Slow down & enjoy where you are.

“We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us 

that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are."

-- Bill Watterson

One thing I've learned with our move to Omaha is to not wish for tomorrow but to savor every moment today and enjoy it.  God has made me see that with my eyes and feel it with my soul.

I know some people think, "wow, I can't believe you've lived in an apartment for so long!", and yes, while I feel that way, too, many days, most of the time I'm enjoying it.  My life, especially in the past couple years, has been a testament to, "you never know what tomorrow will hold".  And while living in the apartment has been new and fun many days, and a little crazy every day, I have truly cherished it without hardly ever complaining. But, I'll be honest, I'm ready to be settled.  Ready to make a start.  Ready to move on.  I can't wait to make our house a home.

Here's the latest progress . . .

The kids look forward to our stopping to watch the progress so they can get out and pick dandelions.

After Noah gets out of school, we always drive by first thing.  Here, here's looking out at the progress.

This was Wednesday!. . .

Waiting in the car at Noah's school.

This is the lot across the street from us!  Neil saw a lady here walking around last night carrying a baby!!!!  We hope they are the family building!!

Building my porch!! :)

This is my closet! :)

I already drove by today (without my camera) and the entire house is now wrapped and the porch is complete!  We plan to go by this evening and WALK THROUGH!  Let me tell you, I am EXCITED! I'll be going back with my camera and I'll check back in soon!

Happy Friday!  Truly enjoy and savor the day. 

Jubilant Delights

The days are getting busier and busier, not just with the house but with everyday life, too.  Noah started his first baseball game of many on Saturday.  Seems like just yesterday Noah was hitting off of t-ball stands and swinging his little heart out (missing a lot of the time).  Today, my not long ago 4-year old is now an almost 8-year old hitting balls pitched by real people.  This was the first time I had to dress my boy in a real uniform with a real hat, jersey, pants and socks.  Once he stood out there on the field with the others boys suddenly looking so grown-up, I almost lost it.  But thankfully I have 2 other younger kiddos to keep me distracted, along with my camera to hide behind. 

Noah, #10

 

My distractions from acting like a pathetic sappy mommy:

Playing "pitcher".  The coaches actually pitch.  Noah said playing pitcher was "the funnest ever!'.

He finally got a good hit and ran with the bat the entire way.  Priceless!

After the game we headed to Nebraska Furniture Mart (one of the many places owned by Howard Buffet in town) to begin looking at carpet for our house.  Once there we realized how much undistracted thinking it would require to make decisions.  We have to work with a specific person and not only do we choose carpet at NFM, but we also choose tile and vinyl for every room in the house; wall tile, too.  "Our" lady said the process will take us 3-4 hours, so. . . we decided coming back another time without kids would be the most efficient.  ((sigh))  So we head back next Saturday to make the vital decisions.  I'm so thankful for good friends in Omaha to help us out at times such as these.  (Thank you, Brooke!)  And now that we know we won't have the kids, I'm actually very excited to sit down and really think about these things, and hopefully use some of the design theories I learned in college.  Wow, I can put my degree to work! :)

So Friday and today (Monday) my "drive by's" on the house have ended with me driving away in complete glee.  You know, when you smile uncontrollably because something great has happened and makes you feel all bubbly and happy?  Actually, the definition if glee is: jubilant delight; joy.  Yeah, that's me almost every day.  I love the feeling.  I think it's knowing that we are actually, one day soon, going to be in a house that we put all of ourselves (money, design, patience) into.  It's. Exciting.  :)

So this was Friday (4/29/11):

They didn't work over the weekend.  And here is today, Monday. . .  Look, peaks!  There are peaks!

I'm really glad we chose to push out the upstairs.  Helps cut down on the harsh sun coming in the back of house.

This is the head construction guy.  He's the one that called me "OSHA" :)

I took Elyssa & Maia to school.  They stopped at the corner of our lot to pick some dandelions for their teacher :)

I love this one.  Shows off her cute toothless grin.

Look! And they're starting on the sides!!

Tomorrow. . . I wonder if tomorrow will provide me with more glee? I'm thinking probably, yes. :)

It's really real!

Do you ever not feel creative?  Yeah, that's me today.  But I really want to get you updated on the latest on our house, so bear with me in this uncreative thinking.  It's beautiful, sunny and 80 degrees today.  I want to be outside!  But alas, Finn is napping and we live on the 2nd level, so a boring blog post (written from the blah indoors) it is for me at the moment.  :)

Thursday it rained quite a bit so I assumed nothing would get done.  But that morning they begin prepping for the foundation!  I was suprised when we drove up and saw this:

 

Friday I expected nothing to get done since the ground was so wet.  But having a tiny bit of hope, the kids and I drove by after to school, and to our dismay, most of the foundation had been poured!

 

That evening we all went back as a family.  Since ground had been broken on Monday, Neil hadn't had the chance to see any of it but through my pictures.  So before Maia's softball practice, we went by again.  Neil was pretty impressed.

It's really real!  We are building OUR house! 

We have had our plans for a few weeks now, but hadn't opened them since reviewing them with our builder.  So this morning we opened them.  Good thing it's the right house!

 

 

 

 

We thought we had picked out the stone we want for the front but as a few weeks have passed, I think our minds have changed.  So our hopes today are to make a decision.  Things like this seem so critical! But of course we know in the grand scheme of things, they aren't.  So far it's fun. . . really really fun, which is good because I have all summer of this and 3 kids at home to drive me crazy to love them more.  This all should be more than interesting (hopefully all the good kind of interesting!).  Another great chapter in our lives that I can't wait to write it.  Wait, I guess I already am ;) Thank you for sharing in it with me thus far.  xo

The Camp House Begins

Getting back to Purple Valley comes at no better time than now.  Yesterday we finally, finally, broke ground on our lot where we will be building our brand new house!  After 8 months of living in Omaha in two different apartment complexes, the feelings of happiness that overcame me the moment I saw the CAT tractor scooping dirt out of the ground to make a giant hole were overwhelming.  My thoughts were, "Wow, it's actually happening."  

 Sometimes it seems like no matter how much we plan for things to happen and set up hearts to yearn for them (trying to convince ourselves that it's the way to go), something happens and God intercedes with what He has planned for us.  (What we plan isn't always what He plans!)  But this time . . .this time, God's intentions were what our hearts yearned for.  We followed His lead from the very beginning . . .from the moment He told us we were moving to Omaha . . .and well, the rest was pretty easy.  (On the most part.  Nothing is ever "easy"!)

So yesterday there I was sitting in front of our lot watching like a little girl sitting around the Christmas tree waiting to be told it's ok to unwrap my presents.  My dear camera was in tow, along with Maia and Finn, witnessing how crazy their momma is documenting every new scoop of dirt that fell from the little yellow tractor.

 

To keep the kids busy I brought markers and paper.  They were well-entertained.  They enjoyed watching the tractor, too!

Today Maia had her ballet/tap class with her girlfriends, Elyssa and Aubrie.  So their mommies and I dropped the girls off, hopped in my van, drove through and got necessary coffee at Scooter's and then drove off to the Camp's lot to see the progression for today.  It was exciting and I'm hoping every day will ensure this kind of anticipation!  Trucks had already been there today; some concrete had been poured and the metal foundation bars "set".  Oh what a happy day!
 

 

Hi me!

 

Jen, Keleigh and Finn waited on me in the van:

See ya tomorrow, soon-to-be house!