Happy Birthday To You!

Halle's second birthday is today and as she likes to say "hap booday TO you"! We had a birthday party for her this past Saturday and I don't know how it happened- especially since I saw Travis take Halle's picture- but we have no pictures of the birthday girl from that event. So I just picked out some that I thought were cute. I'm very thankful for our fiesty, sweet little Halle and am glad that she joined our little family.


 

It's an All Chloe Day!

Oh my goodness! I dropped my precious Chloe off for her first day of school today. Of course, in typical Chloe fashion, she wasn't the least bit concerned about my leaving her. She was just content to take in all of the sights at her new school and to make friends. I'm sure you're wondering why, since this is such a big day, I don't have pictures of the occasion. Well that's because I loaned my camera to Amanda who is finishing her semester of school today. I'd have to say that I held up pretty well although I did get a bit teary but I decided to make her first day of school a non-dramatic one and kept my tears (and the hole in my heart) to myself.

I was able to talk to Ms. Macintyre her teacher and found out where the students are in the year and I was very relieved to learn that Chloe isn't really behind. There are some things she hasn't learned such as a page full of sight-words but I'm going to make flash cards and Chloe will know those by the time she gets back to school from Christmas break. And the other thing is journaling. They write in their journals most days of the week so during the break we'll read a story and I'll have Chloe write a sentence about it and draw a picture (which is what her teacher said that the students do) and she should be familiar enough with everything to be up to speed.

I'm so excited for her. She's going to be in a learning environment for the whole day (yes, ideally home school should be a constant learning environment but it wasn't here) and will be able to make friends, do crafts, learn music and I am thrilled for her. I will miss her dearly here but she and Halle seem to be fine with the new arrangement and I will have more time to do things that I need to do here. And now I'm off to pick up Amanda from her last day at her current High School. Pray for her if you think of it- thanks.

Which of These Items Doesn't Belong?

If you said the carrot you are correct! Yes, I walked into the living room a few days ago to find that my precious Chloe decided to add to the decorations. I found 3 shriveled pathetic little carrots among all of the other decorations so I scolded her a bit and laughed a lot. Kids are so much fun. Well sometimes they are. I've had the worst time keeping Halle out of the ornaments. She kept taking them off the tree and pulling the tops off. So I would spank her hand, put her in time out and tell her "no, no". So finally she started taking them off the tree, told herself "no, no" and put herself in time out. At least she's efficient.

These other pics are the best ones that I could get of Chloe during her Christmas program. I didn't get to take any pictures of her in her costume because Halle was sick so Travis went to the first service and I brought Halle to the second service and we swapped her there. But unfortunately by the time I got out of church and to her room to pick her up the only part of her costume that was left on her was her little white leotard and hair decorations- I wish I'd remembered to send the camera with Travis.
In other Chloe news she will be starting public school at the beginning of the year. I'm excited for her because the school district here is amazing and she'll have opportunities that I can't give her. And I'm glad that we homeschooled the first half of the year. At the point that we started we knew we were moving but weren't sure where and I wasn't ready for her to start school in one spot just so that she could change in 6 weeks. But I had no idea that we'd be moving to a fixer- upper and the amount of stress that all of that would amount to. It's actually begun to affect me physically and I'm not devoting the amount of time to anything that I need to. I really don't feel like Halle or Chloe are getting what they need and the house stuff has to get done. I'm not complaining- really. I love it that we own our home and it's OK with me that things need to be done I just can't do it all. I really feel the need to justify our decision because homeschool is a passionate subject but we've prayed, talked to the guidance counselor and her new teacher and they're totally excited to have her and Travis and I really feel like Chloe is going to thrive here.

OK, moving on. Amanda is home for good- well at least until college- next week! I'm so excited and am very much looking forward to our family getting back to normal or actually better than normal. I know that God opened these doors for us to be close to our church and I'm convinced that he didn't lead us here just to be home owners. I truly believe that we're going to see some great changes in our lives. Have you ever felt like you were just on the edge of great things happening and it seemed like you could taste it? Well, we're there. I don't know what it is or what it involves but I'm expecting it. It doesn't matter to me what it is as long as we're doing what God wants us to do. We don't have to be in "full-time" ministry or recognized as ministers in the traditional sense. That used to be so important to me but it isn't now. Travis and I want to make a difference in the world and maybe that will be in our neighborhood or Chloe and Amanda's school or in the grocery store or whatever but through these 6 and a half crazy years the Lord has changed us and has changed what's important to us and I think we're finally ready for whatever......whatever's next.

This weekend is "A Dickens of a Christmas" in Franklin. My parents will be in town and I think this would be a great community thing to take them to. There is a "wave down" spot at the end of our street for the trolley so maybe we'll take that rather than fight the traffic to get into town and you usually have to pay to park so we'll see. But if anyone wanted to go we could meet there or you could park here. Maybe this will help me get into the Christmas spirit because I'm not feeling it yet.

Finally

Travis found the USB cable last night (I know you were all waiting eagerly for that :) so I am finally able to post some pics. I don't have time to go into a lot this morning but these are pics of the ugly kitchen, the ugly vinyl in the kitchen, the ugly bathroom, and the girls playing in the leaves in the front yard.

The kitchen needs lots of work but at least it's big. I'll take some pics of the island and post those later.
 

I don't have much time to post this morning but Travis finally set up our printer (we've had it for about 3 years) and it has a scanner so I scanned these pictures of Amanda and thought that since most of you weren't around when she was little you might like to see what she looked like. The first one was taken on June 10, 1990 and the second was was at her 2nd birthday party in front of her Big Bird swimming pool.

In other news, Travis and were able to purchase and entire bedroom suite from a guy in Old Hickory that just wanted it out of his garage. We got an armoire (which we'll be using in the living room), a gigantic dresser, mirror, 2 bedside tables, head and foot boards, chair, ottoman and a ceiling fan for $200. I love Craig's List! Anyway the head and foot board are king size and we thought about upgrading but with all of the other furniture there's just no way it will fit. But the guy wanted $100 for just the armoire and when I saw the pictures of it all I figured we could sell the pieces we don't want or can't use and offset the cost of the purchase. Overall, the style isn't what we would have chosen if we were going to buy whatever we wanted but the white washed pine finish is still being sold so it's not out of date and it's the first time we've had matching bedroom furniture since we've been married so I'm excited about that. The guy we bought it from was super nice and has some other things for sale like this Lazy-Boy that's super-cool but out of our price range- I did think of Mary when I saw it though.

It seems like it's one step forward and two steps back here. We finally got the kitchen mostly cleared out and have started stripping wall paper. But last night we had to take the seats out of the van to go get the furniture and so the seats are in the kitchen, the new night stands are in the hallway and everything is in disarray again. And to add to the chaos we rescued a beautiful little black kitten from the animal shelter and she's just as sweet as she can be. Her name is Sophie and she's just great with the girls. She seems to have fallen in love with the entire Button family and we're really thankful to have her.

That's all for now I'm still looking for the USB cable so I still can't post pics. Travis brought one home from work the other day but it looks like the one we had is specifically made for a Kodak camera so no luck yet. I'm sure it will turn up soon. Have a happy Thanksgiving. 

Feather Bed For Sale

Here's our listing at Craig's List. Trav and I bought a Feather Bed a couple of weeks after we bought our new mattress but I hated it. That's a ringing endorsement, right? Well, anyway, I know some people love them and now it's listed on Craig's List. But if any of you wanted it I'd be sure to give you the friends of Travis and Amy special discount rate.

Hello all! I found this a few days ago and thought that if anybody needs a new kitchen you might like to enter. Good luck!

Do Ducs!

Last night Travis was watching the Bucs game and Halle was sitting in his lap watching it with him. It was so sweet, every time Travis would yell she would yell and when he clapped she claped. Finally Travis said "Halle say Go Bucs" so Halle said "Do Ducs!" it was so cute.

Things on the Button front have been very busy as you can imagine. Every day there is a little more progress made on the house but it's still a mess. It's a little frustrating because before we closed all we thought about was painting and the changes we would make but we haven't gotten to that part yet because we're still trying to find places for all of our stuff. We've made a few purchases that have helped including 2 kitchen pantries and a kitchen island. I'd love to show you actual pictures but I can't find my usb cable so I can't uplode pictures to my computer, grrr. The island is truly gorgeous though. We bought it through craigs list and got a great deal on it. We were looking at different places and found different islands that we were thinking of buying but there were about 1,000 pieces to them that you had to put together and we were going to spend more to purchase it through Target. com, JC Penney, or Wal-Mart. Basically all of those places had the same island for about the same price. But the island I found cost less, was from American Signature Home, and is a very well constructed piece. Actually it's the nicest piece of furniture we have in our house. Apparently American Signature doesn't sell them anymore so we couldn't find out what it sold for but it was a much better value than the others we looked at. Travis also finished putting together a bathroom cabinet so we'll have more storage in there and will hopefully put the 2nd kitchen pantry together tonight so I can finish putting the things in the kitchen away. Then I plan on stripping the wall paper in the kitchen and hall, paint the walls in a buttery yellow shade, finish ripping up the vinyl in the kitchen and hallway, and paint the floors in the kitchen and hall with a tan shade of porch paint. We looked into lots of different options for flooring but since we can't afford what we want to do right now we're going to go with the cheapest solution for right now.

I'm also trying to figure out a workout option for me since I no longer have a gym. I'd like to have a piece of cardio equipment and have looked at some options but I don't want to shell out a huge chunk of change right now so I'm still working on it. There is a park close by and soccer fields that I could walk/jog at but the weather this time of year is so unpredictable and it gets dark so early that it doesn't seem like a reliable option. I'm very bummed and the availability of a nice gym to workout in anytime I want to is the only thing I miss about apartment living.

Mom and Dad came this past weekend and saw the house for the first time and assured us that it was bigger than their first place- I can't imagine that. They also got these great goblets for me for my birthday. I just love them and now I just need to get dishes to match...it's never ending isn't it?

Anyway, I'm done for now and as soon as I find that darn USB cable I'll post some pics of the place.

I think I've just spent the last hour or so looking through my archives and realized that blogging is more than just letting your friends and family know what's going on, it's a journal that you can look back on and remember things long forgotten. So, I'm turning over a new blogging leaf so to speak. I have much to write about and with the busyness and stress of the last month I've let it go but I plan on being back in action- at least posting more frequently than once a month.

Anyway, for those of you that are wondering, we closed on our house on Friday, October 13th. It's funny that our first home purchase would be on Friday the 13th but we're not superstitious so it doesn't really matter except for ironies sake. One of the reasons that I haven't posted is because I've been waiting to upload pictures of our house but since there are still boxes everywhere I haven't been able to. But we bought a fixer that needs a lot of cosmetic "fixing" but is structurally sound. It's very small and we don't have enough room for everything so we're having to get very creative but we have a plan and at some point it will look amazing.

God has truly blessed us and we're so thankful. I was driving home from Hendersonville and there was a break in the clouds, the sun was shining, and I was on a stretch of road that has, a park, trees, historic homes, trees, hills, and trees and the wind was blowing furiously, knocking autumn leaves all about and it was truly amazing. It definitely seemed like something out of a movie and I've dreamed of living in a place like this for my whole life and I was so thankful for Gods goodness. I'm looking forward to getting much more involved at our church and Chloe has already started getting involved by joining a dance group that's going to perform for the Christmas program. She was so excited and this seems to be perfect for her and her personality.

We'll have a busy weekend traveling to B'ham for my Mom's 60th birthday tomorrow morning and will come back early Sunday morning to catch the second service at church. And then more unpacking and organizing. I promise to post some pics soon.

Has it really been over a month since I posted last? I'd say I've been slacking but I haven't really, it's just that life has truly been a roller coaster and it seems silly to post about the weather when everything is uncertain.

So, I actually have big news- that most of you know already- but we're buying a house! We had no idea a month ago that it was even a possibility but we decided to see if we could get financed and were very surprised to find out that we could. So we actually have a contract on a very small 3 bedroom 1 bath in Franklin. We could purchase a larger home with 2 baths here but we really want to be closer to our church. We have felt very disconnected since we moved back and decided to go to Newsong so we're very happy to be closer. We mapped it last night and its just over 6 miles to church. Unfortunately it is over the river and through the woods so it will still take about 15 minutes to get there but that is much better than 32 miles one way. The house is a fixer so it's not much to look at on the inside but once we strip some wallpaper, scrape the "cottage cheese" off of the ceiling, prime everything (because it smells like smoke), and paint it will be very nice. We also want to re-do the kitchen, knock down 3/4 of a wall that separates the living room and the kitchen, re-do the bathroom and really just a ton of little projects that I'll list later when we get to them.

We're not home free though, the house still has to pass inspection and the appraisal so anything could happen still but we're looking at a closing date of October 11th so hopefully everything will work out fine. I'm excited for sure and even thought it's going to be a lot of work I'm looking forward to it. 

So, I thought I'd post some pics featuring some of the fun that we've been having here at the Button house.

The first is Chloe on her first day of school. She was so excited and she seemed surprised that it was fun. We've learned two poems so far and the letter I i. A Beka does extreme review and she's a bit bored with that now so I'm sure I'll learn how much review she actually needs but its going well and we're excited. I'm a bit overwhelmed but I'm sure I'll get over it.

The next photo is of Halle and Chloe helping me make cornbread. I use the term "helping" lightly since Halle was sticking the measuring cup in the mix and trying to eat it and Chloe kept taking "pinches" of dry mix to eat. It was fun though and Halle got to wear Chloe's apron.

And last but not least this is what Chloe was wearing when she got up this morning. I don't think the photo actually captures the craziness of her hair but it was very cute. She let me know that her name is "pinky" and she's Chloe's sister. What an imagination! 

More aquarium pics along with scrapbooking with Grandma and a pic with Blackeyed Susans.


 

More Aquarium Pics

So sweet! The only other person that can put Halle to sleep by holding her is my Mom, Halle is very finicky like that. The others are Grandma, the otter exhibit (which I loved) and Chloe and me inside-sort of- a fish exhibit on the seahorse level of the aquarium.


 

The Tennessee Aquarium

These pics are from our trip to the Tennessee Aquarium. I'll post more pics later- I would do a bunch at once but Picasa will only post 4 to a blog (in my experience at least) and I can't get Hello to work. It's probably best like this anyway so you don't suffer from picture overexposure. If I see too many I start just scanning them- I'm sure you're not like that.
So the first pic is of Amanda and Chloe outside the aquarium. I wasn't expecting the fountain and "river" but it was very cool- and hard to keep Halle out of. I let she and Chloe play in it while waiting for Travis to buy tickets but then she wanted to dive in and I hadn't brought towels and wasn't ready to let them get their new outfits soaked. Yes, they were wearing new outfits because Grandma and Grandpa were coming.

We went to the aquarium on a Saturday and I don't think I would do that again. We were meeting Trav's parents there but arrived a couple of hours before they did. We hadn't purchased tickets beforehand so Trav had to wait in line for about 35 minutes. Then we headed to the freshwater side of the aquarium figuring the saltwater side would be much better. We were instructed to go down a level first and then head to the 4th floor and make our way back down. So we headed down to the seahorse exhibit and it was miserable. There were so many people that you had to wait in line for every exhibit. The girls were tired and hungry and so we decided to head down the street and grab something to eat.

We'd never been to Chattanooga before and instantly fell in love with its charm and with the amount of things to do. We didn't have time to explore though and settled on The Mellow Mushroom for some pizza. We had to wait quite a while for our pizza but it worked out great because Doug, Joyce, and "auntie 'Lyss" found us just as we were finishing up our meal. Everybody was excited to see everyone else and I'm sure we were the loudest bunch in the restaurant so we tried to catch up as we headed back to the aquarium.

Thankfully the lines and crowds had dissipated while we were gone so we headed back down to the seahorse exhibit and were able to enjoy things much more this time around. Of course we were trying to take in the whole aquarium- which I was thoroughly impressed with- while trying to reconnect with the Grandparents/Parents/Sister/Aunt. Halle of course didn't remember Grandma and Grandpa and was standoffish as usual. But Grandpa in his great wisdom remedied that by grabbing Halle and throwing her in the air two or three times. Seriously, she was hooked and I was shocked- I didn't expect her to react well to that, but she did and I was very thankful. She was Grandpa's girl after that and Chloe was Grandma's girl so the aquarium experience was much more fun for Travis and me. We actually got to look at exhibits and walk while holding each others hands instead of the little ones.

The aquarium website says that you should expect it to take 2 hours to see it all but it took us every bit of 4 hours and we could have probably spent another 2 hours to really take it all in. I'm sure it was the size of our group but we had a great time. I'd definitely love to go again but I'd like to stay 2 or 3 days and actually take in all Chattanooga has to offer. Maybe next summer.... 

Star Cars Museum

These are pics from our trip to Star Cars Museum in Gatlinburg. I swear I'm a total dork, but when Travis and I saw this on our honeymoon I begged to go inside. They had K.I.T.T. from Night Rider and Herbie the Love Bug outside and you could see the car from the Beverly Hillbillies and from the Flinstones movie inside so I was totally hooked. Amanda has wanted to go since then and this is the first time we've taken her. Since she's a huge movie buff she was soooo excited.

I was a little disappointed because the last time we went it was larger and had more cars. Madonna's car from Dick Tracy was missing as was the Monkey's limousine- very big bummers. But the truck from Twister was a nice addition as was the Beach Boys mustang that Travis and I are in front of. I got Chloe's picture in front of a squad car from the Andy Griffith Show- so cute! But the biggest thing was that Amanda not only got to see one of the SUVs from Jurassic Park she actually got to get inside and have her picture taken! I should add that she watches that movie EVERY SINGLE TIME IT'S ON TV! It's actually kind of annoying- but anyway- for a small fee you can get inside the car of your choice and have your picture taken. It was Trav's idea and she was so excited. She actually had to climb through the window because it was so beat up but she totally loved it. Travis didn't take a picture of that and I'm not sure why, maybe he wasn't allowed so I don't have a copy of that picture to share but it was very cool.

I think I will share vacation stuff in small bites so that it's easier to digest.