Tomorrow we will be on our way to Georgia! My emotions are many as you can imagine, excitement tinged with a little worry and anxiety. I'm hoping that the 14 hrs in the car goes smoothly and all will be well. I'm praying we not only find a home in a great neighborhood but that the owner will be willing to let us close in at least 60 days. I have faith that things will work out for us.
Also this week our little Jane will turn 1. Can you believe it? I can't, and with that big event also comes mixed emotions. The time has passed quickly that's for sure. Jane is suddenly becoming a big girl waving and saying "hi" and is now even crawling all over the place. It's really fun to see her change and develop.
I'm also feeling sad and a little helpless as there is a man our our street and a member of our church, who is basically being kicked out of the room he has been renting in a home here. In fact for the past several months he has not even had heat in his little room. We have tried to do the little we can to help him. He keeps coming by today offering us things he has since he has no where to go and nowhere to put it. I feel so helpless and wish I knew what we could do. It makes me feel guilty and yet very grateful for the situation we are in. Here we are on our way to buy a new home, while this poor man by tomorrow is basically homeless. That is one thing I have learned while living here. So many people go without so much. We are so incredibly blessed. There are rich and poor all over the world but I have never seen such a stark contrast so vividly before. I watch mothers on our street with day old infants walking their children to school in a snow storm because they don't own a car. This man on our street just came and gave us a frozen turkey that someone gave him at Christmas time but he had no way to cook, and now has nowhere to keep it, and yet we who are blessed with so much now have his turkey sitting in our freezer!?! I told him that when we come back from out trip I will cook it and have him come to dinner. I'm grateful that the things we see and experience here give our children a chance to see the difference opportunity, education, and many other life experiences make. I hope it will make them a little kinder, a little more tolerant, and a much less judge mental of people and their circumstances. I know I could do better myself. At times I feel guilty for the comforts of life that we not only have right now, but will be blessed with in Georgia.
Like I said, mixed emotions...wish us luck!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Our Little Artist
Kate is quite the little artist at out house. I hate to label the kids already, but so far it seems that Anna has a love and talent for dance, and Kate for art. Kate is pleased as punch to be given a tiny little notepad and pencil to draw with. We love the style of her drawings, Always cute little people. I can't wait to see how her art will evolve over time.Being a parent of these little people is so much fun. Well, most of the time :)
Pretty girl
The other night it was time to give Jane a little hair cut. I like to cut the back to give the sides some time to grow. Then after her bath, I did what any mother of girls would do, I round brushed her hair and added a barrette. She looked so nice and fresh and her little hair do looks pretty cute too.I can't believe it is just a matter of weeks and she will be 1 year old. We will be in Atlanta at the time with my parents so will have to do it up big. Jane has just suddenly become more active and busy. She scoots around now and crawls backwards a little and is trying a little more to go forward. She loves to wave now and say "hi". She is definitely doing things according to her own time line and I'm just thanking my lucky stars she is so laid back. Only problem is she will probably be at the worst crawling, pulling everything out of everywhere stage right as we are trying to pack up the house. Thankfully I'm too busy to focus on how sad I'm feeling to have my baby turn 1.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Scrub a dub dub
This baby needs a tub!Jane is definitely in the phase of "dirty baby" She will not keep a bib on, and for some time now will not eat unless she feeds herself. Needless to say she often looks like she could use a bath and her clothes a good washing. Good thing she's cute and we love her whether she's clean or dirty. Although I have to say it definitely would not be Randall taking her out of her chair looking like this!
(if you click on the picture once or twice you can see the images larger)
Monday, April 4, 2011
So you want details?
If you didn't read our moving announcement read HERE first. Here's the delio. When we moved to New Jersey we felt really strongly that we should come and things fell completely into place for us to come. So...why would we be moving just one year later? Have we accomplished whatever it was we came here to do? I struggled initially with those questions when we were deciding whether to make this next move. In fact, at first I pretty much told Randall I wasn't ready to go yet. So since this is my "journal" of sorts I will explain.
This move is not exactly because of a job change. Randall is still working for Adobe and loves his job. He did change positions and the specific responsibilities of his job did change in November. At that time his boss told him he could now live anywhere as long as it was still in the Eastern time zone. At first we didn't give moving much thought because we had just come here and were feeling settled so why make a change? Then Winter hit and it was one of the worst documented winters of all time. Now winter alone is certainly not going to make us move elsewhere, we aren't that wimpy. But, the associated costs that came along with this Winter became ridiculous. Bordering on TMI, we were paying 600$ a month to heat our home on top of our already outrageous rent. The mere cost of living expenses kind of out weighs the charm and nifty factor of living here. NYC is a great land of opportunity in regard to business, and fun things to do for that matter, but Randall's job is thankfully secure and the company continues to thrive, despite the economy so hanging around just in case we need a different work opportunity isn't necessary.
If we wanted to buy a home we would have to pay at LEAST 500K and it would be a very old house that would need gutting and redoing. We are not handy people. I'm sure we could learn if we wanted or had to, but we don't want to. If we bought a home we would have to move anyway from our current city because the 3 bedroom homes where our kids go to school literally cost 850K . That would never be an option. Is this now all starting to make sense? So when it came down to it, it was choosing to move and buy something here that we can't really afford and spend even more money to fix it up, or move and buy a home we can afford and would have the space we need as well as a garage and yard etc. So, quality of life for us would go WAY up.
Admittedly I like living somewhere "cool". It's fun that Rand works in Times Square, and people actually want to come see us. Truthfully it's my pride that makes it difficult to move away from all of this. But I'm learning that life is life no matter where you live. Whether it's Paris, London, or NYC, I'm a wife and mother of 4 and my day to day life is just that...day to day, with laundry and car pool and all the normal stuff. Our initial thoughts of living it up and constantly being in the city don't coincide with the busyness of real life with church callings, basketball games, birthday parties, business trips and everything else that keep us from doing the fun things we want to do. We have been able to do some really great things while we have been here and plan to do and see more before we leave. Just seeing the Macy's Day Parade was a dream come true for me, and I admittedly LOVE every time I do get to go in the city. but when it comes down to it, we have decided that we want to live in a place where day to day it is the best place for our family.
So, why Atlanta of all the places? Rand still wanted to be in a great place for business, or a "tech hub" as he calls it, so our options were Boston, which is also very expensive, or Atlanta. Atlanta has some of the most affordable real estate, similar to Texas, has a nice climate with moderate seasons, and is close to Disney world. (ok, so that wasn't really a factor but it certainly doesn't hurt) Oh and the real estate is affordable, have I mentioned that? Actually the cost of living on a whole is a lot less so we can live much more comfortably and get out debt which is our overall goal.
All in all it makes "logical" sense. When people in our ward find out we are leaving they first say they are sad to see us go, and then tell us they are jealous that we are "getting out". Even though it makes logical sense, I still didn't want to move until I felt like it was the right thing to do. That part of the equation has taken some more time. I can truthfully say that this will be a good move for us and our family. I actually wouldn't trade any of the places we have moved and people we have met along the way. Though cliche, our family has been blessed with many rich adventures and our children have been blessed to learn to make friends easily, and to just go with the flow. They adapt well to change and I hope that our "adventures" will serve them well in the future. The hardest part is that for whatever reason our kids have done very well here. Ethan especially has loved his school and friends. It's interesting to me that even though we have no yard, and live on a busy, crazy street, he has just loved it. As usual though, once we explained to him why we are leaving and the things we will have in the way of a yard and a family type neighborhood he has had a really good attitude. He has even been praying that we can find a "big, wide house".
Whether we accomplished everything we came here to do...I don't know the answer to that. I do know we've done a lot, and that I don't regret for a minute coming here. We have a learned a lot, have served and participated heavily in our ward, made good friends in and out of the church, shared the gospel, and been blessed professionally. We have also made some changes within our own family that have been good for us. In less than a years time that's not too shabby.
This move is not exactly because of a job change. Randall is still working for Adobe and loves his job. He did change positions and the specific responsibilities of his job did change in November. At that time his boss told him he could now live anywhere as long as it was still in the Eastern time zone. At first we didn't give moving much thought because we had just come here and were feeling settled so why make a change? Then Winter hit and it was one of the worst documented winters of all time. Now winter alone is certainly not going to make us move elsewhere, we aren't that wimpy. But, the associated costs that came along with this Winter became ridiculous. Bordering on TMI, we were paying 600$ a month to heat our home on top of our already outrageous rent. The mere cost of living expenses kind of out weighs the charm and nifty factor of living here. NYC is a great land of opportunity in regard to business, and fun things to do for that matter, but Randall's job is thankfully secure and the company continues to thrive, despite the economy so hanging around just in case we need a different work opportunity isn't necessary.
If we wanted to buy a home we would have to pay at LEAST 500K and it would be a very old house that would need gutting and redoing. We are not handy people. I'm sure we could learn if we wanted or had to, but we don't want to. If we bought a home we would have to move anyway from our current city because the 3 bedroom homes where our kids go to school literally cost 850K . That would never be an option. Is this now all starting to make sense? So when it came down to it, it was choosing to move and buy something here that we can't really afford and spend even more money to fix it up, or move and buy a home we can afford and would have the space we need as well as a garage and yard etc. So, quality of life for us would go WAY up.
Admittedly I like living somewhere "cool". It's fun that Rand works in Times Square, and people actually want to come see us. Truthfully it's my pride that makes it difficult to move away from all of this. But I'm learning that life is life no matter where you live. Whether it's Paris, London, or NYC, I'm a wife and mother of 4 and my day to day life is just that...day to day, with laundry and car pool and all the normal stuff. Our initial thoughts of living it up and constantly being in the city don't coincide with the busyness of real life with church callings, basketball games, birthday parties, business trips and everything else that keep us from doing the fun things we want to do. We have been able to do some really great things while we have been here and plan to do and see more before we leave. Just seeing the Macy's Day Parade was a dream come true for me, and I admittedly LOVE every time I do get to go in the city. but when it comes down to it, we have decided that we want to live in a place where day to day it is the best place for our family.
So, why Atlanta of all the places? Rand still wanted to be in a great place for business, or a "tech hub" as he calls it, so our options were Boston, which is also very expensive, or Atlanta. Atlanta has some of the most affordable real estate, similar to Texas, has a nice climate with moderate seasons, and is close to Disney world. (ok, so that wasn't really a factor but it certainly doesn't hurt) Oh and the real estate is affordable, have I mentioned that? Actually the cost of living on a whole is a lot less so we can live much more comfortably and get out debt which is our overall goal.
All in all it makes "logical" sense. When people in our ward find out we are leaving they first say they are sad to see us go, and then tell us they are jealous that we are "getting out". Even though it makes logical sense, I still didn't want to move until I felt like it was the right thing to do. That part of the equation has taken some more time. I can truthfully say that this will be a good move for us and our family. I actually wouldn't trade any of the places we have moved and people we have met along the way. Though cliche, our family has been blessed with many rich adventures and our children have been blessed to learn to make friends easily, and to just go with the flow. They adapt well to change and I hope that our "adventures" will serve them well in the future. The hardest part is that for whatever reason our kids have done very well here. Ethan especially has loved his school and friends. It's interesting to me that even though we have no yard, and live on a busy, crazy street, he has just loved it. As usual though, once we explained to him why we are leaving and the things we will have in the way of a yard and a family type neighborhood he has had a really good attitude. He has even been praying that we can find a "big, wide house".
Whether we accomplished everything we came here to do...I don't know the answer to that. I do know we've done a lot, and that I don't regret for a minute coming here. We have a learned a lot, have served and participated heavily in our ward, made good friends in and out of the church, shared the gospel, and been blessed professionally. We have also made some changes within our own family that have been good for us. In less than a years time that's not too shabby.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Did I mention we're moving?
4 months from today we will be settled in a new home(hopefully), in a new state (Georgia), and plan to settle down. (Insert gasp here) This upcoming move will be our 12th in 13years. I'm not sure how I feel about actually being settled but I'm sure once we are settled in it will be wonderful. I'm sad about leaving a place I have worked hard to call "home". We have a fantastic ward, I have made good friends, found my niche and now we get to start all over...again. This upcoming move is what has consumed most of my thoughts lately and I finally decided it was time to make the "announcement". I think it makes me nervous when things are not all done and signed for.
We are driving down to Alpharetta, Georgia the 3rd week of April with the kids. It's Spring break for them and we are going to go house hunting. My parents have even offered to meet us there to help with the kids. Isn't that fantastic? I've watched my share of house hunters and I'm really excited that it's finally our turn. I have dreamt about this all my married life. Do you realize we will actually have a garage? Or two or 3? The prospect is very exciting and yet VERY overwhelming. I'm excited that our children will finally be able to really put down roots, for good. And yet even while I write this it scares me because you just never know what life is going to bring and what will uproot us again. For now I'm just trying to focus on the many positives that this change will bring. Randall and I didn't used to like change but look at us now! Everywhere we have been we knew it was just temporary and that we just had to make it work. Not now. This time we are choosing our future, and thankfully it's looking bright. (and sunny!)
We are driving down to Alpharetta, Georgia the 3rd week of April with the kids. It's Spring break for them and we are going to go house hunting. My parents have even offered to meet us there to help with the kids. Isn't that fantastic? I've watched my share of house hunters and I'm really excited that it's finally our turn. I have dreamt about this all my married life. Do you realize we will actually have a garage? Or two or 3? The prospect is very exciting and yet VERY overwhelming. I'm excited that our children will finally be able to really put down roots, for good. And yet even while I write this it scares me because you just never know what life is going to bring and what will uproot us again. For now I'm just trying to focus on the many positives that this change will bring. Randall and I didn't used to like change but look at us now! Everywhere we have been we knew it was just temporary and that we just had to make it work. Not now. This time we are choosing our future, and thankfully it's looking bright. (and sunny!)
Monday, March 21, 2011
A new craving
Usually when we speak of a craving we are talking about food. Well, when I'm talking about a craving it almost always involves food, although I have been known to crave a rabbit, and a bird. Not to eat mind you but to own as a pet. Thankfully those "cravings" were fleeting, because I really have no desire right now for a pet. We had a fire belly toad for a short time and after finding live crickets somehow all over my house, the pet was given a new and much better home. Anyway... Recently my craving has been to write my own history and read the history of others. For some time I have thought about writing my own personal history but when I think back I fee like the memories of my childhood are fleeting. Which means I should probably write some things down while I still remember something. My Grandma Barrett wrote about her life and some of my ancestors before she passed away. I remember the forward she wrote when she gave us that book of memories for Christmas many years ago. She wrote something about how maybe we wouldn't care and were possibly not very excited about her gift, but I find myself now really wanting to read again all those stories of many years and lives ago. My Grandma Christensen also wrote her life's story and sadly we tease about that book at times. But, I'm glad she wrote it and it gives insight into the person that she is today.
I have always been a journal writer. Started way back in the 7th grade. It is interesting, hilarious, and embarrassing to read those journals from way back when. I was so dramatic about some of the most ridiculous things. Especially when I wrote about dating Randall in high school. We were such good kids, and truthfully I loved him as much as a 17 year old girl could, and yet I certainly didn't dare write those words in my journal. What if my mother or someone else had read it for heaven sakes!?! I'd like to think that this blog is now a journal of sorts. But I suddenly have the desire to do more. I have seen those books that ask you questions about your life and I think I will get one of those soon and start writing about my life. I'm not a gifted writer by any means but I've decided to embrace who I am and just go with it. I'd like to think that getting my memories down on paper will someday be a blessing to me and my children in years to come. And if nothing else this is one craving I can indulge in guilt free!
I have always been a journal writer. Started way back in the 7th grade. It is interesting, hilarious, and embarrassing to read those journals from way back when. I was so dramatic about some of the most ridiculous things. Especially when I wrote about dating Randall in high school. We were such good kids, and truthfully I loved him as much as a 17 year old girl could, and yet I certainly didn't dare write those words in my journal. What if my mother or someone else had read it for heaven sakes!?! I'd like to think that this blog is now a journal of sorts. But I suddenly have the desire to do more. I have seen those books that ask you questions about your life and I think I will get one of those soon and start writing about my life. I'm not a gifted writer by any means but I've decided to embrace who I am and just go with it. I'd like to think that getting my memories down on paper will someday be a blessing to me and my children in years to come. And if nothing else this is one craving I can indulge in guilt free!
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