Busy, busy

Seriously... who decides to sell their house when they are this busy??? Oh yeah, we do! And I am trying to truly enjoy every step of the journey! I know the word *enjoy* probably doesn't seem to fit the situation, but I really do want to make sure I enjoy this season of our lives. Our life outside of moving is still speeding along like a freight train and I'm loving every minute of it- even though some days I'm not sure which way is up or down! I actually keep forgetting that tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I am thankful to my sister-in-law, Debbie, and brother-in-law, Randy, who are taking on 90% of Thanksgiving dinner this year and opening their house to host.

I'm in the home stretch with school and begin my student teaching experience on January 4th. I met one of my cooperating teachers on Monday afternoon and it has me even more excited (and nervous) than I was before, she seems like a great fit for me! I am thankful we will be all settled into the new house by January so I can truly focus on what I need to do in order to grow as a teacher. I am also thankful to have Rick as a resource in addition to my cooperating teachers- he has been a great help to me so far! I think what I'm least looking forward to with the whole student teaching thing is the "dress code"... jeans are only allowed on casual Friday. Eek. I have a lot of clothes shopping to do and very little sense of style or current fashion. Anyone care to help? And by help, I mean take me shopping and tell me what to buy- or at least send me some links to outfits I should be looking for. :)

We had a couple of doctor appointments yesterday: Cooper's had his one year well-baby check and I'm thankful he is healthy (more on his stats in my next post) and I had a long overdue eye appointment, too. I am thankful to be able to see everything a little sharper today! I also get to go back in a couple of weeks to pick out new glasses- my first new pair in like 9 years! I usually only wear my glasses at night, but maybe I'll change that with the new specs and maybe I'll even post a picture on here. Maybe.

We will be contributing to the retail world quite a bit over the next few weeks. Between birthdays (my sister's 30th!), a wedding (our nephew, Michael and his beautiful bride, Sarah), Christmas, school clothes shopping for me, and getting furniture, etc. for the house, we'll be out enjoying the hustle and bustle of the holiday shopping season. For the ability to do this, I am thankful.

We are living in limbo right now- bare walls, boxes lining the garage, and on the verge of emptying all the closets and drawers. We'll be living on the bare minimum of clothes and toys, preparing to move our stuff into all the new closets and storage we will have. I really can't wait to organize everything! I am thankful for a husband who likes organization as much as I do... although we have been known to get into *discussions* on how a particular space should be organized. I am also thankful for all free and cheap boxes and packing supplies we have been receiving from friends and family, it has helped tremendously to have boxes all ready to put together and fill. On Monday morning, I removed everything from the walls and tables, basically all of our decor'. I left the house for a meeting and class with piles and stacks of pictures, fake greenery, candles, and the like covering the family room floor, then joked on facebook about wishing the boxes could pack themselves. Guess what? The boxes didn't pack themselves- my amazing husband packed them! I came home from class at 10:30pm and the family room was clean and bare and I was thankful! Thankful for my husband and all the hard work he has been doing to prepare for the move and thankful I didn't have to pack all the stuff myself. He really is an amazing man. I would guess that by the end of this Thanksgiving weekend, almost the entire house will be ready to move. So exciting!

Finally, I am thankful for how patient our kids have been throughout this whole process. Riley is still thriving at preschool and loves going to learn and play with her friends. She has really been into dress-up lately and I love to watch her twirl around in her dresses and have tea parties. Tyson has the most incredible imagination and he's so creative, it just makes me laugh! He was determined to play dress-up with Riley the other day and wanted to wear a pretty dress, too. We put one on him for about 2 minutes to get a great blackmail photo, then let him dress-up as Bob the Builder and Buzz Lightyear instead. I think we'll have to search for some great gender neutral dress-up clothes soon! He asks about going to the new house several times a day, so I'm thankful that day is fast approaching. He's going to love having his own room and not having to worry about waking up his little brother during naps and bedtime. Cooper has been battling a nasty cold and 4 teeth working their way down, but he's been a real trooper! We had two semi-sleepless nights from the tooth pain and stuffy nose, but he was back to normal last night. I think his two front teeth on the top will be breaking through any second, with the next two coming in soon after. I look forward to him having his own room as well, a place to keep all of his age-appropriate toys so maybe his older brother and sister don't try and steal them all the time!

This post is full of many things I am thankful for, because I missed a thankful post on Monday and Tuesday. In case I don't get a chance to write anything tomorrow: Happy Thanksgiving!