We Are Tardy-Heads

Oh, May.  What to say about May now that it’s June 14^th and I’m just now getting around to writing this?

May is such a blur and I have a sneaky suspicion that June is going to be similarly whisked away.  Nonetheless, here’s a breakdown of the parts that I remember :

·         I got to spend my first Mother’s Day as a mommy!  Yay!  Tyler and Aleah got me a nifty suede shopping cart cover (for Aleah to sit in) that doubles as a booster seat cover (to use at restaurants).  I’ve been coveting these for a long time and was so excited to get it! 
We celebrated with both of our mothers and had a lovely time doing so.
This is going to be quick and way too short to describe the depth of my feelings, but I want to take a brief moment and talk about my kind, wonderful, angelic mother.   I love her; I am crazy about her; I will always look up to her.  This year of all years, I’m so thankful to have her as a mom because of the incredible example of motherhood she has set for me.  My mom is one of my very dearest friends/kindred spirits.  Even now that I am grown and out on my own, she still amazes me every day with her selflessness and determination.  Being a mom is intimidating some days when I think about how I am literally shaping my child’s life at this point.  Thank goodness I have my Mom to look up to.  Simply put, I love her.  

On that same note, I would feel like a total ingrate if I didn’t mention my sweet mother-in-law.  We are going to live by her soon and as such, have spent a lot of time at their house as we’ve been back and forth from Roy to Washington Terrace constantly.  This has given me the awesome opportunity of getting to know Jeannie more and I love it!  She is so fun and kind-hearted and a superb Grandma.  Plus, she raised my husband and I owe his kind ways to her and the tender manner in which she raised him.

For the record, I think that being a mom is the best thing in the entire world!  Every day that I get to wake up and be a mommy to Aleah, is the greatest day ever.  Tyler and I both agree that we didn’t really know what joy was until we became parents.  It was wonderful to reflect on how blessed I am to be a mom this past month!

·         We sold our house!  Yay!  It was a very interesting, stressful experience that I hope not to relive for a very, VERY long time.  Since this is our family history, I just have to share a cool experience associated with the sale of our home.  I’ll try to overcome my wordy ways and make it brief.  Basically we received our first offer, got super excited, and submitted a counter offer so we wouldn’t have to come in with so much money after paying all the realtor fees.  At that point we found out that the offering party wanted much more from us.  We went back and forth with them for a while before realizing that we would be coming in with way more money than we wanted to  in order to sell our home (yuck.  Who wants to do that?) if we accepted their offer.  We felt we had no choice but to reject the offer, but we wanted so badly to find buyers that month.   Tyler and I both prayed about it throughout the day but got no answer.  Finally, feeling like we had no other choice, Tyler called the realtor just before the deadline to tell him we couldn’t go through with it.  Before he called, my prayer went something like this, “we don’t know what to do but we’re not getting any answers from you.  We are going to go forward with our decision so if it is wrong, please feel free to stop us.”
Just as Tyler opened his mouth to tell the realtor that we were going to say no, something entirely different popped out.  Instead, he described a perfect solution to the problem that split both of our wants right down the middle.  When he was done, we all paused for a minute and then were surprised when we realized that it was a perfect solution that none of us had thought of up until that point.  It wasn’t particularly
 difficult and didn’t end with us making loads of money, or anything like that, but it satisfied both parties and was exactly what we were looking for.  Aren’t answered prayers so cool?

·         Our new house is finally undergoing pre-moving construction.  So far we have put in new appliances, new crown molding on the cabinets, all new paint, and next week (cross your fingers), we should have the new carpet in.  Things are coming along nicely and we’re hoping to move in during the last weekend of June.  Wish us luck!  We are so excited to live in our new home.  Anyone willing to contribute their time and physical labor to the cause may contact us and prepare to receive of yummy treats that will be provided.

·         Aleah:  This month has been quite the developmental time for Aleah.   Once May hit, Aleah started crawling all over the place and it was very weird to get used to.  One day in particular, I remember putting her down by our coffee table in the living room, running to the laundry room to get clothes to fold, and coming out to find her totally gone.  She had crawled into the kitchen, and was going through the pantry in just that short amount of time.  At that point, I realized just how very much things had changed.  She makes noises all the time now, sings with Mama, and has a new favorite toy- Eucerin cream.  Funny, right?  She loves that stuff!  No matter where I hide it, she finds it.  She likes to grab big handfuls of it and watch it squish between her fingers.
We’re only now discovering how much harder it is to move/fix up a house with a baby.  For example, Tyler and I were both caulking/hammering stuff and had to put Aleah down.  She was crawling all over the floor covered in hammers, crow bars, nails, bits of wood, etc…  Now that the carpet is torn up, putting her on the ground isn’t even an option.  Taking these things into consideration, it’s really best that just one of us works at a time J  However, she has been an angel through this process and has loved having various family members over to help.  Here is a picture of her enjoying the house that Grandpa Wall made her after helping us install a new dishwasher.

·         Tyler here – I just wanted to add that I finally hit my three year mark at Hill AFB and really enjoying what I do.  In addition to liking my career choice I now get more sick and annual leave which is going to totally rock.  I love being able to take off work basically whenever I need.

·         I think that about covers it.  May has been a fun, transitional month and I’m already anxious for things to slow down once we establish some routine in our lives again.  Here is my collection of pictures we’ve taken along the way:

Aleah sleeping in Daddy's "man sling"

Playing with Grandpa