Update on the move

PACKING, Packing, packing!!!!! 32 boxes and counting! When I look at all the boxes, I think "WOW!! I think we're doing alright!!" Then I step outside "the box room" and see everything else that still needs to be packed. We did clear out quite a bit of stuff at our garage sale this last weekend, but there's still so much STUFF left to pack!! Overwhelming! That's the only word to describe this thing called "moving."

Our "Box Room"


As with so many other things (blogging, chores around the house, checking email/facebook, etc.), I only have a certain amount of time each day that I can spend packing (namely Emma's nap time, when she's at PDO, or after she's in bed for the night). It will all get done, I know. I'm just trying to stay on top of things so that we can actually get some sleep the night before we hit the road.
By the way, we'll be leaving 7am (ish) on Friday, November 2nd. We're hoping to have EVERYTHING packed in the moving van by Thursday night. We'll be sleeping in our sleeping bags in Emma's room (the only carpeted room in our house), and Emma will be in the pack'n'play in our room. The next morning we'll load up and head to Wichita...hoping to grab one last authentic breakfast taco from our favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant before starting the 6+ hour drive....we're already missing Mexican food!!!

This next week will be our last Sunday at Brazos Meadows (as members, anyway). We're so sad!! I had no idea how hard this would be. We've both shed a lot of tears already. This Sunday will be especially emotional, I'm sure. Not only is it our last Sunday, but we will see our family for the last time on Sunday. They're all coming in town that night because Brett will be getting ordained that evening. Then the church will be having a farewell reception for us. It will be an emotional kind of day, I'm sure!

COOL STORY:
Okay, so some of you already know about this, but here's the story for those of you we have not had a chance to tell...
Common question people are asking us right now..."Do y'all have a place to stay once you get up there?" YES!! We have been offered the opportunity to house-sit for a family that will be in the Netherlands for 4 months. We're so excited and grateful!! We really see this as a blessing, the Lord's provision, and confirmation. This will give us 4 months to find the right house and learn what part of the city we want to live in. Plus, the family we're house-sitting for is not even allowing us to pay any bills while we stay there! What a blessing to be able to save up a little bit as we enter into this support-raise position!! We totally see this as a gift from Him!

The tricky part....
1.) packing/labeling some things in such a way that we won't see them again until we get into our own house in 4 months
AND
2.) trying to think ahead and pack separately all the things we DO need for the next 4 months.

I'm wondering if I'm going to be tempted to have another garage sale as soon as we move into our new place....opening up all these boxes and thinking...."hmmm, I haven't seen all these things in 4 months, and I didn't even really miss them or remember them."
At the same time, I can really picture how good it will feel to unpack all of our stuff after not seeing it for so long.....I bet it will really make us feel more "at home," if that make any sense.
I guess we'll see! :o)


Sorry about not having any Emma pics....I haven't been so good about picking up the camera lately. I'll try to post some soon.
Love you all!!

Hey there! Hope all is well in your world! Still "normal" life around the Spivey house. I've packed 2 boxes worth of stuff and you cannot even tell that anything is different in our house....I'm not looking forward to packing; we've accumulated a lot of STUFF in 4 years! Our friends from Boston, Jeremy and Chelsea, will be staying with us this weekend so I'm kinda holding off on doing too much packing until after they leave (I figured our house wouldn't feel very warm and cozy with boxes everywhere).

Anyway, I've been introduced to the world of Facebook!! I'm loving getting connected with old friends and reading people's profiles and stuff. It's addictive! I dragged my feet for a long time with Facebook....I didn't WANT to know about it or get interested in it because I didn't want to take away from my newest "hobby"--blogging (please, stop laughing). Now that I'm getting the hang of it, though, I think it's very do-able (even for me) to keep up Facebook and the blog. Just FYI, I'm still not so good with checking email....I guess I should have gotten the whole email thing down first before I picked up something new. Oh well! :o)

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Well, Emma had 2 funny potty incidents this week. WARNING: Some of you may find this gross, not humorous....feel free to skip over this section if you don't like this sort of thing! :O)

Story #1:
It was bath time and I did my normal routine of getting Emma ready for her bath. I start by running the water, plugging the tub, getting the right temperature, etc. (In the mean time, Emma stands beside me trying to climb over the side of the tub because she can hardly wait to get in!) Then I strip her down, recheck the water temperature, throw her toys in and put her in the water. Well, somewhere between stripping her down and putting her in the tub, she pees. So she's standing in this puddle saying, "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh!" So we talk about the accident, I sit her on her little potty, clean up the mess, then put her in the tub. She plays for about 5 minutes and then I hear "uh-oh" as she's looking down at herself. Before I can get her out of the tub and to the potty, I see "the uh-oh" floating around. Yep! She pooped in the tub! (She's done this once...as an infant, in her infant tub, so it wasn't near as big of a deal). So I quickly take her out, drain the water, and clean the tub and toys. In the mean time, Emma is standing at the edge of the tub pointing at the poop and telling it "no, no! ba-ba...no, no! (ba-ba is how she says potty). Whew! Clean water, clean tub and clean toys, so we start all over. Seconds after I have her back in the water, I notice "part 2." So I had to repeat all of the above steps. I called it quits after that....quickly got her bathed and put a diaper on her! It was exhausting! Funny now, NOT funny at the time!

Story # 2:
It's never been a good thing to hear "uh-oh" through the monitor first thing in the morning! Usually, it means she's poopy. Well, this time she was poopy AND CURIOUS! I walked in to get her and she's got one hand down her pants and was holding the other hand out to me....full of poop!!! It was pretty gross, I must say! Luckily, she didn't DO anything with the poop in her crib, although I'm sure if I hadn't come and got her when I did, we might have had an even bigger mess to clean! Later that same day, her and I were playing on the floor in her room and she did it again!!! I've heard several similar stories from people since this has happened...some of which were WAY worse than what Emma did (which makes me feel a little better for some reason). Evidently, this is "just a phase" that some kids go through. Hopefully, it won't last too long.

Sorry if I grossed anybody out! This certainly wasn't funny to us when it all happened, but we're laughing about it now.

BTW, potty training overall has slowed down. She still uses her big girl potty every once in a while, but she doesn't seem as interested as she was before we went to Boston/New York. I'm certainly not pushing the issue....I think she's right where she needs to be for being 19 months.

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Here's a few pictures of the little stinker! :O)


She grabbed her little purse, walked over to the door, and started waving and telling me "bye!" So we put our shoes on and went for a walk. I couldn't get her to stand still, look at me, AND smile all at the same time, but here's our little girly-girl. And she is ALL GIRL, let me tell you! Purses, jewelry, shoes....she loves them all!! (Thanks to the grandmas! :o) We are in trouble!!



A couple of Saturdays ago, Emma got to watch her Uncle Sloan ride horses and rope steers. A few days afterwards, (all on her own!!) she went in her room, got this sheep, and began sitting on it. Brett says this picture is of Emma "mutton busting." :o)
Ummmm....yeah.....The stickers and bracelets are kinda weird, I know! She's really into stickers right now, and like I said before, she loves wearing jewelery (just around the house, though. We don't take her out in public like this, in case you were wondering!) :o)




Ever seen one of these? It's a crib tent (AKA a "baby cage"). It keeps little climbers, like our sweet Emma Joy, safe and secure inside their crib. With Emma being such a climber, and us not being ready for the transition to a toddler bed yet, this was our best option. THUMP, silence, scream....not a good sound to hear from your baby's room at night. This little contraption has been WONDERFUL!! She loves it! And so do we! We're very thankful that she'll be staying in a crib for a while longer!


BELOW: We love reading books to/with Emma. Here's a glimpse at how SHE READS BOOKS TO US! It's hilarious! She says all this gibberish and cracks herself up. Enjoy!


BELOW: Here's a new fun game....rolling the ball back and forth. She gets such a kick out of it! She "turns silly" real fast, as you can see!


'til next time! :o)