Texas is Not the Midwest

I've been here a whole three weeks now, and one thing is for sure - Texas is nothing like Chicago, or Iowa, where I grew up.  Besides the very obvious "at least twenty five degrees warmer" aspect, I have noticed other things that throw me off every day.

In the spirit of documenting this journey, and because I like lists, I present the nuances of Texas (from a non-Texan point of view):

|| When you are able to turn left, yielding to oncoming traffic, people here don't put themselves into the intersection, waiting for a clear turn.  Nope - they wait behind the pedestrian line and wait.  It leaves you less room to turn and revs up my road rage!

|| In Chicago, there is a McDonald's on just about every corner.  #notkidding.  Here?  Donut shops.

|| There are no on ramps to the tollways.  Instead, there are highways that run perpendicular to said tollways.  You have to turn on those, go a few feet/miles, then merge on to the tollway.

|| There is also always a turn around section on above mentioned highways.  It's basically like a U-turn, but you have your own lane and don't need to yield to any oncoming traffic.

|| There is two year old preschool.  In Chicago, it starts at three, and even then is optional.  Some kids don't go to school until Kindergarten (which is also optional in the state of Illinois), but here it seems like everyone goes to two year old preschool.  And I'm not going to lie, I love having Tuesdays and Thursdays to myself.

|| Every mother wears Kendra Scott earrings and carries a Louis Vuitton bag.  Slight exaggeration, but still.

|| There are more CVS than Walgreens.  Quite the opposite in Chicago, but probably because Wags is headquartered there.

|| I have seen multiple restaurant dedicated solely to wings.  #notcomplaining

|| No basements.  So weird.

Even with all of these new things to get used to, I am still so grateful to have this opportunity.  Even if my driving and eating skills have had to develop a bit, we are settling well in to our new Texan lives.

Have you moved to a new-to-you region?  What sort of things threw you off?  Please share - this is fascinating to me!

~Linking up with Emily for Grateful Heart Monday.

That Was Unexpected

This past month has been anything but planned.  Sure, we planned on moving out of our old home, staying in a few hotels, and moving to Dallas.  But everything else I didn't really think about.  Unfortunately, that meant that this little space of mine was left feeling quite neglected. 

The important thing is that I'm back!  And I'm coming back with all kinds of ideas for my space.  First off, I'm making the big move to Wordpress - I've finally been convinced!  You might have seen on twitter that I was locked out of my Blogger account for quite some time.  All of my requests were going unanswered, but somehow on my fifth attempt they unlocked my account!  Thank you to everyone that tweeted on my behalf.

Also, I'll be making some changes to my Friday posts.  They will still incorporate Blogger Love, but will have a little extra as well - starting next week!

I have some new ad spots available too!  You can check them out here and use code "DALLAS" to take 50% off any spot!

For now, I'll leave you a list of everything I've been up to over the past month, because, who doesn't love lists?

// Moved out of our old home

// Stayed a week at our friend's house while they were on vacation

// Moved in to a hotel in Chicago for over a week

// Had my last day of work!  Which resulted in me turning in my laptop, which didn't help with my blogging break.

// Had a quick girls trip for some major retail therapy

// Had way too many "goodbye" dinners, drinks and nights out

// Went to Iowa for a week

// Stayed in St. Louis with my sister for a few days

// Had my first flight with both girls by myself to Dallas (we survived!)

// Closed on our new home!

// (Patiently?) waiting our things from IL to arrive so we can begin to make our house a home.

I'm so happy to be back - I've missed you all!

Just a Mom

Major life changes are never an easy transition.  Getting engaged, having a baby, changing jobs, or moving, among so many others, always comes with a series of emotions.  Everyone deals differently, and not everyone will react the same way to these changes.  With our upcoming move to Dallas, we are inevitably facing a lot of new things.  By now, I have a good handle on my feelings towards this new life of ours, but I what I wasn't ready to encounter were other people's reactions.

When we (finally) get there, I won't be looking for a job.  That doesn't mean I won't ever work out of the home again, but we are fortunate enough to not have to rely on my income.  While telling coworkers and colleagues about our upcoming move, they of course want to know where I will be working in Dallas.  The shock, and yes, sometimes horror on some of their faces when I say I won't be working has been nothing less than offensive.

Why is it so wrong to be a stay at home mom?  Why shouldn't I be the sole caretaker of my children if we can afford to do so?  E and A are little, and are going through a huge change as well.  We both feel that if I am home it might help with the transition.  And really, isn't this what I have always wanted?

But even more...

Why do I feel like I have to defend myself?  As women, we should each be able to define ourselves.  And we should never be limited in those definitions.  I will never be "just a mom", no mother is.  I am a wife, a friend, a daughter, a professional, and so so much more.  We all are.

Throughout this whole crazy month, I have learned a lot about myself, and those around me.  But the number one lesson is that I can't control others reactions, but I can control how I react to them.  And to those negative reactions - being "just a mom" is the best job I've ever had, and I'm more than grateful for that label.

Linking up with Emily for Grateful Heart Monday.

The Next Chapter

Oh, hello, little blog of mine.  I unintentionally took a small break from this space - but keep reading, it will all be self explanatory by the end of this post!

If you haven't heard, we sold and moved out of our old house.  We put it on the market in March, knowing that we wanted to move to another Chicago community this summer to get E in to a different school district.  When we were under contract, we started house hunting here and quickly found our perfect next home.  We negotiated back and forth, came to a deal, and signed the paperwork - excited to move on to our next home.

God had other plans.

Two days after coming out of attorney review (in Illinois you can leave a contract any time during attorney review), Tim was promoted.  Yay, right?!  Yes... except we were in this contract for a new house, here.  And with this promotion came a regional move for us.

I panicked.  We were expecting to have to move in to this new house, Tim would have to travel, and I would be home all week without him.  I didn't want that for my girls, or myself if I'm being honest.  The other option was to break the contract and potentially be sued by the sellers, which is what we were expecting.

God had other plans.  Again.

We were able to get out of our contract and received all of our earnest money back!  His timing was perfect, and makes the next step of our lives feel like it was meant to be.

We are moving to...... DALLAS, Texas y'all!

We have had a whirlwind of a few weeks, finding places to live here in Chicago, traveling to Dallas to find a new home, visiting my family in Iowa, and somewhere in there me finding time to finish up work here.  

The stars really aligned for us this past month.  Everything has seemed to work out pretty perfectly thus far, and it just reinforces our decision to make this move.  We are excited for the next chapter - which includes so many changes for us, not just geographically, but we are ready to take them head-on and make the best of it.  Life is a journey, and we are most certainly enjoying the ride.

source

The End of an Era

Remember when I wrote about how we were putting our house on the market?  Shortly after doing so, we realized that our plan wasn't the plan, and although it took a lot of inner turmoil, I finally learned to trust in that.  

I didn't mention anything, because I still believe in jinxing things, but in early June we accepted an offer on our house.  We actually had another offer, from this man that kind of stuck around.  He went way under asking, and we just said "no".  Having that on the table helped with the second offer, and it was extremely close to our asking price!

I can say now that we have closed on our old house, and it's a done deal. 

Good, right?  Mostly.  I was in such a hurry to sell that house, that when it came time to actually pack up, all of the emotions that I had hidden away started to come out.  On the last day before closing, the house was empty.  I was there waiting for the final meter reading by myself (mistake #1).  I just walked around, room by room, (mistake #2), and all kinds of memories came flooding in.  

|| Moving in, while seven months pregnant with E

|| Having a painting party with my girlfriends (the whole house was wallpapered when we bought it!)

|| Bringing E home from the hospital

|| Bringing A home from the hospital

|| Sleepless nights in A and E's rooms - while picturing them as newborns in their cribs

|| Celebrating new jobs, new friends, and entertaining our best friends

|| Adding our touches to each room, making the house our home.

And so so many more.  I just sat in the empty living room and cried.  Do you ever have those moments where all of the emotions you haven't let yourself feel for months just come pouring out?  That was me.  The poor meter man that showed up had no idea what he was getting in to!

Now, of course, the next question is "Where are you going?"  That, my friends, is a whole other post that will be happening in the next couple of weeks.

Until then, I will leave you with this picture - this is what it looks like to have all of your most important belongings in your car, while jumping from house to house.  (A big thank you to our friends and inlaws for having us!)

 

Beer front and center.  Priorities.

The Plan

I'm a planner by nature.  Trips, big decisions, projects, even my blog posts are planned in advance. I used to be more spontaneous - back when adult things didn't rule my life (like a career, kids, house, bills and the like).

The most spontaneous I get these days are "Let's go out for dinner!" or "I just bought myself a nice purse!".  Everything else = planned.

So, when we put our house for sale, I had been planning it for months, if not close to a year.  When we would list, how much, what I needed to do to prepare, etc.  Earlier this month, we accepted an offer on our house - which was right on schedule with my plan.  We started looking at houses and prepared to move this summer.

Then, God must have decided to teach me a lesson because our buyers pulled out of the deal.  We now have to re-list and start all over.  This was not part of my plan.

I've spent a lot of time the last week reflecting on everything that happened.  Why?  When will we move?  What school will E go to in the fall?  When should I look for a new nanny?  And I've come up with one answer - It's not up to me.  I am learning, stubbornly, to let go and go along with The Plan.  You might have seen on twitter or instagram nice little reminders to myself - to choose to react positively to situations, and to find something good in them.

So, that's what I'm doing today. 

Reasons Why Not Moving Right Now is OK:

|| We will save more money

|| If E goes to the school we are currently zoned for, she will know some friends already from preschool

|| I still have my short commute (about 12 minutes).  When we move, it will be more like 45

|| I don't have to pack

|| Until we re-list, I don't have to keep my house perfectly clean and tidy

|| We still have our great neighbors (who also happen to have a pool, bonus)

It's hard to give up control.  It's difficult to not have a plan.  But I have to trust that The Plan is better than anything I could have came up with myself.

Letting go now....

Our Plan Isn't THE Plan

I'm a planner.  I like to know what is happening, and when.  I love to plan our girls trips, get togethers, day to day activities.  I like a plan.  But sometimes, my plan isn't the plan, and that's been an adjustment the past few days.

It's been a whirlwind of a week.  Just as we were recovering from A's health scare, my Mom came in to town to help take care of her while I had to go to work.  You've probably seen me mention that we are planning (again with the plans!) on moving this Spring, starting with putting our house on the market after our upcoming vacation.

I've been looking at houses online just to keep an idea of what's coming on the market as we are getting close to being serious.  On Tuesday, the "perfect" house showed up in my search and we knew we had to go see it.

Seeing it turned in to putting an offer on it (eek!) and me scrambling to get our house list ready, on the off chance that they actually accept our offer.  It's a long shot, as it's only been on the market two days and our offer is contingent, but having our plans completely switch around has me stressed out! #cuethewine

This is a hard lesson for me, but I'm slowly starting to realize that it's the truth.  I can't plan everything.  Some things just happen when they need to, and I'm slowly coming around to that.

Maybe, hopefully, I can learn to let go and just trust.

Speaking of plans, how would you plan on spending this?  Good Luck!

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