In my mind I'm going to Carolina

WOW. . two posts in a week!! I know you all have been on pins and needles waiting to hear how the story ends. (Although even at this point the story is a long way from ending)



Previously on What 'n the sam hill?. . I could recap it or you could just read it again you lazy people!! Anyway, on to Sunday.



As I trekked across the southeastern United States, The Wife, The Honey and The Princess were scrambling around trying to get the house ready to bring home The Boy. That scrambling included a trip to the store to pick up some goodies. Each of the girls picked out something special for their new little brother. It also meant turning the game room into a bedroom. . The first bedroom The Boy will ever have!! All this was done in anticipation of a glorious return on Monday night or Tues morning. or as it turned out whenever the state of South Carolina and North Carolina could agree that we would make suitable parents for The Boy.



Monday

While I was sitting through my 3rd welcome to the company orientation in 4 years, The Wife, her brother and the girls were headed to Jacksonville NC. As far as I know Monday went as well as possible for the family in NC. Everything got signed over, The Wife took custody and they all checked into the hotel till they were given the ok to head home to Greenville.



Tuesday

In Texas I was sitting in my first customer meetings as a recent rehire, while in NC The Wife continued to wait around. They made a trip to the beach and got some pictures (insert pictures here). By the afternoon it was clear that another night in NC was evident which meant at least another 3 trips to the McDonalds across the street from the hotel!



Wednesday

More waiting and visiting McDonalds

Thursday

The fam finally started moving across the state of NC when they got the call that The Boy needed to see a Dr. before he could be taken home. Unfortunately no urgent care centers had necessary shots and no regular pediatricians would see them for just one visit. After a long day of phone calls and visits to no less than 3 Dr. office's they found themselves camped out in Gastonia waiting anxiously for the anticipated call that they could finally cross the border. . . the border that sits a mere 9 miles from the hotel!!

Friday

Friday started with The Wife on the phone with the attorney's office pleading for them to get home. Turns our a little pleading can go a long way. . .The got the call around 12:00 that they were relieved of any restrictions keeping them in NC and they were all set to head home to Greenville!

** NOTE ** I finally post this about 3 weeks later
Most recent update is that things are going really well. The fam (minus me) had two weeks in SC and by now everyone has been relocated to Texas. We are all camped out in a 700 sq. foot apartment but doing just fine. We just signed a contract on a house and will be in it by mid April! Everyone is so excited to get settled!!

How fast thing change

For all those following at home here's the end of the Disney recap. . . We spent 13 hours at Magic Kingdom on Sunday. Had a great time with great weather, the girls rode all the rides available to them - Ella absolutely loved Space Mountain!! - that's my girl!! The evening ended with us waiting in line to see Mickey and Minnie. Alle started to run out of steam and by the time it was our turn. She was passed out in my arms! The girls will have great memories and Alle will always remember that she missed out on seeing Mickey and Minnie . ..but they saw her!!



(eventually I will insert some of the Disney pics here but they are not on this computer so you'll have to wait - however I must warn it actually may or may not happen; you've been warned



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The Move or The Addition



So I mentioned in a previous post that we have decided that our family was moving back to TX. We have been really excited ever since we broke the news in late Jan. We are looking forward to getting back to new jobs (which technically are also old jobs - for both of us), we re looking forward to getting back to great friends and a great Church. . . and for those of you suffering through the cold and snow - which includes those of you in South Carolina, we are looking forward to getting back to the weather of North Texas!!



With that said, as if relocating (again) and organizing the logistics of me living away from my family for 3 weeks, while our house continues to be for sale and The Wife continues to finish up her last couple weeks of school is not enough we found out Fri (Feb 20) that the we were going to have a new addition to our family. Now before you get all happy and excited for what The Wife is going to go through over the next 7 months or so you should know that this type of addition is one that we found out about on Fri and completed on Monday (sort of).



I have told this story so many times that I wish that I actually had spent the time to write it out and just pass it around. But every time I do tell I get more and more excited and I see God's handiwork all over it. So here goes:



In late Sept after meeting with a co-worker (now former co-worker) and his wife who also happened to attend church with us, who also happen to be the proud parents of Lizzy - their little adopted baby girl we felt lead to seek out an adoption attorney. Our reasons were simple - we have a great family (both immediate and extended) we have a whole lot of love to give out and we have a true desire to represent the example that God laid out in the bible in the form of adoption. We had very open requirements, any boy or girl (preferred a boy but were open to anything) between the ages of 2 and 5 - it would be an added bonus if he had already mastered mid range jump shots and the half cross-over. We were told at the time by our attorney that he may only come across a couple kids a year that met that type of requirement - so we said it would be ok if he could only shoot left handed lay-ups. . .we'd work on the rest. We also said that that age is the niche that we want to fill and we would be patient as we went on with our lives.



Shortly after retaining our attorney we started on the homestudy path. We got great recommendations from our friends, we filled out all the paperwork then. . . . well then we got a job offer from TX. Over the next two months we were so focused on how we would get our family to Texas and then how everything would work out that we had nearly forgotten about adoption plans. Then The Wife and I flew to Texas for a weekend to do some house hunting. After visiting with our good friends we found 1 of them to be pregnant and another that hasn't ruled it out. After some time and prayer we had decided that once we got to Texas we would expand our age requirement and open it up to younger children. Then Friday happened. . .



Actually Thursday night happened first (funny how that always happens!), before we went to bed The Wife and I came to the conclusion that because a house that we were really interested in was about to go up for auction we were prepared to through out a low ball offer on it in the chance to pick it up on the cheap. So Fri morning The Wife calls the realtor to set up a deal. Unfortunately, she got the voicemail . . . or maybe fortunately. About three hours later we got a call from the attorney's office informing us of a little boy (jump shot undetermined) in NC that needed a home and if we were interested. It didn't take us long to determine that we were interested but were they interested in us knowing of our looming departure from SC. After a few checks we found out that we were in fact candidates and due to our little ones and Desi maybe even frontrunners!



My last day at work turned into complete chaos as we tried to set up an in home visit with a homestudy investigator, finish up paperwork stuff and all in all prepare for being a father (potentially at that point). The investigator came and left by 9:20 and made arrangements for his return at 9:00 Saturday morning to finish up the obligatory two in home visits - even if Saturday morning consisted of only one question and tour of the house. By 10:30 we were heading out of the house due to a showing of the house (which by the way is primed for someone to make an offer - talking to you Schaberg!) At 11:00 while in the McDonald's parking lot we took a phone call from the NC agency representing The Boy. By 12:30 we were back home waiting on a phone call from the birth mother to introduce ourselves. That awkward conversation lasted about 20 minutes and then shortly after we found out she had decided that we were the ones that she wanted to raise her little boy! The feelings that we felt while talking to her were everything you can imagine.



The news of the choice meant a quick trip downtown to sign some paperwork and then a 6 hour drive to the North Carolina Atlantic coast. This may be a good time to mention that on Monday I am still expected to be at work in Texas. The van was packed, Desi was ready and The Wife and I were prepared for 3 weeks of being separated by 900 miles. The original plan was for me to leave Saturday and take two days to comfortably get into DFW area my late afternoon. Instead we will be driving 400 miles the other direction to meet our new little boy for the first time.



We arrived in town in time to swing by and pick up some gifts - including a Desi look-a-like with a promise that the real thing will lick him more! We had a great visit and the interaction between both me and The Boy and The Wife and The Boy went very good. I have never been prouder of The Wife as I was on Saturday night as she connected with her new little boy. The end of the meeting brought another round of washing machine emotions. It also brought another 5 hours in the car!! The drive went pretty fast as we talked adoption details, move details, family details and most importantly how much I love The Wife - at least I am pretty sure I brought that up a couple of times!



We finally pulled into the drive around 2:00 am Sunday morning - just in time for me to wrap up a couple last minute things on the computer (of course the work that I did went for naught when I forgot to bring my external hard drive with me!). I was comfy in bed by 2:30 and not really looking forward to the 7:30 wake up call that was about to lead to another 16 hours in the car.



** This is getting long and I am getting tired - Check back in a couple days for the amazing details of the drive (not really) but at least the rest of the story of the Wife and her adventures in North Carolina **

Disney Trip day 2
So you may be asking why in the world would it take 20 days to come up with enough information to make finally make another post. Well the answer is that we at the Thompson house have been a little preoccupied. Since returning from Disney we have started a new journey that will end in Mansfield TX. . . again! It didn't take a trip to Disney to convince us that we needed to get back to a place that meant so much to us but that did give us a chance to break it to the folks. More to come on move details. But first things first let's wrap up this trip recap. Fri Jan 16 After arriving at Mom's place around midnight the girls were wired and so excited. It was nearly 1:30 before they were all tucked into their makeshift bedroom at grammy's FL house. We finally shut the lights off and pulled the closet door closed to get some rest. The funny thing (or not really funny) about our little lovelies is that no matter what time they go to sleep they are up and at'm by 7:00. Fortunately when visiting anywhere that Gma and Gpa are they have a breakfast buddy in my 87 year old Grandpa! We spent most of the day Fri just hanging out around Mom's, taking golf cart rides, showing Grammy and Gma and Gpa how The Princess can ride her big girl bike. A trip to Downtown Disney was planned for Fri night. It turned out to be a great night. The temperatures warmed up, everyone was feeling good (foreshadowing), and Mom bought dinner!!


Downtown Disney proved to be a great taste of what was to come on Sunday. Everyone had a great time, and we had a great time hanging out with Grammy, Gma and Gpa.

Sat Jan 17
Saturday started off much like Fri morning, with the girls getting up and eating donuts with Gpa. Today was all set to meet up with UR and AE for some hang out and lunch. Turned out that UR and I headed to Dicks to check out the latest golf gear that I will never buy and the girls went to the flea market. Well, part of the girls. A very strange thing happened Saturday morning. The Princess woke up begging to gargle salt water to help her sore throat. NEVER A GOOD START!! We dismissed it as a consequence of the cold weather and late nights and decided she would stay home with Gma and Gpa. The Honey, didn't really like the idea of going to the flea market so she too decided to stay home. Normally Gma (84) and Gpa (87) wouldn't be expected to keep up with the lovelies, but this was not normal, The Princess never left the recliner while the Honey entertained herself with Grammy's new found stash of doll babies.

After everyone met back up at Mom's for lunch we determined that if there was any chance in a successful day of Disney World in about 18 hours The Princess needed to get some medical attention. So it was off to urgent care!! $120, a strong dose of Motrin and prescription for antibiotics later and we had a whole new little girl. By 8:00 pm we were in bed dreaming of Disney fairytales.. . .

***** To be continued *****

Disney Recap

First off . . .I admit it . . . I would like to write more often but too many times come up with the greatest blog posts while I am laying in bed and am too lazy to get out of bed! . . .whew I feel better now. There is always something refreshing about just plain admitting you are lazy!!

Now onto the recap:

Thursday Jan 15
I was planning on working today until the girls could get home from school. However I got bored at work and thought it would be brilliant of me to be home before the girls so I could have the car all loaded up and ready to go by the time they got home around 3:00. So I left work at 10:30! Never can be too prepared!

By 3:15 we were on the road and ready for the 9 hour trip to Mom's in Winter Haven. The girls are actually great travelers. Much better then than mother! In our van we don't measure trips by the actual hours its going to take to get there we measure them by the movies on the DVD player that it will take. It does get a little confusion on trips that we plan for the girls to go to sleep at some point though. I mean is it fair to tell them that because we want them to go to sleep by 9:30 that it will take 4 movies (6 hours) when it will really take more like 6 movies. If a movie is playing and they are sleeping does it still count? (if you read this blog and you have an opinion about this. . . or even if you read this blog comment - there will be a big surprise for all those that follow this blog at the end of the year. . . )

After a quick combo stop of gas and food at exit 86 in SC we convinced the girls that their first trip to into Georgia would really be no different than the previous 4 hours. They love traveling to new states. They were so disappointed that it was dark by the time we got there and they couldn't see any peaches! Of course we have lived in SC for the last 14 months and I am not sure that they have seen a Palmetto tree either. . .

Our last stop was at the FL welcome center. Nothing eventful here other than all the memories that it brought back for me. Traveling as a kid we ALWAYS stopped at the Florida welcome center. There was always something about the fact that you were now in Sunny Florida even though it was usually in the middle of the night after an all day drive from OH.

We made it the rest of the way without any real hiccups which is always a blessing when driving that far. Traffic was good, the girls were good (including the Wife), and we were able to get into Mom's under the Mapquest time (which of course is ALWAYS the goal!)

More to come later this week.. .

Future Blog topics that I am planning:
Disney Trip (day 2-5) probably two posts
Fantasy Golf - soon to be addicted
Vegas Recap - this is going to be a couple months old but it needs to be told
Alumni game
Love my family



(in no order)

Kiddie Parties

The beauty of having pre-school age kids is that they have pre-school age friends. Right now The Princess and The Honey probably have more friends in town that The Wife and I. I'm totally ok with that because we get to attend all kinds of cool birthday parties. In Sept we went to a horse farm for Gabe's b-day. Everybody got to ride horses tour the barn and the best part. . . eat Chick-fil-A!! Yummy. Today we hit the motherload of kiddie parties. We left the house at 9:45 to head out to Chuck-e-Cheese! Lots of games and pizza and little kids running around everywhere all hoping to get a big high five from a scary rat. . . . Seriously, I'm really not sure that there is a less creepy looking mascot around. But play some happy music and boom Chuck becomes more popular than this chick! But no complaints. The Princess and The Honey each had a great time, we weren't embarrassed by either of our kids and hey . . . who complains about free pizza and games and 2 hours of your kids being entertained on someone else's dime! Thanks Louis and Casey!

After running out of tokens at CEC, we head to The Little Gym for Madison's party. Our kids made the quick transition from the sensory overload of sounds and smells of CEC to chaotic joy that only comes once you enter a large room with wall to wall 6 inch foam mats! There were uneven bars to swing on, balance beams to jump off of, hanging rings and even a blowup bounce thingy. This (as well as CEC) turned out to be a great place to have a birthday party. And as long as you are paying for it and my family is invited I definitely recommend it! 2 hours, more sugary drinks and a piece of cake later and it's home to crash for nap time. . . . another great thing about being the parent of pre-schoolers. . . NAP TIME!!!

With birthday parties on the brain.. . Seems like lots of parents go way out there for extravagant B-day parties. I guess at least for us we will be getting two for ones thanks to the close proximity of the girls b-days. They may not always like that but I guess it's either that or college. . .

I am trying to remember my most memorable. Unfortunately I can't really associate any of these with ages but I know once we took a van load of my friends down to Aunt Clairis's place because they had a pool, once I was surprised with a shaving cream fight in my back yard by all my friends, once The Wife surprised me at our house by having some people over. Then there were the back to back years of opening a diamond ring at Brightons, and getting whipped by my own belt in the Flats in front of 8 of my closest buddies!

Lastly, today is a special day for The Wife and me. It was exactly 12 years ago that I convinced her to let me take her out on our first date. Funny how I am not really a details guy, but I remember the cream pants and brown and black patterned shirt that she wore and that I wore my favorite white sweater with red and black stripes on the sleeves. I also remember that I got gnocchi at Cibo's, but that really isn't too hard to remember since I have never gone to Cibo's and not got gnocchi! We topped the last first date of my life off with some cards back home with the folks. . . . with a first date like that it's no wonder that 12 years later it still feels like we are on one really long date. And twice she has even allowed me get to second base. . . and we all know . . . .

what that got us .

So it is day 3 of this resolution and I am stumped. . . should I write about my day. . . should I come up with random thoughts. . . should I try to be outrageously funny (again). How about all three.

My Day

• Slept till 8:30 - the girls were up a little after 7 but played not so quietly in The Honey's room till The Wife couldn't stay in bed any longer. Fortunately for me, the noise that the girls make in no way inhibits my desire to continue to lay in bed (by now completely covered head to toe under the comforter).
• Work on kitchen sink - Anyone that has been to our house and more specifically tried to use our kitchen sink knows the frustration of a kitchen sink that doesn't swivel. Two hours later I came to the conclusion that we own a kitchen sink that doesn't swivel - unfortunately.
• Play some spades at yahoo. I won 3 and lost one. Had to quit when my partner "QuakeMaker" cussed me out when I couldn't cover his nil bid with my 2, 4, and 5 of hearts. Love those friendly games!
• Dinner at Stevie B's with Roush's and Curtis's. Our assigned seat was available, so lucky for anyone that may be in our seats we didn't have to make a scene.
• Bed time for the little ones, Facebook time for The Wife and more football watching for me.

Random Thoughts

• I'm ofer-5 in my streak for the cash attempts.
• Maintain-don't Gain I'm afraid is not going so well
• Mall Cop looks funny
• Will anyone read this?

Outrageously Funny

• I got nothing

Resolutions

I started working on my resolution list for 2009 today. On the top of it was create a blog. . . . check.

I have been wanting to write a blog for a while now but never actually set it up. So here goes. First off a little background. Normal players in this blog will be "The Wife", "The Darling", "The Honey" and "The Dog". . . The Dog's name is Dezi and is taking up most of the couch right now, the others you will have to figure out on your own.

This blog is intended to be informative for family and friends, but most of all funny. Although The Wife insists that people that try to be funny are not really funny, so I promise to try to be funny without trying too hard to be funny but still be funny. Eventually I hope to include cool links, photos of me and the family and loads of entertainment. . .until then welcome to 2009 and What 'n the sam hill. . .

One last thing before I wrap up this first ever blog post. . . I imagine by now everyone has started resolutions. At the top of The Wife's was create a facebook profile. . . check (unfortunately). For now I am resisting the urge of facebook - in spite of all the connections TW (The Wife) has made since her facebook discovery about 2 hours ago. Appearently this facebook thingy is pretty hip with the young kids. It's too bad she didn't start her resolution last night. . . maybe we would have been able to stay up for the big ball dropping. But then would it still count towards her 2009 resolutions?