homeLESS - Week 2

This past week wasn't quite as adventureous or busy as last week. It was still a lot of fun though and probably looks like we were just as busy.

just hanging out at the houseMonkey Joe's

Aunt Kim's Birthday



Other Highlights of the week (that I either forgot my camera or didn't get it out)
- me getting sick (either food poisoning or stomach bug, obviously not a fun highlight!)
-dinner with one of my best friends from high school, Katrina, and her cute kiddos. The next day Allie asked when she would see Paige again! I told her it would probably be awhile. Her repsonse, "When we get to Texas?" Little Paigey must have made quite the impression!!
-visit with another one of my best friends from when we were little and all through our school years, Michelle.
-more visits from Ashley and Conner.
-Dinner at Pizza King with my Grandpa, Aunt Jana, Uncle David, and cousin Amber
-Dinner with some long lost family that I had never met before (or at least I don't remember meeting them before)

homeLESS

Technically, right now we don't have a home to call our own. We're supposed to close on "our" house in TX at the end of this month/beginning of June. In the meantime, Derek is mooching off of Kevin & Tami and the girls and I are mooching off my parents. It fits us perfectly, just ask anyone that knows us well, we're moochers. Not in a bad way - I just mean that we like anything that's free.

Our first week in Indiana has been action packed. Busy, busy, busy!! Seriously. BUSY! I've had a lot of fun driving my Mom's car around. I miss driving a car so much - I really want to get rid of the van now and get a car! Okay, so here's a highlight of our week in pictures. Enjoy! (hopefully I'll get a program to be able to make collages soon.......there are so many pics!)

• Armstrong Park
  

• Chuck E Cheese - this was Avery's favorite thing to do!
  

• Columbian Park
  

• Columbian Park w/ cousins Trenton & Jenna
  

• Columbian Park w/ GG!
  

• Columbian Park - Dino Dig (you HAVE to wear the goggles)
  

• Happy Hollow Park
  

• Going for a walk @ Happy Hollow
  

• Lots of hopscotch & sidewalk chalk
  

• Columbian Park -- again
  

• this time w/ cousin Conner and Auntie Ashley
  

• My girls fav part about the park
  

• Spending time @ GG's with cousin Kiya
  

• Painting birdhouses (not so much) for Mother's Day
  

• Exhaustion is finally wearing in - Allie asleep at the dinner table!
  

• Mother's Day lunch - - Avery didn't last long
  

• visit with our bestest friends from our college days, Kevin & Erin Allen! Their daughter, Erika, teaching Allie how to use the camera on the phone.
  

• cornhole on Mother's Day - - Derek made these from scratch for my parents. (pretty good job, I must say!)
  

It's not so bad being homeLESS!!

Cute Story

Tonight we were sitting at Fazoli's eating. Allie was eating plain alfredo sauce with a knife. My Dad started laughing at her. Allie said, "Stop laughing." She's really, really sensitive (hmmm, wonder where she get's that from?) Anyway, my Dad starts laughing again, so......she say's, "I said stop laughing." My Mom then says, "Allie he's not laughing at you - he's laughing with you." Right away Allie said, " BUT I'M NOT LAUGHING!!" Too funny and so smart! Of course we all started laughing hysterically after that - she responded with a "It's not funny." So my Dad stopped laughing right away after she said that and she said, " But don't be sad."
Love the things kids say and do!!!!!

Mother's Day 2010

Happy Mother's Day!
Today was a great day. I got to spend it with my beautiful daughters and amazing husband, my awesome Mom and Dad, and my wonderful Grandma. Can't get better than that! I love them all so much....they mean the world to me.
Allie was so cute. When she woke up this morning she came right over to me and gave me a big hug and kiss and said, "Happy Mother's Day!" We'd been talking about it all week long and she remembered. I can't even count how many times she told me, Mom and GG Happy Mother's Day! She was so into it! We had watched a Dora episode on Mother's Day earlier in the week and so Allie knew it was a time to let Mom know how much you love her......and get her a present, lol. So, Allie said, "but Mom, who's gonna take me to get you a present?" It was really cute and sweet. I just laughed and told her she didn't have to get me a present. Of course she really wanted to so my Mom took her and Allie wanted to get me flowers. Mom convinced her that wasn't a good idea since we didn't have a home right now. So instead she got me an outfit. I love that little girl. I love Avery bug too. I am so blessed to have such wonderful, loving children.
Also throughout the week the girls and I put together some gifts for Mony & GG. They painted birdhouses and help me put together a tea towel "cake" for them. I'll have to post pics of the painting process in another post....little Miss Avery was a MESS!
I just want to say thanks to Derek for coming to stay with us this weekend. Sorry I ruined your surprise! And a shout out to my MIL, Paula, I don't know if you read this..but we missed you today. Happy Mother's Day - we love you! Happy Mom's day to my Momma. I love you lots and you are my very best friend. I hope that my girls and I will have the same kind of relationship that we do. I want them to know that they can talk to me about anything. I'm not only their Mom but a friend too and I'm always there for them and would do anything for them, just like you, Mom.

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!!

Pics from "the move"

The "Move"

We're officially out of our home. Really, this "move" has been the easiest one yet. I don't know if we're just getting used to it (3rd move in 5 years) or what it is exactly. I started packing a while ago so the past few weeks I would just do about 5 small boxes a day and then the last few days I just had to put what was left out in a couple of boxes and we were done! We had a few friends help us with the loading. We're very thankful for them! They all helped us in our last move too and they've been a huge help. We're especially thankful for Kevin & Tami for helping us with loading, watching our girls, cleaning, throwing us a good bye party etc!! Although we didn't spend as much time as we should have/would have liked together while we lived so close I am grateful for the time we did spend with each other. We're going to miss you guys!
Anyway, I got a little distracted! The packing went kind of fast, I thought....probably not for anyone else (I didn't do a whole lot of lifting). The cleaning went by fairly quickly too. We got it all done in one day with a long break for lunch and a long break for dinner with our closest friends. My parents came over to watch our girls so we could clean without distractions so that helped a ton!
The morning we started to pack Avery threw up a couple of times and Allie wasn't her usual self......she was just laying around. Once Abby & Kaiya got there they both were acting fine - running around, playing etc. Allie would stop every now and then and go inside to lay down for a while. I knew something wasn't right. Avery never stopped...she threw up all over me towards the end of the day, but it didn't stop her. Allie has been sick since Wednesday..still not feeling well today. She's averaging a temp of 103! She won't eat anything. I'm not really sure what to do. I feel like anytime I take my kids to the doctor they complain that I brought them in when they didn't need to be or if I wait to bring them in they complain that I didn't bring them in soon enough.
Okay, off track again....my brain just isn't working right ever since the vacuum fell on top of me while I was cleaning our stairs. I have a nice little cut on my nose along with a bump and bruise and my head has been "heavy" since then.
Back to the move....so everything fit in our ABF truck. We used up ever possible inch though. Our cleaning passed our landlords inspection with flying colors. He was there before Derek even got there and had already been through the house and had a load of mulch in the driveway (I've mentioned before that they are moving back in and are very anxious to do so). Derek is now living with Kevin & Tami for a couple weeks and the girls and I are in Indiana with my parents. We did end up paying the full price for the house we wanted. The closing is scheduled for May 28th....looks like we'll be moving into our house over Memorial Day Weekend/our 6th year anniversary. Hopefully we'll be able to find some help over that busy weekend!

Anyway, kids are calling and this post is so all over the place so I think it's best if I just stop rambling! I'll post some pics later.

Housing Situation Update

Derek and I drove down to Texas last week with a load of stuff in our trailer...the closing on our house was scheduled for Wednesday and we wanted to be there for it. The drive wasn't all that bad. 20 hours total, 18 of actual driving time. We had a bunch of Pilot coupons for free 32oz beverages that came into great use to help keep us awake!
Anyway, we got there sometime Tuesday afternoon and we went straight to the house. We pulled up and it wasn't as bad as I had imagined it to be on the outside (from the pics I had seen that Derek took). But then we got right up close and the driveway was a disaster! It went straight DOWN! We parked on it and Derek had a hard time backing back out....I was like I don't want to deal with that everyday! No wonder the garage door was damaged all along the bottom. The backyard was massive but pretty much the entire yard was a slant and you could hear the traffic on the very busy highway loud and clear...even though you couldn't see it. The inside was alright. The layout wasn't my favorite, but I could live with it........but a lot of work needed to be done (doors replaced, all walls painted and upgrades for our taste). I would have been willing to do all of that, but I just couldn't imagine dealing with that driveway everyday.....and it would be impossible with the boat. Anyway, we backed out of yet another house! Call us indecisive, call us picky.....and you're probably right! haha

Next choice the lake house. We went and looked at it, loved it...put an offer on it. It was accepted! yay, right?!? Let's go see it again.......this time we looked at everything a lot closer. There would be over $40,000 of repairs that we would have to do on it. Granted, we were getting it $100,000 under what it was appraised at....but is it worth it? We decided........NO.

We found another house the night before we left. It's just about perfect for us, but they won't budge on their price. We'll try one more time next week and if they don't take it I guess we'll be renting. No matter what we're going to either be in TLF or at a friends house for a month until we can move in/find somewhere to live. This crazy adventure has me completley stressed to my max! Luckily, we put our trailer in a storage unit while we were there (we were hoping to put it in our garage in our new home...but obviously that didn't work). Our van, however, is just sitting in a parking lot on base! I'm pretty worried about it. The person working at the inn on base said we could leave it there (we told them it would be 2 weeks, now it's going to be like 3) but I don't know that they'll keep an eye on it or anything like that.

Anyway, our move out date is 30 Apr. The homeowners are moving back in that day! Our truck gets dropped off next Tuesday. It seems like we still have a lot to do, but going through things last night, pretty much everything left to pack are things we need until the last possible day. Our house is in such disarray - that really just adds to all of the stress.

Easter and Other Adventures

We travelled to Indiana for Easter so we could be with family.....it will probably be our last Easter with family for a long while :( It was a lot of fun despite the rain. Good food, fun crafts and great company!

The rain stopped - the eggs were hidden - and then it started raining again. This was the quickest egg hunt ever!! The next day the sun was shining brightly so we put a just a few eggs and had the girls go look for them. My card for the camera was full both days so I only got a couple pics.



Prior to leaving for Indiana we said goodbye to our really good friends whom we are going to miss so much! Here are the girls being cheezywho knew that Avery knew how to make a silly face! Now whenever I ask her to make a silly face she tries to mimic her sister's silly face.

We got to have Adeline hang out with us for a day - the girls had so much fun. Playing at the sand table, playing at the park, geocaching!!


The weather has been gorgeous (except for today - rain) so we've tried to take advantage of it as much as possible. We went to Young's Jersey - fed the goats, played around, and watched a mama goat struggle to push her newborn baby out.

Videos

I don't take enough video of my girls....now that we're moving far away I hope to do a better job of it and post them often. I love watching videos......and the girls do too...especially of themselves!