Eleven Facts, Answers and Questions

My friend tagged me on her blog to play a game.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you may remember this friend as the one whose husband sat down next to mine during their very first class at NPS and trumped my husband's interesting fact about himself (which was that his first child had been born the previous Wednesday) by going and announcing that he and his wife had 7 children.

(Now they have 8.)

Anyway, I haven't seen one of these survey type deals going around in quite some time (like at least since everyone was mostly still on My Space, or when Facebook was still kind of new.  Heck, it seems not that long ago these things were going around on email as the new generation of chain letters.  Ha.) But I do enjoy answering random questions, so here we go.

The Rules
1. You must post the rules.
2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
4. Tag eleven people and link them on your post.
5. Let them know you've been tagged!

11 "Fun Facts" about me
1.  I have double ear lobe on my right ear.  I have no idea why or how this happened, but where most people's ears have one curvy point, on my right ear I have two and they form a sort of square at the bottom.  I try to camouflage this by wearing multiple earrings, although I'm not sure it works.

2. I have terrible teeth.  If you knew me before I moved to California the first time I doubt this would surprise you.  After that I had the front ones fixed with veneers so many people now don't realize how bad they are.  I knocked one of the front ones out when I was about 18 months old and in 4th grade when the adult tooth finally grew in it had been knocked terribly crooked and "bruised" by the original fall (out of my Dad's pick up truck) leaving the tooth with a large brown spot on the front.  I had the spot drilled out and filled eventually but this weakened the tooth so much so that it broke in half nearly down the middle my senior year at band camp.  That was eventually filled in too, but the veneers were the only real eventual solution for that whole mess.  Additionally I have had a zillion cavities.  I have had 3 root canals and I think 5 crowns.  The only teeth of mine that have not been drilled or filled or capped are the bottom 6 in the middle.  My dental x-rays are like a war zone.  And I'm pretty sure when I go back in I'll need more work done....

3. Both my parents went back to college when I was in young elementary school.  So when I say that I am a Buckeye to my very core, it's because I was was raised on the campus of The Ohio State University.  I'm not kidding.  Until middle school, whenever we were out of school we went to classes with my mom (and sometimes my dad.)  Additionally, lots of weekends we went there with my parents so they could study or do research.  Originally, I really did not want to go there myself, but that's how it turned out anyway.  Despite both graduating from OSU, neither of my parents consider themselves Buckeyes though, or root for the football team.   If you ask me, this is just... wrong.  GO BUCKEYES!

4.  When I was about 5 years old I watched the Olympics on TV and decided I was going to be an Olympic gymnast some day.  My parents put me in gymnastics from 3rd through 5th grade but I was never very good.  Even still, until 5th grade, if you asked me what I was going to be when I grew up, I would have told you a gymnast.  I find this particularly interesting now as very few Olympic gymnasts are any where near grown up.

5.  I majored in music in college because, sure, I really love music, and I really thought it would be neat to be a music teacher or a band director, but mostly because my mother laughed at me when I told her that's what I wanted to do.  She was probably right, I was never all that good at music, but I loved it, and went ahead and got a degree in it just to prove her wrong.

6.  It absolutely drives me crazy when people call me "white," as if because I am pale I have no heritage, ethnicity or culture.  And really, aren't we beyond labeling people as colors?  Even saying Caucasian does little to define me.  To the best of my knowledge I have relatives who were Saxon, German, Hungarian, Slovakian and English.    I'm sorry if that is too complicated for you to handle, but that is the beautiful mixture that made me who I am.

7.  The first time Matt told me he loved me was pretty early in our relationship and it surprised me so completely that I pretended to have fallen asleep laying on his shoulder so that I did not have to answer him right away.

8.  I have a tattoo of a white peace dove on my lower back.  I got it shortly after the September 11th attacks.  The design was taken off of a bookmark that Matt found in his confirmation bible.  I really wanted the tattoo on my upper back but I didn't want it to show at my wedding someday.  This is most ironic because I wore a fake Ohio State tattoo on my shoulder blade at our wedding anyway.  :)

9. When in doubt I will always choose the apple dessert over all the others at a restaurant.

10. I got my navel pierced right after my 18th birthday.  It stayed in (except when I cleaned it or switched the ring) until I was 30 and a few months pregnant with Peter.

11.  For some unknown, inexplicable reason, my favorite (lucky) number is 12.  So far as I can tell I have absolutely no good reason for this.


11 Questions from Christie:
1. Worst Habit?
I'm horribly addicted to Chapstick.  This isn't really all that terrible unless you've ever been unfortunate enough to find yourself in my company if I should somehow manage to come up Chapstickless.  I don't know what I think will happen to me if I come up without it, but I'm not willing to find out.  Seriously.  I go NO WHERE without the stuff.  I keep a tube in my pillowcase at night when I sleep and the spares live in my bedside table drawer.  There is always at least a tube in my purse and one in my pocket.  At the gym I keep a tube in my sports bra since running shorts rarely have pockets.  I'm pretty sure this qualifies as it's own special breed of insanity.  If you don't believe me then let me tell you at that at the births of both my children my husband was entrusted with my jewelry, my camera/phone and of course, my chapstick.

2. Where did you meet your spouse? I want details.
The short version is that Matt and I met in college at the movie theater where we both worked.

The longer version (since Christie wants details, even though I'm fairly certain I've told her this story before) would include loads of boring details about how I was working a register in the concession stand on his very first day and remember clearly checking him out as he and another new employee walked in.  I remember this because his choice of shoes was very unfortunate before he changed into his penguin suit uniform and I was not impressed.  This first impression would sum up the first few months of our relationship as I found him to be cocky and arrogant and he found me to be a gigantic brat.  Then one night he traded shifts with somebody and we ended up closing together and we talked and started to become friends.  He was just a nice guy who was always willing to listen and hang out.  Eventually we both began working in the projection booth and w hung out a lot on our down time.  Some time later, I wanted to go see an employee screening of Scream 2 and I called him because I knew he was off and also that he would probably be willing to drive.  It was not supposed to be a date, but then they showed Titantic after the first movie and we got dinner too and long story short, a few weeks later we were a couple.  Weird.

3. If you could sit down and eat dinner with one person who would it be? They can be living or dead.

I really hate this sort of question.  It's too hard to think about, but at this point, if I could have the company of ANYONE for dinner, it would be my husband.    I suppose our children could come too, but I'm not going to lie, right now I'd really love to to have a quiet dinner with him all to myself.

Oh the joys of deployment.

4. What's your favorite side dish at Thanksgiving?
CRANBERRIES!  I. Love. Them.  :)

So does A.J. (or at least she did this year) and that made me very proud.

5. What's your dream vacation?

Some place warm, with lots of sun, lots of beaches, lots of swimming pools, water slides and a lazy river at the resort.  Great food and dining options at the resort, plus pool side/beach service to keep me in tropical beverages.... Fun childcare activities for the kids so Matt and I can get in some scuba diving.   Maybe a day on a boat with the kids to snorkel some place cool or something.  Lots of great dining options and perhaps hammocks to lay in with my family while we watch the sun set or stare at the moon and listen to the waves.  Maximum ratio of one day spent running around site seeing for every 2-3 days spent relaxing pool side with a good book or at the beach.  I want to relax.

6. What book has influenced you most?
I'm sure that I SHOULD say the Bible... except, not.  I mean, reading the Bible is just HARD.   Sure, I love the stories and the promises it contains, but, yeah.

I think my favorite book is still To Kill a Mockingbird.  I love the story so much.  There is such a powerful lesson in there about humanity and the loss of innocence and how unjust the world can be, even while it is still a beautiful and amazing place.

I don't know if this really answers the question.  I never have been *that* much of a reader I suppose....

To busy talking maybe.  :)

7. Why don't you like brussel sprouts? If you do like them, how do you prepare them?
Um.  I don't know.  I can't remember the last time I even came across one.  I remember my mother served them occasionally when I was and they were big, foul smelling objects that were tough to chew and tasted vaguely like how dirty socks smelled.  I vowed never to make my own children eat them so I don't cook them.  My husband doesn't like them either and he has pretty strong opinions about which vegetables we ought to serve in our house so I doubt I'll be coming across them again any time soon.

8. What do you wish you would have spent more time doing 5 years ago?
I don't actually know.  Matt and I waited until he were good and ready to have kids.  So, since 5 years ago was before we had even conceived Peter we were still living our lives somewhat selfishly, as we saw fit.  I guess maybe I wish I'd been a better Christian then, but I think having been lazy about my faith helps me to know how much more important it is now that I am a role model and a mother to my children.  I guess really, if I could change anything, I'd say I wish Matt had deployed less back then so we wouldn't have had to spend so much time apart.

9. If you live to be 90 years old what will have been most important to you?
I hope that when I'm old and in my twilight I can look back on the family that Matt and I built together and know that we are all still close.  I do not want drama and fighting to tear us apart.  I hope that my children are willingly helping me out in my old age and that they have beautiful families of their own.  Most of all I hope that Matt and I have instilled a good faith and trust in Christ in all of our descendants so that they do not fear my (our) deaths but rejoice in knowing that we are moving on the be with our Lord in Heaven where they will one day join us too.

10. What's the first thing you do when you wake up?
Check to see what time it is probably.  I rarely need an alarm these days so it's always exciting to see what time my children have chosen to wake me each morning.  And who am I kidding.  It's always Peter who wakes me.  He used to be the best sleeper inner.  I wonder what happened to that... I have found that if I can manage to get him up and out of there without A.J. waking up she'll sleep for another 30-45 minutes at least and then we have a much happier day around here.

11. What's the last thing you do before you shut off the lights?
I check to make sure the doors are locked, that the outside lights are on, that the cat has food and that the door to my room is cracked so the cat can get in and out as he sees fit.  Then I turn on my fan, crawl into bed, check for my chapstick and read or do a crossword for awhile.  Once I do  turn off the lights I usually check my phone for progress on my games or Facebook updates or the last incoming emails for the evening from Matt before I say my prayers and go to sleep.

My Questions for others:
1.  What is your favorite "guilty" pleasure.  Why do you consider it "guilty."
2.  What did you study in college?  (Or what are you/would you have studied, when you/if you go?)  Why?
3.  Are you more of a dog or a cat person?
4.  If you could play hookie from you life/job/reality for one day, what would you do?
5.  What is your favorite candy?
6.  When you were younger, what name did you wish was yours.  Be honest.! You know at some point you did this.  (I wanted to be Diana.  Child of the 80's much?)
7.  High heels, wedges, flats, sneakers or sandals?  You can only pick one!
8.   If you could only listen to the music of ONE artist for the rest of your life, whose would it be?
9.  What is your favorite board game?
10.  If you HAD to eat fast food, and you could get any kind you wanted, where would you go?
11.   What is your favorite flavor of Girl Scout Cookie?

Um...

Now I am supposed to tag eleven people.

And then in theory they're supposed to respond to this on their own blog.

I'm not sure I have 11 friends who blog and certainly not ones who haven't already posted something like this recently.

So, um, if you read this and you want to play to, let me know and post your answers somewhere for me to read.  :)

Elefun!

So, apparently, my husband, being ever the proud father (and maybe husband too,) has shared this blog with several of the people he works with.  I assume this is mainly so that he can show off the pictures and stories of his awesome children, and he's told me often about how many of the ladies who work in his office particularly enjoy it.  

And by "it", I mean they like all the pictures I post.

Why I ever bother WRITING anything is beyond me.  :)

I guess a couple of weeks ago, when I posted about getting the kids a playhouse they all got to talking about the favorite toys from some of their own children and grandchildren.  That evening emailing with Matt he gave me a whole list of suggestions of toys and things we should keep in mind for them for the future from their suggestions.  

Then the next day I was told to expect a package as well.

I guess someone just couldn't resist sending Peter and A.J. one of her grandchildren's favorite games.

That's awfully generous.  I can not say thank you enough for the kind, thoughtful, and absolutely unexpected gift.   I CAN, however, post about it and show her (nearly) first hand just how much it was appreciated.

The package actually arrived yesterday right around the time all heck was breaking lose during what should have been the kids nap time after the birthday party.  Knowing what was inside, I put it aside for another time so that it would get the attention it was due and not be lost in the chaos.

Upon opening the box.

So apparently, the elephant has a little fan inside.  You turn it on and he blows all these little plastic "butterflies" out of his nose and then up into the air.  The children are then supposed to try to catch them with their nets.

I put everything together while the were sleeping this afternoon and laid it out for them to discover when they woke up. (Thank you Lord, that they actually napped today!!)

It didn't take them very long to figure out what they were supposed to do .

A.J. quickly decided she needed two nets.  

Even with 2 nets she never caught any butterflies.  Peter did, rarely, but still.

See?  Here he is showing me his caught butterflies.

A.J.'s favorite part was picking the butterflies back up and reloading them inside the elephant.   She's very into those sorts of activities lately.  She really wants to be my little helper and follows me everywhere.  It would be sweet, actually, if moving with her perpetually attached to my leg while she tries to hand me stuff wasn't so darn difficult.

Happy little butterfly hunters

Nets are so EXCITING!

I guess he didn't catch anything that round.

I feel like the pictures are cute, but they just really don't do justice to the level of excitement this game brought so I just have to share this little video.  It does a great job showing the chaos and also, towards the end Peter is literally so excited he can not even find the words he needs to talk.   Meanwhile, A.J. is disassembling her net.

Fun times!

And thanks again.  :)

A Birthday Party

In the past I've avoided posting pictures from the few birthday parties for other kids we've attended.  Even though there have been some GREAT photos, and we had some really fun times, I left them off this blog since those parties were not about my family or my son.  

However, today I took the kids to my friend Jamie's house for her daughter's birthday party (yes the same one who we went to Chuck E. Cheese with a few days ago) and we had a WONDERFUL TIME.  But Daddy missed it.  And the easiest way for me to share it with him is to write about it here.  

And also there was this one EPIC moment today, that made me SO SO proud (and amused the heck out of me) and when it happened Jamie turned to me and said, "Well, THAT'S going on the blog!"

Haha.  Absolutely Jamie.  :)

But we'll get to that in a moment.

I really enjoy kid's birthday parties.  And maybe I get a little too much amusement out of the creativity parents put into throwing their kids these special celebrations.  It's always entertaining to see how my children interact with everyone and just how much cake the two of them will put away.  We haven't been to one since we were still in Monterey and I'm happy to be getting back into the swing of the Birthday rounds again.  Super exciting with two kids now too....

(Oh, and I might really enjoy the cake myself.)

So, of course, there was the bounce house.  Both my kids were in and out of it through out the afternoon.  Peter had been in one several times before, but this was A.J.'s maiden bounce!  

So, for the first hour or so, everyone was just hanging out.  Some of the kids were having their faces painted, others were running around alternating between bouncing, running wild on the back lawn and checking out the toys in the playroom.  Peter and A.J. did their best to go in completely OPPOSITE directions every time and were wearing me right out but I suppose that is to be expected.  I was thankful for the lot of kind parents and Jamie's family who stepped in to help prevent A.J. from tumbling down the back steps repeatedly.

After everyone ate, the special guest, Tinkerbell, took a break from painting faces and did a little presentation.

(HA, good thing for commas or that sentence could have had a drastically different meaning!)

Peter sat quietly with the other kids until Tink brought out her little Squirrel (puppet) for the kids.  Then he became so excited he literally couldn't sit still!

Or maybe he needed to use the potty.

I took no chances with his dancing around and dragged him away for a quick potty run.

By the time we returned, Tink was blowing bubbles for the children to chase.  Then she had everyone sit down again and she passed around a variety of her treasures, pixie dust, pictures of her fairy friends, etc for the children to examine.

Suddenly I noticed Peter was missing.  I'd already dragged him back out of the playroom once (where he was riding the rocking horse) to keep him with the group, but Jamie immediately spotted him down at the bottom of the hill picking flowers.

I sort of wondered how he'd manage to wander all the way down there without me noticing, but then he began wandering back up towards the fairy.

We all watched as he approached her, then somewhat politely interrupted her, and slyly handed her a flower.

Tinkerbell smiled politely, took the flower and stuck it in her hair, continuing with whatever she was doing.  All the parents sort of giggled and I couldn't help myself and I gave him a little cheer.

That's my boy!

(The little stud.)

Peter went and sat back down.

I ignored the fact that my son had never gone and picked a flower for me, because, whatever, fairies apparently beat out Mommy.

Soon, Tink started signing autographs so while several of the children lined up to wait for there's, a lot of the children wandered off down the hill.  Several girls, having seen my son's flowers, went down with him to fetch flowers of their own.

Here he is with the birthday girl and one of her friends with their flowers.  The stopped half way up the lawn to rip all of the petals off.  Perhaps they were playing a game of "He loves me, he loves me not."   

Actually, I'm pretty sure Peter was just counting the petals.  Probably in Spanish.

But I couldn't help but giggle at him there, with the two girls.  Can't say I didn't warn the other moms, I did put him in his "Lock Up Your Daughters" shirt.

Once the three of them had finished properly mutilating their flowers, they
all presented them proudly to the fairy.

Not long after that, it was time to sing to the birthday girl and have cake.  Or, rather in this case, lots of little (cup) cakes.

I love this picture of them all lined up there, waiting for their sweets, with 50 zillion adults pointing cameras.

 Peter, selected himself a lovely green frosted cupcake.

If you're wondering, he puts his hat on crooked like that
on purpose.  I have no idea why, but if you straighten it,
he'll switch it back.

He ate it and begged for another.  I sent him off to bounce, but he kept coming back for seconds.  I caved eventually and he did have a second.  When he came back for a third and was displeased with my "NO!" he moved on to another Mom (who I'd been hanging around with for a lot of the party after he literally dragged her off down the hill to play with him in the beginning.)  She wisely let him drag her over to the food table again and then guided him to pick a grape from the fruit bowl instead.  She called it a "Grape Flavored Cupcake."  Ha.  I've got to remember that one...

A.J. had her own cupcake two.  I unwrapped it for her, sat her down in my lap and held it out to her on my palm.  She grabbed it and got to work....

Notice how she's holding.  By the icing.  A lot of people found this to be highly entertaining.  

This "messy face" photo doesn't even really do it
justice.  Probably because you can't see the palm
of that hand...

So, what with my son doling out flowers to the ladies, the two of them bouncing and all the cupcake fun, we had a great time.  Plus, as proof that Jamie is a far better hostess than I ever seem to manage to be, she had great goodies for her guests.  Peter got a treasure chest and a pirate hat while A.J. got a Tinkerbell crown and a little purse.  Both contained fun things that the kids loved discovering when we got home.

You know... when they should have been exhausted and taken naps.  

But they didn't.  

Oh, the curse of the 20 minute nap on the car ride home....  

Anyway, Peter had a grand old time with the "Blowing Thing"
(His name for it, not mine.)

Peter's treasure chest had an eye patch, and a wristband to go with his hat.    A.J. tried them out first.  And, ew, I just noticed she has her brothers pacy in her mouth too.  Gross.

There was also a temporary tattoo which he immediately  wanted me to take back off....

A.J. did enjoy her crown too, she didn't ONLY play with her  brothers things.

But his box had a whole lot of "Golden Boons" (Gold Dabloons)
that were just so, so exciting. 

Her box had a cool (rubber) ring though!

And a magic wand!

I think perhaps she thought it was a straw....

Oh, apparently there was a telescope too.

It was an awesome day.  

(Might have been awesome-er if they'd taken naps when we got home, but they're sleeping now so.... bygones.)

Playing Soccer

This video was supposed to go on my post about playing in the backyard last week but I never got around to uploading it.  Still, it's pretty fun watching the boy run wild chasing after his soccer ball.  I find it odd that he seems to be left footed.  Is that even such a thing?  I don't know I never played soccer other than in gym so... ?  I also don't know if this video shows it clearly but he definitely tends to kick with his left foot over his right.  And, like, if he tries to drop kick (punt?) the ball, he uses his left foot. 

Just when I was starting to think maybe he wasn't a leftie after all.

Also, wouldn't you just love a big bottle of his energy every morning?

Geez.

This afternoon we spent the afternoon at a birthday party, which I'll post about later, but after watching him run up and down the hill 47 thousand times, plus spend a good hour in the bounce house (stopping only to climb out, take a few quick bites of pasta or fruit before heading back in) one of the other parents joked that he must get all of his energy from running me ragged.... sucking all the energy right out of me.

Ha.

Ain't that the friggin' truth.  :)

First Visit to see Mr. Cheese

I have to admit something, and I'm afraid it's something that's fairly embarrassing.  I am 33 years old and until today I had never been to Chuck E.Cheese's.   

:(

I guess I didn't go to that many birthday parties when I was little and there was just no way my own parents were ever going to take us there.  I do believe when I asked my mom about it once, perhaps after my brother went with some friends or something, she said there was no way she was going to take us there to see lousy costumed characters, eat terrible pizza and waste money of stupid arcade games. Hm.  

Well, alrighty then.

Still.  I'm just saying, maybe it would have been nice.  

So earlier in the week when I sent a text to my friend Jamie, randomly, having not really heard from her in awhile, about maybe getting together, I was surprised when she responded telling me they were probably going to go to Chuck E.'s later in the week if I wanted to bring the kids and join them. 

I mean, obviously, I thought my kids would enjoy it but I was SUPER excited myself.  

Eventually it occurred to me that her daughter has a birthday at the end of February and that maybe that was the reason for the trip.  It turns out it was, so Peter, A.J. and I crashed (in on) the fun as Jamie's family and her parents partied it up in honor of their 3 year old.  

To sum the evening up, Peter was stupidly excited from the minute we pulled up and he spotted the lights of the attractions inside.  Basically, he was like a boy possessed.  He could not, would not, sit still or stay in one place or focus on anything for more than about 30 seconds.  I guess there was just too much fun to have.  

A.J., I feel a bit sorry to say, spent most of the evening in a high chair near our tables with Jamie's twin babies and a stray parent or grandparent.  She didn't seem to mind just sitting around watching everything around her, but still I wish she'd been able to have  more fun.  The trouble was when I did let her down she'd take off running herself and it was always in the opposite direction of her brother.

Peter, as I mentioned climbed into or onto every single "ride" and game in the place.  (Here he is on a monster truck.)  At first he didn't even know they were supposed to move, he just wanted to sit in everything and pretend.  Then Jamie busted out the tokens.  By the end of the evening he kept begging for more "moneys" and was starting up the games and things himself.

Here he is with his friend (Jamie's daughter- the birthday girl) riding the little carousel.
Neither child found it particularly exciting...

 Of course they also checked out the climbing structure:

Meanwhile, his sister ate.  And ate and ate.  And when she ran out of food to eat, she stole the straw out of my soda and chewed on it.
WHO'S DAUGHTER IS SHE NOW MATTHEW?!?!?!?

I think somewhere in there he did eat a few bites, but mostly he just rode all the rides multiple times.  He particularly liked the ones he was supposed to pedal to make "go."

And by peddling, I mean I worked them with my arms while he enjoyed the ride.  The first one (above) was particularly exciting as the peddles made the thing turn in circles so I had to run around and around it while I turned the wheels.

Luckily, this thing just rose up when you peddled and then sank back down when you stopped.  Much easier for Mama!

Anyway, to be fair, I did get A.J. on a few little rides.  Here she is on this motorcycle one:

I know it's supposed to be a police motorcycle but all I could think was future Hell's Angel!

Here's Peter putting the "money" in the bus.

And of course driving.

His other favorites were the horse ride (which I didn't get any pictures of because I was too busy helping him steer the horse and not fall to his death from the saddle for photography and this electronic touch screen one that he hit with a little mallet kind of like whack a mole.  He must have played that one like, 15 times.

Thank you Jamie, for being so generous with the tokens (aka, "moneys!")

Of course, I got the most kick out of watching him attempt this drumming game.

The three drums would pop up in random order and you had to hit them to make the correct beat and sink them back down before they fell on their own.  He put his token in after seeing two older girls (maybe aged  6 or 7) playing and he invited himself to join them.  They obliged and lucky for them he was JUST TERRIBLE.  He was super excited and he was giggling like crazy the whole time, but he almost never hit the drums on time.  Oh well, he didn't seem to care.

The game awarded him two courtesy tickets for playing.  I didn't have the heart to tell him those were the loser's consolation prize as he was super excited and seemed to think he had won a fabulous prize.  

I think in the end we came home with about 20 tickets.  At that rate it's going to take a lot more trips to earn anything good with those tickets.  If, that is, Peter ever willingly trades them in.  He seems to think they're pretty awesome all on their own as perhaps he has yet to learn of their eventual value at the prize booth.

Not to worry though, contrary to what my parent's always told me, the pizza was delicious, (as was the sampler platter of appetizers Jamie ordered for everyone to share) so I can say we'll definitely be going again.

It may have taken me 33 years to get there, but I'm not waiting that long again to go back!

Playing Outside

On Friday our stuff from storage finally came to us.  Long story short, a good two thirds of it went into the garage where it will stay until I have time to sort through it.  I'm thinking like, May?  Because, seriously, trying to deal with the limited amount of stuff they actually brought into the house (my kitchen stuff, the good TV, our other couch, some end tables and shelves and a few boxes of linens) with the kids running amock trying to help, nearly made me CRAZY! 

Additionally, the amount of stuff we own seems to have multiplied right along with the number of people in our family.  And, strangely, the house hasn't gotten any bigger since we left here just under three years ago, right before Peter was born so basically, nothing seems to fit.

So rather than dealing with all of THAT, I'm choosing to ignore it as much as possible in favor of enjoying the awesome weather outside and the green grass we've managed to mostly regrow in the backyard, with my kids.

Hope that's okay honey!  I know after a 13 month deployment you are so so excited to come home to a honey do list consisting of our entire garage packed full of furniture and boxes for you to sort out.  :)

In the mean time, some pictures:

Chase loves to sit under the orange trees and watch the bees do their work on the blossoms.

Somewhere I have a picture of his father in college making
that exact same face....

Peter wouldn't let her in.  She was so mad she ripped the door knob clear off.  Then as I tried to fix it she suffered a MASSIVE hissy fit/breakdown.  And with that she was put down for a nap to sleep off her grumpies. 

Peter doesn't think he needs naps anymore.  He does and I know this as he will fall asleep in front of the TV while I make dinner EVERY SINGLE DAY that he skips his afternoon sleep.  Anyway, when he does go down,  I usually give his sister a good 30 minute head start before her brother goes in there to have his own hissy fit before falling asleep.  This means he gets me all to himself for a little while.