(Sigh)

 feisty, aggressive, and loud...and he loves to hold his mama's hand

It's the end of week one with Mace working in Georgia and me and Ace here in Kentucky.  It's been okay, we're healthy and happy together.  But we miss Mace terribly.  And vice versa. 

 someone ALWAYS asks if his hair does this naturally...really?!

stir crazy doesn't even begin to describe some days...for both of us.

Mace is zipping through training at CarMax and is "excited about our life again."  He has really missed working there.  The environment and camaraderie is unique and hard to find.  He loves selling cars.  And we're all really excited about more family time and Mace happier in his career.

  Ace got a new blankie this week...we're trying to make the transition, because he has pretty much destroyed his first one...he wants to know why this one doesn't have "knots(aka where I've tied strings together where he makes gaping holes)"

But that's the extent of positivity from me today.  I am emotionally and physically drained.  I miss my husband.  Our son misses his dada.  Every day when I wake up, I'm thankful that I've made it another day.  I am trying to soak up every minute of every day, with Ace, alone.  And most days are just fine.  But I am so.tired.

happy and tired - both of us

(Mace said I was a good mom for letting Ace stay up to watch his new Curious George movie Saturday night...sure, babe!)

 l-o-v-e-s watching the garbage trucks - have we mentioned he's ALL "boy(although he always picks tinkerbell over lightening mcqueen...)?"

Church was so, so good this morning.  Jon talked about the importance of community and it was beautiful to be in the presence of such a loving community.  But it is so unbelievably heartbreaking to know we will be leaving this amazing community very soon.   My heart is grieving for the community we are leaving behind.  I've talked before about how much we love Southland, but today I was so sad thinking about how short our time here is.  Everything we love and will miss about Lexington is here.  All of our friends here in Lexington are from one LifeGroup at Southland.  Man, we love those guys...and we have spent so little time with them.  The quality of people, the depth of their character, their love and compassion is irreplaceable.  The worship at Southland has been so beautiful, and has been so good for my soul.  Our marriage has become stronger, our faith more real, and our priorities have been restructured.  The work going on at Southland is encouraging, challenging, inspiring, and real.  We have never felt so at home...at church or anywhere else...than we do at Southland and in the homes of our friends (who, coincidentally are couples with at least one spouse on staff at the church).  Georgia has always felt like home in the sense that everything is familiar and...well, it just does, ya know?  But Southland has been our home here - not like we're sleeping on the front door step, but we have been fed and nurtured at Southland and through the people of Southland...we will so miss the Laubs, Schaefers, Heads, and Ransons.  You guys have been amazing.  So good to us, so welcoming and so kind.  We cannot say thank you enough for opening up your homes and sharing your lives(and yummy food) with us. 

Amanda Carter (i feel weird throwing her name out there like this) is a worship leader at Southland.  Ya'll, everything about her is Christ's beauty shining through.  I'm pretty sure if I could only listen to one person sing the rest of my life, I'd want it to be her.  Aaannnd, now I'm a weirdo.  But I reached out to Amanda because I "knew" her from her worship leading and just "needed" to touch base (even if it was on facebook) with someone a few months ago.  She has been so kind to me...and(you'd be excited about this too if you went to a church with over 10,000 in attendance) two weeks ago I bumped into her on my way to get Ace.  I was a little starstruck but treasured that embrace and getting to meet her face-to-face.  End socially awkward rant.

I am so excited about what Southland is doing.  And am feeling so sad, devastated really, that we will miss a lot of it.  I love this place.  Mace loves this place.  Ace loves this place.  And this place has loved us.  I am emotionally spent.  Grief does that to you.  

So, we're doing alright.  Coping with the weirdness that is this transition, looking for a place to live(prayers appreciated), and catching up when time allows.  God is so good.

 

is he really old enough to feed himself an entire grilled cheese?

a little perturbed by the car in the path of the garbage trucks that was not "moooooo"ving.

yep.