Eli's ParTAY

I'm going to mooch off my mom's blog, just like I'm mooching off of her in general this week.   Thanks Mom (and Dad) for making Eli's bday and my moving week extra special!  

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Let his 4th be with you.

Get it?  (Let the FORCE be with you. ~ Star Wars) Kinda a stretch I know.  

On your way home from the hospital.

This little jedi came into the world with big brown eyes, curiosity and a love for life.   

Being silly celebrating your Dad passing the CPA (1 years old)

Our prayer for you at your baptism was that you would live up to your name (know that the Lord is your God) and that you would take joy in people.  

Your Second Birthday

You've not only shown a knowledge (and excitement) for the Lord, but your joy in life and people at such a young age amazes me.  

Playing with new toys from your 3rd Birthday.

My new prayer is that nobody (not even your mother) takes away even an ounce of that joy.   We need your giggles, silliness and plain zest for life to remind us that life is good (and worth fighting for). 

Warding off evil powers with your fellow Jedi, Gavin.  (just before your 4th birthday)

 
So, E-bug/E-man/Brown Eyes/Brother/Bubby/Bubs let your FORTH be with us.   We love you!!! 

Surprise Visitor

We had a surprise visitor last weekend.   And his name begins with G.   GRANDADDY!!!   On Friday morning I called to set up a visit, and by 3 pm he called to say he was on the road : )   There are so many reasons we love our Grandaddy, but the way he enjoys us and our kids (in a crazy out of the box way) is at the top.   There's not too many that would hop in a car on a whim, with out looking back, and drive 8 hours to spend less than 48 hours with us.   Not that y'all don't love us, don't hear me say that.   This is the "crazy out the box way" that only our Grandaddy can do.  It plays against my "planned is better" mentality, but we (pretty much) ALWAYS have a good time.

We started the weekend with a walk to Dunkin Donuts (which Eli calls D for Donuts).  After pumping us up with sugar we headed to Todd's office to see where the reason for all of this takes place.   This was the first time the kids and I had seen it.  (I don't think the kids have EVER seen where he works, so this was a treat.)

Headed to Dad's office

Dad's office.  

Eli pretending to take a call.   (notice the badge?)

 After we had enough fun at the office (read: the kids wrote with marker on Todd's wall) we decided to head downtown McKinney to show Gregg "The Square".   We walked around a few shops and landed at the Pantry for lunch.   They are located in the old courthouse and are well known for their pies (actually featured on the food network for them!)     

Next stop...Mom and Popcorn nostalgic candy store.   Needless to say, this was fun and dangerous all at the same time : ) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lego candy that you can actually build! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We rounded out the weekend with showing Grandaddy the new house (we close on Thursday!), swimming in the pool and just "bummin" (famous term of Grandaddy's).   Thank you for such a great time Grandaddy and good luck on your new job...you'll do great (out of the box great!)

Not that exciting...yet.

I feel like I may have built up our "new Texas" blog post but there really isn't anything too glamorous to share.   (Although I did glamorize the actual look of the blog to make up for it).   So far this still feels like a vacation...where my husband works and I still have to run errands and pay bills.  O.k. So maybe not a vacation, but not reality yet.  Possibly it's because we live in a 2 bed apartment that is furnished without our belongings.  Or maybe it's because we have to ride the elevator to go outside.  Or maybe it's because Anna sleeps in our closet.  Or maybe it's because we have cable t.v. for this first time since we've been married.  No, it's probably because we have a cleaning service that folds our towels into random creatures.  Regardless, this definitely isn't home and we are trying not to get used to it, yet trying to find a routine somehow.  I'm caught between trying to plan our life in McKinney, but also trying to live it up at our posh urban apartment at the shops in Plano.  So we go back and forth each day trying to find a new adventure and or a new routine.  Here are some glimpses into our life (although to truly experience it, y'all need to visit!)        

Our Elevator Man a.k.a Elijah James

 

Our Door Man (a.k.a Elijah James...he's a big helper.  I should tip him)

Waiting patiently for Mom to open the car

My saving grace for bringing groceries and 2 children up 7 stories. 

Our daily walk takes us around this lake approximately 8 times which I'm hoping is 2 miles : )  Eli rides his bike.  Also our apartment complex is the one behind the fountain! We are on the top floor. 

We have begun scoping out the local playgrounds. 

And YES it's hot.   100 degrees hot.  BUT, I do think it is hotter in St. Louis.  There is no humidity here so you can actually breathe outside!  

Eli reading to Anna.   It has been really sweet to see their relationship grow as they're forced to hang out with each other : ) 

Our journey "home"

A few last thoughts/pictures before I introduce our life in Texas. 

*Saying good bye was much more difficult than I expected.   The level of intimacy and depth in our relationships with others made leaving actually hurt.  Thankfully it is that same level that makes me believe those relationships will not be shaken (at least too much) 

*While hard, I couldn't wait to just rip the band aid off.   With an expected June 5 move date pushed back a few weeks we said some good byes way too early, so we had to say them again, and again, and again.  

*Using a Meyers Briggs reference, I don't have much "F" (feeler) while a lot of my friends do (opposites attract!) so watching them shed tears was very hard to watch and made me feel like I wasn't a good friend because I didn't SHOW my emotion.  Instead I "T'ed" (thought) a lot about you and still do, processing how I am going to stay connected, how you've been great friends, how I will see you again!  

*Todd was sad and experienced a lot of the weight of the decision of moving us to another state.   He constantly analyzed and processed whether this was right for our family.

*I finally cried/let it all out (alone) when I put the key in the lock of our house for the last time.   So much that I had to go back in and walk through each of the room, touching them, remembering Christmas', rehabs, birthdays', bringing each of our children home, card games, Halloween parties, house groups, play dates, ect.

*Don't worry I finally cheered up when it was just the 4 of us in the car driving on our way "home".  A sense of calmness and freedom went over Todd and I when all the goodbyes had been said, business done, rooms cleared out and boxes packed.   It really just comes down to us...the simplicity of our family.  We are not leaving each other.  We will still have Christmas', home projects, birthdays, card games and play dates.   More importantly, we still have our faith in a God that promises never to leave or forsake us.  And last time I checked he reigns in Texas too ; )   (some would say more!)

Here are some happy memories shared before we left!!  (If you don't see one that I shared with you, then I was having too much fun to take pics!! Send me one if you have it...)  

A Texas size party hosted by our friends the Blazers/Mohrs.   (there were better photographers than me there, so I'm hoping they send me some more pics!  Rachel did a fantastic job setting the scene)

Playing at Tower Grover park with Arie

Dinner with the Petersons

Cardinals Game with Grandaddy

Light Saber action with Gavin

Leah and her sorority sisters (sorry Kris, you're lumped in with us!)

High school friends! 

Stop in Springfield, MO to see family...

...and have an early birthday party for Eli!   (Notice the AWESOME death star cake made by his Aunt Kara and Jody)

        More on our life here in Texas in my next blog post!  

Our first baby...

...before we had babies.   Some people get a dog.   Others get a cat.   We bought a rehab.   When Todd and I got married this was something we talked and dreamed about.   We both wanted to take something old/dusty/ugly and make it new again.   He wanted to tear things apart and build,  and I wanted to make something beautiful.   
We wanted to do this before we officially had children for obvious reasons.   We started looking in January of 2006 and found our project almost immediately.    Maplewood was a community that we'd heard about through people that lived there and were trying to draw more people in.  It was a community of new beginnings and tons and tons of rehabs.   It was perfect!  The house we found was located in the heart of Maplewood off of Sutton where life was beginning to reappear in the storefronts.   This house was previously a single family, converted to a two family and then somewhat converted back to a single family (meaning they made 1 entry door instead of two).   Everything else about it was a still a 2 family.   It had 2 staircases, 2 decks, 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 2 water heaters, 2 gas gauges, etc.    We thought it was a perfect house to do a rehab in!  We could actually live on the second floor while we worked on the first, which we did.   For 1 1/2 years : ) I'll let the pictures now do the talking (with the help of some captions)  

Here she is!   This pic was actually taken directly after new windows and roof. 

This is the entry way before we bought it.   Notice the radiator heating!  The radiators were not functional when we moved in, in February.   We were without heat until our HVAC was installed 3 weeks later.  Also notice the wall next to the staircase (for those of you that now know our layout). 

The first floor kitchen (which is now our breakfast nook)

Upstairs living/family room before we moved in

Our 2nd Floor Kitchen which we used the first 1 1/2 years.   (and our AWESOME realtor, aka my good friend Carolyn)

The first morning after we moved in I woke up to this.  Todd couldn't wait to get his hands on the house, so he just started taking down a wall...any wall : )

He was having so much fun he decided to invite some friends over to help. 

We decided to make some priorities for wall "teardownage" and so began to focus on the kitchen.  Todd was back in business. 

Taking down the 1st floor bedroom walls and adding a header for support.

I helped too!  (unknowingly pregnant with Eli in this picture)

Adding electrical boxes and changing size of window to make it counter height

Evening out the walls (They were pretty slanted)

My last dish in the upstairs kitchen!  We had to cut the pipes directly below it so we ended up eating out... a lot. (no dishwasher OR disposal) (don't worry I knew I was 7 months pregnant in this picture : ) )

WALLS!

Todd mesmerized by how it looks with walls and floor!

Moving on to other rooms...taking out carpet.

Taking off wallpaper (yes that's a steamer! It worked well.)

Opening up the stairwell, again. 

Making the 2nd Kitchen a bedroom.

We did finally have to take a break to have a baby, a.k.a Elijah James...

....which turned into another baby so we finished the third floor and made a playroom and bedroom. 

I realize this is getting rather lengthy so I'll get to the punch line...the finished product, 5 years later. 

Refinished hardwood floors in Family Room, enclosed upstairs living room with glass and French Doors to make a bedroom. 

Our Bedroom with a functional gas fireplace. 

We converted the small bedroom next to now our master into a walk in closet! 

Anna's room

2nd Floor kitchen now our study/2nd Floor Laundry.

3rd Floor Playroom

3rd Floor Bedroom

Entryway with new wood floors, opened up wall and new banister!

Living Room with gas fireplace and new wood floors.

Dining Room

Kitchen!   We converted a bedroom into...this.  

We then eventually painted the shutters/front porch.   And yes, it's sold.   Sniff. Cheer. Sniff. Cheer.

If you think this blog was exhaustive, just wait for the photo book I'm making ; )  A big thank you to ALL of the people that helped with their expertise, tools, muscles, $, and encouragement.   There is NO WAY we could have done it (and still have a solid marriage) without you!   Now onto our next rehab...psyche!  (yes I just said that)  We pass the baton onto the next naive couple who thinks, "this won't be much work or cost very much.  Let's go for it".