Thankful Thursday

The career opportunity that is motivating our move was not one that my husband directly sought. There was an opportunity in London that we were interested in.  I thought it would be such a rich cultural and educational experience for us to live in the UK for a few years. I imagined travel and museums and cultural experiences and friendships that would immensely enrich our family. I envisioned us riding the tube around shopping and exploring the city. I even thought of how cute Kate would sound as she picked up an English accent! I knew it would be a tough transition but I thought it would be a good one too. Instead, the company offered my husband this other position.

I am really grateful that Dave was offered such a great opportunity.  I see people around me everywhere really struggling with the economy.  I am thankful.  I truly am.  I am also fearful.  

This job literally fell into our laps.  But I have these little tugs of fear.  Kate is completely adjusted here.  I can leave her with a babysitter now.  That took over a year to accomplish!  The boys have been in a school that is a PERFECT fit.  That is not always easy.  Although they are both very bright, one is not a traditional learner at all.  He marches to the beat of his own drum.  Things finally seem steady and calm in our house.  Now, we will turn it all upside down. In those moments of fear, I keep asking myself, "Why?" Will this move make Kate regress in her attachment? Will the boys do well in their new school?  Will we find a house?

This week a few people reminded me that we do not always know God's plans for us.  My friend Lauren posted this scripture:

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139)

And our good friends Karen and Doug (and Becky too) sent me an orchid (a favorite) with this verse on the card:

" For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

So I thank Karen and Lauren for reminding me that I do not need to have fear but I need to have faith and trust.

Last week, when we still were not sure if we would move or not I asked God for something very specific.  I prayed, "Dear Lord, if this move if the right one for our family, would you please help me find a school for them.  God, please lead me in the right direction for a good school." The very next morning a Catholic school called and said that although they are full, they will accept Will and Harry.  Now, that is answered prayer!  I am working (and it is a struggle) to trust in His plan.

Now I pray..."Dear Lord,  thank you for all of the blessings you have given us in this house. Please help find a buyer that can experience the same joy here that we have."

I am also thankful to Jaren, Lisa, Connor, Christian, Spencer and beautiful little Gracie! This beautiful family reads our blog (they do not blog) and they sent us some cheerful little gifts and a beautiful letter to lift our spirits.  I wish you all could have seen Will and Harry's faces when they saw these Kl*utz kits.  They were SO excited.  I do not spoil the kids at all and they rarely get little surprises like this.  I LOVE your letter and will save it.  We love the book for Kate too.  Your thoughtfulness reminded me that there is SO much good in people:) THANK YOU!  Here are the boys with their gifts.  Moments later they ran to the basement to build them!  Lisa, you are so kind.

A big thank you to Sheri also who sent me a beautiful card and photo holder.  I loved them both.  I have already packed the photo holder for our move but you will see it displayed proudly once we have a new home:)  Thank you Sheri.  I love what you wrote in the note.

A final thank you for all of the kind and supportive comments and e-mails.  Words escape me on that one but I am truly touched.

One more thing.....

Happy Birthday Ruby Mei! 

 We love you!

More of fabulous MN

I figure it is better late than never.  We truly had the most amazing time with Diana and family in MN. I plan to make our blog into books for the kids and I want to remember every great moment of our trip. 

One early morning, we went strawberry picking....

Strawberry kisses!



Dave made a pie with the fresh strawberries and some blueberries.  He also made an incredible strawberry "relish" for our pork chops. Yummy!

Ainsley and I became fast friends.  Here we share a fizzy lemonade!

Dave gave the little girls a geology lesson and of course....

The girls played in and on the rocks!

Di took me for a spin on the jet ski.  It was so much fun!

Jeff (and Dave) looked after the kids for a while.

We were invited to a lake friend's house for some fun and games but Miss Kate was not budging.  I kept telling her it was time to go to the party.  She flopped down like this on the trampoline and said, "no party."

At the party, we played old fashioned games like three legged races.  Dave and Will  came in first.

My partner and I came in last (and I have the purple toes to prove it).

We played "pass the lime" and everyone won:)

Ruby whacks the pinata!

The kids met new friends.

Everyone learned to kayak.

We had a blast on the "Super Mable!"

We laughed!

And life long friendships were made.

Thank you again Di and Jeff, Ruby, Ainsley, Piper and Caymus.

Somebody found my blush.....

And somebody got caught!  When I showed her what she looked like in the mirror she said, "beautiful...pink!"

Moving On...

We are moving.  My husband was offered a great career opportunity in a city far away and we have decided to move very quickly.  I am sad.  I really like it where we live.  Our children are in a great school and we live in a very family oriented neighborhood.  It is beautiful where we live and the area is steeped in American history.  I will miss the good friends I have made in the four years we have lived here.  I will miss having four rather mild seasons.  And because I am human and flawed, I will desperately miss our home.  I know that we are not supposed to be attached to material things.  I know that this is not how God wants me to be but I must confess that I love our home.  I am working on this.  I am praying about it and trying to let go.  The truth is, I feel as though I will be leaving a part of our family behind. 

It is in this house we waited for Kate.  It is this home that we brought her into.  As I look around and get it ready to sell, I am flooded with memories.  I have memories of designing each room and choosing each finish.  I have memories of our first Christmas party here (even though we had only lived here a few months at the time).  I remember when Dave and I were trying to figure out where the best place for our Christmas tree would be.  I remember the boys spending all of their free time playing at the creek behind our house for months after we moved in.  I remember wanting a front porch swing for years and finally getting it just a few months ago. We have used it daily since then.  I remember Easter dinners and lunches with girlfriends. I remember Kate's first footsteps and so much laughter here. I get so attached to the memories a house holds.

I know that houses are just things and that we ought not cling to material things but I am trying to work through this.  I am human and obviously this is a weakness of mine.  Maybe God is trying to teach me a lesson here.  My wise friend Staci tells me that I need to admit my feelings and work through them rather than ignore them.  I agree.

I want to thank everyone for their immensely kind comments and e-mails and postings on their blogs.  I was overwhelmed to say the least with the response from people when I closed our blog.  I will not go into details as to why I shut it down so quickly but I will say this...I received over 300 (I stopped counting) e-mails and messages from people who shared incredibly kind and supportive words.  Blogger only allows you to invite 100 people to a private  blog.  So, I simply did not blog for a while.  I could not limit the blog to 100 people as our Christmas card list is bigger than that.  Thank you to those of you who posted pearls as a little nod to us here at 3 peanuts.  It made me smile each time I saw that.  Thank you Lynn for starting it.

The break came at a really good time for me.  Our family has been extremely busy. We were traveling, trying to make this big decision, and I have been very ill.  I spent 6 hours in the ER yesterday.  I have a severe sinus infection and bronchitis and I was completely dehydrated and needed 3 liters of IV fluids and medication as I have just not been getting better.  I am sure it is worse due to stress.  

The next few months are going to be very busy and chaotic so my blogging will likely be sporadic.  I apologize to any of our friends who are finding out about our move from reading this.  I have not had a voice for a week now and have been too sick to call people.  We have tried to tell as many people as we could but this all happened very quickly.

I will probably post some of the things we have been doing lately because as I always say, this is our family scrapbook.  

Happy Birthday Mimi!

Happy Birthday Mimi! 

We love you and we cannot wait to see you next week!

What did we do in MN?

I have been trying to figure out how to post the photos from our trip because there are SO many good ones and we did SO much while we were there.  I will likely make a slide show/video with music but that might take a while and I am not sure I will post it. I accidentally flooded the house today which has caused a few minor issues.  I was trying to pre-soak a piece of clothing in Oxi-clean and left the water running while I changed a diaper. Next thing I knew there was water everywhere.  Not sure how much the final damage is gonna cost me but I will never walk away from a running faucet again.

So here is a guided tour of the highlights of some of our trip....

On our way to the Lakehouse, Diana said we had to pose with this giant fish (a Walleye?) It is a Minnesota thing, I think.

When we got to the cabin, we did some fishing...

Ainsley taught Kate how to fish.  We love Ainsley.

Kate got acquatined with "Mr. Jeff"

We love Mr. Jeff too.

And she became very well acquainted with Piper (who is about the nicest dog I have ever met...we love you too Caymus)

Then Captain Jeff (and Kate) took us for a spin around the lake...




Movie Star Ruby
Kim and all the kiddos!
I love this one of Di and Will.

The peanuts loved tubing in the rocket! They had never done anything like that before.

Ruby and Kate did a little playing on the trampoline before a delicious dinner.  Ruby is quite the gymnast.  I cannot get over her strength and coordination!

The day ended with a campfire and s'mores. 

I have some more photos from our trip that I will be posting. As I have said before, this is our digital family scrapbook.  I want to remember all of the fun details.