ran.dom.

just a few things:

I ran 4 miles, two days in a row, took a break on Sunday and then ran 3 miles today.
something just clicked and now....I run. Um...I've always wanted to say that ;-)
oh. and I think I may have volunteered to do a race with a friend (not sure how long of a race, but a race) and an 8k MUD run with a 17 yr old. I'm just hoping whatever college she gets into she'll have to be at before Aug 8, otherwise, I'm in BIG trouble!


The house we are staying at has been amazing.
These are friends of my parents that we've known and been close to for over 20 years.
Their three kids were in our wedding and I kinda consider them more like family members than friends.
So, it super extra really comfortable here. That's not to say that I am not very ready to be in our own space, that's just to say that we COULD have been in a hotel this whole time.
I can't cook in a hotel, make sugar cookies with the girls in a hotel, do laundry right in our room in a hotel, etc....it just would have been very tight in a hotel, that's all.
Here, we are very loose and very at home. SUCH A BLESSING!
A really really really huge blessing.
Everyone that lives here either works or goes to school all day so I've been doing my best to keep dinner on the table and keep the house clean.....ya know, the stuff I do anyway.

Jake is going to take leave after we get into the new house so he's been inprocessing to this zoo for two weeks.
He's enjoying it. Except for the 'wind' of deploying......WHAT!!!????.....so not official but it was a shock to even hear that is was possible. And that's all I want to talk about for right now. Ugh.

Our landlords are great, we have met with them, seen the house and are excited.
We decided to change our move-in date to April 5th instead of April 1st so as to help our hosts out by house sitting while they take a quick trip to NY AND it would give our landlord more time to spruce up the place before we got in there.
After making that decision our landlord called and asked if we'd move our move-in date to April 5th so she'd have more time to spruce up the place before we moved in!!!!
Love it when stuff like that happens.

The house:
It was smaller in real life than it was in my head.
BUT, it's just so darn cute.
LOTS of character, BEAUTIFUL neighborhood, SO many trees and well kept homes, old, but pretty, there is a whole WALL OF HOLLY in the back yard people! That made me smile. Wood burning stove, bright basement, wood floors, just pretty.
And we will have two guest rooms, so book your visits now!!!!
Labor Day and mid-November are already booked ;-)

All the girls are going into one room, the master bed room, in two sets of bunk beds.
God has provided one set of free bunk beds already and we are on the look out for another set of used ones.

We are excited...anxious might be a better word....like I said, it was smaller in real life so there will be some creative storage going on....but, it will be fun!
(uh hem...and Ikea is just down the way ;-)

Also, with moving our date back, Hannah, the 17yr old daughter of our friends we're staying with will be on spring break and will be able to watch the girls for us for two days while we go and unpack everything.
Like I said...Huge Blessing, these people.

I don't know what to say about the girls without totally bragging my head off about them.
They have not been perfect, but pretty darn close!
They have been patient and carefree and self-entertaining.
We have LIMITED toys here with us and they aren't skipping a beat (which just means more toys will be disappearing from our stash currently in storage! Courtney, when is that garage sale???)
I brought school with us and we've managed to get 4 out of five week days down every day.
We have played at the park for endless hours, and had fun ;-)
Lydia and Samantha are working on being able to 'run' with me, they just love it that I run.
Our hosts have a golden retriever who just about lets them do anything to her and it has been AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
For those of you who have seen Nora in action around dogs (sheer terror, fright, screaming, running, crying, etc....) she is the most precious with Cassie.
Her favorite thing to do here is to get a huge pile of books, prop herself against Cassies's stomach and kick back to read her books.
Yes, there will be pictures when I get my computer up and running....so cute!


and that wasn't just a few things was it!?
did you make it this far!?