I'm BAAAAAAAACK!

Whew, I've missed this place! 

Since moving to Knoxville, I've hardly had any access to a computer. I love blogging and all, but not enough to type one out on my phone. That'd take for-ev-er.

We finally closed on the house (YAY!) and used some of that money to buy me a new computer (DOUBLE YAY!) so now I'm ready to get back in the swing of things.

Knoxville is wonderful and we're so happy here! I'm officially a full time stay at home mom after 15 months of working, so it's taking some getting used to, but we're finding out footing. I've felt like a truck hit me the last couple of days so there's been a LOT of movie watching going on. I know every word to every song of The Lorax.

But seriously, we're loving it. I'm so excited to keep this up to date now!

transition

This last month, followed by the next couple of weeks, has been and will continue to be full of transition.


Dual parenting.
To single parenting 5/7 days a week.
Back to living under one roof.

Working full time.
To knowing I'm leaving in 2 weeks and trying to wrap everything up.
To staying at home for a little while and then working part time.

Living in chaos (housekeeping isn't my strong suit).
To living in a perfect show home I don't want to leave.
To living in a townhome we'll rent.

Reuben sleeping through the night for months.
To not.
To hopefully doing it again once we're all together.


It's a bizarre feeling. Trying to live life in Nashville, knowing I'll be in Knoxville at the end of the month. I'm trying not to pull away from friends here yet, but I'm working on establishing friendships over there at the same time.

I sort of feel like I'm just going on a really long vacation to Knoxville. I'm not entirely sure it's clicked in my head yet that I will LIVE there. When we come to Nashville from now on, we'll be visiting. We won't be coming home. That's weird.

The good news is that I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has planned for us to go to Knoxville and we're simply following where he's leading us. That gives me a crazy amount of peace. I love Sevier Heights already. I love the people we've met. I love where we're going to live. I love that I'll get so much more time with Reuben. I love that we'll be near mountains. I love that we'll be closer to friends in Chattanooga. I love a lot of it.

I just don't love transition.

hasta la vista house

I haven't blogged because I've been up to my eyeballs in house fixing-up. It was never ending, frustrating, and absolutely overwhelming. I spent the majority of last Wednesday in constant tears, thinking of what I needed to get done to get our house on the market by Thursday.

Without Clint.

WITH a teething toddler.

Thankfully, our parents stepped up in a BIG way and came to the rescue and it was all done by 7:30 that evening. I sent our realtor pictures to let him know it was as ready as it could be and to put it up the next morning. I wanted it on the market before I went to Knoxville so I could get it clean and it'd stay that way for showings on the weekend without me having to do it again and again. Clever, right? ;-)

I left early Friday morning to go to Knoxville for Mother's Day. Our realtor, Jeff, called and told us that there were 3 showings for the day. While Reuben was napping, Clint said we needed to start looking for a town house in Knoxville since I'd be there soon. I told him we should wait because I didn't want to find something so soon when the house wouldn't sell for a while.

He said "I've been praying God would sell the house this week. He's going to do it."

I agreed to go look at a couple of places, fell in love with one, and as we were driving home from seeing it, got a phone call from Jeff...

You guys...

OUR HOUSE IS SOLD!!!

Seriously. In three days. I can't even believe it. I'll be in Knoxville permanently on June 1st. I can't even stand it, I'm so excited!!! 

 

five on friday

First off, if you didn't read yesterday's post, go ahead and check that out. It's a pretty big deal! We're so thankful for all the support and prayers during this transitional time.

Now, let's get down to business.

[ONE]
baby babbles

Reuben's getting to the age where he's babbling all.of.the.time. Most of it is intelligible, but I'm also starting to understand pieces here and there. This week, he's started saying outside... but in baby language, it's "ow dah!". The kid is obsessed with the chickens at my parents farm and ALWAYS wants "ow dah".

[TWO]
Muppets Most Wanted

The Muppets Movie from 2011 is one of our family's favorite movies. It's incredibly clever with some really catchy music. Knowing that we'll be 3 hours apart in a month, Clint and I are trying to squeeze in as much quality time together as possible so we decided to go on a last minute date after Reuben's bedtime tonight and Muppets Most Wanted seemed like the perfect idea.

I have to be honest, I was a wee bit disappointed. It was funny...ish. I didn't love the storyline and the songs weren't nearly as catchy. It was cute and I don't regret seeing it, but it definitely lived up to the general rule of sequels not being as good as the original.

[THREE]
bathtub woes

Our house was a foreclosure and it's come with plenty of issues, one of which is our bathtub. There have been these stains that I absolutely cannot get out. I found a concoction of vinegar, borax, and dawn dish soap on pinterest that I was convinced would work. So much so, that I even took before pictures to put on here before the after photos I'd get. Here's one:

Here's after:

Ok, so that's the same picture, but seriously. NOTHING CHANGED. UGH. So now we're thinking we're going to have to just get the bathtub refinished. I've tried everything I can think of and none of it is working. That being said, has anybody ever gotten a new bathtub liner? Looking for some hope, here.

[FOUR]
teething tongue

Reuben's got some molars breaking through his gums and he's decided sticking his tongue out makes him feel better. It's out 99.9% of the day and it's so dang adorable.

Oh, please excuse the massive pile of clothes in the background. Our friends gave us three boys worth of handmedowns so I was in the process of organizing them. Our house isn't always that messy ;-)

[FIVE]
the first of the lasts

Wednesday was Clint's last regular Wednesday night in the student ministry and the night they told all the students we were leaving. It was definitely bittersweet and there were plenty of tears from the both of us. It's really surreal that we're actually leaving and that was the first thing that made it sort of start sinking in. I'm just so proud of Clint and how God's used him in the student ministry. I'm excited to see what's next, but it'll be hard to leave this behind.

Happy weekend, y'all! Hope you have some fun plans!

hope: our next chapter

A few weeks after Reuben was born, Clint and I both had a strong feeling that God was calling us away from Long Hollow-our church, workplace, and family. We've both been here since we were kids and our whole world kind of revolves around it. Both of our families go here, we both work here, and just about every single one of our friends either goes or works here. We felt like God was wanting us to go somewhere new and stretch ourselves to grow, both as an adult and as a Christ follower.

To make a year long journey a short-ish story, over a year's time, Clint's had close to 10 opportunities present themselves to him. He hasn't looked for a single one. When the first one presented itself about a month after we felt the nudge from God, we were sure it was it. We even flew out to San Antonio to interview with their staff. We loved the people, the church, and the city, but found out it wasn't what God had planned for us. We were so disappointed, but then another opportunity arose in south Florida (who doesn't want to live there?!) and we figured THIS was it-why God shut the door to Texas.

But it wasn't.

And neither were the 5-6 things that followed that.

Most of them were just talks. "We may be having a position open soon. We'd love to talk to you about it" and then nothing more would come of it.

But every single time, we'd get our hopes up.

It's hard even thinking back on it. It's easily been the most frustrating year of my life. I've been so mad at and irritated with God. I felt abandoned. He had given us this sense of moving on and here we were, stuck where we've been for the last 12 years.

I had lost hope.

Then a friend called Clint and said he was going to throw his name out there for a position if it was alright with him. Clint said sure and then told me about it. I just chuckled and said whatever. I hardly thought anything of it.

And then when our friend called back and said they were interested, a little spark lit up in my heart. I wanted to think this could be it, but I was terrified to get my hopes up. They'd been let down and stepped on so many times. This scenario was too perfect. There was no way God would make us wait for a year just to hand us something so perfect, right?  (My spirit was clearly in the wrong here, because scriptures tell us over and over again that that's exactly what He does!)

The next morning, I read this verse:

God is the God of HOPE! He desires that we overflow with hope. But not in our own power- in the power of the Holy Spirit.

At that point, the spark grew to a small flame and I started to really hope in the Lord-that he was faithful to fulfill our desires from him and that his timing was perfect. I asked some friends to pray with me and for me because I knew if this didn't work out, it was going to be really hard on me.

One thing led to another and...

It's exciting and scary all at the same time. We know without a shadow of a doubt this is where God wants us, but the unknowns are creeping up on us and it's hard to not let them get to you.

If you pray, pray with us that the Lord will continue to guide us through this process. We've got to sell our house and find another one-something neither of us has ever done. We'll also be separated for a while as I stay here with Reuben and continue to work until our house sells or until August, whichever comes first (definitely pray it doesn't take that long to sell our house!!!).

We will miss our friends and family here much more than I could ever convey over a blog post, but guess what? We're only 2.5 hours away! That's a day trip. So come and visit us!