Things never go as I plan. In fact, I'm thinking that I should think of my plan, plan for the opposite, and then go with that plan. I am confusing myself. Anyway, the catalyst behind my madness is that we sold our house....after 9 days on the market. Which is a total miracle. It's just that things aren't falling into place quite as smoothly as I planned, (i.e., we have nowhere to live now).
In my mind, we would find the perfect house and our house would sell at the same time, providing for a seamless move between points A & B. Not so much. We have to be out of our house May 3 and the days are flying by with warp speed. We have looked at many houses, with very little luck. I don't think we are being that picky: at least 2 bedrooms, somesort of playspace, and a garage on the main level. And some sort of backyard. And not 2 kazillion dollars. And not old as the hills. And not requiring us to live in a tent while it's remodeled. Apparently, the perfect house does not exist!
Nothing is easy.:) But, I am thankful our house sold (because keeping up the facade of perfection gets old quickly). And, I know God will provide.....just wanting to know the address of this provision.

What we've been up to.....(captured via iPhone, so excuse the quality).

neighborhood Easter egg hunt

friend's bday bounce house....G lives for bounce houses:)

Lilah went to her nursery class for the first time....she was so excited!!! I stayed (and hovered) for the whole time, but I'm still counting it!

So....because we are a glutton for punishment, we took the kids out to eat after a long day of egg hunting, bounce housing, and all the other glorious things that come with the first day of spring. We chose Indian food because, I'm all busy at home creating the illusion of Martha Stewart, and too busy to cook anything that needs to be warm or requires ingredients (because carrying very low 'stock' makes your cabinets look huge!), and we've eaten out so much lately, we've embarrassed to be seen at our usual haunts again. So.... Indian....yummy.

Garrett is pumped because he remembers the 'naan' bread they have and says in his not-so-inside voice, many times, "yeah, i love that bread, do you remember that daddy, i love it, you love it doncha?" So we walk in the door and G immediately yells "yep, looks like there have been some Indians here". I'm not totally sure what he meant by that, but I suspect that, all this time, he has thought we was eating Indian, like 'cowboys & indians', Food. He then see an older woman in a sari, and promptly declares that 'she looks weird'. He waits out the food by balancing strange objects on his staw, just to see how far he can get until one of his parental units snap.

Sweet Lilah does great at restaurants and has just graduated to being able to sit up in a restaurant high chair. She stays amused with the utensils, the bread, snacks like cheerios, and today....by reading Target coupons.:)

The funny/notsofunny thing about this dinner was that our waiter, who was sweet and very well-intentioned, was all over our kids. Touching their hair and faces, making jokes (to which L did not laugh), and, generally, trying to get them to engage with him. He was successful with G early on and then diverted his attention to Lilah. He wanted to know what she wanted to eat, drink, if she needed a cup, plate, etc.......asking Lilah first. Now, we've made large strides in attention and responsiveness, but this was WAY out of her league. He turns to me and says"She looks at me like I'm an allien". Ugh, he's right, she is most on her 'A game' with familiar people, looking at strangers with a totally blank stare.

Next he's coming back asking what she's had to eat.....'did she try the Korma?' .... 'don't you want me to get her a plate or a drink' ....'is she fasting? haha'. I told him at the beginning that I had brought her foods and I wasn't quite sure what to say at this point. I'm starting to feel like it's akward......like I have to say something, but I'm not quite sure what to say. (It did not help that I felt like I had an audience observing my parenting b/c 2 of Lilah's team of pediatricians happened to be there, too. )

I'm sure there are loads of books out there on this whole 'what to say' things. And, I'm sure you are tired of hearing my say "I don't know what to say" when, clearly, I always have something to say. I just don't know what is the 'right' thing to say. And I don't care what someone else thinks is the right thing to say. I am searching for my 'mantra' so to speak....what I say to others who notice she's not quite the same. I want to put people at ease. I want to speak openly about Lilah, but never discount who she is or what she understands. She is someone, instead of something and I never want to say anything to make it sound like she's less. Because she's not. And we are fiercely proud of her.

And because we are so in awe of Lilah, we can just laugh when waiters say things like,

"Ahh, look. No response from her at all. Absolutely nothing."

I'm feeling 'all task-oriented' this week, so in the name of efficiency, here's what's going on...in bullet-point style:

-apparently, I was over-confident in my cleanliness and the birds 'round here are just nuts-because I keep hearing thumps, looking out my windows, and seeing a cloud of feathers floating about. They are either crazy, our bird food is expired, or our backyard demeanor has made them suicidal.

-clearly, it takes 3 months to get ready to leave your children for a week and at least a week to recover. but oh so worth it! still wondering when is too soon to do it again:).

-our house has been sporting a 'for sale' sign for less than 3 days and i'm already OVER IT! much harder to keep tidy than I remember....wonder why??? also, scurrying around picking up dead bird carcasses takes more time than you would think.

-this is worthy of many of 'it's' own posts,but all O2 has been removed from our home this week! as in, her drs/mother are no longer fearful that the tinniest of viruses would send Lilah to the hospital for oxygen or that her heart function would plummet so quickly that we would need to monitor it at home. goodbye cords, tanks, unnecessary beeps, and redneck sign reading : DO NOT SMOKE OXYGEN IN USE. (i'm sorry if you are not a redneck and post this sign. it is just one of the many things that were like a nail in the coffin of my sadness and i am glad to say bu-bye!)

-burch adults are praising daylight savings time because 1)our children wake up way too early and 2) we have several clocks that have not been re-set from 'fall back', so this is perfect!!

I will try to post some pictures soon, but I will warn you....Garrett and Lilah are more charming by the second (and, seemingly related to this, also much more rotten). So be prepared:) Happy Spring!!

Two flew into the cookoo nest

We are 'hitting re-entry' hard. I use an Apollo 13 reference because our trip seemed like outerspace (a delightful outerspace), compared to reality. The kids are great and so sweet....like they actually missed us, or something?! Getting your life back in order is always a challenge, but the stakes are higher because we are getting ready to stick a big 'For Sale' sign in our front yard. So, there is a lot of work....and a lot of anxiety.....and a lot of anxiety over the work coming my way with trying to sell a house with 2 small children (aka, destructors). I keep telling myself 'it doesn't matter. it's just a house'. If I told the truth, I'm not worried about the house selling, I'm more worried about a bunch of people seeing my house and me not being able to keep it perfect!!!

It will not be perfect, but I'm still driving myself and, I dare-say, my husband crazy with tasks. This afternoon we were sitting about enjoying the peace and clean (and by that, I mean Garrett was pulling toys out of secret places at the speed of light. yes, sarcasm is my friend) when I received confirmation that I had done it! At least this once, before a house showing, I had achieved perfect clean. I am so confident because 2 birds fell to their death after flying full steam ahead into my newly cleaned window. I cheered and grabbed my camera to document the event. What is wrong with me? I was so proud.

RIP

You've given your life for a worthy cause

Thankyou loyal followers for still checking in with us, despite my poor showing lately. I have a lot of little lame excuses, but the only important one is that WE HAVE BEEN OUT OF TOWN !! And by 'we', I mean the original 'we', not the 'we of the last 3 years'. That's right folks, Paul and I just got back from the most amazing vacation in the tropical destination of St. John, USVI. I have too much to say about it to say anything at all really. It was dreamy. In fact, I am still dreaming about it. :)

So, that little week trip has pretty much encompassed the entire month of late feb/early march for me to take care of all the preparations. I am fairly certain the local retail market in Knoxville noticed a big boost, as I thought my mother could not function without 3 back-ups of every household product she could possibly need and food to feed an army. Oh, and I hope no one else needs to purchase any post-its or sticky labels anytime soon...you might want to give the suppliers time to catch up after my recent pre-leaving-my-medically-complicated-baby-with-someone-else-for-an-entire-week labeling extravaganza.

I think it went great. Garrett and Lilah seem very happy with their service and when we pulled in, my parents weren't waiting in the driveway with the car running to get home. In fact, Paul and I are just trying to wait a respective amount of time before asking them to do it again.:) These little thing I had heard about....8 hours of sleep, quiet, uninterrupted conversations, freedom....they are addictive for sure!

The thing is that God has blessed us through this trip. A year ago, when we were in the hospital with Lilah, Paul got word that he had won a very prestigious honor for top sales in his company. The prize was a trip to Hawaii. Of course we couldn't go. Couldn't even think about it. The hospital would be the only place that could care for a little girl as sick as Lilah was at that time--and there was no way we would leave her. ever. or at least that's what we tought....that we'd never want to leave her (said the same with G), but even the strongest grown weary and I had to push to the back of my mind the panic that came when I thought I never could leave her. Less than one year later, and she and her caregivers did great! It's a miracle that I felt she was well enough to be left in someone else's care, a miracle that she was in excellent health the entire week, and a miracle that the Lord provided this trip for us a year after the 'lost' Hawaii trip....to show us again and again that He loves us and cares for all our needs.