Family Notes

Questions...

2011-02-02T00:36:00.000-08:00

It's midnight and I can't sleep. It's one of those nights - you know, the nights where you're tired and all you want to do is drift off into the bliss of sleep, but you can't shut off your brain and all you can do is think and all you can hear are the questions in your mind:

When is our house going to sell? Where will we live if we sell our house this month? Can we rent an apartment? A house? Move in with friends? What if we have to move twice this year, or even three times? What will that do to the kids? Will they be sad to leave the only home they've known? Will I be sad? Will it be okay if I am? How can I put on a cheery face for my boys and make them think this is a grand adventure when I'm feeling pretty scared about it myself?

So here I am, doing what any decent modern American woman would do. I'm blogging in the middle of the night.

Let me fill you in on our situation. Our house is for sale. (Again.) This time we're trying to sell it "by owner." And this time our plan is to move back to Pendleton, from whence we came almost ten years ago. We're moving back there to raise our kids and to help out our parents.

That's the plan. Now let me fill you in on the timing of this plan.

...

Okay, I don't know how the timing is going to work. And that's why I can't sleep.

Here are the things that will most likely happen for us in the next six to nine months. Peter graduates from nursing school in June and gets his RN licensure shortly thereafter. If we sell our house here in Salem before he graduates, we will need to move into a rental house, an apartment, or somebody's basement until Peter finishes school. When he does finish, he'll need to land a job in Pendleton. When that happens, we'll need to move - again - to a new house in Pendleton.

But what if our house doesn't sell before Peter graduates? What if he gets done with school and gets a job in Pendleton, and it's time for us to move but we still own a lovely home here in Salem? I guess we'll leave it vacant, hire a realtor, and move into a rental in Pendleton. Then whenever our Salem house sells, we'll buy a house in Pendleton and move again.

Either way, that's two moves in the next six to nine months.

I suppose it could work out that we find someone who wants to buy our house right at the exact time when we need to move out of it. Then we'd only be moving once. Yeah, that would be ideal, wouldn't it?

But do I dare hope for that? I certainly shouldn't plan for that - I have no control over the timing.

Should I even pray for that, when all my prayers about selling our house so far have been answered by a resounding "No?"

I'm hoping that a year from now, I'll come back and read this blog post and laugh about how silly I was, worrying about how this move was all going to work out. I'll be sitting in my new house, my kids playing in their new living room, my husband at his new job, and with all that perspective on my side I'll gaze back over the previous twelve months and see that throughout it all, I was taken care of in the best possible way by the One who had it all planned out from the beginning.

New and Improved!

2010-09-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

Do you like the new blog design? I sure do. All I did was change a few settings, but it is a refreshing change, if you ask me.

Well, hard financial times have befallen the Willis household. The whole "nobody who lives here has a job" thing is really starting to put a dent in our bank account. Who knew? Okay, we saw it coming, but it's still a bit stressful.

But you know what? Some really amazing things have happened lately. Like friends and family sending money. Lots of money. Shocking amounts of money, when you consider how much we had to start with (which was about zero, by the way). All I have to say is, God is good. He is making a way where there wasn't one.

So we paid our mortgage this month. Solomon gets to start preschool at Judson Baptist Church next week (yay!!). Our electricity will continue to flow. We get to eat.

We are taken care of.

And we are happy!

Peter and I just celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary last month. He has been working lots of hours at several different clinics and the hospital (he sure works a lot for a guy with no job). Micah is 14 months old and "terribly healthy," according to his doctor. And did I mention that Solomon is starting preschool next week?!

Even though we're broke, we're some of the richest people I know.

Such a Great Day

2010-03-07T15:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a glorious day.

It started out so-so. Peter was going to be gone all day at a conference for nursing students up in Portland, so I started the day solo. Just me vs. the kids. You know how it goes. But it was fine, and thanks to PBS cartoons, we made it through the early morning hours peacefully.

Then my wonderful, beautiful, cheerful, helpful roommate Rebecca woke up and hung out with us. What a blessing she is to my life. Just having her in the house keeps me a sane woman. Yesterday was my dad's birthday, and I was able to have a nice phone conversation with him thanks to Rebecca. She played with my boys while I chatted with my dad. And then I took a shower. It was grand.

When Micah went down for his morning nap, Solomon and I played the birthday game. He pretends it's my birthday, and he sings to me, bakes me a cake, blows out the candles for me, and gets me presents. It's awesome.

The weather was amazing yesterday, so we spent a lot of time outdoors. I was able to weed and edge a flowerbed in the front yard.

Oh yeah. Lookin' good.

Peter called me in the early afternoon to say that his conference was already done and that he was headed home. I wasn't expecting him until about 6 pm, so I was really excited that he'd be home in an hour. Then 30 seconds later, he walked through the door. He had called me from our driveway. So tricky.

We all went outside and did some more weeding and puttering around, and then we went for a walk to the grocery store. We got some vittles for dinner, strolled home, and chowed down. Cause we're healthy like that. Oh, and we also got a frozen pie to bake at home. Cause we're unhealthy like that. But it was gooood. Definitely worth the walk to the grocery store.

All in all, it was a great day. Sunshine on my face, dirt under my fingernails, pie in my belly.

The Occasional Blogger

2010-03-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Apparently when you are a blogger (as I evidently am, what with the blog and all), people expect you to post something every day. Every day! Do you understand what a challenge that is for me, folks? I have small children! Laundry to do! Lots of other excuses that I won't go into here!

Okay, so I stink at the "daily post" type of blog, but here's the good news: I'm going to invent a new type of blog that gets updated whenever the heck I feel like it. Ta-da! I'm an occasional blogger!

So what has been going on in my life lately? In a word, illness. Peter, Solomon, and Micah are all on antibiotics right now. For different ailments, all of which involve mucous. Yuck. So far, I'm the holdout. No infections for me! (Yet.)

Needless to say, it has been a snot-fest around here for the past few weeks. Even the cat has a cold.

But despite being sick, we've kept our chins up. And thanks to the miracle of amoxycillin, we're all starting to feel much better.

The weather has been cooperating lately, and even on rainy days we can find something to do outside.

And we've got this little guy around us to make us all smile!

Solomon James

2010-01-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

Since my last post featured mainly Micah, I feel like it's time to put Solomon in the spotlight. Which happens to be his favorite place anyway.

This is Solomon James Willis.

Age: almost 3 (just 10 more days until his birthday).

Weight: barely 30 lb.

Favorite things: cars, playing chase, cars, candy, watching movies, and cars.

Words that best describe him: exuberant, strong-willed, silly, verbose, quick to laugh.

I feel like I've moved into a second phase of discovering him. The first phase started when he was born. Then we figured out how to balance our life as I worked 40+ hours a week and he spent his days in the loving care of another person.

This second phase started when I quit my job after Micah was born. Solomon has had to learn not only how to be a big brother, but how to live with me all day, every day. He now has the luxury of getting tired of me, which he never really did before.

I have discovered that Sol and I weren't as closely attached as I thought we were. It makes sense, of course, that he wouldn't be strongly attached to a mom who wasn't there most of the time and who really had no idea how to relate to a small child.

I mean, I did the best I could, but all I can say is that I'm so glad I quit my job when I did. He needs me. In a tangible, physical way, he needs me to be there with him. And now I am. What a beautiful arrangement.

Over the past 7 months, we have both had to learn how to relate to each other. And we're still learning. But I can say now that life is great. He knows what to expect from me, and I also know what to expect from myself as a mom. For now, at least.

It's been waaay too long...

2010-01-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

My last blog update was over a year ago. That's right, a whole year. All I can say is, life happens.

In my defense, it was a very busy year. I had a baby, quit my job, and now I'm starting my own business with a friend of mine (more on that later). So as far as excuses go, I feel like I'm justified.

Anyway, enough with berating myself. On with the blog!

This is our Micah. Micah Jacob Willis, born June 14, 2009. He was 8 lb. 6 oz. of pure love. What a joy to have a little baby in our arms again. I had forgotten some of the little details about newborns: the grunty sounds they make, the way they smell, the way they go from pissed off to dead asleep in 3.2 seconds.

He is so different than his brother in so many ways, but also very similar in other ways. He has dark hair, unlike Solomon's white-blonde. He has a good amount of baby chunkiness going on, whereas Sol was always a skinny kid. Micah also loves to eat as much as he can, and he sleeps very soundly (again, unlike his big brother).

But his emerging personality is strikingly similar to Solomon's. He has the same sense of humor, the same silly laugh (they do that funny inhale laugh - if you've ever heard them, you know what I mean), and he shares the same inner drive to be mobile and to command his environment. He sat up at four months, crawled at 5 and a half months, and started pulling himself up to a stand about a week after that.

Here he is at six months. What a cutie! Note the drool.

I have spent the last seven or so months adapting to my new role as full-time mommy. It's a different world, that's for sure. Now instead of working 40 hours a week, I work 24-7. Everything around me is messy: toys on the floor, poopy diapers, potty training, dirty dishes, laundry. Instead of discussing strategies for budgeting with my coworkers, I regularly utter phrases such as "Show mamma where the owies are" and "We don't wipe our nose on the wall." And let me just say that I have never, ever been happier or more content in all my life.

Ultrasound Results!!

2009-01-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

We had our 20-week ultrasound of the baby yesterday, and we finally have the answer to the burning question: Is it a girl like Karen said it was all along?

And the answer is........NO! It's a BOY! I have never been so wrong in my life. I was just sure it was a girl, but we got in there with the ultrasound tech, and she found the anatomical structures in question, and there was no doubt about it. We're having another boy!

After getting over our shock that we had been assuming the completely wrong thing, we discovered that we are very excited and happy to be having another boy. I think Solomon is going to love having a brother (eventually). I told him that afternoon that he was going to have a baby brother, and he very politely told me, "No, I don't want it." The idea will apparently take some getting used to.

Here are some of the ultrasound photos. This kid was curled up in a tight little ball almost the whole time, so the ultrasound tech had a hard time getting those nice facial profile shots everyone likes to see. In these pictures, his knees are actually resting on his forehead. Now that's what I call flexibility!

Back when we were sure we were having a girl, we had picked out a boy name "just in case," but now that we're actually going to have to use a boy name, we're not so sure about our choice. I spent my whole work day today listening to students suggest name after name for our son, and there were a few good ones in there. But most of them were ridiculous, like Angus or Dashon or something like that. So they're really no help...but Peter and I have plenty of time to figure it out. We'll come up with something better than Angus, I promise!

Love,
The Willises

Christmas (After the Fact)

2009-01-07T20:24:00.000-08:00

Even though it's way past Christmastime, I still want to tell everyone a little about what we did for the holidays...and the answer is, not much. I was sick as a dog during Christmas break (recurrence of morning sickness), and add to that all the snow and ice and you get a lot of laying around the house watching TV. Solomon got pretty good at hide & seek. We did manage to have a few adventures, though...

On the Sunday before Christmas, we lost power at our house. I was just starting to make dinner, Solomon was in the bath, and Peter was putting dishes away in the kitchen when suddenly -- lights out. I thought Sol might be scared, but he just said, "Lights on?" We took him out of the tub and gave him a flashlight to play with and he was happy as a clam. Lacking power and therefore our only source of heat in the house, we decided (against our better judgment, perhaps) to go up to Portland that night to stay with Peter's brother Dan and family. I say it was against our better judgment because the roads were flat out terrible. I can't believe the freeway was open. The built-up ice and snow were so bumpy to drive on. Chains were required for all vehicles, and we managed to lose both of ours on the way up. It took about three hours to make the one-hour drive to Dan & Jen's, but it was worth it! We had a great time hanging out with them, and Solomon thought the whole thing was a great adventure.

We did our presents for Sol and each other at home on Christmas Eve (I had spent the day in my pajamas and bathrobe - I was very sick that day). Then, following our tradition of recent years, we returned to Dan & Jen's house on Christmas day to open more presents and hang out. Sol had a great time playing with his cousins, and we had such a nice, relaxing Christmas hanging out with the fam. Jen made a delicious ham and she had all sorts of yummy munchies for us to graze on all day. The guys played Wii golf, the cousins played with Solomon, Jen and I chatted, and a merry Christmas was had by all.

The snow stuck around for quite a while, and Sol got several opportunities to go out and play in it. The video below shows him just after he made his very first snow angel.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Stay in touch!

Love,
The Willises

Winter Wonderland

2008-12-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

Ever since Peter and I moved to the Willamette Valley, we've scoffed at what the locals call a "snowstorm." The anemic skiff of white stuff that usually passes as snow around here and sends motorists into a panic hardly causes us born-and-bred Eastern Oregonians to blink an eye. This week, however, has been different. We have gotten snowfall after snowfall, and this is what I would call a decent accumulation. Schools have been closing all over the place (except the one I work for), people are putting chains and snow tires on their cars, and you can see a snowman in every third or fourth yard as you drive down the street. It's pretty refreshing to see this much snow, and it really reminds me of winters past.

Let's see, what has happened since my last post? Two weekends ago, we took Solomon for his first trip to the zoo. Needless to say, it was a major hit. He liked the bears so much that he asked to go down there with them in their enclosure. I calmly explained why that wouldn't be a good idea, but he still liked them anyway. His favorite exhibits were the black bears, the tigers, the elephants (they have a 3 month-old baby one at the Oregon Zoo), and the hippos. He actually laughed out loud when he saw the hippos lumbering about. It turned out that we were a bit ill-prepared for the trip - it was a cold morning, and although Solomon was well-bundled, Peter and I had to buy hats and gloves for ourselves at the zoo's gift shop. We also forgot to bring our snacks into the zoo with us, so Solomon didn't last quite as long as we were hoping. But all in all, it was a grand success and a lot of fun.

This past week has been so snowy and I've had such a bad cold that I missed every day of work except for today. I know, what a slacker. I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday asleep in bed. I'm not sure what was wrong with me, but I sure felt like poo. I woke up this morning feeling much better, though.

On Tuesday we had an appointment with the OB (actually it was with the NP). We got to listen to the baby's heartbeat for the first time! It was so cool to hear that rapid little "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" sound. The NP said that the baby is measuring a little small and I'm carrying it very low, but everything is just fine and the baby is doing great. We scheduled our ultrasound to find out for sure that it's a girl (note my confidence) for January 6th. I'll definitely keep you all posted as to the results!

We hope everyone has a very warm and merry Christmas!

Love,
The Willises

Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

Well, another Thanksgiving has been sucessfully completed. My parents came over from Pendleton for the holiday, and there was much feasting to be had. I have helped cook Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house before, but this was the first time I hosted the meal in my own home. We had all the traditional dishes: stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, olives (which my mom kept trying to get Solomon to stick on his fingers), and of course, a beautfully roasted and deliciously seasoned turkey.

This year boasted another first for me: I went shopping on Black Friday. Peter had to work, so my Dad and I took Solomon out to Costco and Target. Granted, we didn't get up at the crack of dawn to chase after big sales, and we stayed away from the malls, but there were still crowds and I still felt pretty proud of myself. Solomon was such a good boy on the trip that his Grandpa bought him a Lightning McQueen car to play with.

On Saturday, I gave all the boys haircuts, including Sol. It always breaks my heart to snip off his golden curls, but his hair was getting pretty unruly. We collected everyone's hair in a box to help make cleanup easier, and it was amazing how much contrast there was between the color of Peter's and my dad's dark brown hair and Solomon's white-blond hair.

After my parents left on Sunday morning, Solomon started saying that his tummy was owie. We assumed he was constipated and went to the store and bought him some chewable laxatives. Then we came home and watched the Cars movie and snuggled a bit. He seems to be feeling better now....but still no poopy diaper. So now we're just waiting for that bomb to drop....which will hopefully happen before his nap.

Welcome to my blog!

2008-11-25T19:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I've finally joined the rest of society and created a blog...now I can feel cool just like everyone else. Do I really have time to maintain a blog? Do we need to be reminded of the MySpace fiasco (checked it twice in three years...received increasingly miffed messages from distant friends...finally decided abandonment was the best plan)? Only time will tell.

My friends assure me that this is the best way to keep family and friends updated on what we're doing, and, more importantly, what my kids are doing. I say "kids" because I do have two of them, even though one of them isn't quite born yet. We're expecting him/her in early June. The doctor gave us a due date of June 3rd, but after my experience of being two weeks overdue last time, I'm trying not to put too much stock in due dates.

So I am 13 weeks along now, and I'm starting to feel less nauseous and tired all the time. That's a big plus! I even had enough energy to take Solomon for a walk on Saturday, which I haven't been able to do for a long time. I'm trying to gain less weight this time around, since the 65 + lb. I gained with Sol was a bit too much (please read the understatement in that sentence).

Peter and I are trying to sell our house and move to Monmouth, where I work. I take Solomon with me to daycare in Monmouth every day, and I'll take the new baby too, once it's born. All our friends live in Monmouth, our list of babysitters live in Monmouth, and hey, we just like Monmouth. So our house is on the market (see our listing here http://www.realestate.com/Property/11181475---Salem-OR-97302-603540.aspx) and we're just waiting for that buyer to come along and make us an offer we can't refuse (meaning any offer at all!).

Solomon has been at "back-up" daycare for the last two weeks because his normal daycare person is on vacation in Disneyland (lucky!). Sol doesn't sleep well at the back-up babysitter's house, so we've been dealing with overtired, cranky, super-silly toddler every evening. Poor little guy. He's such a sweetheart, and he just can't handle life when he's tired. Hey, I know how he feels!