New York Bound - Part 1

Sunday after church, we loaded up our car and hit the road!

Jaxen fell asleep within 10 minutes of being on the road 

and slept for about 3 hours!

Playing with toys from his travel bag that Mamaw Kay made for him (thanks)!

We drove to Memphis, TN

And ate yummy BBQ at Corky's

We settled into our hotel room for the night and Jaxen

had so much fun playing with the microwave….

After that, I decided it was time for some swimming!

Jaxen loved the pool!

He had the best time jumping off the side!

Other than Jaxen not falling asleep until 10:30pm and waking up at 4am, 

we had a great travel day!

We are pretty tired though!

Updates

So our home is now empty…

and the truck is loaded with all our stuff and on it’s way to NY as I type!

Jaxen is even sporting his new New York t-shirt I bought for him last week.

I also bought this shirt…

which if any of you know his love for guitars, keyboards and drums…

you know this shirt is perfect!

“I’m only doing this until my band gets signed”

A few other pictures…

A group picture of the staff at my work-church.

A picture of my mom and Scotty with Jaxen

when they came to visit a few weeks ago.

And here are a few pictures from our visit with Nik’s family this past weekend:

Playing with his cousins

We got to meet our newest niece, Kyleigh!

Jaxen decided he liked Kyleigh’s car seat…and attempted to sit in it!

We had a great time visiting with Nik’s family over the weekend!

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We left Texarkana after lunch today and are headed north!

Saying Goodbyes

This past Sunday was Nik’s last Sunday at our church. He preached for the last time (at Temple). It was a sad, but good service. That evening they held a wonderful reception for us. Many people came and gave us the opportunity to say good-bye. It was a fun evening. I know it was also sad…but it was fun to reminisce with everyone about our time there. It is always encouraging to hear how you much you have meant to someone, but at the same time it was nice that we got to share with the church what they have meant to us.

This church family has loved us since the moment we arrived in Temple. They watched us grow up. They loved on, supported and encouraged Nik during his first full-time ministry position. They respected and helped him as he led the youth group and even more recently, as he helped lead the church. They watched Jaxen grow in my belly and rejoiced with us upon his arrival. They have loved on him and nurtured him and I could not have asked for much better.

Not everything here was perfect. We definitely had some pretty hard moments. But when you leave someplace…you want to remember the good. And we had lots of good moments.

One of the hardest things about leaving here is the teenagers. The ones who are seniors this year, are the very first 7th graders that moved up after we arrived. We have been with them from the beginning. We have watched them grow up and mature, but most importantly - we have watched them come into a personal relationship with Christ. And that is something that is so special to be a part of. To see them learn about what it means to be a Christian…to watch them love others, help people, serve where needed, lead in worship, share a testimony, pray for a friend… it has been the most awesome privilege.

We had one last youth service on Wednesday. It was hard knowing that was the last time we will walk into the youth room and have a service with this particular group. Afterward, we went to eat dinner and then the goodbyes came. It was sad. It was hard. But I know it is going to be okay!

The youth group, on Monday, at Top Golf!

After saying goodbye to my work people and our church people - we had to say good-bye to our neighbors. And it was hard to say good-bye to them. They were more than neighbors to us...They were friends, family, our interior designers, cooks, babysitters, our TV source…and so much more!

Emilie, Jaxen and Katie

Kris and Jaxen

Kris, Quention, Emile and Jaxen

Needless to say, after all those good-byes…I was exhausted! Mentally and physically exhausted. It was sad to drive away from Temple. From our home and our life for the past 6 years.

But we are looking ahead! And we are super excited about our new adventure in New York!

Packing Packing Packing!

I actually love to pack. I think it is pretty fun. Basically, it involves cleaning, organizing, and purging stuff. All which I love to do!

And that is what we have been doing this weekend!

Thankfully, I have been packing for awhile now (so glad I go started early) but this weekend was the serious-pack-it-all-up weekend. We spent Saturday morning packing Nik’s office and then over the weekend and mostly Sunday afternoon we went through the entire house and packed everything. Everything except bedding (which will be packed tomorrow) and the clothes we are taking with us on the road. So basically, we will be wearing the same few pants and shirts (washing in-between wear, of course) for the next 2 weeks.

This is what our garage currently looks likes:

Plus every single closet and the attic are full of packed boxes! 

After Jaxen woke up from his Sunday nap he grabbed his juice and came outside to help us!

And that’s all the pictures I took of Jaxen this weekend. Cute, huh? Socks, diaper, shirt and bed-head! Nik is with the teens today for some Spring Break fun and Jaxen and I have a list of chores that need to be done, plus lunch with friends.

Tuesday the truck comes and we begin loading up!

My Last Day of Work

Today was my last day of work at First Baptist. Almost 6 years ago, I walked in the office looking for any job I could get...I applied for the Music/Missions Assistant (without knowing how to even read music!) and started work the following week!

This job has been wonderful! It was a really hard week emotionally (as I prepared to say goodbye) and mentally (as I tried to get all my work done and train a new person). But it was a good week!

On Wednesday, I carried a box home of my belongings. It was not a very big or full box. Since we moved into our offices (not too long ago) I didn’t really take any personal things - knowing I would be leaving soon.

The plant in the box is my very special “It’s a boy” “It’s a girl” plant. To read more about that story, click here.

These are the other items I brought home:

2 picture frames with a couple of my favorite pictures in them / A wooden “Carla” sign made by a sweet gentleman that attended the church / My “Carla” name tag / And a few personal items: a barrette, chapstick and one package of English Breakfast tea.

Oh, and a Justin Bieber Poster.

This poster has been found many different places…work rooms, bathrooms, offices…I think it was given to me just so they could get it out of the building! Ha!

On Tuesday we had a special lunch, celebrating me leaving. Or something like that…! It was good food, good company and some laughter. A few people shared something that they would miss the most about me. Their response ranged from my organization skills, my clean desk, they way I “help” people (translated = my bossiness!) to missing my peanut butter pie, and all my random ailments (which if you have read my blog for long…you have heard about many of them!). It was a sweet time with some wonderful people who have been like family to me the past 6 years.

And today during our Support Staff Meeting we had a “Tea Party”. Hot tea, bluebery muffins and kolaches! It does not get much better than that!

The very last thing I took home today was the name sign outside of my office.

Dr. Carla Davis

One day, I mentioned that I would loved to be called “Dr. Davis”. First of all, it has a cool ring, and if I ever did the amount of schoolwork it took to get me to be a “Dr.” I would definitely make everyone I know call me “Dr.”!

So they made me an “honorary Dr.” for my last 2 weeks! And there were a lot of people who called me “Dr. Davis”! See what I mean about working with wonderful people?!

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I know I am long overdue for some pictures of Jaxen. I just have not taken any here recently. I will try to be better this weekend and take some!

Our Home

Oh, our home. And this journey. It has been something else!

Once we made the decision to move, we decided to sell our home. We pondered keeping it as rental property…but decided against it, just because we will be so far away. Selling was really the best option for us. We have never sold a home before. This was all new to us. I almost feel like a pro now!

We setup an appointment with a realtor in town…actually, he is the top realtor in Temple. He is very good at what he does - but it is not easy to list a house with him. After our initial meeting, we knew the updates we needed to do to sell our home as well as a good asking price for it.

Then the work started….and oh my….the work.

We did not have to do a lot - our home was in pretty good shape. We needed to lay new flooring in our kitchen and both bathrooms (which is something that was already on our to-do-list) and paint most of the inside and the outside trim (just to make it look a bit nicer).

Not too bad. But we knew time was limited and with the Upward Season going on, and everything else that comes with moving…we knew we did not have time to do the bulk of the work. So we hired those two jobs out.

The painting part went great. It was a two day job. Easy peasy. It looks great, and we got a pretty good deal! These pictures were snapped quickly today, just to show you the new paint job -

The updated tan walls and white fireplace.

The tan walls are through most of the house.

The flooring was another story…I don’t even know the last time I was so frustrated with something. I’m not going into the details…but basically our house was a construction zone for 6 solid days. We could not be in our kitchen/dining area. All of that stuff was in our living room so we could not be there either. And the dust, from scraping up the old flooring....The dust was awful. But it is finally done. And I am so glad to have that part over!

The updated kitchen flooring. 

Much better than the white/pink that was before!

The rest of the work we had to do, was pretty small stuff. Some landscaping, some rearranging, cleaning…not too bad.

All in all, we finished everything pretty quickly and our home was officially on the market Tuesday, February 25. We had 2 showings that Thursday and one showing Friday.

Friday, February 28, I received a phone call from our realtor that someone had made an offer on the house!!! We countered their offer, they countered back - and Monday, March 3 we signed papers to sell our home (and at full asking price)!!!

Tuesday we had the inspection and now we are in the "Waiting Period" (7 days) of our house completely being sold. We have to wait and see what comes back from the inspector and if they are going to ask for any concessions.

We will know by next Tuesday, March 11, if the sale will go through. And we leave Temple on Thursday, March 13. If all goes as planned, we will "close" on Friday, March 28. For those of you who are not that familiar with our history in Temple....March 28, 2008, is when we closed on our house when we moved here!

It has been a (fast) journey!

An amazing one! And one I have seen God work in. Many months ago…probably August or September, I was out for a morning run (when I was actually running - ha!) and I remember praying on one certain morning about our home. I did not know we were moving yet, but I just started praying that morning that when the time came that I would see God’s hand at work in the sale of our house. I prayed for Nik and I as we made decisions about our home, for the realtor, for the people purchasing our home…basically, anything that I could think of at that time to pray for concerning our home. I laid it all out there. God answered my prayers! And I’m so thankful! And happy!

I know many others have prayed along side of us here recently about the sale of our home…that we would see it sold before we moved. Thank you for your prayers! It is only through God that our home sold in the timeframe it did!

Random Pics & Stories

The last 4 days for us have been focused on our last-ditch-effort to raise some money for the youth group through a Rummage Sale.

While Nik worked all day on the Rummage Sale, I was home with a little sick boy. Maybe teething, maybe a virus or a bug…not sure. But he has not felt good since Friday afternoon. I’m hoping he will be better tomorrow!

Nik’s day started out bright and early (5:30) and he did not get home until almost 5….but they made over $2,000!!!! It was a great way to end to our fundraising efforts!

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Now for some random pictures and stories!

I have packed most of Jaxen’s toys…so he has to get creative!

I decided to take a picture of Jaxen with his teachers from Mothers Day Out…

But when I arrived to pick him up, and did not take him immediately, 

he thought I was going to leave him (hence, the crying face).

Since our house has been on the market, every morning before we leave, we make sure the house is “show ready”. Well, Thursday morning, as I was walking out of the house I saw the pan of brownies I made from the night before sitting on top of the stove. I knew I needed to hide them, so I quickly threw them in the oven….

When Nik came home that day for lunch, he went straight to the oven and turned it on to bake a pizza…not realizing the brownie pan (with the plastic lid) was in the oven. Oops! Melted lid, and twice baked brownies!

No picture.

My boss at work, Gary, purchased a brick in honor of us at the

new church building...

It sits among other bricks...

right in front of the prayer tower!

It was so sweet of him to do this. 

I think it is pretty cool that I am ‘forever’ an (engraved) part of FBC Temple!

It has been a wonderful job. I will miss it and all the people I work with.

 This is Jaxen, laying on the ottoman, leg crossed,

eating goldfish one afternoon!

Do you see his adorable new shoes?!

Another funny “house showing” story. Nik was home eating lunch and ran out of time to do his lunch dishes so he hid them (remember, “show ready” at all times). Later that day, I opened the cabinets under the sink to get a new roll of paper towels, and guess what I found? Plate, cup and fork! It took me by surprise...And then I laughed!

Friday morning, Jaxen was hanging out in bed with Nik and playing

with his cell phone. The result: about 20 “selfies”. Here are a few...

My favorite...