Amy Scott's Thoughts

Okay! We made it through the big weekend. We had our pre-walk through with our supervisor on Friday. We noted a few small things that need to be fixed and he is working hard to get our house ready for inspection tomorrow. Please be praying for the inspection to go well and pass. I’m fully aware that we might not pass. It’s life. I felt like I should be covering the inspection in prayer, but my prayers are so desperate and plea like that I raise my anxiety level. Prayer should be about calming my nerves not frantic begging, so I had to stop. I came to this place where I realized that if praying and dwelling on the inspection brought me anxiety, I just need to trust God.  Prayer is important. God knows my heart. He knows how much this means to me. I need to be still. I need to let go of fear and trust. My word today is trust. I want to trust God no matter what. Pass or fail, God is good and I need to trust him.

Passing our inspection on Tuesday would mean closing on Wednesday. This has a lot of bonuses since we could move some things into the house over the course of Thursday and Friday. And let face it, who doesn’t want to officially have the keys to your house sooner rather than later, for it to feel like it’s really ours. Despite the big day on Saturday, I went up the house and mopped the floors for the first time. I had to do it twice because they were so muddy. It could really even use a third time just to get it really good and clean, but I will save that for after moving day. On Saturday, all I was shooting for was “better.” The house looks really good now that it’s almost 100% complete. Really good! I love it. I can’t wait to live in it!

Friday was a big day of Easter Eggstravaganaza prep. Saturday was the BIG day. It’s truthfully the biggest day of the year for us. I joked that our lives fall before EE and after EE. It is our time marker. The day went well. Our nephews were up for the weekend, so all four kids got to go around enjoy the event and egg hunts together. They truly got to do it all. We had pony rides, inflatables, swing chair ride, petting zoo and the egg hunts. The kids had a blast. My boys left with my parents after the hunts to head up to a family birthday party. This allowed me to work at the MOPS bake sale and then go clean my house without worrying about kiddos needing me to come home. The boys had a great outing with Grandpa & Grandma. I was able to be a productive adult. It was a win-win.

Yesterday was Jeremy’s birthday. I feel bad that it fell the day after Easter Eggstravaganza and on a Sunday. We were all a bit tired from the big day before. I was able to get a cake for Jeremy to share with the kids in children’s church. We sang happy birthday to him twice and he blew out his candles without setting off the fire alarm system. Now that we have sprinklers installed at the church, Jeremy was worried about setting them off and having the water destroy a lot of equipment. Luckily, everything was fine! After nap time, we went up to the house to have dinner with Jeremy’s family and my parents. The plan was to bring the party to our new house and break it in with the first official family gathering there. But when we pulled up to the house, an Adair worker was there taking care of a few things. My parents graciously offered their home and we soon took it over with pizza and pie. It was a fun party and we are grateful to celebrate surrounded by loved ones. We got to give a quick tour of the house to our family members who haven’t seen it and share our vision with them. It’s a bummer we didn’t get to have the actual gathering at our house, but we have plenty of years ahead to make memories in that home.

The rest of the week is a bit up in the air. Tonight is our MOPS Spa Day. We have a chocolate fountain with everyone bringing something to dip. We’ll be doing relaxing yoga and making herbal milk baths to take home. I’m excited because it’s a come in your comfy clothes night. Hopefully I’m not the only one who does! Tomorrow is our home inspection. It’s also my next eye doctor appointment. I won’t go into too much detail, but my eyes are still bothering me. I’m continually trying to gauge if they are getting better and if the drops I’m taking are making a difference. When I don’t see quick results, my instinct is to quit. It’s not working, so I want to stop. I’m over it all. I’ll just live with eye discomfort. I’m not really sure how to tomorrow will go. That makes me nervous.  If we pass our inspection tomorrow then we should close with Adair on Wednesday. If we don’t pass tomorrow then closing will still most likely be Friday. Prayers are greatly appreciated! Hopefully my next post will be filled with wonderful news of us settled into our new space!

Helping Daddy set up for Easter Eggstravaganza! 

Pulled up the paper! I love my floors! And look at that handy dandy microwave! 

Love being able to see my floors! 

Getting ready for the MOPS Bake Sale! 

The kids has a great time at Easter Eggstravaganza! 

This is what the floors looked like the 2nd time I cleaned them… Hopefully, soon they won’t be this dirty! 

Blowing out his candles in children’s church. 

Lots of curious helpers at present time. 

37 candles on a chocolate pie! 

We’re almost in the single digits to moving day. Woo hoo! I know I only blogged a few days ago, but I thought I would share the progress that’s happened since I last shared.

On Sunday, my hubby and father-in-law installed the shower door in our master bath. It looks great. They did an amazing job. The kids seem to think so too and I’ve spent a great deal of time at the house shooing them out of the shower. My fear is that they will bang the doors too hard and break them. I’m also scared about scratching the floors and hurting the quartz counter tops. I wonder how long until things are “broken in” and I’m no longer paranoid about their destruction. Hmm… I’ve never had a house this nice before. It has all the upgrades I could hope and dream for. I just want to keep them nice. Until we move in anyway!

On Monday, we got carpet in all the bedrooms. There is something about having all the flooring in that makes the house really feel like a home. No more exposed plywood. It feels less like a construction zone. We also got the back splash installed in the bathrooms on Monday. Jeremy and his dad worked on getting a step built in the garage. The garage is set lower than the house and we need that step for occupancy. It’s a very secure step and now Graham can get in and out of the house on his own. I spent a good part of Monday evening vacuuming up all the carpet pieces that were scattered everywhere while the guys built the step and the boys played outside in the dirt. There is lots of dirt to play with right now.

Yesterday, there wasn’t too much done at the house. The workers had been there to patch up a few holes in the wall. There was an electrical mistake in the half bath and they had to tear into the walls to try to fix it. The back door in the mud room is damaged so they started to take the trim off around it so they can replace it.  Jeremy had a load of gravel delivered to the house yesterday and he spent part of the evening spreading it out so our driveway is now level with our garage. It looks fantastic! He is such a hard worker! Every day he checks off another project all while managing a major work load.

Tomorrow the hardware is supposed to go on. It will be nice to have knobs on the cabinets and door knobs. We should also be getting our mirrors in and our closet shelves and closet doors. Then we have a pre-walk through with Adair to note any mistakes that need to be fixed. Most of the mistakes that I’ve found while cleaning involve various nicks in the cabinets and one cracked light switch. Hopefully nothing too minor and easily fixable.

Right now we are trying to balance the fact that our home is almost completed with our commitments this weekend. It’s Easter Eggstravaganza weekend and it’s by far the biggest weekend of the year for us. Jeremy coordinators a giant Easter egg hunt that has become a key event in our community. I am coordinating a bake sale at both hunts for MOPS, so we will be at church all day on Saturday. Big day. Lots of prep still to happen over the next few days. And if EE wasn’t enough to fill up a weekend, Sunday is also Jeremy’s birthday. I work hard to make sure Jeremy’s birthday is special because it always falls around Easter time and it can get overshadowed by the big event. I’m going to try to pick up some cakes on Friday, so we can celebrate with the kids on Sunday in children’s church. If your birthday is going to be a on a church day, might as well have a party to celebrate! Jeremy opened his birthday presents from the boys last weekend because he knew we had gotten him the latest Thor movie and he was itching to watch it.

Monday is Spa Day for our MOPS group. We have a chocolate fountain and 8lbs. of chocolate to melt! Woo hoo! We will also be coming in our comfy clothes, doing relaxing yoga and making herbal milk baths to take home. I’m really excited for this meeting and hopefully I don’t fall sleep during the relaxing yoga. Haha! My prayer is to keep my head in the game and make this meeting the best it can possibly be. Moving consumes so much of my thoughts, but I want to be present in the all the moments that are yet to happen before our move. This a special meeting where we treat our ladies and I want to give them 100% of my focus… maybe they’ll have to settle for like 75% or 50%. We’ll make it work! I’m sure it will be good no matter what!

Okay, I could keep going. Writing helps me process life and I think my desire to keep writing just comes from me want to keep myself focused and on top of all there is to do in the next 10 days. Lots, for sure. My brain is ping ponging all over. I’m not sure what next week looks like for posting completed house photos. I’ll do my best. You might to have settle for after we move in photos! I’ve been waiting for so long to move into this house. I have everything staged in my mind. I can’t wait for it to become a reality and for us to finally be home! It’s going to be amazing! God is good!

A blurry shot of watching the boys help Daddy open his presents.

After spending all our free time working on the house, the boys were soaking up some time with Daddy. 

Two years ago at Easter Eggstravaganza, we talked about finding property and building beside my parents. This photo was taken that day during that conversation. Look at Baby Graham! 

The first time we visited our property at the end of April 2016. I got a slug in my boot while walking through the scotch broom. Good memories.

Owen’s first visit to the property! 

Keeping things simple for the bake sale this year. Cookies from Costco and brownies from a mix. No fancy cupcakes with sprinkles. No time for that. I got all my goodies packaged and frozen on Monday so I don’t have to worry about them toward the end of the week. 

Starting to pack some boxes! 

Testing out the new carpet! 

Back splash! 

I love vacuuming!

Our lovely shower door!

We sent a train engineer to preschool yesterday! 

The boxes are starting to take over Graham’s room too! 

Helping Papa feed the birds

The garage step made from leftover decking supplies. It’s nice to have a handy family that can make stuff like this! 

Have you noticed a theme to my blog titles these days? Everything is a countdown to the big day. Just two weeks! We’ve spent a lot of time up at the house painting this week. Painting always gives me plenty of time to think as I work.  Here is what I’ve been thinking about. Two years ago in March, my parents and I started to talk about this dream of selling our homes and buying land and building beside each other. One year ago (on March 24th to be exact), we sold our Winlock house. Now another year later, we are about to move into our new home. Two years. Some things take time. Some dreams don’t come true overnight. I’ve been asked by others if we really should do this especially when things haven’t always gone smoothly. This move has been a big leap of faith for our family. I’ve doubted as well. It’s easy to doubt and be fearful. But Jeremy and I have prayed and we have put our faith in God. We truly believe that he opened this door for us and we didn’t want fear to keep us from walking through it. Now we are at the brink of seeing the dream come true. Truthfully, I’m not sure I would do it again (building and possibly moving, haha). Building a house was way more than I expected… We’ve been so blessed by my in-laws by letting us stay with them, but we were in transition way longer than I expected. I haven’t lived in my own home in almost a year and a half. It’s been disorienting for me. I have a feeling that I’m going to be shocked and surprised as I open all my boxes from storage. I do remember a lot of the things that we own, but I also don’t remember a lot of the things we own. I will have to get to know my stuff all over again.

When we first moved into our Winlock house, it was the week before Easter. This is such a busy season for the church. Moving at this time of year is not ideal. And yet, here we are doing it again. It’s so strange how some season fall at the same time of year. For me, I will now always associate moving with Easter. I feel a little guilty that my boys aren’t going to get an Easter egg hunt put on by me (don’t feel bad for them, they will still have two other hunts to attend at church and with family). I’m not creating elaborate Easter baskets. In fact, they are getting a few small items in gift bags, because that’s what I have. I don’t have baskets – they are in storage.  There will no dying eggs this year and I probably won’t get a cute Easter picture (but I’m going to try). BUT… They will get a house. In two weeks, they will be sleeping in new rooms. This house has been planned for and dreamed of. This house is amazing and I can’t wait to settle in and be a family there. It’s so close. Despite the extra busyness that comes with this season, I know that very soon the major hurdles will be behind us and we’ll be there and it will all be worth it. This is the house I hope to be in for decades. In fact, I joke that after all the drama that went into getting this house, you can bury me in the backyard some day. I’m not going anywhere. This is it for me.

So, what’s left? This week we get carpet in the bedrooms and that will finish up all the flooring. We get the hardware and back splashes installed this week as well as the mirrors in the bathrooms. Closet doors will also go on in the bedrooms and hallways. And then we’re done. Our supervisor actually hopes we can close earlier than the 30th since he has four new houses he is starting on and he is motivated to wrap up ours. If we close earlier than we will spend the free time we do have ferrying over things to the house in small loads before moving day. I’ll keep you posted a things progress!

Good day to mow the lawn

On a walk with Graham

Kitchen counter tops!

Stove is installed! 

Yay for sinks! 

Now I don’t have to run next door to my parent’s house to use the restroom! 

Hello friend! 

Love having hot water at the house! 

Enjoying Pi Day at church

At Home Depot to get a shower door for the master bathroom. Jeremy and Bill are set to install that tomorrow afternoon.

I have a thing for blue doors! My hubby surprised me by painting our door yesterday! 

Time to clean, clean, clean. While Jeremy paints, paints, paints. 

Much better! Now that I’m done cleaning what I can (bathrooms, cabinets, laundry room, light switches, plug-ins), I will head back up after nap time and start painting again. 

Here we are on the last day of February. We hope to move on the last day of March. One month to go. Now that we are here everything seems so close and yet still far away. I’ve been mentally preparing for this big move for over a year. I want to start packing boxes or something to symbolize that it’s coming, that it’s really going to happen. Our family occupies three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a few shelves in the kitchen. We don’t have much to pack and what we do need to pack, we need to use right up to the time we move. I can’t do too much, but wait. The story of my life. I have made a huge grocery shopping list on my phone. I’m trying to be prepared and think through all the things we are going to need to stock up our home from scratch. Again, if I could get it all now, I would, just so I could feel one step closer. One month. May it go quickly!

March will the fun month when it comes to watching the house come to life. We spent February painting and cleaning in preparation for our finish truck to be delivered. The truck arrived a week earlier than expected which was nice, but it didn’t change our actual closing timeline. It was amazing to walk into the house and see all the things we’d chosen in the showroom inside the house. I got to see our flooring full sized instead of a sample piece. I really like them and if all goes as planned, the laminate should be laid by this weekend. Our cabinets were put in place yesterday and Jeremy & I ran up to the house and played the “where will we put that” game, strategizing about where silverware, cooking utensils and plates will go. We noticed after the cabinets had been delivered that we had too many. There were conflicting kitchen design plans. We told our supervisor about it and he told us not to worry. When we were up there last night, we noticed even more extra cabinets then we originally thought. This morning we woke up to an email from our supervisor confirming what we already knew. Due to the error, we will be getting 5 extra inches of counter top and they will need to re-make some of our upper cabinets for things to fit correctly. Thankfully, upper cabinets won’t delay anything. We asked if we could keep the extra cabinets and we were told we could. Now I’m dreaming of extra cabinets in my laundry room and mud room. What an unexpected blessing. Anyone who knows me knows that storage and organization speaks to my soul, so I am elated!

Other house news includes the electricians have been in to put in the plug-ins, light switches and lighting throughout the house. The lights are only on in the hallway, laundry room and playroom right now, but it’s a start. It’s nice to visit when it’s dark and rely less on flashlights. Hopefully soon no flashlights will be necessary.  Our blinds arrived yesterday for the bedrooms.  Our visit up there last night included opening the boxes and making sure that the blinds fit properly in the windows. We won’t install them now, but it was nice to see them and know they fit. I love having blackout shades in bedrooms. We brought the boys’ over from the Winlock house to my in-laws, but we haven’t had black out shades in our room for over a year. It’s one of the many things I am looking forward to in my new master suite.

The next big project for Jeremy is putting a deck on the front and back of our house. The front deck will be small, just a landing to enter through. The back deck will be larger than we expected, but the decking we are looking at is sold in 12 foot boards, so to avoid extra cutting we will be doing a slightly bigger deck than we originally imagined. Jeremy and I have often dreamed of having a big enough deck for a BBQ and a table for meals to be enjoyed outside. Jeremy has been doing his homework – measuring and comparing material costs. I think the front deck will be created this weekend and the back deck next weekend. My brother-in-law used to work for a decking company and he has built decks for others in my family. He has agreed to help Jeremy and so has my father-in-law. I’m sure anything these three guys can create will be amazing, sturdy and add value to our home and our outdoor living space.

I’ll keep you posted as the weeks tick by and the house transforms into a home – a livable space! The timeline has someone coming to the house almost every single day to finish things up. I can’t wait to watch it all unfold! One month to go!

Painted and Cleaned

Painted and Cleaned

Painted and Cleaned

Painted and Cleaned

Snow Day

We love pizza!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!  

Hands On Kids Museum with MOPS

Hands On Kids Museum with MOPS

Winding down before nap time

The boys’ bathroom

Lower kitchen cabinets 

Master Bathroom 

43 days until we can move into our house. We were disappointed to see that your closing date wasn’t until the very end of March, but we now have a very detailed scheduled of all the finishing projects for our house with closing being March 30th and our hope is to move March 31st. That weekend just so happens to be Easter weekend. Not ideal, but it is after our big community egg hunt that Jeremy is responsible for, so that is for the best. We moved in to our Winlock house the week before Easter back in 2009. I remember my parents painting the inside rooms while Jeremy & I were at Easter Eggstravaganza. It was crazy, but we survived. Now we get the chance to do it again.

Each part of the process has been “fun” when it comes to seeing our house transform from a piece of land into a home. I’m guessing the next 43 days will be thrilling. We have spent the last weekend and part of this week painting the entire interior. Let me tell you, the house seemed really big when you’re painting the ceiling and the walls with multiple coats. It almost felt never ending. The boys each got accent walls in their rooms. Graham has lovely blue that I’m very pleased with. Owen picked yellow since it’s his favorite color. Yellow is a tricky color to get right in my opinion. And I’m not sure we got this color right. Owen’s yellow is like the surface of the sun. It’s cornea burning. I’m hoping that once we get furniture and artwork into the room it will toned down a bit. However, it is just one wall. It can be changed. Owen was given a paint brush to help put the yellow on the wall. It took him less than 3 minutes to get paint on the wrong wall, because he wants all his walls yellow. I’m fairly positive he wouldn’t be able to sleep in that room if all his walls were that shade of yellow. Yikes!

The truck with all our finishes should arrive next week. I’m excited to see cabinets, floors, counter tops, sinks, toilets, doors, lights, etc. all fall into place. As I mentioned before, we now have a timeline of when all these things will be installed. I told Jeremy I plan to roll around on the carpet the day is it is installed. I will be making carpet angels with glee. I’m very intrigued to see how our laminate flooring choice will look since that was quite the unexpected drama with our building process. I’m dying to see my quartz counter tops and my kitchen island. So many things to look forward to in the next 43 days.

Now for the brief highlights from the last two weeks. Our nephew, Keegan, came and stayed the weekend with us. We took him to the trampoline park with us as a part of our monthly MOPS outing. All the kids had a blast bouncing and jumping. Then the fun continued with a meal at McDonald’s and playing in the play place. Fast forward to Sunday morning when Owen walked out of his bedroom with pink eye. Thank you trampoline park or McDonalds. We had almost two months of no pink eye before it returned. Owen took a whole week off from school because his eyes just wanted to be extra gooey and he really wanted to stay home as well. Surprisingly, he and Graham got along fairly well for being home together. I had an eye doctor follow-up appointment that week, where the doctor again confirmed my discomfort is to be expected for the next 6-12 months. It didn’t magically heal in the last month. I now get to go back at the end of March. I’m so annoyed by this eye issue. The poor doctor could probably tell I was over it and he was looking at me like “get it in your head, this is going to take time!” I didn’t want to hear that. Blah. And that is how our January ended.

February has been filled with all the usual things and lots of painting. Yesterday was Valentine’s day. I’m not too into Valentine’s day, but I tried to make it somewhat special for the boys. Owen gave suckers and Valentines to his preschool class. He came home with a box stuffed full of cards and goodies. Graham and I made a chocolate cake and then Owen & Graham helped me decorate it. We colored Valentine coloring sheets. The boys got play tunnels and Play Doh as their special gifts. Overall, a fun, but fairly uneventful day.

For February & March, Jeremy and I are taking a break from our kids’ classes on Wednesday nights so we can lead a parenting growth group for young families. I missed the first one due to a migraine. Last night was my first time. I think I’m going to enjoy the short break from teaching. It’s nice to mix it up and hang out with adults. However, I kept thinking how much more ideal it would be to meet in a house instead of a big classroom. Jeremy and I hope to have a growth group in our home this fall. We built our house with the vision of having space for groups to meet there. I am excited for that.

Okay, that’s all for now. The days are full of to-do lists. I knew I wanted to blog and give an update, but my time window is now up. I need to fold laundry and move on my Usborne to-do list! Next post, I’ll have to update you on what I’m doing differently now with my direct sales business to keep it moving full steam ahead, but take less energy. I’m making some changes! I’ll share more later, promise!

Boomshaka Trampoline Park 

Lunch with three goofy boys! 

Baby sitting the house – running the propane heaters to dry out the mud. This was my first time spending alone time at our house and it was delightful. Now the furnace is running so we no longer need to run the propane heaters . 

Drying out the house 

Early Valentine’s gift for the boys. Play tunnels! 

The house textured before painting 

Our little yellow lover! 

Owen’s yellow wall

Good for selfies? Haha! My sister, her husband and my father-in-law all came up to help us paint. 

Graham’s blue wall. I’m in love with that color. 

Spray painting is messy! 

The first coat of gray in the main room. I’ll have to take more pictures this weekend we go in to clean the house. The whole house has had multiple coats. It makes a difference. 

Next book on the reading list. 

Valentine’s Day Play Doh 

My little cake decorators 

Let’s jump right in with the house update. Our house has been completely sheet rocked and the process of taping and mudding has started. Technically, our heat isn’t on yet, so they weren’t supposed to start quite yet. Oops. I’m not going to be upset about getting ahead of schedule. We’ve been running the torpedo heaters to make up for the lack of heat. Now that the house is fully insulated and the sheet-rock is up, it’s amazing how it  actually holds heats.  I love seeing the walls closed in. It’s a dream come true. As with each step, once we conquer one thing, my heart moves on to dreaming about the next thing. My new dreams revolve around having heat and light. We often go up in the evening to visit so it’s very dark. We have to use work lights and flashlights. I would love to be able to turn the lights on. And I would love to walk into a warm house. A warm house seems so homey and less like a construction site.

On to the flooring fiasco.  The emotions that I have poured in our flooring situation are insane and unexpected. I seriously thought we were immune to situations like this. We picked our flooring choice in April and signed contract. Done. Until Shaw discontinued the floor we had chosen. We went up to the Adair showroom and picked a new flooring sample we liked. They had sent us a PDF with pictures of flooring we might like, but of course, we couldn’t pick our floor from a computer/phone screen. Too risky. Turns out all of the floor samples that Adair had in their showroom were going to be an upgrade and therefore a price increase. The one sample we decided we liked was going cost over $1000 out of pocket. The thing about the PDF they gave us was the choices in that file would be a straight price swap – no out of pocket for those. This sent us on a wild goose chase to find flooring samples we were told were so new that no one would have them. We got confused with how the PDF was set up and found one of the floors on the sheet in person and fell in love with a new option. We got all excited about the new option and the fact that it wouldn’t cost extra. Then we found out that the new floor we picked was also being discontinued. Bummer… After a great debate, we decided to go with the more expensive option because we could see it in person and we would know what it looked like compared to our choices. Spending the extra out of pocket was a hard decision for me. This led Jeremy to call Shaw directly to see if we could get a sample of their newest flooring. We didn’t want to delay our finish truck, but at the same time, we didn’t want to spend extra money without exhausting all our options first. The floor sample we were hoping for arrived on Wednesday. After a quick trip up to Adair to compare with our other colors, we settled on Quaint Hickory. Which will not cost us extra! Praise the Lord. I have now envisioned 4 different floors being THE floor and that is draining.  I’m glad to have that completed and finally 100% behind us! One of the best parts of this dramatic process was Thursday, my in-laws watched the boys so Jeremy and I could do flooring research. Date night! And then on Saturday, my parents took the boys to the train show in Puyallup, so we got another day to run around and look at flooring choices.  It’s always nice to get one-on-one time with my hubby. Especially when we’re trying to process a major element our house (and possibly major expense). Owen & Graham have the best grandparents!

Moving on to the last of the house updates. Our appliances were delivered to our storage unit yesterday. That is thrilling! Woo hoo! Our lender called to talk to us about the process of transitioning from a construction loan to a permanent mortgage.  He mentioned that this process starts when the house is about 45 days away from completion. That means we are a month and half away! Woo hoo! While I’m disappointed that our move date won’t be in February, I am happy to know that we are close and I continue to pray that things can move forward quickly. A lot still needs to happen and I can’t wait to watch it all unfold! I day dream of painting and flooring and cabinets and counter-tops, toilets (that flush) and of course, lights and heat . It will all come together with time and I’m really hoping the 45 day countdown is on.

Other then keeping close tabs on the house, we’ve been up to the usual. MOPS, play dates, book parties, reading, playing… I’ve finished two books in January. The first was Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown and the second was Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner.  Braving the Wilderness was about true belonging. I love that Brene Brown is a social researcher so she mixes both facts and relationships to share her findings. I had read her book Daring Greatly and I know a bunch of my favorite authors like her so I had high hopes for this book. It was a good book, but truthfully, it had a bit too much swearing it in for me. I don’t mind an occasional swear word in a book, but this one has more than I expected and it caught me off guard. The information and message she shared was good and I admire her work, I’m just not super into swearing. I purchased Chasing Slow with a birthday gift card from a dear friend. We watched a video by Erin at MOPS and I was intrigued by her. I love the tension she faces in this book of always chasing minimalism and letting go of excess and yet it seems to find her again and again. I can related to this flow of letting things go and wanting life to be simple and then the pace picks up or the stuff accumulates and you think “Didn’t I say I was going to stop doing this?”. We all have seasons where we have to re-prioritize and make sure we are living our lives in line with what we believe. Erin is a blogger and an interior designer so I loved her perspective on creativity. I am no interior designer, but our building process has given me a chance to wear that hat and ponder what kind of space I want to create for my family. It was a good read and left me thinking all sorts of things about prioritizes, seasons and design.

That’s all I have time for right now. I look forward to sharing more updates soon and hopefully heap loads of progress as our house becomes a home.

I call this my weird wall. I’m thinking of putting a bookshelf here with DVD storage… Hmm… 

Owen picked a whale theme for the boys’ bathroom. I’ve had fun pulling a few elements together. 

Graham learned what happens when you turn the mixer up too high after adding flour. 

Kid containment 

Graham & his buddies!

The final choices all together. 

A very zoomed in look of the flooring with the white trim and gray paint. 

Books of 2018 – I’m doing Jesus Calling as my devotional. It’s been a good read, but a little different then I expected. It is thought provoking and I appreciate that.

Shadows

Sitting on the floor pondering furniture placement in the living room. 

So much has happened between now and the last time I blogged. I want to share all the details and yet I don’t want to overwhelm you with a lengthy post. I’ll try to stick to the highlights!

Let’s start with the house! Since my last post, Jeremy and I purchased a new couch for our living room. We just barely got it to fit in a borrowed 15 passenger van. I’m very excited to see how the living room ties together because we’ve purchased so many new things for that space. I’m daily arranging furniture in my head and making mental priority lists of what pieces I might want to add over time. We’ve been working on tying together a whale theme for the boys’ bathroom and I’m loving how a few cute items can create such a fun space. I can’t wait to see it all come to life. We now have a garage door and that really completes the look of the exterior of the home. Inside we’ve seen the house insulated and sheet-rockers are hard at work right now. I’m hoping to check in on the house today or tomorrow and fingers crossed that I won’t be able to see through my walls anymore. The flooring we chose for the house main living area has been discontinued (because we chose it eons ago), so now we have head back to the design center and find a new flooring that doesn’t clash with all the other elements that we’ve selected and are locked into our contract. Wish us luck! Adair is busy working on ordering our finishes and we should know within the week, maybe even tomorrow, what our projected end date might be. It would be nice to begin a countdown and start planning for our moving weekend. I’m just a little excited.

On to Owen. I know that I’ve mentioned that my boys’ fight quite a bit when they are together. Being two years apart and both boys means that my kids have very similar interests. They always want what the other boy has and they have learned how to push each others’ buttons and then there is retaliation. Last week was particularly rough. I couldn’t turn around after breaking up a fight before a new argument broke out. I was at the end of myself. I’m, of course, very concerned about the condition of their hearts and the root of why they are acting this way. Last week I literally had a cry out to God moment where I had to hand them and their behavior over to the Lord and say I don’t know what to do. I can’t make them behave. Please, Jesus, show up and help them. I’m at a total loss.  It’s amazing to me how when you hit the brick wall, God shows up on the other side and something awesome can happen. On Wednesday night at church, Owen told Jeremy and I that he prayed during class and asked Jesus to come into his life and help him be good. I’ve often pondered Owen’s salvation and wondered when he might make a decision to follow Jesus. I didn’t want to push him and so while we’ve talked about it at home, I’ve never forced it. Jeremy and I asked a couple different questions to make sure he understood what that meant and it seemed he did, so we celebrated with a happy meal from McDonalds. I didn’t except Owen to wake up a saint the next day, but I figure anytime you invite God into your life and ask him to help you out, it’s a step in the right direction. Things have improved around the house. The kids still fight, but I feel like the level of crazy has gone down a notch and I am beyond thrilled to know that my little boy loves Jesus and wants to live for him.

This last weekend was my birthday weekend. I like to spread the birthday celebrating out over days so we took off on Friday for an overnight getaway to Portland. We did some shopping. We had dinner with Jeremy’s family at Red Robin and then part of the crew came back to go swimming in the hotel pool with us. On Saturday, we went to the zoo and did a little more shopping. Owen loved the hotel experience and wanted to move in. Graham has never been as good at overnight trips as Owen, but overall, the boys did great and they really enjoyed the mini adventure. I found it refreshing and fun because my shopping was yet again focused on finding little things for the house at the best price and using as many gift cards as possible. I love a good challenge like that! My birthday was on Sunday which meant the morning started early, but the boys got ready for church like little angels (this was my birthday prayer/wish – I wanted to the boys ready and loaded for church without the usual World War 3 experience we often have). I got my free drink from Starbucks. Jeremy got cupcakes to share with the kids at church. I watched TV in bed during nap time. I had a yummy birthday dinner with my family at my parent’s house. I ended the day snuggled in bed watching the season premiere of Victoria on PBS. I don’t think days get much better than that! What a blessing. So far 32 has treated me well!

I’ll leave it at that for now. I’ll fill in the rest of the blanks with pictures below!

Couch shopping!

A garage door is a lovely sight!

The happy meal toy that Owen got on the night he asked Jesus into life. Look at that smile!

Play date at Burger King

Shopping with my boys!

Our hotel room had a view of the MAX trains. So, of course, it was the best room ever.

Birthday dinner at Red Robin

Oregon Zoo

Free Birthday Starbucks!

Celebrating the sheet rock! :)

And I chopped my hair off again. I love how easy it is when it’s short!

When I published my last post, I hadn’t taken the time yet to ponder 2017. Usually I reflect on each closing year and try to summarize it as a whole. I went back and refreshed my memory on the closing of 2015 & 2016. One of the best parts of writing a blog is I can go back in time and re-read where I’ve been and how I felt about things. I’ve noticed that I feel very differently about the close of 2017 then I did about the close of 2015 & 2016. I remember 2015 & 2016 as being hard years. Years that I said I didn’t want to repeat. However, I also feel like I grew a lot in those years as I pushed through challenges and unexpected ups and downs of life. I feel like I ended those years with strength and resolve. I had learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of. I felt confident in who God was growing me to be. While not fun, I clearly saw the results of hard work and determination.

2017 ends with very different emotions for me. Proverbs 13:12 says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” This verse came to mind as I was reflecting on the close of 2017. This last year has been one of waiting. We started the year off still waiting for our house to sell. Once it sold it in March, the waiting period for our new house to be built began. It’s been a whole year of waiting. Hoping for a home that is yet to be. I don’t diminish the progress that has been made, but I am feeling the toll on my heart from a year of deep longing. This year doesn’t feel as easy to button up as years past. I’m still waiting. And while I am waiting for something very worthwhile, I think this year has been characterized by sadness. I’ve been heart sick. No one wants to hang out with person who is constantly sad so I’ve tried to stay positive in most of my conversations while still being honest about where I am at. It’s a hard line.  I want to be truthful with how I feel, but I also don’t want to dwell on the sadness and let it take me to a dark place. This is the tension that I’ve faced this last year. 2017 has been a year of hope deferred. And it does make you heart sick. Not much I can do to change that, but I can keep hoping and believing that this season of waiting will come to end. 

While 2017 hasn’t been a cheery year, there are some highlights that I wanted to mentioned. The first would be starting my business with Usborne Books & More. It has been fun to work for a company that I love. My kids have benefited from their home library growing and I have enjoyed making some extra income. I’m not making millions, but I’m making enough to make it worth it. Some of the ladies I work with use this business to support their families and it’s a great opportunity for that. I have been honest from the beginning that I’m saving for things like throw pillows and decorating my new house. I don’t know how long I’ll work this business, but it’s been a Godsend. It’s given me something to do. It’s filled days of waiting with purpose and direction. I’m so grateful for my UBAM business. I’m not sure what I would have done without it this year. I started it at just the right time even though I was unsure. God knew what I needed.

In that same thread, I am thankful for the opportunity to lead our MOPS & MOMSnext group this year. I never wanted to lead this group. It was not my intention to become the coordinator. I figured someday it would happen, but I didn’t seek it out. It came to me and I said yes because I knew the group would most likely end if I didn’t. I was reluctant and scared. I knew it was going to be work. This was no easy task to say yes to, but I felt like God was telling me to try. I’m so glad that I did. Again, MOPS & MOMSnext has given me purpose and direction. I am blessed by the team that has come together and serving alongside them as been an honor. It’s been a joy to serve the moms of our community. I love that our group is one of encouragement and support. It’s been a big thing to step up and lead this group, but I am so glad that I said yes. God is good!

2017 was year of transition for our family schedule. Owen started preschool in the fall. I am glad we decided to put him in this year even if that does mean he’ll have two years of preschool before kindergarten. He is doing well at school. He is a social kid and he enjoys playing with his friends. He also really enjoys crafts so all the hands-on learning is good for him. I was worried about sending him away and missing him. It was the beginning of the “school years” and I wasn’t sure I was ready for him to be there quite yet. But the mornings he is at school are quiet for Graham and I. There is no fighting and that is good for all of our sanity. Owen & Graham love the same things and Graham, of course, wants to do everything his brother does. This leads to constant battles when they are together and it can almost break me sometimes. I hate being a referee in endless fights. The space that preschool provides is good for all of us and it’s wonderful to see Owen growing, learning, and enjoying it as well.

While the season of waiting has been hard, much has happened over the course of the year. I am grateful for the progress and each step along the way, even if it has gone slowly. 2017 started with snowy days and me getting to spend my birthday in Canada. In March, we sold our house and that was a huge blessing and a weight off of our shoulders.  At the end of April, I started my UBAM business. We spent the spring and early summer getting our home site ready before officially passing things off to Adair at the end of July. We took a family vacation to Bend, OR in August with the Scott clan. In September, Owen started school. MOPS & MOMSnext kicked off with all of our planning and praying coming to life.  October was birthday month for the boys and the house really started pick up speed. November was the start of my great eye illness battle. And December was festive with holiday celebrations and a whole lot of work on the house – in the form of painting the exterior and the drying out process. Jeremy’s vacation days were mostly spent working on our home. We missed doing family things together, but we are grateful for the time to focus on the house and move things forward.

And now we are here at 2018. The second half of Proverbs 13:12 says “a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” and I’m looking forward to living that part of the verse in 2018. To take the tree metaphor, we’ve been watching the tree grow – from a seed to a sapling to hopefully a full grown tree soon. Trees provide shelter. They bear fruit. A tree of life sounds like a great blessing. This is how I see our house, not only for my own family, but the people I look forward to welcoming into our home.  I’m praying we see our hopes and dreams become a reality this year. After a year like 2017, I am positive that 2018 will be a different story and I am ready to tell a different story. Seasons of waiting aren’t glamorous, but I do believe the rewards of waiting are worth it.

Owen discovered he likes Pez during our time hanging out with Grandpa & Grandma. 

Spent a lot of time taking over TC’s domain while we watched our house and moved the heaters around during the dry out process. 

Thankful for heaters like this to help dry our house out!

My top liked Instagram posts of 2017. 5/9 are about the house. 

New Year’s Eve fireworks

This is what happens when my mom doesn’t have candles for the birthday couple. 

We might have watched 4 different countdowns to the New Year at 7:30pm. 

My love! Grateful for every year I get to start with him! 

The birthday girl! She’s now joined me in our thirties! 

The New Year’s Eve crew – or as Owen called it “Auntie’s birthday party” 

Currently, I am writing from my mother’s computer desk. Graham and I are alone here with TC, the dog. Everyone else is out running errands. Graham is napping in the next room. I thought I would take a quiet moment to update you on our lives. The days have a way of blurring together. I often have to look back at my phone – either in my calendar or pictures – to remind myself of what happened each day. Anyone else can’t remember a week ago? Or is it just me?

On the theme of me home alone with Graham and a dog, I spent last Friday home baking for the holidays with Graham & Barkley, my brother-in-law’s dog that we’ve been dog-sitting while they move. Last Friday was the big move day for my brother-in-law and his family. Jeremy, Owen & Papa went down to lend a hand. I baked Christmas goodies while listening to Christmas music and then during nap time I watched Christmas movies. It was a great day. The kids and I have all been struggling with colds and coughs that seem never ending. Having a quiet day around the house to be productive and then restful was just what I needed.

Saturday began our three days of non-stop Christmas. We started the weekend off with my immediate family on the 23rd and then Jeremy’s immediate and extended family on the 24th and my extended family on the 25th. The kids had a blast playing with relatives and a new toys. I was impressed with how grateful all the kids were this year. All gifts were appreciated. Now that my niece and nephews are getting older, I worry about getting the wrong gifts. Shopping for them took more brain power this year since they all have unique interests. Owen & Graham got everything on their Christmas list and more. They, of course, got lots of new books and while they didn’t jump for joy when they opened them, they have now read almost every new book and seem to be enjoying them immensely. They have no clue that they got a bunch of free books for Christmas (one of the perks of being a book lady).

Tuesday was our annual day after Christmas shopping trip to Portland. Just like Black Friday, we took advantage of sales and found some new items for our future home. We got an area rug and TV stand for our living room and a new desk so I can have a home office set up in our bedroom. It’s fun to slowly add items that we know we will use in our new home. I’m so excited to see them in their new spaces. I daydream of it often.

I guess this leads to the house update. We are in the “drying” process. It’s been a struggle to get the house dry enough to move on. Right now, this could be a delay in progress unless we really amp up our drying efforts. The county came out yesterday and inspected the house. They said the moisture content was at 22%. Code is 20% and Adair requires 18%. It’s hard to be so close and yet still not right where we need to be. Jeremy found a dehumidifier that we were able to rent for the week. We also have family friends loaning us a heater and my dad connected us with another dehumidifier that Jeremy, Dad and Owen are all running to pick up now. The biggest issue is running all the equipment without overloading the power supply. You can only plug in so many things at one time. Which leads to the reason I am here at my parent’s house right now. I am baby sitting our house, keeping an eye on it, making sure it doesn’t burn down in our dry out process.  Prayers are certainly appreciated so this doesn’t become a stumbling block moving forward. As for the outside of the house, we had the garage concrete pad poured yesterday and it’s now drying. Our garage door should go up next week on the 5th and our gutters got hung last week.  I’m thankful for each thing that we can check off the to-do list.

Finally, I’ll end with my eye update. I was given two artificial tears drops to use after my appointment last Thursday and then I had one prescription we knew might be too expensive and might need a substitute.  To make a long story short, we’ve been through multiple pharmacies and had multiple hang ups. I have yet to receive my prescription. We finally settled on a mail based pharmacy, but as of today they still hadn’t gotten it in the mail… then I have to wait 3-5 business days with a possible delay because of the holiday.  I was supposed to go back to the eye doctor on January 10th as a follow up to see how the steroid is treating my eyes, but at this point, I’m going to have to postpone that appointment since I haven’t started the meds and probably won’t start them for many more days. My eyes didn’t respond great to the artificial tears so I stopped using them… I’m thinking at this point I might tell the doctor thanks for trying, but I’ll live with the discomfort until it clears up. I wonder if I have sensitive eyes because the more I put in them the more things seems to flare up. I’m close to giving up on the treatment plan.

And that is the major update. We’ll continue to focus on drying out the house for the rest of the holiday weekend. We’ll celebrate my brother-in-law and sister’s birthdays this weekend. That will wrap up 2017. Hard to believe that 2018 is just right around the corner. I did at  one point think that I would be in my new home right now, able to start 2018 out with a new chapter. But here I am waiting for this chapter of building to wrap up. My guess is now February and Jeremy has even said March, which makes my heart cringe. Who knew that this journey would be so long? With my health being poor and the added pace of the holidays, I am looking at 2018 and just wondering what comes next. I am tired. I am disappointed. But keeping on is the only option. There are bright spots in each day and the little moments of joy pull me through and keep me going. I know that I am blessed and that despite hardships and delays, there is a still good ahead of me. Until then, I daydream/arrange furniture in my head and pray for healthy and energy to fill me up again. I know I’ve said it before, but I often quote Dory to myself – “Just keep swimming.”

Christmas baking

Watching White Christmas when it started snowing!

Christmas #1

The Gallaway/Vitzthum/Scott clan

Going to see Star Wars

Christmas #2

The Scott Family

Merry White Christmas

Christmas #3

Day after Christmas lunch at The Cheesecake Factory with my boys!

Putting together a new Christmas puzzle!

Hanging at Grandma’s house a lot while we try to dry out our house.

Nap time victory!