filling in the blanks

While facebook is a great way to communicate, I don't post everything that is going on in our lives.  I think it's time for a blog update.

Last time I posted we were anxiously awaiting closing on our house in Portland.  I'm happy to report that it all went so well that we closed early.  True blessing.  We are now settled into our 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom town home in Clarksville.  It's certainly not the nicest place we have ever lived but it's a GREAT location.

Shortly after we closed, Erik's parents came for a spring break visit.  It was fun to show them around our new town and the weather not be insanely hot.  Their visit was only about a week....too short.  However, after they returned to Oregon they called to let us know that Erik's grandfather had passed away.  It was inevitable but not expected at the time.  It was a hard week.  We made our journey to Oregon to spend time with family for 5 days and had to head back.

At the end of April we found out that we were expecting our second child.  I'll clear up some questions here:
Was this planned?  Only by God
When are you due? January 2, 2014
Do you know what you are having?  Yes. If you want to know, you can watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDnM48HGZWI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

(I have to say that I'm quite proud of the video because I made it by myself)

How are you feeling?  This is a loaded question.  This pregnancy has been quite different than the last.  I'm much more nauseated, I have thrown up way more than last time (anyone who knows me knows that I will do ANYTHING to avoid it), I have had heart burn, strange pinching, strange muscle twitches, lower back pain, exhaustion...you get the picture.

Because we found out that we were expecting again, we decided to take a trip to Tucson and Disneyland for our birthday's. This was an awesome family trip for us.  We wanted to do something special with Eli before we become a family of four.  We know he won't remember it...but we had a blast!!!

Fast forward to this summer...

June 28th We celebrated 5 years of marriage.  Who knew we would go through so much this year.  SOOOOO much change.  It's been AWESOME and very HARD.

We have survived most of the summer days here by staying inside, walking at the mall, splash pads and swimming lessons.  It's been fun...but we are ready for the weather to cool down.

What's next this fall?
Hopefully we can and will get more plugged into our church.  It's strange to say that we have been here 8 months and we don't really know a lot of people here.

Fall also means.....football season.  I guess we need to make some more friends in order to invite them over to our annual "We hate Boise State" party.

We are also planning on going to California for a Mentze family get together.  We are looking forward to that.

Eli is growing in leaps and bounds.  I know I post pictures of him on facebook, but it doesn't give you a full picture of what a special little boy he is.
He loves to play peek a boo.  Likes building forts, hiding under covers, climbing in boxes, playing with cars....he is all boy.  He has a pretty good routine going for him.

The things that I love most are his big hugs he gives when I'm done changing his diaper.  He grabs my neck and lays his head on my shoulder.  He then tries to climb over my shoulder a little because he likes to be carried like a large sack of flour over my shoulder.

He also has learned how to give kisses.  It's sometimes slobbery but, he like to grab your face and lay one on you.

He is a very curious boy.  Whatever he sees Erik doing...he wants to do it.  He loves pushing buttons, typing on a computer, pushing the elevator buttons at the mall, opening the microwave and turning lights on and off.  He loves to do laundry with me because he can push the buttons on the machine.

If we leave the gate open on the kitchen, he loves to throw things in the trash and then go play with the wash machine or dishwasher buttons.

In the morning when it is time to say goodbye to daddy we have a family hug and then walk over to the window and watch him walk to the car.  When Erik returns home....LOOK OUT...he cannot get up fast enough to run to him.  He is SO excited!


He loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  We dance to the songs and when they call for "Tootles" he does too.

His favorite sound is "mooing."  When Erik's dad was here, he taught him how to moo.  So if he moo's for you, he expects you to clap for him.  I think he might like the attention.  I don't think that this was the first thing Gary wanted to teach Eli.  I think he would have rather taught him how to ride a bike.

He is fearless with his swim lessons.  He can now go underwater for 10 sec.

He now will try to stack blocks on top of each other instead of just knocking them over.  If you build a stack of blocks...look out...he with do ANYTHING in his power to knock it over.

He is now understanding more of what we say to him.  When I ask him to go to his chair to eat, he will go over to it and wait for me to pick him up.  He will go get us water bottles when we ask him to.  He also knows how to signal us for a diaper change.  He says "poop poop" and points to his diaper....sometimes he is a liar.  If we tell him that we are going buy buy, he will go get his shoes for you and sit down for you to put them on.  If you ask him to go get his back pack, he knows what you area asking him to do.  He also know what the trash is and things that go in the trash.  He loves to help push in chairs to the table.  If we are at a restaurant he will push in chairs.

He loves horsey rides and having Erik do push ups with him on his back.  He likes to throw balls back and forth.  He throws and eats with both hands.  We are not sure if he will eventually pick a favorite.

He has one of the sweetest personalities.  Every day with him we soak in and see his growth a little more.  We feel so blessed to have this little boy a part of our lives.  We are enjoying the days we have with him as a family of three.

That's the update as of now.
I'm sure it will take me another 6 months to update...at that point you can expect us to be a bit exhausted and adjusting to a family of 4.

What's next?!

So much has happened in the last 3 months that I feel very frozen at times.  Mentally, physically, emotionally and sometimes spiritually.  I feel as though I have become numb to almost everything and I'm just floating through the motions.

November 6th we were notified that we were going to move to Texas.  We had just returned from visiting folks in Idaho and we were going to head out in a week and a half to go visit family and friends in Portland for Thanksgiving.  

All I wanted was to just enjoy the holiday's.  This becomes very difficult when your mind is consumed with what is ahead.  

I went into the "what's next?" mode...it was just checking things off the list.

Notify our landlord that we had to break our lease

Arrange a flight to house hunt

Arrange when the packers come

Arrange when our last day would be in Tucson

Arrange our goodbyes with friends

Get the house ready to move out of so we can get our deposit back

-Paint, kill weeds in the back yard, change out the light fixtures, sell the pool table, get rid of the grill, start sorting and packing things

In the midst of this planning Eli came down with pneumonia in Portland...thus we cancelled our Austin house hunt trip.

-we then arranged to live in cooperate housing for 60 days

-had to pack for surviving a week without anything, pack for our fist drop off at our cooperate housing and then pack everything else that would show up in March when we finally find a place

Next...enjoy Christmas...which we did among our boxes and with family in Phoenix

then the packers/movers came 2 days later 

next day check out with our landlord

say goodbye to friends in Tucson

oh...and have food poisoning....yeah!

We then spend a week in Phoenix with my family....which was great...but we just felt unsettled.

We then left for Austin and settled into our downtown corporate housing.  Which is SAAAAWWWEEEET!  I love living downtown Austin.  We did a bit of house hunting and found a townhouse in West Austin.  The hard decision was that when we lived in Tucson Erik had a 20 min commute with no traffic and we lived in a 2300sqft home for $1200 a month (I know...amazing deal).  Here he works downtown (and that won't change) but a 1 bed 1 ba place downtown that is about 900 sq ft. is a mere $1900 a month!!!!  Crazy.  So for a year and a half we will be living downsized until we figure out what area we REALLY want to live in.  

Now we have to schedule our drop off...which we cancelled and rescheduled due to sickness and our townhouse has a minor problem that needs to be fixed before we move in.

In January we made a quick trip to Oregon (so sorry we didn't notify everyone...it was a work trip) to fix up our house for 4 days and get it ready for the market.  We worked long and hard on it.  We were exhausted by the end of the trip.  A HUGE thank you to those who came to help.  It was a huge blessing.

We listed it the next weekend (Friday) and then came the anxious waiting.....We had awesome interest in the house...lots of showings.  We got an offer on Monday and are in the midst of inspection and such...there is still a lot that has to happen.  Please be in prayer over this.  We need a positive inspection and appraisal.   We hope to close at the beginning of March....but again...please be praying.

This house sell will take a GINORMOUS load off of our shoulders.  We hate to say goodbye to such a great home...but it is time to part with our roots in Oregon and live in Texas.

Right now we are living in the day by day mode and once one thing is off our checklist we move on to the next.
Next on our list:
Move into our place
Close on the house
File Taxes

Is it May yet?
If all goes well with the house closing on time, we plan to make a trip to Arizona for Eli's first birthday!  We would like to celebrate with people who supported us through this crazy journey of becoming parents.  We will keep Arizona people posted on this.

Well that is the update for now....hope you all are well.