Who’d have thunk?

When we moved to Cincinnati I thought things would be a certain way.

For example, I figured that I would get even more eyebrows and “four-headed alien” looks from people as we marched our brood around – especially going from five to six! I mean good grief, I was at the Oregon zoo once with just four and people were looking at me as though we belonged in the exhibit.

It doesn’t bother me. I know that large families are becoming a rare species, but I LOVE the chaos and hubub (I love the word) that rolls along with large families. Sure, we have to work harder to make ends meet, (we eat lots and LOTS of soup and casseroles because they stretch best), our kids go without gameboys and ipods and cell phones and brand spanking new name brand clothes, and they’ll probably have to work and pay their own way through college (makes them appreciate it more, right?).

But they have built in friends. People that will say, when no one else will, I’ve got your back. They have their own cheer squad, no one cheers louder than the kids during soccer games and band concerts (yes, we cheer at band concerts, but only at appropriate times, I promise). There are tough times. Goodness knows at least twice a weak I’m ready to sell my kids on the street corner in exchange for my sanity, but sanity is highly over-rated. (Have you ever noticed how only the insane people have fun?).

I pray and fret over my kids and how I am doing as a mother. I plead with Heavenly Father about how to help them in their struggles. But admist all the struggles and pleading and crying there is nothing sweeter than a baby’s smile, a two/three-year-old’s sloppy kiss, the five-year-old’s giant hug and “help” with the dishes, the 8-year-old’s laughing face at her dad’s latest joke, the ten-year-old’s sweet smile as we snuggle down for a story, and the eleven-year-old’s grin as you flop on the bed to have a heart-to-heart. Every moment is WORTH it.

Anyway, I digress, I love my family and I’ve gotten used to coming up with clever jokes to answer questions like, “are they all yours? (in a disparaging tone), and “you’re done right?” (which by the way we are, but that’s not the point). And I was expecting that out here – in fact, I was expecting MORE of that out here. I was gearing up to feeling like the bizaar zoo exhibit with my crew of awesome kids and the dissaproving glances.

But you know what? Out here in grand ol’ Cincinnati I haven’t had a single alien-headed look, I haven’t had one disaproving glance, and I haven’t even had to use one of my clever jokes yet! Not once! In fact, most people think it’s awesome. They came from a big family too! They might not want to have that many kids, but they think it’s pretty awesome that I do. I love that.

And there’s something else I never expected. Just a cool little thing that is bizaar in the most WONDERFUL way. Just one little half hour every Sunday morning at 8:00. Who would have thought it, but a radio station out here plays Music and the Spoken Word  from 8-8:30 every Sunday morning. And not just any radio station but a rowdy rock radio station? (and not Christian Rock either, which would make a little more sense somehow) How awesome is that? We can put CDs in and listen to all the church music we want, but there is just something awesome about flipping on our radio way out here in Cincinnati and listening to a re-broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. It makes my heart happy. It makes my hubby grin. It lightens our home and we think, WOW, this is SO cool.

And then we rush to the radio at 8:30 to snap it off before the rock music starts blasting away the spirit. Hee hee.

So those are two things I NEVER expected out here. Pretty awesome, huh?

By the way, after I wrote this I looked up Music and the Spoken Word – they actually have it broadcast all over the place! If you want to find a station that plays it near you, go to the link and look up your state! 🙂

Hello, Blog. My name is GoofyJ. Remember me?

Wow. That is really all I can say. Just wow. Time has flown and dragged by at the same time. And now, here I sit in a home, my home, in Cinci, Ohio. Weird. Oh and I only have two months until baby comes? How did that happen? Double weird.

Where do I start?

Maybe I’ll just fling up some photo collages of our journey since right before Paul left – some of you might have seen the pics on Facebook, simply scroll faster if you want to get through them quicker. Though if you go too fast you might miss any witty reparte in between them… well, no promises. 😀

We’ll start with the loading the truck collage. We loaded the truck the day before Mother’s Day. That is my awesome bro with the ductaped pants – they kept splitting further… and further… and we just kept adding to the tape so he wouldn’t be indecent. 😀

After the truck was loaded, we realized there was a lot of stuff we wanted to take that didn’t fit. Then when the car behind it was pulling heavy we had to empty it – so that meant all of our musical instruments had to stay behind. It was the deciding factor on driving out a second truck.

Sunday, Paul tried to leave me a Mother’s Day present…

Saram wrapped kids. Unfortunately, they escaped.. and then they revolted and tried to keep dad from leaving.

He escaped too, and left the next day.

Then came the fun. And all the hard work. I worked on packing odds and ends, painting the inside of the house, mowing lawns with grass up to my chest in some places, chasing five kids, growing a baby, going on last ditch outing with friends, and keeping from going completely insane. The worst part of it all was how much I missed having my hubby with me. I love that man!

We had fun too in the midst of all the work. I would have like to do more, but we at least made it to the beach one last time, and to Mt. St. Helens.

My brother and his family came with us on the beach trip, the Mt. St. Helens trip I did solo.

I was proud of myself with two things on the St. Helens trip- 1. I didn’t go completely insane and 2. I managed to stay awake on the way home (though I had to chug a giant Dr. Pepper in order to do so – yuck. At least it tastes a little better than the other colas, and without the caffeine we wouldn’t have made it.)

In the midst of everything else we also threw an early b-day party for Em…

We had to have the cake on the floor because our table was already with hubby in Ohio.

And had Jacob’s preschool Graduation

Is he just stinkin’ cute or what? 😀 Then we were on the road. My bro from Oregon helped us drive – he drove the truck while hubby and I enjoyed the un-air conditioned van. Our first stop was Utah to visit my big sis. Heidi and Paul’s big bro. Mark. Of course we were exhausted and dead in the brain when we stopped by Mark’s place so I didn’t get the camera out. SHOOT. At least I remembered at Heidi’s – it was a close call though – it didn’t come out until right before we left. (My feet were looking slightly pudgy)

Then on to Colorado to visit my next big sis. Lisa. We went to the most amazing park while we were there. We got to see my parents too. I am shooting myself in the foot for not taking more pics. Grrrr. (My ankles were feeling left out and decided to join my feet in pudgyness)

Then we crashed at my big bro. Kimball’s place in Arkansas. By now, my ankles resembled tree trunks and I began to hang out in the truck with my bro. I’d like to say it was sibling bonding, but it really was the AC – just kidding. 😀 It was definitely both.

Finally in Ohio – I don’t have more pics yet – but they will be coming…

for now enjoy our back yard and a really cool park. The deer in the pics is in our neighbor’s yard. We saw it three days in a row this week. The first day it was two yards down (when I took the pics) the second it was in our next door neighbor’s yard, and the third it was in our yard. If we see it again, I think I will name it. 😀 We have millions of lightning bugs – my absolute favorite – there’s just something magical about them. And I have been able to see and catch a photo of the Red Cardinal – my favorite childhood bird, which I completely forgot lived out here. Also in our back yard and neighbor’s back yards we frequently sight bunnies hopping around. 😀

A wonderful end to a long and fun few months! I am hoping to have lots of adventures to tell. For now – I am off to bed. Because even if I don’t post this until later – it is 1:00 in the AM right now.

Aaaaaahhhh – or in other words – one week to go

Well, I have been silent for quite some time, but with good reason. This move is happening SO fast. I am currently sitting in a house of chaos taking a short break from kids, packing, housework, packing, and… did I mention packing?

We’ve made excellent progress, however I feel a bit overwhelmed knowing we are loading the moving truck on Saturday. YIKES!! I’m sure we will have everything ready – I just hope it all fits 😀

Paul is going to take everything with him to Ohio and I will stay with the kids for the next month and a half – we will leave after they get done with school in June. I can do this. (I hope, heh)

I’m excited for our new adventure to begin – though a little nervous too.

In the midst of all our crazy packing, I had a 5-day vacation to Utah where I spent two days driving (with friends, not kids so it was FUN!) one day with my big sister, and two days at an amazing writing conference (more to come on that later when I’m not supposed to be packing 😉 ). I also got to spend Saturday in a nearby town at a one day writing festival/conference where I was able to listen to and meet a favorite author of mine – Ursula K. LeGuin – it was awesome. She is absolutely hilarious and I loved it. The other workshops were fun too and I am looking forward to writing a bit more about that in the near future.

We also had an ultrasound last week in which Paul and I decided to find out – for the first time ever – what we were having.

We’re having a BOY!!!!

Oh and one other fabulous piece of news – we found a house! We really did it is going to be perfect for our fam – we settled on an offer last week and signed a contract. Now we are just waiting for the appraisal, inspection, and loan to all go through. We will close a week before we arrive in Ohio. WOOT!! I am so excited – all these years of appartment managing and staying in mom and dad’s house (and it has been a huge blessing – don’t get me wrong) it will be wonderful to have a place to call our own. 😀 Oh – it’s on .65 acre and there is a beautiful woods – the kids will have space to run and play – and they can even do a little sledding in the winter in our back yard :-D.

This really is our year – our wonderful year of change, firsts, and new beginnings. I feel so blessed. It will be hard to leave the place I have called home for most of my life and all the wonderful friends that feel like family, but there will be so many new wonderful people to meet and friends to make. The possibilities are endless. 😀

The Daunting Task has Begun

Packing.

Where to start? What to keep? Is it really worth moving all the way across the country?

These are all the questions I ask as every item goes into a box. The debate between what can be replaced for a resonable price and what is really worth taking is an on going battle.

Paul reports to work on May 17th. We’ve decided that we will pack up everything and he will take it with him (or we’ll ship it, or do whatever it is we decide is most economical) when he goes. He can toss it all in a storage unit out there. Then, we will use my parent’s furniture for the last month (and go to the park A LOT). We figure that made the most sense.

Meanwhile, in the middle of this life cruises on and I have to plan for two birthdays (well – really 3 because Emily’s birthday is a month after we move and I figure it’d be so mean to not celebrate with her friends here, so we will do hers before we go too), a writing conference or two, and all the little quirks that comes along with life – too bad there isn’t a pause button we could hit while we pack. 😉

One of the most awesome things? I just found out that one of my good friends is living about half an hour or so from where we’ll be, and some other good friends will be only four hours away. It makes it a slight bit more easy to leave, knowing there will be a few familiar faces when I get there – and it will be exciting to meet up with a friend I haven’t seen in many years.

As Time Goes Spiraling Past

Wow. So much has been happening. It seems time just keeps speeding up and moving along. Leaving me lurching along behind.

Jacob turned five and had a marvelous birthday, I had an amazing day out at the beach with Betsy (without kids! woot!). Spring break came and went with a mixture of sun, rain, and fun. Then, Easter sped along in its wake and we made our annual visit to the hospital.

Now, today, we are facing one more major change as time spirals past. Paul got a job. A great job, one that we are thrilled and excited about. So, we are on the move. Ohio, here we come! Crazy thing is, we’ll only be about 5 hours away from where I grew up and all those crazy stories of mine about my farm days took place.

We are excited. Way excited. We are nervous and scared too. And I will miss so many of our wonderful friends that we’ll leave behind, but excited for the new ones we’ll make. We’ll have to find a new cardiologist, and a new midwife or something for me. We’ll be moving the family out in June – right at the start of my last tri-mester. Most of May and June I will be flying solo with the kids, while Paul heads back to Ohio to get started. So many changes, both exciting and scary. But we know it is right. It feels good. It feels like the answers to questions we have been searching for for a few years now. Most of all we feel peace about it.

This really is going to be our year after all. New job, new home (hopefully a house of our own), new baby.

Now, I just need to start packing. YIKES!