BIG CHANGES

To say that things have been crazy lately would be the understatement of the year.
There are a lot of changes going on in the Geddes household right now...

Shortly before our trip to South Africa in December, Jake flew to Michigan for a day, for a job interview. Weeks went by and we didn't hear much, so we presumed that nothing had come of it.
Then at the end of January, we found out that Jake got the job and that we had 4 weeks to pack up and move back to Michigan.
This job came out of nowhere. It was just a random job listing I saw one day last October, where they were looking for a Japanese-English bilingual engineer. Jake decided to apply and well the rest just kinda happened.
We however were totally unprepared for this big move (We honestly didn't think anything would ever come of the job application), and with our trip to South Africa, we didn't have a whole lot of time to get anything in order.
So it's been 12 days since we officially accepted the job and decided to make the move.
And we leave in 2.5 weeks, on March 1st.

Our house here in North Carolina isn't on the market yet, and we have LOTS that needs to be done to get it ready to be listed. Our list of projects that need to happen in the next 2 weeks is so long.. we will likely have to try find some help, because we are in over our heads right now.

The move is bittersweet.
North Carolina has been our home for the longest period of time since we got married, and both of our children have so far only known this place as home (Luke was only 6 months old when we moved here from Michigan)
We have friends, the kids have friends, I have a fun gym buddy set up with my friend Rachel (first time in my life that I've actually almost enjoyed running and working out), we have great Drs here, and a great church family. All of these things are hard to say goodbye to. Relocating is never easy.
Another not so great part, is that initially we are going to have to downsize quite a lot.
Until our house sells, we will be renting a much smaller 2 bedroom apartment in Michigan. It will be a big change from our almost 4 bedroom home with our large property that we currently enjoy.
Hopefully our house will sell quickly, and by the time our 12 month lease is up at the new apartment, we will be able to move to somewhere bigger again. We are currently doing a lot of cleaning out. We will be losing all of our extra storage space, so we are having to pick only the necessities and things that we cannot part with to take with us. The rest is being sold, thrown out, or donated.

We are excited for Jakes new job, and the new opportunities we will have once we settle in, in Michigan, but leaving our comfort zone here is definitely difficult.
We feel though, that it'll be an easier move now, when the kids are still young, our family is still small, and nobody is in school yet. I hope that a year from now I will be able to blog about all the great changes that are happening for our family in Michigan.
It'll take time for us to get completely back on our feet after our home sells etc, but I'm excited for the prospects that the future holds.

Wish us luck... in 2.5 weeks we will be on our way to Michigan, with our entire life packed up in a 24ft truck... exciting but scary times.

5 GREAT YEARS

Yesterday, Jake and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. We had a wonderful dinner date together to celebrate.
It's been 5 great years. We've had a few hiccups along the way, but for the most part, we really couldn't have asked for anything better than the blessings we've received since we were married.

In our first 5 years together, we overcame 8 months of 'long distance living' while I waited for my visa. We started our lives together in Michigan once I was finally able to immigrate. We moved apartments in preparation for the arrival of our first baby. We were blessed to become the parents of our sweet little Luke. 7 weeks after Luke was born, Jake lost his job, and we were both 'stay at home parents' for 4 months while he hunted for a new job. We made a big move to North Carolina, where Jake started a new job (on his 30th birthday), and we bought our first house. We took multiple trips to see family in both Utah and South Africa, and Jake had multiple international trips to China and Japan for work.  Grandma and Grandpa Geddes were able to visit us in our new home. Luke reached all of his first milestones like crawling, and walking, but had a speech delay and has since started speech therapy (He's come A LONG way in the past 6 months). Luke got tubes in his first year after back to back ear infections for months. We survived through Luke's terrible twos in mostly one piece, and are now enjoying the much more pleasant 3's with him (He's such a SWEET, funny boy)
We got pregnant with baby number two, and were blessed with our beautiful little Kate. My mom (Gogga) was able to visit with us for 2 months and be at Kates birth and a BIG help while we adjusted to life with two children. We celebrated lots of birthdays... Jakes 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd and most recently his 33rd... My 23rd-27th birthdays... Lukes 1st-3rd birthdays and little miss Kates 1st birthday...Kate reached all of her milestones, and continues to grow and develop more and more each day... she's a little fire cracker.

Next week, we will be making our second trip back to South Africa to visit my family (most of which have never met Kate), and then we're on to a new year, and the next years of our life together. We have such a wonderful little family, and we've so enjoyed all the milestones that we've reached together. We're at a great stage in our lives and enjoying our growing family.

Happy Anniversary my love. I love you xxx

MY GREATEST BLESSINGS

Today is Thanksgiving.
As is tradition, we spent the day eating far to much delicious food, and pie, and lazing around with friends. A great day really but, Thanksgiving isn't about the food, or the lazy day.
Its an opportunity to reflect on our many blessings, and the things we have to be thankful for.
Although I love the spirit of gratitude that comes with this holiday, I think it's so important to try and recognize our blessings daily, and not just once a year.

I have so much to be grateful for. I honestly feel like its recognizing these things...even the little ones, that allows me to feel the great joy I feel for the life I lead. When we can recognize and be thankful for the things we do have, then we don't so much dwell on the things we don't have...and from experience, I have learned that usually, what we 'DO' have is enough.

Although my list of 'blessings' is long, I have spent much of today thinking about my 3 greatest blessings... Jake, Luke and Kate.
If I had nothing else but those 3 individuals in my life, I would still be 'Rich'.
Nothing can replace the love and joy of a family.
And to me, my little family is perfect...

Luke was very willing to stand by us for a picture... as long as he didn't have to smile. LOL

Good looking couple or what? haha

These are just a few more pictures that I thought were too cute not to share.
They're from Jakes birthday last month. I love these 3 angels!

ROBIN RUN 5K... FIRST PR

Yesterday, I ran my 2nd official 5K (Color me Rad doesn't count. lol)
Back in May, I ran my first 5K...I posted about that one back then..
Since then I had a goal to beat my time (I finished it in 28:07)
Summer in NC stinks (hot, humid and too many gnats), so I didn't get out as much as I'd have liked, but I started running more often again when the weather started cooling down, to train a bit for the 5K I did yesterday. My goal - finish in under 27 minutes

The morning was PERFECT weather... 50's, blue skies, sunny, light breeze... couldn't really ask for better weather for a run.
The race was pretty old school.. no chip timing, just a clock at the finish line, so I used my RunKeeper app to time myself, and it correlated perfectly with the clock, so I guess that worked out well despite the lack of chip timing.
I didn't know the area that we ran in, so I wasn't sure what to expect.. I just followed the signs.
The course wasn't the greatest... LOTS of corners, and about 4 decent size hills. Those were a killer.
My first mile (1.6km) went pretty well... 7:30 minutes (I've never run a mile that fast before... I'm just not a fast runner)... when my runkeeper told me that, I got my hopes up for an even better time than my goal... and then I hit the first hill...
I slowed down after the first mile again, and wasn't able to get back to that pace. The hills were killing me. Bleh.. oh well.
I ended up finishing in 26:42 (8:28 average pace/mile) (5:16 minutes/Km)
01:25 improvement from May... not much, but a PR (personal record) is a PR right?
I'm thrilled that I met my goal, but that first mile had me 'dreaming' of an AWESOME time...maybe next time, with a flatter course.
The next 5K I'm shooting for is February...so I have a few months to train (between LOTS of holiday eating, and a vacation trip. lol)

 

WHEN THINGS GET TOO QUIET...

Today I set a cup of yoghurt down and forgot about it (I had planned on feeding it to Kate but got distracted because we had friends over for a play date)
Things got quiet, and then suddenly Luke came running into the living room, waving his finger at me, and said, "Oh no..mommy... it's yoghurt"
I knew right away what was going on. LOL.
Miss Kate had found the yoghurt and 'fed herself'

She was so proud of herself. Little stinker. haha
What a mess!!!
We love this little mischievous girl :)

HALLOWEEN 2012

This year, Halloween was so much less stressful than in the past.
For some reason the idea of 'wasting' money on costumes that will be worn once, stresses me out and tends to give me a bad attitude about Halloween..
This year however, Luke wore a 'hand me down' costume, and was the most adorable Buzz Lightyear, and Kate wore a borrowed costume, that my super talented friend made a few years back.. she was the prettiest little pumpkin.
So in the end, Halloween cost us $5... $4 in candy for our trunk or treat, and $1 for Kates Halloween candy bag (yes, we're the kind of parents who tote around their adorable little 1 year old pumpkin, letting her 'beg' for candy so that when we get home we can eat it. lol)
All that said, we had a LOT OF FUN... and Lukes excitement and enthusiasm is just contagious. He's at such a fun age right now, I almost wish time would just stand still so I could enjoy it for as long as possible.
We had a delicious chili dinner at our ward event, then took the kids up the street for little 'trick or treating', and then headed back to the church for the trunk or treat.

A sweet story a friend told me after the trunk or treat tonight:
Luke and Jake were going around collecting their candy from all the cars in the parking lot, while I was handing out candy back at ours.
A friend of mine was going around with her little neighbor, a girl about Lukes age.
Luke spotted her, and for some reason decided just to take two pieces of candy out of his bucket and give them to her. We're not sure why he decided to do it (maybe a little crush? lol), but I thought it was very sweet of him to do that. I love my thoughtful little boy.

Pictures from our fun evening.

My Buzz Lightyear, and my little Pumpkin

A self portrait. lol.. the only picture I was able to get of myself with either of the kids tonight.

Kate was in on the action too (Of course mommy and daddy intend to eat most of it. *evil laugh*)

This is my FAVOURITE picture of the day. Luke just recently started saying 'cheese' for pictures... and he has the silliest, cutest little grin when he does it. I love this adorable little boy :) What a cutie.

Eating her candy :)

ADORABLE little pumpkin

Woody, Buzz and Bullseye

A bucket FULL of candy by the time we got home

He wanted to go to sleep with his glow bracelet and pumpkin lights. lol. funny boy.

What a fun time... I think I may already be excited for next Halloween :)