Today is my birthday. I'm 31. I really don't feel like 31. I still feel like I'm in my early 20's. I keep telling myself that I'm young at heart. Wes tells me I still look like I'm 16 so that helps too! My sister Sara told me about a year ago that I looked like a little kid driving my minivan. Isn't she mean? I think so too.
This week though, I did feel old. I will start from the beginning. (If you're a guy, you might want to skip this post but since I'm writing it, you have my permission to read it!) About a month ago (right before we were ready to move) I found a lump in my left breast. I was one of those people that said I'm too busy to get it checked out, so I ended up waiting a month hoping that it would disappear. Well, it didn't so I ended up having to get a mammagram. For all of my friends who are in their 20's or 30's, I'm sure you've heard the horror stories like I have that having a mammagram is like laying your boob in the driveway and having your husband run over it with the car. Well, I will put your minds at ease. They are not that bad! It's not pleasant, but it's not terrible either. But I felt so old getting one done!
Monday, I tried to schedule my mammagram at my old hospital in Castleton and they said the first available was Friday, August 3rd!! Hello? I do not want to get a mammagram as a way to ring in getting one year older!! Luckily, I was able to get into a wonderful hospital near our new house THE NEXT DAY!! So, Tuesday I went and got a mammagram and an ultrasound. After they did all that, they decided they wanted to get a tissue sample of the lump so right then I was able to get a needle biopsy. I felt so blessed to be able to get it done all at one time. They told me I would get my results back either Thursday or Friday. Well, I got my results Wednesday and found out the lump is benign and I'm not due for another mammagram until I'm 40! Praise God! It was the best birthday gift I could have ever gotten! If you are waiting on getting checked out, just do it! You won't regret it.
I don't know if this is just routine for other people but it was a big deal for me! You don't ever think of breast cancer when you are busy wiping poopy butts and cleaning up after the messiest eaters you've ever seen. I had to start thinking about what my families life would be like if I wasn't in it. It was in those moments when I knew that they would miss me terribly...and I do mean terribly.... but they would be okay. It's because we all have some tremendous hopes that we can cling to. First, we have the hope that because of our faith in God and his son Jesus Christ, we know that no matter what, we will see each other again. Second, we believe that Heaven is going to be a way better place to live than this earth. Isn't that encouraging? Death can be a scary thing, but if you believe in Christ, it doesn't have to be. You can be hopeful that your life will continue on in a PERFECT place. Wow, that just blows my mind. It was because of things like this and wonderfully supportive family that I didn't have a whole lot of fear through this whole thing. I am just so thankful!!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Has it really been a month???
Hey guys! I can't believe it has been a month since my last post! All I can say is whew, that was a BUSY month! I'm tempted to lie and say that I am completely unpacked but I will say that I am 75% done, which is better than I expected!
Here's how the month has gone....we closed on the house and were able to move in on the 5th of July. We didn't really get a chance to catch our breath or even set up our beds before we left for a week long vacation to Gatlinburg with Wes' family. Not exactly the magical moving in moment that I pictured, but in the end it worked out great. Wes' parents rented a huge cabin for all of us to stay in and it was so relaxing. It was up in the Smokies and had a breath-taking view. It rained quite a bit but that was nice because we were able to slow down and truly relax. It didn't hurt that it also had a nice hot tub! We got home on Friday and then were able to have a good weekend to start getting things unpacked. I really made some headway when Mike and Mandy came over to help us! The boys moved all the big stuff and the girls unpacked and organized. Over the next two weeks, I have been slowly unpacking the rest of our stuff.
On the weekend of the 21st, my parents moved into the farm! Let me tell you it wasn't the most fun moving someone else so soon after moving ourselves but hey, that's what family does! And it really wasn't too bad! We also used their moving truck to move the rest of our stuff that we had stored on the farm back over to our new house so that was a nice perk! I'm pretty sure it would have taken until Preston was 18 before I picked it all back up. I am LOVING being 20 minutes away from my parents. We haven't lived this close since I lived with them in high school. We all thought this would never happen! I used to beg them to move but it was never the right time. Now, it all seems so surreal! I have been over to the farm visiting for the past 5 days! Oops! My mom and I joke that we will get sick of each other pretty soon...so we'll see.
Our new house has had it's shares of ups and downs! Ups are that we have painted Preston and Owen's bedrooms and also the kitchen and dining room. We still have a bunch of rooms to go, but for now, I just walk into those rooms when I feel like we are behind and then I feel happy again. The downs have been that I ended up flooding the upstairs bathroom because I did a bonehead move and removed what I thought was just part of the drain expcept it ended up being the whole drain! OOPS! So, when I drained the bathtub, I went downstairs and heard what sounded like a waterfall coming through to the downstairs bathroom. Haha. I ended up messing up the ceiling down there and right now if you go in there, you will see the ceiling covering they had all cracked and looking like it's about to fall in on you at any minute. Owen refuses to go in there because he's afraid it's going to fall in on him. It makes me laugh. I can't help it. I do feel bad about creating more work for my wonderful husband but since it happenned about 2 weeks ago, I can laugh about it.
I am planning on getting back on the ball with my blogging. I want to show you all our pictures from our trip and also some pictures of the new house. My beautiful little boy Preston will be going to his first day of Kindergarten tommorow so I will have a little bit more time on my hands! And you don't even have to ask if I will cry on the first day. The answer is yes. I already cried like a baby tonight. Wes just kept shaking his head and saying you do realize he comes home from school each day, right? I know! But then I started thinking about holding him in my arms in the hospital and how I thought this day would never come and things just started going downhill from there. I'm a mess. But I'm sure I'll recover by Friday because that's MY BIRTHDAY!!! WHOO-HOO!! I love birthdays!! I'm so excited to be turning 21..........;)
Did any of you ever cry on your kids first day of school??? Comment and let me know so I don't feel like such a parenting cliche.
Here's how the month has gone....we closed on the house and were able to move in on the 5th of July. We didn't really get a chance to catch our breath or even set up our beds before we left for a week long vacation to Gatlinburg with Wes' family. Not exactly the magical moving in moment that I pictured, but in the end it worked out great. Wes' parents rented a huge cabin for all of us to stay in and it was so relaxing. It was up in the Smokies and had a breath-taking view. It rained quite a bit but that was nice because we were able to slow down and truly relax. It didn't hurt that it also had a nice hot tub! We got home on Friday and then were able to have a good weekend to start getting things unpacked. I really made some headway when Mike and Mandy came over to help us! The boys moved all the big stuff and the girls unpacked and organized. Over the next two weeks, I have been slowly unpacking the rest of our stuff.
On the weekend of the 21st, my parents moved into the farm! Let me tell you it wasn't the most fun moving someone else so soon after moving ourselves but hey, that's what family does! And it really wasn't too bad! We also used their moving truck to move the rest of our stuff that we had stored on the farm back over to our new house so that was a nice perk! I'm pretty sure it would have taken until Preston was 18 before I picked it all back up. I am LOVING being 20 minutes away from my parents. We haven't lived this close since I lived with them in high school. We all thought this would never happen! I used to beg them to move but it was never the right time. Now, it all seems so surreal! I have been over to the farm visiting for the past 5 days! Oops! My mom and I joke that we will get sick of each other pretty soon...so we'll see.
Our new house has had it's shares of ups and downs! Ups are that we have painted Preston and Owen's bedrooms and also the kitchen and dining room. We still have a bunch of rooms to go, but for now, I just walk into those rooms when I feel like we are behind and then I feel happy again. The downs have been that I ended up flooding the upstairs bathroom because I did a bonehead move and removed what I thought was just part of the drain expcept it ended up being the whole drain! OOPS! So, when I drained the bathtub, I went downstairs and heard what sounded like a waterfall coming through to the downstairs bathroom. Haha. I ended up messing up the ceiling down there and right now if you go in there, you will see the ceiling covering they had all cracked and looking like it's about to fall in on you at any minute. Owen refuses to go in there because he's afraid it's going to fall in on him. It makes me laugh. I can't help it. I do feel bad about creating more work for my wonderful husband but since it happenned about 2 weeks ago, I can laugh about it.
I am planning on getting back on the ball with my blogging. I want to show you all our pictures from our trip and also some pictures of the new house. My beautiful little boy Preston will be going to his first day of Kindergarten tommorow so I will have a little bit more time on my hands! And you don't even have to ask if I will cry on the first day. The answer is yes. I already cried like a baby tonight. Wes just kept shaking his head and saying you do realize he comes home from school each day, right? I know! But then I started thinking about holding him in my arms in the hospital and how I thought this day would never come and things just started going downhill from there. I'm a mess. But I'm sure I'll recover by Friday because that's MY BIRTHDAY!!! WHOO-HOO!! I love birthdays!! I'm so excited to be turning 21..........;)
Did any of you ever cry on your kids first day of school??? Comment and let me know so I don't feel like such a parenting cliche.
Monday, July 2, 2012
The Skinny on Moving
First of all, I wanted to give you guys the good news!! We close on our new house on Thursday!! We are so excited. After talking to some experts, the problem under the house will cost us some money for sure (about 2 grand) but they all said that it will be taken care of after that. We had been looking feverishly online for any other home that would measure up to this home and we just couldn't find it! So we decided to let go of whatever was holding us back and go for it. You can imagine how good it feels to know that we have a place to call home now! And I'm so excited to finally be able to register Preston for Kindergarten. He starts school August 2nd (I think) so I was definitely getting antsy about not being able to sign him up. We will close on Thursday and then on Saturday we leave for a Cook family vacation with Wes' side to Gatlinburg, TN.
First of all....try to move only once! I don't know how many people get this right, but just moving all of our stuff straight to the house in Brownsburg would have been so nice! We did luck out that they let us use the garage at the new house to store as much as we could. So on Friday Wes and his brother and I packed up a giant 26 ft. truck and filled up the garage to the brim at the new house. We were literally throwing mattresses on top of all the stuff just to get it to fit.
Second, pack right. A lot of wonderful people gave us boxes and so I used them all! But when it came to moving all of those smaller boxes (like diaper boxes and Amazon boxes) I realized that it would have been a lot easier to use bigger boxes and fit more stuff. I know....duh. My mom also told us that Lowes has big moving boxes for $1.36! We ended up buying about 15 of those on the last few days to fit stuff that we hadn't packed yet. I wish we would have bought a whole bunch more of those in the beginning as I think it would have been easier to use moving but also unpacking. Also, don't be cheap like me and use duct tape to close your boxes! Go to Walmart and get a tape dispenser! It was so much easier once I did that! So I guess the lesson is, don't be cheap like me!
Third, have someone watch your kids! My wonderful friend Mary watched our kids all day on Friday from 8-6:30pm. You can't imagine what a huge relief this was to us to not have to worry about the kids. We had to keep the kids on Saturday and that was NO fun!
Fourth, if you are a mom, admit to yourself that this moving thing is a phase. I had to remind myself that although not ideal, the kids would not die from playing video games for hours (and I'm talking hours!) They actually thought it was pretty fun and this allowed me to be able to pack our entire house with them being there. Also, as things around the kids are changing, I've noticed them being a lot more anxious. This has resulted in them following me around the house, crying when I go outside and don't take them and also sleeping on the floor in our room most nights. Like I said, not ideal but I try to put myself in their shoes. They don't know what moving is so they are just plain scared. Also, allow yourself to be cranky. These past 2 months I have been a BEAR to the kids. I have tried to keep the stress from getting to me, but it hasn't worked. I've been snippy and snappy and crotchity and every other mean sounding word. I just keep telling my self that Snow White will be back when we move into our other house!!!
Fifth, get more help! We thought it would be a good idea to have Wes take the day off work on Friday and do our move then since we had to be out by Sunday but that also meant that we only had one other helper, his brother Chad who is a teacher and has the summer off. This ended up working out okay and we ended up moving all the big stuff with his help and the help of my brother Mike the night before but again, not ideal. So move on the weekend when more people can help if you can!
Lastly, if the forecast says it's going to be 104 that day like it did for us, just plan on being a big, sweaty, smelly, dirty mess by the end of the day. It was brutal!! But I will leave you with an encouraging story. We had about 1/4 of the truck left to unpack, just the two of us because Chad's daughter was at the emergency room so he had to leave suddenly. The sun was beating down on us, we were drinking water from the hose and were feeling pretty miserable. Every bone and muscle in my body ached and I told Wes I don't think I can do this. We took a break on the front stoop of the house and as we sat there, a storm rolled in bringing a refreshing wind and wonderful cloud cover. The temperature dropped at least 10 degrees. We both popped up and got right to work and were done unloading within 20 minutes. I was once again reminded that God is with us no matter what and when we can't do things ourselves, He carries us. I am so thankful!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Skipping Town
Hey guys! Wow, we have been busy busy busy! Doing what? You guessed it! PACKING! This is the last week we will spend at our Noblesville house. People ask me if I will be sad to leave our house. I thought I was a sentimental person, but I guess I'm really not. I will have a lot of memories of the house that I will take with me, but the house itself I'm not really too sad about leaving. Sorry house! No offense. I think part of the reason why I'm glad to leave this house is that it's not a very child friendly house. The walls are very light and the carpet is almost white! I mean....really.....3 boys under the age of 6 in a house with white carpet. It's enough to stress anyone out! I hated the color of my parents carpet growing up (we're talking poopy brown shag) but now I get it! I now understand why someone would put that in their house! Dirt just blends in, little turds that land on it while potty-training just soak right in....ah, it's the epitomy of comfort.
Well, for a little house update, we have been on a rollercoaster ride to say the least. We did find out that we got the house! Woohoo!! We were so excited! We were even told that we might be able to close by the end of the month! That would mean no 2nd move. One and done! I was loving this! Well, then we had the inspection and found out that there are some problems under the house that need to be addressed before we are able to move in. It seems the land around the house is heading down towards the house instead of away from the house. This is causing there to be water underneath the house in the crawlspace whenever it rains. We are still not sure how big of a problem this is or how much it's going to cost so we are getting a handful of estimates and lots of advice on the problem. But that means now the deal is technically on hold.
So, off to the farm we go! We are renting a huge truck on Friday and heading out of town. We have loved Noblesville so much! The people are so nice (the nicest in Hamilton Co. in my opinion) and we will miss all of them. We will especially miss our church which really got Wes and I outside of ourselves and more concerned about the care and salvation of the people in our lives. We will also be leaving behind a Bible study that Wes and I joined when were still pregnant with Preston!! This Bible study has given us an incredible view of God's sovereign plan for our lives. We will be forever changed.
As this week will be pretty busy, you probably won't hear from us until after the 4th of July. Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday!
Well, for a little house update, we have been on a rollercoaster ride to say the least. We did find out that we got the house! Woohoo!! We were so excited! We were even told that we might be able to close by the end of the month! That would mean no 2nd move. One and done! I was loving this! Well, then we had the inspection and found out that there are some problems under the house that need to be addressed before we are able to move in. It seems the land around the house is heading down towards the house instead of away from the house. This is causing there to be water underneath the house in the crawlspace whenever it rains. We are still not sure how big of a problem this is or how much it's going to cost so we are getting a handful of estimates and lots of advice on the problem. But that means now the deal is technically on hold.
So, off to the farm we go! We are renting a huge truck on Friday and heading out of town. We have loved Noblesville so much! The people are so nice (the nicest in Hamilton Co. in my opinion) and we will miss all of them. We will especially miss our church which really got Wes and I outside of ourselves and more concerned about the care and salvation of the people in our lives. We will also be leaving behind a Bible study that Wes and I joined when were still pregnant with Preston!! This Bible study has given us an incredible view of God's sovereign plan for our lives. We will be forever changed.
As this week will be pretty busy, you probably won't hear from us until after the 4th of July. Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
As of today.
I can't make any promises that this blog will end up being right but as of today it looks like we will be moving to the farm for a little while. That's right, no word from the bank on the house in Brownsburg! I think it's been over 2 weeks since we got the elusive message that things are heading in the right direction and now nothing. Can you say frustrating? Annoying? We did get to see the house in Brownsburg a few weeks back and I am happy to say we still really like it! Sometimes when you see things again, you see things you aren't really thrilled about but we are still good to go. We haven't gotten to the point yet where we have had an inspection yet so I should put a big asterisk on this post and say "we will be moving to this house IF the inspection report comes back clear. Wes loves to scare me by playing the IF game. He will say "we will get the house IF it's not infested with termites, IF the foundation isn't crumbling, IF the house isn't haunted by vampires...(okay I made the last one up). Fun game huh?
I wish I could tell you that I have been cool, calm and not panicked about this time frame but I would be lying. Wes can attest to the fact that I had a mini meltdown when it came to the whole moving twice thing. He is very wise and told me that we are definitely not the first family to ever have to move twice and that we will just not worry about the cost so that we can save ourselves the stress! Ahhh...that really relieved a lot of stress! At a marriage conference we went to this weekend, we learned that a lot of times we think of the differences that our spouses have from us as negative things but actually a lot of times, where they are strong, we are weak and where we are weak, they are strong. That's exactly how I felt during my meltdown. Wes is usually the more anxious one (he would say this too) while I am the more laid back one. I just love how when the roles are reversed, we are still able to help build each other up!
All this being in limbo land has taken a toll on me. I can't stop eating! I am definitely stress-eating! I am about as high in the weight as I have ever been. Booooo! Doesn't my body know I just need a few more cookies but I don't really want the fat to stick around my gut? The only person who loves to hear that I'm gaining weight is little sister Lindsay. We have this friendly rivalry about who is skinnier. She has always been skinnier. I love to call her skinny with a J-Lo butt. Last May when is saw her, I was enjoying the benefits of breast-feeding Cameron and I was the skinniest I have been in years! We had a good time laughing as we compared our jiggly legs, bellys and arms in the mirror. I would say that I won that time but that I will definitely not win anymore. :( Wes came home yesterday and asked me where the snickerdoodles were that I had made the day before. I blamed it on the kids, but I think I ate 2/3's of them! Viva la cookie!
I wish I could tell you that I have been cool, calm and not panicked about this time frame but I would be lying. Wes can attest to the fact that I had a mini meltdown when it came to the whole moving twice thing. He is very wise and told me that we are definitely not the first family to ever have to move twice and that we will just not worry about the cost so that we can save ourselves the stress! Ahhh...that really relieved a lot of stress! At a marriage conference we went to this weekend, we learned that a lot of times we think of the differences that our spouses have from us as negative things but actually a lot of times, where they are strong, we are weak and where we are weak, they are strong. That's exactly how I felt during my meltdown. Wes is usually the more anxious one (he would say this too) while I am the more laid back one. I just love how when the roles are reversed, we are still able to help build each other up!
All this being in limbo land has taken a toll on me. I can't stop eating! I am definitely stress-eating! I am about as high in the weight as I have ever been. Booooo! Doesn't my body know I just need a few more cookies but I don't really want the fat to stick around my gut? The only person who loves to hear that I'm gaining weight is little sister Lindsay. We have this friendly rivalry about who is skinnier. She has always been skinnier. I love to call her skinny with a J-Lo butt. Last May when is saw her, I was enjoying the benefits of breast-feeding Cameron and I was the skinniest I have been in years! We had a good time laughing as we compared our jiggly legs, bellys and arms in the mirror. I would say that I won that time but that I will definitely not win anymore. :( Wes came home yesterday and asked me where the snickerdoodles were that I had made the day before. I blamed it on the kids, but I think I ate 2/3's of them! Viva la cookie!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Trash to Treasure
I am not a very patient person, I'm sure I've mentioned that about a zillion times! So as we wait for word on the house in Brownsburg, I have been trying to come up with ways that I can fill up my time so I don't go insane. I know some of you are saying, how do you have time to worry with three boys? I do! I have a theory. The sooner my kids learn to play by themselves, the easier my life will be. So I have tried extremely hard to get them to play with each other instead of expecting me to be their forever playmate. And I think it finally TOOK! (I think that's bad grammar, but I'm not sure!) They really have started having a good time with each other. I can't talk about this too long or I might jinx it but as of right now, the three Cook boys are doing well playing together.
Anyways, all that to say that I have more time to think, and more time to think leads to more time to worry. So I decided I needed an outlet to work out my worries. So, I started looking for trash to make into my newest treasure! I have always loved a good roadside find and this was no exception! I found this piece of trash in Mike and Mandy's neighbors roadside pile and I threw it in the back of the van. (Another reason why I like having a van!) I brought it home and Wes said "What are you going to do with THAT? It's so old...." He has no faith in me, it seems.
Here's what it looked like before.
I gotta give a shout out to my wonderful hubby on this one: he usually hems and haws about projects (probably bc he is trying to see if I'm really serious) but then when he sees that I'm going to do it anyway, he usually jumps in with both feet. If you don't know, he has a 4-h badge in sewing so he is very helpful! He is also our resident upholsterer. So, the new fabric on the chair is all because of him! Ain't he sweet?
Now whenever I look at this chair, I feel happy. It reminds me of new beginnings! I gotta go find myself some new trash now. Send all your castoffs my way!
Update: After living with the chair for about a week, I decided it was a little bit too "painty-perfect for me so I decided that maybe I would make it look more distressed by adding some glaze on there. This was a first for me so I was really excited! You can't see a huge difference, but in person you can tell a big difference. Definitely adds more character to it.
While I was doing it, Preston said "Mom, why are you making that chair dirty?" I guess it would look strange to see someone wiping black "paint" all over a chair.
Do I have any other furniture makeover junkies out there??
Anyways, all that to say that I have more time to think, and more time to think leads to more time to worry. So I decided I needed an outlet to work out my worries. So, I started looking for trash to make into my newest treasure! I have always loved a good roadside find and this was no exception! I found this piece of trash in Mike and Mandy's neighbors roadside pile and I threw it in the back of the van. (Another reason why I like having a van!) I brought it home and Wes said "What are you going to do with THAT? It's so old...." He has no faith in me, it seems.
Here's what it looked like before.
I was instantly attracted to the lines in this chair. I just love the back. But it was definitely in need of some serious TLC. The stain had all worn off. Mandy said that the chair used to be on their front porch so I'm guessing a lot of the damage is due to the sun.
So I decided I was going to give it a new coat of paint and a new, fun cushion. Here's what the finished project looked like:
I gotta give a shout out to my wonderful hubby on this one: he usually hems and haws about projects (probably bc he is trying to see if I'm really serious) but then when he sees that I'm going to do it anyway, he usually jumps in with both feet. If you don't know, he has a 4-h badge in sewing so he is very helpful! He is also our resident upholsterer. So, the new fabric on the chair is all because of him! Ain't he sweet?
Now whenever I look at this chair, I feel happy. It reminds me of new beginnings! I gotta go find myself some new trash now. Send all your castoffs my way!
Update: After living with the chair for about a week, I decided it was a little bit too "painty-perfect for me so I decided that maybe I would make it look more distressed by adding some glaze on there. This was a first for me so I was really excited! You can't see a huge difference, but in person you can tell a big difference. Definitely adds more character to it.
While I was doing it, Preston said "Mom, why are you making that chair dirty?" I guess it would look strange to see someone wiping black "paint" all over a chair.
Do I have any other furniture makeover junkies out there??
Sunday, May 20, 2012
My not so little graduate!
It has been a wonderful 2 years that Preston has spent at EUMC preschool. He has loved his time there and isn't sure he wants to leave all his friends and go to Kindergarten. I don't blame him. Things are so much simpler in preschool. The biggest thing he has to worry about is whether or not he likes what I put in his lunch. Little does he know that the future holds reading, writing and arithmetic! Oh well. At least he has the summer left to enjoy!
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