Toothpaste + Dog = water torture

Last week Bradley took the puppy into the other room and was quiet for a very very long time. Brian and I were reviewing the houses we had seen that morning and were frankly thankful for a few minutes of peace so we could talk and think clearly. Well, we paid for it. At least Portland did.

We opened the door to find the toothpaste in Bradley's hand, and our puppy patiently sitting for him as he spotted her back in toothpaste polka-dots. Sadly my pics of this are on the other camera. grr.

We quickly cleaned it all up as we giggled about the creativity of our son and didn't worry about it again. Well this week Portland seemed to be getting stickier and stickier. And the fur around her neck appeared as if it had frosting on it. So I decided it was time for a bath.

She was in complete dismay at this announcement. Bradley thought it was the coolest idea all week.

 Doesn't she look slightly upset?

 hahaha. Bradley water torture.

 As I delighted in the torture of my poor girl by taking pictures, Bradly poured a cupful of water on me. I guess it is only fair. I knew I was going to get wet, I just thought it would have happened at the end not the beginning.

He was such a good helper, and knew exactly what to do.

 She was a good girl, and stood where I told her to. She is very patient, and won't shake the water off till I tell her it is okay. She is very aware of how I feel.

We soaped her up together, and then I let Bradley continue slowly torturing the puppy one cupful at a time.

Good entertainment for an afternoon!

x vs y

In other news... We sold our house!! 

We have just a few weeks till we close and hand over the keys! YAY!!!

So my every waking second that isn't spent tending to Bradley or exercising the dog, is spent on finding houses to look at!

Yes it is fun looking for a new home, but it is still stressful too. Brian is working in Palmdale, CA and still working for Lockheed Martin. He loves it fyi. A great move for his happiness in his career, which makes me SO happy too. But now we need to figure out where to live.

Palmdale is the edge of the Mojave desert. It has gorgeous hills to the west and mountains in the distance to the north and south. It is at least an hour an a half from Anaheim or the beach. I couldn't say that it is a small town because each block is a mile long, and you go 50 mph on all those streets. So it extends a good ways out, but the further east you go, the crappier it gets. But the snug suburbia between the freeway and the west hills is all families, stucco mansions (okay not mansions all the way around, but the average is probably 5 bedrooms per house), and all the popular shopping you could imagine.

Forty minutes over the hills to the west is Santa Clarita, a family city nestled into the hills north east of LA. It feels like California with out all the California prices. However, still spendy. People from all over the world come to live here though because it has the best schools. You drive by some of the high schools and they have sayings like, "creating the leaders of the future" on the walls of the school. The shopping is spread out, but man way cute and the kind of fun areas you want go visit because it is just fun. For those in Oregon, picture Bridgeport everywhere. For those in Georgia it is like the fun Perimeter areas. Who wouldn't want to live there right??

Arge it is just hard to choose. Beautiful affordable home in Palmdale, close to Brian's work, and family friendly? Or fun, trendy Santa Clarita with super schools, but small expensive houses and 1.5 hrs of commute time every day for Brian? Both are beautiful but in different ways. Both are family friendly. Both are still near LA and the fun stuff to do there.

However there is a significant difference in home price.
Can you guess which home $100,000 less than the other??

Yea. The top. See, Palmdale mansion vs Santa Clarita golden oldie. Grrr. Decisions, decisions.
I'm not exaggerating the price difference at all, the top one is exactly $100,000 less than the bottom one. It is just in Palmdale vs Santa Clarita. Shocking I know.

Today I look at more Palmdale homes. I'm really waiting to walk into a house and have it feel like home. That is how I would describe my last home purchase experience. It is the only home we lingered in to chat. It was comfortable right away. I hope I find that soon. ... I'm due in 4 months! We had better find something soon!!

Oh what do you do for 8 weeks in a Residence Inn??

Well we've been in our little room in the residence inn for 5 weeks. We spent two of those in Oregon visiting family - a much needed break! But now we are back in Cali with 3 weeks to go. I thought I'd share some of our thrilling activities of the last few weeks.

Bradley sleeps on the fold out couch in the living area. (We do have a door that separates our bed from the kitchen/living area.) He loves it. We brought some of his fave blankets and buddies so he feels right at home in a big boy bed.

Breakfast begins promptly when Bradley wakes up and loudly proclaims "nack!" which is bradley talk for Snack or Breakfast. So we get up and walk out to forage for breakfast. Usually waffles or bagels. I convinced him of cereal one morning, but now he knows better.

Night time is story time. We found a few new books at the good will down the street because we could only bring 3. He quickly tired of the same 3 books for nap and night time.

Occasionally we dawn our swimmers and hop in the pool for an hour or so. Brad believes we are going to do this any time he finds his swimmers, so they are well hidden.

Then there is the occasional disneyland trip. Always helpful in ending a long week.

Easter was a new challenge. So I decided to get crafty, even in a hotel, and we made those starch yarn eggs out of balloons and string and elmers glue.

They turned out rather well... till Bradley sat on them... several times. So we don't have an after pic other than Bradley's satisfied face. I was surprised at how proud he was of our eggs, even after they were fairly flat. He still points to them and reminds me how fun it was to get messy and make eggs together. I am encouraged in doing more crafty projects in our room.

We have multi colored string, scissors, and elmers glue. Any ideas?

So 3 more weeks. Then who knows. Probably a furnished apartment. Then a house? Then a new baby? You could definitely say my life is a little uncertain, maybe unstable, and definitely unpredictable. But when you know it is where the Lord wants you to be, ya just gotta keep going with faith in His plan.

Freckles.. mmm tasty

Sometimes I question my mothering instincts.

Earlier in the day I congratulated myself for discovering a new freckle/mole behind Bradley's ear. How observant I am. Really.

Later in the day when the freckle came off I wondered how long the chocolate spec had been there. Surely not before Easter right? I hope...

I promise I really do clean behind his ears!

A nomadic pack

We have officialy made the great move. 3 suitcases, 1 dog crate, a stroller, 2 backpacks and a purse hold all our worldly possessions for the next 2-?? months while we patiently wait for our house in Georgia to sell. Being nomadic for a few months isn't so bad... But it isn't easy. Our modest 1 room at the residence inn seems to adequately hold all our things, and at least provides simple cooking accommodations. But is still not home. For a while there is no real home. And for a toddler, a dog, and a pregnant woman, that is sometimes a hard thought. But then I saw this on pintrist:

And felt much better.

Quick Cali Trip

In the midst of the crazy house preparations, we needed to take a quick trip out to California to check out our temporary housing options. But the last two weeks have been hard for Brad, and so we wanted to treat him to some fun mom & dad time.

 This is the air museum by where Brian will work.

 Bradley loves, loves airplanes. Someday I'll post the movie I took of him explaining how they work.

 My two skunks!

And of course we couldn't resist a trip to Disneyland!  There will be many more of these in our future! Disney is just an hour away! I think that means, maybe once a month. We'll have to see.

Brad's fave part was the adventure course in Disney's California Adventure. He got to run around with Daddy on all the bridges, rope courses and slides. He cried every time we left the area no matter how long we stayed to play and no matter how much prep we did to let him know it was time to leave. But he loved it so much we just had to make a few stops to play.

So where are we now?

Well, we have till March 3 here in Georgia. Then we pack our suitcases and fly out to Cali for good. We'll be in some sort of temporary living till our house sells. I really have a lot of faith that our house will sell in a reasonable amount of time. But still keep us in your prayers!

Off the Grid

Sorry for the lack of posts since November. We've been a little busy.

There was that whole Christmas thing where we were gone for two weeks in Oregon.

Then there was that first trimester of 24 hr morning sickness in Dec and January- which sucked me dry of all energy and ambition. We are lucky my sweet toddler survived. We ate a lot of tater tots. Which is my only real craving.

Then we just found out we are moving to California!
So over the last two weeks we have replaced the roof, installed a new back door, repainted the kitchen, and tried our best to de-clutter. (I've spent over $100 on plastic storage boxes from costco. Crazy.)

Busy.

But at least it is all very happy, exciting and new events that are keeping us busy. You can't complain when all the blessings you've been patiently praying for suddenly happen all at the same time.

The latest and greatest of our news is we are moving to California in the beginning of March. We have four weeks to get our house show worthy, and put it on the market.I actually am having fun prepping the house. I've never had a good reason to buy all those accessories a house needs to feel complete, now I do! I've bought generic art (that I love that brian would never choose himself), those generic wicker balls to decorate my living room, a mirror! a lamp! A small table for the entry way! Maybe even curtains next week! Ahh, Heaven is spending money to make your house look more traditional so buyers will like it.

Know anyone moving to Georgia? Send em our way. I really will miss Georgia. I love the people, I love the food, and the landscape. I do not love the bugs though. Plus I've learned lots of my mommy skills from the wonderful southern women here, and I don't think I'll ever be able to say "hun" or "sweetie" with out thinking of some of those ladies. I also don't think I'll ever be able to say certain mom phrases with out a little twang. Even Bradley says "Go" and "no" with a little twang sometimes.