Summer

Greg picking shapes out of clouds. this is a favorite new activity of his. He's obsessed with space and wants to be an astronaut. True to the Greg way he's already worrying about the details of it.

Greg and David at Millwood park. They have this awesome round wading pool, its like 3 feet deep, fenced, and has a LIFEGUARD! Sucks to be that lifeguard, but great for me.

Waiting for Eclipse to start! It was awwwwsooome.
Connor fell asleep playing like this one afternoon. Holding his dinosaur on the edge of the basket. He's such a little stinker about his nap. He never wants to lay down, but always ends up passed out.
Greggers playing in the sprinkler. Of course he needs his goggles at all times because what if water got in his eyes? The horror! This would be the same child who informed me velcro hurts his ears. Like hold your hands over them and yell.

Con pushing his trike. Always moving that kid. He's just the boy version of Hailey.

McKenzie performing at her school talent show. Shes turning into quite the musician.

We took the kids to their first ever baseball game this year. They had so much fun watching the Indians games, we took them a couple of times. Con is jr. daddy the sports junky and loves it.

Hailey did her hair herself for the ballgame. She's apparantly channeling some 80's diva. You should see the kids school clothes.

The kids at the end of year school carnival. Greg looked so funny with his hair all flying back and his tiger face.
Hailey's end of school concert. They sang cute little dinosaur songs and danced.

Our House

So now that I've finally gotten around to unloading the 350 or so images from my camera I can show off our new house, sorta. Pictures never do justice, and I've repainted. Lets just say the previous owners really enjoyed their 80's decor, me not so much.
The basement was a total and complete pit, so much so I didn't bother taking any pictures of it. There were layers and layers of dirt, it was beyond gross. Luckily my good friend Celeste gave up a few days of her life to dig me out of the grime. And help cover the hideousness of the paint.This is Celeste's son David in our living room. The living room is my favorite part of the house. It has the original wood floors and a huge front window. It was painted this tan color that just didn't work. It was too dark. Despite the huge window, there is also a huge maple in front, keeps out the heat and the sun. Bummer.

Now this, this is our bedroom before we painted. What you don't get to see is that there is even gold flecking in the greenish color! I know amazing! They painted the outlet covers, trim and doors with the same spectacular greenish gray with gold flecking. With that salmon color on top its hard to believe that I could bear to paint over it. It's the only finished room in the basement, but it could stand a little update.
This is the front of the house with our big maple. The side has a paved patio and cover, parking and garage. The garage is not the most beautiful thing ever. Its a jumbotron, metal deal that doesn't match the neighborhood. But its a garage and its big. We have a big backyard, all fenced and full of 4 feet weeds. They kept the frontyard nice and showable, but let the backyard go to pieces. The kids think that nickelback song that mentions weeds in the backyard 4 feet tall was written about our house. We have big plans that will no doubt result in one of us injuring ourselves because we are doing it ALL ourselves. But I'll have a beautiful yard to post next summer.

I guess we're grown ups now.

We got our house and moved in a few weeks ago! Unfortunately we are living in a mess of exploded boxes. Plus stacks and stacks in the garage. We have a 2 car garage full of boxes. Scary. This is our 9th home in 12 years of marriage, so I should be an old pro at moving. But for some reason I feel like I have to get everything perfect and it is taking us FOREVER to get settled. Once I got my shoes and hair stuff situated I kind of petered out. What does it say about me that I have perfectly organized all of my beauty products but can't even find a can of soup, or fruit, or pasta.... ?

At this point in our lives, with all we've been through, I should feel like an adult. Maybe its the fact that I work at a mall job I would've had in high school and still listen to Nirvana and drink big gulps, but I often find myself thinking I'm just like some 20 year old. Even when the reality that I'm driving a mini van full of kids that smells remotely like kid sweat, chicken nuggets, and the mystery smell hits me, it doesn't sink in. Even my newly arthritic hip didn't convince me. But buying a house, phew, now I feel like an adult. One day I looked at Dave and said I've got a lawyer, a realtor, a banker and an insurance agent that is a person (not a website) I need to go be irresponsible. Its exciting but scary.
So I have lots of pictures of the house but I have no clue where the printer cord is. When and if I ever find it, I'll post some pictures of our new house.

Cross Your Fingers

I've gotten so sucked into the house hunting and all of the stress and frustration that I haven't posted in a while. I've called it my house hunting hell. It seems like you look and look for one sapphire in a pile of crappers. Let me tell you we've seen some "special" homes. After 6 weeks and dragging two very crabby, tortured little boys all over Spokane, we finally found our home. I think I'm supposed to feel relieved now, but escrow is a giant waiting game, and I am not good at waiting. I flip from anxiety over some potential bank disaster, and panic when I realize I will no longer be able to call my landlord so he can come fix things when he feels like it. I can't wait to finally be able to do what I want with a place. And Dave and I are secretly relishing the opportunity to finally put our little force of indentured servants to work. Hopefully by the end of April we will be homeowners.

Scary Hair

Back in high school I used to get teased about my giant hair all the time. Its practically the same hairstyle now as it was then. One of my friends upon being able to locate me by the back of my head said "Oh Liz we can recognize you by your hair." In a school of silken haired girls, mine crazy curls were like a beacon of dorkdom. Apparantly it lives on in a more sinister way. I teach the valiant 10's in Primary (basically Sunday School for kids.) On Sundayy a boy in class randomly blurts out, "I used to be scared of your hair." What?! He goes on "yeah I'd sit in church and see you and thought your hair and your kids were really scary. Once I asked my mom who's that lady with scary hair and kids, she looks mean. But I don't think you're mean now that your my teacher." Umm thanks? Glad to know my hair frightens children.

Mississippi Trip

Thanks to the "kind" people at American Express who gave me a ton of miles for getting a card then piling more on it, I had a free ticket that needed used. And thanks to a great husband who has been willing to be ditched with all of the kids on more than one occasion for me to go on trips, I got to go on a girls only trip at the end of January. Nik and I have been friends since 7th grade. She introduced me to the church and her husband baptized me (back when they were "just friends".) We went from living across the parking lot from each other to living across the country from each other, needless to say, its been rough. Funny side note, Nik's husband, Da, once made a comment in Sunday School that if Nik and I could be sealed to each other we would. Da did clarify he meant like a friend sealing, but of course a few guys at church couldn't resist running with it in the other direction. We thought it was a great idea. In lieu of the instatement of a friend sealing, we're settling for arranged marriages for our children. We figure it'll work out in a round about way. ( clairification for the non-Mormons out there: when we get married in the temple, we are sealed for time and eternity. Children born after a couple are sealed, are born in the covenant of that relationship. This chain of eternal families goes on and on. We figure that if our kids got married, since they are already sealed to us, we'll be guaranteed to hang out for eternity also)

Jackson Square in New Orleans.

We went to Gulf Shores, Alabama first. We left Sunday after church, unfortunately I seem to be incapable of Mapquesting because I led us on a two hour detour. A decade ago this might have seemed a funny adventure, not so much now. It wasn't terrible, or wrecked our day or anything. You see we drove Nik's old Corolla that she drove in collge. Fun but zero cushion on the seats and squishier than I remember. Sad to say but after all of these years driving our cushy mini vans, with a lot of leg room, that old college car felt pretty uncomfortable.

Gulf Shores has a beautiful, white sand beach. It wasn't exactly swimming weather, but it was still nice to roll up our pants, ditch our shoes and walk on the beach. I hadn't ever seen that part of the Atlantic before, so that was pretty cool.

The other really cool thing about Gulf Shores is the giant outlet mall! Yeah! I love to shop. Bummer is I married a guy who hates it, and thankfully is a bigger tightwad than me. Otherwise I'd be bankrupt. I love any shopping, bargain or window. Just because I can't afford it doesn't mean I don't like to look. Lucky for my budget, we found some STEALS. Celeste, I did not take a picture of my bargains, sorry. Anyway, it was really fun to just shop and be able to score some cute new stuff without feeling guilty. I mean really who can complain about $1.50 tee-shirts?

After our shopping adventure, we took off for New Orleans. I've wanted to go there forever. Its got so much history, and a lot of books and movies have been based there. The French Quarter is obviously where all of the tourists go. Which means its safer too. The old parts of the city really are beautiful and interesting. We opted to skip Bourbon Street, and once it was dark we hit restaurants and movie theaters. The architecture definately lived up to my expectations. The only thing the dork in me wished for was a plaque or something explaining the history of each and every house. That would have been so great. Instead I had to rely on the guidebook, I'd gotten from the library. Some of the houses histories were in there, but I was afraid to walk around with it out all of the time. I didn't want to look like an easy target, which one should definately keep in mind there.

The buildings above is one of two identical townhomes built on the east and west sides of Jackson square. There's a cathedral to the north, and waterfront to the south. (you were dying to know that part I know). I wish I could remember the exact story behind the buildings, but I do know they were built by a Spanish woman who married a French guy. They both had a sordid (but seperate) love life, after which she divorced him, made off with a truckload of cash (he was some sort of French nobility) and moved from Paris to New Orleans, which she'd always considered home. She built a bunch of fancy buildings, and started the whole fancy scroll work balcony thing. Her life in New Orleans sounded even more sordid, and I believe involved some prominent people. Apparantly there is even an opera about her life that is very popular with the New Orleaners. What does it say about me that I kind of thought she soundedcool? I meant the whole making a name for herself way back when, not the sordid affairs part.

According to a local construction guy we met on the street, this is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's house. We were trying to orient ourselves on a map and he came and asked if we were looking for Brad Pitt's house, so maybe it's legit.

This is part of Lafayette Cemetary 1, which I convinced Nik to hunt down with me. The cemetaries there are really cool looking. They had to do above ground burials because of the water levels. They use them over and over again as bodies decompose. Creepily interesting.

On the beach in Alabama. Boy my hair never looks so great as on a beach, when its blowing wildly out of control.

Nik on the beach. Already sporting the baby bump at 14 weeks. That's what happens when your so incredibly thin there's no where else for the kid to go.

The other great part about traveling the south is the food. Oh my gosh. The food there is so dang good. I literally gained 10 pounds, I came home to tight pants! There are so many good places to eat and so many things to try, we didn't even come close to touching on the possibilities. We had alligator, crab stuffed catfish, crab stuffed fried mushrooms, jambalaya, cheese fritters (awesome btw), po boys, amazing honey rosemary glazed fried chicken. beignets (extraordinary French donuts and I don't like donuts much), croissants. Mmmm. Oh wait and I had a side salad once. We'd eat when we weren't hungry just to try it all. Combine that with two days of airport junk, and its easy to see how I could pack on a few. Can you tell I like to eat?

Being two

Connor will never be two again. This suddenly occured to me tonight while I was watching Con "swim" in the tub like a chubby Michael Phelps on speed. All of his cute little two-yearisms. That sly little look they give you out of the corner of their eye when you tell them no. Its still so cute and funny when they do it anyways just to see what happens, rather then because they know that they can out run you and will ignore you anyways so it doens't matter. Only a two year old would pour his sister's juice on the floor so they could lay on their belly and lick it up. Not to be funny or act like an animal, but just because that seems like a great idea. Only a two year old would let his sisters dress him up like the leader of a gay Mardi Gras parade. Two year olds have no self doubt, they are sure they can do anything you can do. No challenge is too big because they haven't learned that some things are just too hard yet. Everything that comes out of his mouth is cute. Minus the frustrated screaming that comes all too often when I don't know what he wants and he can't tell me. One of Connor's well mastered words is "please." He knows the sign and can say it fairly clearly. He just walks around pointing to what he's after, gives you his most charming smile, sign, and say "peeze." Its hard to say no, but don't worry after a time you learn to turn him down quite easily. The sheer joy on a two years old face when they get what they want cannot be matched. Nothing lights up Con's face like handing the kid an almost can of diet pepsi. Its like he won the lottery every time.

I'm sure some of my sadness in my realization that Connor will never be two again lies in the fact that I will never have a two year old again. For those of you naysayers who don't believe I am done having kids, no this is not my hinting at additions to the family. Despite how long each day can seem, when you really sit back for a minute it becomes painfully obvious that those little hellions that make you want to run screaming from you house, are going to be snotty, self important teenagers way too fast. And they won't seem nearly as cute. People always complain about the terrible twos. I've always felt that between one and three is the best age. Their little personalities are coming out, and everything is a new discovery. Plus they lack the vocabulary to let you know what they really think. With Connor, I feel like I'm just trying to slow time down. I keep hoping that if I really savor as much of it as possible maybe it won't see like time is flying before my eyes. I keep hoping but its not working.