Here + There

It's been ages since I've written. I thought it was time I pop in and give a little update on what we've been up to lately.

The first question we get asked these days is "how is the house coming along?" I kinda love that question. This has been such a fun time of dreaming about our future in our home in the country. It has been all kinds of stressful, but it has been really great too. I'm not the most creative person. I don't draw or paint in my spare time. When it comes to fashion, I stick with the basics. Nine times out of ten you'll find me in jeans and a v-neck tee. And flip-flops of course.

But my creativity kicks in when it comes to my home and I've wrestled with that a bit. I have a pretty specific vision in my head for how everything will come together and it's hard to not think about what others will think. I'm constantly thinking about how I'll respond when someone says, "Why did you pick those counter tops? I wouldn't have chosen that paint color. You really spent too much money on this. I would have invested more in that." It can be kind of crippling. But I'm learning as I go and I know that there will be things we wish we would have done differently. There will be things we'll want to change the day we move in, and that's okay. That's the great thing. It's a blank canvas and we can make changes as our seasons in life change. Will Crosbi's room always include shades of pink? Probably not. Will styles and trends change? Always. For me, I'm letting my creativity be influenced by the season we're currently in and I'm 100% okay with that.

But where are the photos?! Here's a sneak peek.

The first floor is framed! Actually, this was taken several days ago and now the second floor is going up and our garage is completely framed out. Our house looks bigger than it actually is because we're on a hill. Our future neighbor asked if it was going to be three floors. Definitely not. About 2-3 feet of the concrete that is visible will be covered by our yard once the dirt is spread out. 

As much as I'm excited about the house, my eyes go right through the house to those trees. TREES! Our last home didn't have a single tree. I'm counting down the days until I'm sitting on our back patio, watching the sun go down behind all those shades of green.

In the meantime, we're plugging away in our apartment. We are beyond blessed to have the temporary living space we have, but we miss so many things about having a home. I miss grilling so badly I can barely stand it. Even though I don't cook anything on a grill, (that's Todd's domain) it has been such a big part of our lives to eat outside to the smell of a bbq. I miss watching Crosbi play in the yard and ride her tricycle up and down the street. That isn't really possible in our current setup. So to make up for that, we try to spend as much time out of the house as we can.

We took a last minute trip to Atlanta to check out Shake Shack and visit Ikea and other great outlet stores (hello Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma Outlets!). We've hit local festivals and just this past weekend we took Crosbi camping for the first time.

Crosbi had her last day of preschool this week and yesterday Todd and I celebrated ten years of marriage. It's amazing to both of us the life we've lived the past ten years, but I think I would be okay if the next ten are at a much slower pace.

Crosbi is still making us laugh daily. She's currently obsessed with One Direction. It's pretty amazing, actually. She can hear a song and tell you when each band member is singing by name. "That's Harry! That's Zayn!" I love it because I was the same way (oh that's Justin, and that's JC! - you NSync fans will know what I'm talking about). And this isn't by video. She does this by ear, listening in the car. She knows every single word to 17 of their songs. I just counted. We joke and roll our eyes, but it's pretty much the best thing ever.

She loves playing rester-not (restaurant) and has really started getting into Disney princesses and My Little Pony. She knows what she likes for sure. My little girl isn't so little anymore.

So that's where we've been! It's very likely we'll be moved in the next time I find time to post, but only time will tell.

xoxo

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We're Moving!

The big news, the exciting adventure that I hinted about last year? This is it. We put our house on the market. It sold in less than 24 hours, and we're moving to the country!

I've had lots of thoughts swirling in my head about this post. Mainly because this is our family's scrapbook so I want to record everything, and also because friends and family who live out of state read this and I want to fill in all the details (because sometimes my parents don't relay all of the correct info). Ha!

About a year ago, Todd and I both started to feel like a busy suburban neighborhood wasn't working for our family. Between trips back to Missouri and long talks about our childhood, we knew we wanted Crosbi to have a childhood very similar to the ones we had. We were also starting to feel the walls closing in a bit. We would be in Missouri, and I would sneak out on my parents' back deck and it was like the weight of the world fell from my shoulders. I breathed deeply. I listened to the wind blowing and birds chirping. And the silence. Ahhh, the silence. Those feelings and sounds are part of my DNA. Which means they are also part of Crosbi's.

The struggle was that to afford the land we wanted, we would have to move out of our county. We live in a very affluent county with access to the best schools in not only the state, but the country. But the decision was actually quite simple. Crosbi's future isn't determined by the school she goes to. Just like it wasn't for me or Todd.

Anyone who knows me knows that I grew up in rural Missouri. I'm the daughter of a small jewelry repair shop owner and a truck driver. Money was never going to be my ticket to a bright future. When I was ten years old, I remember holding an Alan Jackson cassette in my hand and thinking, "I want to work for his record label one day." I turned the cassette over and saw that he was with Sony Nashville and I decided then and there that I would be an employee of Sony Music.

The laughs followed. The sarcastic "good luck with that" was a phrase I heard often. I didn't know anyone from Ozark who ended up working for a record label. People from Ozark tend to stay in Ozark.

But God, who planted the dream in my heart, would see it to fruition. I not only have been (and still am!) an employee of Sony, I even got to work on an Alan Jackson (hymns) record. God is good. I didn't go to a fancy high school. But I had a dream and I had the drive. No school district can give that to my daughter.

The other thing that became really important to us was that Crosbi have ample opportunity during her school years. One of my favorite bloggers, Laura Tremaine of Hollywood Housewife took the words out my mouth with this post about growing up in rural Oklahoma (she has worked in film/TV and is now married to a famous Hollywood producer):

"I was really into choir when I was in high school. One of the benefits of being in a small town is that even with my mediocre talent, I was able to participate in all kinds of activities that would have been impossible in a larger, more competitive school. With zero training, I was on my school's pom squad and part of a very active show choir, and these are my favorite memories of the teenage years."

I mean, she's practically describing my life. I was on the pom squad, the marching band, and student council. Any group or activity I wanted to join had space for me and I never once took lessons or had special training outside of school. Same for Todd. He was captain of our football team, homecoming king, played baseball, basketball, and was named "Mr. P.E." I don't say all of this to brag. We are nothing but two average kids from the Ozarks, but attending a small school opened so many doors for us and we both look back at high school as some of the best memories of our lives. We wouldn't trade our experiences for anything. We only hope Crosbi's memories will be the same.

So there you have it. We're moving to the country. We close on our house in just a few short weeks and we'll begin building sometime in April with hopes to be moved in by fall. We're already dreaming of tree houses, tire swings, a fire pit, and the big garden we'll plant next spring. The school district might not be the "best" to some, but it's the best for us and the dreams we have for our family. Plus, lower taxes!

Everything has fallen into place so quickly and carefully that we are confident in our decision and we're giddy about the future.

I hope to post a lot about this new journey in the coming months. I hope you'll join me and follow along!

Until then, I'll be singing...I'm from the country and I like it that way...

xoxo

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