Home progress

So the house is rapidly moving along!  All the exterior walls are up, and all the interior "bones" are up, so we were able to walk through the house and get a feel for how it actually will be.  Pretty much how I envisioned it after analyzing our plan for so long!  There are things here and there that are either bigger than we expected, like all of the windows (which is a good thing!), or smaller than we expected (like the kids bathroom) but not a huge deal and nothing we could really do anything about anyways without changing the floor plan and adding to the cost of it which we could not do. And really, how much time will they spend in there?  We got along fine in our previous TEENY bathrooms, so this will be just fine!

Did I mention the roof is up and the shingles also? Yeah, they are.  

The windows and exterior doors are in the garage and will be installed on tuesday. We just picked out our front door earlier this week and already its there!  The shower/tubs are sitting outside waiting to be installed this week too. Also the interior walls will get their "meat."

The electrician comes this week as well so we had to go mark any special places where we wanted plugs and cables installed. 

This past friday we went and picked out our cabinets. We went with cherry cabinets in a shaker style I guess is what its called? We then picked out all our flooring- carpets, vinyls, laminates. Countertops/backsplash.  Phew, it was exhausting but I think we are happy with our choices!  I know i'm definitely happy with the cherry cabinets because i've always thought they were beautiful, but we'll see how the rest looks once its put together. 

Our master bedroom closet is humongous. I didn't realize it would be so big, at least for us its huge. Considering we don't really have a ton of clothes or shoes, we are going to have a heck of a lot of extra storage space in our closet! And the floor plan we selected originally had a daylight basement with a set of stairs in the hallway, but obviously we did not need a daylight basement for this lot or the stairs, so in place of the stairs we made a giant storage closet.  I shouldn't have an issue with storage in this house like I did at our other house! Since the closet is not as wide as a set of stairs, this also made for a nice wide hallway as well. I LOVE how spacious the house feels! I can't wait to move in and feel the breathing room!

My only complaint is that right between our lot and the next lot is a street light, but looking out Jadon's bedroom window of the house the first thing you see is this big street light. Hopefully with some clever landscaping I can make it less noticeable- both from the street and from inside the house!

I am just beyond thrilled! This is such a dream come true for us! We always knew we wouldn't stay in our last house forever since it was such a tiny lot, but we never dreamed that we'd actually ever be able to sell it and make enough to afford to move somewhere bigger with a bigger lot. I'm so excited my kids will get to run and play in their own backyard and kick/throw a ball in it, have a slip n slide, a pool, a swing set, a playhouse, etc.  We would be able to fit it all in our lot now, and then some! And we will be able to have our families and friends come over and be able to fit comfortably inside our house for gatherings without being squished inside.  We will even be able to put the leaf in our table and have plenty of room! 

I can't wait to have you all over to see it when we move in! :)

Pix Post

Here's a long overdue picture post.  Just random pictures! 

A few weeks ago, Avery learned how to write her name.  This was the first time she wrote it.  She hasn't stopped since, and she has greatly improved!  And now I don't even have to tell her anymore what letters to write, she knows the letters in her name.  My little smarty pants :)

Avery got some lip gloss for Christmas from her Aunt Alayna, and we got that out a couple weeks ago, and boy did she have fun with that.  She had to keep applying it over and over to both our lips, and here we are showing off our glossy lips.

One morning Avery came out of her room with I think every piece of jewelry she owns on, as well as a flower in her hair and her sunglasses on.  She was very stylish.  I snapped several pictures (only posted 2 here though). My favorite is the 2nd one on here where her big brother tried to photo bomb.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love having both a boy and a girl? I get the best of both worlds!

Here is the foundation of our house!  This picture was taken on the 15th of this month. 

Like I said, Avery is constantly writing her name now......even in pretzels. 

This sweet little face was beginning to remind me of Tow Mater (see next picture).  His two top teeth are loose, and while the one adult tooth has already started growing in front of the baby tooth, the other one was not, and it was growing properly.  However, that tooth kept getting looser as the adult tooth was pushing it out, and as it pushed it, it started to stick out and down farther and farther.   To be continued..........

So this picture was taken yesterday of the house and all the walls, internally and externally are now up!

Wearing her sleeping mask.  She insists on wearing it most nights.  Such a personality she is!

We've had the weirdest weather lately!  Its been cold!  Mid-upper 20's and low 30's, but never warmer, and the fog never clears.  Its been going on this way for like a week.  And for many of those days we've had some freezing fog.  Except the freezing fog only affects this particular area, and then once you get out of that  "zone" it clears and its dry. So this is pretty much what yesterday looked like, and today at our house.  On our way home from dropping Jadon at school, the street was empty, I slowed down and snapped a picture because its so weird to me.  Its very slick.  I couldn't figure out why they hadn't cancelled school, and then once I got out of that pocket, it was pretty clear, and by the time I got to Jadon's school, the road was dry. I really have enjoyed the pretty white though!  Its given us some different scenery.  

And today when I picked Jadon up from school, I noticed a hole in his mouth. His tooth finally came out! It got knocked out while he was playing basketball at recess.  Now if we could only get the other one to come out!  Then we will have 4 lost teeth already.  

I have to say, I think nothing is cuter than kindergardeners with missing teeth.  Those grins with the missing teeth just make them seem so innocent and cute.  I couldn't wait to get a holey smile of Jadon! 

This week we picked out our front door and interior doors for the house.  And later this week we are going to pick out our cabinets, counters, back splash, carpets, and all other flooring. (deep breaths.........) that's a lot of decisions to make but i'm so glad because we are getting to move in a month earlier than planned!
I cant wait.  I cannot wait!  I CANT WAIT!!!!!!!

Reflections

So I know its a couple weeks late to do a post reflecting on the previous year, and my hopes for the new year, but I haven't had time to sit and write up a big post.

What a year 2012 was!  It started when Derek had to go to Wisconsin for training for work as soon as the new year began. Having been pretty much thrown into his new position and didn't really have an option to not do it, we were uncertain of what the future would hold, or what the new position would mean for him. And knowing that he would have to take several trips to Wisconsin early in the year was not appealing to either of us. 

While the weeks that he was away were tough for us all, we survived :) As I knew we would. And his new position, while it has been stressful for him, its also been quite a blessing, and he really enjoys his job and his boss loves him.  He earned several certifications over the year, and is now extremely important and valuable to his team at work. So there's no doubt that his job is secure!  And, with his certifications now, if for any reason he decided to change jobs, he would be hired quickly.

I am quite proud of him and all he has accomplished and how hard he works and his work ethic!

Continuing on with the year.  Jenny then got sick and for an entire month it seemed like time stood still.  Everything revolved around our ability to be able to get to Portland to see Jenny and support the family. It didn't happen nearly enough since it was the middle of cold/flu season, and with Jadon in preschool, we always had colds. We didn't want to spread our germs and risk spreading anything to Jenny and complicating her situation. We did everything humanly possible to keep from getting sick- washed our hands incessantly, I was bleaching a lot, we stayed home a lot to avoid germs.  It helped, and after the first couple weeks we didn't have any more colds amazingly, and weirdly didn't get anymore until the first week of June! 

By the grace of God, Jenny thankfully got better!

It was during that whole thing that Jadon celebrated his 5th birthday.  Unfortunately, while Jenny was getting better, Jadon was not. Being the sensitive guy he is, and a little (a lot) on the fearful side, he was a little traumatized by his Aunt's serious illness and the situation. Queue the sleeping problems and serious anxieties.  After about a month we realized things were not getting better, and were actually getting worse, he was really bothered by something though he could not tell us exactly what. We decided counseling was needed.  And thank goodness!  I will highly recommend therapy for children, as it not only helps the children, but also the parents to understand what the kids are going through, which is SO SO SO important!  We learned so much about Jadon that we had no idea was going on with him. For example, to him after Jenny's illness, all illnesses, whether a small cold, or pneumonia, etc, became life threatening to him.  It didn't matter if it was big or small, they were all catastrophic to him.  So we had to learn to make him see that colds were not a big deal.  We had to take the power away from the colds. Its still a work in progress, and he still gets worried when a kid in his class is out sick for more than a day, but the improvement is massive.

Just when it seemed like things were finally going to calm down, I had planned to have a fun filled summer for us and the kids with lots of activities, park trips, outings, swimming, etc.... We decided to put our house on the market. So all our fun activities flew out the window when we had to get the house ready for market. Once the house was on the market, I would do my best to keep the house clean and well kept, and before we would leave the house we would clean it and make sure it was show ready in case we got any calls while we were away.  It was such a pain, and i'm SO glad that after 35 days we got an offer! I couldn't imagine doing that much longer!

We got the offer while we were in Sunriver with my family over Labor day.  What a fun time we had!  Jadon talks about Sunriver all the time. I love when good memories are made, especially when so many not so good memories have been made previously.

Unfortunately we couldn't find a place to live in time, and well, you know the story.... we're renting a tiny house that was dumped on by the previous tenants. 

It was difficult moving, as I've already blogged about.  Apparently Jadon has been having a harder time with the move than we had thought though... my sensitive child.  So we are having him go to the counselor again for a few sessions.  We are hopeful that once we get moved into our new house, settled, and back into our normal routine that things will improve. Again, we are so thankful for the insight that the counselor provides us with!

Since the move, we've been quite busy.  Derek's work has been terribly busy.  The kids and I have been busy around here, and random things keep coming up.  Our new house is the silver lining in it all, and that is what I focus on!

December was tough.  The Sandy Hook shooting was really hard, I think it affected me so deeply since I have a little guy in elementary school. I take him there, assuming he will be safe.  Its an elementary school! I still think about that every day, and those poor families, those poor children. Every time I drop Jadon off at school I give him a hug and kiss, I say a pray in my head for the safety of the school and all the people inside it, and then I walk away trusting God to protect my baby boy. 

My hopes for this year are different than previous years.  I learned a lot last year. I learned a lot about people in my life, about my kids, my family, and what is really important and what's not. 

I learned that family is the most important people in your life. Except not everyone in your family is "healthy" for you, which is so sad.  I've found that the ones that accept you the way you are the ones that love you unconditionally and will not go behind your back. Additionally, the ones that constantly create drama are not healthy.

This year instead of a personal new years resolution, which I think are pointless because how many times do we ever stick to them? never. This year I made one for my family instead, which I think we are much more likely to stick to.  So they include things like- monthly date nights for mommy and daddy; monthly date nights for parents and each kid; be kind to one another; work on ALL manners; have family games nights; less screen time; find a charity to volunteer for.

The charity one is tough since the kids are still small and can't do a lot of things but its important to me because I want the kids to grow up knowing the joy of giving and helping, but I found a blog where a woman lists a bunch of different charities that kids can do. One of them is to sponsor a child, and so we already started doing that.  We are sponsoring a little girl in Colombia who is 3 like Avery.  Her name is Carolain, and we are looking forward to corresponding with her and getting to know her and watching her grow up and now have access to things she wouldn't have otherwise if we hadn't sponsored her.  We'd also like to sponsor a boy who is Jadon's age.  After looking at all the little faces online, its just so hard to chose, I want to sponsor them all. For some reason it was easy to pick the girl, but i'm struggling with picking a boy.  But anyways, for just over $1 a day, less than your daily Starbucks run, you can also help a child. Check it out at Worldvision.  The kids are excited to write a letter, draw pictures and send our pictures.  Of course Carolain will be a little young to understand it right now, but someday she will.  And someday if we win the lottery we can go visit her. :)

It's Official!

We're buying a house!  And there it is in the picture below!

No no no, not the back of that yellow house on the left of the picture. That's someone else's house.
Do you not see the house??????  You don't?????  Oh, well you will in April when we move in!  For now you just have to envision a house there, because that's where our house will be!  You are looking at our lot, and this Friday they will begin excavating!

We couldn't be more excited with how things have worked out! :)

So our lot is .39 acres, its mostly flat, and its on a culdesac which will be PERFECT for the kids to ride their bikes in! Our house will be a single story, with 3 bedrooms and an office, and INDOOR laundry!!!!  Something we didn't have at our old house, and we don't have in the rental now either, so i'm sooooooo excited!  No more freezing my tush off every time I need to throw in some laundry!  The main living area, dining, kitchen will be a nice, big open room!
And best of all, the kids will have a TON of room to run around and play outside in the backyard!
We can hardly wait!  April can't come fast enough!  Usually I want time to slow down, but not so right now! Derek's going to continue to be super busy with work as they move closer to his "go live" at the hospital, and now that we are "settled" here, I've got the kids signed up for lessons again, so hopefully that will help time to go faster!

I'll be posting pictures of the progress along the way, as I can hardly contain my excitement! :)

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! Here's our yearly slideshow!
I know this year one of my resolutions was to take more pictures of the other people in our lives, not just the kids, but it seems I forgot that resolution and I did an even worse job taking pictures than last year! :(  Very disappointing!  

So this year, my only resolution for myself is, once again, to take more pictures of the other people in our lives (friends and family) that are important to us, so that you may all be a part of our slideshow next year, and because well, you are all important to us, so why wouldn't we want to include you in our picture life?

I don't know if anyone even watches these slideshows, but they get a lot of viewings around our house all year round!  My kids LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOVE to watch them.... over and over again!  I have to admit that I love to watch them too.  I love seeing the kids grow throughout the year, seeing the things we did, things we accomplished, setbacks and heartaches we may have encountered and overcame.  I love to see all of this... the good, the bad and the ugly, as it reminds me that I am blessed no matter what. 

I'll be posting again soon my reflections on 2012 and my hopes for 2013

http://youtu.be/GjfJGH1JnVY

Merry Christmas

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas!  I can't believe its already here and gone.

This year I didn't send out Christmas cards, I didn't have time to do so. Plus with everything packed in boxes, I just feel overwhelmed and cramped and unorganized (we all know how I function better when i'm organized!) my to-do list was 100 miles long and I just couldn't bring myself to add Christmas cards to the list. I fully intend to next year! But I can't make any promises ;)

I keep hearing from people, including myself, that this year just didn't feel like Christmas. And I can't pinpoint why exactly. Perhaps for us it was because we aren't "home", and we don't have decorations set up, and our tree is a 4 ft, fake tree that had no lights (until Santa put lights on it.)  Or maybe its just because we've been too busy to actually sit back and enjoy the season. I know for me, for an entire week after the Connecticut shooting, I felt like I was in a trance. I just couldn't fathom what had happened in that elementary school, and it affected me very deeply. Its just hard to understand the horror that was taking place there, while for the rest of us life just continued on as normal. Here we were, preparing for the upcoming holiday with our babies and families, while these poor families were grieving over the deaths of their young children who should not have died in their school where they were supposed to be safe. It just didn't seem right.

Whatever the reason, it just didn't seem like Christmas this year.

Regardless, we are so blessed to have such wonderful families, both close by and far away.  We couldn't ask for better. Thank you for being a part of our lives.

I'll end this post with a few of the more "memorable" pictures from Christmas :)

Not sure what this face was from!

Cousins

In the next few pictures, Tinkerbell was mad that her new makeup case that she got from her fashionista aunt was taken away for the picture since I caught her with a thing of nail polish opened...ready to paint her own fingernails i'm guessing.  So she was unwilling to cooperate for this set of pictures, but at least her big brother was a good boy and sat nicely for it! 

 She certainly is dramatic, isn't she?

Here's our lowly little tree on Christmas morning

Jadon is so excited to open presents!  But we are waiting for Avery to wake up.  He was bouncing all over the house!  We got a video of it. :)

She finally got up. Unfortunately we can't get a "normal" picture of them, only goofy ones. Notice the pink eye cover thingy around her neck.  That came with her beauty case that she got from her Aunt (mentioned above and pictured in the photo with Avery and Brooke)... Avery insisted on wearing that all night long on Christmas eve.  She's so silly! 

And finally, Christmas morning at Gramma Karla's. We sure are glad to have gotten to spend Christmas with that lovely girl this year, even if it was for only an hour. 

Very sweet to horribly bitter

Friday was a very bitter sweet day, except in the other order- sweet bitter.

The day started out good.  Derek and I volunteered to help out in Jadon's kindergarten classroom for his christmas party.... sorry, HOLIDAY party. Gramma D came to watch Avery so we could have that time with Jadon, and we enjoyed being in his classroom, seeing him and his classmates and his teacher, and seeing a bit of what they do during the day before the party started. 

Jadon was very happy to have us there and wanted us to stay even after the party was over. But the rest of his day consisted of recess and library (tough day!!) ;)

That was the sweet part of the day. 

Later in the day I was on my computer and that's when I found out about the shooting in the CT elementary school and I started sobbing instantly. After having just been in Jadon's class with all those sweet, innocent little children, I kept thinking of their little faces and how unfair it was for those children that were shot and their poor families. What kind of world do we live in where we can't even take our kids to their elementary school without fearing for their safety?? They were mostly kindergartners (correction: I just read that now they were all first graders).... Jadon's age! Its just something that my mind can't wrap around.  HOW does someone do this???  HOW does someone kill another human being, let alone a CHILD?! 

At that point, Avery asked me why I was sad, and Jadon asked if I missed the old house again.  I said "noo." What do you say?  There's no way I'm telling them what happened, they don't need to hear about this,  this is almost too awful for even adults to hear. So I just told them that the reason I was crying was because there are some very bad people in the world. 

So now while the rest of us are spending the holidays holding our children, these poor families had that joy ripped from them. And for the rest of their lives this time of year will be a constant reminder to them of what happened. 

And what does this mean for us?  Well, Jadon's school already goes on lock down after the bell rings, so that is good.  Everyone who enters the school must be approved through the office staff first, sign in, and wear a visitor name badge. 

This only makes me teeny teeny tiny better. The office staff can only do so much to fend off someone that forces their way in, especially since they are behind a desk. And if the person comes in with a gun, they are defenseless. So basically the lock down only makes me feel better about some creep who wants to come kidnap kids from the school.... but not from some psychopath wanting to come shoot up a school.

Basically its just one more thing that i'm going to worry about. I always worry when i'm away from my kids anyways, might as well add school time to the worry list too!

Be still and wait

I realize I haven't been a very good blogger this year at all!  In fact, in comparison to other years where I've had over 100 posts every year, this will be my 50th post for this year and its almost over!  Sorry Grandma!!!

Not much happening here, just trying to pass the time and stay sane!  I'll admit its been hard for me leaving my house to come to a tiny, stinky rental.  As I look back over the last month and a half, I feel a little pity for myself in those first couple weeks when I felt like life was just a terrible tornado.  Boxes everywhere, bugs everywhere, no order whatsoever in my mind where I like to have everything perfectly in order. On top of that, I was dealing with sadness over leaving our house....yes, its just a house, and i'm sure everyone thinks i'm nuts for holding on to it so dearly, but it was our first house, and we made it into a home, brought our babies home there, and made irreplaceable memories there. And since i'm a sentimental schmuck, leaving my house that I loved dearly to come to a drab, dreary, dark, ant infested, teeny, tiny, smelly rental house across town, was difficult.

I had a couple days of heart palpitations again a couple weeks after being here, as well as some sleepless nights. Luckily I got that intense stress level under control and the heart palps stopped after a couple days, and the sleepless nights after a week or so, although every once in awhile I still have several nights where I don't sleep well.

I've done my share of whining and complaining, which I really hate. I certainly don't like complaining, and I don't like for my kids to witness it. That's a super example to set!!  Even though I was complaining, deep down i'm so grateful.  Grateful to have had our house to love, grateful for a roof over our heads now, grateful that its temporary ;).  Grateful for what the future holds! I know living here will only make me even that much more grateful for our new house, wherever that may be!

In the midst of my turmoil, I came across a bible verse that made me just STOP.  I've had it posted on my computer desktop ever since and I see it every time i'm on my computer, and it's a perfect reminder for me when i'm feeling pressed.
"Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act." Psalm 37:7
When we moved, I felt like nothing was going as planned, there were no houses for sale that we were interested in, and I felt impatient and irritable, after all, I don't want to be in this rental any longer than we have to be! And when I came across this verse I realized I needed to just stop, as I mentioned before. And instead of trying to make things happen on MY time, let things happen on HIS time, because His timing is perfect. And sure enough, when I did that, things started to happen........... :)

So now i'm taking each day as it comes.  I try to dress nicer a couple days a week rather than just throwing on my most comfortable clothes, which are also the least inspiring. I'm back to grocery shopping at winco, something that I had put off doing because I just didn't want to, it too much effort, and instead we just went to nearby grocery stores which were also more expensive.
I try to keep up on the housework, which is pretty easy when the house is 900+ sq ft.  The kitchen HAS to be kept clean almost constantly or its not usable, and i'm not just exaggerating.

Unfortunately, our vacuum is completely disgusting  and we will be buying a new one for our new house. There's just no way we are going to use this vacuum on a new house! The carpet in this place is filthy, even after 2 shampoos.  I'm convinced the previous tenants did not vacuum once in the 2 years they were here.... especially considering there were 20 places of chewed gum embedded in the carpet! I'll put it this way, I vacuum here 2 times a week at least, sometimes more. The canister is filled with dirt and dust, and the filter is completely disgusting as well. The whole thing has a layer of dust caked onto it.  Imagine what it will be like by the time we move, if this is how its like and its only been a month and a half!

The kids are doing good.  Jadon's two front top teeth are loose, and have been for awhile, but he does not wiggle his teeth, so it takes forever for him to lose teeth. So, because of this, the same thing that happened with his bottom teeth is now happening to his top teeth- the adult tooth is growing in in front of the baby tooth. For some reason, he is not excited about losing his teeth, it causes him anxiety.  Never met a kid that wasn't excited to lose teeth! He's the first! So last night it caused him some anxiety, which always causes him to have sleeping problems. So 4am rolled around and he was up and in our room telling us that he couldn't sleep, he wasn't tired, he was hot, every excuse in the book, yada yada yada....

So i've decided that its time the kids have some chores.  Its something I probably should have implemented a while ago, but this whole year has been sortof a whirlwind of crazy so that didn't even cross my mind.  But tomorrow we will be starting chores.  Without allowance. Thankfully Derek and I agree on that.  Neither of us was raised with an allowance, and we don't think its necessary.  We are a family, and a team, and each member of the team needs to contribute to make the team run smoothly. They don't need to be paid for this. Kids these days are so overindulged! They have enough toys to have their own toy store, they get paid for everything, and the tooth fairy apparently gives out twenties to some kids!!!!

Thanksgiving Break

Can you believe that kids have a week off of school now during Thanksgiving? When we were kids, we had 2 days off! Seems like kids these days hardly go to school anymore, with all the extra days off, early release days, etc. due to budget cuts!

With that said, we met with Jadon's teacher for parent/teacher conferences this week (already!) He is doing very well, on track and above in all areas.  Especially in reading.  He is really excelling in reading.  They have reading groups in his class, and each group consists of just a handful of the kids. His teacher said they are at the point in the reading now where a lot of the kids start to slow down in the learning, but she said Jadon keeps climbing away, and she doesn't want to keep him from continuing that so she wants to move him to the next group level. So, she sent us home with 2 extra lessons to get him caught up to the next group, which we are working on and so far is easy peezy for him, and he is very excited to move up! He enjoys reading and is eager to learn.
His writing and drawing/coloring are not the best, only because he is not interested in those things, so he doesn't put any effort into it.  He has no problem in actually doing them though.  He can easily write his letters now, its just sloppy. I have to get on to him about writing with nice handwriting, especially when writing things like schoolwork or thank you cards. Of course, I can't talk, I have terrible handwriting so who am I to tell him to write nicer!?

On friday he and a couple other kids in his class got to go with the principal and get a cookie because they ran the most laps in their class for the jog-a-thon!  We are pretty proud of him! He is really enjoying school!

So in other news, our bug problem persists. I've been trying desperately to get rid of these ants, but it seems that no matter what, they are all over the place. Since they are all over just randomly, I cant place any bait traps. The last straw for me came the other day when I found about 5 on my couch throughout the day. Also that was a bad day and I was finding ants in every room of the house pretty frequently. I spent 2 hours vacuuming the house, and taking the hose and vacuuming the floorboards and around the walls, moving the couches.
The bug guy will be here bright and early Tuesday morning to treat the bugs. :)

Every year we do Operation Christmas Child.  If you're not familiar with it, basically people can create shoe boxes full of toys, toiletries, school supplies, etc. for kids in less fortunate countries, and every year they send millions of boxes to children.  You can make a box online through the website and they will pack the box or you can pack your own and drop it off at a designated location.  In the past we've just done it online, but the kids have not seemed to understand the point much.  This year, since Jadon seems to be having an issue with being quite ungrateful lately, and because we want the kids to understand that Christmas isn't about getting. We want them to experience the joy of giving, and to see that while yes, its nice to get gifts, but its even nicer to give gifts. So this year we packed our own boxes.  This way the kids had to go to the store, pick out stuff that they would not get to keep, that would not be for them, and then give it away to children who would get to keep it.  In addition, Derek showed the kids videos and pictures of kids receiving their boxes. The kids liked seeing the children so happy. It always brings a tear to my eye to see those videos of those happy faces.
For me, its bittersweet.  I wish that I could make hundreds of boxes, and I wish that I could personally deliver each one.  The reactions from the the children receiving the boxes are always the reactions that I hope to see from my own kids when they get presents from anyone, but its usually not that way. One of the downsides of being so fortunate is that you grow up not appreciating what you have and what you get, so we are hoping to instill this into our kids early on so that they realize that they are really and truly blessed.

Praying for sanity

Hard to believe its already nearing mid- November!  

We've been here at the rental now for around 3 weeks, and continue to have problems.  Since the day we moved in, I would randomly find an ant here and there every once in awhile, and I'd kill it and then wouldn't think anything else of it. 

Last friday morning I was sitting on the couch in the early morning before everyone else was up, and had an ant crawl out from one of the arm sleeves of my robe.  I smashed it then flicked it.  A second later, one crawled out from the other sleeve!  I about lost it at that point!  I hate bugs!  The kids love to have the ants and bugs crawling on them, but I can't stand it!  I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on. 

Then a few minutes later I got up and looked in the cupboard for something, cereal i'm guessing?  And the cupboard had ants all over in it.  You've GOT to be kidding me. 

So I immediately went and got some Terro ant bait traps and set them out.  They worked almost immediately, and before long I had a line of ants running up and down the wall.  I set up several more in the kitchen, and after a couple days I only see an ant every once in awhile in the kitchen. I am still seeing quite a few every day in the bathroom though, so I've got one set up in there as well. And randomly throughout the house I will see one here and there, and when I do I kill them.

So after a day or so of using the Terro bait, I got out my swiffer sweeper vac and was vacuuming the kitchen floor, and I looked in the canister to see if I vacuumed up any ants before I dumped it in the garbage can, and I noticed there were no ants, but something ELSE was moving.  Little worm looking things.  Oh fantastic!  So we saved the bugs in a ziploc bag and called the landlord and she called the Good Earth guy, who came today to confirm what both Derek and I had researched to be.... carpet beetle larvae. 

On a positive note, this house has a big backyard, and the kids have been LOVING it.  Its fully fenced, and they are outside rain or shine, dark or light, cold or hot.  So, i'm confident that we made the right choice in selling, afterall, the biggest driving force behind our decision to sell was that we wanted a bigger property for the kids to be able to run around in. The unfortunate thing is they don't have many outdoor toys, so they (read Jadon) is very destructive.  A tree branch is taking quite the beating and i'm afraid it will be broken off before we leave (the hummingbird feeder that was hanging on this branch has already been broken), the apples from the apple tree are used as baseballs to throw at the house and fence and trees.  2x4 boards that we brought from the old house and were sitting in the backyard in a stack were moved all over the yard and almost crashed through Avery's bedroom window on at least one occasion. The little pea gravel that's used as landscaping, has been used for play... as seeds all over the place, as fireworks all over the grass, or just  thrown all over the deck and porch.  Its beginning to look like a tornado has gone through out there, and quite frankly, sometimes watching Jadon running around back and forth out there it feels like i'm watching a tornado. At the same time, if he's not under constant surveillance, those are the things that happen. Is it normal for boys to be so destructive?  Or is he just bored and trying to come up with things to do?  He's always destroying everything.  He never plays with toys for long the way they are meant to be played with.  This drives me crazy because most of his toys end up broken because of this.  Its not just toys that he destroys. Anything he can get his little hands on ends up broken somehow.  Even the poor bushes outside take a beating in one way or another!  I told Derek several months back after a particularly frustrating day where Jadon was making a destructive path throughout the house and yard, that someday Jadon was going to be a famous creator of some trillion dollar invention or something and we would be the parents interviewed years down the road and we'd say "as a child, he was always destroying things. Everything he played with he never played with the way it was meant to be played with. It was never played with the way it was supposed to be played with. Little did we know that his destruction was paving the way of a brilliant inventor!" 

Needless to say, between the bugs and the destructive child, i'm praying for my sanity!

Well here we are

We are all moved and the house is no longer our house. We closed thursday the 25th.  The last couple weeks have been incredibly stressful and rough for me, emotionally.  Apparently I was quite emotionally attached to my first house, and I knew I was, but I didn't realize just how much until it came time to actually start moving.

So our realtor has a rental house, and she's been working tirelessly most of the summer to try to get it back up to par after the previous tenants destroyed it.  She said we could move in there. Even though it is small (998sqft), only has 1 bathroom, Avery's room is about 7x7ft, and the kitchen is much smaller than what I had before!  Unfortunately, we've had a lot of things go wrong since being here.  Things like the faucet in the bathroom leaking and draining slowly, and the toilet suddenly started leaking out the bottom at the floor, a lot.  Luckily, Brenda gets it taken care of pronto, and we ended up with a brand new faucet and a brand new toilet! My dryer wont hook up to the outlet in the garage either, so Derek had to buy a special cable, and I should have my dryer hooked up tonight.

I'll admit that I felt really depressed last week.  It was a hard pill to swallow, plus I was at the old house every day cleaning and getting the last of our things out, and rounding up the cats to bring over, so it didn't make it any easier seeing the house every day, and then leaving it to come here to the rental.  In fact, typically whenever I was at the old house I was sobbing.  The kids were always asking me "mommy, why are you sad?"  Jadon would sometimes say "i'm going to miss this house" and I'd wonder what the heck we were doing selling our beloved house!  But then we'd come back to the rental (which has a fenced big backyard) and the kids would immediately go outside and play and play and play, and I know we made the right decision to sell. After all, our biggest motivation for selling was to find a house with a bigger yard for the kids.

So now that I haven't been back to the house anymore, things are getting better.  We are adjusting to life here, although I have no desire to cook anything or be in this kitchen at all!  This town smells to high heaven, and I miss N. Albany and cant wait to get back!
The kids had no problem at all adjusting.  A little surprising to me, I expected some minor problems at least. The cats?  Well, Our black kitty had no problem adjusting.  She seemed to figure it out right away, even had no problem with being in the carrier and in the car, and almost seemed to like it!
The other 2 disappeared for several days and I thought for sure they were gone, but then they showed up last night and were back again this morning for breakfast!  I'm not sure where they went or what they were doing?

Now if we could only find a new house to buy!

Kindergarten Picture

Just had a second before dinner is ready and I wanted to post Jadon's kindergarten picture that we got home today! Of course, I cried when I saw it. :*) Happy tears... bitter-sweet ones. He's growing up, and he's so handsome!  And he is aware of this.... I asked him a couple weeks ago if he knew that he was handsome, and he said "Yeah, I know. Some of the first grade girls tell me i'm cute."  Oy.

Packin' up and Movin' out

This is our last "normal" weekend in our house.  Next weekend we will be here but we will be moving.... so I don't count that as a "normal" weekend.  Its hard to believe we are down to the final days here in our house! At this present moment, we have no where to go.  We are going to look at a rental Monday   Derek's called on several other rentals and never got responses back on them.  So we are really praying this one on Monday works out!!! We had to call off our house hunting for the rest of last week and until after we get moved and settled because it was beginning to be overwhelming trying to pack, search for rentals and go look at houses to buy every evening after work, and still carry on with the rest of our normal everyday lives.  Really the only thing left for us to look at is 1 house on the market and one that's for sale by owner and another that's possibly for sale that we saw on craigslist last month.... not sure if that one is still available though.

Our house is a disaster, and that alone is overwhelming to me. Boxes are everywhere, stuff is all over the kitchen counter top.  The disarray is maddening to me and that alone is enough to stress me out!

Emotionally, i'm having a hard time letting go. Maybe if we had a new house to go to to call home it wouldn't be so hard, but the thought of leaving our first house is hard.  We've had so many good memories here.  Slowly making the house into a home, bit by bit, as our budget would allow.  And that included putting nice window coverings on the the windows, painting the whole interior of the house, changing out the fixtures, replacing the kitchen sink and the dishwasher, water heater, heat pump, etc. And then of course the yard.  Derek has put many sweat hours into the yard for me, and all the times i've moved bushes around after deciding after a year that I didn't like them in the spot i'd planted them.

And then of course, the memories of my babies in the house.  Each step of my pregnancies in the house.  Bringing them home to this house, and having the cats approach them like they were aliens. Rocking Jadon in the glider in his room in the middle of every night for 30 minutes, then putting him down sound asleep, only to have him wake up the second I step away from the crib as if he were never asleep. Walking and bouncing and bounce-walking up and down the hall and the bedrooms trying to get them to settle down or to sleep. Many nights sleeping on the bedroom floors of sick or scared kids. Washing pencil and dry erase markers off the walls and doors. Proudly hanging the children's artwork as masterpieces on the stairway.  Teaching the kids their boundaries outside the house (they can go anywhere in our yard, but must not go into the neighbors yards, thats out of bounds, and must stay on sidewalk), having them obey those boundaries, seeing neighbor kids who have NO boundaries and run out in the street , and having a neighbor lady compliment us about how well our kids seem to know where they can and cant go outside the house.  Jadon learning to ride his bike without training wheels. 

So many good memories in this house.  I keep telling myself a quote that I saw on pinterest a while back "Don't cry because its over; smile because it happened."  This is a new chapter in our lives.

I just hate change.

So how are the kids doing in all this?  Well, Avery seems totally oblivious.  And Jadon, I've been worried with his past issues this year, but he seems to be doing just fine.  We've been trying to include him in everything. Explaining everything to him.  He's been asking lots of questions about what kind of things are going to go with us when we move (our beds, toys, couches, etc).  I explained to him that he will not get to ride the bus anymore when we move since we'll be out of school boundary most likely while we are in a rental.  He's sad about that, but once we find a house to buy he knows its possible he might get to ride the bus again. Overall, he does not seem fazed either.  I tell the kids, "we've only got 2 more weeks left in the house (for example) how does that make you feel?" and usually he says "A little sad. I love this house." However, he LOVES going to look at other houses with us. He usually likes them all. ;)

So I know this is a long post, but its been awhile, and it will probably be the last one before we move.  Jadon's doing AMAZING in school!  He loves it!  He's told us several times how much he loves his school. He's really growing up.  Its amazing how far he's come in 6 months since before we started his counseling   Its hard to believe its the same kid. He's back to his old self, and even less worrisome than he was before. However, a few weeks ago at school, his little friend (one that he went to preschool with also that is in his kindergarten class too) was not feeling well at school.  Jadon said his friend didn't have a sore throat or stomach ache, and had been to see the school nurse, who had sent him back to class.  Obviously I think if he had been truly ill, the nurse wouldn't have sent him back to the class. Jadon was very worried about him. It doesn't really show much though until nighttime when Jadon's laying in bed trying to go to sleep.....when he's alone with his thoughts. So it was after 9pm, and we heard him in his room crying, so we went to see what was wrong, and he said "I'm not sick."      ???
We figured it out that he was just laying there most likely thinking about Jackson and worrying about his friend. We assured him Jackson would be fine, and his mom would take care of him and that everyone gets sick from time to time. That was enough to comfort him because he went to sleep and didn't wake up until morning. Jackson was at school the next day too, so that was good. I had explained to Jadon that maybe Jackson was just having a bad morning that day and was just feeling out of sorts, and that we all have days like that sometimes.

Avery had her birthday last week!  My little baby girl is not so baby anymore!  She's a big 3 year old!  At her 3 year old check up, she was 50% percentile on the nose for weight, but well above the 95% for height! Both my kiddos are going to be tall skinnies.... but is anyone surprised by that?
For halloween, I wanted to make their costumes, but I just could not burden myself with that on top of the house and moving, so I bought their costumes.  Avery's going as Minnie mouse, and Jadon is a SWAT team member. Tomorrow Derek and I are going on a field trip with Jadon's class to the pumpkin patch! We are looking forward to that!  And so is Jadon!

Well i'll end this book now, but the next time you hear from me, we'll most likely be at a different house!

October tomorrow?!

The last couple weeks have been super busy! And now today is the last day of September already!

Yesterday we did The Color Run in Portland!  That was an experience!  We decided to take the kids with us, they were free and hopefully they would see that fitness/being healthy= fun!  We jogged some, but walked most of it because of the kids. Pictures will follow eventually, but possibly not until my yearly slideshow! (Yikes!)

I'm not even sure what to say!  The next few weeks will be busy as well!  Next weekend we will celebrate Avery's 3rd birthday! :*(  (I should probably get on that!) The following weekend we have a birthday party to go to, and then the weekend after that we are moving!  Where?  We don't know yet!  We've been inquiring about some rentals, but we are needing a month to month rental and most places are 6 mo or 1 year leases.  SO, that makes things complicating.
On the house front, we've met with a few builders and we are feeling like building might not be whats in store for us. For one thing, the lot we are looking at, we could potentially get cheap, but since we'd need to put a daylight basement in, it would be a more expensive build, so that would cancel out the cheap cost of the lot, which would make the price too high for us most likely!  The last builder we spoke with, we talked to at the lot as well as at our house, and he was very thorough and honest about what kinds of expenses a build on that lot would entail.  We haven't 100% ruled it out yet, but our goals have shifted towards looking at already built houses now..... and finding ourselves a place to rent in the meantime!
I'd like to just say, this is very hard for me.  I HATE change for one thing, and knowing i'm leaving the comfort of my own home for good to go to a rental (that we don't even know where yet) for a house that we don't even know when we'll find....it scares me. I like the familiarity of our life. I like the routine of our life. I don't do well with spontaneity, and flying by the seat or your pants, or unplanned things, and that's kind-of how this feels to me. I'm anticipating a lot more migraines this month, a lot of sleepless nights, and a lot more heart palpitations!

On a lighter note, my baby girl will be 3 in a week! How is that possible!?  She requested a Strawberry Shortcake cake, and I make all my kids birthday cakes.  And even though they don't look very good most of the time- after all  i'm a mom, not a professional cake decorator and I've never had cake decorating classes- I make them with a special ingredient that no bakeries can make them with- Love!  So I found a Strawberry Shortcake cake to make Avery, and I ordered the topper, and the rest doesn't look too terribly difficult.  I thought about attempting to make my own marshmallow fondant since it apparently tastes a heck of a lot better than the premade Wilton stuff. We'll see.  I don't know if I will have the time to do that. We haven't even talked about what we are doing for her birthday yet!  AAHH!  I feel so behind!

So here's a picture of the cake:
The cake itself and the stripes will be easy.... the flowers.... i'm not sure. I'll have to research!  But she will LOVE it!  And she gets to keep the set on top to play with afterwards.

I was noticing the other day how much Strawberry Shortcake had a makeover since when I was a kid!

Kindergarten

My little man started kindergarten today!  Hard to believe where the time has gone.  I was worried that he was going to have a hard time with it, given his recent history with separation, but he had no problems at all! Hopefully this continues!

I, on the other hand, could not hold it together and I was balling before we left the house.  It all started when I got up and showered, and I told myself I had to be strong, I didn't want to add any stress to him because I figured he'd be having a hard time, the last thing he needed was to see me getting all worked up.  I was fine in the shower, until thoughts of him as a little guy over the years started popping up in my head.
Then a few minutes before it was time to go, he wanted cuddle time with mommy, so we were on the couch cuddling, and then Avery and daddy went upstairs to brush teeth, and more memories started rushing to me, and I lost it right there.  Oy.

Then I was fine at school, I had a lump the size of Texas in my throat when we said goodbye to him, but I was keeping it together, and then Derek asked me how I was doing and again I teared up.

I'm eager to go and pick him up.  His class is about 30 minutes shorter than his preschool class-time was, so its only 2.5 hours, which is ridiculous, however, his class is relatively small, Derek counted 20. I'm just not sure how they are going to learn anything in that amount of time.  We may have to do a little "homeschooling" on the side.
I'm not even sure how i'm going to get grocery shopping done in that time.

Avery is happy about the situation.  She gets my full attention again without any Jadon intruptions, so she's totally happy about it!  The first thing she wanted to do when we got home was play with her doll house together.

Sold

We got an offer on our house! It was for a bit lower than our asking price, but its a solid offer, and its enough for us, and neither Derek nor I, nor our agent feel that we should counter offer at all.  We'd be crazy if we thought that someone would make an offer on our house for the original price unless there was competition.
So, we accepted the offer!

So, pending an inspection and an appraisal, we will have to be out of our house by Oct. 25th.  Yikes! We are worried about both of those.  I'm worried about the inspection.  Apparently they will spend 4 hours inspecting every square inch of your house, and some even mark off things as petty as "a light switch plate is crooked." What if there has been something seriously wrong with the house all along that we've had no idea about????  Or one thing that really scares me is mold!  Seems like there is so much potential for mold to grow in a house, in ANY house.....

Anyways.  Derek's really worried about the appraisal.  If the appraisal comes back lower than the asking price, then the deal's off, and the house is off the market until  ???  That would be horrifying, that would mean we'd be here for a very long time.

Adding to the stress, we've got like 6 or 7 builders that we will be "interviewing," and trying to coordinate times to do this, and the meetings will be lengthy as there is a lot to discuss.  Most of them appear to only have times during the week to meet, meaning we cant do the meetings on the weekends, which would have been ideal.

On top of that, we'll have to move most of our stuff to storage if everything goes well with the appraisal and inspection, and find a temporary place to live. Derek's work is picking up, and Jadon starts kindergarten next week.
I had planned to enroll each of the kids in one extracurricular activity this session, but will now be holding off until things settle down!  Too much crazy busyness for this family!!!  We like our calmness!!
But, I guess we asked for this!  And we have to go through this if we want to move.

Week off

Derek always takes this week off of work every summer.  Why this week?  Because its our anniversary week, that's why! :)
Tomorrow will be our 9th anniversary!

Saturday Jadon had his last counseling session! However, we are supposed to start preparing him for kindergarten by separating him from me frequently, so Gramma's, we will be calling upon you both for some babysitting in the next couple weeks!
Today we are going school shopping!  I already got Jadon's clothes for school, but this will be a trip for supplies, backpack, and shoes. And new shoes for Avery.... who says she wants pink shoes.

Monday we went to Enchanted Forest.  Had lots of fun, spent most of the day there, got the kids bracelets so they could ride the kiddie rides unlimited, and that they did! We were very proud of Jadon, who overcame his fear of going on 3 different rides, including the log ride, the roller coaster, and the frog hopper that had scared him in the past, and all by his choice, he went on them all!  The frog hopper he went on several times again with Avery, the log ride he had fun on I think, and now they take your picture coming down so we bought our picture (pretty amusing!) and the roller coaster will probably not be gone on again and cant blame him for that!  The roller coaster is pretty rickety, jerky.  No seat belts, I was his seat belt, and I hit my head on the side of the cage thing several times.  Its so jerky its not even fun.... it would be a lot more fun if it weren't jerking you all over the place.

Also this week we are working on teaching Avery to potty in the potty and wear underwear.  We went to the store and she got to pick out a pack of underwear.... she picked out Tinkerbell ones.  She LOVES wearing them, but suddenly she hates going to the bathroom in the potty.  We are pretty sure that its a power issue.... She likes to do things on HER terms. She doesn't like being told when to go to the bathroom, she wants to be able to pick and choose when she wants to go, and whether that's in a diaper or her underwear or the toilet.  So now when we tell her she needs to go sit on the potty she throws a huge fit. Which is funny, because 3 days ago, before we started  training, she had no problems going!  Also, like her brother was, she's scared to poop in the potty.  So she's holding it. Oy.

And, on the home-front, we were concerned with the few showings we've had, and since this is our first home sale we don't know whats "normal" so we asked our realtor and she is not concerned, and said every house is different, and gave us examples of many houses she's got listed right now that have had few showings and just sold, or some that have sold after just one showing, some that have sold after 1 month, etc, etc, etc. We just put our fliers in our front yard, and already those have been emptied and we printed more off.  We've seen a lot of  "drive-by's", and I know our house is in tip top shape, its nice and clean, and we just need to wait for the right people. God's teaching us patience, and i'm certainly getting the message! And i'm okay with it!
I don't know if I ever mentioned our plan?  We are leaning towards building a new house once we sell ours.  We've got a potential lot picked out. We can't buy it until we sell this though, so again, patience...... and we will know that if its still there and available when our house gets sold, then its ours, and if not, then it wasn't meant to be and God has other plans for us.
Being proactive though, we did meet with the seller of the property, and found out lots of useful information! He was really nice, answered all our questions, concerns, etc.  Our realtor set the appointment up for us and went for moral support.
We've been looking online at house plans. Figuring out what we want, what we don't want. Derek and I each made a list of 10 different things we want structurally in a new house, for example: big kitchen, dual vanity sinks in master bath, separate master suite from other bedrooms, etc.
Now I go to bed every night dreaming about our "new" home, and wake up every morning dreaming about it.  Instead of fretting about selling our house, I have dreams to focus on instead :)

Pinterest

Ya gotta love Pinterest!  EVERY time I get on it, I get sucked in!!!!!!!!  Its so horribly addicting!  But it can be addicting in a good way or a bad way, depending on how you use it!  I have found a lot of recipes and great ideas that I've used on it.... like the things i hang the kids artwork on in the stairway....inspired by pinterest.  And my menu board.... also pinterest inspired!  Tonight for dinner we are having some roasted red potatoes that are looking mighty tasty that I got the recipe from pinterest.
But, I've also seen people who use it for pointless reasons..... I wont name names! ;) But dont worry, I dont think anyone who reads here is guilty of this.  I know only intelligent people read my blog ;)

Anyways, just a quick post because I just saw a quote on Pinterest that I thought was really great, and a great reminder and motivator!  This summer has been really tough being motivated to work out, not sure why! I always feel good after I go and once i'm there, but just going is hard.  I know its so important though for my health, and I have totally seen the benefits of regular exercise.  In sept. it will be a year since I started going to toning class with my mother-in-law. Last sept or oct i had written in my journal my weight, and I was surprised to see that it was around 8 pounds more than what I currently weigh! I guess I didn't realize i'd lost more weight.
I haven't lost any weight in the last several months, i'm pretty stuck at this weight, but really i'm not concerned with losing anymore.  I'm totally happy where i'm at!  I've far exceeded my goal weight, and i've tossed all the clothes that I once wore that I had kept when I was heavier in hopes of one day wearing again, except they ended up being much too big.
Someday maybe i'll feel brave enough to announce my current weight and my old weight.... right now, not even my husband knows.  I'm still sensitive about it, and now looking back at my old weight, I gasp at what it was. Thank God i'm tall, otherwise I would have looked like quite a cow!

Anyways, here's the quote I saw on Pinterest.... hope it helps to motivate you all too!

"The pain of being overweight is far worse than the pain of working out."

So true!

The Open House

Yesterday was the realtors open house, and it went well!  14 realtors came and all of them had nothing but positive comments to say about the house, but there were a few negative comments regarding the neighborhood in the fact that there are a lot of rentals here, and there's been a few foreclosures and there's a short sale down the street.  They thought that the house was priced appropriately, but that with the neighborhood having so many rentals and the foreclosures/short sale, it might drive the price down some.
So, overall, it was good and bad news I guess.  Pretty much what we were expecting to hear, so it wasn't a surprise at all.
We may have to consider lowering our price a tad if we haven't had any interest in a month.  Which is fine, we have a small amount of wiggle room, but its still disappointing. (Thanks a lot neighborhood!!!!!!!)

My motivation is the kids.  They desperately need outdoor space that they can call their "own".... they need a place to dig and run, and have a swing set.  They both LOVE the outdoors, and while yes we do have a park 100 feet away, its not always possible or practical for me to drop everything and go to the park whenever they want to play outside.  Sometimes i'm in the middle of making dinner and they want to go play, its nice to just send them outside to play in the backyard.  As it is right now, they have no where to dig or run because of cat poop or the space is too small.  Sometimes in the evenings we go in the front yard as a family and they love that because there's a tiny bit more more room and we throw the Frisbee or play catch.

Anyways, its only been a week and a half!  Feels like its been at least a month and a half though!  Phew!

Next week Derek and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary!  9 years already!  Where has the time gone!? I sure do love him :)

1 Week

The house has been on the market for 1 week tomorrow evening.  So if you've been wondering where i've been, i've been keeping the house spotless, and trying to occupy the kids and spend more time with them since the last month has been spent on nothing but house preparations.  The poor kids have been bored stiff, and it was beginning to show in their attitudes in a BIG way!  They missed their parents and were becoming bored and stir crazy.

Anyways, so we had 2 showings so far.  Less than we thought, but I think we were both preparing for a massive herd of showings.  The first showing was a couple, and they thought the house was lovely, but they were looking for a bigger back yard.  Cant blame them!  So are we! ;)
Today we had the second showing which was apparently investors looking for a rental property who liked the house but are more interested in a single story.

So, we continue to wait for the right people. This week our realtor will be having an open house for other realtors to come and look at the house.  She does this rather than have open houses for potential buyers since in all her many years of selling houses, having open houses for buyers rarely sold houses, and it was usually the neighbors who wanted to snoop. Instead, she has an open house for other realtors, and has drawings for giftcards to draw them in, and food, so then the realtors can go to their clients and say "hey, I have a house to show you that I think you're really going to like!"
So, i'm hoping this will bring in more showings!  We've had really really positive comments by the previous realtors.

So,  i'll leave you with that!  I hope that really really really quickly I can post in the title "SOLD!"

Almost Ready!

The house is almost ready!  Basically it just needs a good head to toe cleaning, and then it will be ready to list! We are more than ready! The last few weeks have been tiring, stressful, exhausting.... Safety Town in the middle of it all did not help OUR timeline, but that's okay because we're going by God's timeline.

Now that its just about done, we're getting really excited. I have a good feeling that we're going to sell quick.  Except now i'll be totally disappointed if we don't.

Last weekend we looked at several houses again, without the kids. A few that we'd already looked at (WITH the kids) that we wanted to revisit and look at better without them, and a new one that was just listed.  The ones we'd already looked at were scratched off our list of potentials.  The new listing was an older house.  It was in good shape for being older, had good bones.  But the kitchen and bathrooms needed immediate work.  And it did smell a bit like cigarette smoke. Other than those things, it was well cared for on the inside. Just needed updating.  Outside it had power lines from the house and the surrounding houses meet up in the backyard, which was an eyesore, and one was quite low and almost touchable from the back deck.  I was not comfortable with that.

Really, there is not much at all out there that meets our criteria.  And even if we were being a bit picky, we are wanting this to be the last house we buy, so we have a right to be picky.

So, now we are looking into building a house!!  And this is most likely the route we will go.  This way we will be able to customize a house plan how we want it to fit our needs/wants, and find a lot that is more what we are looking for. We are QUITE excited! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
More to come on that soon!


Next time I post, mostly likely will be when the house is on the market! Wahoo!

Safety Town

Jadon finished Safety Town this week, phew!  While i'm really glad he got to do it and experience it, i'm also really glad its over!  It was a very hectic 2 weeks, between trying to get the house ready, and since Safety Town was right in the middle of the day in Corvallis, most of my day was spent focused on it.... either driving to/from it, or blowing time in Corvallis while waiting for Jadon to be done.  It was tough on Avery too.  I think she was sick of riding in the car, sick of sitting in shopping carts, all this time focused on Jadon or the house.  We did go to the park a couple times, and one day I let her get a little toy at TJ Maxx. 

Yesterday was his graduation ceremony.  Jadon said friday morning "Today i'm congraduating!"

Let me just say, i'm going to have a tough time at kindergarten graduation because I was having a hard time keeping it together for this!  I'm pathetic!

So things he learned about at Safety Town: Fire safety, water safety, traffic safety, park safety, pedestrian safety, officer friendly, stranger danger, poison safety, train safety, seatbelt safety, etc.  He got to do crafts, watch videos, drive pedal cars, take a school bus ride to the firestation, go to the park to learn about park safety, talk to the police men and firemen.  He got to meet new kids and make new friends.  He had to learn his full name, his address, and his phone number.  He learned how to dial 911.  Each group of 6-7 kids had 2 teen volunteers helping.  

Even though Jadon is already Mr. Safety Conscious, this was really good for him.  

Below i've included some pictures and a couple videos.

Jadon standing with part of his group. He is next to the girl in red.

Each group had a color, Jadon's group was yellow, and each group had a building in the little "town".  Jadon's building was the school.

Accepting his certificate ;)

Showing us how the pedal cars work. Avery has been dying to ride one since day 1. 

A partial shot of "Safety Town"

 The kids all sharing a song they learned about seatbelts... i cant tell at all what they are saying.  Jadon said it goes like this:  "click your seat belt, click your seatbelt, put it on, put it on. Please dont ride without it, please dont ride without it. Sing this song, sing this song."

Phew!!!

I do realize its been over 2 weeks since my last post, and I actually have very good excuses this time!

Well last week Jadon started Safety Town at the Boys and Girls Club.  He's loving that, and it continues through this week.  I'll be glad when its done because its right in the middle of the day, and its in Corvallis, so its a lot of driving, and a lot of killing time while he's doing that.

But the biggest reason i've been away, most of you already know already. We're putting our house on the market! We've been trying to quickly get everything squared away with the house that needs to be done, so we can get it on the market ASAP. We've set a deadline for ourselves: the end of this week. We rented a storage unit, are moving out half of our stuff.  We're getting a few minor repairs done. Our agent is paying to have a new entryway light installed to match the rest of our lighting, we just had to buy the light, which I bought last week, and it will be installed on Thursday!

To say we've been busy the last 2 weeks is an understatement.

We've looked at several homes.  We're planning on staying in the area, but we're looking for a bit bigger, and a bit bigger yard.  Here's our wish list:

- around 1800-2000 sq feet (we are currently just under 1400)
- Bigger kitchen
- A 4th bedroom, or den, spare room... anything that can be used as an office/craft room.
- .25+ acres... but nothing bigger than probably an acre at the very most.

Other than that, things that would be nice to have, but aren't a deal breaker are:
- single story
- laundry room
- pantry
- additional room for playing (playroom)
- 1 LESS toilet (currently, 3 toilets is a lot to clean, i wouldn't mind having just 2)

Derek and I have very different views of how this will all go.  He seems to feel like the house will sell really quickly, and we'll find another place very quickly.  He's also the optimist.  I'm the pessimist, and I have horrible thoughts of the house being on the market for years, never selling, or we get an offer and the inspection comes through with major hidden problems that we had no idea about, or we sell the house, but then end up having to rent another house for years because we cant find another house we like........... yes, i've been doing a lot of fretting.
One way Derek and I are so different- he's a glass half full kind of guy, and i'm unfortunately a glass half empty kind of gal. Sometimes I think he's got his head in the clouds too much, and I think sometimes he thinks i've got my head stuck in a garbage can like Oscar the Grouch. He's always telling me to stop worrying and thinking so negatively and i'm always telling him to be realistic.. we never listen to each other. ;)
I hope and pray that it turns out the way Derek thinks it will, but I'm preparing for it to turn out the way I think it will.

So anyways, if you know of anyone who's looking for a house with an easy to manage yard, an open floor plan, nearly 1400 sq feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, well maintained, dearly loved, a great first home or even a rental property, in North Albany, send them this way! Tell your friends friends friends! Not sure yet on a price, but we'll know by next week!

It finally happened

We had a visit from the Tooth Fairy last night!  After 2 months, one of Jadon's loose teeth finally came out while we were eating dinner.

How did it happen?  Well, its been hanging by a thread for days, but he's been too afraid to pull it or let us even touch it.  Last night during dinner, we had Friday night pizza, and he was trying to tear a bite of pizza off of his piece, and it pulled it to wear it was just dangling there, literally.  Scared him to death.  He began sobbing, wouldn't even let us look at it, let alone touch it.  It finally fell out from his tongue and fingers, and fell out to his lap and under his seat.  Thankfully, there was no blood!

He didn't want to look at it, and he just cried.  I had to go sit on the couch and cuddle with him for a few minutes until he calmed down, about 5 minutes, and then he started to get a bit excited, and he was ready to look at the tooth.  And since then, all we've heard about is his tooth, and how proud he is of himself. 

He has another loose tooth that we need to get out of there.  I don't remember if I've told you or not, but he has "shark teeth."  This is where the adult teeth started growing up behind his baby teeth before the baby teeth were lost.  This happened on both of his two bottom front teeth.  I had called his pediatric dentist and they said its very common and not to worry about it, but just have him wiggle his teeth a lot so that the teeth will come out. Since we've always taught him to keep his fingers out of his mouth, eyes and nose, we've had to really harp on him to wiggle that that one tooth.  The tooth he just lost was much looser than the other, so now we need to really focus on the other one since it was the first one to get a shark tooth. Hopefully this wont happen with any of his other teeth, i'd like for the rest of his teeth to just come out normally..... but, seems like nothing with Jadon's teeth ever happens normally.  Remember, he never got one of his baby teeth in the first place?  Not too uncommon says the dentist, but what IS uncommon is that he has a grownup tooth waiting in place.  Usually when a baby tooth is absent, so also is an adult tooth.  So this is a GOOD thing. 

Bottom line though, i'm so proud of him.  I know he is always so scared of new things, things he's unsure of the outcome of, and this is just another stepping stone.  He survived his first lost tooth... WE survived his first lost tooth.  Now, hopefully Avery wasn't too traumatized by watching it all unfold that she will be scared when she looses her first tooth!

So, I have lots of pictures of the "big event!"

 You can really see the "shark tooth" in this picture, and the tiny red spot where the baby tooth was... like I said, it was barely hanging on!

 The silly sister.

 Here he is before bed with the tooth fairy pillow I made for him.  As soon as I found out his tooth was loose, I knew I wanted to make him a pillow, so I searched the internet for just what I was looking for.  Most of them were shaped like teeth, which were cute, but I wanted something a little different.  After all, I think the Tooth Fairy likes variety. ;)  I came across 2 monster pillows that I liked, and combined the two.  (Jen, one of the 2 that I came across was actually the same one you had tagged me on pinterest so clearly we had the same idea!)
I used fleece fabric, and it was really easy.  I had plenty of fabric, because I downsized the pattern so that it wasn't so big, so I made a second one that's a tad different for Avery.  Jadon picked this pillow because he has a set of alien pj's and the alien has the same antennae on his head.  We left a note for the Tooth Fairy to leave the tooth so that I can keep it, and Jadon left a note for the Tooth Fairy- "Hi Tooth Fairy From Jadon"
He was afraid he was going to sleep on his tooth however, so he didnt want the pillow on his bed, so instead he put it on his bookshelf which is by his bedroom door.... that made things easier for the Tooth Fairy. ;)

The Tooth Fairy left him 2 quarters and 2 new STAR WARS tooth brushes!  His newest obsession.  He's never seen Star Wars, but he got a Lego Star Wars sticker book at Costco, and now he thinks Star Wars is the coolest. I told him maybe if he can hurry up and get that other tooth out that maybe the Tooth Fairy will bring him a new tooth paste to go with his new brushes.  

By the way, I have heard that the Tooth Fairy these days is quite generous, and leaves kids $5's, $10's, even $20's.... and I've heard that kids are EXPECTING these amounts now.  Totally ridiculous.  I told Jadon that I think the Tooth Fairy only gives tooth brushes for the first tooth. 

Good weekend

We had a good weekend :)  Its been a long time coming, havent actually had a really good one for a long long time. 

It all started (for me) on friday, when I organized the bathroom cabinet!!!  Wahoo!!!  I cant tell you the feeling of opening a cabinet that is well organized, streamlined, cleaned, neat, etc.  Its a nice feeling :)  So, that started me off on a good foot!

Saturday morning I went to my first pedicure with my mommy.  Yes, i'm a disgrace to women everywhere that i'm 32 and never had a pedicure in my life!  It was nice!  Relaxing, getting a massage on my feet and lower legs, and on my back from the chair, getting my feet all prettied up, chatting with my mom, and I picked a polish color that I loved!  So much that I bought it. And when I got home, Avery wanted her toenails and fingernails painted right away.  I have a feeling for her 3rd birthday i'll be taking her for a pedicure too, she will LOVE that!

Saturday continued with gorgeous weather, in the low 80's i believe, and a gentle breeze.  We made a trip to the store, and to Home Depot, then Jadon was begging begging begging to go out for dinner. So, we grabbed Arbys to take home.  Apparently a medium sized drink is now actually a large size, and this is true for a medium fry as well.  Too much food. 

While we were at the store we bought one of those games where you have 2 hand paddles with the velcro on them, and the ball that sticks to the velcro.  So after dinner we went outside to play that.  Jadon really likes it! 

Sunday, Fathers day, the grocery store down the road does an annual carshow and theres also helicopter rides.  The helicopter flies right over our house.  Jadon was sooooooooooo excited all morning long about the helicopter.  He was begging us all day to ride it. 
So after lunch we walked over to the carshow.  Jadon was surprisingly really interested in all the old cars. Avery was only interested in the ones that were painted pink or purple, her favorite colors.  Jadon got told by one of the car owners not to lean on the car when he was looking inside it.  Poor child, he was being very very good at barely touching the cars in the first place, a very well behaved kid. He was barely leaning on this car, so he was almost in tears when the guy barked at him.  There was a sign on one of the cars that said something along the lines of "a mans car is like his woman- you can look, but dont touch."  Oh. Brother.  I think thats taking it a little far, but whatever.

So the helicopter was the highlight of the show, taking off in the field right by the cars, so of course we had to go watch it take off and land a few times.  Jadon, still begging to ride it.  Usually its pretty ridiculously priced to ride those things, but it was only $25 per person, which I thought was not too bad, even though it was only like a 5-10 minute ride.  Since none of us has ever been in a heli, and the kids have never flown before, and they were letting Avery fly for free, we decided to go for it.  Unfortunately there was an hour or so wait ahead of us, and they had just left to go get gas.

I was nervous. You know me, I get nervous about things. And helicopters both scare the poo-poo out of me and excite me.  So, my little heart was ticking away. Jadon and I sat in back, and Avery sat on Derek's lap in front.  It was a breezy day, so it was choppy.  I swear, it felt like a rollercoaster ride to me, my stomach was constantly flip flopping.  I cant help but squeal when i'm on rides, it just comes out.  Yes, i'm the weenie who screams on the log ride at Enchanted Forest.
Lets just say, the pilot was rather amused that I was hollering.  He was cracking up in the front.  And Derek thought it was hilarious that the pilot was laughing, so he was laughing too.  I was holding Jadons hand in the back because when we first lifted off, Jadon said "I'm really scared!!!" (he denys that now, by the way), but by the end of the ride, I think I was gripping his hand more for my sake than his.

It was quite an experience, thats for sure!  It pretty much felt how I thought it would.  Would I do it again?  I dont know... maybe yes.  It was one of those things that was both exhilarating and frightening at the same time.... so I dont know if i would go again.  Jadon hasnt stopped talking about it since. 

We finished off the day with Dereks favorite dinner- baked spaghetti.

And the best part- when we were climbing into bed, Derek said it was probably the best fathers day he's had so far. :)  So that was nice to hear. 

Summer!

It cant possibly have been 10 days since I last posted?  Wow!  Well, the last 2 weeks really flew by!

Well, lets see, where do I start?  Well, I came down with an unpleasant cold that I have no idea where I got from.  Had a low grade fever, body aches, sore throat for a week, and a cough that I still have a little.  Knowing that Jadon only had a week and a half left of school, I really did not want to pass it on to him and have him miss the last days of school, so I tried really really hard not to share my germs.  But, colds are very hard not to share, especially when you live in the same house. 

He was the first to come down with it a week later. Fortunately he never had the fever or aches that I had, and even though he was snotty and coughing, I sent him to school anyways.

Avery and Derek came down with the cold a few days after Jadon.  Avery's is mostly just snot. And Derek seems to have fared the worst of all.  He's also had a lowgrade fever, like me.  He's been totally wiped out, ears totally plugged and hurting.  He stayed home from work a couple of days, went back today but said his head is pounding and his ear is plugged again.  Poor guy. :(

I'm glad my cold is mostly gone and I have my energy back again!

So Jadon's last day of school was on Wednesday, and it was a very bittersweet time.  The teacher does testing with each of the kids at the beginning and again at the end of the year to see about kindergarten readiness.  We met with her on the previous friday to discuss Jadon's results.  He was mostly ready at the beginning of the year, and by the end of the year there was no question about his readiness.  His class was a smart class, said his teacher.  Out of I think 15 kids, 9 of them were ready for reading.  So at the beginning of 2012 they started working on reading, which is when we Jadon mentioned his reading group at school. So he can read things like "Ben can run."
One thing she mentioned is how good Jadon is at sounding out words, and we've noticed this too.  He totally blows me away.  He sounded out the word "Pear" a couple weeks ago.  Thats a hard one with the "ea" in the middle.  And the other day I had a Glad Cling Wrap box on the counter, and he came up and read it and asked why it said Glad.  He's always asking what words say, and we tell him to sound them out, and even big words he has no hesitation trying to tackle them.

Anyways, after his last day, the preschool class traditionally goes to the park afterwards to play and exchange numbers/emails for summer playdates and stuff.  So we went and did this.  Derek could not go since he was stuck at home sick, so he was a little bummed.  Sadly, only one of the kids in his class will be attending the same kindergarten school with Jadon, and I didnt even find out if it will be in the a.m. or p.m. class. Most of the rest of the kids are zoned for another school.  Most of them will be back in the same class again in middle school, so it will be fun to see how they have grown and changed. 

Baby Book

Jadon has just 4 days left of his preschool days, and I can hardly believe its here already!  It really seems like just yesterday we were standing outside in the front yard in front of the house taking his picture before heading off to his very first day of preschool, with me sobbing in the front seat of the car before we even pulled out of the driveway!  That was almost 2 years ago!  In just a few months my baby boy will be heading off to kindergarten every morning.  Then the next year, he will be in school all day in 1st grade, and Avery will go to preschool two mornings a week, and i'll be home alone, and it will be eerily quiet, i'm not sure how i'm going to handle that. It will surely be a bigger transition for mommy than for anyone else i'm afraid!

When Jadon was a baby, I had a baby book for him that I never really liked 100%, but couldnt find one that I fully liked. At some point when I was pregnant with Avery, I decided I was going to make hers scrapbook style, since I couldnt find any that I was happy with.  None of them had everything that I was looking for, or they had things that I felt were irrelevant and just took up space and were left empty.  Plus, i'm a sentimental sap and I saved EVERYTHING from my pregnancies, particularly with Avery, so I needed something that I could have alot of extra space in.  Nothing offered that to me, so making my own scrapbook was the only logical idea.  So I made alot of Avery's up when I was pregnant with her, and then just had to fill it in.  After she was born, I liked hers so much, I decided to redo Jadon's and make his scrapbook style too.  And I'm glad I did. 

So their babybooks go from before birth until kindergarten.  Then when they start kindergarten, i'm making a new book, no longer called a baby book.  It will be a school days book.  I remember having one as a kid growing up, and I looked forward to filling that in every year when I started a new school year.  Of course, that was a "fixed" book.  This will once again be scrapbook.  And i'll be elaborating quite a bit, and adding things into it not only from just school, but things that happen outside of school as well during that entire year. Anyways, those books will go from kindergarten until grade 12.  This way, I will always have their lives documented for them (and me) to get to go and look back at.  Who doesnt enjoy going and looking back at that? 

So this summer, I will be finishing Jadon's babybook (sob!) and starting his school days book.

Time just keeps marching on doesnt it?  I feel like i'm on a treadmill that never gets turned off, and each year someone cranks it up a notch faster. 

I wish I could slow it down just a little.

This n That

I have no idea how to open this post, so i'll just start it by sharing a few pix of the kids. 

Here's a topless moviestar I found in my garage.  She was nice enough to smile for a picture, but I think she was confused that she was at a mall because she had a stack of credit cards in her hand, seemingly ready for a shopping spree!

 And then one minute later I spotted an awesome basketball player showing off his moves on the court!

 The kids love the cats.  They love to decorate THIS cat with flowers and leaves, and this cat takes it.

When they're not showering the cat with petals, they're chasing them around trying to scare them.

And...... it was bound to happen eventually, and Avery WOULD be the one it would happen to, since she's the incredibly curious child.  After dinner last night, the kids went into the garage (the playroom) to play, and in a matter of minutes, we hear Avery start crying.  We sit here waiting for her to come running in to tell us she "bonked" something and needed it kissed better.  She's so dramatic and cries about all her "bonks."  Only she didnt come running in like usual, so Derek went to the garage to see what was going on, and he came back in and said that she'd been stung by a bee and asked me to take her.  Poor gal, she was not a happy camper, and Jadon was pretty worried as well (the Worrier), but after washing it with some soap and water, putting it on some ice, and getting a little tylenol to dull the pain, she was a happy camper again.  And here she is, holding up her finger where she got stung.  And you probably wonder how she got stung on the tip of her finger?  She tried to pick the bee up. Yes, after warning her many times to leave bees alone and not touch them, she apparently has to learn some things on her own. 

And theres the little bugar that stung her.

 Here's my Shark.  See the extra tooth growing behind the other one?  The tooth next door to that one is now getting a tooth growing behind that one too.  When I called Jadon's pediatric dentist office, they said its completely normal, happens all the time and not to worry.  Just have him wiggle his teeth alot!  Well, this is so much easier said than done, but we've taught him to keep his hands out of his mouth, so getting him to wiggle his teeth is out of the ordinary for him. I dont think he likes doing it.  I think he's a little worried (surprise surprise) about the fact that his teeth are moving and new ones are growing in, and things are changing in him.  So, wiggling his teeth??? It isnt happening much at all.  One tooth is lose, the other WAS a tiny bit lose, but now feels not lose at all.  I'm afraid its going to have to be pulled in the end.... but please dont say anything to him.

Have you ever had this happen to a rose that you've received?  I got this rose for Mothers Day, (sadly not from my family or friends or anyone I know, but from a restaurant we went to at the coast...) and it before it died it started sprouting new growth, so I kept it.  I cut the rose bud off and put it in some fresh water to see what would happen, and the new growth keeps growing.  I'm interested to see what happens because i've never had this happen before. 

And isnt this a thing of beauty???!!!!  Its my new monthly menu planner!  I found many different plans on PINTEREST, and decided what I liked best, what I needed most. And I kindof combined a couple that I liked best.  Anyways, I found this magnetic dry erase board at Staples, and some magnetic printer paper.  I made a document with color coded meals- Green for veggies; Yellow for bread/grain/potatoes; Blue for Misc. dishes; Red for casseroles; etc, etc, etc.  and I typed out all foods we typically eat on it, plus many duplicates of things we eat alot of, like Jadon's favs- burritos and spaghetti.  And I printed it all out on the magnetic paper. 

Plus I printed a few "Leftovers" and i've also kept scraps of the paper to add foods that i've come up with.  You'll notice that 2 of the days have a questoin mark.  Those days Jadon has counselling in the afternoon, and I dont know what time until the previous week, so those meals are to be determined.  And I apparently forgot a day also, but thats ok, when I do the shopping I will buy for 2 weeks at a time so that things wont go bad. 

 For now, all the extras that are not being used for the month, I keep on my refrigerator, but it would be nice to eventually get another magnetic board of some sort to put them on to make things easier.

The goal is to attempt 1 new recipe a month, but we'll see how that actually goes.  When you're busy, sometimes its just easier to stick with what you already know! 

So today starts the first day of the new menu calendar, and the family is very excited... ok, the parents are very excited!  Jadon a little.  Avery had no clue.  Nothing makes the mommy happier than ORGANIZATION!!!!!!!!!!! :):):):):):):):):):)

***Oh my gosh, I forgot to mention the best part!!  So you'll see in the first picture of the menu that I have recipes hanging down, those are all my recipes that I have printed out on the magnet paper, so that I dont have to go hunting to find them when I need them, they are all right there for me! I just hole punched them in the corner, and I had 2 of these clippy things that open and close and I can get the recipe that I need, and then just hang them back up on the tack that is hanging on the cork board part of the calendar!  So easy and simple and again.... ORGANIZED!!!!  I love it!!!!