Because I like It

Charlotte looking down at me from the top of the climbing wall at the playground. She was very proud to have done it all by herself. Also the afternoon of this day it was 70 degrees. It will be spring soon!

The Doctors of Tomorrow

Last week the impending sale of our house suddenly hit me. Well, it wasn't selling the house that hit me, but rather all the work we have left to do before we list the house. That's a lot of work. After my panicking for about a day Dan gave in and let me ask our friends for help. Last Saturday this is what our backyard looked like:I am blown away by the willingness of our friends to set aside all their plans to help us. This was a totally free weekend for all the medical students (a rarity) and I knew that and still I asked them for help. I was sure it would be too much to ask and yet they just kept coming in. And they brought their wives and kids too.
Another friend of mine offered to supply a dinner for everyone so that I wouldn't have to spend my time doing that. She showed up with the delicious brisket with plenty of time to also pick up a paint brush and touch up our spindles. We are so blessed to be living in a community of future doctors that are willing to go out of their way to help us and also offer their kids to help watch ours. It is amazing. Things we got done:

• Paint touch up
• Half dead tree in backyard removed
• Gardens edged
• Mostly dead plants removed
• All doors (but the bathroom) in the house taken down and sanded so that we can paint them
• Window sills scraped and cleaned
• Valence in kitchen re-hung

Are we totally ready? No. It will still be a lot of work the next month or so, but at least it feels do-able now. So a big, super huge thank you to everyone.

Top 5

My husband is usually a very decisive person. He makes a decision and then confidently sticks with it. That is why making our rank list has been maddening. We're both stressed and coming at it from different angles and other little things have been becoming big. That is why last night, when he turned to me and told me we needed to talk about it again, I told him it was the last time we were re-hashing it. After constant flip-flopping our top five locations are as follows:

1. Salt Lake City, Utah
2. Rochester, Minnesota
3. Fresno, California
4. Hershey, Pennsylvania
5. Seattle, Washington

So there they are. It would be nice to get into one of those top five, but he did submit a rank list of 13 places. Now it's just a 25 day waiting game.

Golden Quotes

Charlotte talks so much! She talks so much she forgets to do whatever it is she started doing. Breakfast takes 40 minutes for her to eat a bowl of cereal because she has just kept talking. Getting dressed is oppressively slow as is getting pajamas on. Mostly I just feel like I'm floating through a flood of words and I probably catch only 3/4 of them. I just don't have the energy to listen to all of them. The plus side to all this talking is that she's four so sometimes they are laugh out loud funny. I'll share two of my favorites.

I taught Charlotte Hark the Herald Angels Sing for Christmas. Big mistake because she's just now getting enough of the words to sing by herself. I'm starting to feel really bad about how much my sister and I watched White Christmas the year we recieved that movie. Here is how the song goes when she sings it:
"Hark the Herald Angels Sing,
Glory to the new born King.
Peace on Earth and mercy mild,
God and Satan reconciled.
hmm, hmm, hmm nations rise
hmm, hmmm, hmmm,
With the Jellied Toast proclaim
Christ is Born in Bethlehem
Hark the Herald Angels sing
Glory to the new born King."

Also? She has yet to figure out pitch. So her little serious self is pretty much just yelling this at all times.

The second quote I'd like to share happened yesterday at lunch. I often prepare condensed tomato soup with noodles for my kids. It was a family thing for Dan's family and it turns out is also very kid friendly and cheap. I can count it a 100% success rate for my kids eating it. Anyway, I was rushing yesterday and so the soup was super hot when it came to the table. I told the kids to eat their carrot sticks and fruit smoothie while they waited for it to cool. Charlotte did so and then wanted to check on the soup. After checking she said, "The noodles? Too Hot. The Bra? Perfect." I couldn't hold in my laughter.

As an aside, I feel like we're finally getting the last of the house stuff pulled together. We still have so much to finish, but at least there will be time to get it done now. Also? Dan and I flip flop daily on where we think The Match will send us. Yesterday I was convinced it was Minnesota and Dan thought Pennsylvania.

Inner Gauge

Do you ever sometimes have a very strong reaction to something, but have to stop yourself because you're not sure if you're over-reacting or if your reaction is totally justified? Something totally upsets you, but maybe its just in the moment and a while later you will look back and tell yourself that it wasn't that big a deal. That happens to me a lot. In fact, I count it one of the many marks of growing up that I wait a few beats to react to things. I'm pretty sure that Daniel taught me that. He is amazing at waiting for perspective. Not just a few beats of perspective either. He can wait days or weeks even. Then, if something is still bothering him, he will bring it up. We have avoided countless hurt feelings and angry words by just taking time before talking about things.

I realize that is only one way to responsibly communicate and deal with situations. My sister has said that she is somewhat the opposite. She has learned that if something bothers her she needs to let others know instead of just letting it go. Because just letting it go doesn't really always happen, more often than not it bottles up inside of her. I guess she has the tendency to never tell people, which would then, over time build pressure and explode.

Today something happened with a friend of mine which I'm not going into. I was very angry at the time, but tried my best to just let things cool off. I'm not angry anymore, it really wasn't a big deal, but I'm still bothered by it. Part of me says I should say something. Part of me says that being a good friend is overlooking little situations like these. Part of me says that in a few months we wont even be living in the same state so I should just let it go. How do I know which would be the most responsible behavior?

Picking Cities

Let's play pretend. You get to chose where you will be moving your family in a few months for a semi-permanent amount of time. (That's not our situation really, but do you remember the pretend part?) Here are your choices:

• Fresno, California
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• Seattle, Washington
• Rochester, Minnesota
• Hershey, Pennsylvania

In this pretend scenario your husband will have the same job opportunities, whatever they may be. So that part is not taken into account. What would your choices be and if you feel like sharing why would you chose them?

The problem is that I know very little about all but two of those cities. And of those two I only know them from the viewpoint of a child, not as an adult and mother. The lack of knowledge seems to make the picking much, much harder.

But this is a pretend game so you can chose the cities for whatever reasons you like. So let's hear it.

The Aftermath of Snow Days

I'm not sure if you're aware of this but half the country is pretty much covered with ice right now. We happen to have missed the worst of it by about 30 miles. Does it ever make you wonder about St. Louis always missing the worst of it? Anyway, being on the fringe was bad enough for St. Louis and shut the city down for about two days.

Today though, Charlotte was going to pre-school. It was my turn to drop her and her friend off so I went out a half hour early and started the car. I knew I was in trouble when it took a couple of tries.

After warming for about 15 minutes it took another 15 to scrape the half inch of ice off. I thought to myself, "Good thing I started a half hour ago. We aren't even late!" Then I went to open the back fence. FROZEN shut. The lock was frozen which I chipped free. The latch into the ground was frozen which I kicked free. After that I thought I was home free, but no. The gate runs on two wheels. Two wheels that were two inches deep in layers of ice and snow like the best concrete lasagna you could dream of.

I had been working for about thirty minutes total now and my snot was starting to freeze in my nose when I thought, perhaps if I just kick the fence it will dislodge the wheels. So I turned around and shoved with my foot backwards and something gave way! Too bad it wasn't the wheels.

The slat in the fence is broken. Sorry Sweetie!

PS. Greg loves Ice Age The Meltdown. More specifically he loves the saber toothed squirrel. It cracks him up. Charlotte, however, likes to narrate the jokes. After watching it she says, "He never gets the acorn, but he does get to see the acorn goodness of squirrel heaven."