Surprise! Jesus is Alive!

Wow! What a great Easter weekend we had... we headed to Greenville, SC for the weekend for lots of family and food. We had our Easter dinner on Friday night at Mom & John's complete with a slumber party that included the Stepps. Not only that, we decided that the Easter Bunny should hop through Carisbrooke a day early. So he did! It was so fun to wake up Saturday morning and see the kids excitement as they checked out their Easter loot. We continued the morning with Mimosas, Bloody Marys and again, more food! It was perfect! My sweet grandmother was able to come for a visit and see four of her six great grandchildren. She lights up when she sees these little creatures and her head just turns in awe as she watches them. Bless her heart, she was exhausted by the time she left. I don't blame her :) We completed the day with a cookout at the Stepps. The cookout consisted of family, friends, great hospitality and hot dogs! My goodness, who could ask for more? Not this girl!

On Sunday morning, Archer and I were invited to church with Mary Lanier and Graham. They started attending a new church a few years ago and speak ever so highly of it. While I was excited to go and see what all of the hoopla was about, I must admit, I was a tad bit anxious about what to expect. They are attending a non-denominational church that is more contemporary and forewarned us that it was not the least bit traditional. BUT... I trusted them, as did Archer. They LOVE this place... surely it wasn't that aberrant.

So, Katherine comes to pick us up and we head to church... in our everyday clothes (not so shabby I do say so myself). We meet Mare and Graham in the lobby and head to our seats. I have never seen so many people flock into one place in my life! The room is dark and we're shown to our seats with flashlights. I am pretty sure at this point that Kenny Chesney may be about to perform. (maybe that was my Easter surprise!) Not so much... within minutes the lights shine on the stage and a band starts singing. Now this is no ordinary ensemble... this is a straight up rock band playing Christian music. Good Christian music. Music that I would listen to on the radio. Okay, not traditional but I'm holding on for the ride. We sing a hymn... "It Is Well With My Soul" (a favorite of mine and one that my mother apparently wants played at her funeral so I found out yesterday - thanks for the downer, Dulce!) We pray, we give offering and then we pray again. And then the most technologically advanced thing happened... the minister appeared, except that he really didn't. You see, this church has FIVE campuses and it's based out of Anderson, SC. The minister, Perry Noble, speaks from Anderson but was with us in Greenville in the form of a hologram. I swear you would have thought that he was there. Crazy!

My reason for writing this is because Perry is one of the best ministers I have ever heard. He speaks directly to you and parallels his preaching with everyday life. I left church yesterday with a rejuvenated sense of faith and belief. I left and actually wanted to discuss what I had just heard rather than worry about what I was going to have for lunch. I wanted him to speak longer. The really cool thing (so I'm told) is that his message is like this EVERY SUNDAY, not just Easter Sunday! I can't even begin to tell you what kind of person I'd be if I could get a little bit of this every week. It's amazing... absolutely amazing! Thank you Mare and Graham for inviting us and thanks Kat for the ride! You guys, along with Perry & New Spring, have sparked a fire in me that I haven't felt in a very long time. It was a very emotional service for me and one that I've been needing.

So, to all you naysayers out there who want to poo-poo the ol' contemporary church, well... shame on you! First of all, why would you ever think negatively of a church? Secondly, don't knock it til you've tried it! New Spring had over 22,000 people at its five campuses over three services. If that doesn't tell you something... I don't know what will! And I might add that if New Spring ever decides to move into NC, I'm a goner :)

After church, the Butlers headed home to the elder Butlers to celebrate some Easter in Winston. And whatdaya know? The Easter Bunny made a stop in Winston, too! It was a great night and everyone was to bed early! Whew... we were ALL tired and glad to be back with our "roomies" :)

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter - We sure did.

Butler notes & mishaps:
-Pat Pat peed on Mimi's couch in the sunroom. Lovely!
-The Easter Bunny took away Patterson's popis (pronounced poppies), AKA pacifiers. This has been a huge deal because for those who know Patterson, she goes NOWHERE without the popi! It's her crack - she's like an old lady smoking a cigarette. She moves it to the side of her mouth to talk. It waits for her by the door until she gets home from school. But it's gone! Hooray! And she's doing unbelievably well going cold turkey. We're all really proud of her.
-CeCe has been singing non-stop as her Kindergarten Play is this week. She's so excited and so are we!
-Tee has mastered the art of growing. That sweet tub of love is 18 lbs. Hard to believe just six short months ago he came into this world weighing four pounds and six ounces!
-I, yes I, have started exercising. I'm getting up with my friend Kimberly at 6am to walk most mornings. I'll keep you posted on how long it lasts. I HATE exercise - UGH!

SIX!

See the link below for my sister's blog post dedicated to CeCe on her SIXTH birthday! I don't think I could sum it up any better myself. CeCe is one of a kind... an angel... I honestly don't know what I'd do without this kid. I can't believe she's SIX. Seems like only yesterday I was waddling around with swollen ankles, praying that she'd come at any minute. I now know why I was so anxious for her to get here. I love you, my dear sweet CeCe... more than you'll ever know! Thank you for blessing my life with such JOY!

http://lifebythestepps.blogspot.com/2011/04/six.html

Adios Englewood...

You all know by now that I love surprises but what you all don't know is that I thrive on drama (well not really crazy drama) but drama that life has to offer. I live a hectic life slam full of crazy schedules, things going on, laundry, kids, dog, volunteer work, school(s) etc. There is always something going on in my life... just call me and I promise that you won't get a boring conversation. I'm sure my friends think that I'm a little nutty and a slight drama queen, but that's me :0) This is actually going somewhere... stay with me!

I found out I was pregnant in March 2010. We also decided to put our house on the market in March 2010. My husband had recently surprised me with the news that he had never actually "cared for" our house.... um, yes 4 years later! Thanks hun! So... what the heck? Let's see if it'll sell? Guess what? It didn't. We kept it on the market about six months and had about six people come and look at it. And let me tell ya, trying to keep a house straight, much less CLEAN with two kids and a puppy (yes-Stella, our sweet yellow lab, was delivered to us via Santa's sleigh a few months earlier and was supposed to be Baby #3) while pregnant is kind of like personally asking the devil to take over your soul. With that being said, we finally took the house off of the market right before Tee's birth and said "to heck with it!" We'll chalk it up and stay.

Well - we started to get bees in our bonnet again towards the end of the year and thought to ourselves, let's just put our house on the market and see what happens. Surely it won't sell, but let's just give it a whirl. Guess what? Englewood was under contract in THREE weeks! We were elated! and a little anxious and scared. Um, we had nowhere to go... inspectors and realtors aren't as easy on sellers these days... and they wanted to close in seven weeks!

Those seven weekends that were to follow included:

1) Sister's Bachelorette Party

2) Weekend full of parties and kids' friends birthday parties (oh and sick child)

3) Archer out of town

4) Sister's Wedding

5) Archer out of town #2

6) CeCe's birthday party and Tee's baptism

7) Moving Weekend (entire week prior = Spring Break)

Holy hellfire! How in the world am I/we going to get this accomplished? On top of that, the inspection report came back and we were asked to have 99% of it completed (this is a small town or I'd have a whole post on "The Devil Wears a Prudential Badge"). Thank God there is a God and a good one at that because we were able to close last Tuesday and thank goodness for my in-laws that are letting us live with them while we look for a house. There is no way we could be somewhat settled if it weren't for them. They have been overly accommodating... much MUCH more than I would be. We had clean & empty closets, clean & empty dressers to move our stuff into. We've totally set up shop... the sunroom is now a full blown playroom and the den is covered and smothered with Tee's equipment (swing, bouncy seat, play mat, exersauser, etc) There's more than enough room for us all and Stella even seems to like her new digs (what am I talking about, she's in HEAVEN - hasn't had this much attention in ages!) It's been so great thus far and I think we may just stay here. The digs are pretty awesome :)

Our house selling so quickly was such a surprise and blessing for our family. We needed a new layout of a house and something that's more conducive to us and now we can take our time looking for it even if we do have to move twice. This market is not favorable towards sellers at ALL so we feel even more blessed to have sold. Englewood was the home that Archer and I brought two of our three kids home from the hospital, we made many many wonderful memories there, we had the best street neighbors in the world, and we enjoyed having so much space. But, we know there's a better surprise around the corner and look forward to creating many great memories down the road. I hope the new owners will have just as many wonderful times on Englewood as we did. We wish the absolute best!

There will be an excerpt on each posting of the Butler (mostly Pat Pat) bloopers for a little bit while staying with the in-laws:

-Patterson wanting a Pop-Tart and going into Mimi's Christmas china and finding a bowl to eat it on - you guessed it... she broke it! (Mimi handled it a lot better than Mommy!)

-Patterson waking up Tee on Day #4 while poor thing is sleeping in the swing via shaking the mobile above psychotically (it is an awful sound by the way)

-Patterson getting into blue nail polish and painting the interior of my car and her Lilly dress (it's a lovely shade of blue though)

-Patterson screaming bloody murder (so loud the neighbor two doors down walked over) outside. As I walk out, I see her "storming" across the driveway and knocking CeCe upside the head. (notice this was a MAD scream and punishment occurred very shortly thereafter)

-Patterson wetting through her Pull-Up and peeing in the middle of the kitchen floor

-Stella chewing up her dog bed and making the biggest mess I've ever seen (even Patterson said, "Mommy! Oh my Gosh! Stella make a BIG MESS!" - it's a huge mess if Pat Pat acknowledges it)

-Mommy forgetting to send CeCe's lunch to school not once, but twice last week. Thank goodness that child is resilient and easy!

-Patterson and I pulling up in the driveway and the following conversation ensued:

P: Mommy, I want to go home!

me: Pat Pat, we are home.

P: No Mommy, I want to go to MY house.

me: Pat Pat, this is our house right now.

P: No, the OTHER house.

me: Pat Pat, we don't have that house anymore. It belongs to someone else.

But we're going to have a new house soon and you're going to have a

brand new room and new big girl bed!

P: Daddy gonna build me a house?

me: not exactly...

P: Daddy gonna build me a sparkly house like Barbie

and the Diamond Castle?

me: Well... we'll see... (don't get your hopes up, sweetie!)

Like I said earlier, we thrive on drama 'round here. Never a dull moment but love it all just the same :)

A much needed reprieve...

WOW! I can't even begin to tell you how crazy my past few weeks have been. I promise I'll catch up on it ALL soon (baptism, kids b-day, moving, Spring Break, moving in with the very gracious in-laws, allergies, god-awful Time Warner Cable, lessons learned on what to do and what NOT to do when buying a new house when the times comes, drape drama, etc.), but wanted to post a little something since I've been MIA for a week. I got a huge surprise a few months ago... I found out that one of my favorite bands is coming to my town... Winston-Salem. Of course, I'm going to see them... who would pass on a chance to see the Zac Brown Band? And... it couldn't come at a better time as we closed on our house today (can't even begin to tell you how happy I am about that-WHEW). This girl is in need of a little bit o' chicken friend, cold beer on Wednesday night, pair of jeans that fit just right, and the radio UP! And tomorrow is not too soon...believe me!

I listened to the lyrics of "Let It Go" a while ago and thought the lyrics were pretty catchy, but I've thought about those words often over the past few weeks when things got a little crazy and tried to take them to heart.

You keep your heart above your head and your eyes wide open

So this world can't find a way to leave you cold

And know you're not the only ship out on the ocean

Save your strength for things that you can change

Forgive the ones you can't

You gotta let it go

With that being, said I'm gonna "let it go" tomorrow night and have a great time! We deserve a much needed reprieve :)