Hurry up and wait

It's official. We had our first showing and we've been told they want to come back for a second showing. That was yesterday and no word yet so I'm feeling a little discouraged. Tomorrow we have a showing scheduled...during the boys nap. Of course.

The last house we sold took nearly six months to sell, so by then you can imagine how fed up one becomes of keeping the house spotless. We were told we had a showing and I decided I wasn't going to clean. As in not even make the bed and wet towels on the shower floor. That was the showing that led to the sale of our house. Go figure.

Today we carved pumpkins and took the boys to Grant and Claire's Halloween parties and parade at school. Claire's classroom is my old classroom. I taught my first two years in that classroom. It was strange to be in my old classroom where Claire is now educated daily with my own children by my side. I couldn't help but notice all the sh!t her teacher (male teacher I might add) had piled up in MY room. The place was a mess! The boys had a great time in school. Those hotshots helped themselves to treats, bingo, trinkets from Grant's classmates and even tried to get in on the parade.

The warm up

Mickey Mouse aka Anderson

Donald Duck aka Jake (Jake insisted on a black dot for his nose as well)

Momma's bubbies have struck again

Today we took the boys to downtown Rochester to trick or treat. It was a miss. Their overall awareness has increased dramatically from last year. They get what candy is, they don't get what a line is, they make obscure demands and have little stubborn minds of their own. While we were trick or treating they had several meltdowns. One guy wanted a purple pencil instead of the orange one he received and one guy wanted to hold all his candy in his hands and not put it in his bag. Oh, and of course they thought all the candy they got was fair game and they couldn't understand why they couldn't eat it as soon as it was dropped into their bag. They did come out victorious with one sucker. Let's hope those little minds reset overnight and forget about the rest of the candy they scored.

Kevin was out of town this past week from Monday till Thursday. He hasn't had to travel since the boys were born so this was a first. On a whole things went well, the boys were pretty good and I survived. We did have one stressful night, Anderson woke at about 2 a.m. wheezing with croup. I took him outside on the porch for a bit and set up the humidifier in his room and it passed. Of course I couldn't sleep after that, as I was too concerned about checking on him to make sure he was breathing okay.

Today I did a really stupid thing and cut all my hair off. I got a graduated bob and I'm less than thrilled with it. I've been at war with my hair for some time now, I was bored with it and stuck in a rut. I thought this would help. It's not terrible, it's just hair and life goes on.

My jaw surgery is tentatively scheduled for December 15th. I'm still waiting on insurance approval before that date becomes official. I wanted to back it up to Christmas break at school so I would have an extended recovery time and use as little sick days as possible.

Kevin and I have decided to list our house on the market. We met with our agent for about three hours this afternoon. We have spent the past couple of weeks weighing the pros and cons and ultimately decided that this would be a good move for us. Of course the real estate market has tanked and we will never get back what we have into the house but we now have access to a larger home in a more desirable area that was beyond our reach before the market tanked. The boys will start school in just a few short years and we both want to stay in the same house during their school years. My family moved three times during my elementary years and it sucked. I wouldn't want to do that to the boys. I can't imagine being in this house for the next 20 years. It is a very nice home but we have just outgrown it.

There are a lot of unknowns at this point. We may not be able to sell at all and if that's the case we are still in a great house in a great neighborhood with great schools. We aren't sure where we will move to. We have a general idea of where we want to go and we think we will most likely build a new home down the street from the McBrides, but we have not ruled out a used home either. We do have the option of moving into my Grandmother's empty condo if we decide to build so that is a relief. Her place is small but we will have a two car garage and basement to store all of our stuff.

Now I just need to figure out how to keep this place presentable on a daily basis.

More weekend pics

Birthday dinner for Jared at Bastones

Zhenders chicken...he made the boys shriek the last time they saw him when they were only nine months old

Inside Bronner's Christmas store

Recreating a picture I have of myself in front of this snowman when I was a little girl

The boys were happy to see Santa

Weekend in Review

We had a very busy weekend, but we planned it that way and enjoyed every minute. On Friday we took the boys to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. They absolutely love that place! After dinner they got to ride the indoor carsouel at the mall and we made a trip to the Disney store. Santa picked up a couple of gifts, but the boys didn't notice.

Yesterday we headed to Upland Hills Farm with the McBrides. This was our third year in a row, so I guess it's becoming something of a tradition. Anderson and Jake fed the geese, milked a cow and watched a farming demonstration. The best part of our trip has always been the wagon ride through the woods. This year the boys were big enough to get off the wagon and follow the Storybook Trail and they enjoyed that. They were quite the hotshots hiking up the hills through the "dark forest".

After the farm it was time to come home for a nap. After some R and R for the boys, we went to Altermatts. Altermatts is a small ma and pa vegetable stand right down the street from our house. This year they set up a pumpkin patch area with all kinds of painted wooden signs and a couple of cute things for the boys to explore. They picked out their pumpkins and we picked up some peppers and sweet potatoes. Kevin got his favorite Cajun peanuts too.

In the evening, Kevin and I headed out to Royal Oak to celebrate Jared's birthday. Jared had about twenty of his closest family and friends at a celebratory dinner at Bastones. A good time was had by all. After dinner we headed to another night spot for some cocktails. Good times!

Today we took the boys on a long trek to Birch Run. We had a "we're sorry we screwed" up gift card from Pottery Barn and I wanted to use it at the outlet store. Long story short, there were two attempts by Pottery Barn to deliver our media wall unit and both times they failed to produce a complete and quality product. The second delivery attempt was on Friday, Kevin took the afternoon off work to make sure history didn't repeat itself. It did. We were so frustrated at that point we told them to take it all back. We were done. I'm so disappointed, I loved the wall unit. Now we are back to the drawing board. The new TV is sitting on our coffee table and looks ridiculous.

We used their bribery money towards some big boy bedding for when our little guys are ready to make the transition. We bought them matching quilts/shams, the most darling "abc 123" sheet set, and new lamps. After we shopped we headed to Bronners Christmas Store. The boys were in sensory overload. They each picked out an ornament and both of them managed to break it before we paid for it. It wasn't even glass! After the Bronner's experience we stopped in at Zhenders and ended our day with a nice chicken dinner.

Upland Hills Farm 2009

Pumpkin Patch

My pumpkins

The McBride pumpkins

Jake likes this one

Anderson found one

Grant James

Daddy and the gang on the wagon ride

Watching the farm demonstration

Jake milking the cow

Anderson was not so sure about Tot the two week old piglet

I *heart* Matt Roloff

Here is some type of futile attempt to get back on the blogging horse. A random and discombobulated account of the past couple of weeks.

On Sunday we walked in the JDRF (Juvenille Diabetes) Walk for Grant. My sister and Kevin raised over 1,200 dollars which I thought was quite impressive. There was a huge turnout at the walk. Grant had friends and family at his side and he seemed to have a really good time. The boys enjoyed making some Halloween crafts, listening to the marching band and dancing to the DJ's music.

Kevin recently bought his larger than life TV he has been wanting since we got married. He is enjoying his TV and Playstation Three that somehow got thrown in the mix as well. I'm still not sure how that happened?!?! I ordered a fabulous entertainment center to fit the new TV in and it was delivered last week. There was a problem with one half of it, so we have been living amidst a half of a wall unit which is driving me crazy. I really wanted to get this thing set up and do some rearranging and organizing of all the toys we have around here but that can't happen with half a wall unit.

We moved my Grandmother into an assisted living home about two weeks ago. It's been a very positive thing for her. She is no longer held up in her house and miserable. She now lives in a beautiful new two bedroom apartment, dines in a five star resteraunt each evening, can spend her days going to church, playing bingo or socializing with friends. And the best part is she can walk to all these things which are just down the hall from her apartment. We only wish she would have agreed to moving there sooner, as in ten years ago. I hope her health and attitude continue to improve in her new surroundings. We took the boys to see her new place on Friday. Afterwards, on the way home I asked the boys what their favorite part of the visit was. Anderson replied he liked it when he pooped in Grandma's room. Didn't we all?

I'm taking a graduate course right now. It's my "class in a box". After I finished my Masters Degree I swore I was done with school and I meant it. Things have changed though, the economy in Michigan is completely in the tank, education is facing huge cuts which means our salaries are at high risk. If I complete 15 graduate credits beyond my Masters I'm paid a higher salary. I have to complete 6 grad credits anyways to renew my teaching certificate, so I'm going to do all 15 in the next year. That's five classes. That sucks. The good news is I never have to leave my house, I can do it all from home and work at my own pace. The bad news is I hate having things to do, I'm not a procrastinator and if something needs to be done I do it. So for the past week I've been spending my evenings and the boy's nap times working on this class. I haven't been very good at pacing myself, at this rate I'm going to burn out quickly. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I. hate. it.

I consult with my surgeon about my jaw surgery next week. The insurance through my work has come through and I'm hoping for a surgery date in December. I'm scared, excited and anxious. Next month marks a year since I began this journey and had the braces put on and I just want to be done with it already.

Jakey and I have a cold. Anders has a rash on his toosh.

We took the boys to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and they loved it. They are so well behaved at the movies and the amount of popcorn they consume is riduculous.

We have some fun Halloween events planned for the boys. The most exciting being an evening of trick or treating at Greenfield Village. The sidewalks will be lined with jack-o- lanterns, the old homes will be decorated and I know the boys will love it as will the rest of us. We are also planning to take the boys to downtown Rochester for some early trick or treating and of course we couldn't miss Tillson Street on Devil's night. I love that Halloween is on a Saturday this year!

Little People Big World Season Five starts next Monday and I can't wait. I love that show, I love that family and I don't care that it is lamer than being in high school band. My apologies to all the band geeks out there, but I think I'm fairly safe since I only have about three blog readers and to my knowledge none of them were in the band. :)