It's Been Too Long!

I haven't written a blog post for a couple of years. Life just gets in the way of my extra time. The school year is coming to a close, and my kids will have different experiences next school year. Cedric is going to be in the IA (4th grade) with a new teacher, Sebastian will still be with his current teachers for 2nd grade, and Melody is moving on from preschool to Kindergarten. My babies are growing up way too fast. Slow down time! Here's a current picture of Cedric, Sebastian, and Melody in a play they were in. They played Winnie the Pooh characters and sang the song The Backson, and me with my three cuties. I love them so.

INFJ Personality

The INFJ personality type is very rare, making up less than one percent of the population, but they nonetheless leave their mark on the world. As Diplomats (NF), they have an inborn sense of idealism and morality, but what sets them apart is the accompanying Judging (J) trait – INFJs are not idle dreamers, but people capable of taking concrete steps to realize their goals and make a lasting positive impact. They tend to see helping others as their purpose in life, but while INFJs can be found engaging rescue efforts and doing charity work, their real passion is to get to the heart of the issue so that people need not be rescued at all.

INFJs indeed share a very unique combination of traits: though soft-spoken, they have very strong opinions and will fight tirelessly for an idea they believe in. They are decisive and strong-willed, but will rarely use that energy for personal gain – INFJs will act with creativity, imagination, conviction and sensitivity not to create advantage, but to create balance. Egalitarianism and karma are very attractive ideas to INFJs, and they tend to believe that nothing would help the world so much as using love and compassion to soften the hearts of tyrants.

INFJs find it easy to make connections with others, and have a talent for warm, sensitive language, speaking in human terms, rather than with pure logic and fact. It makes sense that their friends and colleagues will come to think of them as quiet Extroverted types, but they would all do well to remember that INFJs need time alone to decompress and recharge, and to not become too alarmed when they suddenly withdraw. INFJs take great care of other’s feelings, and they expect the favor to be returned – sometimes that means giving them the space they need for a few days.

Really though, it is most important for INFJs to remember to take care of themselves. The passion of their convictions is perfectly capable of carrying them past their breaking point and if their zeal gets out of hand, they can find themselves exhausted, unhealthy and stressed. This becomes especially apparent when INFJs find themselves up against conflict and criticism – their sensitivity forces them to do everything they can to evade these seemingly personal attacks, but when the circumstances are unavoidable, they can fight back in highly irrational, unhelpful ways.

To INFJs, the world is a place full of inequity – but it doesn’t have to be. No other personality type is better suited to create a movement to right a wrong, no matter how big or small. INFJs just need to remember that while they’re busy taking care of the world, they need to take care of themselves, too.

Some famous INFJs:

• Jimmy Carter, former U.S. president
• Goethe, writer and politician
• Mel Gibson, actor
• Mother Teresa, missionary
• Martin Luther King, civil rights activist
• Nelson Mandela, politician
• Nicole Kidman, actress
• “James Wilson” from House M.D.

Melody turned Three on January 12th!

Melody had a great birthday on her actual birthday of January 12th! She had so much fun from all the people that came to celebrate her special day.  That extraordinary night three years ago at 9:53pm when she couldn't just have an ordinary birth, she wanting to make a grand entrance that I don't think any of those doctors or nurses will ever forget. As John likes to say, she "jackknifed" her way into the world. She also couldn't wait to meet us, because she tried to come at 24 weeks/3 days and again at 26/27 weeks, but I was able to convince her to just hold off on making her entrance for just a little while longer. She agreed, and she decided to pick the anniversary date of John and I' first date to be her birthday. Although, she was 5 weeks/1 day premature, she has been a firecracker from the very beginning, and she won't let anything slow her down or get in the way. Here's to my sweet girl who is destined to do great things!

Melody had her three year appointment on January 28th, and she is doing great. Very healthy! She was 37 inches in height (50%ile), and 29 lbs. in weight (30%ile). Her weight was in the 15 percentile last year, so that is a great improvement.

Week Twenty of Our House

The house is complete, but we still need to wait until June 25th for the closing.  We go to the big walk-through/inspection on June 18th.  It's so exciting to be so close now!  We might have to wait a little bit for the landscaping, but our plans were approved.  That's the biggest step to almost being done.

Week Nineteen of our House

Week Eighteen of Our House

Week Seventeen of Our House

Week Sixteen of Our House

Week Fifteen of Our House

Week Fourteen of Our House

Week Thirteen of Our House

 The stucco is starting to go up on the house, but it still needs to be painted.  I'm hoping next Sunday we will some more details on the outside.  We were also given an official closing date of June 25th at 10am.  It's so exciting to have an end date.  We've also been working with a landscaper to finalize a plan for that.  We just have the month of May to get through and most of June.  May is already going by fast with the boys' school.  Lots of stuff going on there!  New house!  And next school year, we will have a first grader.  O_o

 Lots going on on the inside of the house.  This is the boys' bathroom.

 This is the garage with all the doors for the house.

 This is the hallway towards the boys' rooms.  The door on the left is Sebastian's room, and the door on the right is Cedric's room.  I love the arched windows! 

 This is the kitchen area.  You can see the wood floors that haven't been stained yet.

This is the laundry/mud room that you enter into from off the garage.

Week Twelve of Our House

Still no change, but lots going on on the inside.  Everyone is looking cute posing in front of the house.

Week Eleven of Our House

Still no change on the outside. :(

Week Ten of Our House

Our house is coming along nicely.  They've been working on the inside more, but it looks like they might be putting the stucco up soon.

Week Nine of Our House

 We did our pre drywall walkthrough today, and it is looking just as great on the inside as it is on the outside.  We have still been given the mid June date for our closing, and it can't come fast enough.

 Our nice view from our master bath window.

 Looking from the master bath into the master bedroom.

 Looking from Cedric's room into the hallway.  Sebastian bedroom is to the right at the end.

 John modeling in front of the stairs.  The staircase will be open concept into the basement, and it will have iron rods along the banister.

Melody's room. 

Week Eight of Our House

We have a front door and a garage door.  We also have a driveway and walkway leading up to the front door.  So exciting!

Week Seven of Our House

Our house is coming along.  All the windows are there, and we have the accent siding put up.

To This Day video

I love this video!  So powerful, and so true about bullies!

Week Six of Our House

We have a roof and most of the windows are in.  It looks like a house now!  We didn't get out to do much walking around because of the snow, but John did get some back views from the greenbelt.  We're very excited with the progress, and we can't wait to see what next week will bring. :)

WOW! Our House is Under Contract!

After a very grueling weekend of having to evacuate from our house for hours at a time, we were pleasantly surprised to find out at ten in the morning on Monday, March 4th, that we had a bid for our house.  In less than three days, we are going through the final process of inspections, appraisals, and other hoops you jump through to have your home official sold.  Now, we need to replace the furnace and find a place to live.  We also have to be out of our house by April 1st.  Now the fun begins!