Travelogue

Last week I took a trip with the kids, but without Jim...it was quite the adventure.

My dear friend, Ariana (who has been one of my best friends since age 10, college roommate, etc.), has been a three day drive from us for the last five years and we haven't seen each other in that time.  This year we both moved closer together, so we're only 7.5 hours apart now.  I jumped on the chance to go visit!  So the Saturday before last, I loaded the kids in the car and our trip began.  They were AMAZING during the drive out there...not a single argument! 

Our first morning there I woke up to discover that Annie had slept in Alex's playpen with him...no wonder he had trouble going to sleep!

We mostly visited and occupied ourselves with normal mommy-busyness, but one day we had an excursion to a very beautiful hiking spot.  We met up with another old friend, Maria, for our adventure. 

We had a picnic lunch before setting out.

These little girls couldn't wait to get started.

Group shot at the beginning of our hike.

This was an incredible bridge...and it scared me too.

These girls were two peas in a pod all week.  They had the time of their lives playing and making mischief together.  They even look like they could be sisters!

There were some VERY cool caves and tunnels on our hike.

Ariana is one tough momma...she lugged that baby in her arms the entire way!

We stopped in a gorgeous cove with a waterfall and pool that were surrounded by cliffs.  Alex sat at the top of the little hill spellbound for a while.

Then he started scooting down on his little bottom to get to the water.  Afterward, we could see a nice little trail where he'd been.

We let the kids wade in the water...fun!

Annie soon attempted to go for a swim...

While we were at the same spot, a group of Chinese ladies started taking pictures of our babies and Annie.  They were probably at it for 30 min. before Annie finally had enough and burst into tears.

Some of us were exhausted before we were back in the cars to leave.

I asked some of the kids what they thought of our hike.  Here are their responses:

I couldn't possibly forego a picture with my dear friend Maria...even if it was after the hike. 

Here's another shot of us eleven years ago!  It's too bad I don't have an older photo...we've known each other since we were babies!

Maria also took a lot of pictures of our day, and hers were much better than mine.  Here are just a few:

This is the part where that bridge scared me.  Alex was moving around a lot, trying to see all around, but he was throwing me off balance.  Annie wanted to look too, and I just knew one of them was going to make us all fall off.

Down into a tunnel...

At one point the little girls took off running ahead of us and we soon lost sight of them.  I then noticed that the trail ahead of us ended at a road!  We quickened our pace and soon noticed them scrambling through the trees to get to a trail below us.  They bolted down the trail until we caught up, and this was our view from the trail (after capturing our mischief makers).

We preferred letting them admire the pool from up close instead of high up.

Maria also captured some pictures of the photo shoot with the Chinese ladies.

They went so far as to pick up Annie (with my permission) to pose with her.  The end of it was when one of the ladies took off Annie's hat; that was too much for my confused little girl.

This was a very cool drop in the creek...it looked like a very fun (and dangerous) waterslide.

By the time we dropped off Maria, the kids were wiped out.

The next day, Ariana made cookies and the kids decorated some.

Some play time...there was LOTS of that.

The night before I left I realized I needed a picture with Ariana...once again my hair is in a ponytail.  Oh well...

Here we are again eleven years ago.  Not sure why it scanned crooked, but I don't have time to fix it now.

This one is fifteen years ago.  Also in the picture are Marissa, Liz, and Jaime.

After staying up late talking our last night there, I packed the kids into the car once more and headed to Detroit for a couple of days.  We had a wonderful visit with Danielle while we were there.

The first thing we did was load the kids up on sugar.

Then on to the beach!

It was a HOT day and the beach was the perfect thing.  Danielle's girls took my older two to play and I was able to relax, soak, visit, and enjoy Alex.

We did use sunscreen, but apparently not enough.  This kid was pooped.

Same day a few hours later...

On Sunday we went to church, visited, relaxed, and got a little silly.

The kids really enjoyed their Aunt Danielle.

They had fun playing with Juan, too.

On Monday, we headed home with one extra passenger.  My niece Mariah came with us for a little visit before the rest of our company comes and our adventures continue.  The drive was again uneventful, and the kids did great.  Phew!  Some of the places we drove through: Illinois, including part of Chicago; Indiana, including Indianapolis and Gary (aka scary); Ohio; Michigan; and of course Iowa.

Sam

Since I posted about Sam's illness a few weeks ago, I want to give the final update as well.  After she became so sick right before we moved, she regained energy and was acting very normal two weeks later.  Two weeks ago Thursday, I decided to give her a bath because I'd been avoiding it since she'd been so weak.  I gave her a really nice brush down, which she loved, and a bath which she didn't love as much.  It was good to see her so energetic again, but when I bathed her, I had a feeling I was doing it for the last time.  On Friday morning, I found her very lethargic once more, barely able to stand, and having trouble breathing.  She'd also thrown up and it contained blood.  I was quite distraught that day and in tears most of the morning.  We ultimately decided not to try for surgery to remove the tumor because it gave such little hope of recovery at a high cost.  I watched her closely that day, and Jim watched her closely over the next few days while I was out of town.  Poor girl, it was so hard and sad to see her suffering like that.  We both had a feeling that her time was short, so we had the kids say goodbye before we left on our trip.  On Tuesday night, she became so weak that Jim determined it was time to end her suffering.  He took her to the vet, but she collapsed as he was signing in and had passed on her own a minute later.  They determined that when the tumor burst this time, it had been filling her lungs with blood.  On the one hand I'm grateful the kids and I were away when it happened because it made it less difficult, especially for the kids.  At the same time, I wish I could have said goodbye one more time.  Considering I didn't even want a dog when we took her, I'd become very attached to her.  It's a little unreal to me that this strong, energetic, independent dog isn't here, and that I can't hug or pet her now.  I am glad she is no longer suffering, though.   

House Pictures

So we finally took a picture of our new house...here it is!

We had to wait to take the picture until we'd both lost twenty pounds and looked seven years younger.  What's that?  You don't believe me?  Why not?  Okay, I admit it.  Here are the real pictures.  (We took that one when we were doing our engagement pictures.)

I'll start with the week before our move pictures because chronological order is always best, right?  (And it adds to the suspense.)

The kids kept themselves busy during the three days that I packed.  Yes, I packed in three days (because I avoided it for 6 out of the 9 I had).  It was some sort of a miracle especially since packing is the WORST chore ever!  Here's one of their activities.

Here's another activity.  Inside each bowl is a newborn baby...ssh!

I forget what Logan was building here...maybe a space shuttle.

Timeline (to give an idea of the exhausting weekend, and for my memory)
Thursday: 5 to 10pm- Plan to pack kitchen, but take dog to vet instead and deal with sick dog
Friday: 10am- Close on house; 12-5pm- Take kids to babysitter (thank you Blenda!) then move all fragile and loose items to new house by myself; 6pm- Pack everything we missed; 9:30pm- Begin packing kitchen
Saturday: 7am- Drag kids out of bed and take them to a babysitter (thank you Sarah and Lynette!); 8am- Pick up moving truck; 8:30am to 3pm- Load and unload three truck loads (thank you more men than I can name just now!); 3:30pm- Oh my aching back!  Eat some lunch (thank you Becca!)  Pick up kids; 4:30pm- Short rest; 5:30- Re-motivated, arrange all the bedroom and living room furniture and boxes;6:30pm- Dinner in our new home (thank you Paula!); 7pm- Assemble all the beds; 8pm- Bathtime and bedtime; 9pm- Make our bed and collapse!  It had never felt softer!
Sunday : Truly a day of rest!

On Monday I was totally motivated and excited to unpack.  By some miracle (seriously) I had the kitchen finished in 2.5 hours!  Total boxes unpacked that day: 35.  There must have been angels helping me.  To occupy the kids I threw all the empty boxes and packing paper into the living room as I finished with them.  It worked and they were great all day.

I worked hard the rest of the week, and could actually consider myself unpacked by Saturday.  I decorated this week and finished up some details.  I can't believe how fast this went!  I am very grateful to be organized and enjoying our new home!

Here are the official house pictures.  (Which I took tonight as the sun was going down.)

Our house which we love, except for the unfortunate driveway.  The price was right though!  (Let's just say that we'd be lucky to rent a two bedroom apartment for the price of our mortgage payment...including insurance and taxes.)  This house was custom built in the 50's and the original owners never sold it.  They took immaculate care of it, and eventually passed away.  Their sons were selling it and that's why we got such a good deal.

A view from the backyard.  It's not the best shot, but I felt embarrassed to be taking pictures because the neighbors behind us were outside.  I'm silly, I know.

Our large shade tree in the backyard...I  have no idea what it is, but Jim thinks it's an oak.

Our living room!  Yay!  It has carpet!  Nice carpet!  Don't you ever DARE to walk on this carpet with shoes!

Another living room shot.  It's actually a pretty large room.

The "office" which is really a nook in the living room.  I gave Jim the desk and chair for his last birthday and Christmas present (I know...they don't even compare to my last few birthday presents), and he finally has a space to study.  

I LOVE my kitchen!  I'm sure unpacking went so fast in it because I had so much cupboard and drawer space.  I still have empty drawers and unfilled cabinets!  It has so much counter space too...wonderful!

The other side of my kitchen and the dining room.

From the kitchen you head toward the stairs and receive a surprise.  Can we say retro?  That's the best word I have to describe our basement.

In the basement, we have an enormous family room (which will eventually become a bedroom and family room), a large laundry/ storage room, a full bathroom, and the garage.  Our garage is air conditioned and heated...

Anyway, here is one view of our very long family room.

A view from the opposite end.  I actually really like this carpet.  It's very soft, shag carpet and I can tell it will hide stains of all sorts.  It looks a lot nicer in real life, too.  I could do without the wood paneled walls, though.  They make the room too dark.

Our bedroom.  We have lots of space and the coolest 1956 curtains ever (they have a copyright on them...it really is 1956) which are in excellent condition.  I actually think they're really pretty and would like to make a blanket to coordinate.  

This is our bedroom closet.  It is one very HUGE closet with two openings.  This thing is the full length of the wall!  The picture really doesn't do it justice.  You'll just have to come visit to see.  All of our closets are very spacious actually.  To give an idea, our coat closet, which is the smallest one, is 8 feet long and fairly deep.

Alex's bedroom.  This room isn't very big, but it's perfect for a baby's room.  I don't love the orange carpet or wooden walls.  No real complaints, though, since everything is in great condition.  

Here's a look at some of the funky patterns we have in our house.  This is the covering on our downstairs counter.  I like it, but it clashes with the cool carpet.

Wallpaper in the kitchen...I actually like it.

 Downstairs bathroom wallpaper...I do not like.

The other bathroom's wallpaper.  I really don't like this stuff.  I don't spend all day in the bathroom, though, so I'll get over it.  It just adds to the fun and charm of this place.

We have an entryway in this house!  Yes!  I'm really loving that we don't tramp right into our living room with our dirty shoes.

Our doorbell is pretty neat.  It plays a little tune, and if you want you can take the mallet and make your own.

The kids bedroom, I'll admit, isn't decorated very nicely.  It's got all their stuff, though, and that makes them happy.  This is actually a pretty good sized room.

It has a very cool 70's mirror with gold streaks all through it.

 That's it for now.  We're feeling quite settled, and are making progress with the few repairs that needed to be done.  We had a crumbling sewer line replaced today before it had a chance to totally collapse and back up.  (Logan sure was excited to have a backhoe in our yard all day!)   Jim and I also repaired a stuck shower faucet ourselves.  I figured it out and was pretty pleased at my new plumbing knowledge.  :)  We're planning to install a dishwasher soon (the only downside to my kitchen), and that's really all we're doing to it for now.  There will be projects in the future no doubt, but for now we're happy with it.

Moved!

One of these days I'll post a picture of our new house (maybe I should first take one), but today still isn't that day.  Anyway, we moved on Saturday and what a day that was!  Especially considering I spent Friday moving car loads of stuff that I didn't want on a moving truck, and didn't start packing my kitchen until 9:30pm.  We received so much help with the physical move, babysitting, and meals that weekend, though.  We're incredibly grateful for that.  I'm pretty sure it would have taken us weeks on our own to do what was accomplished in one day.  The next time anyone needs a favor, please call us!   

Sam

Last evening we noticed that Sam was acting very unusual.  She was VERY lethargic and listless.  She didn't want pizza when I offered her a bite, she wouldn't lick me, and she'd only stand up when forced, but then would walk very slowly.  The day before I had chased her down the street at full speed!  I had a feeling something was very wrong, so I took her to an animal hospital last night.  It didn't take long for the vet to determine what was going on.  She has cancer.  She'd had a tumor burst yesterday which filled her stomach with blood, and also meant rapid dehydration.  That's why she had such a dramatic change in behavior.  I wasn't expecting that kind of news, and I was surprised at how sad I felt over it.  This is the dog that I was so reluctant to take only a few months ago!  I've become really attached to her, though, and I don't like the thought of losing her so unexpectedly.  Now, we need to make a decision if we are going to have the tumor surgically removed.  It's expensive and it may or may not have good results.  I'm torn over it.  If this dog was declining in other ways, I don't think it would be a difficult decision.  She's relatively healthy, though.  She's stronger than I am, and energetic! 

One positive side of this is that it has helped me appreciate how healthy my children are.  We have been incredibly blessed with these kids to have no scary medical episodes.  I know they've been watched over and protected to this point.  Our sweet Logan last night shared his very wise perspective on the situation.  He reminded me that when Sam is resurrected her tumor will be gone and she will feel good.  Then he said a very heartfelt prayer asking Heavenly Father to help her feel better.  The faith he expressed when he said that prayer was absolute.  I'm grateful for the teaching of this little child of mine.

Bigger or Better

We celebrated my birthday on Tuesday with cake and a date.

The secret to hiding a frosting disaster: let the kids put sprinkles and candles on and give them all the credit!

 
I turned twelve this year...if you don't believe me count the candles!

We had cake and then Jim and I went on a date. We went out to eat and then discovered a discount bookstore where we perused for a long time. We even came home with four of our favorite classics for $6.50! We also stopped at the library and perused some more (and grabbed more books). I know we're nerds, but we really did enjoy ourselves! I get my present tomorrow. For the past three years it seems Jim has been trying to outdo himself with my birthday present; hence the post title. Two years ago he bought me a digital piano. Last year he bought our table and chairs. This year we're getting a house! We close tomorrow morning and I'm SO excited to finally settle down somewhere permanently! That's really the best part...being able to work towards owning the roof over our heads and not moving! Granted, we would have purchased all of those things even if it wasn't my birthday (except for maybe the table) because they were all things we were seriously considering anyway. It's just awesome that they all worked out right around my birthday! If Jim tries to play this game next year, he can't possibly go bigger, it'll have to be better in some way. :)  (And I'd better get thinking about his birthday.)

For the LAST Time

Yesterday I started something for the last time.  Here are the clues:

Logan sitting on a box...

Annie and Alex on a box...

Alex climbing through boxes...

Last clue...bare bookshelves...

 Can you guess?  Yep.  We are moving yet again!  That'll be FOUR places we've lived in nine months!  Whew!  This time is VERY permanent, though.  Pictures and details to come...


Also, I have to throw in a few cute pictures, since blogging is what I do instead of scrapbooking.

Who can resist a cute sleeping baby?  (And who has the heart to wake him...even though it's almost time to leave for church?)

On Memorial Day (was that really part of this week?!) we had a house cleaning race (very successful endeavor), bathed the dog, and gave the big boys haircuts AFTER we slept in and BEFORE we decided to make it a day for fun.  That probably doesn't sound like much of a holiday, but the above work took only two hours (and it made me happy...when Mom's happy, everyone is happy, right?).  We did make it to the park, though.  (And swimming on Saturday.)

Annie is quite the dare devil.  That's 25 pounds of tiny recklessness there.   

Logan is a little less of a dare devil, but he's a good climber.

Alex beats them all.  He's 25 pounds of "you'd better not take your eyes off of me or you'll be sorry".  We're totally in the 'hover' stage of playground time with this kid.  The swing is a nice safe spot.  :)

And today.  Apparently our air conditioning works overly well.  (They were pretending to play in the snow which was in the kitchen and bathroom.  Bundle up before you come to our house.)

Random thought:  So did you catch that Alex weighs as much as Annie?  He's a solid one, but the other two are little shrimps.  Today I had someone ask me yet again if Logan and Annie were twins.  They were even standing next to each other at the time!  I have to wonder if people will start asking if the kids are triplets once Alex loses his baby look.