Wowzers...a new week already??

Am I ready for it. Sundays are LONG days with those two crazy children of mine, but it sure is nice not having to do anything really...no laundry, no packing, no yard work, no errand running and usually a BIG FAT NAP. Not to mention that my hubby lets me sleep in until I feel like pulling my lazy bones out of bed sometime around 10am. It was pretty spectacular.

Life is crazy and hectic here. You see, I am supposed to have my house ready to list to sell on Thursday. I did tell the realtor to give me until Monday and now that I have made plans to go out to my brothers that week I have added motivation. I am getting there, but it is a lot of work. I have packed up most of the kids toys. They don't really play with them anyway. I think they just enjoy getting them all out and letting me clean them up. The downstairs has been repainted, furniture moved out, counters cleaned off. We are getting there, but I still have my office (shudder), bedroom and the junk room. I call it the junk room though it is actually the guest room, because it has been my catch all the last two months. It is a disaster. Oh, and my studio. Sad, but my living room is going to be that again while we try to sell this blessed place. I truly saved the worst for last. If anyone wants to volunteer to help, I will gladly accept.

I purchased a Scansnap. My life is overtaken by papers and I have finally decided to pay the money and get a good, fast, reliable printer that will do more than cause headaches and swear words. I will head out to Costco for a shredder tomorrow and we are going totally paperless. I can already sense the relief this will bring.

So, Monday threw us for a loop when Douglas got a letter in the mail telling him that he had been chosen to recieve a fellowship that will cover all of his tuition and fees at the University of Michigan. Awesome, yes, but considering we had chosen to go to Virginia and have spent the last three months planning for that, it caught us totally off guard. It has sunk in and I can't tell you how awesome it will be to get out of graduate school with only a fraction of the student loans. To say we feel blessed is a complete understatement. I feel undeserving as well, but blessed.

So, Michigan. Yeah.

I have really been going crazy with the kiddos lately. I have a lot of stress right now with everything going on and it takes its toll. I definitely struggle to find patience when I am just anxious about everything going on. J is so difficult for me to parent. He fights me about EVERYTHING. It is exhausting. And he fibs a lot which drives me insane. I am teaching him that you get in a lot more trouble when you lie about something you did wrong, but it is a difficult concept. He can be such a sweet, affectionate boy, but I tell you, the times in between about do me in. I am trying to be consistent and refer back to the books I have read, but it drains my energy, that is for sure. I think school will be such a positive thing for him next year. I think it will give his brain something to do, allow him to socialize which he loves and hopefully our time together will be more positive.

And Miss P...holy tornado. I can't keep up with that girl. Seriously. She is into EVERYTHING all.the.time. I put her to bed only to come upstairs and find her in her bathroom with every hair product known to mankind in her hair, a sink full of wet toliet paper and soap and she has changed clothes because she decided to wet her pants first. Ahhhhhh. I can't turn my back on her.

And Jackson started a fire in my kitchen yesterday. I was gone and D was mowing the lawn and J was inside with a lighter lighting a Target bag and consequently all the rubbermaid containers I had purchased for packing, on fire. I am glad he was smart enough to run and find Douglas (after trying to use a cup to pour water on it). I think it freaked the living tar out of him and I am so grateful our house didn't go up in flames. I guess it would have made packing a little easier...just kidding.

D and I started Weight Watchers this week. He really wants to lose weight and be healthier and I have about five to drop as well. It is really unfair though because he gets about twice the points I do :). I miss baking, but I know it will be just for three months, so I can handle it (and even shorter if I lose the weight before then).

Well, that about sums up the week. Wish me luck this week...it is going to be a crazy one!

hello again!!

I was cleaning out the pantry this past week as part of the whole getting ready to sell the house thing and came across some salsa that had oviously been bottled by me last October. I have absolutely NO recollection of botteling salsa a mere 5 months ago. That tells you a bit of how things have been around here. I am happy to say that we have finally decided on a business school...UVA (University of Virginia) Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, VA. We are very excited and nervous about the adventure, but really feel like it is the right thing for our family and are feel really blessed that Douglas got into such a great business school. I won't get started on all the things that will make this move very hard...we will save that for another post someday.

We are hoping to list our house in the next couple of weeks. The market stinks, but we would still really like to be able to leave without the responsibility of a house on top of everything else. It is SO much work to get rid of things and organize. I feel like my house has turned into a complete wreck while I have tried to get it ready.

I am toying with the idea of making my blog private. I have for some time, but the thought of adding in all the emails is a little overwhelming presently. I know it is a pain, but I often wonder about the safety factor of having my life open for the whole wide world to read about.

J has said some funny things lately. He learned how to do a flip on the trampoline while my inlaws were here and when D asked him how he learned he replied, "it all began with a somersault."

Also, when D's parents were here we went to Red Robin where both of my kids frequented the bathroom. I have a dislike for public toliets and yet get the honor of visiting them at almost every establishment we go to. After our dinner I ran over to the craft store with J, P and my MIL. I went with P to look for something and J was with my MIL. She told me later that he had to go to the bathroom really bad (again) and when they left the b-room he could hear me coming and told Grandma to hurry because he and P had already used the b-room 4 times at Wred Wrobin and if I found out that he went again I would "FWEEK OUT" (Imagine dramatic hand gentures). That kid.

Then, today at church after some thinking J told me that if someone prayed to satan they would say "dear heavenly satan". Where does he come up with these things?

He constantly makes us laugh. We are trying to teach he and Paige how to be more respectful and one of the things Douglas wanted to do (especially since we are moving to the south) is to teach them to say no and yes maam and sir. J has picked it up well, but if you ever remind P to say yes maam she will say, "no maam". She is such a feisty little stinker.

I am making a goal to update this blog more. I feel like I have missed the last 9 months. It really has been crazy around here with GMAT and applications and classes. I always feel like I am missing out on documenting the kids lives though.

Here is one picture for now. I made bird feeders with the kids but P was really only concerned with eating the rest of the pb.