Life as we know it...

relocating

2007-07-07T14:16:00.000-05:00

Since we've moved and we obviously are not
The Morrisons in Michigan any longer, which our web address suggests, I figured it was time for a new place for me to ramble.

So after you've commented on my Thoughts on Thursday and met our newest little friend, wander on over and check out our new blog page:

Our Everyday Life at
notesofus.blogspot.com

Things over there, like our new house, are still a bit messy and not completely unpacked yet, so keep that in mind and bear with me as I get used to the new page.

so very nice to meet you

2007-07-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

Yuri Marie MalonePresenting the Malones and their brand new baby girl...

Doesn't Savannah look so OLD holding Yuri in this picture?!!!

Sawyer was in love... I'm serious, he was all over her! We had to stand up to hold her just so Sawyer couldn't reach her and wouldn't maul her. He was really taken with that tiny little bundle!

Congrats you guys!! Enjoy your precious little girl. We are so excited to get to know her!

Another Thursday

2007-07-05T22:11:00.001-05:00

Tonight Sawyer went to sleep in his new big bed for the first time! It took him quite a while to fall asleep... I don't think he drifted off until about 9 o'clock (he was in bed before 7:30), but he stayed in bed the whole time all by himself, and now that he's asleep in there, he is so flippin' cute! I want so badly to take a picture of him but I don't dare wake him up. I wish you could see him though. My big little baby all curled up in the corner of a real live twin sized bed! Moments like this just make me want to freeze time for a bit.
Anyway, we'll see how the whole night goes and what ungodly hour he pops out of bed at! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

So coincidentally, Sawyer's milestone bedtime tonight leads me into my Thoughts on Thursday post for this week. (By the way, is no one else joining in on our Thursday conversation starters??? Come on! There's gotta be something you want to open a conversation about or something you want to know other's opinions on that you could take a few minutes to blog about?! Well, at the very least make sure you comment on my thoughts... and Nic has her own thoughts too, so go over there and check it out.)

My topic of choice this week is Bedtime.
Do (did) your kids have bedtimes? Is it early or late or whenever they fall asleep? And am I brave enough to take it a step further... what about the family bed vs. kids in their own beds?

I just have to say I don't understand the no bedtime thing. I'm just going to be blunt and ask do parents really think that it's okay for a small child to still be awake at 10 and 11 p.m.?? Do they really think there is nothing wrong with that?
Disclaimer: When I talk about early childhood and parenting habits, I admit I am no expert and probably very far from it... but having worked in early childhood education for almost 10 years, nannied numerous infants/toddlers, and now having two kids of my own... I am fairly comfortable saying I've seen a thing or two and I know I've had enough varying experiences with all different situations to give at least a half-way educated opinion. HAHA!

**Added Disclaimer: It is late and I am very sleep deprived myself and even as I'm typing I have a million other things running through my head. I'm realizing this is why I haven't been blogging regularly... I have too much all jumbled around in my head to focus on actually writing anything that actually sticks to a point or makes any sense!

Most of the kids I've been involved with have had "normal" bedtimes. I'm categorizing "normal" as anytime between 6:30 and 8:30 considering children 6 months to about 8 years old. The majority of them (and can I say generally the happiest and better behaved children as well) were in bed by 8. But then I would have a two or three year old in my class now and then who, for example, didn't go to bed until usually close to midnight (and then be in my classroom before 7am the next morning, poor thing). This little girl was miserable. She was so obviously overtired and really honestly struggled through her day. I was actually pretty close with the mother and had a few conversations with her about K's bedtime. They always said, "oh, she is just such a night owl... she loves to stay up late, we just can't get her to bed any earlier, she likes to stay up late and sleep in". Yeah, well first of all, she's obviously not sleeping in when you have to be at work by 7am. She's taking four hour naps everyday because she's exhausted. She stays up late because she CAN, and you can't get her to bed because you don't really try.
I babysat little K for 10 days with her older brother and sister while their parents were out of town one summer. K was in bed and asleep every night with me by 9pm. By the time her parents got home, it was closer to 8. And she was noticeably happier and healthier... it was like a completely different child! She was not only sleeping more, but getting much better sleep when she was sleeping. K's mom had often complained about K still waking up and needing to be layed down with to go back to sleep numerous times a day. But after the first few nights of an earlier bedtime with me, K was sleeping soundly all the way till morning. I was kind of bummed as shortly after mom and dad returned home, K was back to her "night owl" ways. And those ways included her crankiness, her touchiness, her short attention span, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I know part of their "excuse" for keeping her up late was the fact that they both worked full time. I know that tends to be a common denominator with some kids that don't really have bedtimes... the parents don't get to see them all day and they try to squeeze in all that together time at night. Nobody wants to only see their children for just basically 2 hours a day (if you're getting home at 6 and they're going to bed at 8). It feels like you're cheated out of spending time with your kids. But I just have to say, if you're keeping them up for those reasons, you're actually cheating them. It is amazing the number of kids who are sleep deprived in our culture. Did you know that over 20% of kids entering elementary school have serious sleep problems that aren't perceived by either the child or their parents? They are chronically sleep deprived. Some doctors say that almost half of the diagnosed ADHD patients would not need any special medication or treatments if they as their doctors could regulate their sleeping habits.

Honestly, kids need way more sleep than I think most of us are even aware of. And I think most of us are unaware of the difference it makes. Sleep- good quality sleep- is such a foundation for a child's overall health and demeanor it is amazing.
Recently I've met a few more moms with way more flexible (or non-existent) bedtimes than I was previously used to. At times, after putting my own kids to bed for the night, it is almost painful to hang out with these families and watch their toddler grow more and more tired, whining around on the floor at almost 11 o'clock at night rubbing his red and bleary eyes. These different kids on different occasions, while they were very well behaved and content to hang out with the adults, were just so obviously tired to everyone in the room except for the parents. More than one of us would make a comment, 'oh he looks like he's getting tired' or 'look at those tired eyes', which would be either ignored or answered with 'oh, I don't really know why he's being so clingy, he isn't usually ready for bed yet.'
It's kind of hard to stand by and watch that... I just wanted to say "put your kid to bed already, before he falls asleep in the middle of the floor!" Maybe it's just that I made a career of observing kids and my job was to meet their needs...
It just doesn't make sense to me. I'm just amazed at how many more and more families I meet who's kids go to bed at the same time the adults do.

And seriously, all the children's health and happiness aspects aside, what about grown-up time? I would go crazy if my kids and I went to bed at the same time each night. I know I'm with my kids all day, but Ryan's not and he agrees with me... we are usually counting down to the kid's bedtime. To have that close and cuddly routine of our goodnights, and then we can have some adult time to ourselves. And with each other. I just don't think our marriage, or our sanity, would be half as intact as it is if the kids were up until 10 with us each night. You know what I mean?

Alright. This post is completely all over the place and I feel like I'm talking in circles. It's very late and I could go on forever with this topic. Can you tell I value my kids sleep?!!

Anyway, so instead of preaching anymore (haha!) and since I'm too lazy to research anything online right now... I'm just going to end this and say here's my absolute favorite book about all of this. If you are a parent and you haven't read it, you should. I haven't the slightest idea where my book is right now in this sea of boxes we're living in, but if I did you can bet I'd be quoting from it right and left. But I don't, so I won't. But I love that it's not a "how to" book with in your face theories on how to get your child to sleep. It mostly focuses on why they need the sleep they need and the affect their sleep habits have on almost every aspect of their lives. Good stuff to know.

Wow, I almost even forgot to tell you the name of the book. That's how tired I am. I should not be writing right now.
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
That's it.
I'm not even going to touch on co-sleeping or kids being able to put themselves to sleep. Those are whole other subjects in and of themselves. I'll let someone else tackle those.
So back to my original question...
What is bedtime in your house and how do you feel about it?

our Fourth

2007-07-05T21:26:00.000-05:00

We had a great day yesterday! One of the best Fourth of July's ever in my book. Of course, I've never done much to celebrate Independence Day... I'm not a huge fan of fireworks and most years lately it's just been easier to put the kids to bed like normal and sit around at home. But this year we decided to have some fun.
First the Swinigans came over in the morning to hang out and for an early lunch and we all went over for some play in the pool. We all had fun; Savannah was so excited all morning about having Norah come and play and swim with her!
Here are just a couple of shots of our day at the pool. I was too busy chasing Sawyer around to take as many pictures as I wanted to...

Here's little Lucy flying high with her daddy!

The Malones (plus Michael's little brother Brett) had come to join us at the pool as well. Finally at after 2 o'clock, the Swinigans headed home and I came back to our house to put Sawyer down for a nap. Ryan brought Savannah back at almost 3 so she could lay down for awhile, and then he went back to bake in the sun and soak in the water with the others for another hour or so. When everyone was thouroughly all pooled out, we just hung at our house and chatted for a bit. It was our last visit with the Malones as expectant parents! They are in the hospital as I type, waiting to meet (and possibly have already met) their little one!! Erin's water was broken just before noon today, so we're waiting to hear word anytime!! So, so exciting!

After the kids woke from their late naps (at 5 o'clock!) we said goodbye to the Malones and packed up to head out to the Fourth of July Festival here in O'Fallon. We had such a fun time! Coming from Portland, where yes they have great festivals and fairs but they cost an arm and a leg, it was so nice to have a great local fair with so much stuff to do FOR FREE! Parking was free, getting into the festival itself was free, and sure the rides and food cost $$, but they had a whole big kids area with a ton of free stuff for the kids to do. Facepainting, crafts, puppet shows, petting zoos, animal acts, magic shows, inflatables, a playground... I could go on and on. We rode a few rides, ate a few hot dogs, and hung out until the fireworks. I was quite impressed. I knew that St. Louis offered more free, major visitor attractions (museums, the zoo, the science center and tons more) than anyplace out of the nation's capital, but I didn't know that would run over into the suburbs out here! We had a blast and the kids were great. Sure it was a (extremely) late night for everyone, but it was fun!

one week

2007-07-03T22:32:00.000-05:00

Apparently I'm only able to blog every other day now. I don't know why... we didn't even do that much yesterday that I was terribly busy.

Or today. Well, we finally got Savannah's room painted tonight, but other than that pretty much nothing else house-wise accomplished today.
I did go shopping this morning.
I needed to go to Walmart and Ryan suggested I go to Old Navy (that just sounds so unnatural) since I've been Old Navy deprived for the past year. We now live 1.6 miles from one!!
Anyway, I went out this morning... here was the conversation before I left:
Me: okay, I'm on my way out, call me if you think of anything else we need.
Ryan: which one of the kids are you taking? both?
Me: (long pause and confused look)
Ryan: Neither?
Me: I'd like neither.... but if you really want me to take one...
Ryan: It'd be a lot easier if you took one.
Me: It'd be a lot easier if you took one to work with you every day too.

I left alone :)
Yeah, so what happens when Ryan lets me (so graciously) shop by myself? Well, let's see...
I had planned on going to Walmart (not really shopping, just to pick up one thing) and to Old Navy. I left the house at about 9am. I got home at 1 o'clock and had been to Kohl's, Target, Walmart, LinensNThings and Old Navy. I'm sorry, but Old Navy just wasn't going to cut it. I'm way more interested in buying house stuff right now than clothes for me. But the opportunities to shop on my own without bickering kids to entertain through the store are so rare, of course I had to try a few things on... or maybe a few more than a few. I got a pair of white pants, a skort, and a few shirts. Not too bad. I also got these and these and this. Not bad at all for four hours in the stores. I could have done a lot more damage. I did manage to fill my head with a list a mile long of house things I want. Someday.

After the kids woke up from nap, we went over to the pool. Yes, we finally made it over there. The kids and Ryan have been twice, and this was my first time actually getting in. It was the perfect day for it. Nice and hot and just tolerable if you were nice and wet. Sawyer had a blast in the wading pool... he walked around like he owned the place. And then Savannah taught him how to jump in and he must have jumped at least 827 times. His feet barely hit the ground when he was scrambling to get out and jump in again! And of course he had to wear Daddy's goggles!!
Here are just three of his 827 jumps.

And when Sawyer got bored of the pool, he spent the rest of the time right here...

Seriously, he hung out here for like 20 minutes watching people come and get snacks, apparently trying to figure out this machine!

And here are just a couple cute shots I should share from last week... Ryan and I were putting together Sawyer's bed and of course as soon as Sawyer sees tools, he has to join in. And SJ cannot be left out. So here they are "helping" finish the beds.

I'm sure I'll have more pics tomorrow... we're having some friends over for lunch and then hitting the pool as long as the weather holds out... it's supposed to thunderstorm tomorrow. Of course. Not sure what we're doing for "The Forth" yet, but we have plenty to choose from... lots going on in our community. Again, if it's not storming!
Happy Forth of July everyone!!

day of rest

2007-07-01T20:37:00.000-05:00

I thought about posting yesterday... it would have been titled What A Difference A Day Makes. We seriously got so much done yesterday and the night before, I couldn't believe it. Sawyer's room is completely done; painted, decorated, (well, we're waiting on the shades for the windows to come in), unpacked and situated, and we even got his bed put together. He hasn't slept in it yet because we took the old blinds down and we don't have the new ones yet and he really likes it dark, so he's been camping out in the guest room for now.
We made a huge dent in other boxes around the house... our bedroom and the upstairs landing were pretty overrun with boxes to unpack as well as empty boxes and packing paper, and now you can actually see how much room we have!! I think once we get completely unpacked and organized around here, we're going to be shocked at how much room we really have. We're getting so used to living surrounded by all this moving mess, it'll be strange to have empty space!

Today we did absolutely nothing though. I'm declaring it our Day of Rest. It is Sunday, after all. We went to the church down the street (it is literally at the end of our street) this morning, and then came home and had a great lunch of Biscuits and Gravy. Yum!! Then it was naptime (everyone napped but me... I spent an hour or so browsing online for decorating ideas/shopping), and after that we went to meet some new friends for dinner. Well, they're old friends for Ryan; it's a couple he went to school with at Greenville. Turns out they live just a couple of miles from us, and they have two girls who are three and one. Ryan and Kevin had been in touch since we moved and they invited us over for dinner this evening. Kevin's wife's name is Heather also. She stays home with the girls, and she has already given me a lot of good leads on local pediatricians, preschools, parks and such. It was a nice evening of visiting, a really yummy dinner, and the kids had a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll see more of them in the future!

Now tonight, we got the kids bathed and in bed and we're both just sitting here vegged out on the laptops. I figure the day's pretty much shot anyway, why ruin it by getting any work done now? LOL! I think we're going to watch a movie.

So instead of posting much house stuff, or pictures of our progress, I'm just going to leave you with the product of my blog surfing this evening... a fun way to find out what your choice of images says about your personality.

I'm an Easy Rider, what are you?

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

here it is

2007-06-29T22:38:00.000-05:00

I made myself take a break from taping and painting and unpacking and building to actually pick up my camera and get some pictures off of it and onto here for you all who can now get off my back!!! Just Kidding. I know I've been bad. There is just sooo much to do around here and any little projects we have, we're really trying to get done before Ryan goes back to work. Actually a few days before he has to go to work so that we can just relax and get out and have fun. And enjoy our new house without painting/unpacking messes everywhere.

Sawyer's room is painted. Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow he'll be sleeping in a finished organized and decorated room. With a big boy bed?! We'll see about that last part!
Next up, Savannah's room.

Today we made our big trip to Lowes. We've been there pretty much every day for something or another. But today was a big trip with all the paint, some ceiling fans, lights, and a lot of miscellaneous stuff for miscellaneous projects. $469.25 OUCH!!
And then this afternoon we made our "stock up" grocery trip to refill our fridge and freezer and pantry. $195 at Walmart. Also OUCH!

Well, I won't bore you any longer with the uninteresting house stuff... I'll just summarize to say that we are loving our house. Savannah is sooo excited about the pool around the corner. "I just LOVE swimming, you know" she says to me about 87 times a day. We have yet to actually swim, because when we finally got over there to get our cards on Wednesday, it started thunderstorming and it's been rainy, thundery and cooler ever since. But the other highlight for Savannah is the fact that there are two four year old girls right across the street from us on either side of the corner!! She is so excited about her new friends and feeling quite grown up about going over to play with them! Lots of kids in this neighborhood, so we're looking forward to getting to know more families!!

Okay here are a few pics...
well, maybe more than a few. I originally took pics of the empty house, but these are from earlier today, everything as is, pre painting and boxes everywhere. Disclaimer: please ignore the window treatments and light fixtures in some of these pictures... they are original to the house in 1993- personally I think someone actually brought them in from the year 1987- and we will slowly be replacing them!! These are really horrible and boring pictures, but I know some of you really wanted to see them and try to get a feel for our new house. So here it is.

Our New Home...

The Family Room

The Kitchen (sorry it's kind of dark!)

The Kid's Playroom (this was originally the formal living room, but had previously been remodeled into a main level bedroom complete with floor to ceiling closets, built-ins and french doors.)

From the Playroom looking through the entryway into the dining room. These are the front two rooms (big front windows) on the house. The front door is directly in front of those stairs.

Dining Room (again, please ignore the window treatments and lovely light fixtures) :)

Sawyer's Room

Savannah's Room

The Spare Bedroom

Our Bedroom

The Master Bathroom... and instead of a nice relaxing bubble bath, I'm looking at a tub full of packing paper.

This is one of my favorites of the house... this is the view from our Master Bedroom; the double doors open to see the whole landing and all the other bedrooms. Which in case you're wondering are from the left, Sawyer's door (you can't see it because it's at a right angle), a linen closet, the main bathroom, Savannah's door, and the spare bedroom.

Here's the view from the top of the landing to the front door.

And if you looked closely, here is one of the many reasons for our spendy trips to Lowe's. I'm having a hard time living with this... this is just one of many beautiful light fixtures in this house.

Oh maybe you don't fully understand how beautiful...

we're still alive

2007-06-28T22:32:00.000-05:00

We just got internet here at the house this evening. I missed being online!!!

Mike and Kasey just left today to head back to Columbia. It was so nice to have them here with us for a few days... besides the extra helping hands, it was just so nice to spend so much time with them. Mike and Erin also came over on Tuesday night and we all got Chinese take-out, they helped unpack much of the kitchen (and got shelf-lining down to an artform!), and then we had a few beers and played Imaginiff which is a fun new game we got as a housewarming gift for ourselves. So nice to have good old friends in a new place!!!

We are up to our necks in boxes and packing paper and can't find anything we need when we need it, but we're slowly digging out. And loving our new house.
We've mostly gotten the kids playroom unpacked and organized along with the kitchen and the family room. We're slowly attacking the bedrooms and bathrooms. We may start painting tomorrow... I'd rather paint before getting the bedrooms unpacked and arranged. I'm just being indecisive with the paint colors.

I do have pictures to post. I've been really lazy with the camera, but I do have pictures of the empty house. And now that at least a couple of rooms are starting to actually look lived in, maybe I'll actually think to get the camera out once in awhile.
So I'll try and post pics tomorrow. I just wanted to let you all know we're still alive!!

And sorry I'm slacking on the Throw Us Your Thoughts Thursday this week... I do have a topic, I just have not had a minute to sit down and write a little post about it. So tune in next week for that one.
But check back here tomorrow for some house stuff.
We're slowly getting into the groove here...

we're almost home

2007-06-25T07:16:00.000-05:00

The kids are apparently on Eastern time and are up and ready to go before 6am each morning now. I really hope we can bump that back to 7 soon because I'm not a fan of such an early wake up time as a routine.

We made it to St Louis, had a walk through of our new house (which was the first time the kids had seen it), had some lunch, and then continued on to Columbia to spend some time at the Laughlin's house for the evening. Kasey's a lifesaver and is going to help us out with the kids tomorrow while we do the closing and everything. Then she and Mike are going to camp out at our house with us for a couple of nights while we get our things in and settled. It'll be sooo nice to have some extra hands around with the kids and a new house in chaos!!

The kids were a bit better yesterday... we only had a short drive and they were tolerable at our stops at the house and to eat. Actually Sawyer came down with a fever, so that explains both his extra fussy behavior the last few days and also why he was more subdued yesterday. He didn't want to eat or play, and he definitely had his moments, but he just mostly hung out pretty mellow.

So just four more hours or so till we have our house! I'll get pictures up soon!!

ready for a fresh start

2007-06-23T20:35:00.000-05:00

I know some of you are waiting for updates...
We've been on the road the last couple of days, and yes, we're on track to being in town on schedule.
Other than that, I don't have much to say right now.
Except that the past 24 hours have been absolutely hands down the worst two days of my parenting experience so far. I can't even talk about it, that's how awful it's been. Let's just say there have been plenty of tears on this trip... not just the kids but mine as well. And it wouldn't be so bad if they were tears about saying good bye to our house and friends. But they are far from that.
I'm trying to remember that we are moving for the second time in a year and that as smoothly as we've all accepted that, deep down we are probably all a little stressed out with our own fears and uncertainties. I'm trying to be sure the kids are feeling as secure and comfortable and familiar as can be and even though they seem fine with all of this packing up and moving stuff, I'm also really trying to remember they must have a lot of emotions about the changes we're making.
But still. I am almost in shock at the way our last two days have gone. I think I've left Michigan with the wrong children.
I wish I could even begin to explain, but I can't. I'm exhausted.

A couple more days till we'll be settled in our house. And of course I use the word settled loosely.
I hope we make it.

What to pray for if you pray?....
patience, wisdom, rest, peace
We are in desperate need all of that around here.

MI, you will be missed for....

2007-06-23T20:01:00.001-05:00

Obviously, our house and our great big yard. Savannah always called our big wooden swingset/climber our backyard park.
Sawyer waking up each morning pointing out his window, wanting to say good morning to the dogs next door as we pulled up his blinds to start the day.
The bunny family that made their home under our back shed and made themselves comfortable in our yard.
Deer wandering past our windows.
Feeling we were "out" where it was so peaceful and spread out, but being so close to town.
Low property taxes and mortgage payment.
Local ice cream shacks.
The small town feel.
Even if something is all the way across town, nothing is ever more than 15 minutes away.
Golfing with Don on any one of the many nearby (and cheap!) courses.
The Happy Huff House (and pool!).
No traffic.
Game Nights with the Barczaks.
Porter Days.
Savannah's favorite (only) teachers ever.
New friends.
Finding my twin. You're right we look nothing alike, but Savannah says we're twins because we have the same birthday. But seriously, I've never met anyone who thinks as much like I do... everything from parenting habits and pet peeves, to the things that end up in our shopping bags. There has been many the occasion that we ended up coming home with the exact same clothes from Target, and then show up on outings wearing at least the same colors, if not completely similar outfits. Our blogs even have the same title! Anyway. We've become, at times, somewhat inseparable and that makes this one a big miss. I'm so sad to be leaving such a great friend. It's a good thing I don't have to miss IM'ing or email!!

speaking of language mix ups...

2007-06-21T19:12:00.000-05:00

Sawyer signs "more" for "lawn mower".
You know, like "more" = "MOWER".
HAHA!

I've wondered if he thought that's what we were saying... he loves mowers and tractors, and even though right now he's in a phase where he's terrified of the loud noises (he always covers his ears and frantically says 'all done'!!), he is fascinated by yard tools and riders. If he hears a lawn mower in the neighborhood he runs to the window and signs "more, more" and I just thought it meant he wanted to see more of the action.

Well, today we were at Lowe's, and as we pull up in the parking lot and I'm getting him out of his seat, he is pointing around me excitedly and signing "more! more!". I look around, but I can't figure out what he wants, as many times he signs 'more' when he wants to eat something. I was wondering what he had spied in the parking lot that he would want to eat?
Then as we walk to the front door, past all the riding lawn mowers lined up out front, and Sawyer is still precisely signing "more", I realize he is pointing to the mowers. More = Mower. Sound the same, right???

Haha, I just realized something else...
Maybe he's signing "all done" when he wants the loud mower to stop because he knows "all done" is the opposite of "more"?!!!

throw us your thoughts thursday... it's a whole 'nother world!

2007-06-21T13:24:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm actually kind of cheating on my first Throw Us Your Thoughts Thursday post. It's not really a topic of great debate, or probably even much of an opinion. Just some fun personal observations in my move from one side of the country to (almost) the other. I've been saying I would post this for close to a year now, and I really wanted to get it done since we're leaving this state... so I'm combining it with my Thoughts on Thursday post. Comment with your two cents if you have any, or add any geographical/cultural differences you've come across in your own little world (especially if you've moved around a lot!!), and see how different we all are!

So here it is...
My collective list of differences between where we came from and where we are.
I would simply say the differences between the West Coast and the Midwest, but I'm not so sure they are consistent on either end. Mostly this end, as I'm positive a lot of these are unique Michigan things and many of them actually unique Jackson things! LOL!

First, the language.
Aside from the accent, YES YOU PEOPLE HAVE AN ACCENT, there are a lot of saying, terms, and words that are different than what we were used to a year ago.
The accent: It's hard to explain. The best example I have is when we confused our neighbor by talking about "DON" and she kept thinking we meant a female "DAWN". Now where we come from, there is no sound difference in those two names. Dawn and Don sound exactly the same. Here they are "DaWWWn" and "Deahn". In our vocabulary, the words Don, Mom, Gone and so forth all rhyme with lawn, drawn, pond, etc. Here, words like Don, Mom, Gone and Tomorrow have a very drawn out almost nasally A sound rather than a long O sound. And don't get me started on the accent in words like cEAHr and pEAHp, --car and pop for those who don't speak Michiganese.
I could actually do a whole post someday on accents and the different ways people pronounce the same words. Here's a good quiz that's exactly what I'm talking about....
What American Accent do you have?
here's mine

What American accent do you have?

My Result: The Midland

"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

What American accent do you have?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Anyway, back to my thoughts.
Now for some of the words themselves...

Grilling- we slowly learned that where we were used to having BARBEQUES back home, here we have to have a COOKOUT or we're GRILLING OUT, we are NOT barbecuing.
Working Shifts- On the West Coast, if you're working shifts, they are Dayshift, Swingshift (nights), or Graveyard shift. Here they are first second and third shift. This is one that was very confusing to me, as almost everyone here works in these shifts and even if they work a regular bank hours kind of job, people call it first shift. And everyone is assumed to know the shifts. Like when I was telling my hairdresser about my husband's job, she asked if he worked first shift. Ummm... yeah.(???) What the heck is first shift? Everyone, and I mean everyone talks about these shifts in simply the first second or third and no one ever mentions times and if you don't know the names of the shifts it is quite confusing!! My husband works daytime hours... 7 to4 okay?!
Tanning- which is a much bigger Midwest thing than in Portland by the way (unless you're in highschool tanning for Spring Break or Prom), is not called tanning here, but going to the tanner. Instead of saying I went tanning or I've been tanning, everyone says I went to the tanner or I've been going to the tanner lately. This is just a funny little one I notice often.
I know there are a handful more, but I'm drawing a blank now...

Here are some other notable differences...
Party Stores- What do you suppose you would find at a party store? If you're from the Northwest, you would probably expect to find balloons, party decorations, matching plates, cups and napkins in every imaginable color and character, gifts, party favors, etc... Stuff for whatever birthday, holiday, graduation, over the hill or retirement party you may be planning.
But if you live in Jackson, you go to the party store for liquor, beer, cigarettes, ice, mixers, and that kind of stuff. You know... for a party. Is that what people around here think a party is?

Also, that fact that in Oregon and Washington (not sure which other states do and don't do this) always have separate ~~party~~ liquor stores. They do not sell alcohol in grocery or convenience stores out there like they do here. We coudn''t just buy a fifth of Captain's with the rest of our grocery list. We would have to make a separate stop at a Liquor Store. And the hours are limited and closed on Sundays.

Stollers always... rarely front packs and never a backpack for your baby- I know no one here who owns a baby backback. They don't even know what you would use that for. Rarely do I see frontpacks or slings either. But strollers? Those are everywhere! Moms have their babies in strollers everywhere. Target? You don't use a cart, you bring in your stroller. Even in grocery stores, I see more infant seats in strollers than in the shopping carts.

Recycling- obviously Portland is going to be much heavier on the recycling front than a Midwest state. But can you believe there is a ten cent deposit on cans and bottles here, and many people don't even recycle those?! And no curbside recycling.
And conservation- people waste water like you wouldn't believe. Okay, I probably shouldn't go so far as say waste, but they are sure less water conscience than we're used to. For one, we don't really pay for water use here. I mean, we pay, but it's a flat fee every month( just $30), and it is not dependent on a meter. It doesn't matter if we use 1 gallon or 100,000, it's the same every month. And for some reason people here, just don't follow the water "rules" that we're used to. Like watering lawns? If you walk through our neighborhood at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I'll bet you almost every yard will have sprinklers on. Not only on, but running for at least 3 hours. I am not exaggerating. I noticed the other day that our next door neighbor (the older obsessive lawn mower lady) had her sprinkler on and in the same spot in the front part of her lawn for over 5 hours... we had turned our water on at the same time in the morning, and I had watered our whole yard, moving the sprinkler to five different locations, and then turning it off, and she had that one sprinkler still in the same spot 2 hours later. Even the yard with sprinkler systems on timers... they are usually on in the middle of the afternoon. I mean, yeah, the yards are green, but haven't they ever heard of the standard "your lawn needs an inch of water a week and it's best to do it early in the day so there's less evaporation"? Hasn't everyone heard a filled tuna can in the yard is enough water for the week? And not at the hottest part of the day!!!

And, last but not least... Have you ever seen this? (*Well, I meant to get a picture by now, but it hasn't happened. Picture a six pack of beer/pop in the plastic ring carrier things hanging over the side of a grocery cart... three on the inside, three on the outside KWIM?*)
This is how people shop here. I had never seen this before. If you walk through the grocery store, you will find pop, water, gatorade, whatever comes in packs like this, slung over the side of grocery carts. I admit it is pretty smart, and I would have never have thought of such a space saving solution myself... I just throw it on the bottom of the cart if I don't have room LOL!... but it was sure funny to see at first. Because it's on like every other cart! And it's not just with full carts.... someone can be walking around with an empty cart and still their four six packs are hanging around the sides of their cart! This is so common in fact, that when my parents first visited here, they noticed it with their first trip in a grocery store and came home and asked us about it. Why does everyone hang their pop on the side of their carts? I felt like we missed out on some shopping space saver class that everyone else had been to and we had been left out of the loop! This one is definitely a Jackson thing. Hmmm. I wonder if we can get it to catch on else where?

Whew! That was a long one!!
Okay, so like I said... be sure and leave a comment and join in on the "conversation". At the very least, go take that accent quiz and let me know how it turned out!!!
If you're a blogger and you want to join in on our Throw Us Your Thoughts Thursday posts, pick a topic that's been on your mind and write about it!! Or you can elaborate more on anyone else's topic for the day that you like. I'll add links here to others I know are taking part. You can also leave a link yourself in the comments here.
Other Thursday Thoughtfuls so far....
Nicole
Kasey

note to moving company:

2007-06-19T15:30:00.000-05:00

the job of packing and loading a household would go MUCH faster if your employees did not take 30 minute smoke breaks every freaking hour!!!!!

I am not exaggerating.
I am sitting alone in my house while four smokers puff away in my front yard, chatting, laughing and NOT PACKING for the umpteenth time today. Seriously, are you smoking a whole pack out there? I actually timed them this time... 21 minutes and counting. And they're not even looking like they're close to coming back in. Ugh.
It's a good thing I'm not paying them...

they're heeere!

2007-06-19T10:20:00.000-05:00

new idea

2007-06-19T10:00:00.001-05:00

A friend and I were talking in general about conversations we've had with and about other parents concerning "hot topics". And not just parenting issues, but life issues.
You know; the things you probably have your own different opinions on, but have to bite your tongue in fear of stepping on the other person's toes.
But you can't help thinking it might be nice to have a conversation about it... not a "debate" so much as a here's what I think about it and why, now I'm interested in your thoughts and reasonings behind your opinions as well?.

Many times, having a blog is a good way around things like that. I think any one with a blog has used it at one time or another to get their point across on something that they may not normally say in person to someone. Not in a passive aggressive sort of way... just in a written word sort of organize your thoughts way. I've always enjoyed reading a blog where the writer poses a question or an issue and asks for some reciprocal "conversation" about it. It's truly interesting to see all the different answers or opinions people from all different walks of life come out with.

Anyway, my friend and I were talking about these things and we decided we were going to try creating a day each week to "talk" about these things on our blogs. Big things (like politics *yikes!*) and little things (like should the toilet paper hang over or under)... anything is up for debate.
And Thursday is the day... Thoughts for Thursday is what we're calling it. Every week, I will try to give my two cents on a topic (like I did with the Adoption post), or bring up thought provoking questions, and I want as many people as have a thought on said topic to comment and join in. Just leave a comment if you have a short thought to add, or write a whole post on your opinions yourself, and leave a link to your blog. Also, if you do have your own blog, why not bring up your own topic? It would be fun to have a bunch of different pages to go to and read and see what is on other's minds.

So what do you think? Are ya game???
Check back here Thursday for my first topic.
Gosh, that's a lot of pressure... I better make it good!

p.s.
any bloggers who want to join in and do their own edition of Thoughts For Thursday every Thursday with us... let me know and either leave a link in a comment here on Thursdays, or if we get a regular group of more than just the two of us, I'll create a little sidebar note and direct my readers your way!

an old fashioned homemade Father's Day

2007-06-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

So this was the first year for handmade Father's Day cards... well, I didn't make mine, I guess I was the lazy one, haha! But the kids loved making their's for their Daddy... Savannah's little googly-eyed people are her and Sawyer and Daddy. And the word Daddy is in green and yellow because her daddy loves the Ducks. She could be a custom card designer don't you think? Sawyer glued on his little wooden letters... and then peeled them off and glued them back on about 50 times LOL!

Here's a peek at the insides... Sawyer's has a picture of him signing his version of "I Love You!"; just a little visual aid to decipher his scribbling sentiments.

We made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and had a nice relaxing morning.
We didn't do anything special today, but it was a nice day... although it felt as though we didn't have all that much "family" time. We went to church with some friends and didn't make it home until 1:30 with two tired, hungry and cranky kids. So we ate a quick lunch and then we ALL took a nap. We all slept till at least 4pm... I had to go in and wake Sawyer up at 5!!
We splashed in the wading pool a bit, had a quick early dinner, and then Ryan actually had to leave and go into work this evening right after that (bummer on a weekend, and especially Father's Day!!). So the kids and I spent the evening trying to keep cool just laying low, and even after all our naps, they were still just a little crabby. I think they missed their Daddy. They had a great time celebrating him today, and were sad to have him leave!!

Happy Father's Day Ryan... thank you for all that you do and everything you are that makes you such a great and "bestest" daddy in the world for our kids.

procrastination ended

2007-06-15T21:01:00.000-05:00

finally!
(that's a link by the way)

it was a horrible, no good, very bad day

2007-06-15T12:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday. This is what I felt like.
Well, it wasn't all bad.
I suppose it you ask the kids, it was a great day... we went to the zoo, we had lunch with Daddy and went to the park, and even though we skipped swimming lessons we swam in the backyard.

But in my mind (literally, in my head!) it was no good.
Starting out, we had to plan on being out of the house all day because they guys were coming to work on our chimney and because of the chimney's close proximity to where our power lines come in, the electricity was going to be shut off to the house for the day. So we made all these plans... to be out of the house early, spend the morning at the zoo in Battle Creek, continue out to Kalamazoo to have lunch with Ryan, spend some time in the city shopping (at the good malls!) and then hit swimming lessons on our way back into town. By the time swimming was over (4:30), we would be good to go home.
Well, then it just so happens the night before, I had one of the worst migraines I remember having in... I don't know when. Horrible. As in up at three in the morning throwing up horrible. It was better, but just barely, by 7am when I had to get up with the kids. But still, I could hardly move. I thought there was no way I could keep up with all our plans for the day when I could hardly sit up and I felt like if I moved too fast I would hurl again. But it was at least better than it had been hours before, and I honestly cringed more at the thought of being stuck inside the house with these two kids running around being loud, squealing, yelling, playing, fighting all day with no electricity (read: no movies or music to entertain, or fans to cool off with). They were already killing me at 8 AM. So I decided to suck it up, make myself eat some toast and pack us up for the day.
It was okay.
If you consider okay being extremely nauseous with a pounding headache all morning, driving 45 miles and then pushing a stroller with two kids around a zoo. And don't forget the light hurting my eyes on a sunny 90 degree day. But we made it through.

And the kids had fun. Nicole, Porter and Aria met us there. Savannah and Aria had so much fun skipping around the zoo together, running hand in hand from animal to animal. I am so glad they joined us, because it was so much more fun with Savannah to share the morning with a friend. I'm afraid I was not the best of company.

I wasn't really up to a lot of photo ops.... but I had to of course take a few at the new Carousel. Savannah has been looking forward to this opening for months. It's really too bad we only got to visit this one last time with the carousel up and running. Here are just a few shots... this is all I got because my camera decided to play some tricks on me, and between messing with that, staying upright on the moving carousel while I was already dizzy, and keeping Sawyer on his Zebra, the camera took last place.

Sawyer did really like the carousel, as bored as he looks in this shot!

As usual, there are many more (and much better) pics of the kids and our zoo trip over at Nicole's place like this one..

So we cut our zoo trip a little short to go in to Kalamazoo and meet Ryan at work for lunch. I was feeling just a little better after eating lunch, but then Ryan tells me about the phone calls he was involved with all morning. Turns out the electric company never did come out to disconnect the power, the chimney people waited around for awhile, but then gave up and did what they could for the day. So after the morning I had, it was all for nothing. I could have sat at home, plugged the kids into movie after movie, curled up in bed or on the couch and semi-slept off the rest of this migraine. I packed up a crapload of stuff for a bunch of different outings for all day feeling sicker than a dog, and it was ALL FOR NOTHING!!!
Anyway, at that point, Ryan talked me into skipping swimming lessons (him saying over and over again how I looked like crap didn't really encourage me to stay out in public) and take the kids home. I was not excited about either going to swimming or going home... both were work for me and both were an hour away. I felt bad about Savannah missing swimming, but I just couldn't do it. Heck, I could barely make it home.
When we did get home, I stuck Sawyer in his crib and Savannah in front of a movie. Sawyer never did take a nap, but at least he was in there for almost an hour so I could at least lay down for a bit. After that I did feel better, so I actually took the kids outside and sat in the shade while they splashed in the little pool. And by the time Ryan got home, I was actually chatty and almost back to normal. But man, was it a long day until then!!

we're getting down to the last

2007-06-15T08:12:00.001-05:00

I made one last run to the grocery store last night... got some fresh fruit and vegetables, some lunchmeat, snacks for our trip, and the last gallon of milk we will consume as Michiganders.

I just put the last new roll of t.p. in both bathrooms.

I just baked my last batch of cookies in this old too-hot oven.

Just dumped the last bouquet of flowers from the vase on the coffee table.

I'm currently filling our wading pool with fresh water one last time.

*****
The movers are coming on Tuesday to start packing. Thursday it will all be on the truck, and we will be staying else where for those few days in between. Friday we will be on our way. One week from RIGHT NOW we will be on the road. Not sure if that's really sunk in yet.

We'll make our way into St. Louis sometime next Sunday, we close on our new house on Monday, and then the moving truck is scheduled to arrive there on Tuesday. Between crashing at friend's houses, hotel stays, and even camping out in our big new empty house Monday night on our air mattresses, we'll have roughly a week of being nomads.
And then it begins... all new firsts.

read this

2007-06-12T18:44:00.000-05:00

My husband's favorite tagline is (in a dramatic on the verge of sobbing voice) "I NEVER LEARNED TO READ!".

When I or anyone else suggests a good book, he's quick to give one of three responses:
"the only reading material that I acknowledge exists are magazines",
"I don't know how to read",
or just plain "I don't read.".

When we were first married, I did manage to squeeze reading a devotional together out of him, and then for a few weeks we actually took turns reading aloud Couplehood and Babyhood before bed each night... they were easy read with nice short, funny chapters.

I have always been a bookworm, and his apathy towards any and all reading material has always driven me nuts. How can you not enjoy a great book once in a while?? I even made the mistake of buying him a couple of books for his birthday one year... books I thought he would actually be interested in reading and admit he enjoyed. The World's Game and Fever Pitch are still sitting unopened on our bookshelf. Actually, I read Fever Pitch and it was very good. But Ryan has yet to crack either one open.

I've been reading some great "parenting" books lately and I'm trying to get Ryan to read them with me or after me so that he can have some of this stuff in his head as well and I'm not just saying "goodbye to whining complaining and bad attitudes in you and your kids" on my own. But it's not going very well. I think he started one of the books one night and that's been the extent of it.

He claims reading puts him to sleep. He claims that if he's up and awake he'd rather be doing something else, and even though he admits that reading before bed is relaxing, he says if he does read in bed, it puts him right to sleep.

Well last night, as he got ready and into bed before me, I came in quite a while later to find him reading this:

Stocks Strategies and Common Sense

How on earth can a great humorous and touching novel about a young boy's fascination with the game of football (er, sorry-- soccer) and the impact of it on his young life in Britain put you to sleep, but reading about the stockmarket and how to make decisions about stocks can keep you up for hours??!!!!
Tell me... does this make sense?
Well I guess I can say at least his nose is in a book for once.

a bunch of beach

2007-06-11T22:26:00.001-05:00

And I do mean A BUNCH!
Just warning you, I wasn't too picky about which pictures I put up tonight. I took SO MANY. Believe me, this is a ton, but I've spared you by many. Don't be afraid to critique the photos any of you photographers out there... (Nic, Jess, Annie, Debbie, and anyone else stumbling upon my amateur attempts). Too dark? Overexposed? No focus? I need all the advice I can get! I'm just proud that they were shot completely manually and they actually turned out. I'm looking forward to printing them out and seeing how they hold up in real life. These shots are all straight out of the camera... no editing or adjusting besides a little cropping here and there and some sharpening for the web. They're not all the greatest, but at least they're presentable here (and can I just say manual shooting again?!... and completely frustrating can't-decide-between-sun/overcast-weather for all of the afternoon?!!... sorry, I'll shut up now)!
As usual, clicking on any image should bring it up full size.

On with the show... Here's our day at the beach:

Here's the SawMan's version of a sandcastle. A mound of sand with a stick stuck in the top.Sawyer was all about the rocks. He spent most of his time gathering them. Gathering, placing in bucket, carrying them to a new location, emptying the bucket, and gathering again.

He got a little frustrated with the larger rocks...

I don't have as many keepers of Savannah from this trip as I would have liked. Partly due to her pretty much always having her back to me, and partly because I can't stand the swimsuit she had on. Not the one I would have picked had I known I would be on such a roll with my camera and want so many frame-able shots. She loves the swimsuit, so it's good to have it captured, but Disney princesses plastered all over the front with a tu-tu skirt is not my idea of cute.

Two of my favorites... (you may have seen else where LOL!)

And Ryan's saving this one in case Sawyer's ever an Olympian and people wonder when he started training for the rings.

I know this one's not so hot technically, but I love SJ's face!!!

After a couple of hours we left the rocky beach of Van Buren and migrated north to the nicer sandier beaches of South Haven...

our little swimmers...

Sawyer didn't even want to stand up in the water. He just wanted to lay low and kick away like this. Ryan would try to take him out further to play and he just wanted to be totally in the water "swimming" around like a fish.

Love those wrinkly feet!! Our little water baby.

Maybe he's going to be a surfer or something, because this was also his favorite position in both the sand and the water... I think he liked the warm sand on his belly.

Making a mudpit...

and of course we had to watch the "pirate ship" come in

We really did have so much fun. Both Ryan and I kept saying that we really wished we would have spent more time along Lake Michigan last summer. Another example of why to just do things and not put them off... we thought we'd have years of summers to visit the lake. But we missed most of our chances.
Anyway, we all had such a good time I think we decided we're going to head over and spend a night or two at the beach on our way out of state. We were thinking about going to Chicago or a few other places making a few day trip down to St Louis when we leave. Like a little mini vacation taking our time and breaking up our drive down there. But now if the weather looks good, I think we're going to find a place near the beach and let the kids hang out in the sand and sun for a couple of afternoons.

day at the beach

2007-06-10T20:35:00.001-05:00

What a day!
We had an open house scheduled today as well as another showing scheduled outside of that. So given that we needed to be out of the house for the majority of the day, we decided to make a trip out to the beach. We headed to South Haven for the day and it was the perfect day for it. We packed a lunch, ate at Van Buren State Park and hung out on the beach there for a bit before heading north to South Haven.
The kids had so much fun! I have lots to share of our day, and tons of pictures. I was so excited once I got home because after going through all the images I took today, I'm actually very happy with so many of them! I did everything in manual settings and even though it was a little tricky because it went back and forth between overcast and sunny pretty quickly all day today, I think they're some of the best I've come out with so far. I am so excited to go through them more thoroughly!
As of now though, it's getting late --actually I guess it's relatively early, but it's been a long day in the sun and sand, so I'm trying to head to bed.

I'll leave you with just one picture from today
and I'll get some more up tomorrow. Like I said, I took a TON!Okay... maybe two.

can I slide in three or four?

All right, I have to cut myself off. I'll get some more up tomorrow.

on adoption

2007-06-08T05:50:00.000-05:00

This may show up and seem kind of random, but this has been rolling around in my head for awhile now. And I'm sure it'll take me another while to actually get this all down in a somewhat readable manner and get it on the blog, but I just wanted to get it started because I feel so strongly about it.

Most of you who know me, know my heart for adoption. From the beginning of our marriage, we knew (well, I guess thought would be a better word for it as a couple at that point) that we wanted to adopt. Regardless of whether we would have biological children of our own, we felt that we also wanted to share our home and our family with someone who needed it. That nudge has grown in our hearts over the few years of our marriage to be a great conviction. Even in the midst of having our own children sooner than anticipated, moving across the country and the busyness of growing a young family, we know that we have plenty of room in our home and our hearts for more children. And we hope to start making that a reality in the coming year.

It is often said that adoption is not for everyone. Some people just don't have the heart for it. And I guess I understand that to a point. But then again, I don't. I mean, I understand that there are just people that aren't cut out for parenting to begin with.
What I really don't understand are the people who already are, or will be amazing parents... and then struggle for years and for thousands --millions of dollars to physically have their own biological child. Please keep in mind that I am simply saying I don't fully understand this. I am not saying it is wrong or anything of that sort. I am just admitting that I have a hard time wrapping my head around some of these mindsets. I just don't feel I could justify, in my own mind, spending all of that time and those resources on trying to create a child of my own**, when there are so many thousands --millions-- of children around the world as well as in our own backyards, who are in need of parents.

I do understand in the big picture of life, that some people just don't have a heart for adoption. And I hope you know that when I say "heart" for adoption, I don't necessarily mean a loving, nurturing, compassionate heart, as I know most everyone has those capabilities. I use the term "heart" in the aspect of a burden or a passion or as something you feel called to do.
And when I say that I understand some people don't have a heart for it, I'm choosing to understand that as in they were not given a heart for adoption. Because if I don't look at it in that spiritual "some people weren't meant to adopt" kind of way, I think I would look at it as selfishness.

I know people have a myriad of excuses for not adopting.
Lot's of women just really feel they don't want to miss out on the experience of carrying, delivering and nursing a baby. Of course one of the most fascinating parts of creating your own physical offspring is wondering what they'll look like, what they'll be like, what family member they'll resemble, and the wonder of that little person being made from the two of you.
Maybe a couple doesn't want to adopt because one member of the couple was adopted him or herself, or they have an adoption experience somewhere in their family that was less than desirable and that will forever dictate how they view adoption. Maybe someone doesn't feel "connected" to their adoptive parents. Maybe someone watched someone adopt a "healthy" baby who turned out to have emotional or physical disabilities down the road. Maybe they worry they won't love an adopted child like they would love a biological child. Maybe they worry about getting a "bad" child. Maybe they worry about the day that an adopted child wants to meet their birth parent. Maybe they think there's no way they can afford to adopt.
There are a million "valid" and personal reasons not to adopt a child.

There are also hundreds of thousands of children, in our country alone, without families to grow up with or parents to love them. If you stop and think of those children, are those reasons really valid? Is it valid to spend a million dollars on infertility treatment, when there is a newborn in the next state who will end up in foster care because his mother wants drugs more than she wants him? Is it valid to "need" so badly to experience the nine months of pregnancy yourself, when there is a toddler in an orphanage in China who never leaves her crib and is simply handed a bottle three times a day because there are not enough caregivers, or worse, anyone who cares? Is it valid to believe that having your own biological child will guarantee that they will be healthy and of sound mind, or not rebel when they're fifteen, or not need to be in rehab when they're seventeen, or not have issues with relationships? Is it valid to believe that adoptive bonds are inferior to biological bonds when it comes to parent and child? Is it valid to believe that just because so-and-so's situation turned out this way, every adoption is that way? Every child is different, every parent is different, and every adoption journey is different. There are no absolutes and no guarantees. But it's not a game of Russian Roulette. They are children. You take chances having your own kids too. But they are your children and you will love them regardless. So it is with these children waiting or yet to be born into the adoption systems in every country. Children who need love. Children who need a family. Children who need someone to say, "you are my child and I will love you regardless".

I think for me it boils down to this question:
Is it valid for us to take our own perspectives or misconceptions, our own wants and needs, our own convenience or inconvenience... and to think those things are more important than a child? A child that already exists, who was brought into this world through no choice of their own, who may be alone and who may never know the love of a family? It breaks my heart that people make that choice every day... good, loving and even godly people who are so "desperate" to love their own non-existent child but so easily overlook these other children who are here in the flesh.

I think of the overflowing orphanages in other countries, and then I think of the mom who has gone through 13 miscarriages, countless IVF and other proceedures just to have a second child (that has yet to happen), and it doesn't make sense to me. It just seems selfish.

I think of the thousands of children in our own country who need nurturing families, and then I think of the couple with 16 (#seventeen on the way) kids of their own who, when asked why they keep having baby after baby answer, because we feel we are wonderful parents and we are able to grow a wonderful family and "we really desire to receive as many gifts (children) as the Lord wants to give us" ( I couldn't find the exact quote that I read before, but that is part of it). I have a hard time understanding why, if you are such great parents and have such a great family, why you would not want to open that home to someone would otherwise not have that instead of bringing 17 new children into this world! It just seems selfish.

I think of the thousands of kids in foster care who will float around in the system for years until they're "adults", and then I think of the woman who chooses to pay a surrogate to carry her biological baby full term for her just because she wants to bond with and love her own child from birth. Nevermind that someone who can't take care of a baby has already given birth to a child who needs a mother... she wants her own. It just seems selfish.

I didn't mean for this post to become ranting or ragging on people and their choices. I don't mean to be preaching or judging. I apologize that I am not an eloquent writer who can get a touchy point across with grace and compassion, and instead this is just a jumble of feelings and random opinions. I have just been privy to a lot of conversations on this topic recently with couples struggling with infertility and their reasons for not considering adoption. I've been involved in or silently observant on several discussions lately and it's been on my mind a lot, so here I am.

I guess it's all simply to say, if you are in a situation where adoption is an option, or have ever felt a tug on your heart to adopt, please don't dismiss this as a way to build a family.
If you are longing for a child,whether it's your first or your fifth, reach in and see if you have it in your heart to put aside the so-called "valid" ~~excuses~~ reasons. If money is an obstacle, there are ways around that. If you research a little, there are many things out there to help with that aspect.

I have been trying to assemble my thoughts on this topic for a few days and started this post earlier this week. Then I woke up this morning to find a refirmation (er... is that a word? maybe I mean a cross between confirmation and reaffirm... I guess that would be reaffirmation) anyway, I found an amazing call to adopt on The Mohr's blog today. All of what I have to say is from this side of the adoption experience... simply my heart for children and the willingness to obey the Lord in His desire to love them. The Mohr's are on the other side of it; just at the end of the first chapter in their journey of creating their family starting with their gift of Eliot. Katie is much better at saying all the right things than I am, and I encourage you to read not just today's post over there, but many of their reflections on maneuvering through this life in a way that brings glory to God and what He may really have in store for us as we do that.

Please know I completely understand that adoption isn't in God's plan for everyone's families. And that there are miracles in both adoption and infertility journeys every day. I really just thank God for His love for all of His children and I'm grateful that He gives us all different ways of passing that love onto little ones.

**I do not mean to offend anyone in the infertility issue. I realize there are many different emotions and situations. I am referring mainly to the extreme cases, where people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for just a hope of a baby to be stamped out over and over again. I'm not hinting at the average couple who simply wants to research the problem and/or some feasible alternatives to any infertility struggles they may face. Also, I do not mean to belittle the struggle itself. I know for many, dealing with infertility is a process and involves much sorrow and grief and that happily moving on to adoption is not the natural next step for many couples.

T-minus two weeks and counting...

2007-06-07T18:12:00.000-05:00

Two weeks from now all of our belongings will be packed up tight and awaiting their journey on a moving truck.
I can't believe it's only two weeks away!! And I'm sure it'll go fast...

chugga chugga pssssh... chugga chugga aaaaah...

2007-06-07T12:15:00.000-05:00

I love kid music. If it's good kid music. Fun, catchy, simple songs. I am not talking about Barney or The Wiggles... those annoy the you know what out of me. I'm talking about Dan Zane or Laurie Berkner Band or even Jack Johnson's Curious George soundtrack. The kind of songs you don't mind hearing again and again... that you find yourself happily humming in your head all afternoon.

Well, we don't actually own this music yet, but my kids latest favorite is Choo Choo Soul, from the Disney channel. It's just little music videos in between shows, but it is a big hit in this house. When it comes on, Sawyer drops everything, gets right up to the tv and starts dancing. And Savannah *loves* Genevieve... she's the main "soul" of the Choo Choo. Genevieve sings with the kids. On the train. With big hoop earrings. It's insanely catchy, and I'm walking around the house going, "chugga chugga pssssh chugga chugga aaaah" with the kids all day. Trust me. It's fun music. Check it out for yourself and I bet you can't sit still while you watch. My personal favorite jingle is The Polite Song. I have that stuck in my head for days... do you, mm-hmmdo you, mm-hmmdo you know...
In fact it's in my head now, which is why I thought I'd share it with you!

So we've had a pretty good day around here. I was looking forward to a day full of nothing... no Porter today, no school, nothing I had to do. I was actually pretty motivated this morning and got a lot accomplished here... my kitchen is sparkling clean, all dishes put away, and I even mopped the floor! Well, that may have been only because I spilled a whole cup of juice, but at least my floor's clean! I managed to wash, dry, and PUT AWAY (can you believe it?) three loads of laundry. And in between all that, we were all singing and playing the morning away. So much so that by 10 AM, I'd had my fill and decided we needed to get outside. Savannah is just non-stop pretend play these days... playing house, playing store, busdriver, restaurant, whatever. So after we'd been through at least a half hour of each of those, I needed a break.
We decided to go to the park, where Savannah could find other playmates besides "Megan" (that's the "pretend" name Savannah has bestowed upon me) and her "dad" (that would be Sawyer, not Ryan).
She happily played with a couple of other three year olds that were there. Sawyer was pretty funny trying to keep up with the crowd. He actually does a pretty good job and it's sweet because Savannah looks out for him and keeps him involved in their play. Then just as we were leaving, some new friends showed up... two of the kids from Savannah's swim class (a brother and sister... and the little boy has a complete crush on Savannah!). They were so excited to see each other outside of the pool like that, and to be able to play, so we stuck around for awhile longer.

We came home and had some lunch, and after we put Sawyer down for a nap, Savannah and I took a blanket and our books and went to lay out in the sun and read for a bit. We got comfy and settled into our books and then I couldn't stop watching my little girl. She looked so grown up laying next to me propped up on her elbows with her nose in a book. Laying out in the sun in her little shorts, tank top and sunglasses with her ice water next to her. She'd glance over and ask how my book was... tell me what her's was about... we just lay there for almost a half hour reading, talking a little here and there, and enjoying the warm sun. Hot sun actually. Savannah soon decided it was too hot and boring, once she made it through her pile of books, but it was so nice to just hang out like that while it lasted.

Speaking of books, I have a few that I have been or am about to read lately and I wanted to share them real quick. I just finished a bit ago a great one called Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining and Bad-Attitudes... in You and Your Kids. Yes it's a lengthy title, but it's a great book. It's basically about establishing honor as a priority in your family... not just kids respecting the parents, but parent's honoring their children and the siblings honoring each other. Oh my word, I just looked it up to add the link, and that's almost word for word what the review said. How funny! Guess I really "got" that book, LOL! Anyway, it's a great book with some great points to chew on. I'm trying to get Ryan to read it now so we're on more of the same page with where we want our family dynamics headed.
The book I'm reading now is called Grace-Based Parenting, by Tim Kimmel, and it is awesome. It kind of heads in the same direction as the previous book I mentioned, but it takes it even further and from more of a biblical point of view. It goes to the heart of how we parent and the impact that has on not only our children, but the overall dynamic of our family. How we treat our children, our spouse and our family is the biggest influence on the way our children behave and helps to form their "heart" as well. Kind of obvious stuff, I know, but I'm really enjoying the way Kimmel puts everything out there and makes you think about it.
Next on my list is Sacred Parenting, by Gary Thomas. I'm excited to read that one simply for the fact that Ryan and I read his previous book, Sacred Marriage and would both be quick to tell you that is one of the best things we've ever done together. Highly recommend that one for anyone interested. Good stuff.

Okay, I know this is one loooong post, but just one more thing... a Sawyer funny. Well, it might be kind of mean, but I think it's funny. We all know Sawyer's obsession with getting into the snack cupboard. He's getting pretty good at "picking" the lock these days, so he helps himself quite often. Well, I keep a bottle of worcestershire sauce that is too tall for our other cupboards on the side of the lazy susan in our corner snack cupboard. It's like Sawyer knows it doesn't really belong there, because he's forever bringing it out to me. I can't really tell if he notices the fact that this bottle is not the same as the boxes and bags of crackers and cereal and raisins and all the other snacks under there, or if he does think it's a snack and he is forever trying to get me to share it with him. Whichever it is, he pulls this bottle out every day. And everyday I tell him no thanks and put it back. Well, today we were playing down in the basement and he had been missing upstairs for awhile and when he came back down he had the big bottle of worcestershire in his hands again. I'd had enough with that, so I met him halfway up the stairs and when he handed it to me this time along with his usual jibberish, I asked him if he would like some. His eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously. So I opened it up, poured a drop out on my finger, and let him have a taste. Oh my word, I wish I would have thought to have my camera ready for that moment. He scrunched up his face and then stuck out his tongue to try and wipe it off... all the while trying to tell me all done and shake his head. It was so funny! I wonder if he'll be pulling that bottle out again?
I think it's safe to say he's not going to be wanting to try any tabasco or anything else of that sort out of a mystery bottle anytime soon!!

Alright... we're off to swimming. In sunshine and 90 degree weather finally! Yay!!
I took pictures at the park today, so I'll try to get through those and upload a few tonight hopefully.

this is what happens...

2007-06-06T21:58:00.001-05:00

...when you clean out your closet to weed out the old/unworn clothes, and then leave a pile of extra hangers on your bed to be found by a toddler and preschooler: you come in to find your bedroom redecorated!

Our house was full of this kind of stuff all day.

The boys were busy this morning. From the looks of this picture you might think these two were busy being scholarly... taking turns finding things on the globe...

But here's the whole picture. Busy climbing furniture is more like it.

And here's again the bigger picture. Check out the mess below them.
I think they had to climb to higher ground so they wouldn't drown in their mess.

brrrr...

2007-06-05T11:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, during Savannah's swim lessons, it was not quite 70 degrees and sprinkling here and there. She was pretty comfortable in the water, but getting out, drying off and getting to the car was a bit chilly. All us adults were reassuring all the kids that it would be "warmer tomorrow... the weather man said it's supposed to be sunny and warmer!"
Well the weather man apparently changed his mind, because the forecast went from sunny and 80 to, well... not so much. It's currently 55 degrees, breezy and quite cloudy this afternoon. I just went out to get the mail; I'm wearing jean capris and a long sleeved shirt and I was freezing! (not that that stopped me from grabbing an ice cream sandwich when I came in on my way through the kitchen to the couch... yum and brrr!)
It's like now that it's June, someone decided, "oh yeah, we skipped the spring weather this year and jumped right into the 90 degree humid heat for the last couple of weeks... Oops, let's back up a bit and make sure we get that cooler wet weather in now... now that it's supposed to be summer!"

Well, hopefully we stay on track for what was the rest of the week's forecast... warmer with sunshine please! Otherwise Savannah is going to be hating life with swim lessons in an outdoor pool for the next two weeks...

another monday morning after another spendy sunday

2007-06-04T08:04:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been quite the morning already. Both my kids were up early, both are in rare form, and Porter is not having any of it. I'm not complaining (at the moment actually Savannah is drawing at the table and both boys are in Sawyer's room reading books quite nicely with each other); I'm just saying. How on earth can it possibly be only 9 o'clock in the morning? It feels like it must be afternoon by now... naptime anyone???

Speaking of afternoon, Savannah starts swimming lessons today. She is so excited! I'm excited to see how she does. We all know she's not the bravest one of the bunch. We're taking her out to Concord to a private family pool where they do lessons. We've heard good things about this place, and I talked with the lady in charge last week and she seems great. I think Savannah will do very well with it being a smaller pool, less kids and more one on one instruction. As of last week, there were only three other kids (all four year olds with no previous lessons) and the main instructor plus two other aides in Savannah's class. So we'll see how she does. Two weeks, every afternoon. And wouldn't you know it, it's been in the 80's and 90's and horribly humid for the past two weeks, and now today, the first day of swimming, it's rainy and finally dropped down to 65 degrees. With thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon. Let's just pray they hold off until 4:00 when Savannah's session is over!

I'm beginning to think it's getting too expensive to sell this house.

Each week, I buy fresh flowers (boy was it nice when there were free lilacs in bloom all over this yard for the first two weeks!) for the dining room and coffee tables, that usually runs about $20.
leaving the house for an open house (usually 1-4pm) which usually involves eating out so we are out of the house and not making a mess before we leave: $
and driving somewhere so Sawyer can at least catch a little catnap: $$$ (GAS!!!)
and course where we drive to we usually end up shopping: $$

It all adds up week after week.

This weekend we had planned to go to the zoo. That would at least be free besides gas.
But our realtor canceled our open house yesterday at the last minute (meaning after I had already bought the flowers!!) so we didn't (it poured all day anyway). But then we got a call for a requested showing that afternoon, so we just went to roam the mall for an hour.
On the way out, I made the comment "do you think we can leave our house without spending any money this time?" haha.
We just had fun walking the mall together, the kids "rode" (with no money- see we were doing good!) the mechanical riding toy things they have there, and we played follow the leader up and down the mall. We window shopped both outside and inside stores when the kids needed a break with a ride in a cart. And all our fun was free... until we made the mistake of going into TJ Maxx.
I know, I know... what happened to not spending money?
But there was an adorable dressy summer-y top I was eying... and then Ryan went ahead and told me he really liked that color on me.
Sold. $12.
And I found a great little neoprene swim bag that would be perfect for the many, many, many a summer day we'll be spending at our new pool around the corner.
Sold. $5.
And then on the way to the registers I just had to let my eye wander over the girls racks and knowing full well my kids didn't need anything... so instead it was, 'oh look at this adorable summer dress that will be just Tasi's size. And oh look, there's a matching one in Taegen's size! Too cute!!' $7 + $7
So tack on another $30+ for cost to market our house.

Seriously... what else is there to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon? There are no indoor playplaces around here... and even if we drove to one, they cost money!

I didn't get around to posting yesterday, but I had to send a big Happy Birthday wish over to Annie. I didn't forget about you... I was thinking of you all day and hoping you had a wonderful day celebrating YOU and the amazing friend, mom, wife, sister and all around one-of-the-best-people-I-know kind of person that you are!
Love you!!!

I think it's time

2007-06-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

Sadly, I'm not looking forward to pottytraining Sawyer. Not only am I dreading it being a huge chore, but once he's pottytrained he'll really not be my baby anymore. My last baby. Who knows if we'll have an infant again as we're pretty open to adopting various ages.
So with the pottytraining thing, I haven't broken out the potty chair yet. We have one of those handy child-sized seats on the toilet in our main bathroom that Savannah uses, so I've put Sawyer on the toilet a few times before his bath (which he LOVES and then he throws a fit when I finally make him get off the pot and in the tub), but that's the extent of my efforts.
However, he's been telling me more and more often when he's got a full diaper or especially when he's poopy. And he's no longer just telling me and then going back to playing... he's wanting his diaper changed ASAP.

This morning I was in the shower and I heard him come in the bathroom. I poked my head out of the shower and said "Hi there Sawyer, go back out and play... Mommy's almost done". A minute later I poked my head out again because I hadn't heard him patter out of the bathroom yet, and I look and he's just standing there... as soon as he saw my head poke out, he says "yucky" and points to his rear end. I say, "okay, Mommy's almost done and then we'll get a new diaper". I really wasn't almost done, and I was hoping he'd just forget about it and go back to whatever he was doing. A minute later I see a tap tap tapping on the shower curtain. I peek out again and he's still standing there pointing again to his not so fresh tush. No matter what I said, he would not go away until I turned off the water and got out of the shower and then he ran right into his room to get a diaper. LOL!

So for some reason, I'm still trying to put off digging out the potty chair until we get moved, but I'm thinking we may be making a few attempts at the big potty before then. I'm not expecting it to be any big deal as I know he's still awfully young and frankly, I'm in no rush to be in that frantically finding bathrooms whenever we're out because we're potty training mode again. Diapers are much more convenient LOL! But who knows, maybe he'll get it real quick and it won't be as much work as I'm imagining. I just know it's usually such a long process, I'm not looking forward to starting now and having probably close to a whole year of trying and pull-ups and oops, didn't make it in time! ahead of us. Doesn't that sound like fun to you?

Alrighty, I'm off to clean up a little and maybe put some thought into an outfit or something. Emilie is coming over tonight to watch the kids so Ryan and I can go on an actual real planned ahead of time date. Nothing too exciting... just dinner and probably a movie, but it's long overdue, and I am so looking forward to it. I never dreamed (dreamt?) that we would be "those" parents that never got away from their kids. On the contrary, we were used to quite a bit of "freedom" from the kids. But it's a whole different story not having our family = free babysitters here! The good thing is that at least our kids have a pretty early bedtime, so Ryan and I usually have lots of couple time in the evenings... it'll just be nice to actually get out of the house without them!! So anyway, I was thinking about attempting to get all dolled up tonight for our hot date, but then I realized that I don't think I remember how to do that anymore.
Maybe just getting out of my gauchos and painting my toenails will be enough?

five years

2007-05-31T22:28:00.001-05:00

We've been looking forward to this wedding anniversary for five years. When we got married, at our reception we had a "time capsule" table for our friends and family to make predictions for our lives and our marriage years down the road. There were worksheets to fill out, not to be read by us until our First, Fifth, Tenth and Twenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversaries. These worksheets were placed in the appropriate boxes (decorated by our little sisters) and "sealed" up until the year we were to open them. So the highlight of our evening today was opening our Five Year box!!
It is so fun to read these... some are funny, some are nostalgic, some are eerily true!
Here are a couple of our favorites.... (click on them to see them full size to be able to read them)

David's (since you wanted to make sure we remembered)

My Uncle John's

And The Laughlins'
*Kasey, did you know you filled one of these out?.... even though we didn't even know you existed for another couple of months?! HAHA! Mike just knew....*

Ryan felt we needed to add a few "honorable mentions" for accuracy...

Heather Braker predicted we'd be living in St. Louis this year.
Patty Pakulak predicted we'd have moved 5 times in the past five years. (St. Louis will be our 5th home since we've been married)
Jennifer Sanders predicted we would have a 4Runner
Dan Smith predicted the Portland Trailblazers would have zero championships in the past five years.

Like I said, these are always fun to go through. The only disappointing part (besides that we don't get to do this every year) is that there aren't more of them. We counted only 15 pages today. Funny, because we had about 150 people at our wedding reception.
So here's your assignment.
If you were at our wedding and did not fill out these papers, have a little fun and join in the game. We still have papers to read in another 5 and then 15 years. Send us your own answers and we'll put them in the boxes to read when the time comes. And if you weren't at our wedding, or didn't know us then, you can join in as well if you like. I want all the predictions we can get. Lord knows we'll probably need some entertainment when we've been married for 10 years!
I'll make up a blank copy if anyone's interested in me posting it or emailing it to you.

To celebrate today we planned a yummy shrimp dinner for ourselves. For after the kids went to bed. So before that, we fed them a quick and early dinner and then we all went over to The Cascades Park for some ice cream. It was the perfect evening for it.

and awww... they actually like each other

p.s. Mom, thanks so much for the adorable little Calla Lillies... I meant to call and let you know I got them this afternoon, but our evening was a little rushed and then I forgot until I just posted that picture of them! We'll give you a call tomorrow.

celebration

2007-05-31T08:24:00.001-05:00

Five years ago today I married My Ryan(as he has come to be called with all the other dozens of Ryan's we have as friends, LOL!).
I am one of those lucky enough to be married to my best friend. In the past five years he has seen the best and the worst in me and he continues to love me.
I am so grateful. I am so blessed.

From the moment I saw you, I wanted to meet you.
From the moment I met you, I wanted to know you.
From the moment I knew you, I was in love with you.
From the moment I loved you, I knew I would share my life with you.
And from that moment to this moment,
And all the moments yet to come,
I will love you with all my heart.
Happy Anniversary My Love... it's been the best five years of my life

our "little" playdate and my failing photography 101

2007-05-31T07:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, so our "having a couple of friends over to splash around with us" yesterday afternoon turned into a HUGE playdate. We ended up with 9 moms and 13 kids (ranging in ages 12 weeks to 6 years) in our backyard. Wow! How's that for a distraction from my bad day!!
We had water in the pool, the slide going into the water, the sprinkler going, kids and toddlers running around, and babies spread out on blankets trying to keep cool.

Here are the babies of the group... four little dolls six months and younger.

The babies didn't last very long... it was so hot yesterday and they weren't too happy in the heat.
But here's baby Reyna sunbathing and showing off her little belly. She had this ridiculously frilly baby bikini on... isn't it hilariously adorable?!

It was kind of a quick little visit, but it was fun to get so many of us and the little ones together.

*********

I'm getting really frustrated with the whole photography/new camera thing. I was really looking forward this summer to getting into really learning the basics of photography and learning my new camera and experimenting and practicing and working on all that stuff. I have absolutely no desire to do anything in the professional aspect... I just want to get to where I can reliably capture quality pictures of my kids and our memories. I'm just feeling so frustrated because I know what my camera can do but I don't know how to technically do any of it; I haven't a clue what I'm doing and I feel like I don't have the time to learn it right. My visions of a laid-back summer of playing with and learning my camera outside taking great shots of my kids are slowly being replaced with visions of boxes and painting and getting settled again in a new community and all the other details of making this big move again. I think it's overwhelming me because there's so much I want to learn and it takes so much practice and trial and error and I just don't have time for that now.
I'm at this point where I'm not happy with my photos on autopilot anymore... they're too dark, or the focus is off... but I'm still at such basics (or below) with the technicalities of a camera that I can't get good shots myself either. I feel like I do have an eye for photography... but I'm wondering if I should step back from trying to become somewhat accomplished in it. I feel it's getting to the point where I think it's making me too picky. I'm not having fun taking pictures when I'm trying so hard. I don't want to look at everyday snapshots and pick them apart because they're dark or flat or grainy. I want to see them for the memories that they are and not the technical aspects of them. But then I do so love when I get those random (very few and random around here!) shots that are just about perfect and feel so right...
Anyway, it kind of makes me sad because this is something I think I would really enjoy as a hobby. But I don't feel I can put enough time into it right now to make it a fun hobby, you know what I mean? Aside from balancing everyday life, the busyness of two young kids and making the time to actually spend quality time with my husband... it seems this whole summer will be filled with moving stuff with us still trying to fit fun summer stuff (camping, etc.) all in between. Then as soon as we feel we're getting settled in our new home, we really want to get started on the first steps we have to take to get the ball rolling on finding a child to adopt and all the paperwork and details that go along with that. And then hopefully soon we'll have a new family member to get to know. So it's kind of like, will it never end?! I know that's how life is... there's always something. I guess it just boils down to time management is not being one of my strong points and I just either need to do something about it or quit complaining, huh?
Maybe I'm just feeling overwhelmed in general.
Maybe it's just the stress of buying, selling, and buying yet another house and moving with two kids to another new city for the second time in the span of one year. You think?

Anyone have a crash course learn how to photograph in two days or less?!??? Otherwise I feel I'm going to be on pause in that aspect for a long time.

not so good

2007-05-30T07:20:00.001-05:00

I'm just sitting here waiting for Porter to show up for the morning.
Kind of dreading today.
Well not today in itself as much as I wanted to wake up this morning and find that yesterday had been wiped clean. Yesterday was not a good day.
Why is it that is seems so often when I feel we all had a really good quality everything-in-life-is-in-balance weekend, the start of the week hits with things trying to slap me out of that mindset?

I started out not feeling very well yesterday. Couldn't really put my finger on it... I just felt off. With a headache, but that's nothing new. I just felt exhausted and wiped out with no motivation for some reason.
And then I had a touchy situation with a friend that I was trying to deal with throughout the day and it didn't turn out as I hoped. Along with another 'feel-bad' situation with another acquaintance.
Got a phone call from a mom from Savannah's school who never received her last book order so the teachers and I were scrambling around trying to find that.
And then to top it all off last evening, we got some really bummer news about our house.
All that getting the perfect buyers, perfect timing and other good stuff I wrote about the other day? Yeah, cancel that.

Just kind of an emotionally exhausting day when I started out feeling pretty drained to begin with. And I don't mean to be a downer, I just needed to vent real quick. Like maybe getting it out of my system will help me pick up and have a better day.

And why shouldn't it be a better day? It's sunny and supposed to be in the 90's. I filled up the pool yesterday and we have a couple of friends coming over to splash around with us this afternoon. At the moment I'm really dreading company and having to be happy and social. I'm just not in the mood. But I know we'll have fun once we're out there in the sunshine. I just have to get through the morning, lunch with these three kids, and hopefully a decent naptime first.

And it's Wednesday right? Halfway to the weekend...

look at that face

2007-05-29T20:27:00.000-05:00

No, this is not a five o'clock shadow on my toddler.

He and Savannah had a little art time with the markers.

This is why we normally have Sawyer do markers stripped down naked at the Little Tykes picnic table outside.

p.s.

2007-05-29T07:01:00.001-05:00

Nic, I put those cookie recipes over here. Bake away! Just don't bring them anywhere near us... I've had more than my fair share in the last few days.

it was a busy relaxing weekend

2007-05-28T21:09:00.001-05:00

I was kind of bummed when this weekend started out rainy and gloomy.
Saturday morning, Nicole and I were going to take Savannah out downtown for a little photo shoot, but we got rained out. So Ryan the kids and I spent the morning running a few errands, had lunch out and came home for a late naptime. We just kind of lazed around the rest of the day with the weather so gloomy. We decided to try our first Family Movie Night, so after dinner we picked a movie (Monsters Inc.) popped some popcorn and all kicked our feet up on the big comfy couch. Yeah, Sawyer's not quite ready for that. He would sit for all of about 30 seconds. Just about long enough to climb up on the couch, grab a handful of pretzel sticks, and jump back down to play. It was a nice idea though, and it was fun to relax together. Savannah thought it was pretty fun.

Sunday, we tried for Savannah's pics again, and Nicole got a few shots in, but were rained out once again. So we headed home, had lunch and then all took a long afternoon nap. Nice.
After us parents dragged ourselves out of bed, we all hopped in the car to meet up with the Barczaks and head over to a new playplace we found in Chelsea, called the TreeHouse. Turned out to be a great place (wish we would have found it this winter!!) and the kids had a blast. Savannah was a little hesitant at first, with her fear of heights, but she was soon climbing all over and even did the biggest fastest slides all by herself!! Sawyer was raring to go (he wanted nothing to do with the toddler area) and begged for Daddy to take him up to do the slides again and again. That kid was non-stop the whole time we were there. Good thing there was plenty for them to do!

After the kids ran around for a while, we headed to Red Robin for dinner. Yum!

I worried about how the kids would be, considering our last attempt to sit down to eat out, and the fact that they had just ran themselves ragged at the TreeHouse. But they were all awesome. Savannah ate everything she put her eyes on,

and Sawyer... well, he didn't do so hot with his meal, but he made a nice dent in our tower of onion rings!!

And here's Porter with the same look as the Ryans... 'it takes all my concentration to eat and watch the sports on the tv at the same time'!

Today Ryan decided to make my weekend and take us all over to Ikea. We had been wanting to make a trip to get Sawyer's bed before we move, since we won't be as close to an Ikea location at our new house. So we got it and we're leaving it in the box until after we get moved and settled. It's hard for me to not pull it out and put it together!! Not so anxious about getting him started in actually sleeping in a bed without bars to keep him in, but it'll be so cute in his room, I can't wait to see it! I have some good ideas rolling around in my head for that thing.
So that was our outing today. When we got home this afternoon, we spent some time outside since the weather finally decided to get it's act together. In fact it's quite warm again tonight and supposed to be for much of the week. We might be pulling the pool out again in the next couple of days. Anyone care to join us?!

how about a little catch-up?

2007-05-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

last week...
with the weather so warm (hot) and nice (hot), we filled up our little pool for a couple of days and during that time, we had some friends over to splash around with us. Nicole and Porter hung out with us, as well as some new friends who live close by, LeeAnn and her little Lukas who is the same age as Sawyer. All the boys had a great time together and it's so fun to see them actually playing together and "conversing" now that they're getting older. Very cute.
Here are a few pics.

Savannah (what would be the opposite of the word celebrated?) had her last day of school. We were sad to see the year gone; she loved her class, her teachers and her friends so much! I know she's disappointed to not have class to go to and her teachers and friends to visit with, but I think it helps to look forward to another new school next year. I just hope we find as good of a place as we were blessed to have SJ in this year. They had a big picnic day at the park last week and she had lots of fun with the girls and so many snacks. I can't believe "summer" is here already and my little girl finished up a whole first year of preschool!!

back it up!

2007-05-24T12:37:00.000-05:00

Where has the week gone??
Wasn't it JUST Monday? I really hope the whole summer doesn't fly by this fast!

Okay, just to organize my thoughts a bit...
pictures and posts:
my only goals for today were to both edit pictures and play with my camera. I have hundreds of pictures from the last two weeks or so and I need to go through and edit, crop, delete, etc. and I just keep putting it off. So today was my day to get them all transferred onto the computer and dive right in. Also, staying in the photo mode, I was going to take some time to really play around with my new camera and try a few things out, get a little more comfortable venturing out of the auto settings and to really start learning and practicing. Anyway, started a little of that, but then went to go look for my owners manual to help me quickly figure out how to adjust little things here and there, and I can't find it anywhere. I guess we re-organized the house a little too well. So I'm just a little frustrated at the moment and I need to just step away from the camera. I have some pics to share from the last few days (and of course catch up on my record no pics over here), but I'm going to take a break and hopefully get back to those this evening.
Other things I've been meaning to post about (and will elaborate on later):

We had a little "pool party" over here yesterday with some friends, so I have a few pics to share from that.
Savannah's last day of preschool today
We're mostly healed up... Ryan's back to walking (and driving)

And I'll try to stop babbling so much and post more pictures.
More pictures of the cute kids-- not the ugly feet. I promise LOL!

BUT for now...
the biggest news...
AMAZING news...

We sold our house!
It is amazing. It was on the market for less than a week, which is an absolute miracle around here. (Have I mentioned how saturated the market is around here and how long people sit with their houses listed? There are houses still for sale right now that we walked through when we were looking for this one 14 months ago.) And it's not even like we had it priced real low, which is what a lot of people ask when they hear how fast it went. It was actually priced a lot higher than the realtors and assements projected.
It went on the market a week ago Monday (but was under the wrong address, so it didn't even come up in any area searches for days after that) and we then had an Open House on Sunday which brought 10 couples through. One of those couples left the open house talking about making an offer and made an appointment to come back the next morning with their realtor. Monday morning they were in our house for two hours(!!) and our realtor had an offer in her hand from them not an hour later. Granted, it wasn't a full price offer, but we did a bit of negotiating and came out quite satisfied.
Like I said before, we weren't terribly worried about the house sale thing, as if we couldn't sell it on our own by the time we left Pfizer would buy us out (we would lose no money) and take care of it. But there were incentives to selling it on our own before that time, not the least of which being actually selling it for more than we paid last year.
We were honestly counting on ending up selling it to Pfizer because of the market around here, and even if we did happen to find a buyer to pay the price we were asking in the limited amount of time we had, still the majority of perspective buyers here make offers contingent on the sale of their home, which we couldn't accept going through the relocation benefits. And which we wouldn't want to accept even if we could because like I said, houses don't sell around here!
Our buyers just moved here from Idaho and have been renting for the past three months and were really anxious to find a house-- perfect for us!
Also we close on our new house June 25th. Our buyers wanted to be out of their rental June 25th and pushed for an "early" closing of June 22nd-- perfect for us! We were having to stay up here through July, but now Ryan simply let his 'higher-ups' know that we have to be out of our house by then and they shuffled things around a bit so he can leave mid-June. The movers will get everything off, we'll close on this house on Friday the 22nd, have the weekend to take a nice leisurely drive down to St. Louis and be just in time to close on our new house on Monday. Could the timing have worked out any better?!

It's just so nice to not have to worry about any of this house stuff any more. To not have to keep the house up and be ready for realtors and buyers to come through, to not have to decide how to deal with our realtor (we were having some ISSUES with her), to just not have to wonder what's going to happen.
We are amazed that it all worked out so fast. And so perfectly. I can't believe it.
But then again, it's not so amazing; not so unbelievable. God really does have His hand in all of this. I'm just so thankful for the nice reminder.
Thanks for your prayers!

it's a monday

2007-05-21T08:40:00.001-05:00

I feel like I'm so behind on everything.
Everything except the house work that is. I don't believe our house has ever been so clean and organized. Cupboards closets and all. We had our first open house yesterday and another showing today. Kind of nice to HAVE TO clean so well.

Ryan wiped clean our laptop this past week and so I didn't do much with pictures, editing or uploading. I actually was very lazy with my camera, so the computer is really just an excuse. I do need to get caught up on my picture posts though. Very behind on that page.

I'm behind on emails and mail too. I've had cards and gifts to send out for birthdays and new babies, and it seems my life has been consumed with endless house stuff and senseless injuries.

So while I'm thinking of it...
**Happy Birthday Kasey!!! Glad you had a fun weekend and hope you have a great day celebrating YOU!
***And we got some great news last week... Ryan's little sister Jenn, is visiting his other sister Holly in Guam. A great vacation for Jenn and Greg on an amazing tropical island getting visit with Dan and Holly, to spoil Taegen and to meet sweet baby Tasi. Well, we got a phone call from Jenn the other night and good ol' Greg finally proposed!!
Congratulations you guys! We are soooo excited for you and can't wait to see you and give you some big hugs of congrats ourselves!

Well, about the only exciting news around here is that I started another new blog. I know. The excitement!
Well, I have to admit I totally stole the idea from Melissa. I had read her blog here and there awhile ago (she seriously cracks me up!), kind of lost track of it and then came across her again. Then I noticed she had an alternate page to jot down menus, meals and recipes for her picky eater family. I loved the idea!! I had personally been trying to get better at implementing a "planned menu" each week as well as keeping track of what the kids were actually consuming during this hunger strike they've been on for the past month or so. Only I was not very successful at remembering to write down what they (especially Sawyer being so sporadic at meals) ate everyday. So I loved this blog idea because hey, I'm on the computer everyday right? As long as I'm supposed to be doing my picture a day and my blessings for each day, I might as well make a record for all this non-eating too! I know, like I don't have anything better to do!
Anyway, here it is, I gave it a trial run last week and decided to go forward with it: Check out "Our Own Gong Show"!

Not to be outdone

2007-05-20T22:00:00.000-05:00

After Heather hurt herself on Friday (see previous post), I took it upon myself not to be outdone. After all we did have a pretty big weekend planned, consisting of hours upon hours of cleaning the house for our open house on Sunday.
So Friday night was beautiful and so I thought that it would be a good night to get a little exercise. So I invited Don and Ryan over for a little basketball. We started playing at about 8 pm, and we were having a great time. By about 9 pm we were on our last game of "21", since it was starting to get a little dark, and I was driving along the baseline and was attempting a finger roll when I landed twisting my ankle. It actually sounded like a rubber band snapping. So after I rolled around the ground for a minute Don and Ryan got me a bag of ice and a chair to sit in. Then Don took off my shoe and discovered that my ankle looked like a water balloon, so we decided that the game was probably over and that we should get Heather, who was inside trying to nurse her injuries with a nice warm shower and relaxation.
So needless to say I got out of a lot of house chores this weekend. But you would be impressed with how much I can do crawling around on the floor to clean the house. Or if kneeling on a chair I can do quite a few dishes. And I did manage to mow the whole yard on the Deere without using the brake at all, since that is on the hurt right foot side. But seriously, Heather did most of the work getting the house into shape.
Here is a picture from Friday night....
and one from today... (go ahead, click on it. I dare you.)I am developing some very nice colors especially in near my heel and in my toes. Even the "webbing" between my two webbed toes is swollen, making Heather even more disgusted with my toes.
I told Heather that I really feel like a Laughlin today.
Special thanks to Ryan Barczak for the piggyback ride inside and the use of the crutches, and to Don Huff III for coming over to edge and push mow the yard that I couldn't reach with the rider. And of course to Heather, giver of the drugs, bringer of the drinks, cleaner of the house, getter-upper with the kids, hander of the crutches...etc.

I'm scared

2007-05-18T19:35:00.000-05:00

to wake up in the morning.
I am going to HURT.

Don and Katie bought a new house, they were very excited about it, so we went over to do a drive-by this evening. It's just down the road from us (figuratively, not literally. but funny enough, it's right next door to a house we went through when we were looking last year!) and we had some time to waste before getting the kids ready for bed tonight, so we jumped in the car and headed over to look at this "sweet house".
Nice house, very different layout, very wooded lot about an acre in size. The lot. Dun-Dun-Dun.

After walking around the house and peeking in all the windows (yes, it's vacant), we decided to scope out the yard. Well, there's just a few tiny patches of grass outside the front and back doors, and pretty much the rest of the land is little hills and tons of trees. Seriously, you can't see the road from the house at all; it's like you're in the middle of the wilderness. Not flat wilderness. So we (Ryan) wander up one embankment to see over and how much land is between the house and the road. Savannah, of course wants to follow, so I help her up but I am also holding Sawyer. This is not just a small rolling hill, mind you. It's a steep hill made up of dirt and pine needles and the top is at least eight feet higher than the "yard" at the front door where we where. It was as rugged of a hike as any I've ever taken, albeit it was only a few yards. Ryan was way ahead of us, over the rise, checking out the view. I was trying to help Savannah up with one hand and keep my balance with Sawyer in my other arm. I finally call for Ryan to come help Savannah get the rest of the way up, and as he takes her hand, and as I let go of her, I must have shifted my weight and all of a sudden I feel dirt giving away underneath my feet. I try to get my footing, but with Sawyer in my arms, I can't see or move very well, and before I know it I'm sliding down the hill along with the dirt. Sliding down a hill backwards on your feet doesn't last too long, and so I of course ended up falling forward which led to sliding down the hill on my hands and knees. Like I said, this hill was simply loose dirt and pine needles, so there wasn't much hope for stopping myself. When I fell, I had Sawyer in both arms directly in front of me, so trying to protect him from the fall and trying not to fall completely on him myself, I held him and landed with all my weight on my elbows, jamming both my arms in the process. And then continuing with my slide to the bottom. Sawyer, thankfully survived with just a few scrapes on his back. I, however, am a little bit worse for the wear. When I finally stood up I thought, 'oh, it's not so bad... just mostly scared and shaky.'

Well when we got in the car, I realized how tender my shoulders, elbows and forearms were... my right arm looks like a ripe red strawberry patch. Scraped up my knees (through my pants) too. And my back hurt between my shoulderblades along with my neck... I felt like I had whiplash. I laughed to myself. In all my years of camping and hiking, I don't remember ever being hurt like I was on this stupid little hill. Then again, I don't normally hike with a 30 pound kid in my arms.

When we got home, Ryan had me just sit and relax while he gave the kids baths and got them ready for bed. Then Don calls and decides to come over to play a little basketball, so I decide to take a nice hot shower and just lay low for the evening.
Well when I got up off the couch, I knew I was in trouble. The muscles in my arms and in my back were already stiff and sore. My triceps felt like I'd worked out for 8 hours straight yesterday. I thought a nice hot shower would help, and the water pounding on me did feel good. But once in there, I realized it was an extreme chore to lift my arms to wash my hair and just soaping up was painful. Getting out and drying off... that took a lot of effort. I'm thinking if I shower tomorrow, I'm going to need a spare set of arms to soap and shampoo by then.
I am completely dreading getting up in the morning. I already feel like I was in a car accident or something. I wonder if I did seriously jam my arms.
Sheesh, what a trip! (I guess that would be a slip technically, not a trip.)

Ryan's about ready to move me back to Oregon. He swears that moving here has caused me to fall apart. It's true... I pretty much only saw doctors to have a baby before, and since we've been here I've been in the ER, had surgery, had a root canal, had wisdom teeth taken out, so on and so forth. Pretty ridiculous.
Maybe I'll do better in Missouri. LOL!

rain, rain, go away

2007-05-17T12:53:00.000-05:00

It's been real cool and drizzly ever since our storm the other night. I put Sawyer to bed in a footed fleece sleeper last night. Two nights ago he was just in shorts. Crazy. Guess I had to be reminded summer's not here yet!

I was going through pictures from earlier this week when we had all the warmer weather and I thought I'd share some of them to kick out of this gloomy weather mood around here. Remember you should always be able to click on any pictures to see a full screen view.

We broke out the sprinkler on Monday. Lot's of fun!!

Savannah went on her first real bike ride. She made it all the way around the loop of our neighborhood (almost a half-mile!) and was quite proud of herself!!

Sawyer was bummed he couldn't ride the big bike too.

Shootin' a few hoops with Dad

Bye-Bye!

lights out

2007-05-15T21:03:00.000-05:00

We had a good thunderstorm this evening and we actually lost power for a couple of hours. It was so dark and gloomy outside, it made it very dark inside -even at 6pm. The kids had fun traipsing around the house with flashlights, playing "hunting" games and making light shows on the ceiling. At one point we were all snuggled on my bed reading books by flashlight. Then the kids got silly on the bed and I decided to play around a bit with the camera and try to take some pictures of the lights in the dark.

some of them looked pretty spooky!

one year ago today

2007-05-15T19:34:00.000-05:00

... we closed on our house.
Two days ago
it went back on the market.

One year ago we were so excited to have our first house. It's a great house. It has exceeded our expectations in so many ways. We couldn't have imagined in the quick glimpse we had before deciding on this house how perfectly it suited us. We found in the months following our move how our belongings just seemed to "fit" in this home. Pieces of furniture that fit just perfectly into certain nooks or corners of this space. Closets or cupboards that fit some of our storage needs just right. I remember thanking God often for providing this home for us and having hand-picked just the right one, a better choice than we even knew "we" were making at the time.
We have more space here than we know what to do with... plenty of room to spread out, but still feeling comfortable and not separated. And the yard. Our beautiful, easy-care yard where the kids have room to run (and run and run) and play to their hearts' content.
I will certainly be sad to leave this home. If we could take our house and yard and move it with us, we would.

But now we're leaving it. Please pray that the right buyer comes along for us. As much as we've been blessed by living here for the past year, I would hope we could get just a little more blessing out of it, if you know what I mean!

And pray we find that our new home is just as (or more) right for us as a family and as where we will be in the coming years.

this is getting ridiculous

2007-05-14T12:23:00.000-05:00

Can you tell we're all running on too little sleep around here?
Click on these...

Ryan put Sawyer's pajama pants backwards and inside out this morning when he changed him.

Sawyer was up from 3am to about 5:30am again. Ryan got up and went downstairs to sleep at about 4 just so he could get some sleep before work. I really don't know what is going on with that kid.
Then he was up at his usual 7am this morning. And of course falling apart by the end of the morning. I finally put him down for a nap by 11:30. And guess who was awake and yelling in his room again by 1 o'clock (I don't know where this yelling/screaming/howling in his crib came from so suddenly)? Arghhh!!!! Something tells me it's going to be a long afternoon...

Well, at least he's eating more. How much more you ask? Here's what he ate for all of yesterday...

less than one half of a banana (breakfast)
six fig newtons (am snack)
a handful of green beans at dinner (first time in a loooong time, yay!)
a cupful of pretzel sticks before bed

And today...

a cupful of cereal for breakfast
ummm, would take nothing for lunch so I guess that's it

And yes, that's actually much better than it's been the last few weeks. Sad, isn't it?!

Also, just thought I'd share I've been chuckling to myself...
the Mother's Day picture we took yesterday, I thought, turned out rather well of all of us. Both the kids actually looking at the camera and smiling!
Well, then the more I look at it, the more I notice Savannah's eyes. Or lack thereof. She has her Daddy's squinty-eye syndrom. LOL! When they really smile, their eyes disappear. She looks in that picture like she could have been adopted from China!
Okay, I've probably ruined that picture now. I just thinks it's pretty funny. That kid really has the biggest eyes... it's amazing how they can totally disappear when she smiles!

Happy Mother's Day to My Wife

2007-05-13T19:23:00.000-05:00

Heather,
I hope that you had a great mother's day. Thanks for being a great mother to our children. It was a nice relaxing mother's day not having to run from house to house, and you couldn't have asked for better weather. I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to recognize just a few of the many things that you do for our family.

Thanks for doing a great job on this blog, keeping everyone updated, I know that they appreciate it.
Thanks for being better with the kids being grumpy and with a headache than I am any normal time.
Thanks for doing a great job keeping the house clean and looking good for all the realtors and other people invading our house over the last month.
Thanks for getting the kids up and ready for their day of beating you up.
Thanks for continually finding new things for Sawyer to eat (or actually not eat).
Thanks for keeping up with all of Savannah's interests.
Thanks for ignore all the sports that I watch on TV.
Thanks for asking me how golf went even if you don't want/care to know.
Thanks for being a great mom and wife!

2007-05-13T07:32:00.000-05:00

~~Grumpy~~ Happy Mother’s Day!
Is it really really really wrong to not want to be around your kids on Mother's Day?

We had a nice day yesterday. We spent most of it outside in the sunshine, both in our yard and then after naptime we went over to Cascades park to play. It was pretty busy since it was such a nice Saturday. I found myself super annoyed though, as there were way too many older kids running around on the little kid's climber. This park has two play areas next to each other... one is really for way bigger kids, like 6yrs and up, with tons more tunnels, bridges and slides and it's much higher, etc. The other, smaller one is where we play and it's not as big and elaborate and kids as young as Sawyer can maneuver most of without much help. Well, yesterday there were like 10 older kids who kept running back and forth between the play structures playing chase and climbing and jumping around. Which would be fine, except for the couple of dozen toddlers and preschoolers trying to play without being run over or knocked over with every step they took. It was driving me nuts. Savannah got stepped on a couple of times and Sawyer got knocked over just walking on the ground. And I know that happens, I am not one who cares if my child is bumped or bruised on the playground. I just don't think it needs to be by a 12 year old running full speed or jumping off the top of the little kid slide. I mean, where were these parents?
And while I'm on this rant... can I just add, are so many parents still really that stupid, ignorant or careless to smoke around their children? I mean we're at a freaking playground for goodness sakes. I shouldn't have to be breathing your smoke at a children's play area. I was reminded again at the great population of this great town. I mean, with the weather as nice as it was, it of course brought out all of Jackson's finest. Those of you that live here know exactly what I mean. All the teenage moms with several kids, all the dads in wife-beater t-shirts and shorts down to their ankles with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth, parents yelling (often cussing) at their kids at the top of their lungs irritated because they had to pause their cell phone conversation --if they're even paying attention to the kids that is, moms tripping around in the woodchips in their platform wedges and tiny shorts with their chest falling out of their itty bitty tanktop. Sorry, I'm being kind of mean, but really... I can't wait to move sometimes.

When we'd had enough of the "entertainment" at the park, Ryan suggested we go out to dinner to "celebrate" Mother's Day early. Sounded good to me... not to have to cook or mess up the kitchen. Well, the kids decided to make it not so much fun. Neither one of them ate a bite (and I'm not exaggerating on that... not one bite) and were both silly and loud and antsy. Normally these kids are very well-behaved in restaurants, but yesterday they were driving us crazy! Seriously, I have never seen them so uncooperative in public. So we ate quickly and it was not quite the relaxing "celebration" we were hoping for. We left there with me asking Ryan, "is it really bad that what I want for Mother's Day is to NOT be with my kids?" I was half joking, and I felt bad, but I just could not wait for them to be in bed and away from me!
I figured by morning, we would be starting over and all irritation would be forgotten.

Boy, was I wrong!

1:30am: We're awakened by Savannah screaming in her room. Turns out she had gotten up, turned on her light to fix her cd which was skipping. After turning off the light and getting back in bed, she for the first time noticed the eerie glow that those compact florescent lightbulbs leave for a minute or so after turning off. Apparently it scared her to death. She was frozen in her bed screaming for Daddy to turn on the light. And it took awhile to get her calmed down and explain it to her. In the middle of the night.
1:50am: Savannah comes in to tell us she's still scared and ask if she can lay with us for a minute. Ryan holds her for a few minutes before I take her back to bed.
2:15am: Savannah comes in to tell us she can't sleep and she's thirsty. Ryan starts to lose his patience and puts her back to bed.
3:15am: Sawyer is whining/yelling at us in his room. Ryan goes in and helps him get his socks back on.
3:30am: Still whining/yelling. I go it to tuck him back in.
3:40am: Still whining/yelling. Ryan goes in to make sure he has his binkie.
4:00am: Still yelling. Ryan goes in to tell him to be quiet.
4:20am: Now crying. I give him tylenol. Whatever, just go to sleep!
4:45am: Still whining. I go in once more to check on him, cover him up, tell him it's really time to sleep and pat his back for a minute.
5:00am: Still whining. Ryan goes in and rocks him for a few minutes. I'm surprised Savannah is actually asleep. Sawyer is not the quietest thing in the world.

I think after that he was asleep. Or at least quiet enough we got back to sleep for a couple of hours. I think that was seriously one of the worst nights we've ever had. Even when either one of them were infants.
And of course Savannah was up bright and cheery at 7:15, "Good Morning Mom! Good Morning Dad!"
And Sawyer shortly after, not so cheery, yelling at us again at 7:30.
Fun, fun.

Also, Savannah has been sent to her room twice already this morning, and we've had countless screaming fits from the SawMan, and Ryan's still in bed. Happy Mother's Day to me.
You know, I think I have pretty well-behaved kids. I just wish they'd show me a little bit of that today instead of making me feel like I must be failing at this mom thing. On Mother's Day, LOL!

****
Everyone just had me open my presents for Mother's Day. Very cute cards, a handmade vase from Savannah, date and babysitting money from the kids, and Ryan bought me a 4 Milllion Dollar Home. They were nice surprises. Hopefully our day will turn around. The sun is out, it's gorgeous weather and we have the day to relax. I just hope the kids cooperate a bit!!

Happy Mother's Day, especially to our Moms, but to all you moms reading today! Hope you enjoy yourself today!

a big-boy bike and the throw ups

2007-05-11T22:19:00.000-05:00

Savannah had "the throw-ups" today. She hasn't been sick (stomach sick) for almost 2 1/2 years, so she doesn't remember ever being sick like that. It was actually all kind of amusing. I am probably totally jinxing myself by saying that. I'm sure I would not have found it the least bit amusing if she were actually really sick. But it was really a relatively simple sick this time.

She went to bed fine last night. Then around 4:30 in the morning we wake to hear her crying and screaming in her room for "MOMMY!!!!" Ryan hurries in there and she's crying at him to turn on the light. He finds her covered in chunks and she is freaking out not really knowing what was all over her and her bed. Ryan called me in to help and took her into the bathroom, the whole time Savannah was asking him "why did I do this?!" She calmed down as soon as Ryan started cleaning her up. Until he broke the news to her that her Lammie and Blanket would have to be washed. Then she couldn't stop crying. Eventually we got everything cleaned up and had her settled in her spare bed (thank God for trundles in the middle of the night) with a substitute animal and a pink blanket replacement. All the crying and yelling woke Sawyer though. And neither one of the kids ever fell back to sleep the rest of the early morning. Which means I didn't really fall back to sleep either. That was great.

I finally got the kids up at 7am and at that point Savannah was feeling fine. She was her normal happy spunky self, and she even ate some toast for breakfast. She was fine all morning, so I braved going out to the grocery store. I was fearing another upchuck in the store, but she was fine. I figured it must have just been something she ate as she was fine and normal and silly all the way home and then wanting to play outside. As soon as I put all the groceries away, I called the kids in for lunch. Then Savannah started complaining that she didn't want lunch... that her tummy was hurting again. So I got Sawyer up to the table and was getting his lunch prepared when I heard her whining in the living room, "Mommy, I'm having the throw-ups again...".
I rushed in there and she was pale and shaky, but smiling at me while leaning over the big bowl I had followed her around with all morning just in case. Well, she had put that bowl to good use and she was quite proud of herself. She didn't seem to care in the least that she had just vomited again, as much as she was happy she threw up in the bowl. "This time it's easy to clean up," she told me happily.
She then proceeded to eat a pretty good sized lunch considering. I kept telling her no, that we needed to let her stomach get better, but she kept telling me it was better and that she was hungry!! Well, she never did throw up anymore and was completely fine and happy the whole rest of the day. Weird. And I just thought it was funny that she was so into the whole process of throwing up where you were supposed to, that she didn't even care about actually getting sick. HAHA!

Oh, and I have to mention that she broke Ryan's streak. You know how he's happened to never have been around when either of our kids have been puking? Yeah well, that lucky streak is over and he had to deal with this one! (then he got to miss out on the second one again today though... so not fair!)

In cheerier news...
the in-home daycare house across the street from us on the corner was having a garage sale today. I of course went over to check it out, thinking they would have a ton of good stuff seeing as they are moving and probably weeding out the daycare stuff. They did have quite a bit of baby stuff, but not as much or as good of stuff as I was hoping for. I did find this though...

A tiny little boy's bike. It isn't the cutest thing in the world, but it's cute cuz it's so small, and I can't wait for Sawyer to ride around on it. Ten bucks and it's in great condition!! I know it'll be awhile before he can actually ride around on it, but I couldn't resist. He loves it!!

I think I keep forgetting this kid is just 18 months old. He just looks and acts so much older to me I can hardly believe it. I look at him and think you could pass for a two-and-a-half year old!
What happened to my little baby?!

Speaking of babies...
Congratulations to the King family!! Baby Logan was born yesterday; a strong, healthy and adorable little brother for Sydney! We're so happy for you guys. What a blessing!

And didn't post on Monday, and spaced it after that, but Happy Belated Birthday to Patty! I hope you had a great day.

workin' at the car wash...

2007-05-10T22:23:00.000-05:00

That's a song isn't it?
Whatever it is, I've had it in my head all day.

The kids and I spent the afternoon outside washing the cars. The big one and the little one LOL!
It was fun to play in the water. First car wash (by hand) of the year, and Sawyer's first experience ever... he was very serious about it! He's obsessed with our car and he loves cleaning and helping... put those together and he's the man for the job!!!

Has anyone else noticed Savannah being a lot more cooperative with the camera lately? As in actually looking at me once in awhile?! Yay!

check-up

2007-05-10T21:41:00.000-05:00

Sawyer had his 18month check-up this morning. Everything is A-Okay. The doctor is not concerned at all with his eating and said I should just continue what I'm doing with the offering him whatever we're having for our meals and making a few minor adjustments according to his allergies. If he doesn't eat... he's not going to starve. She doesn't seem to care that he will go for three days and have eaten nothing but pretzels and a half of a banana. She's not so worried about his nutrition as the habits we're forming if we were catering to him or only offering what we know he might eat (probably including my healthy cookies). He gained a pound since his last visit ( he's up to just under 27lbs and he's 31 1/2 inches tall) and he's still on the same curve for his weight and height. So I just have to not stress about his eating. Or his allergies. Or his not talking. Got two shots and didn't even blink a tear! (which reminds me... I don't think I ever mentioned last week that Savannah was Little Miss Bravery at her check-up too. She got FOUR shots and a finger prick and she didn't cry at all!!!)

He's using sign language like crazy. Still stubborn about talking, although we can usually get him to say a few things if we really beg. He'll say Daddy and Savannah (Nah) and dog and ball and today I kind of got him to say bubble. But he's using sign language like crazy.
And he plays this little game where he picks up a bag or a purse or even a box or a toy or if he's going to throw something away or put something away for me... and he makes a big production about leaving the room with this great cheery wave good bye. That's our cue to say "goodbye Sawyer! Have a nice trip!" and he giggles and runs away. Today he was taking a diaper to his room to throw away after a diaper change and I wasn't paying attention to him apparently waving his hand off waiting to play his little game. He finally yelled at me... "HEY". I swear he did. And when I looked over he got his usual grin and wave going. I said, "Sawyer, can you say BYE BYE?" He shook his head at me and continued waving. Stubborn kid.

Anyway, Sawyer's a happy healthy toddler. Here are some pictures from today in his freshly washed car...
What else has he been up to? A whole lot of trouble, let me tell you! He now can climb up on the dining room chairs by himself so I quite often find him on the table or the kitchen counters. He can climb up onto the couches as well, which he is quite proud of. Only he LOVES to jump and climb and flip and slide off the furniture which I DO NOT LOVE.

Funny story... Just this afternoon, after reminding him repeatedly and having previously removed him from the couch several times earlier in the day, he was still climbing up and sliding down the arm of the couch. I lost my patience and swept him off the couch and swatted his little diaper padded butt. Now, as much as this kid loves to make trouble... he really hates actually getting into trouble. As in a stern voice or a swat on the butt or a mean look. He loses it. He acts all offended and hurt and goes running off to his room.
So off he went in tears this afternoon and I called after him, "you can come back out when you're done crying and want to sit nice."
He cried into his rocking chair for about 30 seconds and then we heard him give it up and start to come out. Savannah jumped up from the couch next to me saying, "I'll go see if he wants to talk about it Mom. I'll talk to him and help him think about it." OMG, I was trying not to crack up.
Savannah runs in there and shoos him back into his room and I can hear the whole (one-sided) conversation.
"Sawyer, do you know why you're in here?" (well actually it was because I was embarrassed that I got in trouble)
"Sawyer, Mommy needs you to be safe on the funchair **that's fouryearold-speak for furniture around here**. If you can't be safe Mommy might have to spank you and I might not be able to sit on the couch with you anymore. You have to listen to me and Mommy. Can you think about that Sawyer?" (whatever... can you hand me that book?)
"Sawyer, if you're ready to talk about it you can say yes." (points out the window and pants like a dog)
"Sawyer, are you ready to come out now and have fun the right way?" (already running past you on the way out)

Oh, it was so cute and so hilarious. I wish I would have had the video camera up here to get that on tape. Priceless.

I'll leave you with Sawyer and his absolute favorite hobby these days... brushing his teeth. He probably does this a dozen times a day. And it makes him so stinkin' happy! This is an actual get ready for bedtime toothbrushing and he was hamming it up.

it's all about me

2007-05-10T15:12:00.000-05:00

Nicole "tagged" me with this one floating around, so here are my answers....

I am: hot (as in overheated... not I'm so HOT!)

I want: to be settled and connected in a community

I have: the hiccups right now *annoying*

I wish: we would win the lottery so that neither of us would have to work full time

I hate: people I care about feeling unhappy... or the fact that so many are unhappy

I miss: friends we don't see anymore

I hear: the kids playing in the toyroom and lawnmowers in the neighborhood (and me still hiccuping)

I wonder: who our next child will be

I regret: many things in theory... but I know each and every choice I've made makes up who I am today and I'm okay with that

I am not: just a mom

I dance: not enough

I sing: with my kids

I cry: about everything

I am not always: a nice person

I make with my hands: gifts

I write: so many lists it's insane.

I confuse: my left and right

I need: a just-for-fun vacation... to relax

I should: not procrastinate

I start: lots of projects

I finish: things only when it gets down to the wire

and I tag... Annie, Kasey, Kim, Trish
your turn!

finally!

2007-05-09T13:47:00.000-05:00

Finally... I got around to redoing the header here. I've only been saying I was going to do that for how long?.....

Finally... I got caught up on some of my p ictures. I still have pics from last week to go through like the boatload I took at both the zoo and our weekend up north. I'm beginning to feel like between a few photo projects I'm trying to get done, scrapbooking (which is pretty much nonexistant around here these days), and actually ever getting any prints printed, I will never be caught up to where I want to be with photos. I need a month long vacation just to work on that stuff.

Finally... we got the important house stuff here done with. We've painted and repaired and cleaned and scrubbed. We've had all the market analysis's, the inspections and the appraisals done (we had to have all that good stuff out of the way doing this through Pfizer because if they are the ones that take on the sale of the house, all of that dictates the price they will give us). Now all we have left is to take care of a few things from the inspection and pray for the right buyer to come along.
BTW, Ryan found this article last night... I thought it was interesting that we're moving to #9 on this year's best places to live in the country!! O'Fallon, Missouri... here we come!

Finally... after this week I will feel like I can stop running around like crazy. Seems like the last couple of weeks have just been full of things to get done and appointments to keep. Tomorrow all I have is a dr. appt in the morning for Sawyer and then Friday the chimney guy is coming out to inspect our fireplaces. Then Friday night we're going to (hopefully) have some people over for a barbeque, and after that... a weekend to relax! And nothing going on next week! (yet)

Finally... spring is really and truly here in Michigan. And pretending quite often to be summer already!! It was 85 yesterday and we slept with all the windows open last night. 75 and good thundershowers all day today... so nice to be out splashing around in the rain with shorts on! And it's supposed to be in the 80's thru the weekend, too. I love this weather!!

I'll leave you with just a couple pics from today... and I promise I won't be MIA for so long!

a new game of tag

2007-05-04T21:59:00.000-05:00

Here's a photo "meme" I came across on a fellow Michigan Mom's blog.
I thought it'd be fun... something different.
What's On Your Nightstand?
Well, first of all I don't have a nightstand. We demoted ours to the guest room when we got our new bed and have yet to buy new anything to match our bed. Actually, up until about three days ago, I've had an unpacked moving box sitting there handling the nightstand job just fine. But being that the last time I actually used cardboard for furniture was in my first apartment when I was 19... I decided I should get rid of that now that we have potential buyers coming through our house. So that leaves a small stack of journals and books to hold my alarm clock.
Sad, I know. It's in the corner of the room though, so it's not that obviously sad.

Can I do a substitute? Here's our dresser. Relatively dust and clutter free (minus one stray necklace I wore last night), courtesy once again to our house being FOR SALE.

Or what about this one. This might be a good one.
What's On Your Bathroom Counter?
here's mine... my tiny cluttered bathroom sink...

So right now, go take a picture. Nightstand or bathroom counter. Or both if you're feeling brave.
Don't touch anything, just point and shoot and post.
Consider yourself tagged.

How not to parent

2007-05-04T11:54:00.000-05:00

I will be getting no mom of the year award today. Not even close.

Savannah usually watches Hi-5 on TLC in the mornings from 7 to 7:30. She is always out of bed at 7 on the dot, and that gives me time to wake up, gives Sawyer time to get the morning grumps out, time to get him changed and fed, and we're all much happier by the time her show is done. Many mornings if she can manage to multi-task and get dressed and maybe eat some breakfast while this is on, I'll then let her continue to watch tv till 8. By then Sawyer's happy, I can take a quick peek at blogs and email and we still have plenty of time to finish getting ready for school or get going on whatever we're doing for the day. But that's it. We rarely have the tv on anymore after 8. If we do for some reason have it on, we're usually not even watching it and not even in the room. I might put Blue's Clues on at some point if Sawyer's especially hard to keep entertained, but even then he doesn't sit and watch it for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Anyway. Today was a please don't turn off the tv day. That would be me saying please don't turn off the tv, not Savannah asking. I just had a million things I wanted to get done, house stuff, several things on the computer, Sawyer was into everything and pushing each and everyone of Savannah's and my buttons, they were squealing at each other about everything, and we have been so on the go that I just wanted to do nothing. Normally on days when they're in moods like that, I know they need some direction, something fun and different to do. But I just had no motivation. So when Savannah's show would be ending and she would be ready to turn the tv off, I found myself taking the remote from her and flipping through saying, "let's see whatelse is on for you!" All morning. And then when I opened up the fridge at lunchtime to figure out what to feed these kiddos... the June Cleaver in me buried herself even further into hiding and I found myself calling to Savannah to come up from downstairs, "Savannah get your shoes on, we're going to McDonalds!" I know, I'm horrible. I know I know I know. I've already told them we're going to play outside all afternoon though. I'm taking my little breather of me time now during naps and getting a few more things taken care of, and then it's out the back door to have fun for the rest of the day.

I read this on Kim's blog today... made me chuckle because that's exactly how I felt this morning (and way too often!).
If You Give a Mom a Muffin

If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. So she'll pour herself some. The coffee will get spilled by her three year old. She'll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she will find some dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do some laundry.

When she puts the laundry in the washer, She'll trip over some snow boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper for tonight.

She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With a Pound of Hamburger.) The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow.

She will look for the checkbook. The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two year old. Bending down to scoop up the contents already on the floor, she'll smell something funny. She'll change the two year old. While she is changing the two year old the phone will ring. (Of course!) Her five year old will answer it and hang up.

She remembers that she wants to phone a friend to come over for coffee on Friday. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. She will pour herself some. And chances are, If she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Along the lines of Mother of the Year, you should also know I've resorted to feeding my kid cookies for breakfast lunch and/or dinner. Yep, you read that right. Cookies.
It all started with Sawyer's hunger strike which started out slowly by refusing to eat breakfast. This kid used to demand to eat first thing in the morning and wolf down as much as anyone in this house; waffles, toast, oatmeal, cereal, fruit, you name it. Then that slowly dwindled to a cup of his milk and a banana. Then just half a banana. Then just his milk.
I came across a recipe for Breakfast Cookies.... basically oatmeal cookies with Special K cereal, raisins and other breakfasty things added, (they're really yummy, if you want the recipe let me know). I made up a batch and Sawyer started eating a cookie everyday for breakfast with his banana (even though he usually forgot about the banana).
Meanwhile, his eating habits continued to dwindle. Now I'm not talking about normal toddler pickyness. I'm talking about NOT EATING ANYTHING. Except for graham crackers and milk. Seriously. For days at a time.
So the other day I was trying to come up with a snack to bring to the playdate at Nicole's, and I wanted it to be something the kids would all eat, especially Sawyer since I swear he's lost 5 pounds in the last week. And it had to be something healthy since this would probably be Sawyer's only source of nutrition for the day (if he chose to eat at all, that is).
Lo and behold I found this recipe. Egg-free and Milk-free for Sawyer too! Yay!

NO FAT BANANA RAISIN COOKIES

2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 c. rolled oats
1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. raisins
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. apple juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. (Batter will be a little stiff.) Drop by teaspoon on a non stick cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Store in air tight container.

Now, normally I'm not one for these "healthy" recipes. I'm all for healthy, but I like me some good old fashioned sugar too and I don't usually go out of my way to find completely nutritious recipes for things like cookies or treats. I don't think a little sugar here and there is going to corrupt my kids. Again however, if this was all Sawyer was going to eat....

I was a bit skeptical while mixing these up. Basically oats and wheat... they looked so grainy and dry and reminded me exactly of when Savannah and I made homemade dog biscuits for her grandparent's dogs for Christmas one year. I was like, seriously... a good cookie with no butter or sugar or anything? But then after I got them in the oven they started smelling like good old fashioned yummy banana bread, and I was relieved. I made some without the raisins (I am not a huge raisin fan) and I topped those with a little cinnamon sugar just to add a little more flavor. But they were all good. Really surprisingly good.
Sawyer probably seriously ate close to two dozen that day himself. He loved them. And what do you think he has had for at least part of every meal since then? And what do you think he had for breakfast today?

Is it bad that I feed my kid cookies for breakfast? Even if it's basically the same as a bowl of oatmeal with bananas and raisins, just in a different form? Suppose I'm just setting him up to only eat cookies for the rest of his life....

18 months

2007-05-02T21:09:00.000-05:00

Here he is...
a year and a half already.

Where on earth has the time gone? I can't even pretend he's a baby anymore. Everything about him is looking and acting more little boy every day. So grown up.

I had a collection of pictures in my head to share today as well as a list of things to document as far as the little things Sawyer's been up to lately; his words, his tricks, his favorite things, etc.

But surprise surprise I have a killer headache tonight and all I can think about is how much I want to go to bed. So I'm gonna have to save all that for later. He has a Dr. appt. next week, so maybe I'll just record a full report after that. LOL!

Happy Half-Birthday Sawyer Isaac... our little "laughter" boy!

a taste for running a daycare

2007-05-02T20:38:00.000-05:00

This is what Nicole's backyard looked like this afternoon...Did you count them? Three huge climbers in her backyard. One may assume she operates a daycare out of her home. Or that she at least cares for several children. Or at least has several of her own.
May I remind you she has one 14-month-old. HAHA!
She's gone a little crazy in the last couple of weeks with Craigslist and Garage Sales and her hunt for a slide/climber for Porter. Great deals, great toys... but seriously!!

So of course we had a Cheeky Little Monkeys playdate in her backyard today. Why go to the park when she's got plenty for all the little monkeys to climb around on! It was a fun little group, but it was crazy with all those kids!
It's so amazing how most of us just randomly met online trying to form a group in the area, and all of our kids are so close to the same age! There are at least 5 baby girls under the age of 6 months, Savannah and two other boys right around the age of four, and at least 7 boys (and one little girl!) within just a few months either way of Sawyer. Crazy!

Here's little Lukas today... he and Sawyer are just a week apart.

And Corbin... isn't he a cutie?! He's I think 19 months.

Sawyer decided to take it upon himself to master the biggest climber. No way was he gonna let those older boys (um... older as in 3 and 4!) leave him behind!!

Hurry Up and Wait

2007-05-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

So we thought we had the moving thing figured out.
We have a closing date on the new house, our house should be on the market any day which gives it enough time so that if we don't find a buyer before we leave here we can use Pfizer's "safety-net" meaning they buy it from us and worry about it so we don't have to, and we were ready for the movers to come and access all our "stuff" and set up a moving schedule for somewhere around the third week in June.
But then.
Yesterday Ryan finds out his higher-ups really need his group (naming him specifically as an example of who they'd like to be there) to stick around here in Kalamazoo preferably at least thru July. That would be all fine and dandy except for the fact that everyone on both ends of this relocation has said all along that it really doesn't matter when he moves to the STL facility, that everybody is pretty flexible, and whatever works best for us with our housing situation will be just fine. Until of course a few days after we actually make an offer on a house (which you know, usually contains a closing date, which you know, usually infers a moving date).
So now Ryan's trying to figure out who really needs him where, if we should try to push back our move dates, meaning fly down to close on that house but not move for another month after that, and so on and so forth.
I'd really rather move and get it over with. I hate knowing change is coming and then just sit around waiting for it to happen. Thinking and thinking and thinking about it. It's not like I can even get ready to move... the movers pack everything up for us.
I just want to get down there already and start getting settled in our new house, finding a church, looking at preschools, getting the kids in swim lessons, and all that good stuff. I've been waiting since January... enough already!!

Then!
Working with Pfizer to get their help (safety-net) in selling our house, we have to list our house in accordance with certain parameters such as an asking price that matches up with two separate realtors' Market Analysis of our home. Now everyone knows the housing market here right now sucks, so we were a little nervous about this whole Market Analysis thing. But the first realtor came through, turned in her analysis right away and her suggested price was actually right along the lines of where we hoping our price to be. Yay!
The second realtor came through the same day, then we didn't hear anything for two weeks, and then after all that, it turns out her suggested listing price is exactly what we paid for our house one year ago. Which wouldn't be that bad... except for the fact that we got this house for more than 15,000 less than they had originally listed it to sell! The previous owners had already moved and were really wanting to let go of this house fast. It is so irritating that she priced our house so low, as we have to go off of the average of the two prices.
All that to say, we have to list lower than we originally wanted to, so we are kind of bummed out by that. But hopefully it'll sell reasonably quickly (two other houses for sale in our neighborhood are at the same price, but are not nearly as big or nice as ours or with as big of a lot).

Too much frustrating news on a Monday. And after such a nice weekend too.
Oh well.

We have lots going on this week.
A Cheeky Little Monkeys playdate at the Barczak's tomorrow, a field trip with Savannah's class to the Binder Park Zoo on Thursday and I think this weekend we're planning on going up north with the Huffs. With lots of miscellaneous house fixing up/cleaning up to get ready to show to sell and stuff all in between.
Busy, busy!

p.s. Happy Birthday Greg (a day late)! Hope you like your new wheels!!!

What a Day!

2007-04-29T18:18:00.000-05:00

It's ten minutes past seven and the kids are both in bed sound asleep already. They should be... we were outside enjoying every minute of sunshine we could today. We were pretty much out from noon till bedtime. It was so nice!! It really feels like summer is just around the corner...

Here's what our faux-summer day consisted of:

hanging laundry

planting

planting

and more planting

watering
(yes, she's watering our weeds)

The mama robin who made our house her home...

and her babies

mowing

getting the
first scrapes of the season

raking

(Sawyer always has to help with everything!!)

grilling
and of course dining outside

And of course a nice long soak in the tub... after a full day of running and digging and climbing and fun, these kids were filthy!

Can you get any more summer-like than all that?!

My parents flew home last night. As great as is it to have them here, as well as all the family we've had visiting over the last month and a half... it was really nice to have some family time with just the four of us today. It seems like it's been a long time!
With grandparents or aunts here, the kids are all about them... "Gramma's going to tuck me in tonight Mom; Can I sit by Aunt Becky for lunch; No thanks, Grampa's going to read with me".
To have the kids actually want to play with us and to have them all to ourselves and such great weather to run around in and have so much fun all together today... it was really a great day.
I was pretty sick yesterday, and after being on drugs for 24 hours or so, I was feeling much better but still not totally up to par, so I didn't do as much playing around as I wanted to, but it was nice to sit out in the sun and watch the kids having so much fun being outside in shorts and bare feet!!
We're sure going to miss this great yard!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Little Miss Traffic Cop

2007-04-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

I remember when Savannah was first learning her letters... right before she turned two and around that time, she was just starting to recognize letters and she was soooo into it! Whenever we were in the car she would point out signs all over the place on the road or on buildings, and yell out from the backseat "S, mommy that's S!" "A, mommy I see A!" ALL THE TIME. It *almost* got annoying because you see, she wasn't just calling them out for her own amusement... you had to respond and acknowledge every letter or she would just keep repeating them. And repeating them and repeating them and repeating them. It was fun though, watching her learning these things and marveling at how observant she was... how it seemed she noticed every little sign on the road!

I was reminded of these times because she's doing a similar thing in the car again. Only she's taken it a step further and now she's focusing on what the signs all mean and how cars drive and maneuver on the road. Every time we get in the car she's watching the traffic lights and the signs and she wants to know why we stop and go at stop signs and why we have to wait our turn at red lights. She wants to know why I can't go when the light is green (because I'm waiting to turn left), what those numbers mean (that's the speed limit, how fast we can go), why that car went when the light was red (because he was turning right and there were no cars coming his way), why we turn on the clickers (turning signal to show other cars which way we want to go), and on and on and on. You'd think she was studying for a driver's test!!

Yes, it gets a little old, but once again it is such a slap in the face at how old she is getting and that she is actually "getting" all this stuff. That she's been quietly observing all these cars and signs and things around her and now she's really trying to make sense of it all and understand how it all works together. And it's kind of fun to explain it too her and see the wheels turning in her head.

But it scares me....
only 11 more years till she is learning this stuff for real and getting behind the wheel!!

Want to test your traffic sign/driving knowledge?
I found a little quiz for you.
Don't forget to leave your score in the comments! You won't believe the score I got...

And the answer you've all been waiting for...

2007-04-26T22:31:00.000-05:00

So we made an offer on a house.
They accepted, so we're on our way to being Missourians. Or the Morrisons in Missouri I guess. We'll have to change our blog address!! LOL!
We picked house #4 by the way. Thanks for all your input... in the end, we kind of liked that this one was in the middle; still new enough that it's not too much work, but not so perfect that we can't make it "ours". And it is in a great neighborhood. We're excited about it.

Please keep us and the rest of this process in your prayers, as we still have a long way to go in getting out of this house, getting everything to fall in place timing-wise to get down there, and of course moving and settling into yet another new community.
It's strange.... we were in this exact same situation exactly one year ago. I think we actually put our offer on this house we're in on the table on the exact same day a year ago. Weird.
Anyway, we'll be moving the middle/end of June.
So that's the news for now. We'll keep you posted, and really-- thanks so much for all your thoughts, encouragement and help with this whole process. Whether you're praying for us, "helping" us decide on our next home, or just leaving a random comment on our blog... it really helps keep us sane, keep some perspective, and let's us know we have a few cheerleaders out there for us!

p.s. Happy Birthday Callum!! I really cannot believe you're a one year old already! Have a happy day sweet little boy!

Puddle Play

2007-04-26T20:03:00.000-05:00

We went out to play in the puddles today.
Apparently I forgot how to post just a picture or two on this here blog.... it's more like a dozen or two lately isn't it? Well, bear with me... it was pretty fun getting out it the wet today and the kids had a blast, so here you go.

Somebody needed a nap...

2007-04-25T19:22:00.000-05:00

I was in a yucky mood today.
Not sure where it came from, but it was yucky.

-Maybe it was the weather.... dark and rainy all day.

-Maybe it was not sleeping well.... it took me FOREVER to fall asleep, then I was wide awake for a couple of hours at some point in the middle of the night, then Ryan was up sleepwalking (or should I say sleepsearching**) at some other ungodly hour of the morning, and then I heard Sawyer awake in his room before 6AM.

-Maybe it was having to run outside in the pouring rain to fix a downspout I luckily noticed was knocked out of place outside my bedroom... creating a HUGE pool of rainwater in the rockbed that looked like it was ready to make the break into our basement any minute.

-Maybe it was the fact that I noticed said pool of rainwater a mere 30 minutes before we had a guy come out for a house inspection. The last thing we need right now is a wet basement. Did I mention the pouring rain all morning? Fortunately I think I caught and fixed the downspout in time. Tried to slice my finger off with a bent part of the downspout though.

-Maybe it was the fact that Porter was whining after me all morning, wanting to be in the same room as me at all times, preferably without Sawyer in that room also it seemed.

-Maybe it was the fact that Sawyer was asking to be put in his bed for a nap by 9:30 in the morning. And I made him stay up until after lunch.

-Maybe it was that I had stupidly put off some random housecleaning/miscellaneous quick-fixes for the last minute before the inspector came this morning, and then Porter and Sawyer decided to gang up and test my ability to really do all those things with them around.

I think I would have gone crazy had my mom not been here today. I didn't feel like it made much difference with the moods both Sawyer and Porter were in... they were both pretty inconsolable at times... but at least she tried to keep them distracted, help out and keep an eye on them so I could get a few things done in short bursts.

But then,
+Porter was in a better mood after lunch (as always, after Sawyer went down for a nap... and I'm really starting to think that's not a coincidence).

+And I finally gave in and put Sawyer to bed early after he refused to eat any lunch.

+And the inspector came and went and got that over with.

+And then since the inspection was done, Nic had taken P home, Sawyer was asleep and Savannah was down for her rest time with another 30 minutes to go, I decided I needed a nap. I went and hid in my bed and then woke up almost 2 hours later.
Ahh, that was nice.

+And then Sawyer and I had only been up from napping for maybe 20 minutes when Ryan surprised us by coming home from work early.

+And announced we were going out to dinner this evening.

So my yucky mood and morning are gone... hopefully not to repeat anytime soon. Apparently a little naptime can work wonders!!

**Ryan's SleepSearching episode last night:
I woke up to find him getting out of bed patting down the bed like he was feeling around for something. I asked him what he was doing and he mumbled something I couldn't understand (not that I was wide awake myself, mind you). Then he threw back the sheets and was feeling around in the bed for something. I began to think maybe he had dreamt about bugs or something in the bed. I asked him again what he was doing and what he was looking for. He TOTALLY snapped at me and said, "Nothing, go back to sleep". He then grabbed his cell phone that was next to the bed and opened it up, using it like a flashlight and started looking around for something on the floor. Like I said, I was very tired and not completely awake, so at that point I just rolled over and don't remember anything else. And this morning I had totally forgotten about the whole thing.
So Ryan comes home today and he asks me if I remembered him getting up last night. It all came back to me and I started laughing and asked him what the heck he was doing. He said all he remembers is that he was dreaming about having some important papers and that he had been holding them in his hand and then he woke up and they were gone. So he got up and started searching our room for these papers!! He had to find those papers! He's still not sure if he was even awake searching or if he was still dreaming, but it was hilarious!

Have you been reading the last few days?

2007-04-24T21:24:00.000-05:00

Because if so, this is just the same old stuff.

-When and exactly where we're moving is still up in the air.
-Savannah still looks (and acts) 10 years older with her new haircut.
-Sawyer is still every bit as much of a mischievous toddler, while at the same time being so stinkin' cute and amusing I can hardly stand it.
-My parents are still here.
-And of course I still have laundry to do.

I went out tonight with "the moms". We had a little girls night out sans the kids with the playgroup/mom's group we started at the beginning of the year. Had a great time just chattin' it up with the girls. Nine of us there tonight. I think there are like 18 or 19 in the group now from around here. It's so interesting to meet so many different women and learn about their different lives; how similar some things are, how we can truly relate to each other in the common things, and at the same time how the roles we play as moms, wives, girlfriends, etc. can be so different for each of us. Great stuff.

p.s. with all the "excitement" of househunting and haircuts around here I completely spaced wishing a Happy Birthday to Ryan's Dad... so here's a little late Happy Birthday to Dave... Hope you enjoyed your day. We were thinking of you!!

She Did It!

2007-04-23T19:17:00.000-05:00

The Before...

Her hair really wasn't that messy... it was extremely windy outside LOL!

and After....

And here's the whole process.
She really wasn't too happy about it...

This is her looking at me holding the rest of her hair!

Still not so sure about it...

Feeling a little better...

We cut off almost 14 inches to donate to help make a wig for a little girl who's body is not able to grow her own hair. That, at least helped Savannah a little with this dramatic change. She's kind of excited to be able to share her hair!

And our little girl looks so much more grown up it's almost scary!
I think she likes it... she keeps shaking her head and swaying her hair back and forth!! It'll take awhile for all of us to get used to!

Pictures, Cousins, and a Daddy who is conveniently always MIA for the good stuff.

2007-04-23T11:29:00.000-05:00

Still no house decision. By the way, you people are not very good at this either. I ask you for help... please choose your favorite house, and what do you do? I pick #2, 3, or 4.
Pick A house. Not three. Thanks for your input, but that doesn't help much... LOL!

Here's what we found Savannah had left for us as we drove up to our driveway last night...

(you can click on the pics to see larger)

And here are a few pictures from playing outside this morning...

Can you tell I missed my kids? Pictures galore.

Sawyer was sick yesterday. I guess he woke up in the morning vomiting and managed that a few more times throughout the day. I felt bad not being there. My poor mom had to deal with it... and we were hurrying home as fast as we could.
We also realized that Ryan has never once had to deal with one of our kids being sick like that. Yeah, he's been around for fevers and colds, but never once for throwing up. Savannah has only been sick like that once for three or four days (when she was almost 2) and Ryan was out of town for two weeks. Missed it. Sawyer got the bug that Taegen, Debbie and Jen had this past January when we (me and the kids) were visiting them in Portland. He threw up every hour for about 8 hours straight. Where was Ryan? Relaxing at home by himself. And yesterday when Sawyer was miserable all morning... we were driving home from our househunting weekend away. I say Ryan's got pretty good timing. He says the kids just miss him so much it makes 'em sick. LOL!
Anyway, Sawyer's better today (See, Ryan totally missed it). He still woke with a fever, but he's acting pretty normal and mischievous.

We got to talk to Taegen and Tasi on the webcam last night. They were so cute, and little Tasi is absolutely adorable. She doesn't look anything like Taegen did; she has lots of dark hair. When Savannah was born we all thought she reminded us of Holly's baby pictures, and from the pictures I've seen, Tasi is the same way. She reminded me of baby Savannah. Nothing like the bald blonde round headed baby Taegen!! So sweet to see them together!

Alright... speaking of Savannah's hair, I'm off to make an appointment for her to get her hair cut. Scary!!

At this rate we'll be homeless in St. Louis...

2007-04-21T20:30:00.000-05:00

Alrighty.
We have narrowed our house choices down to four. I know... four is not real narrow.
But we've listed all our pros and cons for each house and we both have different favorites and we both have different least favorites and neither one of us knows what we really would pick if (and when) it comes right down to it.

So.
We need your help.
One of these four houses will be our next home.
We are putting our future in your hands.
Which one would you choose?

House #1
House #2
House #3
House #4

After you make your choice... here is our lowdown.
House #1:
*We like the layout, great playroom for the kids, the big yard, the location and the amenities with lake access
*We don't like tiny master bath, basement is limited space, no real guest bedroom, tons of wallpaper to remove.

House #2:
*We like that the house is practically brand new, HUGE bedrooms, nice open layout, and the freedom to finish the basement the way we want/need it.
*We don't like that it's so new the neighborhood is still developing, the cost of finishing the basement, and a high HOA fee without amenities.

House #3:
*We like that it is newer and we would not have to finish/change a thing, beautiful finished walk-out basement with 5th bedroom and 3rd full bath, and a nice fenced yard.
*We don't love the location (it's pretty convenient, just close to busyness), there is no fireplace, and not much storage or workshop/garage space.

House #4:
*We like the size of the house a lot... all the rooms are huge, big entryway, big bedrooms, potential of finishing our own basement, three car garage, and walking distance to the neighborhood pool, clubhouse, tennis courts, and playground.
*We don't like the size/limited usability of the yard, cost of finishing the basement (but the price of the house itself is lower so it kind of evens out), and it's an awesome neighborhood, but it's questionable as to how close/busy a new highway extention would come.

I really think we would be happy with any of them. We just can't seem to make a decision.
Maybe we'll just draw from a hat....
HELP!!

Whew!

2007-04-21T08:57:00.000-05:00

What a day yesterday!!
We looked at 16 houses. Sixteen! Is that some sort of record? We're headed back out today to see a handful more and possibly revisit one or two from yesterday. I actually found a house I think I'd say I want... Ryan doesn't love it. He has a favorite too... and I like the house, I just don't love the street. I'm still hoping we'll walk into one today and just know this is our house. We'd love to have one picked this weekend, so we don't have to take another house hunting trip down here. We'll see.

Mike and Kasey met us at our hotel as soon as we were done with the realtor, and then we all went over to Kasey's parents' house to meet up with Mike and Erin, where we just hung out and visited and had some pizza and beers. Then we all came back to our hotel and spent some time relaxing down at the pool and in the hot tub. It was nice to just hang out and chat and soak in the warm water. Mike and Kasey spent the night with us at the hotel and they might look at some houses with us today. We had dinner plans with another friend tonight, but I'm feeling like we need some time to sit down and think about all this house stuff and go through our choices, etc. We'd love to hang out with her though... we'll see how long our day goes today. Here are a couple pics of us Fab 6.5 (three of us couples and the Malone's little one who we won't officially meet until July)from last night...

Kasey, Erin and me...

Mike, Ryan and Mike...

Yay!!

2007-04-19T22:36:00.000-05:00

Ryan surprised me with a little present this morning as we started our trip....

I am so excited! And a little snap-happy today. I guess that's a given with a brand new camera to play around with.

We got down to St. Louis this afternoon and had some time to waste before meeting up with Mike and Erin for the evening, so we headed down to The Landing and The Riverfront since I had never been to the Arch. And we took a million pictures. The weather was gorgeous today and it was so nice to be out in it!! Here are just a few of the hundred pictures we took today... okay, maybe a few more than a few. And they're just boring touristy shots. Like I said, we were just playing around with the camera. I'm just so excited about it, I had to share! Look at how sharp these pictures are!!

click on these to see them full size and gleaming in the sunshine...

p.s. Happy Birthday Cade!!! Hope you had a super fun day!

Welcome Tasi

2007-04-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

We get to welcome a sweet baby girl into our family today... our new little niece and the kids' number two cousin was born today to Dan and Holly. Taegen is now a big sister!!
Tasi Marie was born in Yigo, Guam this afternoon (which was actually 8:21 AM on the morning of the 19th if you're talking Guam time.) She was a healthy 6lbs 12oz and everyone is doing great.

Big congrats to the happy family... Taegen, enjoy your new baby sister... we all can't wait to meet you soon little Tasi!
(pronounced Tah-see.... it means "ocean")

******

Not much else going on around here lately. Just kind of recovering from Easter and all the birthday hullabaloo... laying low, getting lots of busy work done around here.

We had a couple of realtors come through our house last Saturday before my parents came into town. So we're just waiting on an inspection and a few other realtor/relocation paperwork and things before we can get our house officially on the market.
Ryan and I are headed back down to MO this weekend to do a little more house hunting, as well as possibly touring the new workplace and Ryan may attend a meeting there that he was wanted to be a part of.
Keep your fingers crossed that the house hunting goes well, as I'm starting to get a tad bit stressed about finding a house and moving and selling this one and all that goes with it.
It'll be a four day trip and we're going to get a chance to hang out with a few friends along the way. It'll be nice to get away without the kids, and even though this trip is mostly "business", I'm hoping it'll be a little relaxing and we'll get a bit of fun time too. We were hoping to be able to take a "fun" trip while my parents were here this time. A getaway for some couple time. It's been way too long since we've done that. Well, timing worked out such that we have family here to keep the kids while we go try and get some of this relocation "business" taken care of without dragging two little ones all over the country. So this is our getaway. Fun, fun!
Oh well, maybe next time...

******

Also, those of you LOST fans on the west coast this evening.....
great episode tonight!!!

She's Four Years Old?!!!

2007-04-16T20:28:00.000-05:00

Our little Savannah Joy can ride a bike...

Blow out her candles...

Use proper table manners...

And make us all smile.

Happy Birthday to our little-big girl!

We love you!

T-r-o-u-b-l-e (note the capital T)

2007-04-12T18:54:00.000-05:00

Along the same lines of sharing just one of Sawyer's many sneaky he's-too-quiet-what-in-the-world-is-he-into-now-moments yesterday,
I also wanted to share with you Sawyer's latest *face*.
He makes this face when he's
A. super excited about something,
or B. knows he's doing something (usually fun) that he's not supposed to be doing.
In other words, he makes this face ALL THE TIME!!

"But Savannah said I could play with this teeny tiny no-no Sawyer little Polly Pocket stuff while she's at school... I promise!"

This is his
I know this is a no-no
and I was just about to stop
face.

But then he goes and does some other adorable little toddler thing.
Or just empties the whole dishwasher for me.
(we like to train 'em early around here)

Savannah's Pizzeria and Bakery now in business!

2007-04-11T13:55:00.000-05:00

Savannah had her first real "friend party" this year. Four four-year-olds dropped off and picked up for a big girl party. We did a baking party... each girl (with their own little apron we personalized for them) got to put together her own individual pizza, we baked them, ate them, and then we each decorated our own individual birthday cake. It all turned out great and I think all the girls had fun! I know Savannah did!!

The pizza makers...

Sprinkles, sprinkles and more sprinkles!

Ta-Da!

Savannah makes a wish before we cut into her cake to share...

I got these plastic containers from the cafeteria at Ryan's work, some little paper doilies, and some pink tulle to wrap up each of the girls' cakes to take home. They turned out super cute!

There were too many cute pictures of these sweet girls!! I put all the pictures together in an album here. If you're interested you can take a look. It's snapfish again (I guess I'm permanently having problems with Shutterfly now) so you have to have a snapfish account to view mine, but if you don't it's easy... all you need to do is sign in with your email address and make up a password.

Dr. Mom

2007-04-11T07:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, so we all know one of the many hats worn by a mom is nurse, right? Well, I'm taking that a step further and putting on my doctor hat today. Err- maybe that would be putting the stethoscope around my neck cuz I guess doctors don't ever wear hats.

Remember Sawyer had that fever? I never did take his temp., but he was pretty hot without any ibuprofen in his system. That went on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then Monday it seemed the fever finally was gone for good, but by that evening his chest, tummy, back and neck were covered in a tiny bumpy red rash. I probably wouldn't have thought much of it, what with all this kid's skin problems anyway. But I noticed it right away because his skin has actually been totally cleared up lately. I at first chalked it up to heat rash. Sawyer's skin is so sensitive that if he gets too worked up or warm he breaks out in heat rash all over his torso. But then when he woke up Tuesday it was all the way up to his forehead. The face is not a normal place for a heat rash. He was almost completely covered. So I'm diagnosing him with Roseola. If I remember correctly from all my days as a preschool teacher, I saw it quite often in my two year old class. Three days of fever followed by the same textbook red non-itchy rash for anywhere from one to three days. No treatment, no worries, just let it ride. So that's what I'm doing.
I'm not even calling the pediatrician (does that make me a bad mom?), just still keeping an extra eye on it all. He's in much better spirits since his fever's been gone.

Savannah's been saying some funny little things lately. I just realized yesterday (shows how closely I pay attention to my daughter I guess) that when she says the word dolphin she says dolophant. Apparently the dolphin is related to the elephant. HAHA!

It's snowing again today. (The latest forecast said there's still a possibility of snow showers all the way thru Sunday. I would have never imagined Savannah would have a snowy birthday. Enough already!!) Anyway, Savannah saw the snow and asked (for the millionth time) why it's snowing in the spring. I told her Michigan was a little mixed up about the seasons this year. She said, "It's mixed up? Maybe it shouldn't be called Michigan... maybe it's name should be Mix-agin."

Speaking of mixed up, they called a two hour delay for school yesterday. For what, no one has any idea. It was pretty foggy and a bit frosty, but the roads were bare and dry and I have no idea what was so dangerous about that. I would have thought if they called a delay at all this week it might be today. It's much slushier with that yucky mix of rain and sleet and snow. Ryan just called and he's not to work yet... he said the roads are not good.
Anyway, the two hour delay yesterday meant Savannah's morning preschool was cancelled. After last week's spring break, she was crushed not to be able to go to school again yesterday. Especially since her gramma and grandpa were going to go and help in her class yesterday. She was very sad about that. So it was a really good thing that we had her friend birthday party planned for yesterday, so she still had something to look forward to. The Birthday Party! I thought it went really well and turned out super cute if I do say so myself! I need to finish editing pics from yesterday and I'll get some on here to show and tell. I tried last night, but I was just too exhausted when we got back from the airport. Ryan and I were in bed at 8 o'clock, can you believe that?! We went through a few pictures on the laptop, watched a catch-up episode of LOST on the laptop, and then played a few games of Idiot, and were asleep by 9:30 I think. And I still had a hard time getting up this morning, some 9 hours later.

Okay, I'm off to actually pay attention to my kids and maybe get some pictures edited and uploaded sometime soon. Happy Wednesday!

Our Easter story

2007-04-09T10:51:00.000-05:00

Alrighty... here you go. A whole heap of pictures for you Grammas and Grampas and Aunts and Uncles. And other anonymous or not so anonymous stalkers LOL!
Remember, you should always be able to click on any pictures to see a full sized image. You might not want to look so closely at these though... I was just not paying attention to the camera and snapping away hurriedly most of the time. Some are dark and grainy, some are blown out with too much sun, many are just plain blurry. So look past all that and just enjoy the kids!

The Easter Bunny left a trail of jellybeans for the kids from their beds all the way to their Easter baskets. Savannah was surprised and excited, and Sawyer just hit the floor on his knees and got right to the job of following the trail, picking up the jellybeans. It was pretty cute!

Can you tell my kids don't get candy very often? Look how excited she gets about finding three Hershey's kisses!

Sawyer found a new love...
Chocolate!!

And here's a little egg hunting from the afternoon...

We took Ryan's parents to church with us, had a nice relaxing afternoon of playing games, and then a great big ham dinner. It was so nice to have family here for a holiday!!
We tried to take a family picture, and they actually would have turned out real nice, except that once again I wasn't paying attention to my camera settings and they are all almost way too dark. Hopefully Ryan's mom got a good one or two on her *film* camera. Can you imagine... we have to wait to get those developed to see them (!). People still do that?!? LOL!

Easter in the snow

2007-04-08T19:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I can say that I have never hid Easter eggs in the snow before, but there is always a first for everything. Although we really didn't have much snow left by the afternoon when we did the egg hunt but it was still about 35 degrees at that time. Savannah and Sawyer had a great time looking for the eggs, although I don't know if Sawyer knew exactly what was going on other than we got him in his winter boots, put a Easter basket in his hand and sent him out looking for food. Then when we did the hunt inside for plastic eggs filled with candy, Sawyer was going crazy with the candy. At one point we saw him eat a Hershey's kiss...but we don't know where the foil went. Then a few minutes later, while I was attending to the ham, there was a commotion in the living room. So I went to see what was the matter and it turns out that Sawyer had five jelly beans in his mouth and the multi-colored drool was getting all over his new linen Easter shirt. When I was digging the goop out of his mouth I was expecting only one jelly bean but I just kept finding more and more in there. He wasn't very happy that I took all of his newly acquired treasure, especially when it tasted so good.

Here are just a few shots from our outdoor hunt. I'm sure Heather will add many more for you tomorrow.

Hope you like dying Easter Eggs...

2007-04-08T07:22:00.000-05:00

... cuz I've got LOTS of pictures for you!

So this is the first year Savannah really "gets" all the holiday preparation stuff and can actually do everything herself. So fun! She was super excited to decorate Easter eggs. We had a great time spending the afternoon coloring eggs.

Sawyer just woke up from a nap...

He finally warmed up and got into it...
and just wanted to play with all the "balls"!

"You're tell me not to bang the "ball" on the table?

So what happens if I bonk it on my head?"

Woah! Look what that did! I broke the "ball"!!

Happy Easter everyone... I hope you each have a blessed day celebrating the miracle of our Savior and all the Lord has given us in His perfect plan of salvation.
And have fun finding Easter eggs and eating chocolate bunnies :)

toddler kisses

2007-04-07T21:33:00.000-05:00

I know I promised Easter egg pictures, and I have those... we'll get to them in a minute.
First I had some cute ones from this evening when the Huffs joined us for dinner. They aren't the best pictures... some are quite blurry. But they made me laugh.

Why is it that toddlers love kisses so much?
And why is it that they are so bad at it? I mean really... they open their mouths as wide as they can (where do they learn that anyway??) and they never hit their intended target. I guess they probably don't even have a specific intended target... they just aim for the head?

Anyway, here are Sawyer and Donnie smooching. Er... trying to kiss each other that is.

Sawyer goes in for a kiss... and never makes it all the way there.

Donnie goes in and gets a mouthful of shoulder...

Sawyer tries again... not sure where he was headed.

They actually went back and forth like this for awhile!

Close!

Their faces actually touched!!
I think this counts.

And then they giggle about it...

And SJ got herself a little action too...

so random

2007-04-07T11:17:00.000-05:00

New blog I wanted to pass on to anyone interested...
Bethany Fegles is a fun friend (can I say friend if I've only hung out with her once?) I met when I was visiting Annie last January in Portland. Bethany and her husband had just been getting involved in our church when we were getting ready to move last year, so I never got a chance to get to know her well. Fun girl, great photographer. She started a new photo blog I just wanted to share it with you. If any of you in the Portland area are looking for a photographer... Bethany just got her business started recently and from what I've seen she is awesome! You can check out her website here.

Still snowing around here. In fact, it's coming down like crazy right now as I type. No zoo trip for us today. I'm not real thrilled with 30 degree weather for Easter. But I've decided we are going to bundle up and do an Easter egg hunt out in our yard tomorrow. As ridiculous as I think it is, I realized we will most likely experience another Easter with snow falling, so we'd better experience it fully!
We're going to be decorating eggs and all that fun stuff today. You can probably check back here and find pictures later tonight.

Sawyer's still under the weather. Not sure what his deal is... he woke up yesterday with a fever, and he's just been kind of laying low, Mr. Mellow, which is NOT like him. This morning he woke up kind of late at eight, crying (which is also highly unusual... I hope it's not his ears...) and when I went in and picked him up out of his crib he nuzzled right into the crook of my neck. I sat down to rock him for a bit, and he snuggled there with me for a good 15 minutes, which never ever ever happens. Poor kid, I hope he shakes this fever soon.

Ryan and I took Sawyer out to the grocery store this morning (Savannah stayed with gramma and grampa). I had noticed before that Meijer had some new car carts for the kids to ride in, so we went over to grab one. Sawyer got pretty excited, but what we didn't realize was that you have to rent them (just $1) and they have tv's in them! I have never heard of such a thing!! The kid sits in there behind the wheel and there's a little 7" tv screen on the dashboard with Barney or Bob the Builder playing. We got one because Sawyer had already climbed in, but he barely paid attention to the video... he's content with the original standard car cart with a simple steering wheel at all the other grocery stores. One of the employees stopped and talked to us about how great those carts were, and don't we just love it?! She commented on how quiet the toy section had been now that they got these; there are no longer kids throwing fits in the carts and aisles because they want all these toys... they're too absorbed in the tv! Not quite sure how I feel about that... with all the tv's and dvd players placed all over for the kids: in the minivan, in McDonalds, now in the shopping carts! Talk about tv as a babysitter. Where is it going to end??

Okay, enough rambling for now...
I'll be back later with pics from today.

I did it again

2007-04-05T21:30:00.001-05:00

Well, this time I only got behind by a day. It's so ridiculous... it only takes like what- two minutes to transfer and post a pic each day?! I'm going to blame it on out of town guests getting in last night... haha!

So once again, you will find my favorite game of catch-up of picture posting here.
*Be sure and check 'em out Kim... I used a pic of one of the boys' twin shirts for today. Can't wait to see pics of both of them in their new shirts this Sunday! LOL*

Hail and Frogs and Boils, Oh My!

2007-04-05T15:07:00.000-05:00

So we're on a search for The Wizard of Oz. While we were on our road trip, Savannah acquired both a little Dorothy and Cowardly Lion doll from Happy Meals. She *loves* Dorothy with her "gorgeous blue dress" and her sparkly red shoes. I was telling her that these dolls were from a movie; she was quite intrigued, and now she will not let me forget that she wants to see it. I'm afraid she'll find it a little scary with the witch and the flying monkeys and all, but I told her we'll watch it together. Problem is, I can't find it anywhere. We don't own it and the video stores all only have one copy which is always out. Hmmm... maybe I should try the library.

With Easter coming up this week, I of course was perusing the Easter goodies at the grocery store this week. Well I came across these finger puppets that Ryan and I actually saw awhile ago and I meant to share them with you all, but I ended up forgetting all about them. Apparently Kroger decided to "resurrect" (haha, I'm so punny!) them for the Passover season... take a look at these. Yeah, that's right. Every child needs the Ten Plagues Finger Puppets. HAHA! Can you believe these?!? Here you go Jimmy, you can be BLOOD... and Janie, you can be LICE! Now let's act out the story of all this death and misery!! Can you just imagine?! Personally, I don't treasure the thought of my little ones playing with blood on their hands (okay, I'll quit with the jokes now. I'm starting to sound like Ryan).

The kids are enjoying their time with their Gramma and Grandpa Sanders here. I must admit I'm enjoying their time with their grandparents too... I got to take a uninterrupted shower this morning, I ran to the grocery store completely solo, and now I even got a chance to do a little blogging mid-afternoon without jumping up to separate the kids every two minutes. Ryan came home super early from work today to hang out with everyone; that was a nice surprise. Ryan's also is taking the day off tomorrow so hopefully we'll come up with some fun stuff to do this weekend. We were tentatively planning on going to the Detroit Zoo on Saturday for their Easter hunt and stuff, but now with the snow and freezing temperatures I'm not sure about that one.

I'm off to make some dinner. Curried Butternut Soup tonight. Hot soup on a cold spring day (or is it winter? I forget.).

snow, snow, go away...

2007-04-04T07:41:00.000-05:00

Yep, it is actually snowing this morning.
I am sitting here looking out the window at flurries in the air and the slightest white dusting on the roof of the house across the street.

Yesterday? Beautiful day... got up to 76 degrees. I was driving home from the store last night at 8:30 with my sunroof wide open and it felt like summer.
Overnight? Low of 36. That's a forty degree difference in 12 hours, folks.
Today? Rain and snow showers with a high of 35 (yes, that's lower than yesterday's low!). The forecast says maybe two inches of accumulation tonight.
So much for spring.

I was reading the blog of a lady who lives here in Michigan, and while she likes to complain about the weather here a little more than I care for, she did write something yesterday that I thought explained Michigan perfectly. She pointed out that
" ...the mitten state basically has two seasons - winter and summer. Our spring and fall are a schizophrenic combination of the two... One day we could have beautiful 84° weather, and the next day it will be 38° and snowy."

Schizophrenic combination... LOL!
That about sums it up.

The SawMonster

2007-04-03T13:02:00.000-05:00

My child is a monster who eats poor innocent chickies.
Yes, this little egg "basket" had a little fluffy chick in it, along with some tiny little polka-dotted eggs. Well Sawyer got a hold of it, and as you can see, it is no longer a basket, and the little chick is nowhere to be found.

I had pulled my box of Easter decorations out awhile ago, but had yet to put together my Easter Tree as I do every year. I was having trouble finding a suitable branch to use for my tree this year. Normally I can find a real pretty branch, just the right shape for a "tree" and usually has little buds on it or cherry blossom flowers or something nice and springy. Well this year, seeing how Michigan apparently really doesn't have a spring until months after everyone else in the country, I had a really hard time finding a nice branch. Everything in my yard is still bare and looks cold and dead. So while I was holding out, hoping for some trees to blossom around here, my blown and decorated eggs were still hanging out packed up in the box. I left the box on a dining room chair in the corner of the dining room. It's a fairly tall box, so I figured it was pretty safe up there from the curiosity of the SawMonster. Yeah right.

I forgot about the fact that Sawyer *loves* to make step stools out of everything. Baskets, boxes, tupperware, pillows, you name it and he'll drag it over to wherever he's trying to get taller. So I found him the other day, standing on Savannah's cooshie, on his tiptoes, in front of the chair, straining to reach into my box. He was going for a second egg. The first one was on the floor and had a hole out of it and was missing pieces. Namely the fuzzy little chick. Seriously, I think he ate it because I can't find it anywhere!

Anyway... bummed me out because that egg was my favorite. But it got me motivated to finally just go out and pick a branch, ugly or not, and get that tree done before Sawyer mutilated anymore of my creations!!

Here's a quick pic of it... sans some of my eggs because the branch I picked ended up being kind of small.
I cannot believe it's almost Easter already!

p.s.
I finally updated my pictures on my other page. I am seriously getting bad at that... I'd like to do it everyday, and while at least I'm succeeding at using my camera everyday, I'm becoming a real slacker on actually getting them onto my computer and up on the page everyday. But here they are (and only up to nine days late!). I'm gonna try hard this week to have them there each day, so feel free to check up on me. The link is always in the right hand sidebar BTW.

Some News

2007-04-01T21:47:00.000-05:00

So it looks like we are going to continue our tour of United States by moving to St. Louis. We made our decision after careful consideration of our three main options and have elected to accept a position with Pfizer in St. Louis. It was a tough decision since we had the chance to move back to Portland, but in the end it made the most sense to continue on with Pfizer and go to St. Louis. I feel confident that I will really like the job and I think that we will be happy in St. Louis. We know a few people there, although they are all spread out throughout the city, but are looking forward to hanging out with them.
Honestly, we really wanted to stay where we are but there weren't any job offers to keep us in the area. We feel like we just got here, just got settled into our house and were just looking forward to our first Michigan spring. Right when we thought that we were done moving for awhile, we are going to be getting ready to pack up again. I am not sure when we are going to be expected down there but I am guessing that it will be sometime in June or July. Not only will this be our 5th move in just about 5 years of marriage, but this will bring us one step closer to completing the tour of all the cities that the fab four members live in, we only have Columbia, MO left (unless we can draw he Laughlins to St. Louis first).
Savannah isn't ready to move but she did tell me that if we do move she wants to move to Portland. I think that taking her on our first house hunting trip helped her with the idea of a new house and she might me ok with it now.

Here are the highlights for each family member from our first house hunting trip:

Heather:
That there was a Target, Old Navy and Krispy Kreme within just a few miles from every house that we looked at, and this is an easier way to get that new kitchen that I want.

Savannah:
Swimming at the hotel of course!

Sawyer:
We went where? I figured that you just wanted to torture me by keeping me in the car for four straight days, but I did like riding on the elevators.

Ryan:
CFA within walking distance of our hotel in Indy.

I (or Heather) will keep everyone up to date on when and exactly where we are moving but until then keep us in your prayers that this will be a smooth transition, that we find the right house and enjoy our new city.
For everybody back in Oregon, we are still planning on coming back to visit for a week or two this summer but we really don't know when at this point, but will let you know when we do.

Since I have been out of the blogging game so long I didn't put a movie quote in this post, so instead people can guess what my favorite Luther Vandross song is...

stay tuned...

2007-04-01T13:44:00.000-05:00

For those of you more interested in the job/relocation/house-hunting/are we really moving or not aspect of our little trip this week..... I am happy to inform you that Ryan told me he would be happy to blog about that today for y'all.

Is it funny that I am so excited about this?
Here's why I'm so happy to have a blogger husband for the day...

1.) I don't have to worry about saying too much (my usual babbling) or deciding which boring or not so boring details to share with the internet... (that would be you readers).

2.) Hopefully he will cover enough so that we don't have to keep telling the same stories and answering the same questions from every single family member and friend we talk to (which is one of the reasons I love having a blog so much!). Not that we mind, it's so just easy to have it all in one place and not have to remember who I told what...

3.) It's Sunday. Is that simply a coincidence or is it too much to hope that this blogging-for-today-husband might return to his blogging-once-a-week status he started with? And the movie quotes??

4.) I think my husband can be slightly amusing (notice I did not say the funniest person I've ever met, Ryan!) and combining that with the fact that I enjoy hearing his take on things while relaying them to our friends and family, I used to find his posts very entertaining.
Definitely more entertaining than my own rambling!

Anyone else miss Ryan's two cents around here?? Be sure and let him know and maybe we can convince him to resume his co-blogging duties. Maybe.

Anyway, you can check back later for the St. Louis details...

road trippin

2007-04-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well, we survived four days in a car and hotel room with the four of each other.
Can I just say it was a loooong four days.

Here are just a few quick highlights...

After we made half the trip on Wednesday, we drove from Indy to St Louis Thursday morning, and spent the afternoon with our realtor getting a feel for the areas and things like that. (We're checking out the western suburbs of St Louis... the Lake St. Louis/ St. Peters/ O'Fallon/ Chesterfield areas. Pfizer is located in Creve Coeur and in Chesterfield.)

Thursday evening the Laughlins drove in from Columbia and the Malones drove in from the city (our hotel was actually in Chesterfield) to have dinner with us. It was so great to see everyone and get to hang out for a bit. We ate at Red Robin and just chatted and had a great time for as long as we could before we needed to get the kids back to get to bed. They all followed us back to the hotel and after the kids said goodnight, Ryan got to hang out with the gang for a bit longer downstairs in the lounge.

Friday was stormy and pouring down rain (and I mean pouring torrential rain). Great weather for driving around and looking at houses, let me tell you. We were completely soaked from between the car and the front door of a house every time. Just basically another full day of driving around the area with the realtor and trying to get a feel for the area. We wound things up mid-afternoon and spent some time hanging out at the hotel pool and hot tub.

Sawyer's absolute favorite part of the trip was anytime we were in an elevator! He thought it was such fun. He ran all the way down the hall every time we left our room, pressed the button, and just stood there giggling waiting to get on. When we would go down, Ryan would tell him to jump, and he would just crack up. He made the funniest faces and went "woooo!" every time. We may never need to take this kid to an amusement park... just the elevator will do just fine! Here are a couple shots in the elevator on our way to down to the pool.

We of course wanted to take full advantage of our meals being on someone else's dime, so we wanted a nice dinner out. I felt bad however, making the kids sit through yet another long dinner in a restaurant (not to mention the majority of the past three days strapped in a car), so we walked around the mall down the road and fed them from the food court there. (This mall had an awesome two-story carousel. As luck would have it, I actually contemplated taking my camera to the mall with us, but then I thought why? we're just getting some exercise and getting the kids some dinner. So I didn't. And then we find this gorgeous carousel there... I was so bummed!) So the kids took a couple of rides, had some dinner and we headed back to the hotel for a much needed early kiddo bedtime. After the kids were finally asleep, we ordered our dinner to-go from the nearby Cheesecake Factory. Ryan went to pick it up and when he brought it back, we ended up eating it in the little entryway to our room, on the floor, right between our front door and the door to the bathroom with the bathroom light on and the door cracked open so we could see, but not bother the kids sleeping over in the beds. Nice fancy dinner. Out of take-out boxes on our hotel room floor! Oh, the sacrifices parents make...

We hit the road Saturday morning... a full day of driving with the kids. Poor things. I felt bad for them. They were so sick of being stuck in the car and probably quite sick of each other by that point. I feel like we were all within a five foot or less radius of each other for those four days... between the car and the hotel room.

Ah.... peace and quiet at last... at only an hour left till we arrived home!