Busy busy weekend.

I wish I had more time to write/post to this blog.  Life is so full right now.  I am so happy and excited for the present and the future.

On Thursday, February 9, escrow closed on the house where the kids and I will soon live.  It is a perfect house in a great neighborhood with awesome schools.  We already know our next door neighbors (Derek played soccer with their son!) so the kids (and I!) have ready-made friends.  It is thrilling.  We kept the house plans secret until escrow closed (you never know what could happen when you are trying to buy a house) so we got to do a big "reveal" on Thursday night.  The kids were sufficiently impressed, excited and grateful!  We've been there every day since, and the excitement has not subsided.  I feel the same way as I begin to prepare the house to become our home.

Friday was Derek's birthday.  Since we finally had keys to the house, and it needs a decent amount of cosmetic work done, I spent the morning at the new house meeting with contractors.  After picking up the middles from school (and Derek's birthday cake from the store) we headed back to the house for more cleaning and to wait for the locksmith.  I even left the kids at the neighbor's and the locksmith at the house to go pick up the bigguns.  Finally, with 6 kids in my possession, I quickly bathed the babies (at the neighbor's house!) and headed to Chuck E. Cheese for Derek's birthday party.

The party was, in a word, AMAZING.  The kids had a blast playing games, and collected their tickets together.  I like to encourage them to pool all of the tickets and then split them evenly at the end.  They ate pizza and cake, and watched Derek do the "ticket blaster" - unfortunately he did not manage to grab that magic "1,000 tickets" ticket.  He did, however, walk away with well over 200 tickets from his ticket blaster experience. 

Saturday we went back to the house with Brian and the boys (the kids wanted to show off the new house!) and then we headed to Knott's Berry Farm since we all have passes.  Brian's oldest son, Joseph turned 9 on Sunday, so we were celebrating his birthday together for a few hours.  Then we went BACK TO the house.  We seriously cannot get enough of this place.  I think even the kids can already feel it is "home."  We hung out, played, ate cake, played, and played until dark.  Exhausted, we came back to Grandma and Papa's house for baths and bed before church on Sunday.

Sunday - church.  Of course it was great, and I got to share with my bishop the thoughts on "anchoring" I learned at therapy on Wednesday.  I also began reading a book entitled "Joint Custody with a Jerk."  Now, before you start jumping to conclusions, it is actually more about how I can change myself and my own attitude in order to have a happier life (for myself and the children,) even when communication with my ex is difficult.  It doesn't focus on the negativity - it really emphasizes our power to control how we are going to be affected by what we experience.  I thought this concept tied in well with the thoughts I have been exploring on anchoring...

I had promised the children a campout, and Sunday was the night.  They are dying to move in for good, so I agreed (against my better judgement?) to have us all sleep there overnight since today was a holiday from school.  Let me tell you, preparing a "campout" with and for six kids is quite the undertaking!  Somehow I managed to get together enough blankets, pillows and food to keep us mildly comfortable overnight.  Of course, with all the prep work, we didn't even make it to the house until after 7pm. 

Wild and crazy sleepover (I HATE sleeping on the floor), and up early this morning so that we could get to the doctors for our follow-up appointment.  Parker still has an ear infection so the doctor increased his antibiotics.  Hattie needs to be more diligent about her inhalers to get her asthma under control.  Another follow-up on Friday. The rest of the children are fine.

Busy weeks ahead as we continue to prepare.  Drywall today and tomorrow, electrical Wednesday, and painting this weekend.  Next week, hopefully, we will have new carpet.  New sliding glass door the following week, and then the big move.  At least that's the plan.  Keep us in your prayers, we will certainly need them in the coming weeks!