Papa, my nieces and nephews, cousins, friends etc. Maybe if my parents didn't still live in my childhood home that I grew up in, I wouldn't still call Boston home. Or one day when I am old and my parents are no longer with me, maybe I wont call it home anymore. But right now, it is "Home" and I think it will forever be...
But a funny thing happened. I moved from Arizona to Charlotte and suddenly when I talk about Arizona... you guessed it... I call it HOME!!! So now I have TWO homes. Boston and Arizona. So what made this place that I never called Home in the 10 years I lived there, suddenly home to me?? I have realized lately home truly IS where your heart is. But you leave pieces of your heart in many places. Some of my heart is with the love I left behind there. The people places and things that we met and experienced there. The friends and loved ones waiting for us to return and visit. Sometimes it takes moving to realize how lucky you were to have those things. It takes flying the nest for you to realize that nest will always be there for you to fondly remember and to visit when you miss it. There will always be couches and bedrooms willing and ready to take us in when we come visit. There will be open arms there to greet us. There will be warm smiling faces and hugs and genuine happiness to reminisce and reflect. To tell old stories and belly laugh till your cheeks hurt. That sure sounds like going home to me...
And after writing this blog post I searched for a quote I could include and this one popped up. I think it summarizes what I wrote above just perfectly!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Future: This will change your life...
... if you live by them. You have to practice every day till it becomes second nature! :)
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Family: Cross Country Adventure Part 2
What a great first couple days we had on the road. Today we are going to FINALLY get out of Texas! I am so excited. Texas takes SO long to get out of. I never realized truly how big a State it was, till this trip.
Something I had been praying for, which I did not think was going to happen, was the girls have gotten along SO well! They have been laughing and playing and not fighting hardly at all! What a relief since I thought I was going to be refereeing from the front seat the entire trip! ha ha.
We stopped real close to the Louisiana border and liked these cool windmills!
Bienvenue en Louisiane! Love it...
Louisiana was BEAUTIFUL to drive through. I finally saw SO much lush green and rolling hills and it got us real excited for the East Coast again!
Then we got to cross over the Mississippi River!
Mississippi was even more beautiful than Louisiana. My favorite State of all that I drove through.
We stopped in Mississippi for the night. We stayed at the Drury again cause the girls loved it there. They loved all the free soda and popcorn in the lobby. Ha ha. But they had a great time in the indoor outdoor pool.
They loved it!
Ryen was scared at first but her sister helped her get through it!
And they slept well that night!
The next morning we were headed to Atlanta. The days started passing faster it seemed as we were driving through multiple states in a day.
Look what we found at a Pit stop!!
Alabama! Today we stopped for lunch at Jason's Deli. It was DELISH!
Talladega stop. Probably not Daddy's idea of what a "pit stop" in Talladega would be like, ha ha.
We made it to Atlanta!
Tomorrow we will be in North Carolina!! YAY!! But for now, we rest sweetly :)
The next morning we were off! Today we had the shortest leg of our trip. Only 3 hours. We were driving through South Carolina first.
If you watch the show House of Cards on Netflix you will appreciate this next photo!! Ha ha! The Peach Water Tower!!
Then we stopped for lunch at a little Deli in South Carolina, but the girls preferred to spend our lunch break lounging together watching a movie.
After lunch it was time to head to our NEW home State! North Carolina here we come!! (and epic fail on the sign. The ONLY one that came out blurry. Awesome!)
We did not tell the girls were taking them to our new house. We just pulled up in front of it and yelled surprise. They were so excited, cause they had never seen it before!
One of the first things we did was walk the dogs around the block and I think the dogs and kids alike were excited cause they were taking off running!
And the girls were so excited when they saw that we have real "Christmas Trees" in the backyard and already started asking us if we can decorate them for Christmas. Well of course!! Duh!! ha ha.
Unfortunately it would be 3 more days till we got the keys to our new home. So off to another hotel we went. (that was the hardest!) But were staying in South Charlotte near lots of fun stuff and we had survived the road trip with lots of laughs, only 1 near accident, no car sickness or bathroom accidents from any children or dogs and hubby and I didn't lose our sanity! Successful Trip!!
Something I had been praying for, which I did not think was going to happen, was the girls have gotten along SO well! They have been laughing and playing and not fighting hardly at all! What a relief since I thought I was going to be refereeing from the front seat the entire trip! ha ha.
We stopped real close to the Louisiana border and liked these cool windmills!
Bienvenue en Louisiane! Love it...
Louisiana was BEAUTIFUL to drive through. I finally saw SO much lush green and rolling hills and it got us real excited for the East Coast again!
Then we got to cross over the Mississippi River!
Mississippi was even more beautiful than Louisiana. My favorite State of all that I drove through.
We stopped in Mississippi for the night. We stayed at the Drury again cause the girls loved it there. They loved all the free soda and popcorn in the lobby. Ha ha. But they had a great time in the indoor outdoor pool.
They loved it!
Ryen was scared at first but her sister helped her get through it!
And they slept well that night!
The next morning we were headed to Atlanta. The days started passing faster it seemed as we were driving through multiple states in a day.
Look what we found at a Pit stop!!
Alabama! Today we stopped for lunch at Jason's Deli. It was DELISH!
Talladega stop. Probably not Daddy's idea of what a "pit stop" in Talladega would be like, ha ha.
We made it to Atlanta!
Tomorrow we will be in North Carolina!! YAY!! But for now, we rest sweetly :)
The next morning we were off! Today we had the shortest leg of our trip. Only 3 hours. We were driving through South Carolina first.
If you watch the show House of Cards on Netflix you will appreciate this next photo!! Ha ha! The Peach Water Tower!!
Then we stopped for lunch at a little Deli in South Carolina, but the girls preferred to spend our lunch break lounging together watching a movie.
After lunch it was time to head to our NEW home State! North Carolina here we come!! (and epic fail on the sign. The ONLY one that came out blurry. Awesome!)
We did not tell the girls were taking them to our new house. We just pulled up in front of it and yelled surprise. They were so excited, cause they had never seen it before!
One of the first things we did was walk the dogs around the block and I think the dogs and kids alike were excited cause they were taking off running!
And the girls were so excited when they saw that we have real "Christmas Trees" in the backyard and already started asking us if we can decorate them for Christmas. Well of course!! Duh!! ha ha.
Unfortunately it would be 3 more days till we got the keys to our new home. So off to another hotel we went. (that was the hardest!) But were staying in South Charlotte near lots of fun stuff and we had survived the road trip with lots of laughs, only 1 near accident, no car sickness or bathroom accidents from any children or dogs and hubby and I didn't lose our sanity! Successful Trip!!
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Family: Cross Country Adventure Part 1
This morning I cried. A lot. For the first time. Just cried and cried. The kids and dogs were in the car. Everything was packed. And I was standing in my empty house. And this was my view.
The night before we had celebrated our last night in our house with one last dinner and swim with our besties.
With one last beautiful sunset in our backyard.
Sparklers...
And lastly, with camping in the living room.
I thought I was ready. But as I stared at my empty house, and the toys, drawings and notes we were leaving for the two children who would be arriving soon, it hit me. It would be their laughter that would fill that home, their heads that would bob up and down in the pool in the backyard. It would be their cries and boo boos, their playdates, their Halloween fun, and Christmas mornings in this house, and not ours. It was a little overwhelming, ok a lot maybe, and the tears just started flowing.
"It was a great house" I told Jimmy through my tears. And it was. The first house I ever owned. The house I was married in, had my babies in, had tons of parties and friends in. And I felt like I was leaving a piece of my heart and a piece of my soul, to live on forever in that house. To keep loving it from a distance for all of time. I came out to the car and Ryen could see my tears. And then she lost it. Just started crying and crying about how she didn't want to move and didn't want to leave our house. I felt bad for triggering this response in her. Not as if I had any control over it.
She was over it soon enough and we were cruising on the highway on our way to New Mexico! Our first stop was lunch at Burger King!
Here was another one of our pit stops in NM. We were ALMOST there :)
Some of the scenery along the way.
I tried to get Ryen to fall asleep the entire 6 hour drive but she would not. Until the last 10 minutes of our car ride to the hotel. (ha ha- of course)
Finally checked into our hotel in Las Cruces, NM. The girls couldn't wait to get some time in the hotel pool and hot tub!
The next morning we were out of New Mexico...
Feeling ready to tackle Texas.
Such a long state it was going to take us 2 days to get through it.
Our first stop was Midland, TX and there was not a whole lot to see on the way except for some of the oil fields.
Another crappy lunch stop today... Subway in the car! At least the girls got creative and had some playtime during lunch, so I could spend some time with Daddy and the doggies in his car :)
It was a little crowded...
The girls were so excited when we finally made it to the hotel they had a dance party.
Then we hit the pool and hot tub again for some relaxing!
The next day it was time to tackle the rest of Texas and head to Dallas! We were ready!!
I thought the girls deserved to have a decent lunch and not something on the go, like we had done the last two days. So we stopped for lunch at The Olive Garden. Poor Daddy had to sit in the car with the doggies :(
Here is some scenery we saw on our way to Dallas. We even saw some windmills, which reminded us of our old drives to California.
In Dallas I got some yummy take out from a local Mom and Pop Italian/Pizza place and we had a fancy dinner in our hotel room. Followed by more swimming, then tv time, and Mommy snuggles in bed.
Loved the way Ella and Ryen shared a bed on this trip!
In the morning we were finally going to get out of Texas. Now we were already in Central Time baby!! Almost there... Stay tuned!
The night before we had celebrated our last night in our house with one last dinner and swim with our besties.
With one last beautiful sunset in our backyard.
Sparklers...
And lastly, with camping in the living room.
I thought I was ready. But as I stared at my empty house, and the toys, drawings and notes we were leaving for the two children who would be arriving soon, it hit me. It would be their laughter that would fill that home, their heads that would bob up and down in the pool in the backyard. It would be their cries and boo boos, their playdates, their Halloween fun, and Christmas mornings in this house, and not ours. It was a little overwhelming, ok a lot maybe, and the tears just started flowing.
"It was a great house" I told Jimmy through my tears. And it was. The first house I ever owned. The house I was married in, had my babies in, had tons of parties and friends in. And I felt like I was leaving a piece of my heart and a piece of my soul, to live on forever in that house. To keep loving it from a distance for all of time. I came out to the car and Ryen could see my tears. And then she lost it. Just started crying and crying about how she didn't want to move and didn't want to leave our house. I felt bad for triggering this response in her. Not as if I had any control over it.
She was over it soon enough and we were cruising on the highway on our way to New Mexico! Our first stop was lunch at Burger King!
Here was another one of our pit stops in NM. We were ALMOST there :)
Some of the scenery along the way.
I tried to get Ryen to fall asleep the entire 6 hour drive but she would not. Until the last 10 minutes of our car ride to the hotel. (ha ha- of course)
Finally checked into our hotel in Las Cruces, NM. The girls couldn't wait to get some time in the hotel pool and hot tub!
The next morning we were out of New Mexico...
Feeling ready to tackle Texas.
Such a long state it was going to take us 2 days to get through it.
Our first stop was Midland, TX and there was not a whole lot to see on the way except for some of the oil fields.
Another crappy lunch stop today... Subway in the car! At least the girls got creative and had some playtime during lunch, so I could spend some time with Daddy and the doggies in his car :)
It was a little crowded...
The girls were so excited when we finally made it to the hotel they had a dance party.
Then we hit the pool and hot tub again for some relaxing!
The next day it was time to tackle the rest of Texas and head to Dallas! We were ready!!
I thought the girls deserved to have a decent lunch and not something on the go, like we had done the last two days. So we stopped for lunch at The Olive Garden. Poor Daddy had to sit in the car with the doggies :(
Here is some scenery we saw on our way to Dallas. We even saw some windmills, which reminded us of our old drives to California.
In Dallas I got some yummy take out from a local Mom and Pop Italian/Pizza place and we had a fancy dinner in our hotel room. Followed by more swimming, then tv time, and Mommy snuggles in bed.
Loved the way Ella and Ryen shared a bed on this trip!
In the morning we were finally going to get out of Texas. Now we were already in Central Time baby!! Almost there... Stay tuned!
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