Happy Easter

On Sunday evening I kicked my family out, again. This time they packed up and went to Aunt Shannon and Uncle Aaron's house for the evening. I have heard all about it, from the kid friendly menu of chicken nuggets and fruit cocktail to the movie - The Lion King. There were no scary dreams about this movie (although I think it is much more frightening than Lady and the Tramp). Carson is very excited because his nighttime diapers have characters from The Lion King on them and he never really knew who they were, just a lion, etc... So, now he gets all excited because he can name them.

The rest of our week has been fairly uneventful due to the drastic change in weather. We spent Monday outside enjoying the warmth as we were sure it would change fast. Tuesday we ran errands all morning and then had a picnic in the backyard. However, by Tuesday afternoon, the rain and cold weather had moved in. The rain has ceased, but the air is still brisk. We had to break out the winter coats again yesterday - brrrrr!!!!

We had the opportunity to spend some time with my friend, Jennifer, Thursday morning before her and her husband leave for Kyiv (he is in the Foreign Service). They don't have children and I think she was in awe of what my life is like on a daily basis. It is simply routine to me, but I imagine being thrown into a room with an almost 2 and almost 3 year old is a slight bit frightening.

Funny stories on them both:
Delaney cracked us up this evening as we were getting ready to go out to dinner with my parents. I had told her she needed to hurry or we weren't going to be able to go and she said, "I'm just going to be moody when we get there." She is a woman already!!

Carson has had a silly phrase all week (that I don't even think my sister and brother-in-law have had a chance to hear) - he keeps saying, "Baby Seth, don't tell him." Because I told them they couldn't tell Seth (our nephew) what we bought him for his birthday. However, we watched Seth on Thursday evening and as soon as he walked in the door, what do you think Carson said - "Elmo on it." Sure enough, the present does have Elmo on it!! He doesn't quite get the secret concept yet - so you should all learn an important lesson here - don't tell him what you are getting me for my birthday :-)

Matt and I are no longer boring:
This might classify as the longest update I've sent, but I want you all to be thinking about us and praying for us during the next few weeks. There are a lot of decisions to be made, doors to be open and closed, patience to be tested, and faith to be put into practice - We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. I've painted a very bleak picture, but I think that is just Matt coming out in me as I am definitely the optimistic one of the family. We, very unexpectantly, found the house of our dreams. It is gorgeous (although my description is certainly not going to sound like it). It sits on 1.5 acres (so far, so good) and it was built in 1900. The following link will show you the outside of it (http://www.talktotucker.com/2718204). We decided that we just couldn't let this one pass us by, so we set up an appointment to see the inside. Wow, were we amazed, both good and bad. The house is in "short sale" state, meaning that the people are about to be foreclosed on, so the bank gets to decide if we've offered enough to cover all that is owed. It looked as if the people had not cared about the house in a while and had decided to take anything that really mattered to them and leave the rest behind. There are rooms with bags, boxes, and piles of their belongings (books, magazines, craft supplies, cat food, toys, etc....). But, the house (with a lot of TLC) is perfect for us. It has 3 bedrooms upstairs and one on the main level (we'd have a guest bedroom!!!). It has a living room, family room, dining room, office, and sunroom. We are in love with it and are trying very hard to figure out how we can make this all work. We are going to walk through it again on Monday with the contractor who added the room to our house so he can give us prices on redoing all three of the full baths, one half bath, and the kitchen. Then we will be putting our house up for sale on Monday evening (provided that all of the numbers check out okay during the day). Then, we begin the waiting game. We are trying to remain very level headed and realize that if this is truly the house for us, then it will still be sitting there when our house sells, but it is hard to wait!! We don't think we could afford both of them, so we are hesitant to make an offer on the dream house until this one sells - okay, I've never been this long winded about anything before in an update. I will let that speak for itself.

You've seen pictures of them "playing winter" - here they are "playing summer."


Have a wonderful week and, hopefully, we'll have more news next week!
Gretchen