Eye of the Storm

I know I don't like dull or routine, but I've also decided I don't like chaos. Life right now has been just a tad CRAZY with all the new things thrown on our plates! Not unexpected things, well, one unexpected thing, but not all at once! I found a list of all most stressful things people go through in their lives, and I realize we have a lot of them:

1. Change in job
2. Buy a house
3. Sell a house
4. Move to a new city
5. Car trouble
6. Financial uncertainty
7. Change in family structure

What we DON'T have on there (thank goodness) is divorce, jail time, or death/illness in the family. So, no one reading this is allowed to die or get deathly ill in the next few months, ok? Deal! According to this list and scale, we scored a 262. 0-149 is healthy, 150-299 is unhealthy and cut back, and 300+ is dangerous and consider seeing a professional. So, we're not over 300...but there are days it feels like it!!

We just went through a bunch of crazy with Match Day anticipation, selling this house, going to Dallas to drop of Oliver and dogs, going to Temple to house-hunt, finding a house, making an offer, having the offer accepted, meeting up with my awesome sister, Elisabeth (yay!), back to Dallas, back to Lubbock, previously pricing items for a garage sale, then having missed said block-garage sale to find a new house in time to close it on our Lubbock's house's closing (that would be nice except for the guilt of relying on our awesome neighbors to sell our stuff for us), getting an inspection, getting repairs made (still working on that one), getting the loan on our new house squared away (still working on that one), and lining up the moon and stars, plus a few planets, other moons, and oh yeah, that other solar system over there! I feel like it's been a CRAZY 2 weeks, and I can take a quick break this afternoon before it gets crazy again with family in town for Easter, packing and moving and praying the closing dates manage to magically line up and we're not homeless for a few days with all of our stuff sitting in a truck somewhere between here and Temple.

What am I most looking forward to? Not the end of all of this, but for Easter. We CAN'T WAIT to have my whole family in town to celebrate! It will be our last hoorah in this cute little house of ours. We expected it to be slightly less chaotic since the average to sell a house in Lubbock is ~100 days...we would just be making a deal around then, according to statistics. But it happened in 7, and although it's NUTS, I am enjoying not having to do dishes 3 times a day, pick up toys all day, and be prepared to take Oliver and dogs somewhere at a moment's notice. We are in a bit of a pressure-cooker, but luckily I'm not in need of a major break. At this moment, Oliver's at MDO, and I got a haircut this morning, then cleaned the house - not my perfect 100% cleaning to sell, just a 75% job. And I'm okay with that!

Hey Nich and Elisabeth! What do Viagra, eyeballs, and ugly brownish all have in common?

They're all last year's Easter eggs! Ha ha ha ha ha! These are here and ready to paint!

Letter Opening Ceremony

 So, let me start out by saying that the letter opening ceremony is bizarre. This ceremony takes place on "Match Day," the day when all 4th year medical students around the country find out where they matched for residencies. They serve cheese, crackers, grapes, and melon while everyone listens to a few speakers, then gets called up one by one to get their envelope containing the answer to the question...where will we be for the next 3, 4, 5 years? Which hospital liked me best? BUT, once you get it, you can't open your envelope. Big no no. You must wait. It's terrifying to sit there in "calm" silence. WAITING. Then some more chit chat. Finally, when the speaker announces everyone can open their envelopes, the only sound in the room is the tearing of 90 envelopes with the name-engraved letter openers everyone received when they walked in. Here is how it went down for us...

GETTING THE ENVELOPE:
(Oliver was making everyone "ooh and aww" by yelling "Daddy! Daddy!" over and over while Nich went up to get his envelope, then little O clapped and "whoop"'ed for him!)

THE OPENING OF THE ENVELOPE

THE REACTION:
I still didn't know if it was good news or not...happy? Disappointment? Give me SOMETHIN'!

THE OUTCOME: We got our first choice!! Whoop! Happy day!

And here's  a picture of Oliver and me that someone shot...we were having a great time!

It's weird because all 3 medical students at our table got their first choice! How cool is that? The luck of the Irish on St Patty's Day? They DID have the professor from Ireland call out the names, so that MUST be it :) But I had been told previously that people tend to get their 4th or 5th choice, so don't hold my breath. OH THANK GOODNESS! 'Cause I hadn't mentally prepared myself to go somewhere else...I'm still not prepared that we're moving from where we already are! I am so glad we got good news!



And in case the whole medical career thing doesn't pan out...here's what Nich was doing later on that day...

Just a neighborhood barber right here! That's right, Nich was cutting our neighbor's, Justin's, hair with our tiny peanut. It started as a joke, that turned into a mohawk, then he left him with an actual reasonable buzzed head. Oh yeah, except for the bloody ear. Oh yeah, and the bald straight-edge spot by his left ear. But other than that, a great haircutting experience! Justin didn't want to buy the salon products Nich was trying to push on him, nor did he mention he'd come back for a second experience.

Hmmm, on second thought, that medical career better pan out.

Also a good thing barbers and surgeons aren't the same career anymore. :)

Four-Legged Friends

I believe certain animals are assigned to certain people, when those people have a need for that particular friendship. I have always felt this way, and was reminded so much of it when my own best friend and confidante of 14 years, Shadow, passed away two years ago, two weeks before I gave birth to Oliver. It was almost like she was saying she knew I needed both a fantastic, loving husband, and beautiful, healthy child to replace her. And it's true :)

Yesterday, my brother's sweet little 11 year old Aussie, Sydney, passed away unexpectedly. We were just discussing how different life was for him just 11 years ago, and how much Syd witnessed and watched as he went through different relationships, jobs, cities, houses, and finally marriage and parenthood. It is amazing how much we rely on the love and loyalty of these sweet critters, and their perfect, boundless, unconditional friendship of these guys. Here is Sebastian and Sydney

And Elisabeth with her sweet little Roman:

My mother and her constant companion and protector, Bucko:

Me and my sweetheart, Shadow:

I know I am thankful to Shadow for bringing out my softer side, showing me how to outwardly express love, getting me through college, a move to Dallas, failed relationships, an abusive relationship, a dangerous date-rape encounter...then she fell in love with Nich so quickly that I knew he was a good guy, was there for our marriage...plus her trusting the missionaries so much that I even went to their church and eventually converted...she was such a support through 6 failed pregnancies, the death of our firstborn, and she finally let go when she knew all would be ok when Oliver was just two weeks away from coming home with us.

I know the 4 people here have amazing, strong stories of how these animals have supported them and helped them in their lives at JUST the time they needed that silent, furry strength, or soft place to fall. Here is to all those sweethearts we have 10,000 names for and not enough room in our hearts for.

Cool Kid!

Here's our cool kid! Got some happenin' shades in the morning...

...then some game time with Daddy in the afternoon!

 

This face is HILARIOUS!!

Adorable, yes? :)

We Matched!

Nich matched for a residency program!! We find out where on Thursday, but we're happy to know he is for SURE going SOMEWHERE! It's a little (a lot) anxiety inducing, but Nich's way relaxed now, and I'm the one with butterflies and knots in my stomach! I think it's because I was never worried IF he would match, and that bothersome voice in the back of HIS mind kept questioning if he would...but his bothersome voice has been silenced, and mine is now racing! Keep your fingers crossed for our first choice...and your toes crossed, and your eyes crossed. You know, for good measure!

In the meanwhile, I decided to take pictures of things in our house and on our property to help remember our cute little Lubbock house.

The hardest part about leaving is, this is where SO many memories are. This is the house both of our children came home to, where Shadow passed away, where we got Chester and Daisy, where Oliver's friends are...they're more like his big brothers and sisters :) Oh my! How do you leave a house like this? I know we'll make more new memories somewhere else, but I miss this house already! 

BUT we had three viewings today, and one on Saturday. "They" say after 8 you should get an offer...so we're close-ish, right?

Are you kidding??

Ok, I don't normally get political here, but I've been appalled by some of the things going on in our country. While I am SURE the morality-meter of this country is seriously in the danger zone, I think people are going about trying to sway it back in equally bad ways. Ever since my thoughts on the promiscuity of the next generation, I've been more sensitive than normal about just how scary things will be for my son growing up.

Sometimes I watch the news, and sometimes, when I’m being really lazy, I rely on Jon Stewart of the Daily Show for my news. The other evening, while watching Comedy Central’s version of the news, I was surprised to see the topic of abortion back in full swing in the political arena. It’s been a while since it’s gotten much attention, so I suppose it is due. With all the issues going on in our world right now – what with half the countries in the Middle East holding protests or civil wars and trying to kick out their various cruel, and/or insane, and/or corrupt dictators, and people in OUR country are more pissed off that our gas prices are going up because of it rather than the hardships and human lives lost in these battles for freedom and democratic governments, and the growing turmoil going on that could erupt in WWIII (in my opinion) – I am surprised abortion is even being brought up for 24 hour debate among the various “news” channels. Even more so, the new strategy to sway more people to be pro-life.

My personal views on abortion aside, one group of pro-lifers is trying to compare the lack of rights and freedoms and ability to be a person the African Americans during (and after) the days of slavery had to live with, to the lack of rights, freedoms, and the ability to be a person to people in the womb. To me, that SCREAMS such an extreme lack of understanding and compassion, and such complete ignorance and outright offensiveness. I can’t believe someone has the cahonas to go on TV and expect to win over modern-day African Americans by trying to equate their ancestors’ struggles to human embryos’ struggles.  First off, the people who endured this cruelty and less-than-human status were people with developed brains, thoughts, and feelings; with memories and the daily lifelong struggle that has affected this community for GENERATIONS. How can anyone, with a serious face, possibly claim the “people” in the womb are suffering the same lack of civil rights? These “people” aren’t yet people! No formed brain and no sense of self, memory, or concept of anything at all – ESPECIALLY when most abortions occur – the first 8 weeks of a pregnancy. It is beyond belief! It’s like standing in the Room of Shoes claiming the Holocaust never happened. These “people” in the womb don’t have any of the characteristics of past slaves, apart from being genetically human. Is it because the religious argument wasn’t working on the entire population that someone decided it was a good idea to tie it to the suffering of an entire race of people? Really?? It’s offensive at best.

I do believe in human rights, and that an unborn baby in a healthy mother should be given the chance to live (exceptions of rape and incest, in my view). With all of the struggles we’ve had in having our sons, how can I not? Are you surprised I hold this view? However, I don’t know that the law is the place for that…it seems more of a personal and religious issue within the person considering doing it. I don’t like the idea of abortion, and there are few things sadder than the thought of late term abortions – that IS murder in my opinion. My views come from my personal experience with pregnancy – I struggle with people like myself who would do, and DID, anything to keep a pregnancy and give birth to a healthy baby, but then also seeing all the pregnant 12 year olds at the high-risk-pregnancy clinics who were anything but equipped to raise a child…surely not all of them would make the decision to hand the baby over to a caring, loving, desperate adoptive family. But in the case of embryo=slave, you can’t equate apples and mini-blinds. It doesn’t work.

And have you seen these billboards?

Obviously these are very controversial, and were almost immediately taken down, but they got their intended shock-value and 15 minutes of fame. These were based on a statistic that was interpreted to be that black women have three times the abortions as white women, and if all the aborted babies had been born, the black population in the United States would be doubled. 

If you're wanting to piss off a lot of people by being totally offensive and guilt-inducing, congratulations. If the goal was to bring awareness to the issue of unprotected sex and prevention of unwanted pregnancies, yeah, not so much!

And you know what no one's talking about, that I can see? How to fix this. It's not by banning abortions - there are always dark allies and coat hangers. And I don't think in THIS country it's purely a lack of education on how babies are made or lack of access to birth control ($4 birth control pills are hard to beat). I think it's the lack of education on the value of physical intimacy. No one talks about THAT in this day where people are famous for sex tapes and reaching triple digits in their number of sexual conquests. THAT'S what we need to be teaching in this country - abortion is not a form of contraception, and getting pregnant with someone you are completely involved with, in love with, and sharing your life and future with is a whole lot different than getting pregnant from a booty-call or one-night-stand.

If we're going to discuss the value of life in this country, let's do it without the shock and offensiveness. Let's get to the disease instead of the symptoms. The tacky billboards and ridiculous comparisons only polarizes each side that much more, and doesn't open a true discussion - just an argument.

Just my opinion.

I've got the turquoise-blues

Is it bad that I've already started a design folder of what I wish I could do to our new house? And is it bad that we don't even have a new house? Ha ha ha!! I think I'm done with the rustic, Tuscan, OLD feeling of this house? Ok, mostly the OLD feeling. I'm ready for new and clean, and that, apparently, translates to whites, creams, blues, and muted turquoises in my mind. The expresso brown furniture we have will look beautiful with it too. Here are two I'll share:

Too bad we can't do that much white with a toddler and 2 indoor dogs. But my brain keeps making all kinds of design decisions to conquer the dog hairs and sticky fingerprints. Speaking of which, I LOVE sticky fingerprints. They don't drive me crazy, and I hate having to clean them off the glass. They are so cute! Am I the weirdest mother out there? They're not cute because they're so tiny (okay that's one reason they are) but because I can just imagine Oliver's face smushed against the glass right alongside his little sticky/dirty/greasy hands. He's got to be the greatest little 18 month old out there! Well, to me he is :)

Ok, I should go clean something. Vacuum. Be productive since I have some time to myself right now. But I WILL be painting a LOT in our new house. Can you hear Nich sighing? Feel his eyes rolling? Ha ha ha!

Organize ME!!

In moving preparations I've gotten my house as clean and organize as I have the energy for, and trying to keep it that way is rough. It's a full, uninterrupted hour of work every morning to get it to "pristine" (as pristine as is possible with the Lubbock dust and winds, two indoor dogs, husband and 18 month old little boy) then another hour in the evening to recover from the day, in which I am constantly picking up and cleaning something. I got all the closets organized, bookcases presentable, bathroom cupboards organized, and surfaces decluttered, but I stopped short of kitchen cabinets. Without a pantry, it's tough to keep all our food, pots, pans, spices, dishes, silverware, serving platters, freezer containers, and so on, all organized. When we moved into our then-forclosed house, the kitchen was so filthy and roachy that we were terrified to keep anything in the cabinets below the counter. (It is no longer that way, and they've been cleaned...) but since day one, we have put stuff wherever it would fit rather than truly organize it. Baking stuff was mixed with pasta and hot chocolate mix would be hanging out next to tuna fish...it was a mess. To get the sugar out, we would have to move all of Oliver's snacks and things out of the way. Oh yeah, aside from the crazy we had BEFORE the baby, the lack of making space for his stuff made the mess, messier. With the cupboards closed, no one knows, and for me, out of sight is definitely out of mind. THEN...

I was reading a neighbor-friend's blog for the first time the other evening. It is called Organize Me 2010, and upon reading through her road to organization - her starts, and stops, her large and small accomplishments, feelings of HOORAH and defeat, all in the first year of her first child's life - I was inspired to tackle one particular kitchen cabinet that had been bothering me more than the others. It's the cereal cabinet that also houses water, picnic items, snacks and other assortment of edible and non-edibles. Stuff had been crammed in there that we weren't even sure what we had (I found out we DID have a jar of peanuts after all, who knew?) and if you breathed wrong, a plastic bowl might come crashing down from the highest shelf. So, I went in, and re-did the whole thing. I was happy with the result, and I don't think Nich noticed, ha ha ha! Such a guy :)

The next evening, I went to grab a bowl of cereal, when I noticed the GIANT box of goldfish in Oliver's snack basket, and it was just so ugly. I'm overly-observant of these things in my "pristine house," so I decided I would put the goldfish in the cupboard. Well, they didn't fit. So in an attempt to tidy of the small 18"x10" basket, I reorganized the entire pantry section of my kitchen.

I didn't think to take "befores" of the chaos that existed behind closed doors, but here are the "afters."

The first cabinet...the troublemaker.

 

Hey look! Pasta with pasta, cans with cans...so much better!

 

I found THREE white vinegars...what on EARTH do we need 3 vinegars for??? Lots of pickles in our future...

And 3 things of cornstarch. WHY? That's what happens when you can't find anything! Oh yeah, and 4 things of brown sugar. Again, WHY? What will we possibly do with all of that?

Anyway, it took most of the morning, and Oliver kept me great company! He enjoyed throwing away the expired cans I found, ancient spices, and "sharing" the stool I was standing on. He's teeny, but not so teeny on the 6"x12" stool... He did manage to dump a jar of seasoning salt all over the floor. That was like walking on sand. Very savory sand. Not fun. BUT, our kitchen smelled like something delicious was cooking for the rest of the day which made it hard to not eat a ton. Especially since I now know where everything is!

Addiction

 Yep, I think I'm addicted. I'm having too much fun drawing people right now and neglecting my normal routine of washing dishes and vacuuming...but I'm so going with it! I didn't have as much time today, so here's 2 people in about the time I drew Oliver yesterday...about 2 hours or so. And what is it with wanting to draw children/babies? I don't know, but I have tons to pick from!















I could pick these apart, but I've decided to just keep working at it. I know I'm not getting the expression on this baby girl right. She looks happy, but not as totally elated as in the photo. But I'M sure enjoying getting back into drawing!

AND, these gorgeous girls are my little niece and sister-in-law.