Our New House!!!!

I'm going to have to make an exception to my normal "don't post out of order" rule...because I'm so excited about this post!! We made another trip down to SC for house hunting and my first OB visit, and it was very successful on both accounts!!! We went out on Thursday morning to look at our top 5 houses to see if we had a winner. I had seen 1 of them on our previous trip, but the others were all houses that David had seen and had liked. We knew pretty quickly that we had a favorite, and so returned to the realtor's office to put our offer together. We were a little nervous because the house had only been on the market for 2 weeks. Alot of the other houses had been on the market for several months, so we knew we'd have a lot more bargaining power with those. But we felt a definite peace that this was where God was leading us to, so we put our offer together and waited. We got the call the next morning that they had accepted - not only less than their listing price, but agreed to pay our closing costs AND close in 29 days!!!! I don't know why I was surprised after seeing everything else that God has taken care of in this process, but I was. God is SO good! We are SO excited about this next chapter of our life, and this house is a huge blessing! Gotta love buying a bigger house for less money than what you sold your little house for!!! The backyard really put it over the top for us. It's an amazing space - and I know we are going to enjoy many an evening out there. So here's some pictures for you to have a little taste of it...until you come visit us, that is! :)

The entrance to the neighborhood

Here it is!!!! I LOVE it!

Another front view

The kitchen....is VERY white....can't WAIT to get some paint on those walls for SURE!

You can see the eating area in the kitchen overlooks the backyard

Through that little doorway is the 5th bedroom with a full bathroom. We'll use it as our playroom/guest room (AKA Tutu's Suite!!!)

Okay, now here comes all the pictures of the backyard. Yes, that's a hammock down there...I hope they leave it for me!

David and the kids walking down to the babbling brook that runs behind our house...seriously! You can hear the water from our deck!!! now you can see what sold us!

They have this amazing swing hung from a huge tree WAY up. The kids ALL loved swinging on it. Talk about fun!

So the house has this amazing yard, and then it backs up to what is called a nature easement - a little bit of protected woods...that's where the "babbling brook" is. gorgeous.

Callie on the swing. I must have taken a picture of Jacob on it with my cell phone, because I know he was on it too, but don't have a picture.

Back view of the house. That's our realtor on the deck if you're wondering! :)

This is the clubhouse by our neighborhood pool. It's almost at the end of our court. We turn out of our cul-de-sac (our house is at the end. LOVE that!), turn left out of our court, and there's the pool!!!

Ya'll KNOW that I couldn't buy a house without a pool in the neighborhood!! It was a deal-breaker for us!

Meet my newest nephew!

I'm so jealous - my sister Kristen got to go over and love on Baby Joseph today! Kelli & Scott brought their son (!!) home from the hospital today - everyone is doing great and very glad to be home! Isn't he the cutest?!? It's a good thing I have quite an agenda this weekend in SC - otherwise, I think I'd just keep on driving south on I-95 to get my hands on him!!!

Monday Musings...

....from Josiah. Who is tickled to death that he's almost done with Kindergarten...

"I'm so excited about 1st grade. Because I'll get homework every night. And I'll have alot of it!"

This was right after he finished his one worksheet of reading words that came home. He doesn't have homework very often right now, and he wishes he had MORE because he just LOVES it! Crazy kid - just like his dad! :)

...from Jacob. Who had talked with David on the phone earlier....

"Daddy said that when we get to South Carolina on Wednesday, he's going to hold me!"

That boy LOVES his daddy. We are ALL counting the sleeps!!

...from Callie. Who just saw the picture of Kelli's new baby on my phone...

"Baby Joe!"

Seriously - she can say it!!!! SO cute!

Kelli is a MOM!!!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!! After having my cell phone attached to me ALL day on Sunday while she was in labor, my sister Kelli delivered her first baby on Sunday night!!! :) Joseph Keith Roads was born on Sunday, April 26 at 8:19 pm. He weighed 6 lbs 11 oz, and was 20 inches long. She sent me a PRECIOUS picture on my phone, but I have no clue how to get that on my computer, so I'm trying to be patient to get REAL pictures on my computer from her once she gets home. He is a CUTIE though - and absolutely perfect of course!

I've talked with Kelli a few times today and they are doing so great. He's eating well, sleeping well, pooping well - you know, that's about all he has to do right now! She's feeling GREAT, not happy with the hospital food, and getting a bit stir crazy! :) They'll probably head home tomorrow afternoon.

It's been so fun to hear all of her musings about this new experience of parenthood that she and Scott are now experiencing for the first time. When I talked to her on Sunday night after he was born, she said "it's just so surreal!" I totally remember that feeling. And even though I've had 3 babies now, I feel like that everytime one is born. That their whole little person was exactly that way, only inside of me!! It's just an amazing miracle - it never gets old. So it has been so much fun hearing Kelli now experience these things!

Oh - and all night on Sunday, my OWN little guy inside of me was going BONKERS! I think he knew that his little buddy Joseph was making his grand appearance. He seemed to be cheering him on from inside of me! :)

Hated to, but HAD to....

Broke down and turned the AC on tonight. It's too early. But it's been SO hot this weekend. 90s yesterday and today. And supposed to stay in the upper 80s this week. We made it through yesterday okay, because we spent alot of it in the pool. But this afternoon we had a birthday party that was outside (so fun!!!), but came home from the HOTness and into a HOT house. Couldn't deal any more. Hot kids. Hot pregnant momma. Time to turn it on. Hopefully I can turn it back off after a while. My favorite time of year is when NOTHING is running (heat or AC) and we can just have windows open....

Oh, and Callie cried today when we got in the car to head to the birthday party...because the van was hot!! Poor baby. I hate that!

The Season has begun!!

Pool season that is!! We made our first trip to the outdoor pool at the Y today - and it was WONDERFUL!!!! It's in the upper 80s today, and we had gone to the beach last week, so we decided to make our first trip of the season to the pool. It was great - the kids were excited to be back, and I had braced myself for craziness and cold water. It wasn't bad though - the water actually felt GREAT, and it wasn't too crowded since we were there right as it opened.

We lucked out and discovered our friends (the Maggiores and the Saunders), so that was an extra bonus!!! I had packed a picnic lunch for us (complete with Cheetos - is that a treat or what?), so it was just a great day. The boys took off swimming like they had never left, and Callie very much enjoyed her new abilities and freedoms in the pool - loved the slides, fountains, kids, everything.

As usual, the hardest part is getting everyone changed and packed up to leave. Because the boys are older this year, they had to go in the restroom and get themselves changed....but they managed. We got home and got everyone in bed for naptime - a GREAT start to a Saturday!

My Date Night with Jacob

Since Josiah was at his friend's house last night, Jacob and I got to have a date night ourselves! We had a great time! He's the middle child right now - sandwiched between Josiah and Callie. Most of the time, if Josiah is around, then Jacob is right beside him...it doesn't matter WHO else is in the room. So I relish my time alone with him...because I don't often get it.

I don't have any pictures because I didn't want to leave his side. He had my full, undivided attention (something that's unfortunately rare...). We all ate our dinner (it's surprising how little food the 3 of us ate without David and Josiah there!), then after bath time, Callie was in bed. Jacob got to choose the movie (he picked Homeward Bound II), and our snacks for the evening. We enjoyed ice cream on the couch (something you don't think about a 4 year old not being able to do, but I helped him...) and hot chocolate (he always requests this...it doesn't matter that it's 90 degrees outside...) during the movie. We were going to have popcorn, but ran out of time!! :) I loved watching the movie with him because he's my physical touch boy - so he was all cuddled up with me the whole time, or would put his arm around my neck. He's quite the love.

I had told him that he could sleep in my bed last night, which he was VERY excited about. And believe it or not, we had a great night sleep! (I can't tell you the last time I was in bed at 8:45 pm - it was GREAT!) It was a GREAT date! :)

A BEAUTIFUL morning!

We're in for a gorgeous weekend - supposed to be pretty warm, but we're going to try to spend most of it in water, so we should be good! :) Today started out nice and sunny. it continues to make me SO happy not to have to be washing breakfast dishes and making bunk beds before dropping Josiah off at school in the morning! :)

We went to the gym after drop-off, and I ran 3 miles again! It's been a while - I took a break for several days after my last disastrous run, and I think it paid off. I still had to stop and walk for 2 minutes twice during my run, but it actually felt pretty good. The soreness is kicked up when it's finished, but it was nice. I'm relieved. I've been trying to get to bed a little earlier at night since the days are so long and full, and I think that has helped. I'm not ready to say goodbye to running yet...even if I am slow! I had to run in a regular tshirt though (a big running no-no). My "real" running clothes and tanks just aren't decent on my big ole' pregnant self anymore!!!

After getting home, I was able to take inventory of everything that's in my freezer. Since we've got about 5 weeks left before the movers come, I figured I'd better start eating everything up. Got all that organized and squared away, even made some juice popsicles for when the kids wake up from naptime.

AND, I had an HGTV angel show up at my house today!! Kristina's husband, Steve, came over to solve my edging woes!!! I would have taken a picture, but I'm sure he would have died. He ABOUT died when he saw the state of the spool in my edger. Of course I had it all messed up...I believe his exact words were "yeah, this is pretty jacked up...." Hilarious. So he fixed it for me and edged the back - so now it looks GREAT!!! Thanks Steve & Kristina - for being a HUGE blessing to me today!

Josiah went home with Jake after school today. His mom asked if he could spend the night so the boys could have some fun play time together. I have to admit - I was a little nervous. I'm not sure why - he has spent the night with people when we've had to travel or something. But to have an official "sleepover" - just made me feel like he was growing up! Josiah was SO excited...was very excited to play Star Wars with jake - they are definite jedi buddies! We'll pick him back up in the morning.

Jacob is excited to have a Jacob night tonight - where he gets to pick everything we do. Should be fun for sure! :)

I have big plans now during naptime to fold laundry...but in the peace and quiet and without kids messing up my piles! :)

I'm not as good as I thought I was....

I decided to mow the lawn again today. We've had so much rain that it had grown a ridiculous amount in just a week. But more than that, it's supposed to be super hot this weekend, and I figured it wouldn't be that smart of me to try and do it in the heat like that. So the mowing went fine. Felt good to be outside. And kids were napping, so it was sort of peaceful. ALMOST enjoyed it. (I didn't, but I almost did). Even did the weeds in the front flower bed (I saw that loosely because there's not actually any flowers...) Then tonight, the kids and I headed to Lowe's to buy another spool of the wire "thing" that goes in the edger...we had run out. got home and pulled out the edger to edge the lawn (remember I didn't do it last week). it's been driving me nuts. I finally had to pack it up and give up after 30 minutes. Could not get the spool thing threaded the right away. Oh well. Sorry future buyer. I tried my best to keep the yard from looking totally scary. Guess you'll have to live without it being edged!!!

A LOT of fun for a school night!

Mostly the fun was the kids. I was plain exhausted at the end of it all. But it wasn't horrible. I was just worn out I suppose after a very full day.

Our Chick-fil-A had a Star Wars costume night - free ice cream & toppings to anyone coming in a Star Wars costume. Well that was right up our alley! They had legos all over for the kids to build their own ships, coloring pages and stickers, and even these cool masks that the kids could make. They loved it!
Jacob came as Darth Vader, and made a Storm Trooper mask.

Josiah was Obi Wan Kenobi and made a Kit Fisto mask (I don't even really know who that is...)

Then after we left Chick-fil-A, we headed to the Skating Rink because the school was having a fundraiser family skate night. I had signed up and bought tickets weeks ago (probably before I thought through the fact that David would already be GONE), so off we headed. Kids enjoyed it, but again, I was worn out! Josiah's in REAL skates now, and it frustrated him that it's harder for him (the click plastic skates were so easy...he's such a perfectionist). Jacob started in real skates, but I demoted him to the click ones right away. I physically could not hold the both of them up, and keep Callie together as well. My toe (which I had run over with the vacuum and created blood all over my foot the day before) got smashed over a few times, which wasn't great. And more than once I had to say "whoever is pulling on my pants - stop it! you're going to make my pants fall down". What a night!

This is Josiah waving for me to come closer to him. I'm telling you - the kid does not like to take any chances! :)

Amy took pity on me with the three of them and took Callie for a little skate around...

Josiah and Jacob taking their last skate around...with Josiah CLUTCHING the wall!

The BEST sign of all!

YIPPEE!!!!! Our home inspection was yesterday and went VERY well - HUGE relief! (Anyone see that movie "money pit" from years ago? I had scenes of it running through my head. But it was great - only 2 small, minor things to take care of. HOORAY! So things are moving ahead. I've had 2 movers come and give estimates and one more to come on Thursday. Maybe I"ll even pack my first box tonight!!!

Hug a Tree!

In honor of earth day, which I think is this week sometime, I thought I'd post a picture of the tree in our front yard. I love it. It's a bit bizarre and stunted - it blooms a full month after EVERYONE else's trees bloom. Seriously. But when it blooms, it's gorgeous! I LOVE pink - in fact, pink and green are my favorite colors. When we left for SC on Easter weekend, it was only budding. When we came back, it was fully bloomed and ALL pink. I should have taken a picture earlier, because the HAILstorm and crazy thunderstorms last night knocked alot of the flowers off. Oh well - I'm going to miss this tree. Lots of climbing boys up in this tree. Lots of pictures standing in front of this tree.

The silver lining to a no nap day...

...is that by 6:30 pm, all the kids are in bed!!! Whew. What a day. Back to school - first day back after Spring Breka. Josiah was ready to get back to do his "work", so he was a happy camper. I felt like our door was a revolving door today though. We had our first of 3 movers come by to give us an estimate. That part was actually very exciting!!! :) Then I was off to pick up Jack from preschool since I was watching him this afternoon, and then pick up Josiah. The biggest stress of the day was that we had our home inspection this afternoon. Scheduled for noon. UGH. Obviously a home inspector doesn't care that I have 4 kids under 6 in my house today and that 3 of them will DESPERATELY need a nap right at that time!!!

Oh well. So we went straight to Chick-fil-A to have lunch and let the kids play on the indoor playground (because of course it was thunderstorming today) for a couple hours. Food was yummy, kids were crazy. A few breaks in the play for potty, tears, fighting, tired boys, but we made it through. We were finally given the "all clear" to come back home a little after 2 pm (a relief because they said it could take up to 3 hours!!). About 2 minutes after we left, the skies opened up and HAIL started coming down!!! I've never seen anything like it. PENNY-SIZED HAIL!!! It was so loud on the van that I couldn't even tell the kids what it was or what was going on. You should have seen their eyes. It was only about 5 minutes, and then it was just "regular" pouring rain. Crazy. We got home safely, but naptimes were shot. Curious George & SuperWhy helped get some very tired boys through the next hour until Jack went home later on.

My kids had an early dinner of leftovers & cereal (that's one good thing about David being gone...no pressure on the dinner options!), and then bathtime and bedtime. Good thing. Big day. Tomorrow's a big one too - dentist appointments for all 3, storytime, Jack again in the afternoon, Mover Estimate #2. But at least naptime won't be interrupted!!! :)

What is Love?

Our teaching pastor at church is in a relationship series and today spent some time on what love is. He taught from 1 Corinthians 13, but started off his message with some quotes from kids on what they think love is. This was my favorite:

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

I loved it. That's how I see my kids. These days on my own are very long and very tiring, but they still make me smile...and feel very loved...when I'm loving them!!!

Belly Picture - 25 weeks

How do you like the belly picture for this week? Ridiculous isn't it? David mowed our yard right before he left 2 weeks ago, and it dawned on me that I was going to have to figure out some way of getting it cut and looking good. especially with it being on the market. I was planning on finding a neighbor boy to do it for me, since I knew I wouldn't do a great job at it. Well, once we got the offer on the house, it took a bit of the pressure for it to look perfect off, and I figured I'd give it a try.

The boys laughed at me as it took me forever to get it started, but I got the job done. It's not perfect. I didn't edge it. I didn't do nice long beautiful lines. But it's cut. Reminded me of when David was out of town for 2 weeks in the summer about 2 years ago. I remember posting about what a hard time I had cutting the lawn then. Well, add an extra kid into the equation AND the fact that I'm a big ole' pregnant woman, and I'm sure I was quite a sight. I'm just not a yard girl. I have a few friends who just LOVE mowing their lawn (SUE!!!)...I'm just not one of them. I love when DAVID mows it.

But we made it through! Success!!

The PERFECT Spring Break!

Our spring break didn't include any big trips to Disney world, or an exotic vacation somewhere. We just went to Tutu's house. And that is the PERFECT trip for us. The kids are COMPLETELY at home there - and I mean completely! Even Callie is old enough now to remember things about her house, and the special toys that she has there for them. She absolutely adores my kids and knows them probably almost as well as I do! She always has a box of Fruit Loops when they come, and some special desserts hiding in the freezer. But she just loves us. Loves on the kids. Loves on me. It was just what we needed.

We had so much fun spending the week with her. She played countless games with the boys of the Star Wars board game that probably makes no sense to her. She read a ZILLION books to Callie who was firmly attached to her lap. She is still recovering from her wrist surgery a month ago, and yet we probably provided her with some extra "physical therapy" with all of the kids she was helping and holding. It was just such a huge break for me - mentally and physically. Thanks Mom - for letting us barge in like we always do and loving us like no one else can!! We love you!!!

Because the week before Easter was so insane, and then we were out of town, we dyed our Easter eggs at mom's house.

There's that SUPER happy smile of Jacob's again!

Here is Josiah's side of the egg carton (the 6 eggs in the front row)...

and here's Jacob's side of the egg carton...We had to take these pictures for Daddy so he could see the eggs that the boys made....

This is pretty much how Callie spent her spring break...on Tutu's lap with a book of some kind.

Again, some pictures for Daddy. Josiah showing off his playdoh snowman...

Jacob working on a snail of some kind...out of BLUE play-doh, of course...

The only picture I got of Mom and all 3 of the kids. This was right before we left on Thursday night.

and this was the only picture of Mom & I! I have no idea what Callie is doing...

Callie giving Tutu a hug before we left. I think she would have rather stayed!! :)

Girls Night Out!

On Tuesday, Courtney called to congratulate me on the house and asked if I wanted to go have dinner with her on Wednesday night. I said absolutely - yes!! After all, I'm at Tutu's house - the world's BEST babysitter!! So I got Callie in bed and left 2 very excited boys with my Mom and headed to Cheesecake Factory! I was thrilled to have a "grown-up" night - as I won't be getting many of these for the next little bit, and every more thrilled to have a few extra hours with Courtney - withOUT children on our laps...or anywhere near us! :) When I got there, she surprised me by saying that our friend Jenny (for those of you blog-readers, she's "Jenn" on my list. She "changed" her name when she left for college, but I never stopped calling her Jenny!) was going to be joining us!!! I was SO excited! She just had a baby on March 31, so I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to see her on this visit. You know....it's not nice to barge in on people that are still recovering from a c-section just because you're in town....but I SO wanted to see her and her little cutie pie!!

It was a great evening! Jenny brought Adalyn (of course - she was not even 2 weeks old...hello), and they BOTH looked incredible. We got to all catch up with each other, and remember memories from way back. We had this wonderful plan in high school that we'd all live in the same cul-de-sac when we grew up with underground tunnels connecting our houses. Of course, that hasn't exactly worked out (at least not yet!) - in fact, in a few months, we'll live in 3 different states! But we've kept in touch, and the blogging underground tunnel system has worked wonders too! :)

These girls are dear friends - there is so much history there between us - and 10 kids now - so it was a WONDERFUL girls night out. And besides - it was Cheesecake Factory! How can you go wrong? :)

PS - By the way, Courtney & Jenny both posted on their blogs about our girls night. There's some pretty hilarious pictures on their blogs about the "way back when" days for those of you that want a good laugh!!!

This was Adalyn's first girls' night! She slept through the whole thing (sorry Jenny!). Look at all her hair - isn't she a BEAUTY?

Courtney and Jenny ordered the EXACT same thing. Same salad, without the same things, and dressing on the side! Crazy, huh?

"Is that your realtor calling?"

So after a super fun day at Courtney's house, we came back to Mom's house and she had finished up her last piano lesson for the night. We enjoyed dinner together, had baths, and got Callie into bed. The rest of us were up playing Disney Uno together since the boys had sort of late naps over at Courtney's. It was about 9 pm, and my cell phone rang...but it was my old cell phone (the VA one). I had picked up my new SC one from David that weekend, and so most of my calls from him or my sisters were coming in on the new phone.

So the phone rang, and I knew from the ringtone that it was my old phone. Since it was late and I knew David or my sisters would have called the other phone, I just let it ring. Then my mom said "Which phone would your realtor call?" HELLO!!! No one else had my new number yet, of course our realtor would call the VA phone! so I went running to grab the phone, and sure enough - 1 missed call...from the realtor!!! I called her right back and she told me the WONDERFUL news we've been waiting to hear for 3 months...we got an offer!!!

After I got off the phone with her, I called David's cell, but had to leave a message. He texted me back saying he was watching "Heroes" and would call me at commercial! I about died! Hilarious! Poor guy - we're so spoiled with our DVR and watching TV at our convenience...he is REALLY missing it down there since he's in this temporary housing situation. It's really roughing it!! I called him back and, lucky for him, he answered like "What's all the fuss about?" He of course, was thrilled to hear that I was interrupting his show with news about an offer. I just thought it was hilarious.

Anyways, we heard the next morning that they accepted our counteroffer and that things were proceeding! We have a home inspection scheduled for Monday (Apr. 20), and if all proceeds as it should, we will close on May 27!! I'm so thankful. We will stay the next week so that Josiah will finish his last week of school and have Kindergarten graduation (which David will come back for), and then we'll head down to join David in SC. God is never late, is He? :)

So David is back in touch with the realtor and is keeping that ball rolling as far as finding our house down there. We had looked at several houses when we visited in March for the vote-in, so we'll see how it ends up. I have to go back down the weekend of April 30 for my first OB doctor's appointment, so HOPEFULLY, we'll be able to finalize our house stuff then and get a contract in place to close on our house down there around the end of May/first of June.

It made for the perfect news to get on vacation. I was so much more relaxed!!! David's still gone of course, I'm still on my own, but at least I have some concrete things to work on. Getting movers lined up. Packing a house (hello!) in 5 weeks. So it's going to be crazy busy, but I'll take it!!! At least I don't have to have beds made and floors mopped at all times anymore!! :)

A SUPER fun day!!!

Monday morning it was SO fun to wake up at Tutu's house! So fun, in fact, that the kids were up EARLY - of course, they weren't awake driving until midnight I suppose....Anyways, Monday is my mom's big teaching day. She has that day off from working at the church in the music office, so she teaches piano lessons ALL day. We decided to get out of her hair and take advantage of the day to spend with my dear friend Courtney! (You all know her - probably half of you read her blog!) We've been friends since my freshman year in high school - it's been 16 years!! Can you believe that? I was writing our her birthday card last week when that dawned on me - I've been friends with her longer than not! I love that! anyways, you talk about "doing" life with someone - that's us. Dating, college, getting married (we got married 2 months apart from each other...of course), moving, job changes, babies, babies, babies, parenting issues, etc. We have done it!! I always love to steal a day with her when I'm visiting. I feel like I pop in and check on their family every day through the blog, but to actually get the opportunity to love on her kids and sit on the couch with her all day and talk - oh, it is just good heart medicine for me!!

Here's all 7 of our kids (she has 4, I have 3...well, 3.5 if you count the one growing inside me...) waiting for lunch. They all are SO happy to be together and always play so well!!!

For those of you that read courtney's blog, you know that Bailey has "parties" in her room every day. Well, she invited me to one of her parties, and this is Jacob when he came in...probably "messing" with her music for the party. She's a great party host! :) We had quite the conversations during that party. Courtney was feeding Sawyer, so Bailey had be undivided. And by conversations, mostly I mean Bailey talking to me and telling me ALL kinds of things!

Sorry - no energy to flip the picture. But this was the "bigger" kids downstairs playing Sorry. They played LOTS of games while we were there - they are all gamers! The little ones were napping, so they took advantage of the time to play without the little siblings messing it up! They were so cute!

Sawyer was napping, so he missed out on this group picture, but you get the idea.

L-R Rebekah, Josiah, Joshua, Jacob, Bailey, and Callie

It dawned on me that morning driving over that our kids' ages are 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. Sawyer is about to be 1 this summer, and our new baby will be 0! How crazy is that!!!

Half the time, Callie was following Bailey around. The other half, Bailey was WANTING Callie to

follow her around. Callie was tired from the weekend, and was a little more....hmmm....reserved than normal. Reserved is not a word in Bailey's vocabulary. They were the cutest. On a good day, I think if you put the two of them together, they could DEFINITELY do some harm together!!!

Courtney's oldest (Rebekah) holding my youngest (Callie). I told REbekah that I wished so badly that we lived closer so that I could hire her to come babysit! I would too!!!

Me and my dear friend. I am SO thankful for her. She completely understands me. Even though we live in different cities (and soon states :( ), we can pick back up just like I lived down the street). God has given me a gift in her. It was very soothing for me to have a day where I could just sit and be. My kids were happy and occupied, and I could just have a day for me.