Want or a Need?

Okay, I'll be the first to admit...I'm not one for manual labor.  Don't like and try my best to avoid it...at just about any cost.  Hauling around two toddlers is enough for me.

So, we're getting ready to move........again, just 10 months after moving to our current home.  We paid a couple of guys to help out.  Still, the end result was a catastrophic accident leaving Andrew in a full leg cast. 

Facing a longer move, in the middle of July (for those keeping track, it's the middle of summer...HOT.  I don't do hot, and Dan would prefer not to as well), Dan and I are considering hiring a moving company to come in and move our stuff.  We received a quote today.  WOOHOO, it's not cheap, economical, or a bargain.  You wouldn't be able to call us frugal either.  Some would argue that you could never use us in the same sentence as frugal anyway, but that's not the point! 

Here's our choice:

Moving ourselves:

• PROS
• Cheaper
• CONS
• Busting our butt for two days, just moving.  This doesn't include packing and unpacking
• Sweating a lot
• Trying to keep track of three kids, keep them out of things, prevent any more broken bones.

Having a company move us:

• PROS
• We don't have to lift a thing!
• I can take the kids and head up to the new house, take our time, not worry about anything!
• We can be moved in one day
• CONS
• Expensive
• Yeah, nothing else comes to mind here....

Hmmmmm.....it seems like an easy choice....if a windfall would just come our way!

Vacation Time

I need a vacation...I want a vacation.  I'm not picky, I'll even take my kids.  But I am so sick of seeing the same old landscape day in and day out.  I am bored to tears with our daily routine, which goes something like this:

• Wake up WAY too early
• Kids have breakfast
• Kids spill some part of breakfast
• Kids fight play
• Allie rolls out of bed
• Referee the rest of the day
• attempt housework
• attempt meals
• watch the clock for naptime and bedtime
• rest
• sleep

I need a routine that goes something like this:

• wake up when I want
• do nothing
• sit on a beach
• get a nice tan
• sleep
• read
• rest

Here's what I am imagining:

Here

Or Here

I'm not picky, just ready for some new scenery, just a few days....now I have to go find that windfall!

Almost Time to Move

How is it possible to accumulate so much crap stuff in such a short amount of time?  We have only lived here for 9 months, but we had a very busy garage sale where we sold loads of crap.  We have since taken 2 carloads of things to Goodwill, and thrown away an amazing amount of.....NOTHING!  Things not worth keeping, yet we kept!  Why?  Uhh.....who knows. 

So, here we sit, waiting to hear if we get house #1 or house #2.  We should know today but house #1 isn't looking so hot.  The lady wants to meet us.  We aren't the quietest group of people and I think we'll scare her.  Not only that, the last time we had to drive up to Folsom, we ended up pulling over twice because Andrew decided he'd had enough of....something.  Not quite sure what sets him off the deep end at times, but when he ventures down that path, it's time to get out of the car and wait for him to be done.  I'm not to eager to replay that last trip.  I'll pass.

So we wait.......and pack, and continue to be amazed at why in the world we have held on to things that shouldn't be in the house.

BTW...I'm ready to go camping again!  That's why I'm including a few pictures. 

Just a Week in the Life

Okay, so my goal for daily posting has failed miserably. Well, I guess I am going to shoot for AT least once a week right now. I'll try to sum up the last week as simply as possible:

Last Wednesday I discovered that my keys were locked in the car (twenty minutes before I was supposed to pick up Andrew from school). Did you notice that I did NOT say that I locked them in the car. Nope. The night before Dan and I went to Costco, and after I got the kids inside Dan unloaded and I thought he brought in my bag. Uh-uh. Nope, that stayed right out in the open on the front passenger seat which made it very easy for me to see from the other side of the door as I am trying to go get Andrew. Finally, after AAA came, I was able to pick him up over an hour late....oops.

On that same lovely day, on my way to get Andrew, I spaced out and almost missed the off ramp to his school. So, being the safe driver I am, I made sure I had a clear path and then flew across two lanes and off the freeway. Oh yeah, and as I discovered I was about to miss his exit, I started the "F" word (as it's sometimes called in my house, other times, the full expletive comes flying out), but trying to curb my potty mouth around my kids, didn't finish the word. It sounded like "Ffffffffffffffffffffff". Well, Addie, ever so helpful, finished the word for me! It was THE exact phrasing that flew through my brain, really quite canny. Chalk another point up to my mother of the year award.

Let's see, what else happened. Oh yeah, I left my husband alone with the kids (I try to do this often, for my own sanity), and I came home to a broken window. Andrew tried his hammer out on the playroom window, and my husband, lovely man that he is, missed the importance of this being a no-no in our house. Well, quite quickly he discovered the necessity of not allowing our children to bang on the windows with hammers, even toy hammers. So, now we have this high class Eggo Waffle box taped to the cracked window pane (only one pane of the dual pane window broke...whatever!). Yes, and the bright yellow design of the box faces outside, announcing not only our food choices, but makes for a eye catching design in the window. No, I'm not the one who taped the box up.

That same day, Andrew decided he didn't want the sliding glass door open anymore. So, knowing he shouldn't be messing with the doors, decided to close it anyway, and forgot to remove his finger from the door and it got stuck and he couldn't pull it out. Poor baby, he was shaking it hurt so bad....oh and yes, he cried! Happy to say, he's all better...just a bit of swelling now. But for a moment, I thought I was doomed to another ER visit.

Speaking of............

Ummm, oh, yes, and I made my semi-annual visit to the ER. It had been almost five months since our last trip, and we were due. This time it was our oldest. Poor Allie had been having some vicious stomach pains and they weren't going away. Finally, after a fever broke out, I took her in late Thursday night, and after five looong drawn out hours, we got to come home. She's doing better, her plumbing has been fixed and she's a much happier girl these days.

Other than that, it's been a quiet week.

Keeping it Up!

I am going to keep this blog updated...and although I'll never be one of those once a day posters, I am at least shooting for a few times a week!

Potty training has been a success, I repeat, potty training has been a success! Addison now uses the potty all the time and only wears a diaper during nap times and at bedtime. But, and yes, there's always a but....the one caveat of having a newly potty trained child, I now get to evaluate every single bathroom every single time we go somewhere new. In the last two days, I have been in the bathrooms of: Target, Ross, Grocery Store, Restaurant, Fry's electronics. That doesn't seem like much, but when you realize that these are the places Addison has visited, and every single one has required a bathroom visit, most of the time without result. She finds it very interesting to see what each bathroom is, and asks me "what's this?" "what's that?" "Will this hurt my ears?" "I'm scared, don't let me go down [the toilet]!" And no, I have not let her fall in...lol. I still have all this to do one more time once Andrew starts potty training......woohoo.

Yes, Addison is crying in the first picture. She was not happy to leave the zoo last Friday, and had no reservations about voicing her displeasure. She refused to even smile for the camera, and usually she is the house ham bone!