Settling in

Ah yes, where were we? I think the last post was one filled with frustration and anxious, waiting-game filled drama (no? did I just imagine it?). We have since closed on our beautiful home - however the drama did continue through and I have a new best friend in an account manager of the local branch in CO where I opened my original account. He was the only one who told me "yes" when I asked for help in wiring our down payment and closing costs (at the very last minute, mind you), without my physical presence in the branch. You see, this particular bank doesn't have any branches in the entire state of OK. You'd think this would make me want to change banks. And I guarantee you that I would have, IF no one had helped. Yet I found one fantastic employee who didn't tell me "no" - he made it work. And at the closing, with less than 3 pages left (out of the approximately 5,000 pages you have to sign), the wire came through and we actually got our keys! We closed on Halloween at about 5pm, proceeded home to change the boys into their ninja costumes, go trick or treating, load some of the big items, put the boys to bed at grandma's house, then unload the truck at the new house.

On the trick-or-treating front - this was the first year that Colin REALLY enjoyed the whole process and really seemed to get it. He was dragging us along literally, or running through the yard, pointing out all the houses that had their porch lights on. Chris and I got a kick out of seeing what a big boy he has grown into. Jack on the other hand was perfectly happy clutching the lollipop he got at house #2 with a death grip and a growl to anyone who made a move to take it away.

We've been in the house for a whole 3 weeks now and are slowly starting to settle in. We lucked out with fantastic neighbors (only three houses on our cul-de-sac, ours is one of them). One neighbor has already given us an open invite to use his pool whenever, and the other neighbors have 4 kids and adore playing with the boys. I can usually come home to a handful of them playing basketball or riding bikes in the driveway of the house. It's fantastic. Colin loves his new friends, and they all seem to be pretty good kids.

We are getting ready to host approximately 30+ people at our house for Thanksgiving this year - it's my favorite holiday, and when we were contemplating a move to OK I made sure to tell Chris that anyone was welcome to come over but that I would be cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I think he heard me :). It will be a mini-family reunion on his side of the family and we are both looking forward to a full house.

The waiting game

I am am competitive person. By nature, that generally means I like games; however, the waiting game is not one of them. I am as impatient as I am competitive - and when I want something I.Want.It.Now. Not tomorrow, not in a week, not two days after it's expected to be attained. Hmph. So when I found out this morning that our house closing, which technically should have been last Friday but was pushed to sometime this week, is likely not to happen until the beginning of next week :(. Sad. Yes, I realize that I shouldn't have been mentally unpacking all my boxes of things that were packed up nice and neat (read: thrown haphazardly into a box at the end becuase the movers moved faster than we could get the stuff in boxes and is now why I am cooking with three random, odd pans without lids for the past two months...).

I am trying to learn patience. Really I am. Trying that is, and failing miserably.  I will try to look at the bright side and say that this gives us the weekend to shove the few unpacked belongings back into a box (rather than having the weekend to unpack in our new dream house). I will pretend that by prolonging the chaos of moving my family for the second time in a few months we will have one last sane weekend together as a family to play before we have enough moving/unpacking/organizing etc to keep us busy until 2013.

At the end of the day I must say that we are pretty lucky. We found our dream house quickly upon moving to a new state, and up to now, all the pieces have fallen into place. Yes, the new roof could have been put on sooner, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't care that it will take a few extra days before we call the house our home.

Found it...

Lately I have been comparing myself to my beautiful little almost two year old baby boy. Jack may be one of the sweetest ones in the world and gives his big brother a run for his money sometimes with the cuteness factor (we are very blessed parents!). Jack is the prince of pointing out the obvious in his own innocent way. He will happily shout "found it!" whenver we are looking for something, regardless of the fact if he: a) actually found the item we were looking for, b) saw mommy or daddy with the item 10 minutes after we found it, or c) saw something that did not remotely resemble what we were looking for in the first place but he thinks it's pretty cool. It's quite hilarious and he knows it - could be why he does it in the first place, this kid loves to laugh. Getting back to my comparison to him. As we are transitioning to life in Tulsa, I have had many opportunities to count my blessings. My kids are thriving, I am really enjoying my new job, my husband and I are able to go out on a date, we have found a beautiful house that we love and are in the processing of trying to make it ours. In the meantime we are in a rental house and since we don't plan to be here very long we didn't set up cable - this has led to countless hours in the backyard playing "Simon Says", baseball with the boys, and running around as a family. I feel like we have already been able to spend a significant amount of quality time together and we've been here less than a month. Perhaps the newness factor will wear off soon. Perhaps it won't. For now, I'll just remind myself how lucky I am that we have more health, happiness, love, and togetherness than I cold have ever dreamt possible. I knew when we first started talking about moving to Tulsa that we were going to do it for the kids, for our family; to slow life down a little bit. As Jack would say, we "found it!".

Settling in

Wow - so much has happened in the past month. The only way to describe leaving my last job is to explain it to you the way my (now former) co-worker explained it to me.

It feels as if you are in a war-zone and missles and bullets are flying around you. You watch as a close friend dodges each bullet as she or he runs toward the US Embassy. As that friend pulls open the gates and escapes into freedom, you feel nothing but happiness that as they turn around and wave with a huge smile on thier face.

While I understand that some may think it's in poor taste to compare my last job to a war-zone, at times, to those of us on the inside, it was an easy comparison. It was also nice to know that those I left behind are just happy to know that I have found something better. The new job is awesome; I'm still in that new hire cocoon, but I'm enjoying everything that I'm learning and am excited about the possibilities that are in front of me.

The move to Tulsa itself has been so wonderful for my family. The boys are thriving and really enjoying being around all our extended family. They have created bonds already and we only hope things continue to progress as they are currently. We have also already put in an offer on a house we have found and love. It's absolutely the dream house and fingers crossed, we'll be in it before Thanksgiving. Walking into homes during the search this is the only one that reached out and made us realized that we could visualize raising our families here. The garden will take a bit more planning because of all the trees on the property, but since the house feels like it's in the woods, it's a task I'll take on. The garden may not be centrally located and instead be multiple areas with garden boxes strewn about the property based on where the sun shines through, but I'm still excited about the planning process and what we can grow.

Giving Back

Movers are coming a week from today. Our move to Tulsa, one that we have discussed on and off for the last three+ years, is finally becoming a reality. I feel so blessed to have things fall into place the way they have. Don't get me wrong, this process has not been without many bumps along the way, however I am so fortunate to already feel so welcomed by extended family and friends who have had their fingers crossed probably just as much as we have! Our boys are looking forward to playing with cousins and being closer to many relatives just as much as we are.

I'm also looking forward to settling down, buying a house, getting our compost and raised beds ready for the spring planting season. I am also excited about finding new opportunities to volunteer. Chris and I met through volunteerism and have had to put that on hold while we had two boys and a master's program that kept us busier than we could have imagined when we first signed up. It will be nice to get back into doing something we love and meeting new people in our new community along the way. There are many different organizations that we can get involved in and there are already a few that have jumped out at me:

http://www.upwithtrees.org/ is a local organization that works to plant an "urban forest" in and around Tulsa. My first thought was whether or not they plant fruit and/or nut trees to help supplement any of the local food banks.

http://emergencyinfantservices.org/Home_Page.php As a mom my heart breaks when I think about little ones and their families who go without the support they need - today's economy means there are more and more families out there who need a hand up.

http://www.cfbeo.org has a partnership with local farmers that allow volunteers to come pick fresh produce for the food bank.

There are also many community garden projects that have piqued my interest - can't wait to get down there and get involved!

A new perspective

it has been quite some time since I was last here...life has gotten away from me a little bit. My baby is turning 3 next week and I'm still not quite sure how that happened (I swear I just brought him home from the hospital...). My youngest is 20 months, and my husband and I are graduating with our Master's degrees next week. My how time flies... About three years ago we were exploring the option of moving to Oklahoma to be closer to my husband's family, and gave it up when certain aspects of life started to fall into place here in Colorado. We are now back in the same place but looking at it from a completely new perspective. Moving to OK is not scary, strange, or nerve-wracking; instead it's an opportunity that I am extremely excited about. We are actively seeking employment that will allow us to buy our first home together; one that has at least an acre so i can create my dream garden, hopefully have chickens and ducks, rain barrels, and a large compost bin. Our lives have significantly changed - for the better. I never thought I would be back in this place now, but can honestly say I haven't been this excited about something in about 20 months.