The Dream House

I started this Friday night...

Tonight as I rocked my cranky baby to calm him before bed, my eyes filled with tears as I caught myself feeling rushed to get him to bed and take pictures of the house on cleaning lady day, for our rental listing.  I didn't take the pictures.  

How dare I rush these last few weeks in our sweet house?  Rocking my baby in his nursery for one of the last times, in the chair we rocked and rocked and rocked in for hours.  I'm much more excited than anything, but I get a huge lump in my throat when I think about leaving this place.

Few people know this about me, but I have suffered from horrible home sickness my entire life.  Every summer growing up my brother couldn't wait to go to week long church camp in the mountains, and it never failed he'd talk my dad into paying for just one more week before dad finally drug him home.  I went once.  For one week.  And cried myself to sleep every night, head buried in the pillow so no one would hear.  I was 12.

I secretly loved the fact that my parents were not fond of my childhood best friend's folks because it meant we always had to spend the night at my house.  Faith can vouch for the fact that I literally slept my way through the first year in the dorm.  I was so homesick, and it was especially hard because my parents were no longer in our home.  There was nowhere to go home when I was homesick. 

That feeling has followed me every move since, and even some vacations.  Don't even get me started on the first time I went to Ft. Myers for Christmas.  I sat outside on the phone Christmas morning, in the hot Florida sun, crying to my mommy and daddy that I had no business being down there and it wasn't even Christmas because I wasn't with them.  I was 21. 

So this is a feeling I know and hate well.  And I know it's not going anywhere, but I really think it's going to be different this time.  This time I'm not leaving our home, we're relocating home.  As a family.  Hopefully being with Jason and Hardin will make this one a lot better, and I hope we will stay there for a very very very long time.  I told Jason the last time we were there, I shouldn't say this out loud, but this house already feels like our home.  I hope that feeling last. 

But I digress.  This home we're in now will always be remembered as my dream home.  It's the home in which all of my big dreams came true.  While we technically got married and I graduated law school living in our apartment, soon after we bought this house and the rest was history.  This is the house I became a wife in, and Jason a husband.  I became an attorney.  And most importantly, I became a mother, and Jason a father.  Where we became a family.  It's where I nourished my marriage, grew my career, and welcomed my first born.

It was the first and last place we would ever invite my sweet daddy for a holiday in a home we made.  It was the place Jason and I stayed up way too late playing beer pong when we were living in a grown up house but not really there yet.  It's where we were when we learned that our nephews and niece were on their way.  Where our baby learned how to walk and talk.  Where we learned how to be a good neighbors, and learned to appreciate the absolute necessity that is good neighbors ourselves.

We will miss nothing more than the front porch.  I can honestly say that my favorite memories with Jason have been made sitting in our rocking chairs on the front porch, and I think he would agree.  Over the past five years we've talked about every thing there is to talk about in those chairs.  Some nights just how much we love to sit and talk on in those chairs.  It has been our time, once or twice a week, to escape and unplug and be us.

This house has been so incredibly good to us.  Every day filled with love and laughter, but also holder of my heaviest shed tears.  We love this house, and will be forever grateful for it's place in our lives.  Har-doo's house, as our sweet boy calls it, will surely be missed.

Big Friends. Little Friends.

Hardin and I laid low all day today while daddy played golf.  There are literally 9 thousand things I needed to do, but laying in the floor coloring seemed much more important and certainly more fun. 

Ali, Austin and Olivia came up for an early dinner tonight.  We had a great time catching up and watching the kiddos play.  They both played the entire time, but it took an hour or so for them to actually play together.  Livvy even taught Hardin how to do a tumble flip!  As much as I'm looking forward to moving close to my office, I can't wait to be closer to many friends as well (and sad to be further from the Athens ones).  

 

The fat lady hasn't sang yet...

Today the bank who holds the loan on our dream house countered our offer very reasonably and expectedly. We accepted, and are set to close the end of August.

Nothing's set in stone, but we are excited and relieved. Very very very happy McWhorters this evening. Celebrating and thankful for answered prayers!

Also, the sleepy head was no coincidence. He woke up with a little fever today. We babied him all day and by time he went to bed he was back to new. We'll keep a close watch through the night, but I think it was just a little summer bug. 

Hardo Sweeping

That's what Hardo said when he saw the pictures below of him crashed on the sofa Sunday.  I was in total shock.  In almost 21 months the kid has never fallen asleep on the sofa.  He hardly stops moving long enough for that to be an option, but low and behold he crawled up there and was out like a light for over an hour and a half. 

Of course I took nine thousand photos.  My camera was in the car so the iPhone had to do.  As far as cherished photos go, these are on the top of my list! 

The Present

I read something I loved today.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.

We are thoroughly enjoying our gifts!

Oh Say Can You Say

The weekend was great.  Yesterday I took H and our little neighbor to the Yellow River Game Ranch (by myself...  I agreed to that sometime after my second martini Friday night).  It was muddy from all the rain, which made it even better for those little messers.  H absolutely adores all the animals, but is not keen on touching them.  I don't mind that.

Today we hit the pool at Gigi's and the grocery store.  Tonight I could hardly put him to bed he was being so sweet.  He's talking from dawn to dusk these days, and I thought I'd better document some of my all time favorites right now.

I get it I get it I con-in.  I've got it I've got it I'm coming.  No punctuation on purpose, he says it all in a row.  I've yet to figure out exactly what and or why he says this, but he says it all the time.  It is the sweetest little sound he makes.

I cry-nin.  I'm crying.  When he's doing his fake cry he stops to tell you he's cry-nin.  It makes me chuckle, and most of the time that helps him snap out of his mood. 

Minamins.  Vitamins.  He will certainly not let you forget his two chewy vitamins each day.  I have NO idea where he picked it up, and he's never done it with anything else, but when you hand him his vitamins he throws them on the floor and eats them like a dog treat.  We're all still scratching our head on that one. 

Buga Puppies.  Bubble Guppies.  He's recently taken a liking to the little underwater band. 

Pah-weez.  Please.  Oh this one, he knows how to work it.  He smiles, tilts his head down, and gives you a long drawn out Pahhhhh-weeeeeeez.  

Thank you ve-e much.  He's failly polite when he's not yelling NO (ugh- you'll notice that is not on my favorites list).  He's recently replaced Thank You with thank you ve-e much.  

Meal/Mealmeal.  Meal is oatmeal.  Mealmeal is lemonade (from CFA).  Won't try and explain that one.   

Oh, he's also discovered bugs.  He does not like the big ones, but these little ants at the pool had him intrigued.  The crab outfit also fit his mood when dragging him from the pool.  I was only slightly embarrassed in front of my sweet cousin Lindsey when he pulled the ole stiff body, I am NOT getting in the car seat without a fight, move 

Gee Tar

This guy has been carrying around his little ukulele since we brought it home.  It's so cute.  He calls it his gee-tar.

He also had his first full fledged FIT the other day at Publix.  I'm still recovering.  It included ear piercing screams, red face, alligator tears, and a bunch of stiff body and flailing.  I have NEVER seen him do anything even remotely close to that, so I just stood there looking dumb struck.  All over some watermelon I wouldn't let him eat at the store.

I hope it was just a fluke, he was a little clingy and moody all weekend but he seems to be back to his happy little self now.  I don't think he went to bed quite as early or slept quite as long for naps while we were gone.  Even if the fits are hear to stay, I'm sure they'll be gone as quickly as they came. 

Other than that, I'm sure loving all the extra snuggles and intentional togetherness over the past few days. 

Our Awesome Insta-Vacation

Surprisingly, until the last two days I didn't drag my camera all over the place.  B has one of those fancy water cameras and promises he'll send me all the pics I took with his.  Love'em, but not holding my breath on those.

I did carry my phone around everywhere and could not help but Instagram everything... it was just THAT pretty.  I took so many IG pics I actually edited them late at night and immediately deleted them so I only looked half crazy with the obsessive amount of pictures on there. 

The trip was truly amazing.  Time with my two favorite men, in a breathtakingly beautiful place, no work, no emails.  Not surprisingly, one of my very favorite aspects of my relationship with Jason is a favorite with Scott as well.  They are both just easy to be with.  Sometimes crazy, rarely dull.  Loud, quiet.  But always easy.  Work makes me ache for time with no tension.  I hate tension.  Mission accomplished. 

For the most part we ate and visited gorgeous beaches.  We both picked one big thing, Jason's was deep sea fishing, and mine was ATV rentals.  We chartered a boat off the North Shore, and the money was well worth being on the water for 6 hours.  It's a good thing too, because we didn't catch a thing.  The water was VERY rough.  Like swells well taller than our two story fishing boat rough.  Still fun though, and so very nice to be one with the water.

The ATV tours were awesome!  I can't recommend that highly enough.  Bucket List:  ATV tours in some tropical paradise.  We explored all around the state park where Jurassic Park, Lost, and many other movies were filmed.  I had no idea how fun that would be.

Our other big event was dinner with the owner of Scott's firm and his wife at Morimoto's in The Modern, Waikiki.  The meal was in all of our top five ever, and the icing on the cake was that my very own baby brother did a lot of the landscape design for that hotel and it's sister next door.  He also landed a huge deal while we were there.  I am SO insanely proud of him. 


Needless to say we were OVERJOYED to be reunited with our sweet boy this morning.  He greeted us with excited laughter when we came in the door.  We spent the day lounging and loving.  Mom said he was great the entire time, but I was secretly a little happy at one thing that happened before she left.  I went up stairs to get something, and Hardin immediately started crying.  Mom said "she'll be right back..."  and H looked up at her still crying a bit and said "white back??"  Sweet baby.  He has no idea how much more smothering he has coming this weekend!

Finally, my mother is a saint, and I have no idea how to properly thank her.  As much as we missed our buddy, there was not a second we questioned his safety or comfort.  She is such a gift from God, and we are all thankful for her everyday. 

B took us from the airport straight here... with a full cooler.

B got these for Hardin.  Little surfer boy.

B did Dog's neighbor's yard.  Ha!

B's hole in the wall...  on the water.

Lanikai... "Heaven Water"

 

The real Gilligan's Island.

 

Ladies... always ride in back.  The boys are CRAZY.

Our rental.  An Eclipse.  So fun!

 

FOUR minutes from Scott's driveway.  Less than 2 miles.

The ATV park

Here are all of the Instagram pictures.  I'll post some more once I get around to downloading them. 

H jammin with his Hawaiian goodies!

Mahalo!

That's hello and goodbye from what I understand.

I got my last kisses from this guy tonight. We leave long before he'll think of waking up. I've only cried a little. But I feel like there is a boulder on my chest making it hard to breath. Never in a million zillion years did I ever think, pre motherhood, that my tiny human would have such an emotional and physical effect on me.

I know this is very needed, and we will have an awesome time, but we are both going to miss our little guy more than we can stand it.

Jason kept telling me I'm not allowed to cry in paradise, and I don't think I will... But then he said "who am I kidding, I'm probably going to be the one crying." Doubt it, but it was sweet!

Happy 4th!

Today we lounged, napped, and then headed to the Pepper's for some pool time.  Daddy taught H how to jump off his hands.  He's going to have great arms by the end of summer.  "I di di again."  (I do it again... and again and again and again).

Everyone else was going to watch fireworks after but we opted out becuase we didn't think H was up for that yet.  Little did we know one of our neighbors was putting on a show to rival the club's.  It's now 10:18pm and I'm feeling like the 4th of July Grinch.  If they wake my baby they are going to have one very unhappy neighbor, again*. Hopefully they wrap it up soon! 

An unrelated note about Hardin's shirt, for me really, not that I will forget.  I took 7 shirts to the same guy that has done embroidery and Cawley's sweatshirts that I love for me.  They all had specific notes with font, color, etc.  The gal that took them assured me she'd let the guy who does the work know what the notes meant.  It was the first time I didn't talk to him when I dropped stuff off. 

I didn't even look when I picked them up, and later realized he put the name on the top of the back of every shirt.  Like a jersey.  Like he thought Hardin was the last name.  UGH.  First world problems.  I tried not to sweat it, obviously it was not a big deal, but petty Tiff was so frustrated with that girl for ruining all of those shirts.  There were also other random things wrong with them.  So, the owner re-ordered all the shirts at cost for me and is redoing the letting at no charge.  But not the swim shirt.  That I got at Target and they were out of Hardin's size.  So when I go pick up the others he's going to slap a big H on the front so it doesn't look as silly anymore.

All that to say...  yes, his shirt is on backwards.  I was running my mouth not paying attention and put it on that way by accident.  It looked cute, so I left it.  I also forgot his puddle jumper so he had to borrow some swimmies.  Sometimes we're just a mess around here.  A fun mess hopefully?

*While I'm telling stories that I should keep to myself, I'll tell you about the neighbors dog.  About 6 weeks ago, out of no where H started waking up around 6am.  A week later I was woken up by the neighbor's huge dog barking right out side of my window.  Ahhhhh....  the early morning culprit revealed.  I wrote a very nice, and somewhat begging note asking my neighbor to keep her dog from barking and waking us all up.  We've had no problems since then.  BUT, I am now "that girl" with a few of my neighbors.  Oh well.  They weren't the ones we hang out with anyway.  SLEEP WINS!

Recipe for Gray Hair

Take an already busy lovely life with a 20 month old, add a new home purchase, a current home refinance and rental prep, a trip half way around the world.  Top with the busiest season at work since I've been professionally employed, and add tons of weekend plans at the end.  Sit back and watch them grow!

I'm not complaining (or at least I'm trying my hardest not to), because every single thing above is AWESOME, but man, I've been busy!

Friday night I went straight from 10 closings in 8 hours to meet my girl friends for the Michael Jackson Cirque Du Soleil show.  We purchased tickets when I was pregnant.  Now that was a girls night out a long time in the making!  It was awesome.  The show and especially the company.

Saturday's show didn't go quite as smoothly.  Mom's been wanting to take H to see Laughing Pizza live because every time the commercial comes on he freezes and watches in awe.  Mary Ellen decided to join us and bring Liddie and Brady.  What a wonderful plan we made...

Well, Hardin was not a fan of the dark theater and I think the music was too loud as well.  He liked it enough, and bounced around quite a bit, but he liked it much better in the hall with the lights, the lower music, and lots of chalk to draw all over everything.  There he danced and danced.

Water, water, WATER!

And poor Mary Ellen got a late start and had to stop for an urgent diaper/clothes change.  They got there right as the show was ending.  While she fed the baby, Hardin spotted a splash garden.  Fortunately I had a dirty pair of shorts, but I didn't have sun screen so it was short lived.  That was definitely the highlight of the outing.

We followed that up with a long trip to CFA to eat and play inside.  They all headed to our house for a sleep over and Faith joined us last night.  I absolutely LOVE that Hardin can keep up with Liddie now.  For a year and a half its been big girl/little baby.  Now it's just two kids running around playing and talking.  So sweet.  They did great together except for H calling her a boy the entire time.  Sweet girl was quick to correct him.

Everyone headed out this morning, and we lounged around until after naps.  To top off our weekend we went to my sisters house to swim and visit with some special company she had.   Hardin's fearlessness has turned into straight dare devil ways.  He has no idea he's a toddler either, he thinks he's one of the big kids.  Add that to the recipe above!