babies

Lauren:








When I first met you, you were one. Feisty, but tentative. Impossible to feed. In love with Mickey Mouse. You'd reach out a hand for me whenever you felt unstable. You didn't color inside the lines.
Now, you're five years old. You've started Kindergarten. You're brilliant. I hope you never stop asking questions. I hope someday your "garden" grows a fruit tree from one of the seeds we've planted. You can paint, rhyme, add, subtract, and dance. You're not afraid to try new things, and you ask for my help less and less all the time. My favorite moments with you have been the quiet ones, when everyone else is sleeping and we can dive into paint and glitter. You're an amazing artist. You're focused and deliberate. I love the way things click. You catch on to everything so quickly. You'd never admit it, but you love to be tickled. You're smart and beautiful. I'm going to miss coloring with you.
Caroline:








I've loved watching you grow up. When you run to the door screaming, "Miss Amanda!!!!" it makes the whole day better. You've always been independent, except when it's dinner time. I've never met anyone who takes so long to chew up their food. You tell the best jokes. I never have to wonder what you'll want to do when asked. It's always play-doh. You still need your lovey and your thumb. You like little braids and playing kitty cats. Bike rides, chickfila soup, gummies, bounce houses and marshmallows will always remind me of you. Your giggle is my favorite. I love to see you share and be kind. I'm going to miss singing you to sleep.
Troy:




You're still just learning. I love the way you dance. You give the best open mouth kisses. Someday soon, I know you'll let go of our hands and take some steps on your own. I love the way you bark at puppies (and most other animals). Puzzles, baths, balls, pacis, blueberries, and crayons. Someday soon, you'll be able to do everything your sisters do. I'm going to miss watching you grow.

prodigal

After being gone for almost twenty-four hours, and after many shed tears (shed tears = raccoon eyes) on my part, he wandered back home to get out of the pouring rain. Consider me thankful. Since then he has learned a new trick. If he's outside and we are sleeping, he'll claw the screen on our window until we get up and let him in. Cats are so funny. I can think of no good reason to be so in love with him, and yet I am. He's one lucky duck.

square one

It wasn't the house for us. Pity, honestly. We loved the yard and detached apartment, but it's better this way of course. The appraisal revealed some structural instability, so everything came to a screeching halt on Friday morning. We're sure there something better for us, but it's the waiting that makes it hard.

Also, we haven't seen Tater in twelve hours, so consider me a slightly worried cat mommy. Pray for the house mostly, but if you're already going to be praying, pray that Tater comes back. Matt works weekends, and I need someone to snuggle with. :)

august: pretty things

Pear print
Kate Spade book
Anthro floral calendar
Fab white storage

These are a couple of things that have captured my attention. As in, "I've almost bought them, but have somehow mustered up some self control." I hope you have less self control than me. You should have more things that make you smile.

grow on trees

Who knew that money was such a big deal? Oh, everyone? Well, you forgot to tell me!

It's like, "Well, for starters $20,000 and then a couple fees that add up to another $5,000. Oh, and if you just make the payments on time we'll casually add $54,000 in interest to the $68,000 you were paying originally." It adds up to alot of thousands. I get it. Everyone who has a house is like, ".. Old news..." BUT NO ONE TOLD ME!

If you have a teenager (or a pre-teen. junk, start as early as you want!) sit them down and be like, "That pair of shoes? You don't need it. I'm not even talking need in a serious like-you-NEED-food sort of way. I mean even in a want-more-than-you'll-want-that-twenty-dollars-later kinda way." I had a blog once called 69 pairs-on Amanda. It was like a lame play on my maiden name (Pearson) and an ode to my massive shoe collection. 69 pairs. That's $1,400 roughly. Good golly. I have a scrapbook FULL of movie tickets. Probably literally one hundred. Maybe more. I may go count them. Point: I wasted so much money on things that I enjoyed but didn't matter at all! Go see movies! Enjoy your life! Have ten pairs of shoes if you want! But for goodness sake, save all the money you can. Later it'll come in handy.

We have the money saved, so this is in no way a plea for money. It's a plea for money education! If there's anything else down the road that I'm going to want to know, feel free to tell me! Really.

The paper work on this house buying thing also kinda side-swiped me. Like our whole house is already in boxes for the move and they're calling me and asking me for all this documentation that's (literally) in the last box in the bottom corner. It's like they sneaked into our Living Room, "Hey, what's that last box on the bottom over there in the corner say? Yeah, tell her we need a copy of that too."

If this sounds like a rant, it's because it is. :) My stress level during this whole house buying thing is ridiculously high. It's way worse than college finals or anything else that I may have previously considered to be stressful. At least college finals are in your hands. You come to class, take notes, make note cards, quiz yourself until you literally wake up reciting it, and do well. Buying a house has been in your hands your whole life, you just didn't know it. It's like they take every piece of paper ever connected to your life and decide whether you should have a home while you sit by the phone in case they need a blood sample.

Really, it's all in God's hands. He already knows. He won't be surprised when we do get the house, or when we don't. Next time I sound a little stressed, just remind me of that. No matter what it is, God cares. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

p.s. They moved our closing date up a week to the 6th of September! So, we'll be starting new jobs and buying a house all in the same week! :)

Friday the 13th

The mere date contains mystery and terror, if you're into that. For us? It's the most exciting day... ever. September 13th, 2013 (which happens to be a Friday) is the day we close on our first home. Bah! Gah! Hooooray! :)




That's a picture of our house. Like one very chopped up corner of it. Kinda. And we're going to paint the railing/trim white eventually and replace the front door (it's broken), so almost nothing in this picture will remain. :) Haha, if this was someone else's blog post, and I saw this picture I'd be like, "meh." But this is my blog post with a picture of our first house, so I'm more like, "Bah! Gah! Hooray!"

We still haven't had the inspection, so nothing has "changed", but we got the official closing date, so now it all feels completely legit. 38 days til homeownership.

Bah! Gah! Hooray!

packing

Most of my favorite things are some sort of organic shape. Now that I'm packing, I find myself wishing everything we own was either a square or rectangle. Fit, will ya? I just finished our first roll of packing tape, and it felt like a small sort of accomplishment. It's all so real right now. Four weeks from right now, we will be driving out of Tennessee towards our very first house. Did you hear? We got the house! Now only the inspection to go. *happy dance*

Soon. Very soon, we will have a home. Home. So exciting. Oh, also. I got a raise. A raise at the job I'm headed to in Virginia. What? I know. I haven't even started it yet, but they upped my hours which ups the money. An extra almost $3,000 a year that we weren't counting on when we were looking at houses/loans. God is so good to us. I'll give you a money break down once it's all squared away; plus a hundred or so pictures of our house as we're buying it (fixer upper!), so you can appreciate the transformation. If I sound like I'm counting my chickens before the hatch, I may be. It's just that I trust God to give us whatever's best for us, so even if this one falls through it'll be to make way for a better one. But out of the hundreds of houses we've looked at, this is our favorite. Not for curb appeal, but for potential. :)

Location:packing