Saying goodbye is so hard to do!

I absolutely love my college and Dallas friends!  It was SO hard to say goodbye to everyone.  One of my best friends, Heather, threw a little "See ya later" party for us.  We were bummed that Kristin and Bither couldn't be there, but Lindsey and Tiff came.  We had a great time with the league, our husbands, and kiddos!

Lindsey came over a few times before we left town.  We cherished every moment together while the kids played.  We bathed Roman and Chloe together one last time.  It was sad knowing this would be the last time.  I cried!

Carmen and Carter are buddies! If only they could grow up together!

I got to take the kids over to Helen's house to play a week before we left.  Roman had so much fun with Jake!

We attempted a kiddo pic...

Take two...

I give up!

I'm going to miss Helen so much!  Love that girl!

We had one last league at my house and Kristin couldn't make it.  We were so sad!  We did a little cheerleading after a couple glasses of wine.  Typical league!

 

Our little "Vail" group at church got together the weekend before we left for dinner Saturday night and then lunch after church.  I'm so sad we didn't get any photos of the evening.  We had a blast!  We're going to miss our church friends so much!!

Carol and  "other Chloe" with Roman and mommy

The night before we left town I finally got to have dinner with Kristin.  She missed both the going away party and our little league.  I was so glad to at least see her and say goodbye.  It was only fitting that I ended my entire Dallas experience with her.  When I first moved to Dallas nine years ago, I moved in with Kristin.

Matt got to hang out with his close high school and college friends a couple of times within the quick last two weeks we were in Dallas.  We consider ourselves so richly blessed to have so many amazing close friends in our lives.  It's so hard to say goodbye!

Closing

Matt and I drove to Tulsa on Wednesday before Easter to spend time with his parents and then we flew out Thursday night with Carmen to Atlanta to try to close the house once again.  Roman stayed back in Tulsa with Pa and Grandma.  We stayed in the terrible $42 night hotel by the airport.  Poor Carmen slept in a metal portable hotel baby bed.  Sarah, our realtor, was supposed to pick us up that morning.  We all accidentally slept in and missed the warm breakfast.  We were all tired and starving!  Sarah finally came around 11:30 am and we started driving up north to close the house.  Literally as soon as we hit the highway, Matt gets a call from the Lender saying that the Mortgage company has a problem on their end.  They forgot to submit some disclosure and we couldn't close within 24 hours of them sending the paperwork.  It was so bazaar that it was actually hilarious.  We knew that Bank of America had an extension on their deadline of foreclosure, but we weren't sure about Chase.  Surely the previous second lien holder wouldn't mind waiting until the next Monday to close...  

After going to the house to pick out paints and getting so discouraged on even if we would be able to close on the following Monday, we headed back to the airport only to miss our flight by 3 minutes!  We had to spend the next four hours in the airport with Carmen waiting for the next flight!  Matt and I were both so upset and furious.  We probably produced a great people watching scene for many!

Carmen was such a trooper in the airport.  By the end of our 4 hour wait, she was crawling on the airport ground.  We didn't even care anymore!

Easter came and went.  We really enjoyed the family time, but couldn't stop thinking about how we almost lost this house.  God was still in control.  We flew back out to Atlanta early Monday morning.  Matt's parents graciously offered to watch both kids that day back in Tulsa.  After arriving in Atlanta around 9am, I had to make a brief pumping stop in the family restroom and then we were on our way up north.  We took the Marta and Sarah picked us up closer to the house.  We decided to drive back up to the house and look at paints one more time.  As we were deciphering through the many paint samples, Sarah gets a call.  Chase bank was willing to extend their deadline, but they wanted another $3,000.  Matt and I were so frustrated!!  We both agreed very verbally that there was no way we were paying another penny!  Sarah just wanted to get us to the closing table.  We get to the closing office and Matt stays outside on the phone with the mortgage company trying to get them to cover the extra cash considering it was their problem.  Not happening.  It did start getting the realtors nervous while we waited on Matt.  The attorney sat Matt down and was trying to tell him what a great deal this home was.  I simply walked in the room and told him that we didn't need his pep talk.  After sitting around and waiting, they tried to tell us to go ahead and wire the down payment while we wait.  Matt was not about to give money without every detail figured out!  Finally I said, "Let's quit beating around the bush and figure out who's picking up this extra $3,000 cause it's not us and if no one is going to, then we're headed home!"  Apparently the realtors picked it up and it was all taken care of.  Finally, after four hours of waiting, we CLOSED!  We were so in shock of the long battle and the fact that we were moving to Georgia!  CRAZY!!!

The new homeowners with our realtor, Sarah

The proud homeowners!

 After the closing, Matt had us stop so he could buy a bottle of champagne.  Sarah took us back to the house to finalize paint colors because we were moving soon and I wouldn't be back again until we moved.  We were so excited that we accidentally took a little longer and missed our flight back to Tulsa that night.  We ended up taking the public transportation back to the airport and stayed in our infamous $42 hotel.  We didn't care because we finally got the house!

I don't know why things work out the way they do in life.  All I do know is that God is in control and he has a plan for every one's lives.  For some reason, I know without a doubt that God wants us in Atlanta, in this home, at this time.  He led Matt's career path to Atlanta and we know that this is where we're supposed to be.  It is going to be so hard to move away from our wonderful life in Dallas, but we know it is the best for our family.  Here goes the new chapter in our lives...

Easter

We decided to drive to Tulsa for the weekend of Easter to spend with family at the lake.  We had a such a great time!  Meg flew in town too so we all went to church with Mark and Whitney and then met the rest of the family at the lake for the Easter egg hunt.  Roman had a blast playing with his cousins as usual and Carmen loved watching everyone.  Carmen rocked her first Easter in style!

  

Most of the great grandchildren

The Jones great granddaughters

The Franks (minus Mike)

Roman loved throwing rocks with Uncle Jarry

Carmen and Grandma Jones

lunch time!

Carmen napped on Uncle Jarry for 30 + minutes!

Easter was such a great day!  Thank you Jesus for the cross and for all of your blessings.  We are so blessed!

Kendi visit

One of my best friends from college came in town a few weeks ago and stopped by on Sunday afternoon to chat and catch up.  Kendi and I had a great time while the children napped.  She got to wake up the kids from their nap.  Love me some Kendi time!