Two more things off the 2009 checklist

Despite being a short week, Memorial Day week 2009 is shaping up to be one of the bigger weeks for the Rogers family this year (and that's saying something).

Tuesday was Cameron's field day. I took the day off of work to volunteer and help out. I am proud to report that Cameron is at least average athletically and did nothing to embarass or tarnish the family name.

Wednesday was Cameron's last day of kindergarten. It was a joyful day, celebrated with pizza for dinner. He's really excited to start 1st grade in the fall.

Thursday was our custody evaluation to determine where Cameron will live once we move. Obviously, this was a fairly stressful situation for us as we weren't sure exactly what to expect. But, it proved to be fairly uneventful. I really expected Dr. Lawlor to ask more probing questions and really focus on our lives now, etc. but his focus seemed to be more on our past, where we've been, etc. At least we got to take a 567 question psychological evaluation test. That was fun. There are only so many times you can answer a question that can roughly be translated as "do you want to kill yourself" or "are you paranoid" before you start to think "well, maybe I do and maybe I am."

So, we should get the results back from the evaluation in 2-3 weeks. Needless to say, I'll be at least a bit nervous until we know what's happening. But, when we know, you all will know.

Finally, this week, I finished my MBA program. I just received my final grade today and am more than a little excited to be done with that chapter in my life. It feels like it's taken forever and I can't wait to move forward with a few more letters behind my name. Now, I'm only a few letters behind Megan. My next step is finding a fairly easy test to take that will allow me to put 3 or 4 more letters behind my name. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Camping with the Bridges

This weekend Stuart and I continued our tradition of camping with our friends the Bridges. We can always count on a great time with lots of laughs and lots of good food. This year we decided to stay close to home due to the fact it was the inaugural run of the Bridges new camper and yours truly is 32 weeks pregnant. We showed up at the park in which we had reservations and quickly decided we might as well be camping in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Luckily, Andy came to the rescue and knew the perfect spot to relocate to. We ended up in Brown County on some private land and ended up loving it. We had our own private area and were right next to a great little stream for the kids to swim and play in and for the adults to sunbathe in. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning. We had beautiful weather until we were awakened by a monsoon on Monday morning. Needless to say it took no time to pack up our things and get the heck out of there.


Hannah takes a break for a little liquid refreshment

Andy tends to the campfire

Our sweet little Abby

What a great spot!!!

The rest of Monday was spent resting up and preparing for a busy week ahead. Today was Cameron's field day at school so Stuart took the day off to go volunteer his services. A good time was had by all but I have two tired boys tonight for sure. Tomorrow is Cameron's last day of school and then he starts his summer day camp next Monday. He is going to be one busy little guy this summer and we are so excited for him. It will be good for him to have something to help him focus his energy.

That's all I've got for now. We hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. We'll keep you posted.

We're still here!!!

Keeping up with the Rogers these days is becoming quite a task. The reason being that we can't even keep up with ourselves. Our days and nights have become a blur of decluttering, boxing things up, meeting with realtors and all the other fun stuff that comes along with moving. But, hopefully we're all set now and the house is officially on the market. So, if you know anyone that's looking for a steal on a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house with a loft, a fenced in back yard and a patio, we've got your place!!!

Cameron's soccer team went out without a bang this past weekend. They were shut out yet again and finished the season winless. We are all sort of glad that this is over now and we can get on with the summer festivities.

This past weekend we took a break from our house and headed down to Washington for my first baby shower. It was a ton of fun and I got to catch up with some people that I hadn't seen in a long time. Baby Rogers was spoiled of course and we got lots of nice things. Only about 2 more months before we get to meet the newest member of our family. We are so excited!!!

Over Memorial weekend the plan is to go camping with the Bridges. Here's hoping for a beautiful weekend!!!

TTFN

Soccer season...

I think this picture describes the Spring 2009 FCC Soccer season for the Slushy Scorers as well as I possibly could...
For anyone who doesn't get the reference, those are the Bad News Bears. Our team is 0-5 and we have been outscored by a cumulative 40-2. After taking 10-0 beatings the first two times out, I thought we had made some really nice progress by losing a close game by the score of 3-1. Getting on the scoreboard for the first time all season was awesome. When Izzy scored our goal, she ran around like we had just won the World Cup and proceeded to lift Dora off the ground in celebration (yes, we have a Dora on our team and she's adorable). In our 4th game of the season, we kept our goal scoring streak alive, but were again on the short end of a 10-1 loss. Yesterday, our goal scoring streak was broken as we took our 3rd shutout of the season by the score of 7-0. But, by holding the opponents in single digits, we're focusing on the positives of our 2nd best defensive effort of the season.

Our kids are great and many of them look like they're really starting to grasp some of the concepts that we are teaching them. While we may not be the best U8 soccer team ever (and that's an understatement), it's another fun season of coaching and watching young athletes learn the game.

"It's a Sign from God"

So, this weekend was the big house hunting weekend in Columbus, OH. The weekend was very successful and we now feel pretty confident we found the house that we will call home in Columbus. However, like everything else we do, it can't be that simple. There has to be a story behind it. So, here goes:
We arrived in Columbus on Friday and met with our wonderful realtor Charlene. She was amazing the whole time. We completely put our trust in her since neither one of us had done this before. She took care of us like we were her own children and for that we are so appreciative. Once we met Charlene, we loaded up and started the hunting. We probably looked at no less than 10 houses on Friday. We were not really impressed with many of them until the last 2. The first one that we really liked was on a short sale which meant that since it was bank owned the purchase was complicated and we probably wouldn't even know if we got the house for several months. The last house that we looked at that afternoon was the one we fell in love with. It seriously had all the amenities we were looking for in a house and we loved the neighborhood and proximity to Stuart's new office. So, we put that one at the top of our list and decided to sleep on it.
That night we talked about how we wanted to go visit this wonderful little brownie shop that had appeared on the Food Network at one time. Stuart had been there before but couldn't quite remember where it was. I just so happened to be flipping through a magazine all about Columbus and it mentioned the brownie shop and gave the address. The address sounded familiar and I realized it couldn't be that far from that last house we had looked at. We both committed that to memory for the next afternoon and enjoyed a nice dinner with one of Stuart's coworkers and her husband that evening.
The next morning we met with Charlene again and visited a few more houses. Even after seeing those houses, we still couldn't shake the feeling that the final house we had visited the day before was perfect for us. Charlene so graciously offered to take us back to that house to have another look so we could look at it with new eyes and make sure we hadn't imagined how much we liked it. As we were pulling into the neighborhood, I pointed out the street that I thought the brownie shop was on. Sure enough, we passed right by it on our way into the neighborhood. As we started walking around the house, I walked out onto the back deck. And that's when I saw it. The property of this house backs right up to the brownie shop. I quickly exclaimed to all who would hear me "This is a sign from God!!" So, we went back to Charlene's office to write an offer. On Sunday we learned that we had received a counter offer and we accepted. So, the hope now is that we will close on the house at the end of June.
Stuart was nervous at first that maybe this house was too good to be true (not because of the brownie shop, but because it has everything we want). That thought never went through my mind. I know that we have been praying for things to resolve themselves for quite sometime and I know that others have been praying for us. We feel that this was a part of God's plan for us. There were many signs along the way, we just had to take a moment and listen. One of the greatest lessons we have learned on our journey together is that God speaks to us in many ways. In the past 4 months, we have definitely learned to listen more intently and trust him whole-heartedly. That has not been an easy lesson to learn and sometimes it takes a major life event (or several) before one can fully grasp that concept. We are learning. We are listening. We are thankful for the blessings that God continues to pour out upon us.
The excitement we feel is bittersweet. We have always dreamed of a new house that we could pick out together. We never dreamed that new house would be in another state and that we'd be leaving our comfort zone to get it. We are nervous and apprehensive about leaving our church family and friends. We are excited for God's plans for us to be revealed.

TTFN