Quick 5

Finally, a nice, calm week.  No health crises.  No panic over the house situation.  Just sweet-smelling weather and slow, steady movement toward moving out of here. 

1.  Mother's Day was lovely.  I don't care that it is a day created by Hallmark; I love it.  I spent the whole morning at church (of course), and then Lee and Alaina went and got us KFC for dinner.  It's the one time a year I can convince them all to eat it.  Lee surprised me by picking up stuff to make banana splits.  I'll be honest: I would never in a million years have chosen a banana split as my dessert of choice, but it was glorious.  Lee and Alaina had gone to the store and bought the bananas, ice cream, caramel topping and cherries.  Add to all that chocolate syrup and whipped cream and it was so yummy.  Lee says it's going to be our new Mother's Day tradition.  I'm on board with that plan.

Me and Alaina with the delicious dessert.  We ate them after Joya went to bed.  She can join us next year.  Lee gave me two cherries; of course Alaina got to eat one of them.  (She did have her own banana split, by the way.)

2.  Alaina and Joya got a fun pink and purple castle from Gramma and Grampa for Christmas.  They love it and spend many minutes each day going in and out and generally creating hoopla around it.  But I bet Gramma and Grampa never figured it was a two-in-one present: a castle AND a rocket.  Alaina and her cousin Naomi made it into a rocket one day, and now it is a daily occurrence.

Alaina specifically requested I take a picture of her in this pose

3.  There has been zero packing action this week.  We move two weeks from tomorrow.  I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that we are moving out.  I need to just do it.  But the whole house thing is moving so slow and we're praying very hard that we get to close next week.  The hardest part for me is the fact that we no longer really have a closing date; they've just told me we'll know a day or two in advance.  So I'm praying we get the word on Monday or Tuesday at the latest we'll get the word.  Join me, will you?

4.  I suppose it's real enough: Lee and I are going to go pick out new carpet tomorrow.  No pressure there, picking out something that look decent and that will last us years and years.

5.  Here is a Daddy and his girls:

In case there was any doubt: Joya is a goofball

Up next week: Closing (hopefully!), the birth of my niece (unless she wants to come today!), convergence of the Kimble and Kidney clans, and my baby bro graduates high school.  You know, just a bunch of little things.

Quick 5

I'm not in a season of life that is conducive to witty, verbose, eloquent Quick 5s.  So here is what you get today.

1.  Our household has been vomit-free for a full week now.  It feels like a huge accomplishment.

2.  We signed our loan application for our house yesterday.  Getting to that point has been full of difficulties and tears.  We're praying very hard that the appraisal will get done in a timely fashion and that we'll be able to close on May 23rd.  Seems impossible right now, but God worked a few miracles for us yesterday in order for us to sign the application, so I'm choosing to have faith that He can work that miracle too.

3.  I have to pick out carpet and tile for the house.  It's stressing me out.

4.  Packing is going, albeit slowly.  I just don't feel the urgency to do it right now.  It might bite me in the butt later.

5.  Please don't ask me how many times I've given Joya a PB&J for lunch in the past two weeks.  For some reason I cannot for the life of me think of anything else to give her for lunch.  The good news is, she likes them.

Maybe I'll be more coherent after the move.

Quick 5

Happy Cuatro de Mayo, the un-celebrated brother of Cinco de Mayo! 

1.  The house stuff is humming along, I guess.  We had to file for an extension this week on the appraisal deadline, because our lovely non-profit lenders haven't been able to pull together our loan application in time.  But I'm hoping that's the only hiccup in the process.  It will probably move our closing back from the 14th to the 17th or 18th, but that's okay.   Our drop-dead closing deadline is May 24th, so we're still operating in some wiggle room.  This process drives me a little bit crazy because so much of it is out of my hands.  I know we have deadlines, but there is literally nothing I can do for them.  I am starting to understand why people gravitate toward being control freaks.  It really bites the big one to be completely reliant on other people and to have them miss the mark.  But it IS out of my hands.

2.  Sometimes I have to surf waves of mommy guilt when I think about how few pictures I take of my girls.  Some women out there are incredible at it; I am not.  And when I do take pictures, I'm reminded why I don't take them that often: it's hard and frustrating.  See what I mean?

Why won't Alaina look at the camera?  She always looks off to the side.

And...we lost Joya.  Camera-wise, anyway.  With Alaina's choke-hold, she's not going anywhere.

Whatever.  At least they are wearing matching pink shirts.

3.  Every time I make meal, I put it on the table and I call out "Let's Eat!"  Joya has started yelling "Eat!  Eat!" every time she sees me cooking.  Sometimes it takes several trips to get it all on the table, and Joya runs ahead of me yelling that, even if it really isn't time to eat yet.  It's as if she thinks those are the magic words that mean it is time to put food in our mouths.

4.  With all this house stuff and Joya's ER stuff, I feel like I need a vacation.  And with all this house stuff and Joya's ER stuff, it is clear that we won't have the moola for a vacation for a long, long time.

5.  Wednesday night was Alaina's Awana Awards night.  It was super cute.  They sang a few songs, and Alaina got her Book 1 Completion award.  The cutest part was the way Alaina and her bestie Avery were snuggling on the stage before everything got started. 

Avery and Alaina

The girl loves to dance

Her beloved teachers, Miss Christina and Miss Rhiannon

So proud!

If you ever want to read a delightfully witty Quick 5, you should read my friend Becky's.  Maybe someday mine will be as cool as hers.