Christmas Stockings

Our move from Chicago to Cleveland was by far one of the craziest experiences in my life....and I didn't actually lift a single box. I packed almost all of them, but when it came to the physical moving I INSISTED we hire a company to move us. As with most things that I INSIST on, my stance on this subject wasn't even given consideration. You'd think I'd be mad about this (and I mean clearly I have some issues haha) but in this situation it saved us about $4,000. Which you know.....I had just hanging around in my back pocket. The kids and I moved home and stayed with my parents for a few weeks and then with Dave's parents for a few weeks till we could move into our house. Maybe if I'm bored in January I'll actually get around to showing you all the house. 

Back to my point. Our moving was done in stages, and trips back and forth. My Father-in-law and Brother-in-law took a trip, and then my husband and FIL took a trip, I think there was another trip...I don't recall I lost count and lost a few bits of my sanity. Each trip was riddled with problems, amusing stories, and death defying experiences. Running out of gas, typhoons....Can you even experience a typhoon driving through Indiana? During the trip my FIL and BIL made with our stuff the weather was so unbelievably bad that some of our items actually flew off the truck. We are certain we lost a plastic bin, and a basket of which I can't actually place in my mind. 

Two? of our Christmas boxes went flying off the truck as well. The Christmas boxes that were damaged of all things, held our special ornaments, the personalized ones and those reminding us of events or occasions. They also held our stocking holders, picture frame holders that we bought when we first got married. 

My FIL and BIL collected everything they could from the side of the road and had them all drying out in Cleveland by the time I'd seen them. We packaged them all up and moved them into the house, I figured I'd just manage it all once Christmas came around. 

Last week I got everything out and set up, Christmas tree all ready for ornaments and finally looked through the whole box. I kid you not, every special ornament was preserved and in perfect condition. None of them broke, none of them were water logged (like a majority of the packaging). They were all perfect (save the pickle...we lost the pickle and OJ will tell you about it nonstop if you ask her). 

The generic plastic bulbs and old hand me down glass bulbs that we had tons of were all completely destroyed. I swear it must have been some crazy Christmas miracle that we got all our special ornaments here in one piece. 

The stocking holders faired okay for the trip, they need polished which the Martha Stewart in me insists on, and the lazy Lindsey in me won't be doing, but the photos were destroyed. The photos are not a great loss to me; in fact they were downright creepy once they were water logged. We hang a stocking for Jesus because heck it's his birthday! And...well if that creepy water logged photo doesn't put the fear of God in someone I don't know what will. My photo looked like I had some sort of disease; it was all just beautiful. 

Anyway I ordered new photos:

And I've totally realized now....that Dave and I are TOTALLY loosing ourselves to parenthood. I couldn't find one recent picture of the two of us, or of us individually. So our stockings will be: OJ, 3D, 2D&3D, and Me&OJ. My goal for 2012 is to have more photos of just me, and just Dave and just us. This whole 'parenting thing' is SOOOO ridiculous. All these pictures look like we must like these children....which is clearly not the case. 

I'm just outraged. 

Life is getting away from me

I'm so overwhelmed with how fast this year has gone. It's already November and I'm just floored, what did we do this year? It's been insane. And the truth is we've done SO much.  I'm hoping 2012 will be a quieter year, especially now that we are home, and can visit family more regularly.  We only have one trip planned next year and its for a friends wedding. Otherwise everything should be local. I'm starting a little early reflecting back on 2011 and I have a feeling I'll spend the last few months of it just trying to catch my breath.  Life is moving forward whether I want it to or not.

OJ recently turned herself into a fairy and has yet to convert back. She gets increasingly more distressed every time we get in the car and I tell her they have to come off to put her seat belt on.

The weather has been amazing, either sunny and comfortable or pouring rain (which leads to puddles). Our new backyard is AMAZING. It's completely unlevel but also flat, which means there are LOTS of places to jump in water. Our old backyard slanted downhill, you couldn't even put lawn chairs back there. let alone our grill or fire pit etc etc. I'm fairly certain a night around our fire pit is planned for this weekend. It might be our last chance before cold weather is upon us.

And then this happened.  I'm seriously just an amazing story teller.  I know...I hear it all the time.

Have I mentioned this guy. He's  9 months old and in the last 3 weeks....FOUR teeth.  So you know, that was pleasant. He's standing on his own, without holding on to things...because he's insane. He's growing so fast, I dont remember OJ growing this fast. Maybe I could tether him to the ground and he'll grow slower?


Cuteness:

 Ridiculousness:

Gah annoying cuteness:

OJ had no interest in being seen in her Snow White costume but she has insisted on wearing it almost every day since Halloween so maybe if I EVER update this blog again you'll see that.

On that note, I'm going to shower for the first time in 36 hours...I.AM.SO.EXCITED. I lead a very exciting life.

Peace out dudes.

Yes Dudes......welcome to 1991.

What we've been up to....ALL OVER THE PLACE

Well, we moved in...and nothing looks like it does in these photos but we've been busy and I'm exhausted. I keep meaning to post and then you know...my children are trying to eat each other, or eat a cat.  And WOW are we popular now that we've moved home.  Everyone and their mother...and our mothers want to hang out with us.  I don't delude myself into thinking that they want to see us....mostly just the little people who turn on all their charm when family comes over.

Okay so here we go, I'm hoping to clean up each space soon and do a before/during/after post for all the rooms.  This whole crazy project was well documented.

The last 2 months:

We took the plastic off this:

We filled this up:

We went to Narnia where the lamppost was broken.  No worries, we fixed it while we were there.

We got a pretty faucet to wash dishes with.

We visited some giant gnomes.

We searched far far away.

We went back home and found our fireplace was stoned. 

But we could drink about it and laugh about it.

Then we went swimming, because thats what little people do. (3D LOVED the giant bathtub)

And now I'm going to recover for five more minutes.  Or lay down some carpet which is apparently on the docket for the day.

BYE!

14 hours OMG

So I'm sitting in the Charlotte airport enjoying my "Venti Light Iced Caramel Macchiato Upside-down" still upset that Jenny isn't here entertaining me with her triplets...I mean SERIOUSLY she's so selfish.  Why she won't move 4 individuals with an average age of EIGHT all the way over to the airport so she can wave at me through security and fulfill my need to see babies....gah....I'm just so over her! :)

We drove from Chicago to Cleveland on Monday after packing up a extended cab GMC Sierra and our Honda with two kids and a good majority of our boxes.  Spent Tuesday with family and getting the kiddos settled with my parents.

Yesterday we left CLE for CLT on our way to Punta Cana for a good friends wedding.  We got to our flight for Punta Cana and they asked for volunteers to board a flight 2 hours later and give up their seats on the current flight.  I tooootally volunteered because heck, Dave and I are flying to Vegas in a few weeks for another destination wedding and I haven't booked that yet.  So we got booted and we were pretty jazzed, we were promised seats on the next flight.  Until we got over there.  We got bumped again and we were put up in a hotel in Charlotte for the night.  I have to say we had a decent amount of legwork to do rearranging our schedules and our hotel reservations in Punta Cana but so far this has been a great trip.  We tried two new places in Charlotte for tasty subs and pizza.  I ate Macaroni and Cheese pizza which is CLEARLY going to make my 3 year old jealous.  Dave was impressed with the soda dispensers cause thats normal.  Clearly it doesn't take much to entertain us.

I am sad I didn't get to spend a decent amount of time exploring Charlotte I would have loved to check out more of the local culture but apparently I needed to sleep.  We had lunch and got to our hotel...and I CRASHED...for 8 hours.  I woke up at 10pm and we ordered pizza...I went back to sleep at 1am and slept till 7.  I NEVER sleep like that.  I'm not that girl.  I'm actually really feeling grateful that we had this goofy layover because a majority of our Punta Cana trip was just reimbursed to us through travel vouchers and checks from being bumped from flights and I must have needed that sleep.  I feel AMAZING and I haven't been this rested in a long time.  I'm not the girl that sleeps for 'fun' I don't relax like that and it was seriously glorious.

So we are boarding a plane here in about 50 minutes, the other kicker here is we are flying first class.  I'm overjoyed! I told Dave in a few weeks we'll have to reevaluate if it was a good choice to let ourselves get bumped so much but right now I'm feeling really great about the decision.  Our Vegas trip is almost completely covered and we didn't have to inconvenience anyone other than ourselves.  I'm kinda hoping they want to bump us on the way home.  We are pretty flexible in our travel home so seriously BUMP ME PLEASE.

Well I'm about to run out of battery power here and it's getting hard to concentrate with the "Y'alls" sitting next to me swearing and complaining about Eastern time.  Sorry it makes sense...get over it.

Hopefully I'll be posting some pictures of me TAN in a few days, hopefully not burnt which lets be honest...is more likely.

Bye!


*not sure if any of this makes sense I'm in a hurry y'all!

Quick House Photo Update:

BaZing...so exciting!

See my friends here:

They are very excited to be heading to Cleveland this weekend.  Hopefully we are going to see some life sized gnomes and we're hang out with the Aunt DeSanta because we have bad pronunciation skills and its just cuter than Aunt Diane.  Spending some time with the Grandparents and working on the new house.  I am very excited.  

So is he.....

and so is she!

Sadly not everyone gets to come home with us this weekend.  We are going to be missing this guy a lot!

(The big one not the little one...he's comin with me!)

In the words of the Bebes "We goin to Ceveland in Oheio!"

So excited we don't have to make this trip many more times!

I get to see my hole in a week.

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Get your mind out of the gutter you sickos.....

We've been busy...

So WOW...

Where do I even begin.  We're moving to Cleveland in 6-8 weeks, 3D just rolled back to front for the first time today, Dave learned how to make AMAZING Iced coffee from The Pioneer Woman.  OJ is her normal fabulous self and I'm pretty much one step away from a stint in rehab, but you wouldn't know it because I have this unnatural calm going on about all the excitement.

I can't even comprehend all the crazy going on, but it seems like everyone is handling it rather well, which is actually probably because of me...not to say I'm the driving force behind the mellow chill feel but because I'm not freakin out therefore my mood isn't affecting others.

My house is covered in boxes, full boxes empty boxes boxes with one thing in them...boxes with 47 small things in them.  Its fun.  I'm pretty overwhelmed with how underwhelmed I am.  If I could be whelmed I woud be...sadly that is not a word, just a state of existence in Lindsoland.

It probably doesn't help that my job got REALLY busy in the past 3 weeks on top of everything else going on. Thankfully there is a scheduled end date on that crazy...the house has no scheduled end date.  Which is like me standing on the edge of a cliff with my eyes closed thinking 'wont this be fun if I just jump.'

In all honesty I've got a great deal of faith and hope pulling me through all of this.  It's so exciting and I'm trying to keep focused on that.  I'm quitting my job in 5 weeks.  ME...I haven't been unemployed....well...ever.  I'm quitting my job.  While I feel like embracing my SAHM-ness I will be doing something part time to stave off the crazy.  But still...I'M QUITTING MY FULL TIME JOB. Giant leap of faith on that one...ekks.

Did I mention the house in Cleveland is getting remodeled, restructured and added on to.  Thats not stressful right?  Did I also mention my mother-in-law is handling most of that.  Now I have to say, short of 1-2 'wanna pull my hair out moments' we've been working really well together.  (I wonder if she'd say the same about me.....lol) We've been on the same page design and structurally the whole time.

I'm very much trying to just 'living in the moment' which is working out pretty okay for me.  I'm hoping to go home (to Cleveland) in a few weeks to check out all the amazing house progress in person.  Hopefully we won't let OJ fall in the giant hole in the backyard, my assumption is though at the rate things are going...there won't be a giant hole there...which is REALLY exciting.

I'll leave you with this...my giant hole.  (I really hope my sister-in-law gets a chance to read up on my giant hole..............)

Hi Boys!

Monday, Why you treatin me like this?

He's just so dang squishy! 

Hellooooo Sunday...gurgle gurgle.

ZOMG...Part 2...or Part 1...depending on how you want to look at it.

3D is my heart but OJ is my spirit....this kid...I tell you...gah I loves...dis....kid.

ZOMG...My heart...right here...

I just want to nom nom nom on his cheeks....this kid is so much better than D1 & D2....no seriously...he really is.  Sorry Dave's!

I'm a blogjerk

A lot has happened in the last month and I've been crazy wicked busy. I didn't mean to neglect you dear blog, but heck things happen.

We signed OJ up for TaeKwondo and soccer.  She LOVES both of them.  She kicks and says "Hi-Yah!" which is frankly just adorable.  Yesterday after TaeKwondo she was SO excited to tell me about it all, I wish I had gotten it on video she was jumping up and down and rolling on the floor and touching her toes and talking a mile a minute.  I think maybe....she is my child.  

I've had at least one doctors appointment a week for something or someone.  3D had a WICKED cough and it turned into bronchitis and then a double ear infection.  I've had a few follow ups after pregnancy/delivery.  OJ had her 3 YEAR check up.  This week we have dentists and eye doctors.  Apparently we all needed tune ups!

We had both sets of grandparents in town, OJ's birthday, Easter, multiple construction of children's toys projects....In the next 22 days, we have 13 practices, appointments, meetings outside of our regular jobs/sitters etc.  I need a flow chart.

So other than being slightly mundanely busy.  Wow I didn't think mundanely was a word.  Odd. Anyway, we've got a lot going on but mostly just keeping up with our day to day stuff is kicking our butts.  We've spent a great deal of time trying to carve out family meal times.  This week we basically get to eat together 2 times, which is a bit ridiculous, one of those times we had 20 minutes total.  I'm looking forward to a slower more relaxing summer...maybe it will involve lawn furniture this year.  That would be lovely. Perhaps....a nice shade tree or an umbrella.  Stupendous.

I'm starring at a picture of 3D when he was 4 days old: 

and all I can think is OMG HOW BIG IS THAT PACIFIER.  He's just so freakin squishy and cute!

Look at  him now!  I DIE. (3.5 months old)

Just to update you on the rest of our happenings over here: 

Easter Egg Hunting...

and...

blurry egg frenzy.

The awkward family shot.

The most freakin adorable Dave's I know.  

And then we had OJ's 3rd Birthday!

Grandma got her a Mega Blocks Dora set....note the HUGE gift next to her...clearly Dora trumps all.  She wouldn't open more gifts.  Goofy.

3 years old must be the BEST YEAR EVER TO BLOW OUT CANDLES.  Or so I've been told. 

Digital camera...just like Mommys....dang it mines not pink!

Relaxing and enjoying wine...nom nom nom...look NO KIDS. 

Okay hopefully I'll update more soon.  That would be swell and super and stupendous! 

bye.

4ever.

jk.