crash

When Jared and I were engaged, we spent a lot of time driving up and down the state of Ohio. We got stuck behind a lot of semi's a few buggies, and a fair share of tractors. Got cut off plenty and learned which lanes had fewer pot holes, and what time of day had the easiest traffic.

One night we were headed to my parents house from columbus. We had done dinner and seen a LATE movie so it was probably near 2 am by the time we got to the Cincinnati area. We were getting off the exit to my parents' and without a car in site Jared used his turn signal to get into the exit lane.

Ladies and gentleman that sealed the deal.

I know it's ridiculous. We were already engaged. And had known each other for years but after all the miles spent on that highway in all times of day. It was the habit of using his turn signal, the attention to detail, the little thing that sold me.




Well, Last week Jared and the girls had a different experience. And I had the HORRIFIC privilege to witness it.

The left wheel well in my van is cracked. Not a huge deal but if you have to slam on the brakes it shakes a bit. Jared made arrangements to have it fixed for me, and one morning we swapped the car seats into his car, and headed towards the mechanic.

It was raining and had been all night.

Jared and the girls were following me and at a green light I turned left.

Jared followed and ...

A nearly head on collision. 

I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe, could only think of my little family in that little car. sitting still in the middle of the road. 

I parked and ran. 

Jared was the first out. 

He said they were all ok. 

Tears, LOTS of tears. 

We got the girls out as airbag smoke filled the car.

I held them and cried. A sweet stranger reminding me to breathe and praising god with me, that by no less than a miracle my whole family walked away without a scratch. 

The girls were more confused than scared. 

(we're carseat sticklers)

Addiston: "the car was kinda wobbly then it stopped"

Isabella: "there was a big bang and I yelled"

They weren't afraid.

Insurance still hasn't passed final judgement on the car but everyone on site pretty much agreed it was a gonner. 

Guess we'll be getting a new car along with a new house *insert sarcasm here* 

We're just thankful everyone's ok! 

The house

Well in a whirlwind of life events our house sold the day it officially hit the market.

It was chaotic at best, but we are thrilled to not have had months of showings and keeping the house in perfect condition.

It sold sooner than we thought it would and we close on both houses in 12 days....12 DAYS!

There are boxes everywhere, we're pawning stuff we don't want anymore off on friends and throwing away anything the girls will let us get away with.

Yesterday we had an inspector come out to take a look at a crack in the side of our house. It's sort of the dark side of the moon to us. It faces our neighbors driveway and there's only about a foot of yard so we don't go there much and honestly didn't even realize it was there.

Well turns out our little friend is actually a minor crack in the foundation and while at this point isn't the worst case scenario it's still WAY more expensive than we had anticipated for home repairs. We're in a pinch to get it fixed before closing so next week will be an interesting time of loan documents, construction workers, movers, and parents in from out of town to help rescue us from all the madness. 

I'm a little sad to be leaving our first home. Where we brought our girls home from the hospital and where they took their first steps, learned to climb stairs, and ride their bikes. 

But we're so excited for what's to come. 

Wacked out

About nine months ago my body started to go all cock-a-mamie! I was cranky, and tired, hot, then cold, an insomniac, crazy person. I tried cutting back on caffeine, I tried eating healthier (if you know me you know thats hard-we're already pretty healthy) I attempted to self diagnose and treat with essential oils. Nothing was working. After 3 months I finally caved and went to the doctor. Turns out my thyroid was out of wack. I had hypothyroidism.

My doctor prescribed synthroid and the next day I started taking it. The following day I decided to google it. I learned lots about thyroid function, the endocrine system, and hormone levels. 8 days later I had done enough research to dump the pills and call my doctor. 

I went in with a game plan, my numbers were high but not dangerously high so I asked if I could do some experimentation on myself. She smirked and asked what I had in mind,(mind you this is a very holistic doctor and the synthroid is considered a VERY safe drug) After discussing our super hippie healthy lifestyle and presenting 3 articles from medical journals she took me seriously and went and got a notepad. (Who's smirking now) 

I explained that I had learned that iodine is a key mineral in thyroid function and while most people get trace amounts of iodine in salt because table salt in the US is iodized we haven't used table salt for years, we use Himalayan pink salt and won't be changing anytime soon (more on that another time), So in short I was probably iodine deficient, secondly my body had been having babies, miscarriages and nursing for nearly 5 years, and that this past year was the first time my body had gotten a chance to regulate naturally there was something bound to be off. 

I went on to explain my use of essential oils and how some applied to specific places helped cleanse the body of built up toxins, and stimulate lazy parts. After nearly an hour of talking we had formulated a game plan, mega-doses of iodine, morning and night,  endoflex oil applied over the thyroid and nutmeg oil rubbed directly over the adrenal gland in the afternoons. Consuming as much coconut oil as i could stand (I hate coconut and blended it in smoothies) and Yoga 3 times a week. 

Well yesterday I went in for some blood work and guess what, my numbers are all normal! 6 months of smelling like a spice cabinet and being diligent about following a health treatment plan I had a say in and my thyroid isn't just being supplemented it's HEALING!!! EESCHK! I'm so excited. I have a few more months of vitamins to make sure my body's got the hang of things, then we can taper off and I'm free. no daily pills for me! 

Here we go again

ok I'm sorry, I say I'm going to get back in the habit of writing and leave ya' hanging. My Bad. 

Habits are weird like that. The good and the bad ones! Like exercising regularly and eating right. When you do it you want to do it more but catch a chest cold and heave like a beached whale on the treadmill for half an hour before realizing you should probably take a few days off and BAM it's a month later and the gym's calling to see if you want to cancel your membership. (For the record-never cancel-they provide childcare weather or not you're working out!!)

Well, I got out of the habit of writing and now here's to getting back into it. 

So life recently….

I'd love to catch you up on the past 2 years, and I will... in time, but theres more pressing issues.

We bought a house!! 

And by bought I of course mean reached an agreement with the seller to promise to pay the bank a lot of money over a long period of time! 

It's hopefully our forever home. And perfect for our family. Pictures will come once things are more locked down and the house is in our names. 

We've been causally looking for about 9 months (Err maybe longer) and by casually looking I mean getting daily emails and going to multiple open houses EVERY. SINGLE. SUNDAY! We like our house now just fine. We've made it work. But we've know from early on it wasn't the home we wanted long term; it wasn't the house we want our girls coming home from college visits to, or where we want to grow old. So we looked, for a long time, we were picky, and when the right house came along we jumped on it, and someone else had jumped first. 

We called about this house after only 3 days of it being on the market, only to find out that another family had already put in an offer. The realtor took pity on my heartbreak and promised to call if anything fell through, and sure enough three weeks later he called during my book club to let me know something had indeed fallen through. The next day we submitted a bid and now we cross the t's and dot the i's! 

One of those t's that need crossed is that our house needs to sell! The market in the Nashville area is CRAZY right now and houses are selling before they're even fully listed so we not worried. Just another thing on the to-do list! Right under fold the 8 loads of laundry currently residing on my couch and above clean the oven. 

So if you're in the nashville area and looking for a house, here's one for you!

It's been a while

At a young age I discovered that I had the travel bug.

The insatiable desire to find new places, explore different cultures, and be with new people. 

I like to go all in when I travel, eat the local fare, visit a small white church off Main Street, find a hidden book shop and spend an hour rummaging through it's treasures while milking my coffee. 

The church we went to on our honeymoon

Everybody's got their thing, some like to stay in the same hotel everywhere they go, eat the same chain restaurants they do at home, and just escape. Some people climb mountains, some want to be in the middle of the dessert. Some hide out in the middle of the woods.

The ocean has always called to me. 

My favorite vacations all take place at an ocean. Our little family on the Atlantic. Our honeymoon in the south pacific. Our anniversary trip to Italy. (technically that was the Mediterranean sea but thats close enough) It's calmness, it's flow, it's power. The sound, the smell, the hypnotic way it gets me. The ocean and I, we're tight. 

I love to walk in just so it's foamy white peaks kiss the bottom of my knee caps, letting the tide pull the sand slowly over my feet. Pushing me slowly out towards shore then the undertow pulling me slightly in. I cold stand there for hours. In awe of nature and the God who created it. And I have. 

But you know what inevitably happens.

I get lulled in by the push and pull. The sound, the smell the hypnotic way it gets me and eventually I realize I've been standing there for hours and the tide is coming in and those foamy white peaks are no longer kissing my knee caps but my abdomen is submerged and my shoulder just got splashed by the spray. Then out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of a full blown wave, but it's already to late and I'm flat out.  I get worked by the undertow and I'm under for a minute. Down for the count. I come up and make my way to shore but it takes a minute to catch my breath, regain my strength and wrap my head around what just happened.  I sit there and stare at the ocean. Then eventually get up take a deep breath, dust myself off and get on with it. 

And you know what thats exactly what happens in life too. 

You get lost in the day to day. The mundane. The ins and outs. The reading of the same book every afternoon, the wiping of the bootys and divvying out of snacks. The finding of the favorite blanket and the fixing of the toy that ALWAYS breaks. The unloading of the dishwasher and folding laundry, cooking dinner, and scrubbing floors. You forget to take a step back, to watch yourself. You get in over your head and then when you're already struggling to get back to safety you get knocked out and you just gotta take a minute.  

So I took a minute. 

I took a deep breath.

And I needed it. 

But ya know what?

Minutes over. Life. Goes. On.

So here's to dusting myself off, taking a deep breath and finding my sea legs again!