home sweet home.

carly's first nap at home on the couch.

this morning the maintenance man came by. the handle on our oven had come off and the door to our laundry "nook" had come off track. it is so nice to have tiny problems that we can't fix ourselves and to just have a nice guy come knock on the door and fix it for free. and he came within an hour. chris dropped the request off this morning and my 9:30 when carly and i were still sleeping i heard the tell-tale soft knock at the door. we have loved this place. its not perfect, but we have loved it. it reminded me of the perks of renting. it reminded me that anywhere can be home.
~
the other day i was chatting with a friend from our ward. her husband is a dental resident and they have three children. we were talking about our move to michigan and how i was bummed we wouldn't be buying a house. she said in another state where they went to dental school, they bought a house. and here they are just renting a house (beautiful house, by the way). and she said renting, for such a short period of time, is SO nice. when there is a problem . . . its not her problem. "because sometimes you just don't have the 100's or 1000's of dollars you need to suddenly make some repair." amen, sista. it reminded me of the perks of renting. it reminded me that anywhere can be home.
~
i'm growing suprisingly tenderhearted as our time here in knoxville continues to count down ever so quickly. i swear we move every time we really get integrated into a place and start to make real friends. i'm hoping our 4 years in michigan allows us to feel like we get to stay in one place a bit longer.
~
when the maintenance man was doing his thing, carly crawled around the corner and watched him. she is curious and brilliant, and when she saw he was having all sorts of fun, banging on things and making noise, she wanted to join him. i dragged her back into her room and the tenderheartedness took over. i thought about what this apartment has meant to us. I remembered the first time we saw it. we were living in another apartment in the same complex. the other apartment was much bigger, and therefore much more expensive. and with a baby on the way (i was about 15 weeks at the time) and the hopes that i would quit my job, we figured we should downsize and save some money. we visited this apartment and i walked into the small second bedroom. The spirit rushed over me and I said "we are moving here. this is the perfect baby room". i could see it in my head the second I walked in. and today? its the perfect baby room for our perfect baby.
~
i am tenderhearted because this is carly's first home. it is where i felt her move in my tummy the first time. where we brought home the pictures of the ultrasound, celebrating our little girl. where i started having contractions and experienced most of my labor. where we brought her home for the first time, two days old. fresh from heaven. where i spent long nights up with a newborn. where she got sick, where she learned to eat, roll over, stand, crawl, tell stories, and give kisses. and its where chris and i faced some of our hardest days, some of our greatest days, and some of our hardest-greatest days.

~

thats all. i'm just a little tenderhearted today. i'm sure the next time the laundry room door comes off track i will change my mind and be ready to get out of here.

~

carly tearing our home apart.