Making our HOME a house...

It's a lot of work to make our home back into just a house again. Besides the painting, carpet cleaning, wall cleaning, everyday cleaning, snow shoveling, snow days, studying for boards, working shifts, going to classes, puking children, laundry, field trips, homework, gymnastics, karate, church, and wed night activities, it's starting middle school, it's starting kindergarten twice, it's the home of the dangerous duo (yes, Quinn and Lex), it's the fact that our pictures are off the walls, closets are cleaned out, baby stuff given away, toddler stuff given away, moving on... It's saying good bye to our first home that we bought and remembering how excited we were to find it, it's remembering that Lexsie was due to be born any day as we unpacked and moved in, and seeing this big girl walking around the place wondering, 'where did the time go?' It's friends and neighbors slowly pulling away anticipating us leaving, it's the pre-preperations for moving on. Moving where? you might wonder - we still don't have a clue. But we know we must go. Already saying good bye to our home and still living in our house.

He Stikes Again

This boy of mine... he IS supervised! But, he decided to help me get the house on the market with his own fresh coat of paint. So after quickly assessing the situation I decided my most prominent need were the cherry hardwood floors. They would be the hardest and most expensive to replace, then all the wood work up and down the hall and bedroom, and lastly the floors - we were going to replace the carpet (probably) anyway. Now it is a definite. Why oh why can't he be like other normal little boys and write on the wall with crayon?

As I have been working with the Young Women (12-18 year old girls at our church) lately, I have come to the knowledge that eye rolling is a teenagers socially acceptable way of telling their parents that they love them too. I have just realized that my entire purpose of serving in the young women's was to prepare me for my own children who will soon be telling me they love me with an eye-roll. Now, all you nervous nellies out there worried about how to handle your teenager... I have just shared with you my profound insight! Go and roll your eyes...

Picking Sides

The other day my neighbor called and was chit chatting with me. I didn't think too much of the conversation until I was relating it to Craig later that night. The conversation went about like this:

Neighbor: How are things going? We haven't seen Craig's truck around much.

Me: No, he's been out of town, he had to go to Chicago...

Neighbor: Oh, well, how long will he be gone for, when will he get to come home?

Me: Oh, he's home now.

Neighbor: Oh, I guess we just haven't seen his truck around.

Me: Oh, well yeah he was gone for a week, oh yeah and the night before he left he had to buy a new truck.

As I related the conversation I realized what she was really getting at... "who is the strange man coming over - he comes in late at night and leaves early in the morning..." So if the neighbors had to pick sides, I have no doubt they would choose Craig. He is pretty awesome. But rest assured I am only picking Craig - and we had a really good chuckle.

And by the way, we had to say good bye to the 'king of the jungl'e - it got us through med school, deployment, 4 moves, most of a residency, and 160,000 miles of commuting! But, we both have to say, 'ooo lala!' This new truck is a beauty

Taco Bell

this story is just too cute not to document! Quinn, Lexsie and I were out running many Christmas errands and we decided not to just get taco bell for lunch, but to actually go in (ahh the freedoms I'm starting to enjoy!) so we go in and I place the order. We sit down and I pull out Quinn's soft taco. He looks at me with that pouty face and sad eyes only Quinn can pull off, shrugs his shoulders and says, 'mom, I wanted a crunchy taco.' To which I reply, 'sorry buddy I messed up you'll just have to eat that one.' He eats his nachos and then holds out his hand and says somewhat disgruntled, 'give me some money. I 'll go get my crunchy taco.' Of course this is all done very sweetly, not in the least bit ornery. So I give him a dollar and remind him to talk loud enough for the cashier to hear. He marches up and gets in line between two 6 foot tall men, like he is also 6 feet tall, tells me to sit down, that he can do it himself, and then starts giving me the wink - you know the head nod with a blink that only a 3 year old can pull off. He gets to the counter puts his money on the table and shouts, 'HARD TACO WITH NO LETTUCE - PLEASE!' Of course I'm having the hardest time not totally laughing my head off, so is the cashier, the man behind him, and the district manager who happens to be there. Quinn waits for his taco, says thank you and strolls back to the table. This boy, if I could have pulled out my video camera... there is nothing he can't or won't do. As he grows this boy is going to become a man who won't easily take no for an answer - and he'll do it all in such a sweet way, you won't know he got what he wanted despite what you wanted till it's all over.

Where we are...

Well Craig has been on nights for a bit now (10 days), and after the initial shock of making the transition from days to nights (let's just say grouchy for 4-5 days!) we are finally settling in to this new routine (this was his last night...) Yeah, that's where we are. Get used to one thing to have it change - lets just say my floors are a mess! I just really feel bad vacuuming when anyone is sleeping so right now the only time someone is not sleeping is at crunch time (you know the time the big kids get home from school are doing homework, making dinner, getting to/from activities, little ones are melting because they are ready for sleep - not a good time to clean floors either) ANYWAY, this morning Craig got home a bit early and crawled into bed (while I was still there) and I started laughing because it felt so weird, so we were there chit chatting for a bit (he couldn't sleep because he has now made the change from days to nights) and well I am used to getting woke up 14 billion times a night so whatever, anyway we were taking this time to talk and just be together, when my alarm went off and I had to get up. We had a good 15 minutes of uninterrupted, quality, bonding time. Yes, we are two ships passing in the night. In the mean time he is sleeping and I am not vacuuming and I'll have to wake him in a few hours so he can sleep tonight and make the transition back to days (and be grouchy.) We'll do that for a few days, and then guess what - yep. He's on nights in Jan so we will transition back. This residency stuff is not for the faint of heart, or those who obsess over clean floors.

The World's Best

SNUGGELER!

Yes, there is no better snuggler. He crawls into bed early in the morning, but not too early, molds him self 'just right' against you and lays really still, then he will place his cute little hand on your cheek and say, 'I lub you, mom.' Totally makes up for all the 'incidents' he seems to be caught in the middle of.