I dream of laundry

Had a "nightmare" about laundry last night.  Since the renovations, the laundry has gotten out of hand!  It is spewing out of every crevice of the whole top floor of my home, it is starting to sneak forth from the main level and the basement is full of stinky towels.  Why?  Well see, when we set up to paint the basement I stacked a bunch of stuff in the storage area.  I can't get to my washer/dryer.  With a little effort tomorrow, I should be able to get there.  But last night I dreamt about my laundry....  I was walking down hallways with laundry stacked on either side.  It was piled taller then me and the piles seemed to be falling in on me.  I would push them up, but the piles would crumble behind me as I walked.  I went outside to escape it, and it was there too.  Piles and piles, all over the street, it was raining as I ran down the street, surrounded by piles of laundry.  I was horrified,  it kept falling on me from above.  Then I realized I was running down the street in my underwear, luckily the sister missionaries were up on the corner and one of them lent me her long coat so that I could get home to find something to wear. (why I didn't just throw on some laundry that was falling from the sky, I don't know)

Anyway, that is all that I remember, but I think it is a pretty telling dream.  So to all those ladies out there, who have expressed their concerns about being overwhelmed with laundry.... I hear ya sister, I hear ya!  LOL.  Tomorrow, I shall battle the laundry... I must, for, I, my friends am out of underwear.  :-)

Conversation w/ Alex

Alex and I went to his "great to be 8" meeting on sunday.  On the way home he expressed his excitement for his baptism date and told me how he wanted everyone to be there.  He then sighed and said: 

"mom, how long does it take to get to Germany?"  (his friend Micah moved there about 8 months ago..... he misses him)

"long time Alex"

"What if I drive in a car?"

"Even longer buddy"

"what if I go on a boat?"

"still longer then if you took a plane"

(getting frustrated at the impossibility of his plan)

"What if I get in a car, then on a boat and THEN on the plane?"

"What if you had this really cool time machine, where you just got into it, and pushed a button and zoom, you were there in Micah's living room?"

"COOOL!!!!"

(This is the little tid-bit of info I learned from Brent this week while we painted.  He informed me of how boys love to play "what if" with really wild ideas.  So I've been using this tactic with Alex and it really cheers him up.  Hilarious!)

Then after some batting around of this wonderful travel machine ideas, he says:

"mom, why do we have to move?"

"cuz it's time to go on to the next place."

"But we'll be moving away from Wyatt."

"I know buddy, but the next place we go will be SO cool and we'll always be friends with Wyatt."

"No we wont mom!  He won't EVEN be my friend anymore, no he will just be my COUSIN!"

"What?"

"yea, now we have to live so far away, he will be my cousin."

Oh how sad that my son thinks that cousin means friend that lives far away......:-(  what happened to the days when your cousin lived so close they were your best friend.  :-( Boo.  I hate living so far from family.

I didn't bother explaining it to him at this time.  I just let him be.  We'll talk about what a cousin is later.  Poor guy, he has such a hard time making friends.  He will miss his buds.

ALICE CULLEN

So, ever since the Twilight release I have had quite the fascination with the character Alice.  I think that they casted her perfectly, and I just think she is cute as a button.  Then when I took my sweet husband, he said  (when Alice walked into the cafeteria) "oh, she's cute.  She kind of looks like you.)  *I never told him about my fascination with her, so this was a card well played by my sweet heart.*  I have since the movie grown my hair out a little to look a bit more like Alice, and today Brent snuck out to the mall and brought me home my newest piece of Jewelry! I have been eying this necklace for some time, it is a replica of Alice's Necklace and has the Cullen crest there in the middle.  I LOVE IT!    So Thanks Babe!  You rock.  :-)  And now you all know.  :-)

Katie

Katie loves to dress up!  She has 2 outfits that she rotates between:

Tinker Bell

AND

Dora, Snow Princess

Very rarely will you find Katie at home with out a costume on.  She loves to take naps in them and just wear them around as she plays.  She rarely has to "be" the character that she is dressed as.  I wanted to document her in these outfits because it is such a part of her day.  She is such a fun little girl who loves all things babies and Dora.  Sweet girl. :-)

 

Oh Boy!

So here they are in their Christmas outfits.  I am a little sad with the pictures, but you know... this is how the day went.  I took another lazy Sunday morning, using the excuse that it is the Sabbath and I shouldn't take down the Christmas decorations.  The kids ate a late Breakfast, which I was happy for because this meant that they wouldn't need lunch before Stake Conference at 1:00.   I did the girls hair and had a shower and by the time I got them outside to take pictures it was 12:45!  Yup, should be on the way to the Stake Center at this point, not taking pictures.  I tried to get shots using natural light and the flash, but in my flurry, was unable to find all my equipment (even though I thought I put it all together! you know those moments when you know you put something in a "really smart" spot?).  So outside we went to use all natural light.  Luckily we live somewhere where the kids can go outside in just a sweater in January.   They were cold outside though, and Liza did her normal way of coping with such a situation, Ran around like a maniac!  Which is really nice when she has 3 little monkeys right behind her.  When I finally got them together, I didn't have my wits about me anymore, so this is what I got :-(  The girls dresses are so pretty, I feel like these pictures don't do them any justice.   We jetted off to Stake Conference, only to arrive about 20 minutes late.  We snuck in the back and tried to be quiet.  Brent is "on call" today, which really means, he has to work a 30 hour shift, it has nothing to do with calling, cuz he is there and is the Dr available in L&D.  So I personally think it is silly to call it "call" when there is no calling going on.  :-)  Anyway, it was just me and the kids.  I made it until about 2:45, then I got up and demanded that they all follow.  I'd had it, the whining, the craziness, the loud gym floor, and more then anything the embarrassment that my 10 yr old thinks that she should kneel on the floor and color!  We had a long talk on the way home.  Since we've been home, I made pancakes, and Katie burned her little finger tip on the grill.  I had told her not to touch it, and that it was hot.  But when we sat down at the table she started to cry.  She had burned her finger, but didn't say anything until she couldn't stand it any longer.  Poor girl nursed that little finger all through dinner and after.  She has a little blister too.  :-(  The kids and I watched "college road trip" and then they went back to the Ballistic play that they have been doing all day except for while we were at the Stake Center and while the TV was on.  Days like this make me want to park them in front of the TV all day.  I think that some days, Liza wakes up with an extra hint of energy and she just goes all day long at full throttle.  There has been a LOT of screaming, and shouting, singing loudly and best of all Fighting.  The latest fight has been that the girls will pair up and exclude Alex, which he finds highly offensive.  He is absolutely convinced that if I had another baby, and it was a boy that all his troubles would be over.  I warn him that we can't pick, and it could be another girl... then he would really have troubles!

I have been doing an amazing job this week at avoiding all responsibilities.  I have so much that needs to be done, that I find myself overwhelmed and dealing with it with denial.  My house is a disaster area...  sure it is "clean"  but full of clutter.  Christmas decorations are STILL up, and junk is everywhere.  I need to develop a system and get this junk out of here!  I need to get my brain in MOVING MODE.  

I have researched a few of the places that we may end up and have found that the "least desirable place" to everyone, is actually not that bad...  Ft. Leonard wood, MO.  Seems that a small town near by called Rolla has a great rec center.  That there is tons of camping and excitement with in 2 hours of the town.  :-) (yes, having shopping only 2 hours away is a treat compared to some of these places. :-) )  Oh dear.  I think I will get very good at on line shopping if we end up at some of these spots.  Anyway.  I am trying to come up with positive things about each place so that we can be happy with what ever we get.  :-)  We'll see.

So that is what is up with us.  If I live through the craziness in the basement right now, I will take down those decorations tonight.  There, now I said it, I have to do it.  :-)

Happy New Year!!! 2009!!!

Truth be told, I wanted off the hook for New Years this year.   I packed my kids up and took them in to Baltimore to the "New Years at Noon" celebration.  I thought that if they got to party at noon, that I would get off the hook for a late night with the kids.  WRONG!  But the Science Center's Celebration was great fun anyway!

They had this ball drop at noon, and they had a Band called "Milkshake" playing.  The kids loved the music and danced and partied where ever they could find the space to do so.  (there were A LOT of people there, and I don't think they were prepared for how many people showed up.
Here are the kids @ noon.  Whoo hooo!!  Alex is showing you his jingle ring.  They made noise makers, jingle bracelets and hats before the band started up.  There was tons for the kids to do. 
This is Milkshake,  she is a hoot.  She has to be at least 45, and she bounces around like a nut!  Too funny.  
Here are the girls dancing.  Tori and Liza in the foreground and Katie and Leah in the back ground.  I hope that Christina posts some of the video that she took of the girls dancing, because it was the cutest thing EVER!
We met up with the Meshkins at the Science Center too.   My kids really enjoyed playing with their children.  

So after partying till 2 pm, and then taking some time at the Science Center till 4, we headed home.  And some how, I still felt like I was ripping my kids off.  Dang it.  So they had a "Sleep over" together in the basement.  They made a giant mess, set up beds galore, and yes tayed up all hours of the night  together.  I believe there was still chatter at 2:30 am! ( I can't imagine where they could have gotten this night owl behavior from! )  They got to have Sundays, and popcorn and soda.  They got to watch movies and hang out together.    Brent watched a Hockey game on the internet, and I did, well pretty much nothing.  So there you have it.   New Years at the Walls.  Eating, and staying up too late.  :-)  

The kids are back at school now, and things are slowing back down.  Humph, time to take down the Christmas Decorations.  :-)

More choices

So although I have other things, like new years (which I have pictures to down load) to blog about, I just needed to write out (for therapeutic reasons) what is going on right now.   A Doc. from Walter Reed (that's DC) has offered Brent a Fellowship.   What does this mean?  It means that if we take that position, we will stay for one more year......... however, it also means that we will owe the military one more year of pay back.  (meaning that we will be set back 2 years)  There is positives and negatives to this:

Pro's

-hours are supposed to be 6-3 m-f.  No call, no weekends.

-we don't have to sell the house in this market.

-we stay in our ward, and with our friends

-brent has a specialty under his belt for when we hit the civilian job market. (in 6 years!)

-we are supposed to have more of a say in where we land for payback.  Will not get placed in a med-cen (small hospital)

I don't know what to think......  We've worked over how old the kids would be... what grades they would be in, what would be best for them....  

I love my job here, the kids have friends, I have friends.  They wouldn't deploy Brent while in the fellowship, so we wouldn't have to face that for another year.   But 2 more years of military pay where we could be making civilian pay....  hummm, doesn't sound so good.  1 more year on top of our 4 where they could deploy him at anytime..... hummm???

Oh dear... what to do... what to do...

Eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food!  MMMMMMM

Con's

-we stay in our little snugly home, one more year.

-liza will start middle school here and then have to switch schools in the middle of middle school.

-Tori will start kindergarten here and then have to switch schools

-2 more years till we get out!

-our life is still in the hands of the army, and they will still say where we go, it will just be a year from now, instead of now.

Oh the anxiety!  I don't even know what to think.  If we knew where they were going to stick us for the next 4 years it would help with the decision, but we don't know.  It is difficult to choose between A, and  BCDEFG or H.  I don't want to jump on this offer just so that we feel a sense of control for a moment, because inevitably it is out of our control anyway.  I want to make the best decision for our kids.