slow & steady

considering the fact that we moved in to our new house on may 9th and baby ruby was born may 24th, we haven't exactly made our house into a home...(yet)

the garage and downstairs laundry room and extra room are disaster zones with tons of unpacked boxes, we haven't hung much of anything on the walls (except for one single paintings in the entire house), and the list of initial to-do's is more than a page long.

my dear friend daphne, who lives far away in michigan keeps asking for updated photos, so as i can i'll post some.

here is the before of our livingroom....

and then the current state(i won't say "after" quite yet since it is a work in progress...):

once we get more done, i'll update these...

off to get very little sleep! xoxo

welcome to home ownership

so, as you know we made the brilliant decision to buy a house the same month that i was due to give birth. and right on time, less than 3 weeks after moving in, ruby was born. of course, since we've moved in we've already had multiple fun adventures in fixing random things.

this weekend matt ended up crawling around in the (appropriately named) crawl space to find the source of a leak and he ended up looking like this..... (not pictured, the assorted bruises dotting his torso and legs. for reals, people.)

i should note that as he climbed out of the ceiling he said, "i'd better make the blog for this!"

blog worthy it is.

and in a completely unrelated but i'm still posting it picture....

matt with baby ruby:

love him. love her.

it takes a village

i've been thinking lately about how that really is true- it has taken us a village to survive the last couple of years: as parents, as individuals, as a couple, as a beat down family, and now in the moving process.

in general, matt and i are extremely spoiled when it comes to childcare. we have friends and family who watch our daughter all the time so that we can go to counseling, run to appointments, go out for dinner, go to other weekly commitments, take breaks for no reason at all. i don't take it for granted for a second, and i realize that very soon (as in once this new baby shows up) we will probably be able to take advantage of this lovin' much less. m has INCREDIBLE biological aunts and uncles and grandparents, as well as adopted aunties, uncles, and special friends. i swear i am a better mom and wife because i have so much back up.

and now, this week- i am reminded again that when it comes to life, nothing beats a strong community of support. we got our keys friday night. it's wednesday. so far we have had quite the list of helpers- from packing to moving to painting to bringing food to washing my dishes to covering childcare. it isn't as if these people have nothing to do with their lives, but they are living out their values of caring for others. i love it and i hope i am as generous with my time as they are. (sometimes i think i would like to think i am more generous with my time than i really am. this is a reminder that whether i feel like or not, to help someone else out is the right thing to do.)

so far,

thank you

chrissy, pam, peter, courtney, nicole, chris, mark p., aaron, mom, becca, keith, jeff, damien, luke...

for helping us move.

if i had gold star stickers to pass out, i would.

but i think they're packed.

home sweet home

well, it's official!
much to our poor beleaguered realtor's relief...& to our great delight...

after quite the long process with so many twists and turns, 6 failed offers, multiple unscrupulous other realtors and deals that fell through at the last minute, we signed our lives away...
FINALLY everything on our house went through so we are officially homeowners!

and i love love love it.
well, i love the potential of it!

matt wore his paint clothes to our new address when we met our relator to get the keys, and he has been working ever since.
he painted until late last night,
and then all day today he and our friend peter painted and moved boxes to begin clearing out our old house.
my poor daughter can hardly walk in our current place- boxes tower everywhere.

meanwhile, i am doing my best to keep this baby incubating for a few more weeks, so i am trying not to move a thing.
it is kind of killing me that matt is working around the clock and i am, well, not - but the alternative, of going into labor early and trying to move WITH a newborn is a lot worse.
so i'm dealing.


we are so excited to begin this new journey-
we know it will be a lot of work, but it feels like a new season for our family in many ways.
besides, we haven't had an actual dining room since our first year of marriage,
so 7 years later i can't wait to have a dinner party with a table and chairs.

come over and eat with us!
(maybe not this week- it's a little crazy right now)

happy weekend!