Video!

Wordless Wednesday

Our New Home

Introducing our new home....for a while:

Cuz I just liked this light fixture:

The office:

Living room then the Dining room behind it. The loft is above the living room:

I'm standing in the living room looking at the front entry way:

1/2 bath off of the kitchen. Nathan laid the law down tonight by declaring "Its no load dropping mandate" since its so close to the kitchen of course. I'm not sure why he even needed to say that out loud since he would be the only one guilty of this.

Part of the kitchen. That is the 1/2 bath on the left and the dining room straight ahead:

Family room:

Lots of shelves in the garage:

Looking at the living room from the loft:

The loft:

Master:

Master bathroom:

Master:

Master closet. Sigh....

Henry's room:

Henry's closet. He claims he will like to hide in there and read books.

Henry & Charlie bathroom:

Charlie's room:

Bonus room:

And all for these little ones!

We can start moving stuff on Oct 1st, but won't move the big stuff until Oct 6th and we are so excited!!!

Love, B

SpiderMan!

WE HAVE AN OFFER!

WE

HAVE

AN

OFFER!

A

FULL-PRICE

OFFER!!!

And we accepted it....and now, we celebrate and then we need to find a new place to live

in THIRTY days!

Better get looking.

Pre-School Grad Night

Pre-School Graduation Night was full of....

Excited kids who were so proud to show off their daily digs

Big Brothers proud to show off their little brothers

So much so that little brothers were annoyed with big brothers because they were pulling them all around the school by their little arms.

Big nervous smiles and giggles

Garbled words to songs that I couldn't quite understand and teachers working their hardest to keep the crazy group of little people singing and doing hand motions.

Meaningful words spoken by Cindy to the 3 little graduates as their parents cried and I kinda cried along with them.

Overall, it was adorable to see the kids in their familiar surroundings interacting with their teachers. It is a great group of parents and kids and I really hope we find a new house close enough that we don't have to pull Henry this year.

Charlie, who automatically smiled "cheeeeezzzzee" when I held up the camera. I was trying to catch him feeding his goldfish to the dog one-by-one. Yes, we now eat out of plastic bags and paper plates, if I have them. Less dishes = happier mom.

We had a potluck dinner...but the boys were too preoccupied with the sandbox that they didn't care about food. And of course, Henry and sweet, sweet Maddie (sigh) chased each other while Nate and I (again) tried to come up with the right words to discuss an arranged marriage with her parents. Maddie's parents feel the same way about Henry as we do Maddie. They are so cute together!

At first, Charlie really wasn't sure what to make of the sand that got in his sandals. He kept shaking his foot and saying "guck" (yuck?)...but soon got over it and moved on to throwing sand as we ate nearby. I even enjoyed some sand-crusted watermelon. Mmmmm..

Charlie was just in love with the pint-sized sink that he could could turn on himself. If we had one of these at home, he'd be the shiniest, cleanest boy on earth!

When is a toilet ever cute? When it is pint-sized, of course! I made Nate stand next to it for perspective. He thinks I am nuts.

The art wall:

Right before the kids came out to perform, Cindy announced to the large group that some kids are really nervous, so "Becky, you may want to wave really big when Henry comes out."

Then Henry walks out, leading the group, with his shirt tucked in to his underwear nice and tight which is an obvious sign that he went to the bathroom by himself.

I love this little happy guy:

The motley crew:

When it came time to perform, Henry, who has practiced for a full year now, only sang one of the 4 songs. I think he was really tired, and pretty crabby, so he spent most of the program with his head buried in my lap.

But was way more in his element goofing around with his buddy Carson as the other kids performed:

And

TA-DAH!

It is rather large....almost as big as our house...lets just hope it does its job.

Looking forward to starting our 3-day weekend.

Its the start of BEAVER FOOTBALL (which by-the-way) yesterday, Henry asked me as we were loading up in my car, if we could go to Oregon State.....Oh boy, was Nate proud.

Go BEAVS!

Love, B

I dream of........cleaning???

Last night, I dreamt about cleaning my tiny kitchen floor with Lysol Disinfecting Wipes on my hands and knees. I cleaned all night in my sleep, or so it felt. I need help.

We are OTM Day 4 and the activity continues, but at a much slower pace. We had a showing scheduled this morning and we have one scheduled for tomorrow, but that isn’t nearly what we the last few days have been like. We hear there are a handful of people interested, but nothing solid yet. The sign still isn’t up, but they have spray painted our lawn, apparently indicating where the sign people should dig. Or maybe it is Realty Trust’s underground marketing campaign, like hanging shoes over a power line by their tied laces.

Four weeks ago, I often walked right by dust bunnies letting them tumbleweed themselves in my wake. Four weeks ago, I left the house with my bed unmade (stop gasping Mom!) I also would leave a room that was littered with boy stuff, completely unfazed of the mess. I would even let a few dishes sit in the sink until the next scheduled wash time and I did laundry twice a week.

Now, however, I practically wear a tool belt containing Lysol wipes, I organize my cleaning products and actually enjoy looking at them, I always have a paper towel in my hand and I get overly excited with Arm & Hammer’s Pet Fresh carpet deodorizer. I can, in an instant, make any evidence of pets and children disappear! I cannot leave a room unless everything is put back in its rightful place, I wash AND DRY every dish as it is used and put it away and I do a load of laundry every day, maybe even two loads…even if that means there are only 3 items to wash. Great. I am becoming my Mother. This selling the house stuff is turning me into my very neat, “oops, you missed a spot” mother! Not that that’s a bad thing, Mother. What’s the saying? Tidy house, tidy life. I actually love having a “show-ready” house. It is nice to walk into a simple, clean home after a messy, chaotic work day. I just might keep things this way even after we move. I know, actions speak louder than my typed words, so we’ll revisit this topic a couple months down the road for all ya’ll haters.

In the meantime, our new normal is becoming…well…more normal. And I likes me some more normal!!!

Tonight we will attend In a Childs Path “Graduation”. Henry is a participant in the ceremony – we know this because he has been singing the program songs for a full year now, including my personal favorite "I jump the pirate ship". Even though it isn’t my child graduating from pre-school, I have pit in my stomach because this now means my child is the (what they call) “kindergartener” at pre-school. He gets to sit at a special table and take a little one under his wing for the next year. I’ll post pictures from the ceremony tomorrow.
Love, B

OTM - Day 2

It is the end of OTM Day 2. Our Realtor Open House apparently went really well - we counted 31 Realtor cards, and according to Realtor Rick, many people didn't even leave a card. It was a busy day here and that is great news - we hope. We have 2 second showings - one was today and one in the morning. Overall, we got great feedback and seem to be priced just right.

Would love to hear that cell phone ring with some great news.

The kids have HAD IT with this whole limbo thing. I mean, HAD IT. They are tired, off schedule and crabby as they have ever been. They are even punching each other in the face.

Evidence:

Just kidding. I just needed to post a photo to remind myself that I still know how. This was an accident in the backyard a few weeks ago. This is what happens when a broom handle cracks you on the lip. Off to put our crabby crabs to beddy bed and to prep for OTM Day 3.

Love, B