Happy (Birthday!) Jack

Today is my Jack's birthday. And he had the flu. Which would have really bummed me out but he handled it in true glass-is-half-full Jack fashion. He started the morning by saying, "I threw up a bunch in the night but now I feel awesome." He spent the morning with Harry Potter and then Paula brought him chicken nuggets for lunch which he chowed before I had time to tell him to eat sloooww. He took a long nap and woke up ready to party with his favorite buddy Will. We canceled dinner out and I took him and Will to pick out cereal instead but after wandering the aisles of Safeway with two silly boys and loading up on goldfish, donuts, and Kung Fu Panda 2, the electricity in the store went out! We waited a long time but we finally ditched our cart and drove down the road to find something else. Nada. Everything was dark and closed up tight. We finally found ourselves an open gas station and I let the boys go nuts picking out their gas station faves. We ended up with a smorgasbord of Capn Crunch, doritoes, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and Gatorade.

Candlelight party.

Jack says, "Will, sit here...I saved you room!"

And since the power went out before the cake was baked, he had an awesome Twinkie, Snowball, Hostess cupcake delight!

There are so many things I can say about Jack....he's so full of joy, enthusiasm, and love. But I think his attitude today sums him up the best: after kicking off the day with the flu, missing school and all his buddies, missing lunch and dinner out, spending forever choosing grocery store treats only to be unable to by them because of a freak storm, settling for a gas station dinner and Hostess birthday cake, he still said, "I love you guys...and this is the best birthday ever!"

Yesterday

started with my house (fairly) clean and shiny and not a packed box to be seen:

(super cute new coffee table from Ed for Christmas)

And so I decided it was time to buckle down and get packin'. Soon things looked like this:
Bleck. Depressing.
And then this cute boy asked me to come and play in the snow with him:

So I did. And then we had hot chocolate. And then a cozy nap together. And then he started puking. That's right:

round three.

Although Jack's our favorite thrower-upper. That kid never loses his sense of humor (or his aim for the toilet!), as he headed off to the bathroom I said, "are you going to throw up?" and he hollers over his shoulder, "you better believe it!"

3 kids down, 1 to go. I don't care what you say, I will never never miss this. Sweet cuddles, definitely. Overflowing laundry, maybe. Babies throwing up in the middle of the night, never.

giddy, I tell ya!

Okay, I've said it once but seriously...we have a place to live next week. yay. Since this is supposed to be a short term rental, I hadn't planned on actually decorating but now that I've found me a house, I can't stop thinking about where to put things. I feel like my little world is now back on track. Which is a bit silly...big stuff has happened in the last couple weeks to people we know...a totally unexpected and heartbreaking death in a dear family, a wedding for Ava's music teacher, and a baby on the way for some of our favorite people. I know my house mess is just a drop in the bucket of life and frankly I doubt I'll even remember this in a few years. But still. A house for my little people. Contentment all around.

What's this??

Snow!! And one very happy little boy:

Yesterday was sunny and he stayed out forever!

Today, he wanted to shovel before daddy got home, but he had to come back in for shades cause it was blowing so hard he couldn't see!

Poor Jem

My baby girl has been throwing up for three (long) days. She started Saturday afternoon but was fine by bedtime and so Ed and I were patting ourselves on the back for a "good" flu experience. 6 hours, done and cleaned up (and none of it was the middle of the night...unheard of!). And then 24 hours later, it started all over. And went on. and on. and on. She was looking awfully perky by dinnertime so here's hoping for a puke-free night!

woo hoo!

So we have a house! Not to buy (that deal fell completely apart on Friday) but to rent! And lest you wonder why I might be so excited to have found a rental, let me tell ya this has not been a pretty couple days. I spent the weekend looking without Ed and by Monday he was convinced my standards are just too high. Then he came to one with me Monday night and by the time we got back into the car, he was ready to move into Paula and Joe's basement (which, by the way, would involve all of us sharing a room..no kitchen, no living room). The funny part was that was one of the nicest places I had seen! I was totally ready to consider it and he was totally horrified. I'm talking black mold in the bathrooms, a garage "converted" into a bedroom (by adding a thin plywood wall), you name it, I saw it on my little rental hunt. Today I saw a ridiculously tiny house (with blue tubs and sinks!) but it was clean and shiny so I was ready to sign the deal until they remembered at the last minute that dogs weren't allowed. That's right, the house had no dining room and a basement ceiling that was a scant two inches above my head (and a price that was almost double our mortgage payment) but this dog was their biggest concern:

While I would be happy to be dog free, I knew the boys in the house wouldn't and so I moved on. And spent the rest of the afternoon in a serious, nausea-inducing funk. We headed out after dinner to see the very last place on our list and ta da! Spacious, clean, garage, fenced yard, dog friendly, and did I mention clean? We're signing the papers in the morning and moving in a week. And I am so excited you'd think we just bought our dream house. And my sweet Ava just made me a card that says, "I'm proud of you for finding us a rental!" with Super! and Good Work! stickers all over it. I mean, really, what more do I need?

So.

I had planned to do a post tonight on finally finding ourselves a home and about how, after weeks of working on this deal, we'd actually signed the papers and bought ourselves a house. However! That post is not yet to be. I do have a good Jack story to share at the end but first, here's where we're at. Six weeks ago we made an offer on a house and within a couple days it seemed like a done deal. A bit of jiggling on the price and the closing date and we'd be done...long before the deadline on moving out of this house. Yet here we are. No house, no deal. I'll skip the dirty details but we got a call this morning that the deal was finally done, papers signed, the current renters moving out just a couple days after our deadline (not perfect, but we're related to enough people we could crash with for a week) so we finally got a bit excited...spent the day picking appliances and carpet...and then got a call this afternoon that the seller's realtor has been lying to us from day one. Lying about the finances, lying about the renters. I think it gets worse but I'll leave it at that. And actually I don't really know what's up next. Technically the sellers are still all in and our realtor is trying to get to the bottom of the mess so we'll see. But the one thing we have learned is that my sense of security is very much wrapped up in my house. Which is not really a surprise as I still get homesick when I travel....frankly, I'd move back in with my parents if I could (hey, I'm the baby!). I like my home. I crave my home. I don't mind the moving (I'm actually looking forward to that) but I do mind the uncertainity. I apparently mind it so much that I woke up a couple days ago with an outbreak of hives. I spent the day trying to figure out what I'd eaten but they kept coming back and then as I typed the beginning of this post, the hives started again are now in a full on panic--I can even feel them on my ears--and, because I'm a bit slow these days, a little lightbulb just went off in my head. duh. I'm allergic to not knowing where I'm going to live in ten days. Which is a tad funny since I generally never panic. Hand me a choking baby and I can heimlich, give me a wedding in total disaster and I can improvise, but refuse to move out of a house I'm buying and look at me fall apart. So. (Starting tomorrow) I'm going to (try to) chalk this up to character building and enjoy the house hunt from here.

And now for my Jack funny (cause if he can't cheer ya up, what will?) Back when we were sure this was our house, Jack wanted to know how many bedrooms it had and after a minute of thinking it through he says, "Shoot. So you're still going to have to share a room with daddy??"

This boy

makes my day. He is such a joy. And a total goober. He struts around here with his belly pushed out like he owns the place and he just cracks us up all day long. And speaking of joy..watching him and Jack play together is amazing. They play tag and wrestle and throw balls and giggle, giggle, giggle. Tonight they played in the tub for over a half hour and then snuggled up here:
Jack is so gentle with him and Henry tries so hard to be big that they make a perfect pair...even five years apart.

Ditto!

More!

So I packed the first book up and then found more! This one started with high school...what's better than that!

Track meet...Carissa, this one's for you!
Homecoming dance.

I think this is my 17th birthday. And yes, my brother's hair is longer than mine. Ah, the good ol' days.

Missions trip to Mexico. In every picture we are all wearing huge tees and cut-offs or boxers (boxers!), what were we thinking?

Senior spirit day. That's Joe there with the shorts on his head.

Ed, in front of the very closet I was trying to pack tonight--15 years later. I love this picture...so high school. My fave color on the walls, blanket on the window so I can sleep in till 10, song lyrics posted on the wall, dance corsage drying on my boombox, ski boots on the floor, prom dress and lettermans jacket in my closet.

High school graduation with my grandparents.

Big jump here till the next shots--definitely missing pages in my photo album!

Landing in Hawaii for our honeymoon.

Plane ride home. Babies I tell ya...practically unaccompanied minors.

California.

Backpacking in the Wallowas. Now our favorite place to take the kids.

And then look who started dating.

And got married. This is at her dress fitting and that's my aunt in the reflection there...eeh can't even imagine my nieces getting married!

Disneyworld!
To celebrate Ed's graduating college. And joining the real world.

We spent five days riding rides and laughing at the people who actually brought their kids to Disneyworld...I mean the strollers and gear and walking slowly while we busted around. Now we can't wait to take our own kids!

Daytona Beach.

Awesome stroll down memory lane. Although Ava wants to know why we wore such short dresses. Shocking.

I'm easily distracted.

So I started to pack Henry's closet tonight and I found old picture books. woo hoo. Enjoy the show....

Opening our wedding presents. At this house. Ack....I'm already getting homesick.
Ed and his best man. At our first little home (a couple days before I moved in and kicked him out). Does Ed look old enough to be getting married?

Painting our first house!

My first home project nightmare. I tackled the black (black!) wallpaper in the bathroom and ended up picking it off piece by tiny piece with my fingernails.

Our first living room...after paint, new carpet, and the first piece of furniture we ever bought. We picked out that couch when we got engaged and then we both paid on it every month till the wedding...but to be totally honest, Ed finished off my last payment so I could afford to get my nails done for the wedding. :)

Our first Christmas! This was at my parents' and I'm looking at that fireplace right now.

Studying. Ava liked this one best.

Babies!

And so it begins.

We have exactly two weeks until someone else moves into our house. Which means at some point before then, we have to move out. And those are the only boxes we have packed. And truthfully, those are mostly just Christmas decorations and all our new Christmas toys. I am dealing with moving in the same way I deal with all life changes: denial. Although, in my defense, it would help if I knew where we are moving. We've been on a housing roller coaster for a couple months now and after being jerked one way and the other, we have set Sunday night as the deadline for our house decision. And then I'll start packing.

For the record:

I went to the bank today at 5:00pm and it was 51 degrees. Insane.

My monkeys in 2012

Let's hope this is not the best shot I get all year.
Jamms! Report card day rewards. We usually do Arbys cause the kids get free certificates for grades but I forgot it was report card day and went ahead and made a whole new dinner of spicy grilled chicken with avocado salsa and cilantro lime rice but frankly the french dip and curly fries would have really hit the spot instead. So we rallied with frozen yogurt.

Hello 2012!

The New Year found me trying to take pictures:

Ava and I spending the afternoon watching Little Women:
Ava working on her blog:

Lots of reading:

And a whole lotta sleeping:

A lovely lazy day. Here's to more of those in 2012!