Amy Scott's Thoughts

We Have Moved! October 24, 2016

Filed under: Family Time,Selling, Building, Moving,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 8:12 am

This weekend we officially moved into Nana and Papa’s house. This move has been almost three months in the making. I was more than ready to take the next step in our housing journey.

The saddest part of the move for me was taking apart the boys’ rooms. Jeremy took all the stickers off the walls. No more penguins for Graham, no more woodland creatures for Owen. We spent so much time and care assembling those rooms and dreaming about the babies that would live in them. Such a good season of life took place in those rooms. Thinking about the new rooms the boys will have in our new house has helped me handle taking down their nurseries. There will be new rooms to decorate in the future and that gets me excited. If I felt sad about any part of the moving process, I thought of the house we hope to build and it gave me the excitement I needed to move forward joyfully. This will all be worth it.

We were able to settle in quickly at Bill & Debbie’s. All our stuff fit. This is a testamaent to how much space Bill & Debbie cleared for us. They have generously opened their home to us and given us plenty of room to make it our home too. The boys have loved living with Nana and Papa. So far things seem to be going well. Graham had a rough first night in his new room, but he did better last night. Owen has slept like a champ in his new room. His adaptability amazes me.

Yesterday, Jeremy and I went back to the Moonlit house to clean and grab a few items we left there overnight. Jeremy made a run back to his parent’s house for coolers so we could empty our fridge. While he was away, I mopped the floor and sang old Switchfoot songs in the echoey living room. Once I finished with the floors, I went around taking pictures and selfies around the house. I want to capture the memories.

This house has been such a blessing. It has been a gift from God and our family has loved it dearly. I remember getting the keys and walking through the door the first time it was officially ours. There was so much excitement and anticaption. We have made it a home and it has been our sanctuary and retreat. We started our family there and brought our babies home from the hospital there. I will always view this as the baby house. The place where my babies learned to crawl and walk. Good, sweet memories.

There are so many people I would like to thank right now. Both of our families supported us through this move. From moving our stuff to watching the boys, we have been given so much help through this whole process. We couldn’t have done it alone. Thank you to my friends who have been a listening ear for me through each step of this process. Your encouragement and prayers have kept me going. Thank you to my in-laws for letting your home be invaded by our loud and zany family. And a HUGE thank you to my hubby, Jeremy, for all the hard work he has put into this move and our whole housing situation. His efforts and strategy are the reason this move went so well. He has been a support to me as I’ve processed this change. His love has been so life giving to me. Last but not least, I am so thankful to God for each blessing and even each setback that has come out of this season. Our family has grown and God has shown up time and time again. We are counting our blessings and we are thankful!

Repacking the kitchen

Let’s do this!

Helping Mommy clean up the dust bunnies

Owen in his empty bedroom

7+ years in this house with this amazing man!

Cleaning, taking selfies and saying good-bye

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Happy Birthday, Graham! October 20, 2016

Filed under: Family Time,Parenthood,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 6:31 pm

Happy 1st Birthday, Graham!

Yesterday was Graham’s 1st birthday! What a first year! This week we’ve been up in Kirkland at MRI (Ministry Resources International) doing pastoral care/coaching/counseling (whatever you want to call it). Our mornings have been spent in appointments and then our afternoons/evenings have been spent doing homework and reflection. Graham has done a good job being a part of our meetings. I am proud of him. We packed lots of toys and snacks to keep him occupied while we met. He didn’t love spending the night at the hotel and was up quite a bit in the night. This meant our routine developed around getting him to take a nap before our meeting times and then after our meetings. This is how the first part of Graham’s birthday was spent. He got up early, enjoyed a breakfast of eggs & cheese at the hotel and then took a nap before our morning meetings with MRI. After our meetings we drove a little distance to have lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Graham enjoyed the baby plate they gave him of bananas and bread. He also enjoyed Jeremy’s chicken and pasta. We told them at dessert time that it was his birthday. He got a complementary ice cream sundae with a candle in it. The look on his face while they sang to him was priceless!

After lunch we did a little bit of mall walking and shopping. Graham got another nap on the way back to the hotel. At the hotel, we did homework time while Graham stretched his legs and ran around the room. Once Graham started to need our attention and focus again, we took him down to the hotel swimming pool. He had a great time doing laps around the pool with Jeremy. I’m not a huge fan of swimming so I chose to document the fun from a lounge chair. Once the swimmers got a bit chilly, we went back to our room for a warm bath. From there we went to dinner. Graham loved Jeremy’s tomato soup and we split a pumpkin cookie for a special birthday dessert. Then it was back to the hotel for bed time. It wasn’t a flashy birthday, but it was a lot of fun. Jeremy and I doted on him quite a bit through out the day. The ladies at the MRI office played a rapping birthday frog toy for him to help celebrate. Since he was wearing his first birthday shirt all day, he got lots of comments and well wishes from strangers. He is a loved and blessed little boy!

As I was unpacking today, I realized that I had forgotten to give Graham his birthday presents yesterday. Oops! Owen helped him open two new books this evening. One makes garden sounds and both boys love it! We left our MRI meeting today and went straight into Centralia for Graham’s one year well check. I have the official Graham stats to share with you. He is weighing in at 18lbs. 13oz. He didn’t break the 20lb. mark, but if I remember correctly, I don’t think Owen did either. However, Owen was a pound heavier by one year. Graham is 27.5in. tall which puts him below the charts for height. He is less than 1%. We know he is short and it was a conversation we had with the doctor. It’s too soon to tell, but we might have to keep an eye on his height in the future. He could have a growth hormone deficiency, but it’s too early to tell so nothing to be concerned about this moment. Graham’s head was 45.7cm at 39%. He is hitting all his developmental milestones spot on. His appetite in the last two weeks has taken off and he wants to eat everything! Hopefully that will help him grow!

Graham is a sweet kid. I am so glad God gave him to our family. This week has been a strange one, but it was fun to spend some one on one with Graham. He is a great little soul to have in counseling appointments. His smiles and hugs were very welcome. He is such a good walker and impressed so many people this week with how sturdy he is on his feet. He has also mastered the art of being able to stand up when he falls down. Before he would have to crawl over to something to get back up. Now that he can stand up on his own, he has officially master walking. He is now on to running and climbing and general toddler exploration and mischief. Other than his height, he is a big boy! He wants to keep up with the world. Nothing is slowing him down. He is a lovey and I’m so blessed to be his Mama. Happy 1st birthday,Graham! You are loved!

Playing with Daddy

Watching the wait staff sing him Happy Birthday!

Give me that!

Pool time

Stuffing his face with pumpkin cookie

Graham month by month!

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Family Pictures! October 17, 2016

Filed under: Family Time,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 6:47 pm

Thank you to Kelly Pea at Wildwood Photography for the wonderful family pictures!

I got the link today to download our family pictures. I love that we took the pictures in October because the fall landscape makes my heart happy. Little kids and leaves are a perfect combination for cute pictures. Below are a few pictures I wanted to share with you.

On a more personal note, tomorrow we start our first week of counseling. I’m nervous. About the actual counseling, about having Graham with us, about Owen being away from us. I know that God is in control and I can just respond the best I can to each moment as it comes. I think part of the reason I’m nervous is my emotions are bit on the heavy side right now. Today was been a full day of packing for both our trip and our house. We will come home Thursday evening and then we will spend the weekend moving. Today was the last day I’ll clean my house with furniture in it. So weird. When you add counseling, moving, health questions, a baby with a birthday in just a few days, you get an emotional Mama. I haven’t broken down yet. I guess I can save that for counselors office. Just a lot to process and a lot to prepare for in one week. As I type, I am taking a deep breath and trusting God to be in all it. Please say a prayer for us. The rest of October will be extremely busy. In fact, I’m not sure when I’ll get to blog again. Hopefully before we move I can post my 12 month Graham update. We’ll see. After that it might be November before you hear from me again. However, I always seem to make time for blogging therapy.

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Another Step Closer October 13, 2016

Filed under: Selling, Building, Moving,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 11:17 am

Before I get into our home news, I would like to let you know that there have been some small changes to this blog. You probably wouldn’t even notice unless I mentioned it here. Tragically, my last post used up all my “free” storage. This site has been free for me the last five years. In order to get more storage, I have to pay to keep this site up and running. Because blogging is like therapy for me and an investment into my mental health, Jeremy agreed I could upgrade my account with WordPress. One of the features of this upgrade is there will no longer be ads on my page. Also, I have my own domain name. My blog is now just amyscottsthoughts.com. There is no added wordpress.com associated with the link. I know, I know. I’m super cool now, for sure. I don’t love that I have to pay an annual fee for this blog, but I should get another 10 years out of the storage that I have available to me. Here’s to another decade of blogging! Also, I plan on updating my “About Me” section in the next week. At the moment, the information doesn’t include Graham in our family. I think I updated it about two years ago! We had family pictures this last week and once I get a chance to go through them, I’ll update the information and include a new photo of our family.

The big news of the week is our appraisal came back to us this week. It’s $2,000 less than I had hoped for, but $7,000 more than our last appraisal, so we quickly agreed to the new number. This means we are officially moving toward closing with no foreseeable hiccups. I’m conditioned to be reserved with dates when it comes to our housing situation, but I think we most likely move now on Saturday, October 22nd. We have about a week and half left in our home before moving in with Jeremy’s parents. In August, I was sad to move. I love our house on Moonlit Lane. It’s been a great house for us and a very precious season of life has been lived here. Those feelings haven’t diminished within me, but the sadness has definitely decreased. Mostly because I am itching for my new house to be built! I look at the floor plan for our new home and I get giddy with excitement and possibility! I’m ready for this process to move forward! We have been pre-approved for a construction loan and Jeremy is out with the construction supervisor right now staking out where our home will go. We are right on the cusp on things taking off! I am thrilled and ready! Let’s go!

As I mentioned before, this week we had family pictures taken. I figured it was a good time since October is birthday month. I wanted to capture the boys right at 3 & 1. This is such a fun time with them. I have seen a few sneak peek photos, but I haven’t seen them all yet. I will post a few once I have a chance to sort through them. We haven’t done family pictures in the past, but this year it really meant something to me. I guess after having the difficult season that we’ve been walking through, I wanted photos of this family. I wanted to look at pictures and see smiles and remember my blessings. I don’t think you regret taking family pictures and capturing memories. I want to remember this season.

This last week I’ve done a lot of thinking… I’m prone to loose sight of the good things because I get lost looking at the hard things. This is a tendency I will always have to battle. I was talking with Jeremy and we started to remind ourselves of the good things that have come our way this last year. It was life giving for me. I used to make lists of God’s gifts in my life. The small day to day things. I find myself still making list. They are mental lists, but almost daily I am reciting things that I am thankful for. Big, small. It doesn’t matter. Thankfulness is the thing that is carrying me through. When I get focused on the negative, I redirect my mind to my blessings and they are many. I am praying today for anyone reading this who might be walking through a hard season. It can be overwhelming to look at your situation and not get distracted or discouraged by the weight of it all. But God is good. I know I always wrap up by saying God is good, but it’s so true. He is good. He is for us. He is in every moment. Maybe take a moment to make a mental list of the good blessings you have. Thank God that he is here in the midst of it all!

Reading with Nana

Visiting Papa means stealing his walker!

Graham’s Turn

My sweet boys!

A quick visit to Mt. Rainier to see the fall color!

Loving the crunchy leaves in the park!

Holding my hand and crunching leaves together

Owen likes to sit in front of the heater. Just like Mommy!

A sneak peek from our family pictures!

Enjoying a play date with the cousins while Jeremy was the cardiologist.

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Owen is Three! October 9, 2016

Filed under: Family Time,Parenthood,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 10:21 pm

I had a long and lovely blog written about my fantastic three year old and then my computer glitched and I lost it all. I almost cried. Nothing like pouring your heart into a piece capturing your growing boy at this moment in time and then having it disappear into nothing. It’s a very defeating feeling. While I am game to try again, this post might be shorter than the first. This might be in your favor since you didn’t want to spend hours of your day reading a novel about Owen.

Owen’s birthday was Saturday. We spent the morning visiting a model train show at the fairgrounds. It was more of a swap meet for train parts than a train show. They had about three tracks with trains running. It didn’t matter to Owen that it was small. He had a blast watching those three trains. A part of the train show was free admission to the Lewis County Historical Museum. The museum is in an old train station and the whole backroom is set up with a model train track that travels through Lewis County. It was a super cool set up and really completed the model train morning. The best part was a freight train went right by while we were there and Owen ran outside out and excitedly watched it. After all the model train fun, we went to lunch at Peking House and Owen had fried rice. It was the perfect Owen outing. Owen came home from our adventures and went down for a nap because even birthday boys need naps. When he got up, Jeremy and Owen went into town to get pizza. The birthday boy promptly asked for a piece of brownie cake when he was finished with his pizza. We sang happy birthday and Owen got to blow out the candle (twice because he loves it so much). This kid loves and appreciates chocolate. The brownie quickly disappeared and we were on to presents. Owen got a set of Christmas storybooks and a railroad crossing for his wooden railway. The rest of the evening was spent taking a very messy bubble bath thanks to Daddy and then playing with trains until bedtime.

Owen loves all things trains. We drive over the train tracks in Napavine on the way to church. Owen calls this “train way.” We go the train way a lot. He loves books about trains and loves to watch videos of trains on YouTube (I die of boredom). He is also into trucks and construction. He loves things that move and go. Right now, he is blissfully happy to have a bunch of new toys to play with. He was blessed with many awesome birthday presents. We have amazing friends and family who have loved on him well (Graham too). When Owen isn’t playing (with trains), he likes to color and play with Play Doh. We love to read together. He is enjoying his Phonics Readers from Usborne and his Bible. His favorite Bible story is the story of the two builders where one man builds a house on the sand and the other builds on the rock. We sing the same song I sang as a kid and do all the motions. He likes singing about how the house on the sand goes splat. Owen loves to sing these days. He joined us for worship this morning at church and attempted to sing along even though he didn’t know the words. He later told me that they were singing to us at church and I got to explain that the singing was called worship and that we were all singing to God to say thank you and honor him. I love moments like this and I am excited for many more as he continues to grow. These God moments are my favorite!

Owen loves his stuffed animal, Lamby. He is Owen’s security blanket and best buddy. Our household is in a big Daniel Tiger phase right now. We love the songs and I’m contemplating having Owen be Daniel Tiger for Halloween, but the jury is still out there. Owen is growing out of the terrible twos and I have high hopes that three will be an improvement in attitude. Owen now says “I love you” throughout the day. It melts my heart. I tell him that I love him often and it’s so special to hear him say it now. He gives kisses on the cheek upon request. He is fairly good at saying please and thank you. He also knows to say excuse me when he burps. I’m praying those manners continue to stick as he grows up. If you ask him what his favorite color is he will most likely say green. His favorite food is rice. He loves chocolate milk. He is goofy and creative and says the best things. I could listen to him talk for hours. He now comments on when things are fun. The other day he told Jeremy, “I love eating food with you, Daddy.” Anything that takes place in the past is yesterday – could have been yesterday, last week or a month ago. I’m loving the fact that he is potty trained. He is even dry through the night. The transition to a big boy bed as been amazingly smooth. He stays in bed and doesn’t get up until Jeremy or I come into the room and tell him it’s okay. I am so grateful for that! He has grown up so much this year!

His well check isn’t until November so I don’t have any official stats on him yet. I can tell you that he has been consistently weighing in at 29lbs for some time. I love that he didn’t break 30lbs by age 3. Little lightweight. He is now wearing 4T shirts and 3T (with the waistband cinched up tight). He would prefer to wear pajamas more than anything else. I have taught him well! I love that he still loves footie pajamas. They are his top choice.

There a million small things that make Owen so amazing. I could go on forever about how wonderful he is. He can be strong-willed and zany, but he is equally sweet and kind. I am so glad that God gave him to Jeremy and I. Owen has changed my world and I now can’t imagine my life without him. He is a miracle. I love watching him grow and become himself more and more each day. He is truly a fantastic kid and I am blessed to be his mom! This season of his childhood is the best. I love it!

PS… I don’t think this retry was any shorter than the first! So sorry. I tried. Sort of. Maybe not. The end.

Baby Owen

1 year old!

2 years old!

Good morning birthday boy! Someone special is officially 3!

At the model train show

The model train room at the Historical Museum

Little Train Lover

A leaf!

A quick spin with the bubble mower

Yummy pizza

Make a wish!

Love that smile!

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Pumpkins, Teddy Bears and the Big Haircut October 7, 2016

Filed under: Family Time,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 5:42 pm

We had a bit of fun yesterday. We drove down south to go to a pumpkin patch. My sister-in-law invited us to join her moms’ group. Owen and I joined them last year and we had a fantastic time. I was excited to go again. Owen loved spending time with his cousin, Nolan. When I asked Owen what he liked most about the pumpkin patch, his response was seeing Nolan. We got to go on a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch where we picked two pumpkins. Then we went through the hay maze, visited the petting zoo and climbed the straw pyramid. It was a wonderful fall outing. I love pumpkins. Jeremy joked that a pumpkin patch is my ideal garden and I totally agree. The more pumpkins the better in my book! It was fun to have Graham experience the pumpkin patch as well. He did a decent job walking around in shoes (something new to him since he usually roams around bare foot). October is my favorite month of the year and activities like this are the reason why.

After getting some lunch, we took off for the mall. My aunt had given the boys gift cards to Build-A-Bear for their birthdays. While Build-A-Bear isn’t something I would normally spend the money on, I was excited for them to have this experience. Owen really enjoyed it even though he was super tired. Owen picked out a bear for himself and for Graham. He helped the employee fill the bears by stepping on the pedal. He gave his bear a good brush before we got them all dressed up. Owen’s bear got a full Seahawks jersey outfit with helmet included. Graham’s bear got a Sehawks hoodie. A part of the process is naming the bears and printing their birth certificates. Jeremy named Owen’s bear “Blitz” and Graham’s bear “Graham Bear.” Owen walked away proudly carrying the signature Build-A-Bear box. Both boys took long naps with their bears on the ride home from the big day.

Today was a milestone day for Graham. He got his first haircut. I’m lazy and cheap so I hold off on the first haircut until the first birthday. Plus, this is the only time of life where crazy baby hair is cute and makes sense. Owen did really well for his first haircut, so I was hopeful for Graham. However, Graham hated it. It cried and couldn’t be distracted. This could be his first and last salon cut… At least for a while. Part of me thinks we’ll give it another try and see if the results change. If not, then it’s buzz cuts at home like his brother!

My boys are getting bigger and growing up. Tomorrow is Owen’s 3rd birthday!!! I can’t believe it! We have a fun outing to a model train show planned for him. He knows that is his birthday activity and he tells anyone who listen that is going to the model train show. He might never want to leave. My next post will be all about my big 3 year old and his special day. Exciting times!

Fun with the bubble mower

When big brother is away, little brother can play with all the toys!

Apparently this is how Owen visits Papa in the hospital. He just moves on in. Glad that Papa’s knee surgery went well and that he is home recovering now.

Pumpkin Patch

Build-A-Bear

A happy, quiet ride home!

Before

After – He was a total crank. No smiles.

Something for the memory box

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Birthday Party Weekend with a Health & Home Update October 4, 2016

Filed under: Family Time,Parenthood,Selling, Building, Moving,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 6:41 pm

My last post ended with Jeremy’s upcoming appointment with our family doctor. At that appointment, Jeremy asked to get a referral to a new cardiologist. We wanted to get a second opinion since his first cardiologist couldn’t explain the chest pain Jeremy was having and didn’t seem too concerned with figuring it out. To our surprise, we had an appointment with the new cardiologist in just a few days of asking for the referral.

Friday was a busy day. We found out on Thursday that we would be having our appraisal on Friday. I’m glad we had a little more notice this time. Last time they told us on the day of which wasn’t my favorite thing. We already had plans to be gone on Friday morning to go shopping for the boys’ birthday parties so it worked out well for the appraisal to happen at that time. We thought he would be gone by noon and we arrived home at 12:15pm hoping to put the boys’ down for a nap, but the appraiser was still there! We went and dropped food off at Jeremy’s parent’s house and came back home. The appraiser was still there. Then we ran into Napavine to get lunch and arrived back home at 1:15pm. Thankfully, he was gone at that point, but it threw off our nap plans.

Jeremy’s parents spent Friday afternoon with the boys so we could go down to Vancouver for Jeremy’s second opinion appointment. The doctor was saw was young. He is only a year older than me. He listened to Jeremy’s story and symptoms. He agreed to do an echocardiogram. Jeremy had one a few years ago, but those can be subjective, so the doctor wants to look over one with his own eyes. He is also thinking of doing a CT scan on Jeremy’s chest to see something might be causing the feeling Jeremy has. He is also concerned about Jeremy’s heart rhythm and suggested maybe a long term implanted heart monitor instead of the 30 days monitor that Jeremy is currently wearing (he is almost finished with his 30 days and can mail it back this weekend). While Jeremy wasn’t jazzed about the implanted heart monitor idea, we are thankful for another set of eyes looking things over. October will more tests and follow up appointments. His medical appointments will most likely continue into November, but we are hoping that Jeremy can go back to work at that point (after our two weeks in Kirkland for counseling).

More appointments & a new doctor for the health update, we’ve had our appraisal and are awaiting the results for the home update. Now for the fun stuff! This weekend we celebrated the boys’ upcoming birthdays. October is full of birthdays in our family, so we wanted to do a combined party for Owen & Graham. I also wanted to do it early in the month so it wouldn’t conflict with other birthdays. It was fun to celebrate our almost 3 year old and almost 1 year old. Graham wasn’t too interested in opening presents. Owen assumed all the presents were for him which is kind of true. These boys share everything at this point. No toy is off limits to either of them. The boys got tons of new toys. Our days have been spent playing, playing, playing. Graham loved the frosting on his birthday cupcake, but didn’t get too into the cake part. Owen loved his Thomas cake and Thomas themed party. For one of the parties, we played pin the funnel on Thomas and gave out Thomas tattoos. I love themed parties!

This Saturday is Owen’s actual birthday. We will attend a model train show at our local fairgrounds and go to lunch at Owen’s favorite Chinese restaurant for fried rice. I will make brownies with frosting for his birthday cake. Owen loves to blow out birthday candles so he’ll get another chance at that. He’ll also get a few birthday presents from Jeremy and I. It should be a really fun day.

Now we wait to hear back on the results of our appraisal. I’m praying for better numbers than last time. Once we have the appraisal officially behind us, we should be closing in 7-10 business days. Jeremy & his dad cleared out the 3 rooms we will be moving into. My father-in-law, Bill, has knee surgery tomorrow. I feel bad that we will be moving into his house when he is recovering. Hopefully our crazy family doesn’t slow down his recovery process. However, I have been holding a very tentative view of moving. Ideally our new closing date will be around Friday, October 28^th and possibly moving the weekend of the 22^nd. Obviously nothing is set in stone at this moment. I will admit that I’m not quite sure how all the dates will pan out with counseling out of the area, more doctors’ appointments, moving and closing. Things might pile on top of each other bit… I know that God is in control of all these dates and details. I don’t need to know right now. I just need to focus on today and what is immediately ahead of me. The rest will come in time.

Even in this strange season, I have so much to be thankful for. I am blessed by our family and friends who showed up and loved on our boys this weekend. I am thankful for all the time we’ve gotten to spend as a family of four. I’ve loved having Jeremy home and so have the boys. They have no clue what is going on with Jeremy’s health so all they see is the positive of having their dad around all the time. Jeremy and I have always been a great team. We worked together well professionally and now that translates into parenting together. Some women have told me they could never work with their spouse, that they need that time apart during the day. I, however, can spend almost every waking minute with Jeremy and never grow tired of him. I love him so much. I love our life together. That is why figuring out his health is so important to me. I want him to be healthy so our family has decades upon decades with him. He means so much to me and the boys. We couldn’t ask for a better husband and father. While this medical leave and time away from work hasn’t been an easy one for our family, I am grateful for the time we’ve spent together. I will look back on this season and know that we faced it together as a family, full of love, full of hope. There is so much good in the midst of the hard. God is in all of it and we are thankful.

This kid is too cute!

Making hot dogs and smores on the burn pile at the property

Party shopping

The birthday boys

3&1

Party #1

Party #2

Hitting Toy’R’Us for the birthday balloon and a car seat upgrade for Graham

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Some Things Take Time September 25, 2016

Filed under: Selling, Building, Moving,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 6:04 pm

There are no quick fixes in my life right now. Things are taking time. I am starting to feel a little desperate for normal but I know that isn’t going to happen. Not for a while and not in the way I really crave at the moment.

Yesterday was our next planned moving date. A moving date that didn’t pan out (again). Friday will be another closing date that didn’t happen. It all feels so weird. We are living in a house that I could move out of in a few hours notice. We are ready to go. I guess the good thing about all these delays in selling our house is I am officially ready to go. I want to move on. I’m not as sad as I once was. I have disconnected more with Moonlit Lane and I am ready for what’s next. Maybe having our new property cleared might have something to do with that. I can see where my new home will go. We met with Adair this week and picked out all the features and upgrades we want in our new home. I can see the new goal and I am ready to move forward and make it happen.

Our closing date is still TBD. Our appraisal should be done by October 13th, if not sooner. Then we will have 7-10 business days after the appraisal to close. Instead of the middle of the month, it looks like we will move closer to the end of the month. However, I hold all that very tentative. I’ve become a bit of a skeptic.

Another upside of not moving until later in October is we will still be living on Moonlit Lane for Graham’s first birthday (however, his actual birthday will most likely be spent in Kirkland and not at home). I like the idea of Graham spending his whole first year of life here. I don’t know why it means something to me, but it does. I also love that Graham learned into walk in this house. It feels right to me. This is the baby house. The house where we brought our babies home, where we had nurseries and baby first milestones. I look at the plans for our next house and I see our “kid” house and our “teenager” house. I have loved our baby phase, but I am also very excited for the next phases.

Another thing that is taking more time in our life is Jeremy’s medical leave. It has now been extended to the end of October. MRI (the ministry counseling group) wants to do two intensive weeks with us and their first opening is the last two week of October. So now we will come back after period of time. Right now, our focus remains getting Jeremy’s health back to 100%. We are also doing a lot of evaluating and praying. We need God’s direction in our lives as we decide how the future will look for our family. We are hopeful that MRI will be a good opportunity for us to grow and help set us up for success in the future. Jeremy has another doctor’s appointment tomorrow to talk about his chest pain and see if a second opinion would be available. October holds great promise towards healing.

I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind another month in this strange state. I know that this season has purpose. It’s a surprisingly active season as we work towards Jeremy’s health. The month of October will be full. Our boys will have their 3rd & 1st birthdays. We have two parties next weekend to celebrate them. We will hopefully have movement with our house. We will have two very crazy weeks as we figure out how to spend a large chunk of our time in Kirkland meeting with MRI. I know this next month one will be a big for us. Our world has turned upside and it has the potential to keep spinning. We are trusting God to make our path straight as we follow him. I love how God gives you what you need in the moment. The other day the verse of the day on my Bible app was Proverbs 19:20-21, “Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life. You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.” I couldn’t believe how perfectly this sums up life right now. On a sillier note, on a whim, I clicked on those Facebook links to show me my life quote. The quote it gave me was “There is no reason to look back, when there is so much good in front of you.” Okay, I can be a dweller. I have spent a great deal of time dwelling on the last the month and all that has transpired. There have been lots of questions, doubts and a fair amount of fear. But I am learning to live with the questions. I learning to give my doubts and fear to God. I don’t want to be paralyzed by past. I press forward because I believe there are good days ahead of us. I have great hope in where we will be on the other side of this. The hard part is I can’t race through this season. I can’t instantly acquire the healing we need in this moment, but I believe it is a head of us. I believe there is good in front of us and I want to walk to towards it. God will be with us every step. Even if things take time.

Snug as a bug in a rug

Helping Daddy peel apples

One of many stops by the property to check on clearing

What childhood is made of!

Stopping by Grandpa’s work for a hot dog and ice cream!

Having fun at Adair!

Another visit to the property

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Graham Update – 11 months! September 19, 2016

Filed under: Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 12:28 pm

11 months old!

After today, I will only have one more monthly update left for Graham. Here we are at 11 months! Almost a whole year! Graham has surprised me in so many ways. He is certainly a different kid than Owen. It’s a joy to watch my boys become their own people. I love to watch their personalities unfold. I study my kiddos and learn new things about them daily. Graham is at the fun transition stage where he is a baby, but also a toddler.

The biggest Graham update is he is officially a walker! He can walk great distances around the house. He prefers to walk instead of crawl. The only catch is he hasn’t learned to stand up by himself yet. He needs to pull himself up into something to get to walking position. If he falls down in the middle of the room, he crawls over to a piece of furniture and starts again. I never expected Graham to walk at 10.5 months old. He is a small little guy, but that doesn’t seem to slow him down. We are getting used to life with our little walker! He has even attempted to run a few times. Slow down, kid!

With his birthday just around the corner, I’ve been getting questions about what Graham would like as presents. This has been a tough question. He has more than enough hand-me-down clothes from Owen. Graham also plays with the same toys as Owen. I guess a good suggestion for Graham would be anything that Owen likes. We supervise the toys with smaller wheels closely, but Graham has no interest in baby toys. The bane of Owen’s existence is the fact that Graham wants to play with the wooden railway trains. Graham is like baby Godzilla and he terrorizes the track and Owen. I’m looking forward to the day where they can play trains together and I don’t have to worry about Graham trying to taking everything apart. I realize that day is probably a good year away… But I can dream.

Graham loves to play peekaboo. He is the cutest thing and is usually the one to initiate the game. His smile is the sweetest and his giggles are adorable. Graham is also more inclined to sit in your lap and snuggle than I remember Owen being. Graham still has a bit of Mommy clingy-ness. While that can be frustrating, I also remember that he is toddling now and soon he’ll be even more independent. This season of having a baby who wants to be held or sit in my lap is a short one the grand scheme of life. I want to be enjoy these moments. The poor kid gets endless kisses from me and I sniff his little head often.

We are at the stage where Graham’s hair is getting long enough that strangers aren’t sure if he is boy or a girl. I have a thing about saving the first haircut for the 1st birthday. It’s partially because I am cheap and lazy, but also because he can only have “baby” hair for long. A year seems like a good right of passage for a hair cut. His birthday party is in a few weeks and I want him to have baby hair for those pictures. We have family photos in the middle of October and I want him to have a hair cut for those pictures. We will have a 13 day window for the first hair cut to happen.

Graham doesn’t say too many words yet. At least not ones that we recognize. He says mostly things that start with D and he is obsessed with saying “Dad.” When I get Graham up in the morning, the first thing he says is “dad” and he looks around the room repeating that word. He wants his dad right off the bat in the mornings. Not Mom. We have worked with him to say “Mama” but he isn’t interested. Of course, he baby chatters. I am keeping an ear open to see if that chatter will turn into a vocabulary soon.

Another exciting update is Graham’s willingness to try most any food now. He never got into the pureed baby food but seems to be a much bigger fan of finger foods. He still doesn’t eat a ton of solid foods. He more interested in sampling things than chowing down, but he is trying things and that is a great development for us. This is a fun stage to see the reactions to different foods.

We love our super sweet little man. He brings so much joy to our lives. It’s hard to believe that we are the 11 month mark with the big birthday milestone right around the corner. I love the discovery at this age. These are some of my favorite days. Graham is such a treasure and I am thankful everyday that is a part of our zany family. Especially given the stress of the last month, I am so thankful for all the smiles, kisses, hugs and love he brings into our lives. We have been blessed!

Playing with a compass and wearing his hand-me-down Canada shirt from Owen’s visit to Victoria. I love all the memories that are attached to this shirt.

Playing Peekaboo

Just chilling

Happy walker!

Selfies with Mommy

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A Week of Meetings September 16, 2016

Filed under: Family Time,Selling, Building, Moving,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 5:00 pm

This week has been full of meetings. On Sunday, we got to meet our newest nephew, Colton. He slept through most of the experience which is fine by me. A sleeping baby is a happy baby in my book. He was super cuddly and won our hearts instantly. Owen was the sweetest when it was his turn to hold the baby. He gave him kisses on the top of his head and it melted my heart.

Tuesday, Jeremy and the boys went up to the property with my parents to meet with the man who would be clearing the land and the lady that will be designing the septic. After that, they all went down to the courthouse to put the land officially in our name. We now own 6 acres of property! That is certainly something to celebrate! My parents have been so generous to us. We are excited for this next season of life. Clearing has begun and we can start to envision where our houses will go and what the future will look like. I’m thrilled to see progress being made. The only once piece of news that I haven’t mentioned is our closing on current house has pushed back to the middle of October. Appraisers in our area are super slammed and we can’t get an appraisal in time for our closing date at the end of September. This means our moving date is again TBD. I’m not loving that, but I am grateful that the we are still under contract even if things are moving slowly.

Wednesday was Jeremy’s treadmill. Since this wasn’t his first rodeo with a treadmill, I expected the results to be much the same as before. And they were. The doctor wasn’t too concerned by what he saw. He thinks the meds are working and that is good enough. Unfortunately, the doctor doesn’t have a good explanation for the discomfort Jeremy feels in his chest (he feels it even with the meds). We are seriously considering getting a second opinion to make sure that nothing has been overlooked.

Thursday we drove up to Kirkland to meet with a ministry resource group. We believe that stress is a key factor in the incident that Jeremy had at the end of August. His heart issues combined with stress have created the situation we are in now. The hope is this ministry group will be able to help give Jeremy the skills to deal with the stress in his life. Truthfully, most of stress in our lives comes from ministry, but when you are pastors there are very few people you can be open and honest with about work related stress. Our prayer is that this organization will add another level to Jeremy’s healing. The one downside to this group is they prefer to meet in an intensive week of 4 full days of meeting (usually two weeks of Monday-Thursday, so most likely 8 days total). Since the group is located at a distance and Graham is still nursing, this will make it tricky for me to accompany Jeremy. We will call the scheduler on Monday and talk through what our options are. Right now with a young family, I can’t do the intensive week. We will see what other options we can come up with.

This week has had so many ups and downs for me. Meeting Colton was a high point, for sure. Now that Jeremy has been on his meds for two weeks, he is driving again, which I really appreciate. I hate driving so I’m glad that he is healthy enough to be back behind the wheel. While, I didn’t want Jeremy’s treadmill to show something horribly wrong, I also don’t feel like we got sufficient answers from Jeremy’s current cardiologist. And the ministry group… While I am grateful for this opportunity to work with them, it’s been stressful for me as I try to figure out how we will blend their preferences with our current season of life. At times I find myself mentally chanting “lean not on our own understanding” over and over again. It’s in my nature to figure things out and make sure all the pieces fall into place. However, right now I feel like a lot of things are still up in the air and I need to live that. God is in control. When I trust him, he will make our way straight. It’s a relief to know that I am not responsible for figuring this all out. I’m doing the best I can to do the right thing and that has to be good enough. I know that God will honor our diligence as move forward.