To be (in Texas) or not to be (in Texas)?

I think it's common knowledge by now that Jeremy and I are considering moving to Texas this fall, once he graduates from nursing school in May. We've always known that we would not be in North Carolina forever. In fact, when we moved here in 2003, we didn't know how long our "stay" here in the state would be. We committed to giving it a year, and then to reevaluate things from there. The reason for our move here was for my career, so I could give the mortgage business a shot. My dear friend Stephanie had been trying for years to convince me that I would love this business, and so finally in 2003, the timing seemed right (we fully believe God led us here), and we made the move from Colorado. Fortunately, she was right: I love the mortgage business, and I can't imagine doing anything else for pay. And now, it has been close to 6 years that we've been in the good 'ole Tarheel State.

When you live somewhere for 5+ years, you grow roots. And our roots here are deep. We have some fantastic friends, and the most amazing church community. We live in a perfect location - I am less than 2 miles from my office, and less than a mile to restaurants, grocery stores, Westin's pediatrician, and the list goes on. The weather is nice, the scenery is pretty, and we're just a few hours away from the ocean AND the mountains. When you put that all on paper, it looks like we truly have it made here. So why on earth are we considering leaving?

In a word.... family.

The fact of the matter is, we love our families, and we believe the Lord wants to use us to encourage and serve our families as much as we can. And that will happen much more effectively if we actually live somewhat near them. Right now, my closest relatives are 1,200 miles away, and Jeremy's are 3,000 miles away in Oregon. We could practically fly to Europe in the same amount of time it takes us to get to Oregon by plane! So, if we live in Texas, we'll be within a couple hundred miles of most of my relatives, and a short plane ride to Oregon for Jeremy's relatives.

Moving will not be easy. Quite frankly, we're choosing the harder road by leaving here, even though we'll be going where we want to go. Again, it's that roots thing. We are settled here, and when we move, we start over. And I don't love the thought of starting over. But.... in my life, I've grown the most when I've been stretched, challenged, and uncomfortable. So in light of that, if I truly want to grow, I should welcome this change.

I do look forward to being back in my home state, and being closer to my family. And I REALLY look forward to going to a Texas Longhorns football game, among other things. A girl's gotta have some priorities, right?

More thoughts to come on this subject.

My rock star

My sister recently gave me her old jogging stroller. (She sent it on the airplane with my other sister who came to visit me.) When we opened it up, we found a few presents that were accidentally in the stroller: an old towel, a burp cloth, and a pair of kiddie sunglasses. The other day, I was goofing around with Westin and I put the sunglasses on him. Here is the result. I was so tickled at how mellow he was that I was literally crying with laughter!

Proud to be Irish

I'm Irish. And not just "hey - it's St. Patrick's Day - everyone's Irish, right?". No, I really am Irish. I'm even an Irish citizen, which is pretty cool. This was my first St. Patrick's Day since officially obtaining my citizenship back in September, so I wanted to celebrate with family and friends. My sister Sharon was visiting from Houston, and my nephew Kyle is in the Navy, currently stationed in Virginia, so he drove down for the weekend and we went to an Irish pub to celebrate our heritage together. My friends Stephanie and Katie also joined us.
















Westin is wearing an outfit my Aunt Abbie (who is also an Irish citizen) sent him. So sweet. (And NO, my son did not drink any beer, lest any of you scold me. But his mom did have a pint of her favorite Irish beer, Smithwicks - it was delicious.) The only bummer was that Jeremy wasn't there. He was sleeping and recovering from his night shift at the hospital. He was very missed.

I have no idea how this happened.

Today Westin played for about 20 minutes on his playmat. He was making cute little noises and obviously having a good time, so I used that time to get a few things done around the house and wasn't really watching him all that closely.

I still can't figure out how a 3-month-old that can't sit up, can't crawl, and really can't even control his arms and legs could have done this....

Here is where he started:

And this is where he ended up:
Obviously, I'll be a little more attentive in the future!

My little helper

Westin helped me fold socks today. He did the best he could, considering he doesn't yet have coordination of his little arms and hands. :-)