And the Fun Continues...

Yesterday morning, I was in a mad dash to get my car loaded up to go see my Grandmother at her retirement center. I took some stuff to the car only to hear the door slam behind me. When I tried to go back in the house from the garage, well.. can you guess what sweet Nicholas did? He locked the door. I currently do not have a house key (another story), so I frantically called my realtor and got her vm. I left a rather hysterical message about my situation and then called Chuck. He instructed me to check all of the windows (of course they were all locked). Had this been last week, I would have broken one, but since we just had all of the glass replaced thoughout the house, I was a litle more hesiatant. Nicholas and I talked to each other through the back door for awhile and he tried to unlock that one but the dead bolt was too high. Meanwhile I remembered the realtors office number was on the sign out front. I called them and they quickly dispensed an agent from a close by office to come over and let me in. After that, I was able to persuade Nicholas back to the cat door in our garage and held each other through it. The next thing I know he stands up and unlocks the door handle! My parents showed up at this point with their handy man and his credit card. I called the realtor's office and told them my 19 month old figured out how to let me back in and we were ok.

Today... Planning on going out of town tomorrow, I decided to take my car in for an oil change as it is almost due. Upon leaving the dealership, all of a sudden thick gray smoke is filling up my rear windshield and I have complete loss of power when I step on the gas. I pulled into a parking lot and called Honda. They sent a tow truck. I called my mom and she was on her way (they said the tow would be 45 minutes). Well the tow made it in 22, so we loaded up Nicholas car seat in the front of his cab and he took us back to the dealership. My mom showed up and we decided to wait and see if it was something simple to fix, since it is by now traffic time and it is a long drive back to our neighborhood. I have been going to this dealership since I bought the car 5 years ago and never have been treated so poorly as I was today. They were completely inconsiderate of the fact that I had a tired, hungry 19 month old and I was going on my 5th hour there. They had to supposedly have a meeting about what happened and whether or not they could rent me a car through Sunday since I was supposed to be leaving town in the morning at 7am. The problem with the car was that they put double the anount of oil required, so it needed to be drained, aired out overnight, the filter and spark plugs replaced. They kept us waiting while they had their "meeting" about my rental for 45 minutes and I finally lost it and left. They were in the process of calling Enterprise about a rental car, but I had been jerked around and sweet talked so much at this point that I unleashed my fury on their manager who chased us into the parking lot. We left in mom's car and my trip is cancelled for now. My blood pressure has been 150/100 consistently over the last two weeks. I do not normally have high blood pressure. It is usually 103/70. Please pray for my health during this stressful time.

Welcome to My World

Good Morning! It is 2am! Nicholas is barking like a dog in the room next door. Never mind that I passed out from exhaustion at 10:30 only to be woken at 11 by dear sweet husband and again at midnight by good friend Talese (yes, I know it sounds late, but we have an ok to call late rule because usually I am up until midnight and she works in the middle of the night for 2nd Life). So, Mr. Baby comes in my bed in sheer desperation to get back to sleep quickly only to question myself for the next 5 hours as to why a 19 month old can not stay put in a king size bed. He is unable to sleep unless he is kicking me with his gigantic size 8 feet or banging his super hard head into mine. 7:15am classical music followed by angry sick barking Nicholas and purring cats jumping on us for attention. Then trying to wake Patrick who is sure he is too sick for school. Temperatures are taken and throats are checked. With everyone ok, finally, he is dressed, the 30 sec microwave sausage biscuits are ready (and the special request of Indian Spice Chai tea with honey for his throat) is made and PTL, my dad is here to take him to school!!! I do not know how I would have survived the last 2 1/2 weeks w/out my parents and brother Russell! He is off to school and I have super grumps to contend with. Meanwhile the dog is fed (oh yeah-we got a dog a couple of weeks ago...nothing like a new family pet in the middle of trying to sell your house and move to really liven things up), laundry is started and breakfast is made for Nicholas only to be pushed away. I notice at this point that Nicholas has now fulfilled every mother's biggest dream for her child when he wipes his nose on his sleeve. Yay for me! Can I just by stock in Shout now? Morning chores continue and the barrage (I mean demands that sound like screams) start from Mr. Grumpy Pants. "Melmo! Melmo!" as he manages to touch every button on out DVD player and attempt to open the cabinet where the Elmo treasure is stored. Hoping for quiet, I relent, and start madly ironing a huge pile of laundry that has been building since Friday when laundry started but never quite finished and just continued to grow (see, Friday morning began with an unfortunate discovery that the cats {being mad that our new dog, Bentley, was in the garage because it was cold out} decided to use Patrick's huge collection of stuffed animals as a litter box instead of going out the kitty door to their litter boxes in the garage). Anyways, ironing ensues while eating Kashi with almond milk and calling Patrick's future elementary school when the phone beeps, and it is our agent here saying that the inspection on our house here has been moved to Thursday instead of today. Strange because not 1 hour before I had spoken with Chuck and found out that our inspection there (where we are moving) is also Thursday at the same time! Weird how, everything with these two house continues to coincide on the same days. Anyways, my parents show up yet again (for the second time in 2 hours) to watch Nicholas so I can go see a most amazing witch doctor (just kidding... she is a chiropractor). This is followed by a stroll around Big Lots next door (by myself-who knew Big Lots could be so enchanting) where I am excited to find a pooper scooper for the back yard. I listen to my book on CD all the way home (Left Behind if you were wondering-great to rent those books on CD from the library). I arrive at home to find out Nicholas has been asleep since 20 min after I left and hasn't made a peep. Thankfully, he slept until time to pick up Patrick (almost 4 hours). We come home and Patrick is all to excited to use the new pooper scooper so I instruct him to put on his crocs and go for it. I give him a paper grocery sack and marvel at what a sweet helpful 6 year old boy I have. 15 minutes later I walk through the kitchen to find a paper bag on the kitchen table. "Patrick?" I say. "That's not a bag of poop on the kitchen table is it?". "Yeah, mom, it's in a bag, no big deal". Well, if you know me you can imagine the antibacterial cleansing that took place immediately following that conversation.. OK, so its 5pm and Patrick decides while I am changing Nicholas to try and walk Bentley who is NOT leash trained and I find Bentley running down the street in pursuit of another Springer Spaniel and Patrick following behind. Bentley is eventually brought in the house and things settle down for a moment. From then on, peanut butter cookies are made, break dancing is questioned and discussed and somewhere in there Nicholas decides to make Bentley's kennel his new home. Dinner is microwaved, fruit is cut, baths given and American Gladiators is on the TV before bed. It is now 9:18 now and Patrick has been sound asleep for 1 hour and 18 minutes and Nicholas is jumping on my bed. I am on my second margarita and reviewing my prayer/gratitude journal that says "sleep tonight" first on the list. I am sure there are more fun moments from the day that I have not mentioned, but I think I have gone on long enough. May your days and nights not be as sleep deprived and full of poop (and snot) as mine!

Madness!

Our house went on the market 13 days ago and we have had 11 showings. Over the long weekend the boys and I joined Chuck at the hotel in the city we are moving to and saw 18 houses in 4 days. We were so glad that my parents just happened to be coming in off of a cruise and were able to stay 2 nights and watch Nicholas for us while we looked. That was such a tremendous gift to us (as Nicholas is a typical 19 mo old who wants his way no matter what)! Patrick was a real trooper and seemed to really enjoy being part of the house hunting process. This morning we were talking about how much to offer on a house we are interested in when our agent here called and said that we had an offer on our house! A GREAT offer. She suggested we counter and they agreed! We are so blessed that this process has been so quick and relatively painless. We have prayed about this transition for a long time and I know that this morning was a total God thing.

My New Cure All

I have been sick with a cough/sinus infection for over a month. This has cured it. Antibiotics did nothing. Remember nature first!

http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/acvinegar4.html

Christmas 2007

So much to remember from this past Christmas. There were 2 Christmas plays, one featuring the very beautiful Rainey, two breakfasts with Santa, a gingerbread house that I never got a picture of and yummy frosted cut out sugar cookies that we shared with my family at Christmas. There was also chipotle roasted butternut squash soup with panchetta and goat cheese croutons, prime rib, twice baked potatoes and my famous 4 layer Cuban Opera Cake. At Chuck's mother's we had an awesome turkey breast and pork loin followed by so many sides and salads an extra table had to be brought in. The ornament below is one my aunt who died of breast cancer gave me the first Christmas I moved out of my parents house. It has always been special to me.
Below is what I call a Christmas family heirloom that I caught my mom trying to sell at her GARAGE SALE 3 years ago. I was so happy to receive it for part of my Christmas decorations even though it is a little bit 80s.

This was a float on Main Street. I love gingerbread houses if you hadn't noticed already. I collect Santa ornaments as well.

Aunt Brandi and 3 of the 5 chillin out. I think all of the baby MaCrae pictures are on my cell. He is so cute and already 15 lbs! I want another baby ASAP! Please convince my husband for me.

IN WF with Mel, Jack and his daughter and her family.

My absolute favorite holiday tradition since I was a little girl. The Fantasy of Lights! I actually videotaped it this year. We are in front of The Little Engine That Could. If you are ever in WF, you just can't miss it!

Hope you all were as blessed as we were!!!! Happy New Year!

Through Tears and Laughter

Years ago, I took a really pretty picture of our house for Patrick's baby book. Since our trees are now bare and the grass is no longer green, I needed this picture for our "FOR SALE BY OWNER" flyer. While looking for the picture, I came across this one of Patrick & Chuck. We are sad and happy to announce that we are moving for Chuck's promotion to Executive Sous Chef. We have LOVED living here for the last 7 years. We have been so blessed to have all of our family close. We wil miss our chuch, the lake & our friends as well. We are excited for the new opportunity that lies ahead.
Yes, Christmas time around here was absolutely fun filled and exhausting to the point of hearing myself on the video camera saying that our kids had received so many gifts that it felt SINFUL! That we have to clean out stuff to move in more stuff! I so appreciate every one's generosity and excitement to give my children presents, but...we are drowning in spoiled kids here. Next year I want to visit soup kitchens and give away the toy store on speed that we currently own. I don't know if God would be proud of me at this moment as a parent for letting this get so out of control.

Anyways, the picture above is pure joy. We were in Austin visiting the F.S.H. there climbing up Mount Bonnel with Patrick. Those insignificant moments, the day to day "don't forget the camera" moments" that you see 5 years later and wish, wish, WISH you could have those precious moments back. I would be forever having children if I could to continue to experience the daily joys so quickly forgotten in the whole drive of life to push forward. As Kate Bush said in her song "This Woman's Work"...{Give me these moments back. If only I had a little time left. If only I had a little more feeling. There so many things I could have said or could have done...so many things....Oh, darling... don't make it go away... }