Celebration!!! Today is the day...

You turn 8!! I feel happier today than I have on any other birthday. Each year my love for you grows and gives me more reason to celebrate your life! You have given me more than I ever could have imagined. I'm watching you turn into a pre-teen already. Full of opinions (which you are more than willing to share) and already you are more than willing to lock yourself in your room with the tv. Too bad you haven't figured out that the older you get the more you are supposed to enjoy sleep! The older you get, the more the reality sets in that you will be grown and gone one day. I can't imagine a day without you in my house. Thank goodness you're not to old to crawl into my lap or cuddle. I am proud of who you are becoming (even the strong-headed parts of you that like to debate with me about EVERYTHING!). You are strong in heart and mind. A helper, a pleaser, a friend, and a wonderful brother and son. I love you, my boy!! Your momma!

2 weeks to countdown!

Can't believe it's already time!!! Although we don't close on our house until May 9th, we've decided to move on the April 26 and 27. Jeremy's work schedule goes a little haywire after that, so we want to allow ourselves enough time to get things cleaned and finalized before closing. We are stripping wallpaper and painting and packing. The kids are loving the freedom of our new house. So much space and no worries. It really is wonderful that they can just run free. I can't wait until the first nice morning we wake there and I can usher them outside at the crack of dawn. There is so much to do and so little time and I'm trying to have faith that it will all come together. It always does!

My theory on housework is...

...if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?

~Erma Bombeck

I will constantly be reminding myself of this one over the course of the next few months.

A Curve is a Curve...

No change whatsoever. Things are holding...and we'll hold for another 6 months until the next appointment. Sighs of relief for things staying the same.

The kids and I had a great trip. Parking wasn't impossible to come by, so we breezed right in. Got to the doc's office and there was no one in the waiting room because of the horrendous parking, claimed the receptionist. Really?!? We were there less than an hour and made it home at a decent hour for dinner when we ordinarily would have been caught in rush hour traffic. Golden. Chloe was playful and pleasant thanks to an unexpected snooze in the back seat and Colin was thrilled to be out of school early.

Three cheers for a low stress day.

Cyclical

My life is cyclical in regard to my emotions. I tend to go through serious bouts of depression periodically which directly correlate with Colin's 6 month check-ups. It was termed at one point by a doctor along the way as chronic grief. Before the next series of appointments, I can't seem to keep myself from panicking about the possibilities of what they might find. The routine appointments are absolutely necessary. They are the only way to catch something ugly before it gets too ugly and yet everything in me seems to avoid making them. I actually avoided making them earlier on in the year because "we had too much going on." I'm confessing here and now that the truth of the matter is that I wasn't ready to deal with the emotions that sweep over me. Partially because, indeed, we have too much going on and I didn't want to feel the way I have been with everything else happening at the same time. I could see the train wreck ahead. The whole thing backfired. I've spent the past 2 weeks fighting back tears daily, which I KNOW is ridiculous. I can try and convince myself of this as much as I want; it does not matter. The sadness and frustration will remain...for weeks, perhaps months. Sleepless nights, headaches, guilt, anger... I also find myself avoiding talking about it. I feel ridiculous. He's a great kid. There's nothing wrong. Everything is always fine, I say. The emotions remain. Usually I schedule far enough in advance that his appointments are bam-bam-bam right in a row. In this instance, they'll be spread from now until June. And today begins the countdown to our move 30 days left. This round of emotions have been exceptionally overwhelming.l. I wish I could put a stick in the wheel and stop the spinning...find a way to jam the process.

We sold this house!!!

In 11 days! We are thrilled and feeling very thankful! We accepted our first offer yesterday of only $3,000 less than our asking price and cannot believe that things happened so quickly, especially with the way the market is right now. We will close on May 8 and have a lot of packing to do here and painting to do at the new house, but we couldn't be happier. Jeremy asked me more than once yesterday what we were missing because it was all too great!!

Our home on Chestnut Street will be greatly missed. It holds a ton of memories, but we're ready for the next chapter in this novel.