House Hunting 101

"What a day this has been, what a rare mood I'm in, why it's almost like... packing, again!" Is there anyone out there who thinks moving is really fun?!? Carter and Rebecca? Jason and Jess? Ok, I'm sure there is... somewhere!

It's official. I see nine boxes of dishes professionally packed by my mom (she's the best packer, ever! If you need some help packing, ask her! Hi, mom!) sitting against the wall in our mud room, here. So, yeah, unless the contract falls through, we are ... 27 days and counting! And, we still haven't decided on where to settle our small brood!

So, if you are reading this, I'd love it if you would lift us up in prayer. It's difficult to decide on a house purchase as quickly as you'd pick out which burger you want in the McDonald's drive-thru! Laurie, you can attest, huh! Granted, we aren't having to out-run other buyers to get to the door first, but still...

On that note... if you have a funny moving story, we'd love to hear it! Just leave it in the comments section. Scott and I could use a good, hearty laugh about now!

Where Did The Summer Go?

We're back...and wow, is life ever busy and full of changes!

Our house is now under contract with a closing date scheduled for September 26th. So...we'll be doing another whirlwind tour of houses over the next few days and hopefully making a decision this weekend. Moving from our current location will definitely be bittersweet. It will be really difficult for me to pluck myself from the beautiful view we've enjoyed the last couple of years, but it will be nice to be closer to town for better access to Scott's work and all of our growing list of in-town activities.

Isaac's soccer team's first game of the season (Ian's picture didn't turn out).

August 23, 2008

Isaac and Ian had their first soccer games this last Saturday. Isaac is on a completely new team this year while Ian gets to have his coaches from last year. Both boys were able to score, which completely made their day! Their practice schedules are completely opposite this year which will make for a lot of running around and most of their games will be at the same time which is a little disappointing for us. But, the boys are super excited about soccer and it is so fun to watch them.

Isaac's first day of second grade
August 25, 2008

Isaac started second grade at Trinity Lutheran on Monday. He was not excited about the proposition (Scott and I also had mixed emotions on whether or not to homeschool him again this year), so we were glad to find out that two friends from AWANA, Tucker and Zion, would also be in his class. Isaac's teacher, Mrs. Pollem, is really nice, too, and we know Isaac will have a wonderful time this year...

Last Friday, we stopped by the school so that Isaac could meet his teacher and see what his classroom would look like. When we left, Isaac said,"Mommy, my teacher must be a lot younger than you." I, feeling very old and gnarled simply by his comment, asked him why he thought that. His answer was,"because she is much shorter than you." Oh...umm...well...hmmm... I was happy to hear that it was simply my height and not my "fleshy muscles" and "sun-ripened face" that he was noticing!! :)

Yesterday he asked his teacher if she would like him to bring her an apple and was overjoyed when she said she would love that! However, since we've been out of town for so long, we didn't have any fruit in the house, yet. Isaac asked me, "Do we have any bananas? Or maybe some vegetables that we could give her? Could we go to Wal-mart and get some apples, then? She will be very pleased if I bring her an apple, tomorrow!"

Scott and I were very happy to provide Isaac with an apple for his teacher this morning! :)

Hopefully sometime later I'll be able to get a little slide show together of our Michigan vacation.

Summertime...and the driving is easy!

Wow! I am on Scott's Aunt's computer and I am completely AMAZED at how fast it is! Our computer has been having some connection "issues" for the last couple of weeks so I haven't been able to update this blog. Now we are on our way up North to Cheboygan, MI (where Isaac was born, by the way) to see the rest of the Balyo clan.

Travelling with the four boys has actually been pretty easy so far. Except for the "more-than-occasionally-needing-to-use-the-bathroom, the boys have been really good. The invention of the car DVD player is one of the best ever! Last year, by the time we'd hit the last Iowa reststop, I thought I was going to go bananas. I think we'd listened to the Cars soundtrack CD fifty times and I'd read about 150 books and picked up about 1,000 little toy parts and cars from the very hard to reach places under and behind those lovely carseats. I'd broken up arguments and listened to a fair share of whining. (I didn't listen to all of it...some of it went in one ear and out the other!) I'd passed back snacks and water bottles...and cleaned up snacks and water bottles. And through all of this last year, I had morning sickness and allergies and a headache that I still remember!

This year... it's been soooo easy! A bunch of movies and the boys are glued in! Now, just one more day of driving and they'll be able to run, run, run!

Which brings me to this...I won't be able to check the computer very often for a couple of weeks, so I am going to try to have a few guest posters while I'm gone. I saw that on somebody else's blog a couple of weeks ago and it was really fun! Hope you are all having a wonderful, sunny summer! Erika