Almost there!

Hope everyone had a nice relaxing Father's Day weekend. On my end my dad had to work and Tim was in Pensacola :( Such is life.

Big couple of weeks coming up. Our car that we had in Sicily finally made it to Atlanta. We could have gotten it last week but had to coordinate with my parents off days this week. They are such great parents letting us stay here for almost 2 months and then driving us to Atlanta to pick up our car. After that, Jacob and I will continue the almost 3 hours to Alabama and officially move in :)

Next week I have to get Jacob signed up for preschool, soccer (if he is old enough), schedule phone/internet/satellite, and get lots of deliveries (couches, storage and household goods). All while Tim is at school. I'll be up to my eyeballs in boxes for a few weeks until I get everything unpacked and situated. I'm excited though. I've done nothing constructive over the past month so I look forward to all the chaos! I'll pop in and let you know how it's all going once the internet gets turned on.

A Day Out With Thomas The Train

Hello All, hope you are having a super weekend! Last week was rainy. What else is new?! However, Friday we woke to a beautiful sunny day, horray!! We had tickets to the Tweetsie Railroad "Day Out With Thomas" event. We headed up to the mountains in Blowing Rock. It's beautiful up there and the cool mountain air was perfect.

Jacob, as many know, is obsessed with all things Thomas. He knows all of their names and is very quick to correct those of us who cannot keep straight who James, Duck, Rheneus, Percy, etc. are. I'm not complaining, because almost all those trains have numbers on them and it is helping Jacob recognize his numbers.

The gift shop had Thomas themed goodies, so we got a shirt, a special box car commerating the event, and some other things that Jacob "needed." The kids were given a map when they entered the park. The goal was to hit all the stations and get a stamp at each one, at the end when all the places were stamped they redeemed the map for a 3-D Thomas poster. This is now hanging on the fridge.

He was thrilled to ride on Thomas. It was actually just an extra car attached to the regular train, but the kids could care less :) After our ride on Thomas, we headed to the bouncy house Thomas, met Sir Topham Hatt, had lunch, rode on the rides and played on the playground. The day was perfect (except for that fact that Tim couldn't be with us) and a great reward for Jacob who has had several days of great behavior. I think he's finally settling into a routine. Unfortunately I have to uproot him again in a few weeks when we officially move to AL. *sigh

I highly recommend checking out the Thomas website if you have little ones that like Thomas to see if the tour is coming near you. It's a fun day geared to them!

Meet Cookie Mouse! and Other Stuff

I have to admit, even though we are at my parents, the fun is starting to wear off and we are now getting antsy to move on and head to AL to start our new chapter. In the mean time, I struggle to find things to do with Jacob. Inside is getting old and it is too hot to be outside during the day. My mom was off on Friday and Saturday. Friday the 3 of us headed to Charlotte to go shopping. First we stopped at a fabric store and I got some fabric for a fun quilt that I know those of you with little ones will LOVE. I'll post on that soon! Then we headed to the city and had lunch at Cheesecake Factory and hit the stores.

Saturday, we went to Barnes and Noble to "Meet Cookie Mouse." Are you familiar with the "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. . ." books? Well, Cookie mouse was coming to read the story and have arts and crafts, and cookies of course! Jacob had a blast. I think he was happy to just be around others his age and have story time.

Tim headed to Pensacola on Sunday. He starts his 4-week recruiting school today. I know he's nervous about the whole change, but welcomes it just the same. He got a call on Friday that resulted in a change in his recruiting offices. Jasper is now off the list and he will be out of the city of Cullman. Good thing we didn't buy and house or rent near Jasper. He still has the same commute but should be easier since it will be interstate driving instead of back roads. Plus, our city now falls under his radius. I wouldn't be surprised if something else changes again before July. That's military life though, nothing is certain.

As for our belongs. Last Tuesday, what I thought was going to be the storage delivery wound up being our express shipment. Yay! Then Thursday we were notified that our household goods made it to Birmingham. There is a 5 day release date so Tim wasn't able to get this before he left. Our Nissan still comes up as being in the ocean when we check on it's status. All in all though, I am happy that all of our stuff in stateside again. As soon as the car arrives, the plan is to get it and continue on to AL from there since Atlanta, where the car will be delivered is 2-1/2 hours from the house.

This weeks looks to be pretty slow. However, Friday, Jacob has a big day as we are heading up to Blowing Rock to the Tweetsie Railroad to meet none other than Sir Topham Hatt and take a ride on Thomas. It's part of the Day Out with Thomas Tour. I'm really excited to see Jacobs excitement over all of this!

The Hunt for the Perfect Preschool

While spending the past month in NC I've been spending some time researching preschools in our new town. The Methodist church we plan to attend has a preschool program and I thought it would be great to put Jacob there. They use the A Bekah curriculumn which a friend had recommended. I called and sounded like it was a go. Well, last week while in AL I called again just to speak with on of the directors and I told that registration started in March and that's when they filled up. Plus, because of Jacob's birthday in Mid-Nov. they won't put him with 4 year olds. Grrrrr! I explained that we are new to the area and if she had any other recommendations and I put him on the waiting list. No way in heck am I homeschooling!

Yesterday I finally got through to 2 other places. The first has their 4 yr class filled and they were willing to put him in there if they has a spot. They charge for the waiting list. No thanks.

The next and last choice is an actual Christian private school K4-12th grade. Tuition is lower than I expected +, they will accept Jacob into their early K-4 class +, he'll go 5 days a week 8-11:30 +, they use the A Bekah curriculumn +. We initially thought of putting him in 3 days since he just did 4 months of 2 days in Italy. So me being the overprotective mommy didn't want to see my baby go off 5 mornings a week. But, you have to cut the cord sometime right? Tim and my mom think Jacob will do fine. I called again this morning and found out about the early K-4 class so that eased my concerns of him being a late birthday and a boy not being able to keep up with kids that have been 4 for almost 6 months. My concern came from my own elementary experience. I am a late August baby and was always that youngest kid in my class. It really showed in elementary when I was always doing my own thing and missing recess to finish my work. By 4th grade I got my act together. The only other issues I experienced in High School when all my friends turned 16 way before me so they were all driving and I was not. My sister had similar issues as an October baby. Really have to watch those school cut off dates and b-days.

The woman assurred me we can complete the paperwork in July when we get there so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Homeowners Again!

Hi y'all! Thought I would finally update you on last weeks happenings. On Memorial Day we set off for a 411 mile car trip from NC to our new town Gardendale, AL. Due to the holiday, it was a nice easy drive. Much more exciting than traveling in the other direction to Virginia Beach, a trip I know all to well. LOL! It was also our 7th wedding anniversary. We skipped the presents this year in lieu of a house.We arrived in Gardendale around 3ish. Birmingham reminds me of Tampa. So I think I will enjoy it. We stopped to see the house before heading to the hotel. Our subdivision is off of a country road with 1 lane in each direction and not much around. We are about 5 min from the Super Wal-Mart so we are not super secluded. Our street still has about 8 empty lots still available. We are 2 houses from the end of the cul-de-sac. Retirees live on either side of us but I am starting to see some 30 somethings to meet with little kids :) There is a huge new park minutes from the park with a splash playground. The town itself, is old, quaint and had a lot of new growth and development until things came to a standstill over the past year. They have movies on the lawn, an actual Christmas parade (not Holiday, thank goodness for the Bible Belt), garden shows, etc. We felt at home right away.

We spent Tuesday doing our walk through and were happy to see that the problems found on the home inspection like elecrical work had all been fixed. Note: If you ever find a new construction home please have a home inspection. We never would have found some serious things that came up on ours. After the walk through we headed to the south side of Birmingham to get a signature from the design studio. Basically saying "yeah we showed up and don't want their overpriced fixtures." On the way back we stopped at a huge open air mall that had all the things I missed. Pottery Barn, PB Kids, Restoration Hardeware, William-Sonoma, Vera Bradley, Cheesecake Factory, PF Changs, and a lot of other big name stores. Not that I would ever come out with much but I love to go in and browse. It's about 25 min away via the interstate.

Wednesday our closing got moved up 2 hourse ealiers. Yay! It litarally took 10 minutes to sign everything. Much faster than when we bought and sold our previous house. Less paperwork since you don't need all those background checks of previous owners. Homeowners again! I spent that afternoon and night going from store to store finding 2in faux wood blinds. Finally wound up at Lowes got what we needed for the whole house. Tim was in charge of that while I put shelving paper in and cleaned. The cleaning was very easy since it was just a fine layer of building dust. I had the whole house wiped down in less than an hour.

Thursday we received Jacob's new bead frame, fridge and HE washer and dryer. I must say, so far the HE washer and dryer is a dream. So quiet when it runs. Supposedly it saves a lot in waterh and electric. We also decided that we would head back to NC since we were done and had an empty house.

Friday we packed up and left.
So that was our week. Jacob was very happy to come back to grandma and grandpa's house and play with toys and have a tv.