I hate last minute "Change of Plans"

Life is full of challenges and unplanned collisions of circumstances. For example: My challenge lately has been relocating from one house to another while desperately missing Eric who was in Ireland all month. Now that the "Moving week" is here he is is Atlanta and Chicago for some interviews at job fairs. Throw in the 2 toddlers who are super desperately missing their daddy and you get a big challenge, yes? So the unplanned collision of circumstances? We were planning to pick up a u-haul truck Friday night, pack up early Saturday morning after Eric is home and unlaod all our stuff at the new place late afternoon. You ready for the collision? There is a HUGE city event all day Saturday - a major cycling race! The finish line is basically my front yard! This means NO DRIVING and NO PARKING on the road where my house is!


I juggled with the decision to be made- move Friday night, or change reservations with a possible increase in fees and move Saturday night. The races are supposed to be done around 6 PM. So I called U-Haul and they said it didn't matter when we picked up the truck so I decided Saturday night.


This actually all works out great! We have a family in the ward that is moving accross town and another family moving into the ward, both in the morning. Now Eric can help out where he can in the morning and hopefully everyone else won't be to tired and will help us move in the evening. Now if I can just get everything packed up and cleaned before everything goes crazy again!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!!!!!

Bug had 2 naps yesterday, so she outlasted Kallyn by quite a few hours last night. She finally crashed when I was getting everything tidy for Eric coming home today. All evening and night she kept saying "Bug-a-loo home, daddy home", "Daddy home a morrow", "Daddy on pone (phone), bye, bye, miss you". She started to draw a picture for him and finally she fell asleep, at about 12:30 am. I was waiting for Eric to call when he woke up (5 hours difference), so I figured out how to capture a picture of her with our webcam so eric could see her adorability. I love her sweet tiny toes!





Eric came home at about 5:00 this evening and Allison couldn't stop giving him hugs!!! Kallyn hasn't stopped talking, and Allison couldn't stop her kisses and hugs. So cute! I had to fight to get my hugs in!
So now we get to enjoy his company for a bit before he flies out again tomorrow afternoon for the job fairs. At least this next week we'll be in the same time zone and I can call him on his cell anytime I need to!! Yippee!!!!! Then he'll be home for good on Friday, the day before the "BIG MOVE" details to follow...

The New Place

We showed Rebecca the new house today and since she had her camera I was able to take pictures for the blog. Leave your e-mail in a comment if you want me to give you the address. Enjoy!

Enclosed front porch.
dirty floor of the front porch. Seriously!! Out here no one cleans their dwellings when they move out! And the landlords don't feel so inclined to tidy it up either!
I feel like I'm moving into a mansion!
Showing Anna Becca the new crib.
In front - hangin out together!

third room upstairs (most likely the office/janalee's crafty crap room)
Attic/hiding spot for all my crap!
Dining room with guest room down the hall and half bath for guests to use!
Kitchen-count the cupboards! And the counter space!! Lots of room to leave my junk out!
kitchen-I'll have drawers!

Living room
Stairs going up!
Half of my bedroom. The previous tennants were so kind as to let us dispose of their bed for them!
Other half of my room! Big closet, too!
Kallyn's "Chokey" in her bedroom. In her favorite movie "Matilda" the school's headmistress disciplines the kids by throwing them in her "Chokey" a small closet with glass, nails, and leaky pipes jutting out. This is a worthless waste of space, but it keeps Kallyn's imagination blooming!

And the best part of it all.... No more being stranded out in the middle of nowhere ALL WINTER LONG!!! Oh and the girls get to see daddy on a daily basis instead of a weekly basis.

Candle Pin Bowling

Rebecca is a bowling maniac and we had so much fun teaching her how to bowl the real way!


Bug and her Shoes!!!! She loved these! She could easily put them on!



"Bug-a-loo did it!"




Kallyn keeping score! She actually did a good job counting the pins and finding the # on the board.

The master of bowling!

Shirley Temple

Where did "Bug" come from! We should have been giving her the "Shirley" nick-name instead!

Wearing Becca's shorts!

Blueberries!!!!!!!!!

My girls have inherited my LOVE of berries! We've been strawberry picking and now the blueberries are FINALLY in season and obviously ready to be picked! They weren't near as delicious as the west coast blueberries I'm fond of, but they were absolutely yummy nonetheless! And the girls had so much fun!!!!!

We picked nearly 10 Lbs today!

we should have waighed the girls before and after so we could pay for the berries they ate. "One berrie for the bucket, one handfull for the mouth!" Bug seriously emptied her bucket at least 4 times!

Market Days

Main Street has an anual Market event where for 3 days the street is closed to the usuall motorists and is instead packed with vendors and booths with a wide variety of items and issues. With all the strangers walking up to me to talk about politics ("sign this petition", "register to vote", "you can change the environment by voting for Nader!") It really reminded me of how much I HATE election years.
There were lots of things for the kids to see and do. They saw cows, bounced their bugs out, captured flowers and butterflies on their faces, bought some watermelon and cotton candy, pigged out on Hotdogs, and quenched their thirst with fresh squeezed lemonade. Of course I am partial to the fresh squeezed lemonade from HDOS, but it was rather decently cold and refreshing on the very hot muggy afternoon.

Shopping

After a Dr's apt for Kallyn in Manchester we decided to make our $2 toll a bit more worth it with a trip to the Manchester Mall for some shoes. Found some really cute shoes at Payless but they didn't have my size (they NEVER do) so I got a coupon for the same shoes at the Payless closer to home. On the way out we stopped at Old Navy where we spent over 2 hours browsing the sales racks. Bug really knows how to shop comfortably!!!! Usually Old Navy irritates me because all the really cute stuff is for flat chested 6' sticks or really fat short women. I can seriously NEVER find anything that fits me modestly or will fit in my modest budget. We were fortunate enough to hit Old Navy at the beginning of their %50 off already reduced clearance sale. The majority of the clothing I was fitfully forced into purchasing was for Kallyn and Allison (please remind me to NEVER take the girls shopping in a clothing store ever again!), but I did find a pair of really cute comfy shoes for me, for $3.

New Found Lake

Last Tuesday we took a drive up to New Found Lake with Jamie Johnson. We had so much fun!! I've never seen a lake so clear and warm. Most lakes I'm used to are FREEZING all year round! The girls had a blast playing with Thomas in the sand and splashing around in the water. Kallyn even swam out with me to the deep area where she couldn't touch!




Doing the Gator Crawl!


Kallyn teaching me how to use my "Scoops" in the water!

Kallyn with Thomas and his mom Jamie. Thanks for coming with us!



Water Monkey! Allison loves to swim on my back, but it rubbed off all my sunscreen and I went home with a smoking sunburn in the middle of my back.








This was a family of very social ducks! They were eating Doritos out of a little girls hands. It was rather interesting to see how close they would swim up to the people!


Poor Kallyn, or maybe just cold Kallyn! She has no layers of fat anywhere on her lanky body to keep her warm in the water. She froze early on and thawed out the rest of the afternoon laying out on the warm sand.




Allison is a fish in everything but the gills! She had so much fun out in the water and she even put her head under the water a few times on purpose. She loves dancing in the water!