March MADNESS is Over!

I am not talking about basketball either. I am referring to the craziest March we have ever had.
First of all I went on a cruise, then came home and immediately started a new job and a week after that we moved. So, on to some details.

March 8th I sailed away (for the first time ever) on the Celebrity Cruise Liner out of Ft. Lauderdale. This was also the first time I left JG for an extended period of time. There was quite a bit of anxiety on both accounts before I left but in the end, and like always, none of those worries came true. Good grief when am I going to learn just to trust and obey!
It was a fabulous time and I can't wait to do it again but this time with my hubby and kids in tow.

Enjoy the pics and if you know me then you know they will be out of order. :-)

Our view at dinner every night

Sailing away

The 4 amigos. 

In Keywest

On the back of the ship at night. It was very windy, in case you couldn't tell. 

I got a makeover in Keywest.

I don't know what was so funny, but love this picture. 

Formal dinner night.

Our ship.

Dessert the first night

The dining room.

Just one of the many animals that visited our room each night. 

Pool side. 

Any guesses where we are?

A picture of a picture. Formal dinner night.

The amazing waiter we had every night at dinner. He loved my Aunt. 

After much prayer and quite a bit of coercing from my friend, Debbie, who is also the director I took a part time job teaching preschoolers. For those who know me, yes, I have lost my mind. Everyone knows my standard answer for how I feel about kids is this... "I don't like other people's kids" and when asked why, I recant it with "I like kids who are well behaved and polite and in this day and age, most aren't!" anyway...I did it for 2 reasons. 1. because it gave JG the chance to go to the 2 year old class across the hall from me. And, might I add, it has been the best thing ever for her and 2. I could still be in control of said 2 year old across the hall from me. Yes, I have issues. Don't judge. On the flip side of all of my controlling it has been a really good experience so far. I mean, they are 3/4 years old. It isn't rocket science. The hardest thing for me has been sounding like a broken record for 4 hours a day. I haven't been around kids that age on a regular basis for over 12 years so there is a lot to get used to again. Pinterest has become my best friend for all things crafty for these kids and I have to say I am pretty impressed with what I have come up with so far. However, allow me to say all credit goes entirely to my God b/c I know I can't get through one day with out Him. Forget that... one minute.

And the house. Whew! That whole thing has been a whirlwind, let me tell you. After much prayer, seeking counsel etc. we decided to put the house on the market in January. We thought we had nothing to lose by listing it ourselves. Brian made these beautiful flyer's, we got info tubes and signs and boom!
26 days or so and not a even one call, not one email, nothing! I don't even think anyone opened that tube. Then one Friday B called to say we had 2 showings the next day. We went to work scouring from top to bottom making all things perfectly perfect. I plugged in Scentsy every where and we decluttered every room in the house. It took the better part of Friday night and into Saturday early afternoon. The first set of people postponed but the second family arrived at about 3. I immediately went into realtor mode. I took them around pointing out all the areas we had upgraded and all the beautiful features in each room. Then I would back out of the room so they could open closets and cupboards and poke around like they would have done had we not been there. It was really fun and the showing went really well. They spent about an hour and looked around twice. They had both grown up in the country but had been living in the city since they got married and really wanted to move back. He is an avid hunter and fisherman so it was easy to see why they really liked our house. Not to mention but they told us he had masses and masses of mounts (all he had done himself) and with the house being a log house it just kind of made sense. As they were leaving I asked if they would be kind enough to give us some feedback (if they had any) regarding the showing in case there was anything we needed to change. I mentioned we had another showing the next day and was thankful this one had gone so well. So, they left and honestly we didn't give it another thought until the phone rang less than an hour later and they made an offer! Less than 24 hours later we were signing papers and on our way to some serious craziness b/c now we had to find a house. Thankfully, a recent epiphany (a word from God I finally listened to) had me chilling out about it. And so, to cut a too long already story short we bought a house back in town, we closed last week and are settling in nicely. We downsized slightly and we are now only 10 minutes from church instead of 25. I am beyond thankful in this whole situation and with several other big changes coming soon am really thankful to be closer to everything.

Here comes April and with that another birthday for me. I can't believe it. This time last year we had just received updated pics and video of JG and now I am about to celebrate my first birthday with her by my side. So blessed. Stay tuned for more of our craziness.