A Bruise and a Visit

So I got this bruise the other day....

It's on the back of my untoned arm and is huge. How did I get it? I slammed my arm in the car door. Crazy huh? Only me! I'm not even sure how I did it, but I know I was distracted and trying to hurry and I slammed the door, and I guess didn't move fast enough. It hurt sooooo bad! It doesn't really hurt now, and luckily its in a place that really isn't used or touched so I barely notice it unless someone says something.

Last night Aunt Lynn and Uncle Steve stopped by for a visit! They are on their way down to visit mom and we loved that they stopped to see us! We hung out for awhile, then took them to see the new house, drove around MTSU campus and then we all went out to dinner. It was a lot of fun, and yes, our children kept them very entertained.

Amy and Will used Aunt Lynn as a human jungle gym, I'm sure she was sore today! haha. They headed to mom's this morning and then will stop by Anna's on their way home. We love company, so thanks for the visit Lynn and Steve!!!

My insane husband has decided to move us this weekend, yes, as in tomorrow. He just wants to get it over with, which I understand. He got a bunch of guys from church to help him with the big stuff in the morning. Thankfully, the kids and I will be at a birthday party. Then we'll move the smaller stuff throughout all next week. It will be nice to be in the new place, but things will be a little chaotic until then. So if I'm not updating, you know why. :)

Splash Pad, the Return and a House

This morning some friends invited us to the "splash pad." I had heard about it but we hadn't been yet. It's in the next town over and it's completely free. I was all for it! It ended up being better than I thought. It was a great place!

For the most part, they liked it. It took Will a little while to go in, but once he did, he was fine. After a short playtime, Amy declared she was cold... hungry... and basically just shut down. sigh. Sometimes it's so exhausting. And anything Amy does, Will follows, so I had to feed them both and then after that, we just left. I had hoped they'd play for a long time, but we'll try again another day.

Aside from leaving because they didn't want to play.... we also had a few errands to run. Lee was on his way home and I wanted to have a mini-party waiting for him. Honestly, I'm completely shocked that I've been able to keep tabs on/bring all 3 kids home when I'm brave enough to take them all out. The fact that today I managed it with the water park, getting helium balloons and picking up a cookie cake. Well.... yes I'm wearing a badge of honor. Whew! Doing anything with all three of them is an adventure!

I made the signs last night and we had everything waiting for him when he got home. (yellow and black are the Southern Miss colors)

He was surprised but then said, "I knew you'd do something!" Of course!! I should think that he would be disappointed if I hadn't!

So our Doctor is home, and we are so happy! I was glad to let him take control of the kids while I read emails. :)   Lee coming home was one highlight of the day..... soon there was another! We found a house!!

A girl I know from church, McKenzie, called me today and told me she saw a rental house and told me the information. After Lee got home, we high-tailed it over there to check it out. But when we drove by, there was someone looking at it and a phone call later we found it had already been taken. We were bummed... BUT there was another house with a 'for rent' sign, so I called and the lady asked if we could come back a few hours later. We did. We loved. We gave her a check. We have keys. We are BEYOND thrilled!!!

Living room 

(the kids bedrooms and a bathroom are in the hall to the right. 

I didn't get a picture of those)

Open kitchen with a bar that separates it and the living room

Master bedroom. It's huge

Master Bath

HUGE walk-in closet. Yipppeeee!!!

The absolute bonus?? A huge bonus room!!!

It's 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage, a pantry (which I've never had before!) and just perfect. We actually love it more than we like this house! It just has a much better use of space. The yard is smaller, and its in a neighborhood where the houses are on top of each other, but for a rental, I'm fine with that. And the bonus room is a HUGE bonus. To have a play room for the kids..... that doubles as a guest room!!?? Oh we think we've died and gone to heaven. Oh and the neighborhood has a pool and a playground- which makes up for the lack of yard!

We just have SO much to be thankful for.... Lee getting done with school..... finding a house... all within a day........ oh my goodness. THANK YOU to McKenzie Fowler for scoping this place out for us! We owe her everything!!! And THANK YOU to Mom for feeling inspired to put Lee's name on the prayer roll at the temple. And thank you to everyone else for all of your thoughts and prayers.... we have felt them and know the Lord has been with us. Last Friday was really rough for me mentally. But when I would get low, I would just rally and remind myself of how the Lord brought us here and all the blessings we've had and I just kept that in mind and now look...... everything we've wanted. We are just so happy.

Today was a good day.

An Official Title Change

It's official! Lee is officially a DOCTOR. 

Dr. Lee Wade. 

It sounds so cool!!! 

He went down to Mississippi on Sunday and defended his dissertation today. 

Thank you for all the prayers and happy thoughts. 

It's been a journey- that's for sure!! 

But a journey that is finally OVER. 

Thank the heavens!!!!!!

(I wish we were though with 'journey's' for awhile, 

but nope- now it's time to focus on finding another house)

Anyhow- CONGRATS LEE!!!!!! 

We are all so proud of all of your hard, HARD work!!!! 

Small Fry Tri

Today Amy became the 2nd Wade to compete in a triathlon! (Lee did one in college. I will do one next year) The town has a "Small Fry Tri" where the kids run, ride their bikes and then run through sprinklers (for the swim). Amy did great and really loved it!

Our great friends, the Reece's, told us about it because they did it last year. So we joined in the fun.

Dallin, Amy and Caleb before the race started.... helmets and numbers on.....

Ready, Set, Go!

Lee ran next to Amy, with the camera, so I pulled double duty carrying Tyler and Will. I had to hold Will because he wanted to participate and he's a tad too small. He would have gotten trampled for sure. Next year he should be able to do it.

Winner!! Amy was so excited about her trophy!

Everyone is a winner! They all got trophies!!

Showing Daddy

This is Linda Reece. One of the greatest people in the world and one of my favorite friends. Her and I had a 'girls night' last night and watched Pride and Prejudice.... with lots of talking, laughing and eating junk food. I got home at 2am! It was awesome! Her husband was in California, at a conference (He's a PhD student as well). So she did all this... transporting 3 kids, 2 bikes, etc all by herself. She's amazing!

Her and her kids.

Attempting a family photo....

They always end up like this....

It was a really fun morning. And I love that Amy loved it too. I have a video that I'll upload. Yesterday we had a random cold spell, and it was cloudy and chilly. But today it ended up being perfect weather. Next year (hopefully!!) I'll be the one that does a triathlon. I can't wait. :)

After this, we can home and Will, Tyler and I all took long naps. I needed it! I've had 3 really late nights (Weds, I was just up late working on my craft blog. Thurs was book club and last night with Linda) so I was running really low on energy.

Tomorrow Lee heads to Mississippi to defend. Official defense date and time: Monday at 3:30pm (central time). So everyone send up prayers, well wishes and happy thoughts at that time! (Hopefully) we are almost done with this!!!!!!

Shots and Stress

So Amy just refused to take her medication (talked about in the previous post) so back to the doctor we went. I really felt badly about it, but her ears are bad and she has to have this medicine. She screamed, cried, etc about having to get a shot (not that I blame her). Turns out- the particular one is a serious of 3 shots, one a day until they are done. Even the doctor said she really hated to give that to her. Of course, at that moment Amy said "I'll take the medicine! I'll take the medicine!"

Anyhow- the Doctor and I finally decided to give her 1 shot today and then try a different antibiotic for the next several days. Amy agreed to take the medicine, knowing what would happen if she didn't. She was actually quite funny though.... I had to hold her upper body down while the nurse held her lower body and gave her the shot in her leg. As Amy was getting the shot she belts out, "Oh! This is awful!" in this really dramatic voice. It was hysterical and I couldn't stop laughing. Later she said, "I feel like I'm dying!" (where did she come up with that!?)

Not long after it, Amy was fine. She was laughing and acting totally normal. I know shots are painful, but I think she just gets herself worked up. She just gets too inside of her own head. I hope she outgrows that!!

Well, since she had to get the shot, and we had to wait for 15 mins afterwards to make sure she didn't have a reaction, and since we had to wait a little while in the waiting room.... it was going to make me late to my appointment today. (I had my 6wk post op at the OB/GYN office) So I called Lee, told him I didn't have time to run home and took Tyler and Amy with me. (sigh). Thank goodness for the double stroller from Lauren and Adam!!!

Having both of them, first through the pediatric ordeal, then taking them to my appointment, was stressful. (Lee stayed home with a napping Will. Lee, of course, was doing even more edits to his dissertation) This was Amy at my appointment.... does she look upset to you??!! I think not.

So I got home from that, get everyone inside, fall asleep on the couch for a little while (more like pass out, I was quite exhausted) get up and I'm getting ready to head out for book club and the door bell rings. It's our landlords.

Turns out, they sold their house, way quicker than intended, and before it was even on the market, and they need to move into the one we are in. Deadline? 30 days. Yes, I said 30 days... Oh yeah..... did I mention that Lee is still doing this dissertation crap (at this point "crap" is the only word I have for it).

I wish we could buy something, but we just aren't ready to yet. And we just live in the most perfect place... the neighborhood, the yard, I just love it. And now we have to leave paradise. And I don't want to. So goodbye perfect place. Goodbye summer trip to New York. We had already cancelled our beach trip in August (because of Amy starting school). Goodbye Sarah's sanity.

I know I'm going to get bombarded with "it will all work out" type comments, and I know that it will, but the process sucks. I'm stressed. I just thought this year would be better... different than the way we lived in Mississippi, but it's not different at all. Everything is the same except our mailing address. I just want to cry. I'm just so tired of living in disarray. I'm tired of never being able to follow through with trips. I'm tired of Lee still having to battle his crappy chair for the dissertation that he's worked SO hard for. And oh yeah, I'm also sleep deprived. Yes, I'm having a pity party... just let me.