God is here

It's Christmas morning and our hearts are broken and heavy. In a way only explained by God Himself I am grateful for today. Jesus was born to make sense of the pain. He came to save the hurt and confused. He came to save me and my family. He is here. And we have hope. Please keep praying. There is true comfort knowing you are.

Memorial service for Sean Wilborn, beloved husband and father will be held Thursday at 3 pm at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco. All are welcome and encouraged to come pay respects to this wonderful man. Please pray for God's peace to surround Mary and her family. Be near, oh God.

Big girl

The appointment went much better than expected. Charlie is tough! The promise of a new princess at the Disney store is pretty powerful, after all.


She got to spend almost a full day with both parents, which is a favorite thing for her, (and any child I'm sure,) so her tank, belly, and princess collection are all full.

Next on my agenda:


Tame this.

The hair not the child.

Well, actually both.

Help.

You start at WHAT time?

Today was the day we'd been waiting for, thinking about, and dreading all at the same time-sign Ty up for school day. I had no idea until today what time he'd go, if he'd eat lunch at school, (a real game-changer possibly,) and if he'd ride the bus or not. See, we loved more than just his teacher at his old school. We loved the slow transition into it. He didn't go until after lunch time and by then the girls were settling down for naps so it was perfect timing. He went to school while they napped, (Charlie still naps a few days a week,) and he came home full of new information that he'd tell us all about. Then we'd play, eat dinner, and go to bed. The mornings were our exploration time. Historically play dates have gone well in the morning. I tried to take the kids out after Ty got home and occasionally it was fine but when he got home from school he was usually pretty spent. This translated into many many many failed attempts at happiness while out and about.

Basically today I hoped for one thing and found out another. And like any other mother in the world I had a pity party for myself and what would change about my day and then focused on my child and how the new schedule will affect him. Am I alone in doing things in that order? I know it should be the opposite but it's usually this way. Honesty is the best policy or whatever.

This is what I learned:

Ty will be at school no later than 7:40 every morning. He will be in school from 7:40-11am every day of the week and he will eat lunch while he's there.

Think about this.

The circus will be up, ready, fed, dressed, prepared, brushed, toileted (should be a word when the topic is children,) driving, and agreeable by 7:20 since it'll take about 10-15 minutes to get there from our house. I asked about the bus and his teacher told me if he rides the bus he will be picked up and AT THE SCHOOL BY 7. I'm not a genius but I think that means we'd be up even earlier. Oh and he'd stay in the gym with all of the kids in the school who are dropped off early until 7:40 which means my slightly sound-sensitive (ha) kid would be in a gym with approximately 300 other preschoolers without much structure. Recipe for total disaster. So the bus option is a NO.

Now I'm no night owl and neither are the kids. The getting up early isn't a big deal on its own. I'm not trying to whine at all-well anyway-but to start the day with the Wilborn circus at 7:20 is pushing it. Y'all, I'm gonna need more meds.

Oh and the eating lunch at school thing has me all in a tizzy. The kid doesn't eat but about six things. We just rotate through those six things every day and let me tell you this-it ain't the kind of things you can send in a lunch box. Ty's most visible symptoms of Aspergers are the sensory aspects of living, (literally his senses-sound is his most sensitive,) which includes being a picky eater. Do they let you drop fries off at real school every day at 10:15? I gotta look into how quickly CPS would call me for that one. Lord help me.

Other than the big day and the new school information that it provided we have been settling in nicely to our new home. I'm typing on my computer instead of my phone which is huge. I've made big plans for painting each room soon and I'm thrilled about that. I can't wait to take before and after pictures for you. I hope to start this weekend!

Tomorrow I'm taking Charlie to her 4 year appointment at the doctor. The only good thing about that is that well there isn't anything good about it. It's the first set of shots she's had in two years so she doesn't remember to be afraid to go to the doctor but after tomorrow I fully expect her to fall apart at the mention of our beloved Dr's name. Sigh. That sentence wore me out.

Loving small town life,

Mar

Love

The days of our lives

Look back



Dance (or at least wear shoes you could dance in)


Relax



Open the door


Focus


Jump



Fold



Sit


Watch them grow

Oh, and unpack. I think I can I think I can I think I can.

Happy Tuesday y'all.

Oh yeah

I forgot a few pics of the house. It's not totally finished, (shout out to my extremely Type-A husband who tries and tries to get it that way) but its livable and we really love it.






Ty's room. Excuse me...Ty's baseball room.





His favorite part is the fact that he decorated his trees by himself.


When I pulled this out of the box to show him I thought he was gonna die of happiness.

Now to the girlie room...


Their beds only fit on the room like this but they love it. I made the beds so that their heads were on the far ends but from day one they sleep with their heads together. That kinda makes me really happy in a momma kind of way.


You'll never guess who decorated this tree.

Yes you're right. It was Charlie.


The guest room, future home of one of the girls as they grow if need be. Right now my parents are in there and it looks exactly like this minus the light being on.

I kid. I moved the boxes onto the floor.

My final pic (I know, still missing some of my room-oops) is what we spent four hours today doing.


Can you guess what it is?


Now?


Now?


Yep, it's probably the most loved toy ever if you ask any of my kids after their jump-fest today. It's their Christmas present from their grandparents. Man oh man is that thing loved!

Next step-seeif I can still do a back flip...

Flashback Friday

My little monkey edition











I love her so

A look around

Help. I want my mommy. Oh yeah SHE LIVES IN THE SAME TOWN now-she can come!

Special shout out to Carley and Jennie for driving here yesterday and spending time and putting forth lots of effort to rearrange the place!

Work in progress

I'll post more pics of the house today if things go according to plan...

Which kinda never happens. Unpacking is for the birds.

The End.

Moving day-the other one

We moved into the new house and we are loving it. However...

When this is what brings everything to you,



It takes a while to put stuff away. If you need me I'll be unpacking boxes.

For the next two weeks.

Awesome.

My rocks are in disarray

Yesterday I drive into my parents driveway at 1 pm. I walked into the house, (the same one I grew up in,) and sat down. It was the first time in about 8 hours that I had nothing to do. Nothing.

Turns out nothing to do is pretty awesome.

Moving out of the house yesterday was a circus-not LIKE a circus but a true piece of entertainment for everyone watching. My type-A husband threw all kinds of products that don't go together into boxes-my funniest example of his packing skills: a half empty box of Golden Grahams, a set of knives, phone cords, bubble gum, and pillows all into a wardrobe box. I laughed so hard I cried and I cried so hard I laughed. It was pure insanity. We were so tired last night that we both just sat in silence watching the kids run laps around us. I'm so thankful my parents were here to monitor what they were doing because I can say with all certainty that I didn't care what they did. It was a free-for-all.

People ask me if I'm sad about leaving our house and I'm honestly not. We moved into the house 14 days before Charlie was born and most of our time in the house was a blur, a good blur--but still a blur. It's true that we made memories there but the heart of the matter is that I never felt like it was where we'd live forever. I always hoped to move back to my hometown and I think I'd have felt like I was living away from home anywhere but back here. I do need to tell you one of the reasons why I won't miss my old house. Whether you can relate to my story or not depends on how happy you are with your HOA if you have one in your neighborhood.

Like I said we moved into the house 14 days before Charlie was born. To say we didn't have much time to devote to our new house is an understatement. Y'all can imagine. It was easy to maintain our yard that winter because we didn't have to do anything. That Spring, though, apparently our landscaping wasn't up to par in our neighborhood. We got a letter telling us that our flower beds needed weeding. We laughed it off like, "Well if y'all feel that strongly about it maybe you'll do it yourself!" Our response wasn't that of concern--more of a stance of YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. So we weeded the beds when we could, but certainly didn't worry about it when the weeds came back. That's the thing about weeds--they come back. When you've got a baby crying in the background and a toddler running toward the street you really don't care about weeding because you know it's like groundhog day--spend a few hours working until your back hurts, finish up and go to bed. Then in approximately five days wake up and do it all over again. We got another letter about a month later stating that we'd better keep the beds weeded or the HOA would take "action." I'm not making this up.

Our next run-in with the HOA was right before Joy was born the following Spring. We got a letter about the flower beds again and hired a crew to keep the weeds at bay...a frustrating thing to do when money is tight and you have two toddlers running toward the street plus an extra 65 pounds on your body thanks to a new baby coming. I was all "YOU'D BETTER BE KIDDING ME" at this point. When I saw a letter in the mail from the HOA a week before Joy was born I handed it to Sean and told him that I was afraid if I read it I'd go into labor. My c-section for Joy was carefully planned out and my doctor was on vacation a week before the scheduled day so I wasn't having any surprises related to, well, anything. I was determined to keep all stress at bay. Ha! I vividly remember Sean walking into the room where I was sitting with a smirk on his face--He held up the letter and said, "Well. Our rocks are in disarray."

What?

That's what I said.

"Our rocks are in disarray and the HOA said we better straighten them up or they'll take 'action.'"

I'm not sure at which point I started laughing but it was within the next few seconds. I mean REALLY. Y'all, they were out of control. What the heck kind of time do people have on their hands to wander around looking for rocks in other people's yard????

I also vividly remember Sean walking out into the front yard, picking up two of the rocks, (bricks,) and slamming them back into place. Then he called the number on the letter and talked to the man who answered about all that was going on with Joy and what we were doing--living and trying to survive the stress--and he politely but firmly said, "The front yard of our house just not been the priority to us that it apparently is to YOU."

The man's answer was that he was sorry for bothering us but that his job is to maintain the image of the neighborhood and he'd be happy to help with the rock situation. The rocks had their own situation y'all.

The End. I mean clearly the HOA people and I are on two different planets.

Anyway.

Moving on...literally...when we were looking at houses we cringed when someone mentioned a HOA but I'm assuming that ours in Frisco was super controlling and honestly a bit over-the-top. I pity the people moving into our house if they don't take their flower beds very seriously. Me, I think I'll always leave a rock or two out of place just to prove to the world that you can have a few rocks in disarray and still lead a perfectly happy life.

How are we doing living back in my hometown these last few days? Well, I need to ask Sean today but I'll speak for myself: I'm still terribly sad about leaving my friends and Ty's teacher. I hate the twinge of sadness I feel when I know my friends and their kids are going to the park and I'm here and missing it. Aside from that, though, I'm really happy. I love showing the kids where they will go to school. I love knowing the principal there and knowing how far it is between their school and the nearest Whataburger. (It's the important things in life.) I love that their grandparents will pick them up a few days a week just to take them to the park for two hours. I'm relieved in many ways and feel like I'm back home and back in the slower pace that I used to try to escape. The truth is this that this place, these people, they are a part of me. I'm sure I'll continue to cry and make the trip to visit my friends and I predict a few meltdowns in the future related to the slower pace and/or getting caught behind a train--a very normal occurrence and a valid excuse for being late anywhere in town--but for now, I'm settled.

As settled as one can be with her rocks in disarray of course.

Good night y'all.