We've got ears....

What will these end up being?  I'll give you one hint....it's for a birthday party.  B got help me make this part of the bigger thing for Baby M's birthday party.  If you came to the party, you already know what they were!  Another hint....we had a Mickey Mouse party.

If you're guess was Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse ears, you'd be correct!  I found a tutorial on how make them on YouTube and found a pattern for them on a blog,

I tried to follow the blog's directions and the tutorial, but I hate hot glue guns because I always end up burning myself.  Plus, I can never glue to wear it looks clean and nice, so after trying to hot glue one, I threw it away and decided that this was a job for the sewing machine.  It was so much faster and way easier.  I had to kind of adapt a few things, but in the end, they turned out exactly the way I had hoped.

These headbands were recommended on the blog that I used as a general guideline, so I decided to go with it.  They are really flexible and won't break if a kiddo is a little rough on it when they take them on and off.  I wanted them to hold up for a while, and so far all of our extras have and they get played with a lot.

I then got the foam with the sticky back and used a cup to cut out the circles.  You want it to be slightly smaller than what your ears are on the pattern.  I only stuck one in the ear because I wasn't paying attention.  It was stiff enough for me since I sewed it and could control where I sewed it, but you could definitely use two if you don't sew it.

The next step was to sew a tube out of a felt strip so that I could slip it over the headband.  I measured around the headband, left a little extra to sew and then created the tube.  I had difficulty finding huge felts sheets, so I had to sew one strip of felt together and then put a little extra on the end.  I put the seam down and the ears over the seam so you could barely see it when it was completely finished.

This was the one I hot glued.  You can see why I threw it away now!  I wasn't lying at how horrible it looked!

Once the headband was in the tube, I sewed up one side, cut off the extra on the other side and then sewed up that end as well.

The headband is officially done after you sew up the ends.  Now for the ears.  Once the foam in stuck inside the ear pattern, all that's left of that is to sew up the ears.  When you fold the ears over, you leave the bottom section (that looks like a tube and not an ear) open so that it can easily slide over the headband.  You only want to sew around the top parts of the circle to make it look like this:

Once that ear is sewn (you obviously sew two because you need 2 ears per headband), you slide it over the headband and you're done!

I (well, a friend of mine came over and finished it for me) tied a bow on the ears for the girls to make them Minnie ears and left them plain for the boys so they could have Mickey ears.  I'll share a picture of the actual party later, but the kids liked it and they were super cute favors that were cheap, easy, and gave them something to take home and play with.

Mickey Mouse ears for the boys

and

Minnie Mouse ears for the girls.

The Actual Move

So our actual move didn't necessarily go as planned.  I had thought that we'd get most of the stuff loaded, have the pod delivered to the new house, and then have a few days to clean inside.  What really happened?  I think you can guess that it wasn't anything near like our plan!

Daddy T had several friends come help us load the pod on the Saturday before we were to close (we closed on a Wednesday afternoon around 2:30.)  The pod was supposed to be picked up on Monday, but it was actually Wednesday morning before he picked it up and delivered it to our new house, which actually turned out okay. 

Daddy T and I spent Sunday and Monday night packing up what was left and taking it to the basement to be loaded on the U-haul when he picked it up on Monday night.  Daddy T and I stayed up until 1 or 2 a.m. most nights during that week.  You never realize how many oddly shaped things you have, like your furniture that takes up so much room in a truck!  Add to that the little things that just don't fit in a box and you have a weirdly packed U-haul.

On Tuesday night, we started taking the boxes and bags that wouldn't fit in a U-haul or the pod to his mom and dad's house. We worked until almost 1 that night and thankfully, his mom kept the kids and let them fall asleep on her couch.  It made it a lot easier to load and unload when we didn't have the kids there.  They did do a great job with us during our first 4 loads.  I think we made 5 or 6 trips that night.  When we got home, I started worrying about all that had to be finished before we closed.  Needless to say, Daddy T woke up the next day at 6 a.m. (which never happens) and got to work.  I quickly followed.  Daddy T had planned to work a half day and then come home and help me finish pack and clean.  I'm so thankful he saw that that plan was flawed and that we'd be in deep trouble if I was left by myself to do it all!  All of his coworkers were so understanding through this and they felt sorry for the poor boy!

Daddy T took B to unload a car and to pick up breakfast about 9 a.m.  When he returned, I almost started hyperventilating.  I couldn't help it.  I looked around, saw all that needed to be done, saw that we had our kiddos (which were very good, but they do hinder how fast you become productive), and saw the time on the clock.  Needless to say, the clock was scaring me!  Daddy T had to calm me down and assure me that we'd get it done.  I had to believe him.  I went to our room and shoved stuff in bags.  I didn't care what it was, didn't bother to label it, and tucked it into the cars.  It didn't help that we had 3 cars and a U-haul to take to the house.

In the middle of our cleaning that morning, the realtor of the other couple showed up WITH  the buyers and did their final walk through.  The garage was a mess (still in the process of being cleaned) and nothing had been cleaned yet.  Thankfully in our state, we only have to surface clean.  The buyers are from New York and in their contracts, they have to have it deep cleaned or the offer could be terminated at the table.  So thankful that didn't apply to us or we would have been in trouble!  The couple was a little worried that we'd still be there when closing time happened, but we assured them that we'd definitely be out and it would be clean by that time.  They asked if the oven was cleaned and all of the appliances and that's when I again started freaking.  I told them yes, because I had wiped it out.  However, I called our realtor and he assured me that surface clean was enough and they weren't getting anything more and shouldn't.  Assured that our house was okay, we left to drop a car off, drop a load off, and return home to get another car and another load and do the final cleaning.

It was 2:00 before we made it back to his parents' house to unload the last car load, and then to drop off the U-haul.  Daddy T told me to go hop in the shower while he unloaded the car and then he'd jump in when I finished and we could leave.  Mind you, we have 2 kids and NONE of us have eaten lunch yet.  You can imagine how tired and hungry we were.  We did make it to the table at 2:30.  We signed 2 or 3 papers and then I took the kiddos down a couple of buildings to eat at a cafe.

After the many sleepless nights, the lack of food, and pure exhaustion, I opted for me and the kids to head back to his parents' house and go to bed.  Daddy T headed off to his golf league, but afterwards he said that he wished he hadn't gone because he was too tired and didn't play well at all!

We slept awesome that night.  It was a huge weight off to know that there was no packing to do that day, no unloading, no cleaning, and no wondering if the house deal would fall through at the last minute.  We had the excitement of the next day of buying our new house and then having some friends over to help me clean the entire house!

Two months later, we are still unpacking boxes and moving things around and figuring out what works in our new house and what doesn't.  We are so thankful that God saw fit for us to move into a house with a bigger yard and more space.  However, we never want to move a single thing again!!!

Proof we still exist after the move

B and his too-short overalls.  He insisted on wearing them to see Pop...until I told him that he has some much longer overalls in his room that might be a better option to wear!

We made it!  It's over.  We never want to move again!!!

Goodbye ol' house!

I can't believe it's been since Easter that I last posted.  However, when I stop to think about all that the past 2 (almost 3) months have entailed, I'm reminded of why I haven't posted since Easter!

I crack up when I look back at my last post about thinking I would have time to sit before we moved.  Let's just say that nothing went as planned.  Daddy T and I stayed up until 1-2 in the morning every night that week packing up last minute things and cleaning barely got done.  But that's another post...one I'll be sure to write because I never want to move again.  Ever.  Never ever.

But we can't get to the moving part of the story until I write about the whole house ordeal.  I'll warn you that this will be a long post.  However, I want to keep it for my blog journal book, so I'm writing it mostly for my benefit to remind me of God's hand at work during this entire time.

We had our house on the market from the end of October until the end of February.  That's not bad at all, considering nobody looks at houses between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We had lots of showings, most of the time there were 4 a week.  I hated the last minute calls of "We'd like to show your house in 5 minutes."  I always looked around my house, stressed, and then asked for 30 minutes after seeing toys everywhere and lunch on the table that was in the process of being eaten.  More often than not, that lunch got dumped and I'd buy them a more relaxing lunch because I didn't have time to let them eat it at home.  Then we'd wander around aimlessly waiting for the showings to be over.

The couple that bought our house were actually from New York and they were our 3rd showing on the same day.  I was headed home after a showing when the realty company called and asked if they could show my house in 10 minutes.  Since I wasn't home yet and it was already clean from the previous showings, I happily agreed.  I'm glad I said "yes" now!

The day they saw the house was a Friday.  I had a home party to go to that night at a friends house and on my way there, I felt a huge burden to turn off the radio and pray.  So I did.  I prayed all the way there and I prayed all the way back home.  I was very specific in my prayer and expected God to answer in every way.  I prayed that He would move the hearts of one of the couples who had looked at the house and that they would see that it would be perfect for them.  I then prayed that He would let us hear from our realtor that an offer was made before we went to take my parents to look at the foreclosed house we really wanted. 

As the next day inched closer to the time when we were to meet the realtor, (my dad is a certified electrician and was going to check out the electrical problem HUD said our house we were interested in had) I began to come to an understanding that perhaps this just wasn't the time that God wanted us to move.  I was a little disappointed, but I knew that God's timing was always absolutely 100% perfect and I looked forward to the story I could tell about His faithfulness.  Right as we were about to leave, Daddy T's phone rang and it was the realtor.  He was confirming our meeting time and......he said WE HAD AN OFFER!!!  I cried and was so excited because I had specifically asked God for this.  I didn't care whether we took their offer or they took ours at this point.  All I cared was that I had confirmation that God still heard me, still cared, and as minor as it was, He did care about our house (something I struggled with because it was a perfectly good house, served our needs, and was something that some people didn't even have).

We ended up counter offering for 3 days and finally came to the last offer, which we accepted.  The house was sold with no work needing to be done and it was a clean offer.  Now came the fun part of getting serious about our new house.

We had seen a house in Daddy T's subdivision in which he grew up in (and his parents still live in) and really wanted to live in that subdivision but knew we couldn't afford most of the houses in there.  We didn't want our house payment to be any more for than our old house because we didn't want to be in trouble if the economy completely tanked.  I guess you can say that we wanted to play it safe.  We had seen a foreclosed home pop up on realtor and sent it to our realtor so that we could look at it.  We really wanted a foreclosed home because you could get a lot more for your money if you didn't mind doing just a little work.  Since we like projects and making the house have our personality, we wanted an older house.  We had looked at quite a few HUD (foreclosed) homes but they were all destroyed and would take a lot more money to fix because the owners had completely messed them up.  So we weren't too hopeful when we saw this one, but we were still hoping we were wrong. 

When our realtor opened the door and we saw the house inside, it was perfect.  The owners had just picked up, took a few random things (like a fan and garage lights, bathroom mirror, etc), but left most things in tact.  They had done a lot of upgrades in the house so it looked really good.  Of course, there are some things we want and will change, but they did a great job trying to update it.  Anyway, we knew it was the house for us.  Neither one of us needed to ask the other one their thoughts because we both knew.  It had a huge back yard for the kids, a duck pond across the street, access to the lake, and was 1/2 mile from Daddy T's parents.  They have restrictions in the neighborhood to keep it looking good and so that people can't make their yards look bad!  We liked that and liked that many people around us are older and the nicest neighbors you could have.  (Our neighbor mowed our yard while we were on vacation!)

We wanted to make an offer on the house, but we weren't yet comfortable with the price since it was a bit higher than we wanted to pay.  It was a great deal, but not exactly what we wanted to pay.  So we kept watching it and praying that no one would take it if it was to be our house and that if it wasn't our house that it would sell so that we would know right away.  We needed clarity.

Back on the old house, days were ticking towards moving day.  We had to have inspections done on the house and appraisals.  It just so happened that the day that the home inspection was to be done (which we didn't expect a problem since the house was only 6 years old, we had had it the entire 6 years and kept it maintained), I was at a Precept class where I was going to be spending 3 entire days studying the Bible.  I firmly believe that Satan knew that too and wanted to trip me up and I'm so thankful that I was in the class or I just might have fretted and became anxious.  It's no shock to me that I got a call from the realtor right before our afternoon class began on the first day saying that the couple wanted to terminate their contract because of a water leak problem in the master bath.  We were stunned because there is no leak and never has been a leak and we would definitely know if there was.  The temptation was there for me to be upset and worried, but I calmly called Daddy T, told him what was happening, and he was mad!  I kept telling him what I was studying about the Lord in Ezra and how the Lord stirred up hearts to do as He pleases and He could very well stir up the hearts of the people who had a contract on our house so they could see that a mistake had been made.

On the realtor front, their realtor called ours to get their earnest money back.  Our realtor refused until he got a certified letter from the plumber saying that there was really a water leak.  After a lengthy conversation, it came out that their realtor had actually brought his brother to do the inspection and he was only a contractor, not a licensed inspector.  Plans were made to bring a plumber out that Saturday.  (We grew suspicious that the person would even be a real plumber because who can just say "Hey, I'll bring a plumber by at 10:00 on Saturday without even checking with the plumber!) 

All this time, Daddy T was frustrated with the fact that these people were lying about a problem with the house when there was no problem.  He didn't expect them to change their minds.  I did.  I actually thought it was funny because I really believed that this would not terminate the contract.

Saturday rolls around and our realtor has told us that Daddy T should stay because he had every right to be in his house and follow them around and ask questions.  Since he had nothing to lose, that's what he did.  Turns out that the "plumber" was once again a brother or brother-in-law contractor (who gave us his business card and told us he'd be glad to help us with anything we needed.....which we politely declined after hearing what they thought was a leak!) and the "leak" in the master bath was not a leak at all.  They said that when they flushed the toilet, turned the water on in the sink, shower, and tub at the same time---that water came up from the floor.  First of all, there would be water stains in the garage if that were true, but Daddy T had also just tiled it and told them that would be near impossible.  Then he told them all the layers that were between the floor and the tile.  The realtor and his contractor were puzzled and Daddy T showed them the shower door....water comes out of the shower door at the bottom when you open it after you've been it.  You see, that was the one day that we had a showing and we were in a hurry to get out of the house that I didn't wipe off the floor from when we all had our showers and opened the door.  Yes....that would be what they considered "a leak." 

Their realtor told Daddy T that his clients will be glad to hear the news and that they may still want the house.  That night, the contract was back on with one stipulation...we had to add the stripping to the bottom of the shower door so it wouldn't leak water when you opened it after you had a shower.  We agreed and the contract continued.

Looking at our new house again that night, we saw that the price had just dropped on it and it was now less than what we were paying for our old house.  They said that it had intermittent electricity, which was completely wrong.  After Dad looked at it that day, he couldn't figure out why they would say that because nothing looked wrong to him.  Turns out that whoever did the HUD test, hooked his generator to the garage instead of outside so that would give you intermittent electricity.  We were hoping Dad was right and that we were getting a perfect house at a steal of a price.

That night that the contract was deemed good, the new house we wanted had a price drop (which I just mentioned).  We shot an email off to our mortgage lady (which we were supposed to meet with the next day) and she told us to go ahead and make an offer because she saw nothing that would stop us from getting the loan.  So we called our realtor first thing, got an offer in, and it was accepted!  We were thrilled.  (We later learned that there were 3 other offers on it waiting in case ours fell through.  Once couple liked the house and neighborhood so much that they bought the house across the street....it was a little awkward to meet them!)

The other part was that our mortgage lady (who is the best) had 6 weeks to close on a HUD.  We were told it was nearly impossible for someone to close so fast on one but we didn't want to stay at Daddy T's parents house for weeks on end and didn't want to get an apartment.  Nor did we want to buy it before our house closed, just in case it fell through at the table.  Thankfully, all went beautifully and even the HUD lawyers said that our mortgage lady was great and they knew her by name because of the many times she called and checked in with them!  We closed on our house in College Nation, which took all of 30 minutes.  We drove 1-1/2 hours for 30 minutes and then rushed back to meet the locksmith because they don't give you keys to your house at HUD.  Your gift for buying a HUD is having your whole house broken into and then re-keyed!  Nothing says "welcome home" like that!

Through all of this house process, we could see God's orchestration and it was absolutely beautiful.  Now that we've been in our new house for 2 months, it's still a work in progress.  There is so much we want to do, but we just do a little at a time.  The outside jungle is a job for the fall when it is much cooler.  I always get chills when I retell the story of our house.  Several friends of ours walked through this with us and they got to see the whole thing played out, too.  It truly is a house that we would have not gotten any other way if we had not acted in God's perfect timing.  His timing is way more perfect than mine.

Goodbye ol' house.  You were filled with great memories and served us well.

Easter 2012

Yes, I know I'm a  little late.  It's not like I've been packing up a house and going on vacation or anything!  I'll talk more about the big move later because I'll have a few days where I'll just be sitting here...no cleaning, no picking up, just sitting here.  Can I say I'm excited about that?!  So I'll save that big post and the story of our houses until I have so much time to spare at the beginning of next week.  I'm sure that won't totally be true, but in my head I'm imagining a mini-vacation in our empty house!

Easter was a whirl-wind.  Daddy T and I sent the kids to the farm with the grandparents so we could go to Secret Church on Good Friday and learn about the cross and suffering for over 7 hours.  We got home about 3:00 in the morning and it was so incredibly worth it.  That's another post too.  After we slept in, we got up and packed a few boxes, ran a few errands, did laundry and headed to the farm to pick up the kids and to do Easter on the farm.  We got to see Uncle J and Aunt Molls, along with Ma.  We got home really late that night and got up really early for church.  After church, we had Easter dinner at Nanny Ruth and Papaw's house.  It was a lot of fun to see Uncle M and Aunt L and their kiddos and get caught up on all that has happened lately.

We came home about 5p.m. and packed our bags, dropped the dogs off at the kennel, and finally was on the road headed to Florida about 8:00 that night.  We got to Macon close to 12 and called it a night.  It was a long weekend, but it was fun and it was so good to see and spend so much time with our families.

Mad at me for making her look at the camera!

I can see this pose again for many years.  I think it's her sassy pose.

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom is a place that's hard to describe.  People can be so pushy, yet at the same time it's a place where you meet the nicest, kindest people.  It's like the one time where people are accepting the fact that there will be long lines, crowds, and it's going to be hot and people will be grumpy.  So it's as if everyone is trying their hardest to make the best out of the circumstances!  I even overheard a father today trying to correct his daughter.  His words?  "We're all worn out and it's starting to not get fun for anyone.  So PLEASE stop acting out!"  Daddy T and I cracked up laughing when we got past him.  That's the reason we don't want to do all the parks at once.  Because it would not be fun for us at this point.  One was pushing it before they melted down and needed naps and needed to rest and just wanted to swim and play golf.  We want it to be fun for all of us...not torture!

It actually wasn't bad for us at all.  Thanks to the most awesome weather (cool with a wonderful breeze), we barely broke a sweat.  Not only that, but lines weren't bad at all.  We got to meet B's favorite people: Woody, Buzz, and Jessie.  That was his favorite thing....and riding the pirate ship and Buzz's ride.  It took us all day today to detox from Mickey but we found ourselves eating lunch at Downtown Disney for a few hours and ending the day putt putting. 

The kids had a great time, we met a lot of nice people, had a lot of great conversations with people everywhere, and was reminded of my dear friend Laura when I met a man from Argentina!  Now to get back to life...packing boxes and getting ready for the next big change in a week!

Waiting in line to get Pluto's signature...we did get a photo of it, but it's on a different album that I haven't gotten yet.

Baby M excited about Pluto...she loves her Mickey and Minnie and the gang.  She kept petting Pluto's head.

How we started our day.

Riding "It's A Small World"

He was amazed...

WAIT!  Who's that?!

It's Woody and Jessie!!!!

The Buzz stamp

The kiddos showing you Buzz's "signature"--the stamp

Winnie the Pooh ride

Baby M loved the rides.

Focused on the Buzz ride

Gotta take the magic carpet ride

Waiting for the Mickey show

The gang...I think you know them all without me telling you.

Now...onto the parade.

The marching bands.  Yes...both kids want to be in the band.  I'm a proud mama:)

A sweet girl from Ohio was taking pictures for her friends in the band.  She offered to take our picture and I was very thankful.

How we ended our day...at midnight.