the Biggest Week

A week or two ago, we had what might possibly be the biggest week of our lives. hands down. for realz.

I've tried to blog about it several times, but I can't get our home computer to work at all (not to mention that the computer is completely blocked by Jasper's new and huge tent, about a million dinosaurs, a beta fish, 25 dvd's, 2 dump trucks, 2 Captain America shields, and 3 superheros) and the blogger app on my phone won't submit any of my blogs, either. Sigh. I was missing you, my dear blog, greatly.

But alas!! my heart! Do not despair. For about the thousandth time this week, my handsome husband came to my rescue and solved all my problems... Bless him. So now I get to blog on his school laptop-dual screen-docking station-thingy. I truly have no idea what this is. But it's working and I'm typing and all is well in my world again. :o) Oh wait! Shoot. I don't have access to any of my pictures. Oh bummer. I literally just thought of that as I'm sitting here typing. Oh well. This will just have to be a picture-less post. Which isn't nearly as fun, so I'll try to find some images online to intersperse throughout what's turning out to be a really random blog post.

But anyway... back to the Biggest Week.

It was the biggest week of our lives. However, the week BEFORE the Biggest Week was quite a big week in and of itself, just bc of all the preparation. That week, I said no to all playdates, serving opportunities, community get togethers, line dancing, and whatnot and just focused on loving my family and preparing for the Biggest Week. The boys and I had fun doing things like deep cleaning, laundry, making and freezing "mexican tortilla casserole" to have during the Biggest Week. Making and freezing lasagna for the Biggest Week. Making and freezing taco meat for the Biggest Week. Buying and wrapping presents for the Biggest Week. Buying birthday party foods and decorations. Buying Mother's Day gifts and gift bags, making Mother's Day cards, etc, etc, etc. I think you get the picture.

The week AFTER the Biggest Week was huge in and of itself because my house was a wreck. My laundry piles were sky high. My dirty dishes were crammed on every counter and in every corner. Toys were everywhere. Birthday party decorations were everywhere. Mother's Day gifts were everywhere. Andrew's graduation party decor and gifts were everywhere. Trash was everywhere. The boys were exhausted and sad that their dear nana left. I was exhausted and sad that my dear mom left. Poor Andrew was just plain exhausted. Nothing was in order. Nothing was normal. Nothing was organized. I needed to be at the top of my A-game to get life back to normal for my family... but before I could even start... I got sick.

Like, really sick. Like, I-can't-get-off-the-couch-so-I'll-just-lay-here-and-cry-or-die type of sick. Like high fever, aches, chills, strep throat, and an ear infection sick. So with me sick and the house a wreck and the boys a mess and my husband exhausted, the Lord, in His constant kindness to me, sent an angel (aka my mother-in-law) to help get us through this rough period. We would NOT have made it without Mom Meade, and I'm still brought to tears by how she came in and served us selflessly and in so many different ways. And then after I got better, Jasper got sick. So the week after the Biggest Week was huge, too.

So... to recap everything so far..
- I haven't been able to blog
- the week before and the week after The Biggest Week were huge huge huge weeks
- we miss my mom desperately (so much it hurts)
- and my mother-in-law is an angel

But despite how big these other weeks were, they truly pale in comparison with how big the Biggest Week was. It was probably the biggest of our lives so far, but it was truly wonderful in every way and the Lord just lavished and lavished His kindness on it all.

Although I would love to write in depth about everything that happened, I'm just going to sum up the Biggest Week because today, we've had a pretty big day and I'm really tired and nap time is almost half way over and I really to go lay down before I need to get up to make dinner... so...

My mom flew in for the week. Bless her! I would NOT have made it through the Biggest Week without her! She was amazing! It was amazing having her here and her visit added such an element of excitement and special-ness to the week.

Also, during this week, Andrew was brand-new at his new job, Panasonic! What a special blessing Panasonic is to our family. The Lord is so kind to give Andrew such a wonderful job straight out of school.

So these two things are pretty big in and of themselves, but...

Tuesday, we picked mom up and had Kings donuts, a picnic lunch, played at a playground, a special dinner, homemade cookies after the boys went to bed, and a movie night.

Wednesday, my mom and I had a date, just the two of us. We did bingo at CFA with some friends (the boys were there for that), shopping at the Avenue, lunch at Due South, just for fun we went to see a few houses with our Realtor Mike Robinson, then a coffee shop, then we came home and had dinner with the kiddos and our babysitter, then we all went to Wednesday night church together. Somewhat unexpectedly on Wednesday, my mom and I saw a beautiful house with our Realtor. We fell in love with it, head over heels. It was pretty amazing, it met all 4 of our requirements, it met all of our preferences, it was perfect. We call it "our Renwick House".

Thursday, we had Jasper's 5 year birthday party. It was dinosaur themed, and when I asked Jasper who he wanted to have come to his birthday party, he responded, "Everyone." So we had everyone. :o) 49 precious friends came out for J's birthday party. We ordered 12 Papa John's pizzas and had other side dishes. Mom Meade made an awesome dinosaur cake that knocked the socks off of everyone. Jasper's party was so fun!! And so big! I'm so thankful for Jasper and Brody and their lives! Also, on Thursday, my mom watched the boys so I could go with Andrew and our Realtor to see our Renwick house. Andrew hadn't seen it before, houses are selling crazy fast down here, this house was perfect for us, so we were taking this quite seriously.

Friday, Andrew graduated!! He had to take work off, and Mom and Dad Meade, my mom, me and Jasper went with Andrew (brody stayed home with a sitter) for his MBA brunch and graduation ceremony in Atlanta. It was so sweet! Afterward, we went to Antico's Pizza and sublime donuts to celebrate. Then we did something fun and bigg-ish Friday night, but I can't remember what. Friday evening, we also called our Realtor and asked him to make an offer for us on our Renwick house.

Saturday, Andrew had his huge graduation ceremony with all of GSU in the Georgia Dome. It was really sweet and special! Afterward, Andrew and I went to Googie Burger in Cenntenial Park to have a sweet little date to celebrate (the kiddos stayed home with my mom). After we all got home from Andrew's huge graduation ceremony, we had a small graduation party for him with all of us plus Nate and MB and Henderson. We had yummy lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and peanut butter pie. Saturday morning, our offer officially got submitted for our Renwick house and Saturday evening, the sellers officially accepted our offer! There was no counter offer or anything!! What kindness of the Lord! We were all floored and stunned and super excited! Saturday eve, mom and I were going to go line dancing, but instead, we left the boys with Andrew and drove to our Renwick house and looked in the windows and dreamed about how to decorate it. Then we went to a coffee shop and looked at paint colors on-line. It was so sweet!

Sunday was Mother's Day! How sweet for me to get to spend Mother's Day with my precious little kiddos, who made me a momma, as well as my own momma and mother-in-law. It was a really sweet day! We all went to Chopstix for lunch and the guys made us a great Black and Bleu Salad for dinner.

Monday, my dear momma left. We were all bawling and oh-so-sad to see her go.

On paper, this week doesn't look so huge. But it really was so huge. I constantly was feeling like I was running in circles. I couldn't sleep at all at nights bc I was always thinking about what food or gifts I needed for the next day or what babysitter I needed to call to confirm with or what Andrew needed for the next day or if I remembered to get the casserole out of the freezer, etc, etc. Also, if you've bought a house recently, you know there's tons and tons of paperwork and prayer and phone calls and spousal discussions and prayer and more paperwork and more phone calls involved in buying a house. This whole Renwick house thing was so unexpected but so literally perfect. It is just so special and so kind of the Lord to let my mom see the house and fall in love with it... with me. It was so neat to have her apart of the process and sharing in all the excitement!! Also, the boys got babysat a lot. Madeline watched them, Summer watched them, my mom watched them thursday during the house viewing and all day Saturday, Andrew watched them Saturday night, I think my mother-in-law watched them, etc. The whole week was one big party-after-party and it was awesome!!

The Lord continues to bless us so much more than we deserve. The sale of our Renwick House is sailing through (pun intended) with no problems at all. The inspection went well and the sellers agreed to do EVERYTHING on our "request to remedy" amendment. They didn't make a counter offer or anything. We keep getting invoices emailed to us by contract workers that they've had come in and fix stuff. We don't have to lift a finger for any of it! We are simply floored by the Lord's sweet kindness to us.

I'd love to write more, but I'm so sleepy and am craving an afternoon nap...

Until next time, dear blog.