Thank you!

Well we are moved.... and from what we can tell the only damage was one broken garden hose keeper. This is amazing! For those of you that came to help us, I could never say thank you enough. We were so unprepared. The sad thing is, we didn't recognize this face until about 10:30 or so the night before we moved. We really thought things were ok... we knew we would be busy, but thought everything was pretty much doable ourselves. We had got some packing in the truck done and a couple people stopped by and the guys put in a couple of heavy things and Mark and I thought at that point we pretty much had it wrapped up. From my stand point the kid's stuff was taken care off and so was mine, so we were done. I couldn't have been more wrong!!! Thankfully a couple of girls who knew what they were doing took over and clean out the house. As I look back and think about it, it is both embarrassing and amazing. I now know what I should do when I move.... granted I should have probably figured that out a week before everything, but oh well! I think I'm still in a little shock we actually moved and maybe denial was the reason I wasn't prepared. I am proud to say that I made it through closing without crying! Big step in the process that I'm still dealing with.... I did start crying today when AJ asked me if tomorrow was the day we were going back home to Illinois. It is so sad to have to tell him, we have to find a new house and we don't live there anymore.

I miss my friends!!

On a positive note we put a offer in tonight.... yeah!! It need to be completely redone, but it's just outdated, not disgusting like some we've seen. The price was amazing and the school district was the best in this area, so that's great. Hopefully I'll be posting some good news in a couple of days. Also, I have a couple pics of the move, but apparently the cords to the laptop are in a different box (I think the same one as my phone charger!), so I'm can't put any pics up until I find it.

Thanks again to everyone that helped us.... it is so appreciated and I don't think I could ever pay you enough for all you did, but I do hope to pay it forward!

Happy Birthday Aidan

In the middle of this complete upheaval, my baby boy turned 3. I'm so thankful for friend that let us come over and have some cake & ice cream. AJ asked if he could have some balloons, so those I think were the favorite item! I've been telling him all week he could pick out some cupcakes at the store (I felt bad for not making anything, but everything is packed!), anyways when we got there they only had skull cupcakes ~ nice! So we found some little cakes and he immediatley picked out this little dog one... so cute! I tried to put a pic in, but blogger didn't like it, so maybe another time. We are going to have a family party once we get moved and get everyone together, but I always like to at least recognize the day, so here are some pics..... notice his little buddy dressed up for the occassion (:

the gym and astronauts

First of all, I probably should not be updating this blog, but packing boxes, oh well. It was not a good evening so I'm going to take this as some stress relief.... only a bad evening because I think home ownership stinks sometimes!! We found out today how much we will make off the sale of our house.... comes out to about $10, so that's nice, anyways enough complaining and on to the good stuff!!

AJ decided they should be astronauts the other morning so he got himself and TK's "gear" on. I think this is so funny, because TK never has any idea what is going on and most of the time won't go along with it, but this time she didn't care (at least in the beginning!)




















Today we meet our local playgroup for our last activity with them ): So sad, but it was nice to see everyone again. We went to the local gym ~ we hadn't been there since TK was tiny, so it was so different to see how much AJ changed and loved it and once TK woke up she loved it too! We also went to noodles & co for lunch afterwards, which is a completely different story. (1 parent + 2 kids = good deal of stress!)



One final story, yesterday and today AJ kept telling me everytime we got in the car, "mom, normally flowers don't read books." For the life of me I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. So I just kept saying, you're right, or do see a flower, etc. Well I realized upon leaving Noodles that in the back seat you can see on the back of the console the rear controls for radio and heat and fan speed. Well there are 2 buttons with pictures of fans on them and then the following signs but in the up and down directions > < So AJ thought those signs looked like books and the fans looked flowers, so thus the flowers were reading. I do swear I spend half my energy trying to figure out what he sees and what he is referring to.

Well I think I have time to finish up a couple more boxes before tomorrow!

oops! wrong number

I have to say, Mark and I have been doing a fabulous job of getting things done and keeping up on reciepts from 2 different states and getting addresses changed, but today we had a little oopsy! We each have a credit card to one of our favorite stores in town, but haven't actually used it in awhile, so we had to call to change our address, rather than use the statement. Well I called and they gave me the 800 number, which I used and took care of mine and then emailed Mark the number for him to take care of his. Well, I accidently switched 03 to 30 in the number. So Mark, on break at work and using a work phone, called, well there was a recording giving a different number for him to call. When he called the 2nd number they started asking him what kind of "hot girls" would he like to talk to!! So he calls me saying, "What are doing to me?!? Get me fired before I've even worked 2 months!?!" Not having any idea what he was referring to I didn't get it, but once he explained it to me, I thought it was quite funny!

Self-snacking

Being a little preoccupied lately with getting things done, I've been letting the kids feed themselves while I either clean something or pack a box.....

Here's a couple of shots of what I found them doing (and don't worry AJ isn't giving her a mocha, it's chai tea, so hopefully that's better!)


AJ walked around the corner in front of me and saw what TK had done and said "oh, my goodness" and then procedeed to take the box from her and finish dumping them on the ground. I was just going to take a pic of TK and the pile she had, but by time I grabbed the camera off the table the deed was done. Of course this happened the morning that I had final swept, swiffered and mopped the floor.... what can you do (:

Thanks Grandma!!

Every year my mom sends the kid(s) something for valentine's day. This year it was a ton of candy..... maybe mom, you feel bad I don't give the kids candy unless we've been in the car for more than 5 hours and they start yelling? Anyways I was letting the kids open stuff not realizing how much candy there was, so the kids loved it. So Happy Valentine's Day and hope you all get some candy too! (I think TK possibly had a sugar high in the one picture ~ that's great parenting!)

haircut

I'm posting some pics of TK's pigtails, because I'm not if she'll have them again for awhile. I've been waiting to get her haircut because it looks so straggly in the back. I even made an appt at the local kid's haircutting salon, but cancelled it when I decided to go to a playdate instead (: Well tonight she was in the tub and I thought that has got to go, so I got out the sicissors and trimmed it a bit... really it wasn't much, but I can't believe I did it. Maybe it is just my complete obsession lately with trying to get my own hair cut & colored..... I promise I won't be coloring my daughters hair!! (For sure that should be left to the professionals, as well as cutting I suppose.)

Snow!

I know everyone where we were from had an huge snow storm a few days ago, well, we got it yesterday..... when I decided to leave. After driving for an hour, I came to terms with the poor choice I made and turned around and we came back today.... much easier! Anyways AJ and I shoveled Mark's parent's driveway while it was snowing.... not that it made a difference since an hour later you couldn't even tell! It was fun being out it the snow and definitely nice to come in for hot chocolate (:

Catch up pics

So here's a few pics from the last couple of weeks when we were in visiting our new area and visiting some friends and their MASSIVE dog Jack.... ok maybe he wasn't that massive, but compared to our little rats he is!

First, here is a pic of those baby legs I was going on about in a previous post.





















Mark, TK & Sophia
















TK kept eating her boxes for grocery shopping.
















Here's Jack and then all the kids.....

OCD

I know one day AJ will read this and say, "Seriously mom I am the way I am because of you!!"

Ever since AJ was tiny he has always been very particular... I have ready many autism websites and other things different people mention, just to see if there is something I should be doing. Not autism because he is delayed in anyway, but just because he reminds us of rainman sometimes. (Is that stereotypical or what!?!) He also reminds me ALOT of the red stapler guy in the movie Office Space, the way he mumbles under his breath sometimes just reminds me of that guy and always makes me laugh. Anyways the obsessive complusiveness has definitely gotten worse lately and involved more items. He used to always close doors.... I mean every door that was anywhere HAD to be closed. People would always try and mess with him and open when he wasn't looking, but about 10 seconds later he would notice and close it. All his toys have to be lined up, which I hear is common but still sometimes I just want to say, "Make a mess, for crying out loud!!" Too many people, too much noise and he shuts down. He also has this finger thing he does when he gets worked up where he starts rubbing his finger tips and thumbs together. I've come to deal with this and normally with enough preparation we can get through anything.

Lately though it's the food that is driving me CRAZY!!! He used to eat fruit cups all the time, well the last couple of days he won't eat any piece of fruit that is "ripped" or not completely perfect. Tonight it was the same for the olives on his pizza... if the olive was "broken", he wouldn't eat it. Lunch today ~ he had noodles, same thing only perfect noodles. If you try and make him eat a "broken" piece then he acts like he is going to throw up. What in the world! At what point is he just being stubborn and choosing which food he wants versus an obsession that maybe should be dealt with. I tried showing him that food is meant to be cut or broken up and I eat food like that all the time.

Speaking of obsessions the one with vacuum cleaners is definitely growing. If we come visit you PLEASE don't mention that you own a vacuum. He'll want to vacuum and inspect all the parts and empty out the container that holds all the "fuzzies". That's what calls everything that gets vacuumed up. Everyday he will look under couch cushions or the floor to see if there is something he can vacuum. I'm blaming this obsession on Mark's dna since he has a brother that loves to vacuum everyday (:

I guess I just wrongly assumed that my son wouldn't mind getting dirty and would never notice a speck the size of a pinhead on the floor or only eat perfect shaped food. oh my.... I guess this is just a lesson for me to met him on his level.