Gorgeous, I Tell You!

That is what the weather has been like here the last two days. Absolutely beautiful! I can feel fall coming. I had no intention, originally, of getting my fall decorations out. Seeing as how I've been packing things away, unpacking seems kind of counter productive. Today, I've made a monumental decision though. Today, when I get home from work, I'm getting them out! I am TIRED of waiting. Tired of living on hold. Tired of holding my breath. Today, I am going to go ahead with my life. I'm getting out the fall stuff, because darnit, I enjoy it!! If Jon gets the job and we have to sell the house, it will just have to sell decorated for my favorite season.
NOTE: I said my favorite season. Not to be confused with my favorite holiday. I will be fighting the urge to get Christmas decorations out soon enough!
Mags and Liam and I harvested the apples off our Gala apple tree this week and have made 2 batches of apple butter already. We have enough apples for one more batch, Liam however spoke up this morning and interjected that they would be better suited, he's sure, to a pie. So, possibly, I will be trying my hand at apple pie this weekend.
Despite all the anticipation and stress, I have been feeling incredibly blessed this week. Blessed with the bounty of apples we got this year. Blessed with family. Immediate and extended. Blessed with friends. I am a lucky girl! 
Two special thank you's this week...Dad, thanks so much for offering to buy some school stuff for the kids. You and I both know that the portion you took care of for me was a COSTLY one and it really took a load off my mind. The kids are very excited about there new shoes coming. And Julie...only you would stay up until 2:30am because I was craving Zuppa Toscano. Thank you so much. It was delish-ioso!!
Love you all!

Patience Young Padawan

For those of you who are wondering…waiting…twiddling your thumbs in anticipation…

we still haven’t heard anything. The last 4 days (since Jon’s interview Friday) have been the longest of my life!! Well, except for the last 4 days before each of the kids were born. Actually, I think those last pregnant days were longer for poor Jon than they were for me. Come to think of it the last 4 have probably been longer for him too. It’s a sad state of affairs, being married to me.

I’m trying really hard to wait patiently. Not doing a very good job though. What can I say? Patience is not my strong suit. Organization is my strong suit. When in doubt, I’m doing what I do best. I’m getting things organized. In an uncharacteristically optimistic move, I have started packing. Certainly not daily items. I have started packing the clutter that I am not willing to part with. Clearing space. Making the house look bigger before we have to sell it. De-personalizing it. There are no pictures of us left out now. Maude’s crystal is lovingly packed away in a glass moving box. Many knick-knacks have been wrapped and boxed and moved to the basement. The minute he gets an offer, assuming of course that he WILL get an offer, I want to slap a for sale sign on this house. Please pray for us not only that Jon’s offer is for enough money that we can afford to move, but also that we are able to sell the house quickly. Oh shoot, just pray that God blesses this whole crazy adventure we’re on.

I’ll let you know something as soon as I do! Love you all!!

Feelin’ A Bit Restless

Things here are still up in the air. And I am still disgruntled about it. The start of the new school year is fast approaching and we still don’t know if we will be here or not. Jon has had 2 interviews with First Citizens Bank out of Raleigh. We are supposed to hear early this week about a third (in person) interview. Raleigh wasn’t my “ideal”. Not my plan. But maybe the Lords plan. In the meantime, in a hissy fit Friday, I went online and ordered some “specialty” boxes from U-Haul. I am going crazy doing nothing but waiting. I feel the need to be proactive.

Been doing a whole lot of praying and pondering about Liam as well. At this point we don’t know if we will be here or in Raleigh for this school year. I am seriously considering enrolling him in the Ohio Virtual Academy for this school year( if we are still here that is). It is still considered “public school” in Ohio. Works the same way basically, but he does it all at home with me and a teacher online. I think a year of individual attention may be just what he needs to get over the hump. I am not considering home schooling him ongoing. I don’t think I could handle that. But I do think he’s worth a year of special attention, especially if it catches him up. I don’t know. I wish we could just have all this done and move to a school district where I could count on the system to help him. Here, in this school system, they just don’t have the resources. Or the time. 

Please pray for us…I’m going nuts in the midst of all this uncertainty.

I love you all.

The Ohio State Fair!!

Last weekend, we had our best trip ever to the Ohio State Fair. Those of you who know me, know that I have a slight fixation on the fair. It ranks in the year second only to Christmas. Or perhaps Christmas ranks second and the fair is first? Either way my entire year revolves around the Ohio State Fair and Christmas. We had a charitable donation to our trip this year which was GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! You know who you are!

So, Saturday, we got there the minute the gates opened and we browsed, and ate.We peeked and poked, and ate. And oh yes! We ate. Did I mention that we ate? We ROLLED out the gates approximately 7 hours later (and 20 pounds). The good news is that we had close to 18,000 steps.

We saw it all though!

Big Sheep.

Little sheep.

Even sheep with four horns!

We saw fancied up cows.

 

The butter cow! Which I somehow missed getting a picture of…but I did capture this as a remembrance of the dairy barn!

Big cows.

Little cows…Liam never did fess up to what was in that pocket. Something sweet would be my guess.

Big pigs.

And soooo-wee-t little pigs.

And of course, the chickens!

We did not see any horses. Which was very disappointing for Mags. But all in all it was a perfect day.

Sadly I did not get pictures of all the food. Actually, I’m thinking that is a good thing. I don’t want to see everything I ate in a span of 7 hours in one place. It may cause me to blush and groan and hide my face.

Some of the highlights included: swiss cheese on rye (from the dairy barn of course), fried swiss on a stick (when it comes to getting enough dairy in my diet I’m a real health nut, what can I say?), steak on a stick, donuts, kettle corn, candy…

Well, you get the idea, so we’ll just stop there. Not that I stopped there, oh no! I ate more than that…but, I still don’t want to see it all in one place. Not even in words!

More to come soon!

I love you all!