I’m Back!

       Wow you guys. Just WOW.  I have been MIA from the blogging world for only 7 weeks but like, my whole world has changed in that time! Ok, not my whole world, but it feels like most of it.  

We moved, and while that has been our norm every couple of years it seems (and FAR AWAY moves at that!), this move felt like it was our biggest one! (Fun fact: We moved in ON our 10th year anniversary.  Instead of going to Mexico like we had planned, we bought each other a house instead;-).  It was the best present ever!) I guess it’s because our last house was the biggest we’ve lived in since we got married so we accumulated more?  But, we also got rid of SO MUCH STUFF when we moved.  So I don’t know.... But it took us a whole month to get settled, rather than the 1-2 weeks max it usually takes.  I have hundreds of  pictures I’ve taken of the kids in our new house, the projects we did (painting Lucy’s room peach and Piper’s room lavender, staining, cutting and installing shelves in our living room, hanging lights outside, putting up a basketball goal, etc), pictures of the new friends we have met, etc. I have pictures of just “day-to-day life” in this house and neighborhood that have consumed me and kept me away from my computer.  I know I can’t post them all, but I will put up some of my favorites.

Lucy has a “girl-gang” here in our neighborhood like she’s never experienced before. Piper can ride ALL around the streets because they’re flat and not sloped and hilly, Sully can scooter his heart out up and down our street to a patch of sand at the end of the street at our pond that he plays at constantly.  This neighborhood is a dream. We thought our last neighborhood was great (and it is....) but it doesn’t compare to Yorktown.  This ‘hood is the epitome of “The American Dream.”  When we moved to Jenks 4 years ago, we’d take walks through this neighborhood and say “someday I want to move into this neighborhood.”  Our old neighborhood backs up to it so it is just a jump-skip-and-a-hop-away. We’d see kids playing on the football or soccer field, the basketball courts, running through the splash-pad, playing on the playground equipment, etc.  We just wanted to be there too.  It was (and still is) being developed so the possibility wasn’t that far-fetched.  We just knew that at the time we could never have afforded it.  And now look.  Shawn has worked so hard to get to where he is now, and God has blessed us immensely!  When he got a job offer on his current/new job back in March, the first thing we did was drop to our knees to thank God for the opportunity.  When we sold our house within 72 hours, the first thing we did was say a prayer of thanks.  When we walked through our empty home one last time before we left it forever, we cried happy/sad tears and held hands and thanked God for blessing us to live in a wonderful place, but pave the way for an even better life ahead.  We thanked Him for the 4 years of beautiful memories we had because of Him and the new ones we will make here, also because of Him.  We are not ignorant; we know God has had a hand in all of this.  We have been TRULY blessed.

This house, this neighborhood, this community- all of it- is a dream come true.  2020 has been hard- like, REALLY hard.  But, at least for us, we will also remember some very special things about it as well......  And it’s only half-way done!

Another huge event I need to touch on is the fact that Lucy and Piper flew to Boise by themselves!  Ninny and Baba helped us get them on a non-stop/direct flight so that they could spend a week with them before their house sells.  They LOVE Ninny’s house and the river and wanted one last “hoorah” in it before it’s gone forever.  I was sent so many pictures and I’d love to share them all but I can’t.  And since I wasn’t there, I don’t have details of every day. But I DO know they had SO much fun.  It was the best week of their lives apparently, and Lucy wants to move there or have family move HERE so badly.  I wish we could make it happen, but it’s not in our wheelhouse for now.  I don’t think we will stay in Oklahoma forever.  I know we will be here for years to come, but once our kids are done with school we will have to see if we can get near family.  I know it’s not as much fun when everyone is older, but who knows what life will throw at us! I certainly would have never dreamed I’d live in New Hampshire OR Oklahoma. So you just never know....

Now, I am actually blogging on my iPad right now because my computer crashed weeks ago.  I can’t access anything on it, and Apple is closed right now so I have to wait until they open back up To get it fixed.  I will add pictures as best I can, but bear with me while I do this differently than I have in the past! I KNOW these will be out of order and I apologize.  But hopefully you can decipher for yourselves which ones are in Idaho and which ones are here :)

Now get ready for more pictures than I’ve probably ever posted before! Yikes!

Shawn had this setting up on the counter for me at the new house when we moved in as a surprise. So sweet!

Before the flight!

Me and Shawn’s room.  Simple and pretty :)

 

The “Before and After” of my house!  It was a new house but the Brown colors made it look so old! Now being white, it looks so fresh and BEAUTIFUL!

Father’s Day.  The kids were so cute. They made Shawn breakfast all by themselves so that I could sleep in.  They poured him Fruity Pebbles, put milk in a water bottle for him as a drink, and cut up some fruit.  Plus a “Things I love about Daddy” card.  It made him happier than I could have with a regular breakfast!

 

 

Saying goodbye to our old house.

 

 

While they were in Boise, I painted their rooms and put them all “together.”  It took me the whole week, which is why I never got around to blogging that week either! (They left 3 weeks after we moved in). When they left, their mattresses were still on the ground and they had NO CLUE I had bought the paint colors that they had chosen months earlier. They were SO excited! It was so much fun watching their reactions.