Wowzers...a new week already??

Am I ready for it. Sundays are LONG days with those two crazy children of mine, but it sure is nice not having to do anything really...no laundry, no packing, no yard work, no errand running and usually a BIG FAT NAP. Not to mention that my hubby lets me sleep in until I feel like pulling my lazy bones out of bed sometime around 10am. It was pretty spectacular.

Life is crazy and hectic here. You see, I am supposed to have my house ready to list to sell on Thursday. I did tell the realtor to give me until Monday and now that I have made plans to go out to my brothers that week I have added motivation. I am getting there, but it is a lot of work. I have packed up most of the kids toys. They don't really play with them anyway. I think they just enjoy getting them all out and letting me clean them up. The downstairs has been repainted, furniture moved out, counters cleaned off. We are getting there, but I still have my office (shudder), bedroom and the junk room. I call it the junk room though it is actually the guest room, because it has been my catch all the last two months. It is a disaster. Oh, and my studio. Sad, but my living room is going to be that again while we try to sell this blessed place. I truly saved the worst for last. If anyone wants to volunteer to help, I will gladly accept.

I purchased a Scansnap. My life is overtaken by papers and I have finally decided to pay the money and get a good, fast, reliable printer that will do more than cause headaches and swear words. I will head out to Costco for a shredder tomorrow and we are going totally paperless. I can already sense the relief this will bring.

So, Monday threw us for a loop when Douglas got a letter in the mail telling him that he had been chosen to recieve a fellowship that will cover all of his tuition and fees at the University of Michigan. Awesome, yes, but considering we had chosen to go to Virginia and have spent the last three months planning for that, it caught us totally off guard. It has sunk in and I can't tell you how awesome it will be to get out of graduate school with only a fraction of the student loans. To say we feel blessed is a complete understatement. I feel undeserving as well, but blessed.

So, Michigan. Yeah.

I have really been going crazy with the kiddos lately. I have a lot of stress right now with everything going on and it takes its toll. I definitely struggle to find patience when I am just anxious about everything going on. J is so difficult for me to parent. He fights me about EVERYTHING. It is exhausting. And he fibs a lot which drives me insane. I am teaching him that you get in a lot more trouble when you lie about something you did wrong, but it is a difficult concept. He can be such a sweet, affectionate boy, but I tell you, the times in between about do me in. I am trying to be consistent and refer back to the books I have read, but it drains my energy, that is for sure. I think school will be such a positive thing for him next year. I think it will give his brain something to do, allow him to socialize which he loves and hopefully our time together will be more positive.

And Miss P...holy tornado. I can't keep up with that girl. Seriously. She is into EVERYTHING all.the.time. I put her to bed only to come upstairs and find her in her bathroom with every hair product known to mankind in her hair, a sink full of wet toliet paper and soap and she has changed clothes because she decided to wet her pants first. Ahhhhhh. I can't turn my back on her.

And Jackson started a fire in my kitchen yesterday. I was gone and D was mowing the lawn and J was inside with a lighter lighting a Target bag and consequently all the rubbermaid containers I had purchased for packing, on fire. I am glad he was smart enough to run and find Douglas (after trying to use a cup to pour water on it). I think it freaked the living tar out of him and I am so grateful our house didn't go up in flames. I guess it would have made packing a little easier...just kidding.

D and I started Weight Watchers this week. He really wants to lose weight and be healthier and I have about five to drop as well. It is really unfair though because he gets about twice the points I do :). I miss baking, but I know it will be just for three months, so I can handle it (and even shorter if I lose the weight before then).

Well, that about sums up the week. Wish me luck this week...it is going to be a crazy one!

hello again!!

I was cleaning out the pantry this past week as part of the whole getting ready to sell the house thing and came across some salsa that had oviously been bottled by me last October. I have absolutely NO recollection of botteling salsa a mere 5 months ago. That tells you a bit of how things have been around here. I am happy to say that we have finally decided on a business school...UVA (University of Virginia) Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, VA. We are very excited and nervous about the adventure, but really feel like it is the right thing for our family and are feel really blessed that Douglas got into such a great business school. I won't get started on all the things that will make this move very hard...we will save that for another post someday.

We are hoping to list our house in the next couple of weeks. The market stinks, but we would still really like to be able to leave without the responsibility of a house on top of everything else. It is SO much work to get rid of things and organize. I feel like my house has turned into a complete wreck while I have tried to get it ready.

I am toying with the idea of making my blog private. I have for some time, but the thought of adding in all the emails is a little overwhelming presently. I know it is a pain, but I often wonder about the safety factor of having my life open for the whole wide world to read about.

J has said some funny things lately. He learned how to do a flip on the trampoline while my inlaws were here and when D asked him how he learned he replied, "it all began with a somersault."

Also, when D's parents were here we went to Red Robin where both of my kids frequented the bathroom. I have a dislike for public toliets and yet get the honor of visiting them at almost every establishment we go to. After our dinner I ran over to the craft store with J, P and my MIL. I went with P to look for something and J was with my MIL. She told me later that he had to go to the bathroom really bad (again) and when they left the b-room he could hear me coming and told Grandma to hurry because he and P had already used the b-room 4 times at Wred Wrobin and if I found out that he went again I would "FWEEK OUT" (Imagine dramatic hand gentures). That kid.

Then, today at church after some thinking J told me that if someone prayed to satan they would say "dear heavenly satan". Where does he come up with these things?

He constantly makes us laugh. We are trying to teach he and Paige how to be more respectful and one of the things Douglas wanted to do (especially since we are moving to the south) is to teach them to say no and yes maam and sir. J has picked it up well, but if you ever remind P to say yes maam she will say, "no maam". She is such a feisty little stinker.

I am making a goal to update this blog more. I feel like I have missed the last 9 months. It really has been crazy around here with GMAT and applications and classes. I always feel like I am missing out on documenting the kids lives though.

Here is one picture for now. I made bird feeders with the kids but P was really only concerned with eating the rest of the pb.

What Did You Have For Dinner?

Day five of the hubster gone and this is what I ate:

Steel Cut oats with blueberries (healthy...off to a good start)
Dove Chocolate
Asian Chicken Salad I made last week
About 20 Cinnamon Hearts
Ranch Wrap at McDonalds that was supposedly healthy, but smothered in dressing
The fries they accidentally gave us
Diet Coke
Handful of Milk Duds.

I guess I should go work out. and I wonder why I can't lose the Christmas pounds I put on.

A few more San Diego Pics

I brought out the big guns for a few pictures. I have to either be a mom or photographer so most of the time I just bring along the point and shoot. I had to take advantage of the beach and beautiful light for a few pictures though!!

Grandma Dee and Grandpa George with the cute grandkids that came to San Diego.


Dapper little fella.



The kids and their daddy by at the beach just down from our condo.

Digging for shells.

a golf lesson from Uncle Brad
Our cute little family!

Fall Fun

I am on a roll...

My dad came to town to visit and helped the kids rake up the leaves so they could jump in them. They had a blast. We hadn't the heart to tell them that usually there are MANY more leaves when people jump in them.

Some Random Shots

My little run in with the garage door. The handle onthe opener got stuck on my roof rack and pulled the door down as I backed out. The garage door was surprisingly cheap and easy to fix. The car, not so much.

Yum. Love that cute face.

Don't cross Paige during breakfast. This was the second hard cooked egg she chucked across the kitchen...lucky for Strider, I guess.

D's lunch assembly for the company hike he planned for his company. They always have a good time and eat well.
Sugar cookies for Halloween. I love to bake, but I hate cutting out cookies. My solution...store bought cookies and icing. Easy peasy.



Too much sun in her eyes so she needed my sunglasses. Too cute!

J's Preschool Party

J loves his preschool and especially Miss Debbie. She is a fantastic teacher!!

Carving Pumpkins

and here is Halloween...
had to threated J to stick his hand in the pumpkin. Cute finished product though!

San Diego

I am really on the ball...only four months behind on posting. I can't leave this one out though! Jackson still talks about this trip on almost a daily basis. It was such a great time and so amazing to be with Douglas' parents and siblings. We all met up in Oceanside, California and stayed in a time share that D's parents are a part of. It was a nice, new condo with two bedrooms, bathrooms, full kitchen, family room and balcony. There was a nice pool and hot tub and the ocean was a two minute walk. Really we couldn't have asked for more.

We were able to do most of the San Diego touristy things. We bought 5 days passes from Costco so we went to Sea World, The San Diego Zoo, and The Wildlife Park (is that the name). They were all really cool, though if I went again with young kids, I would choose one park and do more beach and pool time. By the time we went to the Zoo on the last day the kids were worn out and melted down shortly into our trip. Needless to say, it was probably the shortest Zoo visit of all time. The kids were content just hanging out in the pool.

Sea World was a HUGE hit with Jackson. He really got into all the shows, especially Shamu. Paige was, let's be honest, less than stellar behavior wise, but given her age and personality, I really didn't expect more. I think one of the highlights of Sea World was the cotton candy. There is nothing like artificially died, spun sugar to make a kid happy. They also have a cute little kids amusement park which the kids loved. The weather was perfect as well.

We didn't spend too much time at the Wildlife park. We were trying to let Paige get a nap and underestimated how long the drive was, so by the time we got there we had about an hour and a half to see the park. Jackson went with his grandparent's so got to enjoy more of it. The safari ride they do it really cool. You get to see a lot of neat animals. It was especially cool to see the lions up close. Of course, most of the time I was dealing with an onery daughter (common theme??) so I could have enjoyed it more :).

The beach was fantastic. The water wasn't quite as cold as I thought it would be. We also had some tasty meals (no trip is good without great food). One night we cooked steaks and shrimp on the beach grill (added "pubic flavor" as Douglas described it...gross). The food though...DELISH. My fantastic inlaws also took the kids one evening and we were ablt to go out with Douglas' sister and her hubby for a VERY tasty meal at a restaurant on that sat right on the beach. It was delicious seafood. I think my mouth is salavating just thinking about it.

Like I said, Jackson asks all the time when we can go to San Diego again. It was just such a relaxing and fun trip. Oceanside is a nice place to stay...it was nice to have the ocean so close. Can't wait to go again.

On the way home we were able to go up to Irvine to visit my brother and his family for the night. The kids had a great time together as usual.

So there you go...the details are sparce thanks to my poor memory. Hopefully the pictures will tell the story...there are a lot of them!! Thanks again George and DeEtte for an amazing time! Can't wait to do it again!






























The kids with their Irvine cousins. Craziness.
We do what we need to to stay entertained on the road trip home.