Second Honeymoon

1 Corinthians 13:11 – When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Now that Jarom is over the hill he no longer does birthdays in the same way that he used to. Where once he had huge parties with tons of presents and all of his buddies and the occasional bounce house, now he has destination birthdays with his wife. And for their first destination birthday the decided to head down to Dallas and find a new home, since they have to be out of their current home by next Tuesday. So they arranged for some baby sitters, sending Jenna off to the Bleyls and Blake to stay with the Hoffmans. The original second honeymoon plan called for a Saturday afternoon departure, but Hurricane Irene canceled their flight and they had to bump it up to 6 in the morning to get out before the rain came. They felt a little bad about leaving town while the kids and I stayed here to weather the storm, but the fact that they could sleep on the plane and not have to wrangle any toddlers as they walked through the airports made them quickly forget what terrible parents they are.

Jenna and Kenna on their way to the candy store

In Dallas they met up with Nate and Kenz, who had already been there for a couple of days without Kenna, who had been staying at our house. They had already visited about 40 houses and had narrowed the search down to two areas, which made Alixa’s job much easier. The Winns instantly fell in love with Frisco, which is a relatively new suburb about 40 minutes north of Dallas. It reminds them very much of Las Vegas, in that the communities are all planned, with running trails and community pools and playgrounds, the roads are ample and well built, and the schools are spread out inside the neighborhoods. It didn’t take very long before they could see themselves spending a lot of years there. The house hunt was great. All those long hours of research that Lix has put in watching House Hunters and HGTV’d and My First Place really paid off. Their first love was a house that wasn’t actually on the market, but had been recently. It was pretty much perfect, but a little bit more than they were hoping to spend. Day one ended with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory, a Winn birthday tradition, with Nate and Kenz and a lot of thinking about the many houses that they saw. Day two started with second visits to a couple of their favorites from the first day and then a few more new houses. And it was in those new ones that the Winns found their new home. It’s a lovely 4 bedroom place with a cute backyard and close proximity to a pool and a park. And they really liked the way it was decorated, so they decided to put in an offer that day and asked for all of the furniture with the house. Sadly, the sellers didn’t go for that, but they did agree to leave some nice couches, a grill, and the coolest little girl bed you have ever seen. And now we will have a place to stay when we eventually get down to Texas in a few weeks. Happy birthday, Jardog! Enjoy paying it off for the next thirty years!

Jarom was hoping to get the sticks on the wall, but had to settle for the leather couches instead

This is the bed/playhouse that is the real reason they bought the place

After a very successful house hunt and 3 day break from the kids both Jarom and Lix were very excited to see Jenna and Blake again, and they were ready to have their parents back as well. Both babysitters were excellent and we couldn’t be more thankful to have such nice folks as our friends here in Richmond. It will really be sad to have to leave them when we go. Courtney was great and took Jenna down to the river and let her sleep in her bed with her every night. I’m sure Erik was just thrilled about that. And the Hoffmans did great with Bo, although they may have decided that they can wait a little while before they decide to have a second baby.

Now the focus is on getting out of this house. We have started to pack up, and decided that since we are picking up some furniture in Texas we can leave some here and sold a few pieces to the guy who is buying our house. It’ll save on moving expenses and keep old man Jarom from throwing out his back as he carries heavy dressers down the stairs.

The only real negative development that has happened lately is that Jenna has sort of quit taking naps. It has become quite a struggle to get that girl to lay down and go to sleep. She will scream and cry bloody murder until you open up the door to get her. After some trial and error we found that if you explain to her that she needs to stay in her room and offer to let her keep the door open a little, she does okay. Perhaps she just doesn’t like the feeling of isolation. However, now that the door is staying open she can get out and try to come downstairs, where she knows she is not supposed to be. So both Jarom and Lix have caught her quietly tiptoeing down the stairs and crouching behind corners and furniture as she tries to avoid being detected. Once she is caught she will sheepishly grin at you as you ask her where she is supposed to be, to which she will answer “in my bed” before heading back upstairs. On days when she doesn’t nap this will happen repeatedly as the parent sends her to bed and she sneaks back down. But it is pretty hard to get mad at her when she is so stinkin cute.

Here's a little clip of Bo laughing. Bonus points if you can name the song that Lix sings to him to get him to start.