Anxiously Hopeful!

Today is Tuesday. Three business days from when our house was supposed to close. Our NC realtor "thinks" that we will be closing at 9am tomorrow morning. I'm having a really hard time being hopeful. When I see the final paperwork I'll be more hopeful. If we get that paperwork today, then we will be closing on the New Bern house at 9am and the Cookeville house sometime in the afternoon. IF this doesn't happen we will be in a pickle. Because the movers are leaving at 7am tomorrow to drive here so that they can begin unloading our things at 8am on Thursday morning. Talk about pressure!

But Jon and I have prayed and are trying to patiently wait.

Frustration!

Jon and I are pretty frustrated right now!

We were supposed to close on our New Bern house on Friday. But the lender for the buyer didn't start paperwork until Friday morning (closing was scheduled for 2pm). So they came up with some things that needed to be done. So the closing was pushed to today (Monday).  Now they are coming up with more and more things. So we are just hoping that we can close tomorrow in time to get the money for our Cookeville closing which is scheduled for Wednesday. Ahhhhh! The stress!

But if for some reason we don't get the NC house closed in time we'll just keep pushing the TN closing back until we can get everything in order. It just means that we have a ton of people to call to reschedule things that we had planned for after we had closed.

Fantastic Weekend Day 2

We had a very relaxing day today. Jon and the kids let me sleep in this morning, which was wonderful. Then we had breakfast and relaxed around the fish pond before leaving for the Lost Sea.

Kim has made her home into a relaxing retreat both inside and out. 

There are two ponds. The top pond flows through a waterfall into the lower pond which is filled with fish.

Flowers from the top pond.

Fish pond

I had noticed a brochure for the Lost Sea and thought it might be interesting. So we decided to go before heading "home" today.

Going down into the cave.

The info said that the temps were 58 degrees inside the cave. The kid's jackets are still in storage somewhere since I didn't think it would be cold before we moved into our new home. So we purchased sweat shirts for the kids in the gift shop. The smallest size was 6 so Caitlin was swimming in her shirt.

Waiting for the tour to start.

Some of the views inside the cave. 

 Water fall into the "sea".

Caitlin walking with Jon

Dominic and Uncle Jason

On the boat in the sea.

Bear paw stalagmite. It's supposed to be good luck to hug, so that is what Dominic is doing.

We had a wonderful weekend and can't wait to see Uncle Jason and Aunt Kim again soon.

Fantastic Weekend Day 1

Jon and I heard that this weekend was going to be move-in weekend for Tech and that the restaurants would be crowded with long waits and the traffic would be murder. So we decided to head down to see Jason (Jon's brother) and Kim.

On our first day there we went to Blue Ridge, GA to catch a train. The train went on an hour ride to Copperhill, TN and then headed back.

The kids and I had never been on a train before (subways, trams and monorails don't count). Dominic had gotten another Thomas video for his birthday and had been missing his trains. So we thought this would be something he would really enjoy.

The engine. Dominic was able to take a tour after the ride was over.

Waiting on the ride to start. Dominic with Aunt Kim.

We chose to ride in the open car so the kids could lean out the window and watch everything. Caitlin could just barely reach the bar.

I love this self portrait of Jon and I.

The views were great.

Some of the cars were enclosed and air conditioned, but the weather was beautiful and the chairs in the open car were facing the views. So we were glad we'd made the open car choice.

The conductor taking Dominic's ticket and signing a book he wrote.

If one kid does it, the other one has to follow. Poor Aunt Kim.

 My sweet little pumpkin head.

My precious little bug.

Wow! Riding trains is exhausting work. Notice Jon's hand holding Dominic's head so it won't fall forward.

Up in the Air

Jon booked a plane for this afternoon and we took a ride around the area. I wanted to see if we could find our house and Jon wanted to fly over the lake.

A couple of weeks ago we found these back pack lunch boxes and thought they would be perfect for the headsets for the kids. Worked perfectly and the kids LOVED them.

They are waiting on Daddy to do his pre-flight stuff.

Self portrait. We took several with one kid not paying attention in each one. I finally gave up. =)

Getting ready to go. I tried to leave out one of the jacks so we couldn't hear Dominic talking, 

but he figured it out. Sigh!

Caitlin didn't last very long with them on. For some reason she'd rather have the noise of the plane 

than the "noise" of her brother. =)

We live in a beautiful part of the country.

Center Hill Lake

Caitlin was in love with her backpack. We had put them in the luggage area while flying. When we landed she was leaning over the seat trying to reach them saying "Pack, Pack".

Snap shots of life in the slow lane

Our life right now is pretty unstressful. We are waiting to close on both homes and don't really have anything to do. The hotel is super easy to keep clean, especially with a housekeeper. =)

So we are finding out where all the parks and fun places to go are.

The next few photos are just random shots of us having fun.

I had found a snorkel on clearance. Dominic had been begging me for one so I picked it up. Caitlin tried so hard to be like big brother.

Dominic HAD to try it out that evening when Jon got home even though it had been pretty cool all day and the pool was freezing. It was chilly enough that Caitlin and I stayed in the room. Dominic was, of course, shivering when he came back.

The IHOP in New Bern was TERRIBLE. Every time I went there I left saying I wasn't ever going to return. Then about a year later someone would ask me to go and I'd go having forgotten how bad it was.

So yesterday we decided to give the one here a try. It was cleaner. The staff were more polite and the service was super fast. Kids eat free every day for supper so that was a bonus as well.

But the strawberry cheesecake pancakes sealed the deal. 

I got out the camera to take a picture of the yogurt all over Caitlin and she made this face.

I wanted to do a bit of shopping today so I bribed the kids with the park if they would be good for me. Went into Old Navy and the dressing room has a play area for the kids. I had to drag them out. Even the mention of the park wasn't enough. So it looks like I'll have no problem shopping there again. NICE!

The park was very simple, but the slides were a favorite and we'll be going back again. 

This slide was super slick and so Dominic would fly down.

Caitlin went down upside down a couple of times. Didn't seem to faze her.

Most of the time the kids would get off the slide and run around to the steps. But once I looked up (I was reading) and saw her like this.

Dominic was great at helping, but I felt better being there as a second spotter.

Dominic going up the spiral "stairs".

Brown cider

Dominic found an old juice container in the car. I wouldn't let him drink it because I had no clue how long

it had been in the car. Yuck!

Dominic tried to assure me that it was fine.

"Mom, it can't be bad. It's apple cider and so it's already brown."

I wasn't sure how this helped.

"Because stuff gets brown when it gets bad and apple cider is already brown so it won't get bad."

Dominic's 4 year pictures

Dominic

4 years old

August 3, 2010

 

 

Doesn't he look so big. It's precious and sad. My little boy is growing up.

He really needed his hair trimmed, but we don't have the clippers with us and I wasn't 

about to test out a new hair place before his pictures.

This next one is Dominic's favorite. He was telling the photographer how high he could 

jump and she asked him to show her. This is the result. I purchased enough so 

Dominic could have an extra.