My mind has been reeling

and I haven't been sleeping very well. I know it is all due to stress and the fact that we are on the brink of a major change.

We still haven't secured a place to live, but we have found something that will probably work. We were hoping to find a 3 bedroom house and we sort of did but the real estate agent who is in charge of renting promised us pictures 2 weeks ago and still hasn't sent them. Russ has contacted her several times about it and nothing. She promised to send them to us yesterday, but had yet another excuse as to why she couldn't do it. We are more than put out with her and probably won't rent this place because of the way she is treating us. I understand that she is busy, that's not a problem. The fact that she has promised us these pictures numerous times and hasn't sent them is a huge problem. Plus, she has already sent us the forms to fill out as if we are going to send her a huge deposit without seeing the place. I don't want to rent a house for $700 a month without seeing the inside. We are already taking a huge gamble by not physically seeing these places. One of the members of the congregation we will be working with did send us the information for a duplex in town and we are in the process of seeing about it. I did look at it on google maps and it looks pretty nice. It's only two bedroom, though, and that actually makes me want to cry. Financially it is the better decision and I am resigning myself to that fact. We are waiting on a floorplan that they will be sending us tomorrow. He didn't know if he would be able to take pictures or not because the people that live there now are "peculiar" as he put it. Whatever. I'm a little tired of the process and am disappointed that there aren't more options for us.

Endings

I woke up this morning not even wanting to go to Tuesday Ladies. I've mentioned this group several times before. If you don't know, it's a group that gets together to sew and make pillows and then we give them to the pediatric wards in our area hospitals and to the emergency rooms/urgent care facilities for the children. I usually love going, but I just wasn't feeling up to it today. I've been a little depressed and haven't been wanting to do much even though I have lots that I need to get done. Anyway, I made myself go this morning and I'm so glad I did! Next week is the last week that I will be able to go because they are taking the month of July off. I'm so sad about that because I thought I would have about 5 more times to go, but I'm down to one! This move just keeps getting closer and closer. Oh my. I'm keep getting more and more nervous about it. I just hope we made a good decision!

Backpack Attack!

The church that we are members of doesn't do children's church so all the babies and little kids are in the auditorium for the worship time. I've been really working with Chloe Jo on sitting still and being quiet. I hate taking her to the nursery now because all she does is cry and I can't hardly stand it. I feel like I haven't been able to hear a sermon for 14 months! Okay, that's not entirely true. She does good a lot of the time and I usually get to hear at least half of the sermons. One of her favorite things to do is unzip the diaper bag and dig through it. This, unfortunately makes a mess in the pew because she has to take everything out of it. I try to really discourage this, but she loves bags and purses and going through things so much that I decided to get her her very own bag. I put a couple of books, her bible, some snacks and a few quiet toys in it for her to play with during the service. We took it Wednesday evening and it worked great for the devotional! The real test will be whether it works as well during the long services on Sundays!

Isn't she adorable with her big mini-backpack!?!?

Even though it's a mini-backpack it is still a little large for her and I need to figure out something to do with the straps before she trips on them. Of course, I will probably end up carrying the bag most of the time. She did trip (on her shoe, not the straps) Wednesday evening after bible class and fell flat on her face in one of the aisles in the auditorium. The poor girl couldn't even get up because her backpack was weighing her down. When we got out of the auditorium, Russ and I realized that her nose was bleeding a tiny bit. When I say "flat on her face," that's not an exageration!

My First Haircut by Chloe Jo

This morning Momma told me that she made me an appointment to get my mullet cut off. I didn't really know what that meant, but I'm always ready to go somewhere!

Before we left, Momma wanted to take a couple of "before" pictures. I was too busy to get any good ones. I wouldn't hold still for anything!

We went to a children's salon by our house. It was so cute inside. I liked looking at all the hair bows and flower clips. But then Momma made me sit on her lap and a lady came at me with these weird silver things. I didn't like that very much. The lady did give me some animals crackers and some of them were chocolate! I love chocolate! Even though I had the animal crackers, I didn't really like that lady and her silver things. Momma said she trimmed the back of my hair and the front up so that it would grow more even. Whatever. I just know that I didn't like that lady touching my head!

After we left that scary place, Momma took me to get lunch and we came home. Momma wanted to take "after" pictures, but I was too busy again. I wouldn't hold still to get a good shot!

Momma said that I look beautiful with my hair trimmed.

The lady that had the silver things gave us this to put in my scrapbook when we left.

I love my Momma, but I hope she doesn't make me go back to that lady again any time soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Fun times at the park!

Chloe Jo and I sure love to walk to the neighborhood park that is down the street. It gives me a little bit of much needed excercise and gives Chloe Jo a chance to play and be around other children.

While we are at the park we....
like to swing on the swingset,
play with this big ball,
slide down the slide,

try to walk up the slide until Momma comes to say no (because we only slide down the slide!),

and generally look adorable! We have been having such a great time this summer!

I call her Mullet-head

My sweet baby has a mullet.

And she wasn't born in the 80's.

She doesn't even know what the 80's are.

We are going to grace our local kids hair cut place with our presence.

Oh my! Oh my!

Randomness

-It has been really nice to be home and know that I'll be home for a while. Travelling really wears me out.

-Chloe Jo gave me lots and lots of kisses this morning without me asking for them. That is the best way to start off the morning!

-We are moving to The Carolina's in July. Does anyone know what the weather is like over there? I hate living in Tornado Alley (well, we are really not in it, but close enough!) and am hoping to get away from them. I think we will have to deal with the weather from hurricanes, but not the actual hurricanes.

-We were able to go swimming last night because there were only two other girls at the pool. I would have thought a Friday night would be packed, but no. One of the girls that was there was named Lisa, too and she is a couponer. We enjoyed getting to know one another.

-Russ and I were woken up this morning at 6:00 because our neighbor whose room is connected to ours didn't turn his alarm off before he left for the weekend. "North to Alaska" was blaring into our room and I think there was some Elvis song also. We went and slept in the living room for the rest of the morning.

-I have been reading Emma by Jane Austen from my book list and I only have around 30 pages left. I am going to miss her and Mr. Knightley when I finish it. I think I will get reacquainted with Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy next.

-I changed up my page a bit and I'm really happy with the results. I also added a "follow me" section. Please come out of the woodwork and follow me if you haven't. I'll try to stop by your blog if you have one and leave a comment.

-Chloe Jo is in the summer reading program at the Library. She is a regular little book worm! The reading program gave us a page that has what all we have to do on it. We mark off circles whenever we finish 1 hour or reading and then 1 activity. It has a list of the different activities we can do on the back. Anyway, she finished the first section and got a Fine Waiver Card and a coupon card for a ton of places here. We went around yesterday collecting freebies from the card. It was so fun and she ended up with a tons of little books, a free kids meal from Chick-fil-a and two cookies from our Library's cafe. I am in the adult summer reading program so maybe I'll win something in the drawings.

-I think that is it for now. Remember to follow me if you haven't! I love to know who is reading!

Back at home...again...for a while anyway...

I had the privilege of watching my adorable niece, Brianna, again this week. I have watched here three times while her Mommy goes back to work. Her Mommy, my sis, turned in her resignation so she will be a stay-at-home mom like me! YAY! Brianna is such a doll!

Seriously, how cute is she!?!?!? I don't know if she could be any sweeter or cuter! And to add to the fun of watching her, she is completely easy to take care of. She doesn't cry for hours like Chloe Jo did...er, does...and she is just so content. Well, she was like that until Chloe Jo gave her a runny nose/cough and then she was a little more high maintenance, but nothing like what I'm used to with my own!

Chloe Jo really loves Brianna now. She didn't know what to think of her at first, but she sure has warmed up to her. She loves to give her kisses and hugs and to pat her back. When Brianna would wake up from her nap she would cry to let us know to come get her. Chloe Jo would get up and look to make sure I was coming and run in Brianna's room and look at her through the slats in her crib. They are too cute together. Chloe Jo also tries to give her the pacifier. Although she really hits her in the head with it (gently) it is so cute to watch her try to take care of her.

Here are the adorable little girls and their little Cabbage Patch Dolls! The one Chloe Jo is holding is the newest member of our Cabbage Patch Kid family. Her name is Jeri Garnet which is a horrible name in my opinion (sorry to any of you who like it!). The funny thing is that I will look for months to find a CPK with a good name....or at least a tolerable name so this is so not the norm for me! She was one of the "Surprise" CPK's. She came wrapped up in a cabbage and I didn't know if she was a boy or a girl and didn't know the name until we got her out of the box. Chloe Jo picked her out so I'm okay with her name being Jeri. Anyway...that was not what this blog post was supposed to be about!

I drove down Saturday and stayed the night and Sunday and then watched Brianna on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Russ drove down Sunday morning to preach at the church my sis and bro-in-law attend and drove home Sunday evening. While he was there my sis decided she wanted to do an inpromptu photo session for us! Again, I'm usually a planner. If you remember back in November when we had family pictures done I stewed over what we would each wear and even did a post asking for opinions. Luckily, my sis and I had gone shopping Sunday and I just happened to buy the outfit I'm wearing and Chloe Jo borrowed the jacket from Brianna so I thought we coordinated pretty well. My sis did an excellent job and even photo shopped them for us. I'm excited to put these new family pictures up in our apartment!

I like this photo much better with the Old Time coloring than natural.

One of my faves.

This one kind of looks like a wedding picture to me. The Tree is apparently our officiant.

Another fave.

This is so Chloe Jo. She can't stand still for a second to have her picture taken and she has already found a big stick to carry around. Oh my.

So sweet.

Since my sis and bro-in-law read my blog, I have to tell a funny story even though the joke is totally on me! Chloe Jo is way to busy now days to have her picture taken much. She wants to play and run around all the time. We sat her down under neath a tree and I tried my hardest to get her to look at me and smile. This consisted of waving my arms around, making funny noises and finally jumping up and down several times. Unfortunately, the jumping up and down had a different affect and I pooted....loudly! There was no covering it up. It was me and it was loud and proud. Yikes! Chelley fell down on the ground because she was laughing so hard. I guess I lived up to the nickname Tootie!

I really love this one! The Old Time color is my favorite!

I'm glad to be home for a while. I think my sis and I are going to take a trip with our girls when she is finished working and before we move east. I'm really going to miss my family, but God is saying "how much do you love me" and I know we must give the correct answer!

Do you think she loves her stroller and babies?

I'm still thinking she needs her very own stroller. I may go see about getting her one tonight.