Spring break and Empty nesting....

I am sure that some of you are wondering why in the world we would be concerned with the "empty nest" syndrome while we have a house full of toddlers!  Well, Spring break is around the corner. Yes, I can still understand why you might be confused because we don't have school age children, so what in the world does that have to do with us?!  The answer is simple...It may not be Spring break for me, but it is for Grandparents who work in the schools and go to school! :-)  So the kiddos are going to go spend a night with Nana and a night with Grandmom, leaving me with an "empty nest."  Now you without children might not understand the train of thought that occurs next, but hopefully you will be humored by it nonetheless. 
The thought of a quiet house for two days is thrilling, relaxing, tiring and lonely.  The thrilling and relaxing part makes sense without any obvious explanation while the tiring part may cause some stirrings of wonder in you.  Well, it will probably be tiring because I will finally have any opportunity, without many distractions, to get done all those little things that I normally excuse getting done because of the kiddos!  For instance, refinishing the new dining table from Craigslist, painting over all the greasy little hand prints and streams of dog drool in the kitchen and hallways (appealing, huh?), sewing curtains for the loft, sorting through old baby clothes and the list goes on.  See aren't you tired already, too?
Anyways, as I was discussing all this and the timing of dropping the children off and picking them up with Brandon, it hits me that I am going to really miss them and don't know that I will like the sound of an empty house all around me.  Yes, it's only two days and I am very excited about this, but my pregnancy hormones can still get the better of me.  So I find myself laying in bed and wandering down the road of "someday" (of course I take Brandon with me by discussing this out loud).  Someday the kids will be gone in their own homes and ours will be quiet.  Hopefully, God will allow the future to play out something like this... Addie will be 22-23years old, married and grandchildren will be in the not so distance future.  That way our youngest would only be 16ish and still at home and by the time she is ready to leave we will have grand-kids to start filling the house with noise again!  Brandon was probably rolling his eyes at me in the dark, but these are the crazy paths that my mind wanders.  Thankfully, upon waking the next morning all those futuristic thoughts of "someday" are out of my mind as Ian calls from his bed "I'm POOP-EEE!"  And I start to think, maybe I will let my lazy pregnant self take over for those couple of days and sit on the couch and eat bon-bons......

Why is it when you are pregnant that everything becomes more of a chore?!  I have absolutely no desire to clean my house like I usually do, I don't really want to cook very much (except for the occasional batch of cookies, of course!), picking up the "presents" that the dogs leave us in the backyard is definitely off my to-do list, the thought of cleaning the unidentified pile of crumbs out of the van is disgusting and sadly, blogging has just fallen off my radar all together.  (Whew, even writing that much feels like an accomplishment!)  In addition to all the aforementioned tasks, I have a hard time writing when I don't feel like it is worthy of your time to read.  I am sure that some of you don't mind the rambling and the absence my blog posts lately makes me feel like I am neglecting friends.  So, today is one of those rambling kind of days.  My musings are not that entertaining right now, but I do hope to conjure up enough motivation to post some recent pics of our first trip to the Nashville Zoo soon.  Until next time, I leave you with this...

Encores Children's Consignment Sale

I survived my first consignment sale this past Friday!  This is a new experience for me, because in San Antonio they really did not have many of these sales, but here in Nashville there are two whole seasons for consigning!  Crazy.  And when I say that they are a big deal, I really mean BIG.  This sale was in an old Big Lots building and it was full to the hilt with toys, clothes, shoes, furniture and so forth.  And there are some seriously intense people there, people with clothes racks upon clothes racks of items to consign.  How on earth anyone has that many items to sell without being a wholesaler is beyond me, but then again I guess we do live in a consumer culture.   I am also consigning at this sale and am hopeful that the amount I sell will cover the cost that I spent.  If this philosophy turns out true then it really is more of a clothes swap and a great deal!

Shades of Pink.....

Well, the verdict is in.  Ian will be completely surrounded by pink tutus, princesses, ballerinas and eventually, hormones!  Addie's first reaction to the news that she would have another little sister, was a big grin that diminished within seconds and gave way to the question, "But who will Ian play with?"  (Such a sweet little girl)  And I guess the answer will be, "Daddy!"
The next question that flowed from Addie's wise little mouth was, "What is her name?"  Well, that is a great question!  We have no idea and the ideas that we do have are not exactly copacetic.  The good news is that we have a little while to figure it out and in the meantime we might even consider any serious suggestions. :-)