3....2...1...

DISNEY

OR

BUST!!!

SEE

Y'ALL

IN

A

WEEK

A dash of FATE and a sprinkle of change

A lot of you know the story of how we came to live in the house that we live in. For those of you who don't, I will try to make it brief. The house that my husband and I bought 9 years ago as newlyweds, just happens to be my Grandparents "old" house. (built by my great uncle Joe in around 1955). The house my Mother grew up in. The house that as a child, I would run up the path from my house whenever I had the chance, to visit with grampa hoddie and gramma claire. Heck I practically lived in their in-ground pool during the summers (which caused my blonde hair to turn green every year). The accessibility that I had to family on our street was one of my favorite things - and still is today. It is a perk to living on land that was once a part of the "family farm". Well, when Great Grampa Frank passed away, my grandparent's decision to sell their home and move 2 houses up to the farm house was a necessary one for them. I was about 11 or 12 years old at the time. **sniff**...no more pool, the path was no longer traveled, and I missed that house. I missed the bathroom mirror that opened so far you could see all around your head, I missed the memories of how cold it felt to come in from the pool into the air conditioned living room, the memories of learning to ride my bike in the driveway, and jumping all around the lawn on my pogo stick, and being paid 50 cents per bag of leaves that I could rake up. Yup - they sold the house to a family from "the city" - they were pretty nice i guess, they borrowed stuff once in a while, but sadly, I never went there again. eventually,after about 11 more years, that family fell on hard times and illness. and the house fell into Foreclosure. JUST so happens this was all falling into place the year Gary and I were getting married and wondering where we were going to call home. It started out a long and involved process of "finessing" the bank into a short sale of the property. TO US! I think the first correspondence was in February of 2000, and we finally had the closing that Fall. It was Fate! - and it was ours. to be honest, at first it didn't really feel like our's. It was in need of such fixing up, that it didn't feel like Grandmas anymore either. but as we dove into the repairs, I found myself wanting to keep the silly things that I remembered as a child the same. The bathroom mirror was still there - I painted it up pretty again and requested it be back in the bathroom. Unfortunately the pool had been destroyed, and with lack of funds to replace it, we filled in the hole - but the landscaping around it is untouched, and I have other plans for the "silly" looking circle we have in the backyard. All of these "un-changes" were reminders of my childhood. As the nine years have gone by, and our family has blossomed, Their are a lot of things I realize we need to change. But their is so much that I am glad remains the same - My kids are learning to ride their bikes in the same driveway - Kyle bounces all over the yard on his pogo stick. The path between us and my Mother's house is worn again, and the same easy access to family brings me all the comfort in the world.
The reason I got thinking about all of this and wanted to blog it, was because we Just had another major change. The yard has always been outlined with tall spruce trees. They were planted when I was just a baby - or maybe before, I'm not sure. they were great for privacy, they were great for assurance that no kids could get to the busy street. What they were not great for, was the power company. After years of the power company going by and butchering cutting them away from the power lines, they died. They were resembling skeletons of trees past.

They were pretty ugly. So we contacted the power company last year and asked if they would just cut them down next time. They agreed that the next time they were scheduled to cut on our street, that they would take care of whatever would fit in the chipper. That time was today! major major change to our yard. - Although I think it is a good one - my mind is reeling about how I am going to utilize the front yard now - what landscaping I will dedicate next summer to. It is very exciting. Don't worry - I took pictures (for you Janie!) as you can see, there is still a lot of cleanup to do on our part. I will update you in the spring.

now if I could only talk the power company into putting the lines under ground so they weren't so .......... power liney looking!

Mini Them's...........Long story short

I had Monday and Tuesday off! - by Wednesday, I was ready to go back to work (I know - I feel like such an ungrateful mother sometimes) BUT - I had spent most of those 2 days trying to clean the house! I had high expectations, I even washed the living room curtains! but as the day went on, I felt like I was spinning my wheels. By Tuesday, I was just plain angry about it. It didn't look any cleaner, (or less cluttered) than it had on Sunday!!!! and to top it all off - I could tell the Kids were feeling a little attention deprived because they were being just plain NAUGHTY! - so I decided to drop what we were doing and head out into the awesome, fresh, clean, autumn air and frolic and play a little.......

We did THIS:

But the house is still a mess.......

Counting Down....

• 4 hours until I am on a long weekend
• 8 hours until an out of town relative who we have never met comes to stay at my mom's for a week!
• 8 hours 30 minutes until that said relative will think my kids are crazy, and we will need to head home.
• 1 day until one of the kids asks to go to a toy store for some "junk"
• 2 days until our Sunday Morning coffee ritual at the farm - I look forward to it so much. This Sunday will include the out of town relatives.
• 3 days 'til I have to really buckle down and get things packed and organized for Disney
• 6 days until payday - oh gosh , stretching 'til then SUCKS
• 14 days until we will be staying up all night long because we are too excited to sleep - leaving for Disney in the morning!
• 15 days until the 9 of us will board that plane to Disney in disbelief that the day has finally arrived!
• 22 days until Halloween - where we will be trick or treating AT Disney!
• 23 days until the Disney Vacation of a lifetime is over and we are heading back home.
• 23 days 6 hours 'til we collapse from exhaustion and have to think about getting up for work in the morning.

A little late to blog about it

So here are the pictures of the kids on their first days of school....... Kyle (reluctantly) has entered 2nd grade

Vivian is in her Second year of preschool - she will be five in January which makes her one of the older kids in her class. She loves school and can't wait to go - She of course wanted her hair straight for the first day....

Potty Trained "CHECK!"

One of the things on our "to do" list before Disney vacation, was to hopefully have Kerrigan Potty trained. some said "why bother, it will probably be easier if she wasn't. no running to find a bathroom." Well, in case you don't know Vivian and Kyle - we are running to find a bathroom ANYWAY. I am so sick of buying Diapers. We have been buying them non-stop for 7 1/2 years now. we would get one out of diapers just in time to have another one and start all over again, just littler sizes. I'm not saying we are totally out of the Diaper market, we still need to buy a package now and again for bedtime......ssshhh.... I don't buy those expensive pull ups or Goodnights. I buy the plain old store brand in a size 5 - the jumbo pack.......and I put that size 5 on both Kerrigan and Vivian at bed time. they fit Kerrigan just right, with a little room left. Vivian - not so much - you have to position the tabs just right to get them to stay put, but she only has an accident once in a while (usually the nights I don't get a chance to get one on her). She deals with the tight pants and doesn't complain. so we are good.

Kerrigan is now 2 years, and 3 months old - She is potty trained. phewwwww...another fairly easy one. Our daycare provider is thrilled, she says she still has 4 year old boys crapping their pants!

Vivian and kerrigan were both easily trained - Vivian practically trained herself. Kerrigan was real good for a while back in April - she spent all day on the potty cause she loved to, then she gave up - we didn't push it again until summer - she got undies for her birthday, and was so excited, so Gary (the one home with her most of the time) started making sure he reminded her to go potty. And the results are in - she is officially daytime potty trained.

I don't believe there is some magical formula to potty training kids - other than to relax about it. We tried the small child's potty with Kyle, and a video, stickers and lollipops for using the potty, and books about pottying, and drove ourselves nuts when he would ask for underwear, and then 2 minutes later end up peeing them. - lots of laundry.

So with the girls, we found that they enjoyed using the BIG potty, we didn't bribe them with candy, or stickers. It was just a matter of fact event - which if successful, ended with a short "potty dance" and a high five! and then encouraged them to go brag about it around the house " I went potty!"

Disney is 30 days away - I am relieved I only have to pack about 10 diapers, not 35 - and I plan on stopping at the potties throughout the parks as I come to them and making all 3 of them use it before moving on........if one of them says "I have to go pee".....guess what - they are all going to try.

Next on the list --------PACKING!

Shelber - Man!

I'd like to take this time to introduce you to our new addition. ( I know, I say that a lot on my blog - seems like every other month, I am introducing you to or mourning our latest pet).

This is SHELBY. - aka Shelber Man. He is a 3 year old Yorkie. The kids became very fond of niece Reagan's little pint sized yorkie, and I happened to hear of a woman who was giving away her 2 yorkies "to a good home."So I decided to surprise the kids. Like I said, she was giving away 2. - Gary and I agreed that we would offer to take 1. and only 1. if she didn't have the heart to separate them, then the kids were none the wiser. The lady's reasoning for finding them a new home was to find a family who would have time for them. She works outrageous hours at her job, and was feeling quite sad that the dogs were couped up in their cages for the entire day. It was a hard decision for her - believe me - I witnessed her crying as I "removed" the dog from her house.

Shelby is used to adults. Quiet. other small dogs. Quiet. Adults.......I think he was in shock for the first couple of days in this madhouse. - First thing he did was show sandler who was boss. If sandler came within 5 feet of him, or even looked at him, Shelby was right up in his face growling (which I assume means back off big dog, or else) Poor sandler was practically cowering in the corner. I am pleased to report that his aggressiveness toward sandler has subsided, and they can coexist in the same room now. Actually shelby prefers to go to the bathroom outside as long as Sandler accompanies him now.

It is definitely different having a lap dog around. Sandler has been unable to fit on our laps for about -forever- So it is kinda nice to have a little dog who can't wait for you to sit down, so he can curl up on your lap. Shelby has taken a liking to Kyle the most out of the kids. I guess he can sense the animal lover in him. He tolerates Vivian - he has to....She takes him in her bedroom and closes the door so he cannot escape her. He runs from Kerrigan like she is some horrible Giant disgusting creature here to snatch him away to eat him.....(that's how i interpret the look on his face). But she eventually catches him, and he gives in, lets her carry him around like an old teddy bear in one arm. biding his time until he gets the chance to scurry away.

aaahhhh fun times.

So I had made an appointment to bring shelby to the groomer. He was to get an all over cut, bath, nails clipped, and ears cleaned. Gary seemed a little shocked when I told him it would cost $30. He said " we don't even pay for ourselves to get haircuts"! He is right, and with Disney only being about a month away, it seemed like wasteful spending, so I decided to try a hand at dog grooming. YUP - I think I can add this to my list of talents...... I have no Idea if I did it right, but he seemed to enjoy the experience, and he feels softer, and looks so darn cute with his little mustache. I think he looks more manly - the name shelby, and that long hair he had, just wasn't convincing.

I enjoy ShelberMan!