A Madelyn update

I got to hang out a little bit with Hillary and Madelyn the other night. It had been so long that I don't think she really knew who I was for the first few minutes - sad! But she warms up quick :).

Clapping, of course

Standing, holding onto mommy...

Reading some books before bed

Silly girl high-fiving herself in the mirror :)

Climbing the stairs

An after-dinner sippy cup

Walking

Can't believe she's 9 months already!

Weekend in Montreat

A few weeks ago I spent the weekend in Montreat, NC with the lovely ladies of Hope Community Church. It was a great time - just nice and relaxing and fun to build some better friendships with girls I've just started to really get to know.

I don't have any pictures of actual people, but just trust me that they were there :).

Look who learned to clap...

Halloween

We had a low-key Halloween, but we did go to my good friend Marcy's party for a while Saturday night. We're such costume cop-outs... I borrowed Marcy's scrubs and went as a doctor/nurse/medical professional and Wade took Jim's costume from The Office and went as Facebook (he has BOOK written across his face). We thought about taking it a step farther and printing out a bunch of status updates and putting them all down the front of his shirt, but that's as far as we got :).

Just as an update, still no showings or anything on the house, 3.5 weeks on the market. It doesn't sound that long, but it would be nice to just have some tiny little nibble or interest. Oh well.

House for sale!

Today is Day 6 of our house being listed... no calls for showings yet :(.

I have tried and am trying to prepare myself for a potentially long process, but it's so hard! For one thing, I feel like I've already been cleaning it constantly for a month, and it is just neverending...

Even after the initial sweep of taking all personal photos down, streamlining all decorations, clearing clutter, wiping down doors, trim & baseboards, and thinning out my closet - to keep the dishes always done, the bed always made, the floors always vaccuumed, swiffered & mopped, all clothes, shoes & dog toys always put away, all papers & mail always filed away, toilets, tubs & sinks always scrubbed, furniture always dusted, etc. on top of normal life just makes the process seem to drag that much more.

I'm praying so much for patience and the Lord's timing because I know how much ahead of Him I always want to get. I think I know the best way. I think I know how it should go. And the way it should go is easily, quickly, smoothly. But why would I need God in that? If I know the way and it's not difficult in any way, what's going to convince me to depend on Him?

We've been to see several houses in the neighborhoods we're considering moving to. Each has its plusses and minuses - newer or more updated, but small; bigger but in need of repairs or updating; really great but too far away; inexpensive but backs up to a major highway, etc. We'll definitely have to make compromises somewhere along the way.

We've gotten into the groove of Wade's schedule working at Yes I Can basketball camps on Monday/Tuesday nights and Saturdays. Things are about to change again though, because that will end in a couple weeks, and we'll have to learn the new winter schedule of his JV basketball team's season. When that's over, it will probably be Yes I Can time again, and applying for grad school (and hopefully moving somewhere in there!).

Funny story that just happened

So yesterday Wade came home and was washing his hands and he started singing "Happy Birthday." I joined in with him (because we're kindof silly like that) and then asked him why he was singing that. He said you're supposed to sing Happy Birthday twice to gauge how long to wash your hands. Yesterday I think we sang Happy Birthday to me.

Well today, he came home and started washing his hands again and singing Happy Birthday again. I joined in and we both randomly happened to say "Happy birthday dear Pais-leyyy"... and then right when I said it, I was like, wait a minute - it IS her birthday! I had been thinking about it coming up a few weeks ago, but had totally forgotten. But sure enough, it's October 8th, Paisley's birthday. It was so funny and random.

So happy birthday sweet Paisley-dog. Your 3 years have been so much fun for me!

From this little face

To this one

To this

You love those tennis balls.

Here's to a decade more!

Highlights of life lately

Life has not provided me with much blogging material lately - certainly not any pictures :(. But it's been busy nonetheless. Let's see if I can come up with a few highlights...

(1) Wade's new 2nd job of directing a site for Yes I Can basketball camps is going pretty well. He works Monday and Tuesday nights and all day Saturday (for a 7-week stretch, basically til the end of October). I don't see him much on those Mondays & Tuesdays, and then we eat dinner at 9:30 or 10:00 but I've been able to fill the time with plenty of chores & errands, so it's been good. He'll finish this and go straight into basketball season for his JV team at school, and then will have another Yes I Can season in the spring.

(2) Madelyn is 7 months old now and starting to crawl. The last time I saw her she could scoot forward on her belly at least, so I'm sure it will be a full-blown crawl before long. She is still the most adorable baby ever. I'm a little nervous that my own kids won't be as cute as her, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it :).

(3) One of my best friends since 9th grade and former roommate got engaged a couple weeks ago. I'm so excited for her and am looking forward to helping with wedding plans from the post-bride perspective.

(4) We decided to put our house on the market! I'm trying to clean and declutter like crazy this week to get it ready. I took down so many pictures of us and our friends & family that were up everywhere - it's a little crazy to see how many pictures of ourselves we had displayed - ha.

(5) Next weekend I'm going to the beach with a few girls for a kindof 2nd annual fall trip. Can't wait for that!

And yeah, that's about it. Hopefully I'll have pictures of something interesting soon :).