Catching Up

I have gotten so inconsistent about blogging that I'd pretty much given up on it. One more thing I just don't have time for. But let's be honest here. What do I really have time for anymore? Not a lot of things I want to do. I'm also tragically un-organized. I know this comes as a real shocker to all of my friends. When you think of Liz, you think prompt and organized, I know, but I'm trying to be honest here. Needless to say, the task of unloading and organizing pictures and sitting down at the computer long enough to have a complete thought seemed like one more thing down the toilet. But a few weeks ago I had the first year of our blog printed in a book. It's so neat. I love having this journal of sorts of our families year. Scrapbooking, journaling, and organizing photos fell off the radar long ago. So I've decided that maybe blogging isn't so impossible after all. If I just keep taking pictures, posting them, and keeping track of the silly things the kiddos say I'm kind of on the ball. I'm going to try and catch up some of last year so I can add that to a certain to be small 2010 book. So feel free to skim through the next several posts as I'm doing them mostly for my benefit.

Soccer Star

As previously mentioned, some of us are more gifted in the athletic department than others. Hailey falls into the athletic category. She also has the energy of 3 children. Soccer is one way we deal with it. She's been playing soccer since we moved to Spokane a few years ago.

Besides having a ridiculous amount of energy, she's also fearless. She doesn't hold back at all, pretty much ever. This year she moved up to a different age group with a bigger field and different rules. Also a lot more elbowing and shoving. The coaches are supposed to act as referees too, let's just say some are a little more fair than others. We can always count on Ha to get out there and give it right back.

Hailey is a freakishly strong. I haven't been able to wrestle her down for a few years now, (an unfortunate, but necessary skill with her). On the plus side, she can kick a ball farther than any girl on her team. It's also really helpful when I need something opened and Dave isn't home.

I'm so glad she has something that she excels at. Her Sensory Processing Disorder often makes things more difficult for her. She just doesn't handle things the way most kids do. I love to see her feel confident and good at something. I hope that one day she can channel all that strength and energy into doing something great.

Back to School

Since our new house is in a new school district, the kids all started new schools this fall. The girls' new grade school is just a few blocks from our house, so once again we are walkers. Thankfully, unlike our last place, I don't have to try and heft the double stroller over a chain link fence to get to the street. So that's a huge bonus (I could only manage it sometimes, I had to bring my muscles =Celeste). I like the idea of having a neighborhood school. Once upon a time this neighborhood was packed with young families whose kids all went to that school. Now those young families are all in their 50's and 60's so we are the neighborhood kids.


One of the perks of our new school district is that they have an early childhood preschool with kids with delays. Two mornings a week, Connor goes to school where he receives speech and occupational therapy. He also gets to interact with other kids, which really helps with his language development.
Greg has this one last year before kindergarten. Normally, by now we've sent our kids to preschool. Back in the good old days when we were super broke (as opposed to just be broke now) the kids got free preschool. Our solution was to join a preschool co-op. There are 6 kids in the preschool, each mom takes a turn having preschool at their house. Hopefully its enough for Greg to move past some of his shyness and obsessive mommying.

The girls ready to leave for their first day of school. The funny part that isn't obvious in this picture is how differently the girls dress. McKenzie is very traditional. She likes simple clothes, uniforms, things my Grandma used to wear. Stuff like that. Hailey pretty much idolizes the 80's rocker look. Target had this clothing display featuring that style, the kid just about crapped her pants. She managed to find ALL her shoes (P.E. ones too) glittered and rhimestoned. She has leggings in pleather, sequins, lace print you name it. They are a study in opposites.

We took the kids for one last hurrah before school started. We took them to Triple Play for mini golf and bowling. Being as they do have Paulitz genes in them it was a pretty funny site to see. We are an extremely uncoordinated group of people. It took most of us so many strokes to get the ball in, we just stopped counting.
Dave trying to help poor Greggers. McKenzie and Greg are the most Paulitz-y of the family, therefore the most uncoordinated. Let's just say we won't be holding our breath for any athletic scholarships.
Connor and Hailey, on the other hand, are more like their father. They are both freakishly strong. Connor was so funny swinging that club like it was a bat. He just went for it.

The kids so strong he insisted on carrying his own ball. Which I'd like to add is only 2 pounds lighter than the one I use. Ahh genetics.

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.