Life is full of changes...

and disappointments and joys and this week we've had our share.....I'll start with Monday.

Monday - no school! Horray! It made waiting to hear if the people accepted our offer even more unbearable. Finally, aroudn 9 that night, we heard they accepted our offer and we were headed to 2249 Elmwood Street. When I asked Reese if he wanted to be an Raider (the mascot of the neighborhood school is a Raider) he started clapping his hands and smiling....What a great and relieving day!

Tuesday - I was happy to report to my co-workers that my search was over and began the search for the kids who lived in that house. Mann is the middle school for that neighborhood and I wondered if they were here. Needless to say, my next door teacher had 2 of their 3 kids. When she questioned the little girl, she said "Well, we were going to move, but now my mom changed her mind!" WHAT????????

This of course freaked me out, I called Garrett right away and he did say yes, she had in fact changed her mind. However, there was nothing they could do because they had signed the contract. Our realtor told their realtor that we would be moving in because we had a signed contract and our move out date was only 2 weeks away. As of 9 that night, the wife was still not budging.....

Wednesday - found out around 9 am that they had contacted a lawyer to find out how to get out of the contract. Luckily the law in Texas states that the contract is legally binding and they had to move. So by 9 am, my fears were calmed and I was on to having one of the best days of my life.........that is until we went to HEB for gas.

I see a young mother sitting with her baby outside HEB crying and rocking the baby. I see a man driving by continuously yelling at her. When we went over to make sure she was ok, she told me she needed milk and her boyfriend would not give her her purse. So, I took her and the baby inside to buy them some milk. Come to find out, he was drunk and had hit the baby which is why she had gotten out. We bought a bottle so she could feed the baby right away and were on our way out the store to head to the car. I told her we could take her home and as she got in the car, the boyfriend pulled up. He got out of his car, started yelling at us (profanities) that we were messing with the wrong man, to leave his old lady alone....blah blah blah. I grabbed my phone to call 911 after he started hitting our car and pulled Garrett out of the driver's side. He saw me get the phone, headed my direction was yelling at me that he would kill me if I called 911...We finally got in our car and drove off.

I called 911 and we trailed them for a bit so I could tell the cops where they were. We finally saw that the cops were on to them so we headed home. I was still a nervous wreck because this is the type of thug who would drive around until he found us and shoot up the house - he even got of liscense plate and make of car. We called the cops to see that something had been done, but the cop said that they had lost him. I told the 911 operator their address because the girl told it to me when we were in HEB.

After I knew they weren't caught, we drove over to their house - and yes, right where the girl told me and right where I told police - and there they were. Now, please tell me how someone can hit a baby, threaten another couple, his own girlfriend and pull someone from their car and nothing happen? How come I found their house in 5 mintues and the cops couldn't??????? This is very unsettling.....

Thursday - I had a job interview at an Elementary. I think it went well, but I am at a disadvantage coming down from a middle school rather than over to another Elementary. I should know by the end of next week when the interviews are all over....Say a prayer and keep your fingers crossed. By the way, our new house is caddy-cornered from the back of the school I interviewed at. How nice would it be to teach where Reese went to school.....

Friday - The house is being inspected as we speak - so pray for nothing big to be wrong....

Saturday - PACKING, PACKING, PACKING.

I am ready for this move to be over and it's only just beginning....yah!

May 22...

will be the day Reese turns 15 months. What a big boy!

It will also be the last night in our house on Peach Street. We close on it May 23rd. We have to make a decision in about 3 days about what we are going to do. We have 2 choices as of now. And then there is always move to Cherry's, but that would require we move again and NEITHER of us want to do this....

We'll see what this weekend holds.

Oh That Reese!

It's been awhile since I've shown you guys pics of my lil' man. He's growing like a weed. It's hard to believe he's 14 months old. We've been looking through old pictures and it seems just like yesterday he was so little.....

Who knew they make baby boxers? Welll, they do! I got a pair for Reese - they were size 0-12 months and since our child is Mr. Skinny Bones, I got them for him and they fit perfect! Here he is Night #1 with them on.

(And yes, I realize for a toddler, a diaper really is like a pair of boxers, but aren't these so much cuter? And besides, he likes to run around in his diaper and I prefer to see the boxers rather than a diaper!)

Don't let that "pooched" out tummy fool you! This Mr. Skinny Bones is tiny! Clothes don't fit and we are going to start having to have things altered. His 6-12 month stuff fit in the waist and are WAY too short....
Ahh yes! The toilet flushing! Reese picked this up quickly. We've had balls and bath toys appear in the toilet - luckily all to big to go down the toilet. However, he will love to go potty when he gets bigger so he can flush! And yes, the dollar on the back of the toilet was headed for the sewage system until I stopped it!
He LOVES to watch what it does to the water! And yes, we do wash his hands off EVERYTIME he holds on like that!
So, we have this chair in our room and he's always tried to get up into it. Well, this LITTLE MONKEY ( and yes, climbing is his specialty) can now climb up onto furniture. He sat in it yesterday for about 30 mintues kicking his feet....
And now for some videos- this first one is absolutely precious. Reese is picking up his own vocabulary. So, it was no surprise to us when he started imitating us when we say "baseball" and "basketball". Here we are on our way home from seeing KJ last Saturday.

Next is his new dancing skills. Ever since he's been going to Tammie's, he's quickly picked this up. Cavin and Chandler (friends of ours sons') do a full body dance. Well, he immediately picked up the leg shake as part of his dance. I think it's presh!

And lastly, our genius! We've got some puzzles that he is starting to really take an interest in. Since I took this video, he's picked up several more pieces, but he started out with the purple octogon. He can now do the rectangle and square. By the way - the back says for ages 2 and up (but I'm not proud or anything!)

Homeless....

That's what we'll be if we don't find a house in the next 2 days. Our closing is set for 3 weeks....Am I really ready for this?????

And by the way...the house that originally made us start this whole silly mess isn't even in the running as a top house...in fact, I refuse to live there now!

OH GEEZ!

Everyone loves a baby.....well, except Reese!

Sweet baby Kenny Joe is here!!! We got to go back to Lubbock on Saturday and love on this little guy - sweet little baby!

We found out really quick what Reese would do if another baby was introduced at our house! If Garrett or I had the baby, Reese was crawling all over us trying to make sure no one else was getting all our attention!

Mom and baby are fine -as is dad, but adjusting to new life with a baby!

I'm an Aunt!

But before you get all excited to see the little fella, know that I don't have any pictures.

Brandy was admitted to the hospital at 9 on Monday night. She got some Cervadil (sp?) and then got her water broken around 6:45 Tuesday monrning. She was dilated to a 9 around 2 and they decided to go ahead and let her push a little bit to see what would happen.

After about 20 minutes of pushing, it was decided to call the dr. because KJ kept coming down during her contractions but going back up and "hiding" when she wasn't pushing. After talking to the dr. it was decided to go down on her Epadural (sp?) and to let her rest for a bit. She rested about 10 minutes (is this really rest?) and contiued pushing. She pushed for a little over an hour when the doctor got there and within 10 minutes of the doctor, Kenny Joe Pritchard made his entrance into this world. He was 7 lbs, 3 oz and 21.5 inches long.

He is still 4 weeks early, so they had to give him oxygen and put him in a incubator. He spent all night there last night and my mom has just reported that around 9:30 this morning he finally got to have some hangout time with my sister and Michael.

The reason KJ had to come early was because my sister had high fluid counts. (I have never been pregnant so I don't know about all this stuff!) Anyways, he's precious and LONG!

My sister gave me the honor of being in the delivery room with her and Michael when KJ was born. She told me she wanted me there because otherwise, I would never experience childbirth. What an unselfish decision. I will have to say at first I didn't want to go - I was very very apprehensive. However, childbirth is nothing like the movies or TV and when little KJ made his long awaited debut I bawled and bawled like a baby. It was as if at that moment, I realized what my sister let me be part of. I will never witness my own child being born, but I got to witness the next best thing - my first nephew being born. My sister will never know what her decision meant to me.

Oh, and why are there no pictures? Well, I can't find my camera charger so I have very little battery life left. And then, I was in the room with Brandy and Mike and was videoing and camera shooting for them. KJ was taken to the nursery and put in the incubator all night, so no one even got to hold him yet......so, expect some soon...we are going back to see him this weekend!

And even though there are no pictures, I got to see him up close the first 20 minutes of his life and for that, I am forever grateful!

Gone.

To Lubbock - to witness the first showing of my new nephew Kenny Joe Pritchard.

That's right folks, I'll be witnessing childbirth firsthand tomorrow. I'm sure I'll come back a changed woman.

And I know my dad sure will be proud of his 2 namesakes......

DIS-GUS-TING!

And that ain't no lie!

So, we've got our house on the market - right? Well, every night, we take a good 45 minutes and make sure everything is put up, all Reese's toys are out of sight, all clothes are hung or folded and that everything is spotless. I really want our house to make a good impression on the people who walk through it.

Well, last night, we viewed 5 houses. The first was a doozy - super cute. Concrete counters in the kitchen, big mexican type tiles throughout the house, so so cute. They didn't have quite so much out, but still very cluttered. The next house was OLD. When I say that, I mean, the furniture, the decor, the smell. Nursing home old smell. YICK! It was obvious the people were getting ready for an estate sale. The next was vacant and disgusting. The 4th house could've been cute until the add-on in the back of the house raised some serious questions! People do the strangest things! And finally....the cute, HUGE, perfect house (possibly). However, it was like these people aren't taking into consideration that potential buyers were walking through their house. Dirty laundry was piled in front of the washer and dryer, beds unmade, drying towels all over the bathroom floor......I could go on. The thing is, it was a cute house - which could possibly work for us. It backs up to the creek bank with a HUGE yard for Reese. But the fact that the people left their house so disgusting just made me wonder how well they maintained the house. I know they say people aren't looking at your stuff, they are looking at your house, but when your stuff is everywhere and you have to step over it to look, then you are looking at the stuff. It was obvious these people had kids and I get just how hard it is to keep a clean house when you have kids and I only have 1. But...every night, Garrett and I do a double check of every room just to be sure.

I'll tell ya, house hunting is a full time job....

Seems like our house has shown well, we've had 2 lookers, both serious lookers. We were told that one couple was just nervous about buying their first house and another couple said our house looked "peachy" but liked another layout better. We live on Peach in case you didn't get the joke! We'll be in the "home magazine" for the next few weeks so maybe that will help.

Sometimes I wish we would've never started this project. But, I'd rather do it now with one child than with two a few years down the road.

Other than the house news, Math TAKS is over. Praise Sweet Jesus! It's all on the downhill swing from here!

I'm still on the lookout for an elementary job, praying the Lord finds me the perfect place. He will, of that I am sure.

Maybe???

We have several house showings tonight....so many that we will be out of the house for 2 hours!

Prayers are welcome in that one of these might be "the one!"

We're on the market!

And if it wasn't official enough, our pictures of the house are up. I will have to say I wasn't ecstatic that pictures of the adorable kitchen weren't on there and pictures of "my" living room weren't up - only Garrett's "man" room! Oh well, if the buyers come, they will see just how presh our place is!

And on that note - we had lookers Monday! I know I know! And today a group of 25 realtors toured our house to hopefully show some of their buyers! Sell baby, sell!

And, an offer has been extended on the Lexington house. Hope this all works out!

It's all a little scary! Especially where I think about us moving with a 1 year old!