A Whole Lot of Randomness - aka "My New Life"

This past week was a lot of craziness - lots of ups and downs, many memories, and lots of missing Daddy.  It's hard to be "on" 24/7 without a parenting partner.  It's really hard to think about Daddy being on his own without a hint of jealousy and remember that he is not enjoying being alone one bit.  I have to put aside my own frustrations and loneliness and remember that we both are struggling with this separation and July can't come fast enough!!!

As of Saturday, our house went on the market!  It's bittersweet...we are excited and anxious to make our move but this is our home - the house we've loved in, brought babies home to, shared time with family we no longer have with us...basically lived our life - and we are sad to leave and see anyone else in our house.  

But all that said, we listed the house Saturday, had one open house Sunday, and received a full-price offer Sunday evening!  It went so fast but it feels so good that someone else could see how much we loved this house!

Someone posted this on Facebook and I laughed so hard ~ I'm a magical freaking unicorn!!!

Our week last week started off with a sad little girl who was missing her Daddy big time.  She said she was so sad watching all the daddies bringing their kids to the bus stops along her bus route.  It made my momma heart super sad!  Tuesday she had a follow-up at the pediatric neurologist for her migraines so we bookended it with shopping trips ~ and she gained a new Beanie Boo for Animal Day at school!  As I've seen several other bloggers mention, her school is doing the ABC Countdown to the end of school ~ and luckily most of the days are super easy and require no parent input (because I am just overwhelmed at the moment!!!).

And later that day, the weather was gorgeous and we were waiting for dance class to open...so there was a bit of parking lot sunroof posing :).  I think it's safe to say she was a bit happier!

Thursday this boy had a full day of preschool for some added fun...and it wore him right out :)

We had a week of beautiful weather and summer temperatures...this guy was loving the backyard!

More ABC Countdown - Crazy Sock Day

She only wore them to the bus stop because she was too hot!!!

Our little theater girl made the front page of the local paper ~ that's her on the right side in the gray shirt and pink tights.  She was shining in her true element!

I sent this to my dad and my in-laws this week...it's been a tough couple months :)

Saturday was another beautiful day and not as horribly hot as it's been.  We went to friends' for lunch on the grill and a fun time playing outside...in the sprinkler and the mud!

Monday this guy decided to explore his room during nap time and broke the glass in a picture frame.  He called down to me that he needed a bandaid and when I got to the top of the steps with a bandaid I realized I was going to need more than a little Paw Patrol bandaid!!!!  His hands were literally covered in blood!!!!  Luckily after I cleaned him off, I discovered it was just one slice on his thumb...that just bled and bled...because I always forget that he is just a bleeder :).  So gauze for a pressure wrap and first aid tape and he was good to go!  It was touch and go as to whether he needed stitches but it was more of a slice across the pad of his thumb as opposed to a deep cut so we figured stitches wouldn't be advised anyway.  The good news is that he is terrified to touch anything made of glass!!!

Sunday morning at church, Bruiser struggles to settle in.  This week he ended up on the floor in our pew with his book.  And this mama, churching it with 4 kiddos on her own, didn't mind one bit :)

Today I had to make a quick (ha!) run to Target for a large envelope to mail all the school applications and documents for the kids' new school (think 100+ pages with 3 IEPs and testing summaries included...sigh...) and poked around and found a few new items for the new house.  This is the fun part!!!

We will be going from 1 1/2 baths to 3 full baths so I'm needing a few things.  The master bath has a glass shower door so our current shower curtain (white ruffles) will go to the upstairs kids' bathroom. The downstairs kids'/guest bathroom has sage green walls and a slate floor (if my memory is correct) so I trapped this rug (green matches the wall color) and fun flamingo shower curtain.  The room needs light accents to brighten the dark space...and flamingos are fun!

The other thing about Michigan is that the sun sets late - like 9:30ish!  Our kids are early bedtime kids and we are going to be needing blackout curtains.  I found these at Target as an online return clearance.  The gray strip will be perfect in the boys' room with their Star Wars accents.  Win-win!

My goal for today is to finish laundry and prep a countdown for the kids for when we actually move.  The time is going fast and will be here before we know it!!!

Life Lately

 Life has been so insane lately!  We have been plugging along, working to put our house on the market (hopefully this week!!!) and working to find a house in MI.  We threw in a vacation week back with family in PA...and that deserves a post all of it's own!  Then after that fun week we divided our family for the next 2 months - Daddy headed to his new job and temporary housing in in MI and I brought the kids back to RI to finish out the school year and close up our life here.  It has not been easy or fun...we've recognized what we've always known - we are not a happy family when we aren't together.  I am thankful for all we have in our lives - friends, families, and the means to make this amazing adventure happen - but I wish we were spending it together!  We miss Daddy immensely and cant's wait to all be back under one roof again.

I love that my favorite picture of the big 3 showed up in my Timehop :) just when I needed a smile.  I love these three little faces and that it was one last picture in front of Papa and Mimi's old house.

Just over a week ago my best friend stepped in to watch my crazy 4 for the weekend and I flew out to Michigan to house hunt with Daddy.  He did lots of legwork and ruled out all the houses that weren't going to work.  We spent 2 days seeing about 8 houses in 4 different towns - and found our dream home in the same town Daddy's working in (meaning shortest commute in our entire married life!!!) and right near this beautiful lake :)

We are currently under contract and will close on the house in June.

Meanwhile, I've been holding down the fort in RI - school, dance class, play practice, etc.  This single mommy-hood is NOT easy!  Point in case - I started typing this post on Monday morning and here we are on Wednesday and I'm still writing!!!  LOL!

We're in the process of listing our house.  It should have been on the market WEEKS ago but we have a relocation package and there are HOOPS to jump through!  But the end result is that we are guaranteed that our house will sell - either to a buyer or the relocation company.  So I suppose it's worth it!  The other bonus is that we've already gone through inspection - we had to complete that for the relocation company to give us the guaranteed buy-out.  We've repaired electrical, plumbing and the chimney.  We've also had more specific inspections than I knew existed..lol!  But all that means we don't have to fix anything else to sell...yay!  So this week we are having "professional" pictures taken of our house and then the listing begins.  It amazes me how SLOWLY everything moves and that no one does things on my time schedule...lol!  

The good news is that we have a moving date.  We can begin a countdown and look forward to being back together in our new home.  It's scary and exciting all at the same time!  We will three days of movers packing our house and then loading a big truck, then we will make our drive to Michigan, and then we have the movers again :).  Here's hoping we don't have to spend too many days without our things!!!

Daddy is able to come back for a visit about every other weekend.  It's helpful to have him home to finish projects we still need to complete and just help with the parenting.  It's a real struggle on my own and we all love that he can help with the disciplining!

He spent some time mowing the yard and he had a little helper that was LOVING his special time with Daddy!

Sassy came home Monday in tears, missing her Daddy.  I asked her why all of a sudden she was so sad and she said she was on the bus that morning and saw all the daddies at the bus stops with their kids and it made her cry.  Broke my heart!  She got some extra phone time with Daddy and a little extra-special time with Mommy (all around a doctor appointment!) on Tuesday and seems happier now :)

This past weekend, Tater was in her first school musical.  Her middle school performed Fame, Jr...which basically means they took a full-length mature musical and made it middle school appropriate.  She  was one of the dancers and did an amazing job!  Opening night she had just me and the middles there to watch her but then Daddy came on Friday and by Saturday she had a full section, with her grandparents and our family friends.  She danced her heart out and even had a small part and a line :).  She definitely caught the acting bug and hopes to find a group to join in Michigan.

I love that this picture of one of her first dance recitals popped up in my Timehop this weekend...she was so little and just adorable (and I think she was mad in this picture...lol!)

So that's lately...there's plenty more to update but I need to get our day moving and accomplish a few things before we have some fun with some friends this afternoon!