All things considered

My life is a crazy roller coaster ride of emotion right now. I'm up one minute and way, way down the next. It's hard to sort through everything that I am trying to keep track of. I've always prided myself on being organized...but this whole moving across the country thing is kicking my butt.

I've needed to catch up for a while now, so please forgive this really random post. The more I procrastinate the more daunting it was becoming. So, I want to start fresh. Here we go...

 This was back to our pumpkin carving night. We had so much fun with the family, and Claire free handed this pumpkin snake all by herself. She even carved it out. She is really becoming quite the artist.

My princess Grace turned 6 this October. I can't believe how much she has grown and really changed into a big kid with quite the spunky personality. We moved to Oregon when I was big preggo with her, so she kinda marks our life here. We tend to measure the things that have happened here by her age. I am so grateful for her and how she is always such a good helper. With only half-day kindergarten, she gets to spend lots of time with me and her brother. Life just wouldn't be the same without her quirky facial expressions and little miss sassy attitude. Love her to pieces!

 For her birthday we decided to keep things pretty simple. She invited some kinder friends to come play and have lunch after school with her at the local pizza and play joint. Thankfully, one of my friends came along too, which made it nice for me while the kids played. Grace had a blast and loved all her new monster high dolls! Other than that, we had a family party night at Grandma's house complete with a soup bar and lots of tasty homemade rolls. We had to spend quite a few nights that week out of the house while it was being shown to potential buyers. It also made for too many fast food dinners.

 Pictures from our fun quadruple date night! We met up for Chinese food, and boy did we pack it away! So much food, and a fun lazy susan in the middle to make sure all the food was shared around the table. After we ate, for some reason we thought it would be fun to go run around like crazy people at a laser tag place. I did have a lot of fun, but we were all so full from dinner. We played two games and pretty much got crushed in the second by some hardcore laser taggers. After tag, and after taking group selfies, we headed to the Moss house for dessert and games. We had such a fun time!

I can't even describe how much I love these friends of ours. I can't even type this without getting emotional. I'm so so sad to be the one leaving them. I never in a million years thought that I'd be the one to leave this area. They have been my rock and support through so much over the last few years. These ladies know how to have a good time, they make me laugh until I can hardly breathe, and can listen to anything I throw at them. I definitely need some more ladies night before I'm gone for good. I don't know how I am going to survive without having my friends just down the street.

 On a lighter note, Grace finally lost her first tooth just in time for her dental appointment. Two more are already loose. She is excited for the prospect of some more tooth fairy income.

My badge from work. When I left my job in Utah, they let me take my badge with me. Not so here in Oregon. I guess it makes sense for security and whatnot, but I had to turn it in at the end of my last shift a couple of weeks ago. Let's just say, it was a very hard and significant thing for me to do. I've worked as an L&D RN for almost 10 years now. It has become part of who I am. Even though I am a little excited to spend more time at home, I feel like I am losing part of my identity. Just another part of this whole move thing for me to mourn. At least they took pity on me and let me do a c-section on my last day. It's kinda my favorite kind of birth to be the nurse for. Maybe someday I will work again, and perhaps change to the OR? Who knows. 

We have a family pass to OMSI that we need to get our money's worth from, so on one of our last days with daddy, we headed out there to play. We had a really fun time since it was a weekday, and the place was fairly empty. The girls got lots of time to explore with dad while I chased Neil around. 

We went to eat at a small sandwich shop in Portland called Lardo. It was only alright. That evening the kids had a sleepover with Aunt Katie while Chris and I did some Christmas shopping and hit up Cheesecake Factory for dinner. After that we saw Ender's Game at the theater. Then headed home to get some sleep without having to wake up with any kids.

So....now we are just waiting. We have an accepted offer on the house, already had an inspection. Just waiting for an appraisal now. Then it's closing. Somehow I need to find a way to get Thanksgiving and Christmas sorted, keep the house functioning like normal, organize what we need to pack/not pack, figure out all the crazy moving stuff like starting/stopping utilities, etc. and find somewhere to live in VA. Oh, and do most of that on my own. 

Okay, I think this was therapeutic for me. Felt good to just write it out. Today was hard. We finally found a place we wanted to rent and then found out it was taken already, just this morning. Like if we had put in the paperwork just last night we could have had it. So, back to square one. Again. Tomorrow will be a better day.