Come March 16th...

When we first got to KS and started living in my parents basement, I was unsure that if we got accepted into KUMed that I could live there for 4 years. It was a slight struggle to not have our own place like we did, but now that it's been a couple months, my concern has shrunken from having to share a whole house to having to share the fridge. Needless to say, I'm becoming a lot more comfortable with making this our home for the next four years. In fact, I'm not just comfortable with it, I hope it works out that way. It's a perfect set up for this time in our lives. Yes, we live in the same house as my parents now, but we have the whole basement to ourselves. It's also a plus that when we put syd to bed at night, her grandparents are already there if Scott and I want to go out for a chick-fil-A milkshake, enjoy a walk together, or go over to Mel's theater room to watch a movie. Two of my sisters live within about 16 houses from ours, so it has been a ton of fun being so close; picking each other up for spin class at the gym every week, having the cousins over to play, Sunday dinners, cookie parties and movie nights. I can't wait for the neighborhood pool to open this summer!

Even though half of our belongings are still stowed away in boxes in a corner of the basement (as we await to find out whether we'll be moving again or staying), I'm definitely feeling more and more at home. As far as the refrigerator is concerned- the plan is to make the mini wet bar in the basement into a full-functioning kitchen should we end up staying, with our very own, full-sized fridge. I'm not sure how fast that will all come to place but I do know that by March 16th we will know our fate, or at least what options fate will have to offer us. Ultimately it is up to us to weigh the pros and cons of KS Vs. TX, but if we can make it work out logically, financially and spiritually, then I'd like to stay. I'll keep you updated.

She Calls It: "Medieval Torture"
As for other events around the household: Scott and I have the whole house to ourselves this week. This includes the large master bath tub in my parents room, which we have most definitely taken advantage of. Who needs a hot tub when you have one of these? Besides the peace and quiet, that might be the biggest perk of having the house to ourselves. My mom has severe scoliosis that the chiropractors here in KS just can't seem to help much with, so they sent her to Florida to a big-time Dr. where she is getting worked on for 7.5 hours a day, every day this week. See how ridiculous these machines look? Hopefully she comes back in one piece after that treatment! But really, we are praying and fasting for her because we don't want her to be in pain anymore. I hope this helps her, as fun as it looks!!









A Second Thud in the Night
The first night we had the house to ourselves (Saturday night), we found ourselves being extra sensitive to every sound we heard. And for a new house, I swear it makes more noises than the house I grew up in. Scott and I are used to locking up a small apartment with one door and a few windows, not a place like this. So when we heard a crashing noise coming from the upstairs, 5 minutes after I had left the upstairs, for us, the creepy night began. We didn't find anything unusual when we took Syd out of the bath and went upstairs to scope the place out. Then, in the pantry we found it: a big, white, harry, just kidding. It was just a basket full of papers and recipe books that had fallen and hit every shelf on its way down then spilled out all over the bottom of the pantry floor. I was just glad we had found something to explain that crashing sound. I could handle that, I had, after all, placed a half-eaten pkg. of Oreos on a shelf on the complete opposite side just 5 min. before...

The air vents: they make the sound of an organ, softly whistling through the house. This has been a daily thing since Christmas (according to my mom), so we could deal with that too. The bumping sounds we heard ever so faintly above us in the morning? uh, not sure about that, but we could deal with that after having survived THE THUD. There were only 2, and the 2nd thud unveiled our worst nightmare of all. We could clearly tell that the first thud came from Sydney's room. This was about 3:15 in the morning. It didn't wake us. We were already awake. The mad banshee in the room across the hall was for some reason not content. Was it the creepiness of the night? about 5 seconds after we heard her sippy cup hit the floor, we heard the second thud. It was also accompanied by cries and when Scott ran from the bed into her room, the little gremlin monster was waddling toward him. SHE HAD ESCAPED out of her crib!!!

In the morning, we tested her abilities. We set her back in and told her to come to us. She tried climbing, pushing herself up with her arms but the tights we had just put on her for church were too slippery against the rails so we will never know her technique in escaping that night. But I'll assure you, she won't be escaping again.

You can see the baseboards on the ground
behind Syd is level with her mattress, which
Scott lowered literally to the carpet. When she
can escape herself out of this new set up then she'll
prove herself worthy of a toddler bed. ;)

PS: You are totally gonna have to wait until Thursday for me to tell you all about our special date Friday. It was awesome. It was just one surprise after another!!