More Than Dishes

There is a job I have discovered I dislike more than doing the dishes. Packing. I hate it. I'm not very good at it and I feel like I need a break just about every hour. I keep thinking, wow, I'm getting a lot done. And wow, I've been working for so long. Then I look up at the room and I'm not even close and only been working for thirty minutes.

We got back from our awesome Disney vacation on Sunday. We have to be packing up the truck Wednesday afternoon and leaving Thursday. Now that is one hard transition.

What Life Feels Like Right Now

First we find out we might not be able to buy our new house. When that gets figured out we might not be selling this house. Finally that gets figured out and our new mortgage letter isn't filed and then its found. Then the St. Louis house has a really bad inspector.

I feel like I've been hiking the house selling/buying hike. I would be able to appreciate how beautiful my surroundings are if I weren't so exhausted.

Happy Graduation

We all knew this day was coming.

At first it seemed a long time off.

Then as we approached it excitement built.

So many plans have been made and scrapped and made again.

At first I dragged my feet, but seeing my family's happiness I couldn't hold back any longer.

We are so excited to present our new doctor.

And his dog.

He spent an hour and a half in the backyard with her today.

In the rain.

With Charlotte's pink princess umbrella.

Just trying to get house training to start right.

Nothing happened.

He came back inside.

Then she peed on the kitchen floor.

I laughed.

I've potty trained before and this seems to be exactly the same.

Happy Birthday-Let's Just Make it Another Year

After Greg fell down and had to get stitches while on vacation a friend of mine told me about her son. He's Charlotte's age and has had to get stitches once a year, every year of his life. We had a good commiseratory laugh over the crazy differences between boys and girls and I secretly prayed that I would escape that.

Well today is Greg's second birthday! Hooray! We got up and had our small family party complete with pancake cake, cantaloupe, and present opening. The presents were lovely and all adored.

After the present playtime was over I got Greg dressed in his new gorilla shirt from Grandma and Grandpa and we readied ourselves for a trip to the Botanical Gardens. While I was getting my clothing out for the day Greg climbed onto my bed and was digging through the bin I had taken off the top shelf of the closet and not replaced. You see the matches for the birthday candles were in it. Also in it was all of our families medications. I heard him shaking a bottle around and turned just in time to see him having opened one of our Rx bottles and trying to put a pill into his mouth. I practically screamed, "NO!" to him and tackled him off the bed. He was understandably upset and crying. I ascertained that he didn't eat any others. Then threw the whole bottle out. Then I asked Dan about the whole thing and he said the pills were so huge there was no way he would have been able to easily and quietly swallow any of them without me knowing. Although I was shaken I kept on getting ready for the day.

After we were all dressed I went to the basement to dig out our sunscreen from after the camping trip. Greg followed me. On the landing he tripped. Then he slid head first down the stairs. I lunged for him, but wasn't able to catch him before his head smacked every step and came to a stop on the concrete floor of the basement. That trip gave him a good bump and some scrapes on the noggin and one good puffy bump right where his stitches are. Dan heard the fall and came running and ascertained that there wasn't any serious damage.

While finishing our preparations to leave I tried to put the sunscreen on Greg. I put it on my fingers and rubbed it into both hands then went for his face. I hadn't even touched him yet when he moved to avoid me and ended up hitting his eye on my sunscreen hands. There was a lot of sunscreen that made it directly into his eye. So then we had to flush his eye. He was screaming and yelling as I held him down and Dan used the spray from the sink to get it out.

It was at this point that I started crying about how my son wasn't even going to make it through his second birthday. What a pretty picture the two of us must have made for Dan. Greg, banged up, wet, and screaming and me overreacting about the whole situation. Then our friends called to tell us that the gardens were packed.

We decided to stay home, invite friends over and play in our little pool out back. That made for a much more mellow and better birthday morning.

Happy Birthday Little Man!

A Star Is Born

This happened the other week and I wasn't going to post it. Then I read my sister's blog about how she's never been on TV. So click the link and you'll see my debut on the local St. Louis TV show Great Day St. Louis.

A BIG WEEK

There weren't any posts because we went camping. We had loads of fun and I took tons of photos (so you will be happy Katie). They will come later.

The really big news happened while camping was that we accepted an offer on our house! YEAH! I think it ended up really nicely and everyone in the situation seems to be satisfied. Now we just have to make it through the inspections and closing and then we're home free.

The closing date is June 3 which is the same as ours in Minnesota.

Easter 2011

Well, even with the frustrations Easter seemed to be a success. See for yourself.

They used the Easter baskets they made with Daddy at the Home Depot. I then decided that in order to not break every egg they should be lined.

We dyed Easter eggs on Friday. Greg thought they were balls so he threw them and stepped on them. He only got to do three. Then we put his three in the decorative shrink wrap in order to have them be usable.

We also went to the SLU alumni easter egg hunt on Saturday. Unfortunately it was indoors since we were having residual rain from the tornadoes that ripped through St. Louis Friday night. Being indoors made it really cramped and I didn't get any good photos. Charlotte got her first ever face painting that we had to wash off immediately after getting home because it was making her face itchy.

Here are the Sunday dress photos. I think they both look pretty good, even if they don't match.

I couldn't get Charlotte to just sit normally. This is the least weird of the poses she was insisting on.

Then Charlotte wanted to get behind the camera so Greg and I let her take some more photos. Should it disappoint me that she's just as good a photographer as I am? Not sure.

I Am Not A Runner

Not sure if anyone noticed, but my New Year's Resolution was to get myself in shape. Boy was that half hearted, huge flop for the beginning of the year. Then my friend, a runner, had her baby and was cleared for exercise at her six week check-up. Most of her running friends were still pregnant. I told her that I would join her since nobody else could and also she was six weeks postpartum. If someone who had a baby six weeks ago can do this then I can.

So we started. Then we were joined by her other running friends when they were cleared for exercise. Now we go so long as the weather co-operates, (nobody wants to run with a severe weather warning on our hands) our husbands are home to watch the kids, and we have enough new nursing mothers who aren't too tired to run. Sad to say, but even with all these other ladies just having had babies, I'm pretty sure I'm still the slowest. I'm super lucky to already be really close friends with them. I know that even if I slow them down, they're happy I'm there.

I'm still not a runner. I'm not very good and I wouldn't say I enjoy the feeling of breathlessness that running induces. My friend, the runner, says that nobody (not even runners) likes building up to being able to run 2 miles continuously so I'm trying and hoping she's right. After that I hope I enjoy the exercise more.

Even with all that I think this process has taught me a lot about myself.

• I may not like exercise, but I do like and even crave being with other women talking and not worrying about my kids.
• I need to have someone else counting on me to show up in order to exercise. If I don't then I wont go.
• Exercising makes me sleepy. REALLY sleepy. The past three days I've taken a nap in the afternoon and still gone to bed sometime in the 8 o'clock hour.
• I kind of like the idea of being a runner. I'm not there yet, and I'm not sure if I'll get there, but it would be cool to have something I "do" if that even makes sense.
• Though I got new running shoes at the beginning of this process, I'm becoming more aware of the running clothing that would be nice to have.
• I'm now worried/nervous about building up my abilities just to move and lose not only people to run with, but time in which I can run.

Banging Around

I love, love, love it that right now Dan has taken Charlotte down to his "shop" in the basement. They decided that Suzie really did need a cat house/climbing tree thing and since it's rainy today they have the perfect opportunity. From upstairs I'm hearing, "OK now hit the nail here.....Stand back while I make this piece shorter." And floating in and through Daddy's words and the sounds of wood moving around and pauses is the constant stream of words from his eager young helper.

Daughters need dads.

Family Photos

Yesterday we went to Purina Farms. I figured we needed to go see it at least once before we moved from St. Louis. Charlotte and Greg had great fun petting the farm animals and watching the dog show. Dan keeps using every interaction with dogs to remind the family that we're getting a dog soon. I'm fairly certain that he's way more excited than the kids about that one. After the show we wandered back to the car and on the way let the kids run in a field. We had a friend use my camera to take some family photos. Then we saw this tree and thought a photo would look pretty great in that tree.I think it looks pretty good, but in order to get into the tree here's what had to happen. Firs we start on the ground:Then he lifts me up and tickles me at the same time! It's amazing I didn't fall on his head.

Easter Frustrations

First off, I'm not crazy. I maintain that it is not crazy to want my children to coordinate in their Easter outfits and also for my son to have a shirt and tie. The holiday is on a Sunday. Every year. You'd think it wouldn't be so hard.

Second off, thanks to grandmas and aunts, I have very rarely had to purchase any clothing for either of my children. We are all so grateful for that. They have much better clothing than we could afford.

Third off, we had heard nothing about Easter outfits from anyone. I figured this year must be the first year I've got to figure this one out on my own. Not so hard I figured. Hahahaha! Not so hard! What a joke. Target had a slew of little girls Easter dresses on sale thanks to my procrastination. I found one that was appropriately cute and had other colors than just pink in it. There had to be some pink because Charlotte was with me and helping me pick one out, but I needed another color to coordinate with Greg's tie.

Then we had a week long torturous running around trying to find a white button up shirt and green tie. Also we needed new church shoes, mostly just for Greg, but I really wanted to find some cheap white ones for Charlotte. That way they would match her white Easter hat.

Why do boys get the short end of the stick with cute church clothing? Or really any Sunday appropriate clothing? Do manufacturers think boys can show up in wrinkly casual clothing to anything and be fine? Ridiculous! I found oodles of things that were adorable for Charlotte she even got new lace trimmed socks. Greg? I compromised by finding a white button up shirt without a tie and then getting a shirt and tie set at JCP. The set was a blue shirt with yellow tie. I figured I could use white shirt yellow tie. It wasn't my original idea, but it would work even though there's no yellow (or blue) in Charlotte's dress at all.

Then we went on to find shoes. We spent approximately 5 minutes in payless shoes before we found the white shoes of Charlotte's dreams. (Mom! they have jewels!) Remember she doesn't really NEED shoes, but they were on sale and cute so we got them. Greg, who has zero church shoes that fit found zero new church shoes that fit. They had exactly one option that he started screaming about as soon as it was on his foot and they weren't even that cute to begin with.

So for Easter, my daughter will have a brand spanking new out fit from head to toe that I absolutely love and my son, through no lack of searching, has whatever works and is shoeless.

Jobs I Hate

Other than the dishes which are my personal enemy there is one job that I hate more than any other.

INSURANCE

I hate figuring out what insurance we need. I hate price checking. I hate filling out forms and I hate hate HATE calling agents. Life would be so much easier if we lived in the same state as my parents and my dad could just do our insurance! It is my annual enemy.

Split In Two

Our yard is outdoing itself right now. We left last weekend for Minnesota with a yard on the verge of spring and came back last Sunday night and spring had come full force. Now this week our tulips are out in all their colors. All the annuals I planted and then were snowed on two days later still made it just fine! They are beautiful and colorful and remind me why I love annuals. And the bleeding heart and wisteria are both showing their colors. When I run in the morning there are some bushes in the park that smell exactly like fruit loops. Exactly. I love the fruit loop bushes. Also, I got to decorate the bedrooms upstairs. They are beautiful. I wasn't going to worry about them until we moved and then realized that I'd signed up to host my interior design group for the month. Turns out they are amazing. I love walking around my house right now. It's clean and put together and just makes me happy! Except for the part where I'm going to be leaving it in under two months. I just feel so torn. Or more to the point I feel like I should be feeling torn. The Minnesota trip was fun, the people were extremely friendly and I'm sure we'll enjoy it there. But right now I want to be here. I want to be in St. Louis with the people I love and my garden and the fruit loop bushes and our bedrooms that look amazing.

What We've Been Up To

Yesterday we went to the park. Charlotte rode on her new bike with training wheels and was a champ! It was pretty awesome to see. I finally told her we'd done enough riding, but the only thing that would get her off her bike was to pick flowers. Shh! Don't tell her grandma's because these are supposed to be their Christmas presents. She says they're for both grandmas because she loves them so much! Greg helped by picking flowers and then throwing them with a satisfying yell each time.
We went up to Minnesota and bought a house, or rather promised to buy a house. They accepted our offer and afterward we went to look where Dan will be employed (can you believe it?!) for the next five years. These two photos (above and below) were around the building. Up is a pretty classic photo of Charlotte.
And this is quite possibly my favorite photo of Greg of all time! It so captures him right now. Really happy when he's running!

So that's what we've been up to.

One To Remember

Today I fell totally, deeply in love. I'm head over heels and beside myself. I admit that it's sort of ridiculous how in love I fell today.

There have been quite a few moments in the past week that I'd really rather forget. Moments that mainly center around personal stupidity, selfishness, or all around crankiness are ones I think we'd all rather forget.

Today though, I want to remember forever. Today was a gift straight from heaven.

I had no plans when I woke up this morning, which is always a problem when you're trying to keep two kids entertained and your house spotless. Having gone to the Magic House yesterday I figured today was a good day for the zoo.

One problem. I didn't really want to go to the zoo. The kids were sheep that refused to be herded out the door this morning. It was almost 11 by the time we got to the zoo. With beautiful weather the free on street parking was practically all gone. I was grumpy and said, "I give up! We're going home." When Charlotte said, "Don't give up now mommy! We're almost there."

So I didn't give up. And it's a good thing I didn't. My two kids and I did the zoo in our own style. We skipped animals we didn't care about, we lingered longer at the ones we did and even spent quite some time just watching the waterfalls. I had so much fun with my kids at the zoo today.

Then after nap-time we went back out of the house to the park.

On the way home is when I fell for my kids again. There was a song on the radio that Charlotte loves. Greg's window was down and he was doing his short legged, car-seated best to hang his feet out the window. We were stopped at a red light, our windows were rolled down and I moved the rear view mirror to see my daughter's face. Her little newly sun-kissed face and bright brown eyes sang right to me, "You and me baby are stuck like glue," while her eyebrows wiggled up and down.

Right then I knew I was ridiculously in love with my kids. I will love them forever and ever and will always think they are absolutely the best children in the whole world. Stuck like glue? We sure are.

The List Just Keeps Getting Longer

Charlotte got sick in the middle of the night last night. Consequently she was stuck on the couch all day today.

All day until we got a phone call saying someone wanted to come see our house in 10 to 15 minutes. We ran around getting everything put away. We woke Greg up from his nap and buckled both kids into the car. With nothing to do we decided to head to Big Lots.

And that's where Charlotte decided to puke again.

This Is Actually Happening

Today the real estate agent came and took photos of our house. Sunday we are having our first open house. Next weekend we are going up to Minnesota to look for our new house. Our impending move from St. Louis to Minnesota and from student's family to resident's family and from well known friends to making new friends is all of a sudden so very, very real to me.

Giveaway

I don't usually do giveaways because I don't usually have anything that I think someone else might possibly want. Today though I think I might have some.

I made fabric party hats for Charlotte's birthday as party favors. I think they were a success and the kids seemed to enjoy them. There were 11 hats leftover after the party. I don't want to move 11 party hats no matter how cute they are. Six of them are "girl" hats with pink ribbons and 5 are "boy" hats with gears on them and blue ribbons. If you want them leave a comment and I'll mail them to you.

If nobody wants them they're going to be given to the goodwill. If more than one person wants them I'll chose at random. I will select the person Friday morning since I have to have the house ready for photos to be put on the market Friday afternoon!

hoodwinked

Today I was ready to buy my son new shoes. For the past couple of days he's been sort of complaining about wearing his sneakers. Then this morning as soon as I put them on his feet he started yelling, "OW! OW!OW!OW!" until he sat down and ripped his shoes and then even the offending socks off his feet. He calmed down immediately, but wanted the shoes back on. I put them on and the same thing happened. I finally convinced him to wear his boots just so we could make it out of the house. Before buying new sneakers I decided to have his feet measured so we went to the stride rite store after dinner and guess what. Both kids have exactly the same size feet they had last fall. Greg is in a 6.5 wide and Charlotte is in a 10. It's a good thing I got it checked because otherwise I'd have been tricked by my kids again.

Sorry for the long absence. We were celebrating. First match day, with its mix of emotions. Then my birthday, with its mix of emotions. Then, we talked to some realtors about selling our house, with its mix of emotions. Then finally, Charlotte's two solid days of birthday bliss, with its mix of emotions.

To celebrate my birthday we had the birthday breakfast and then got to work on the house. We took a short break from work though to take a family trip to the botanical gardens. Charlotte had decided to wear her party clothing to celebrate the day. It was so much fun to walk behind her and watch everyone's face as they passed her. AMAZING. Also, I got the best homemade cards from Charlotte that day, including a portrait of me consisting of a head with arms and legs.

Charlotte was so stoked about her birthday I knew that even with all the stress I couldn't really skip a party for her. We had her birthday breakfast and our family went all out showing their love for her from across the country. She skyped with grandmas and aunts and uncles. She recieved wonderful gifts and cards and she felt so special.

Then came time to prepare for her birthday party on Saturday. She had been talking about nothing else since a week before my birthday. So I decided that I would rather cook a lot of food and have a big family style party than a smaller, kids only party. That way I would get to see my friends close to my birthday too. It started out small in my mind, but ended up HUGE. This was pretty much the last time we were going to be able to invite everyone over to our place. Plus, I figured we could have it outside.

Well, on the day of the party it snowed.

Even though it snowed our friends showed up in droves. We squeezed into the house and I prayed that nothing serious would happen to the place as parents and children moved around en masse. I am so grateful to our friends for making this happiness happen for Charlotte:

What a great week.