A contract!

There is a contract on our house! WOOHOOO!!! We are so thrilled. Our house has been on the market since January, and we've been praying for the right family to come along at just the right time...

Well, I'm sure that God is at work here, since the family who is buying our home is amazing, and they want to take possession of the house on the day we leave for Charlottesville! I'm so excited! I'm sad, too...I really hate to leave our home here; I've become so incredibly attached to it...BUT, if I have to leave it, I leave it in good hands now.

The Good Days...

And then there are days like today. My two boys are playing side by side. The sun is shining. The coffee is hot. We found a slug and played with it. Ev has made dirt hamburgers for us. Tate is playing and laughing. Days like today make me feel entirely satisfied.

I'm not sure if it's related to the fact that I spent yesterday taking care of me...maybe when I do things for myself now and then it makes me more patient, more tolerant of kid behavior.

Yesterday, I went to College Station (WHOOP!) to see my good friend Azra, her husband Anees and their little boy Nadeem. It was amazing. I knew Azra when I worked for Arthur Andersen. She was my senior on many projects. She knew me "when." When I was cool. When I made money. When I was skinny. When I was interesting. :) The thing that was nice is that even though "all I do" is stay home with my boys now, she still thinks I'm cool. And interesting. And smart. It is reaffirming to know that, somehow. I'm not sure why, but it's as though a link between who I was "when" and who I am now has been made, and they're not entirely foreign to one another.

So, thank God, again, for old friends. For affirmation. For my two boys playing side by side. For the fact that they did SO well yesterday as I dragged them around Texas A&M campus and had them make new friends. Everett is still asking for Nadeem this morning...I love that about him.

Make new friends, but keep the old...

Since college, I've been in the "make new friends" mode, but haven't been too great about keeping the old. I'm not sure why, it's just been a function of where I am, what kind of time I have...

A few weeks ago, I started to meander down memory lane and think about my old college buddies. Suzanne and Jennifer and I keep up, but not as well as I'd like to. I think we're all a little swamped with life's big changes, having kids and very busy husbands...given the circumstances, I think we do OK. I got to see Jennifer a few weeks ago, when she made a special trip up here! She brought Sammy, who Everett loved and now asks for on a daily basis. :) That was fun. Although I only got to see her for a short while, it was definitely meaningful, and I feel like we can just pick up where we left off...and be painfully honest still, too. A good trait in a lifelong friendship. I get to see Suzanne at the end of May, too! I can't wait and I think that will be so fun...

So, I decided to call up a few of my other old friends...I found Kevin and Sharon and their two kiddos, as well as Anna and Kevin and their three little ones. I've got another call to make to see if I can find Reed...Anyway, Kevin and Sharon live in Austin and when I called, they were making plans with Royce and his new wife Bea to have a visit. I got to intrude and see my old friends. It was so reaffirming and encouraging. I'm not sure why I've been so bad at keeping up...but I'll be better from now on. :) They ARE gold, after all.

It was fun, even though we only got a short chance to hang out, and we had our very busy and demanding kids with us. :) Kevin and Royce are much like I remember them, and I have always loved Sharon. It was a treat to meet Bea, and I hope we can all keep up in one way or another.

Aww...Maybe something is sinking in??!

So, I went to lunch today with my great friend and partner in pregnancy, Meredith Alexander. She delivered her little boy about 3 weeks after Tate was born. We worked out together and had our big boys play together that whole time, and have continued on working out and being great friends since then. She's an amazing woman with 3 boys and a good example to me!! Anyway, we decided to meet at Chick-fil-a for lunch today, to let Josiah and Everett play together while she and I had a chance to catch up.

While we're sitting there, I hear Ev cry out. It's a painful cry, so I go grab him from the playground. He has 3 huge scratches on his face. I asked him what happened and he told me that the big boy hit him.

*INSERT MOMMA BEAR COMMENTS HERE* I was really, really unhappy, and the mother of said big boy didn't do a thing about it. Stuff like that makes me angry at the mom...sometimes kids don't know how to control themselves, but moms should always step in when their kids are being violent towards someone else. Granted, the kid was about 7 and Ev is still only 3...but Ev was probably as big or bigger in size.

Anyhow, I asked Ev if he was OK, and he said he was. Then I asked him if he hit the boy back. And he said that he hadn't. I asked him what he did and he said, "We don't hit." WOOHOOOOO!!

Ok, so honestly, there's about 1/32 of me that wished he'd smacked the kid in the head, but I'm so glad he didn't. He took the high road for a 3 year old and did a great job when faced with a hard situation. I'm SO proud of him!!

And yeah, he got ice cream as a reward for doing the right thing. :D