But First... A Party!

We are about to wrap up our two-month stay at Chateau Stone Manor, which also means we are about to wrap up our two and a half year stay in Arkansas.

Can I just say...

Where the hell did the last two and a half years go?

It's certainly scary to think how fast time flies when I remember when we were living in a hotel for three weeks before we moved into our house here! I guess we are leaving the way we came in -- temporary housing!

But before we left, we were feted by our White Oak Trails neighborhood pals last Friday night.

There was amazing food, great beer (hello cold Bud Light Limes!) and wonderful, and as always, entertaining conversation. It's funny how the crowd always separates into boys and girls, just like we are back at the seventh grade dance! But... the only way one can talk about having more babies when husbands don't want more babies is with a separated crowd. :)

Sidenote: I was not one asking for more babies!

About 15 minutes in to the party, our hosts told us the new owners of our house were gone for the weekend so we were sneaking over to take pictures in front of it!

This is my neighbor Josh. It took us 45 seconds to take one picture at the correct angle. He also wanted to make the blog!

So our big crew walks over and yet again, I shed tears. It seems that any time I go back to the neighborhood, I cry. They are usually tears of sadness, of missing the house. Tears on this night were definitely of missing the house, but also of being terrified of never having great neighbors like this again.

I know I've talked a lot about our neighborhood and how lucky we were to end up there. And I promise I won't talk about this for the next 15 years. But I just need to say again... I will miss these people. I will miss the conversations. I will miss the kindness and the laughter.

Very rarely have I met another Allyson. I guess I had to move to Arkansas to THIS neighorhood.
Because that girl to my right is Allyson as well. 

And it wouldn't have been right if Rachel didn't become the Vudu Queen and literally test out each gal's fertility with a strand of hair and wedding rings...

Lis was loving this!

I can't lie, my reading scared the CRAP out of me as it said I had two girls and a boy and we had one more boy to come. I feel like that was when I had went from only wanting two beers for the evening, to immediately running back out to the beer fridge. I definitely needed another beer after that news. 

It was such a fun night and though it still makes me sad to be leaving, I had to remind myself how lucky we were that we picked this neighborhood to live in and had 2.5 years of memories with these people and their families. 

No one will ever be forgotten.

And thank God for Facebook! 

XXOO,

Allyson

Apartment Life: Week 3

We are entering week three of apartment life and I would say that we are adjusting.

And as soon as we are fully adjusted, it will be time to move again!

Sloane and Reece are sharing a queen bed and we put them to bed at the same time we always put them to bed, but they stay up an extra 30 minutes playing, fighting, playing, singing, fighting... Most of the time I leave it alone, but I do step in if it's 8:30 and they are still up! If I don't, it makes for a rough morning.

Our morning commute begins at least 15-20 minutes earlier than it used to. I had wanted to continue to do carpool and pick up the sweet kiddos in our neighborhood, but last week decided it was best to not. We were having to leave the house by 7 AM sometimes and the kids were a wreck. Sloane was crying one morning because she was so tired and we had to leave. It made me so sad to stop doing carpool, but for the sanity of myself and the kids, we had to. Now when I see our carpool kids, like at a birthday party this weekend, I feel like I haven't seen them in months so I'm bugging them, asking how life is. They're like, "Back off lady, we saw you three days ago!"

Hanging with our White Oak Trails neighborhood crew at a birthday party! 

I also decided to make Sloane a car-rider at the end of the day, which she wasn't thrilled with. She usually was picked up in a golf cart and driven back to our old house. But... I pick Reece up from school and have 50 minutes to wait until Sloane is done. So now we pick Reece up, run an errand, grab a drink, and get in the carpool line.

I read. Reece watches Wildcat Train (his new obsession -- its the video they play before K-State football games on the Jumbotron). Tess watches Curious George. And then we get Sloane. I will admit, I do enjoy dropping my kids off and picking them up from school. It's always a happy moment... until Sloane realizes Reece got an apple juice from McDonald's and she didn't and the world crumbles!

I miss our old house SO very much... much more than I thought I would. I miss the ease of being in our neighborhood and the things that came with it, like little people for my little people to play with and adults for me to talk to.

But this time will go quickly (so I pray). Tess is finally sleeping better after two weeks of getting maybe five hours of sleep a night. The weekends are full through the rest of April. It has to fly by.

Now I just need a home for us to fly into once we are out of the apartment in t-minus one month and 17 days. :) Third time (on making an offer on a house) is a charm right?!

Here's hoping!


XXOO,
Allyson

Final Farewell

Well, the beginning to the end (of our run in Arkansas) has commenced.

On Friday, we signed over our house to the new owners.

I was running back and forth between our apartment and the house since last Monday and it's been crazy! And sad. And confusing.

Poor Reece just bawled walking through the house after they had packed it all up and loaded it. Room to room he went and his sobs just got louder. Trying to explain to him that he would see his bikes and bed again were not helping.

I can tell you all this. I never thought in a million years that I would live in Arkansas.

Arkansas is the state I made fun of (because doesn't everyone make fun of the state of Arkansas, even if you haven't been there?), but never thought I would inhabit it! But somehow, we got here. And though there are a few things I won't miss (land of Wal-Mart, not being able to turn left -ever-, and living amongst SEC folks), there are plenty of things that I will miss (neighborhood, people, Slim Chickens to name a few).

Before we moved in! 

I can tell you that I never thought I would get to experience living in the same town as my childhood/adult best friend because who gets to do that? That's not real life.

But I did! Once a week, I got to spend an evening with my best friend and her brood, eating dinner and chatting and laughing and yelling at kids and cleaning up and ... just got to be. I will never, ever, ever forget being able to come and meet baby Anna in the hospital. Or Max always asking where Matt was when we'd show up to his house without him. Or Josh telling me to be a soccer coach (HA!). Or Jenna showing up with a large McDonald's coke.

Baby Anna, a baby no more! 

The chances of us living in the same town again are slim. But God, am I blessed to have had these two years.

I can tell you that I did not expect to have three children all born in states other than Kansas! But alas, sweet Tess made her debut into our family in Arkansas. I have zero Kansas-born babies. The plus side to this is that they will never have to be called a Jayhawker (because that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard).

I can tell you that you can never be certain on where life will lead you. Or how you will meet the people you meet. Or the footprints that they will leave on your path.

Thought we still have two months left in Arkansas (or one month and 23 days -- and yes I am counting down the days until we leave this apartment!), I'm starting my goodbyes now.

Thank you 202 NW Highland Road for being our Arkansas home. You were large, your floors killed me (and I picked them out), the weather got us a few times, but you stood tall. Thanks for being our "big house" as the kids called it -- our Minnesota house was our "little house" -- and thank you for keeping us safe for two years! You will be greatly missed!


XXOO,
Allyson

Murder Mystery Fun

This past weekend, one of our neighbors hosted a Murder Mystery Social. I had never participated in one, but I knew it was most likely going to be pretty entertaining. Especially with the people we'd be participating in this with.

Which was all of our neighbors.

I can tell you that I started off Saturday on a bad foot (not like my foot hurt, but the day just started poorly). We are weeks away from having our packed up and moving to a two-bedroom apartment, we have no house to move to in Chicago, my mind never stops thinking and worrying and wanting to cry because of all the unknown coming at us. Plus it was my sister-in-law's 30th birthday and my brother had planned a fun night out for her, which we had been invited to, but we had chose to stay put to go to the Murder Mystery (because we had been invited first).

So I can tell you that on Saturday morning, I was not looking forward to the Social.

Not because of the people.

But because life was happening and I was not in the mood.

But by 5 pm, I needed a cocktail and the place to get that was at the Murder Mystery Social, on board a faux cruise ship (aka our neighbors house). 

So Matt and I dressed up according to our parts we were to play. I was Dakota Wild, a travel critic who was reviewing the new cruise ship. Matt was A.J. something... and he was guest relations. Who seemed to have a fling with Samantha Simpson, a passenger (also another Allyson in our neighborhood, go figure) on the ship who also, in real life, just happened to be pregnant. Which seemed really funny to me!

We pulled up to our neighbor's house and I see girls walking in with prom dresses on.

Literally, prom dresses.

And I immediately internally panicked because I was wearing a black lace dress from JCrew Factory (big friggin' surprise, I know). I was NOT fancied up! Somehow Matt owns a pair of blue chinos so he dressed totally appropriately for his part.

I found out shortly after that they were just dressing for their part and though it was a formal party, since I was a "critic", my attire was appropriate. Whew!

We had a wonderful dinner to start and then started the real reason we were there -- the Murder Mystery (and drinking).

Our neighbors (Cara and Daniel) went ALL out for this. They had prepared their house to look like a cruise ship (towel monkeys on the beds and in the bathrooms), had a photo area, had printed off very specific instructions for each character. I mean, it was amazing.

So we got started. And I think I laughed about 92 percent of the time.

I brought a notepad (I was a critic, so hello - I had to take notes and THANK GOD I did)! I also had just purchased some Digital Screen glasses (which is sad because that means I'm on the computer and phone WAY too much) but they all came in handy to play my part!

This picture is of me, my notes, my Bud Light and my super sweet (and bald in real life) neighbor Andy. We were either discussing how much he loved his faux wife, Wanda (who was his actual wife in real life) or what seed Iowa State got in the Big 12 Tournament (I'm surrounded by Cyclones in the neighborhood, which is WAY better than being surrounded by Jayhawks - bleh)!

My husband played the part of guest relations quite well. And he looked cute in his blue pants!

By the time it was all said and done, we all had sent my sister-in-law a birthday video, we had drank a lot, Kaye (sitting next to me) had killed someone (who knew!) and I had accused three other people of having done it.

And it was a night of exactly what I needed.

Matt and I have lived in quite a few places. In every place, we gain a child (or two), which makes where you live even more important.

We were so lucky in Minneapolis to have met Jeff and Annie and have them a few houses down from us. They were such wonderful friends and now, have become lifelong friends.

And then somehow, we ended up in Arkansas, in White Oak Trails.

And we have been surrounded by these genuinely kind-hearted people. Who would literally do anything and drop everything to help you in a second.

I get nervous about this next move and what's to come ... and what our neighborhood will be like. Because it's hard to fathom that it can get much better than this!

Thank you to our White Oak Trails posse. Thank you for listening to me talk (all the time), for taking my kids to your house when you already have 10 other kids over, for feeding our dog when we are out of town, for bringing us food when Matt is traveling so much. Thank you for just being good people. We will miss you more than you know.


XXOO,
Allyson