Always an Adventure

My friend, Cindy, calls most everything in life an adventure. Good things are adventures, bad things are adventures, and things that aren't planned are most certainly adventures to Cindy.

Today was an adventure . . . it was packing/moving day for us and I am so, so happy it is over. I am happily indulging in the Internet in a hotel room while the rest of the family sleeps. The adventure all started when the driver of our moving van (who was awesome) said, "so it looks like we're packing more than six boxes!"

What? Seriously? Our arrangement was for us to pack everything except the breakables. Apparently "breakables" has a different meaning for me than it did for the lady to made these arrangements. So our driver, Steve, thought he was coming in to pack only six boxes of "breakables." They packed for two hours. I mean, come on . . . breakables include the entire kitchen, all pictures, and fragile things we didn't want to pack.

And while I'm thinking of it, I'd like to send a huge thank you to Jean, Mount Olive's vicar's wife. She is awesome and helped me clean the house she is about to move into:)

Anyway, at about 5:00, we took the girls upstairs to say goodbye to their rooms. Abby blew her room a kiss and walked out the door. Jenna, on the other hand, was very emotional. She didn't want to go and was very sad about leaving. She curled up into a heap on her bedroom floor and kissed her carpet until I had to pick her up and take her out--both of us crying the whole time.

We ended up having dinner with our dear friends, the Bomanns, and in the middle of a conversation with Mark, I realized that we left Alison, the purple Beta fish, that has been a part of our lives for many years, in the kitchen cabinet.

Yes, I forgot the fish. I put her in the cabinet so the packers wouldn't get her, and I forgot to take her out. Thinking quickly on his feet, Mark piped up and offered to "mail" Alison to us in New York:)

So, I have to find a home for the real Alison back in California and find a purple look-alike Alison in New York:)

Always an adventure!

Planned Hiatus

I won't be around the blogosphere for a few weeks, and I won't be posting to the blog until we arrive in New York. The moving van comes tomorrow, and we are taking off for Disneyland! We are going to spend a few days in San Diego too and then off to the cross country trek to Orchard Park, NY!

As soon as we get everything set up, I'll give you lots of updates, but until then, know that I am on planned hiatus:)

Cashin' In

Today marks a milestone. Jenna lost her first tooth at school today! I was certain is was going to come out today, because it was hanging by a thread, but she wouldn't let us touch it. I was very relieved to know that it had fallen out at school today so she would be done worrying about it:)

Since she came home, we've had several interesting conversations about the tooth fairy and what exactly happens after you lose a tooth. Here are a few things that I have learned from Jenna:

--The tooth fairy takes all the kids' teeth, plants them, and then they grow into big beautiful flowers.

--The tooth fairy only comes at night when you are sleeping and tiptoes very quietly into your room.

--You must put your name on the envelope that contains the lost tooth, or she will forget whose tooth is whose. She's apprently very forgetful.

--The tooth fairy has a lot of money. Jenna heard that she pays somewhere between $5 to $10 per tooth!

. . . which leads me to her next revelation. Jenna thought that she should start wiggling all her teeth so that she could get lots of money from the tooth fairy and buy some toys that she's been eyeing.

Yep . . . cashin' in on the tooth fairy!

We'll see how much the tooth fairy actually leaves tonight!

I Wish

that I could write exactly what I was feeling on my blog. I really do. I wish that I could just write and write and write about all the hard things and the awesome things that fill my days. Especially now . . . emotions are running high. There are so many frustrations and joys that I would love to theraputically purge onto this page, but I can't. I don't get to do that because it's not fair to the people it involves.

But, oh, how I'd love to be selfish for just a few minutes and type away the struggles. For me, there's something freeing in writing or talking about the things that weigh me down.

I am just not comfortable with putting stuff out there on my blog for anyone to see . . . knowing that it could be hurtful to some people . . . even if it was true. I think people create blogs for different reasons, and some people are comfortable with the purge of emotions--it's authentic and real, but it can hurt people too. Mine is to stay connected with family and friends and have a record of events from our lives. I love to blog, but I have limits as to what I will and can write because it's not fair to anyone for me to open up my thoughts and feelings for all to see. I wouldn't do that in front of a large crowd of our friends . . . I just can't do it here.

Although sometimes I really want to. I guess I just need an outlet. Nate should be home in 8 hours:)

Chalkboard Communication

Apprently, there is a new form of communication in our house . . . the chalkboard. In the past 24 hours, Jenna has decided to use her chalkboard to tell me that she is upset with me. For example, when I told her that we couldn't go to Target to get a kite today, this is what she held up to my face . . .

And when I told her to finish her milk, she wrote a sign that said, "No Mom!" Sorry I don't have a picture of that one.

At least she's creative!

To Flu Shot or Not To Flu Shot?

I have been leary of the flu shot for a long time. I obsess about it for weeks during the flu shot season . . . I go back and forth between thinking that there is no way I am going to get a vaccine for something that probably won't happen to me and thinking about the extreme guilt I'd feel if one of my kids got really sick with the flu and I hadn't taken them to get the flu shot.

Jenna, Abby, and I have had a flu shot every year since I was pregnant with Jenna. The guilt always wins out, but not before I obsess about it and wait until the very, very last day to get one.

But this year, I was one of the first ones in line to get the flu shot when it was offered by our health care provider. And I even made Nate come:)

Why this turn around? So glad you asked:) Last year, Nate got the flu. Not a 24 hour fever with some chills, but the full blown "I can't get out of bed for five days because I am exhausted, achy, and feverish" flu that immediately went to pneumonia that took two rounds of antibiotics to get rid of. I have never seen him so sick. It wasn't the flu that scared me, but the pneumonia that was so dangerous. He got so sick so fast. And after he was cleared up, he still had to use an inhaler because fluid kept building up in his lungs. Fun stuff:)

Now that we've seen the effects of the regular flu and that Nate is more susceptible to pneumonia because he's had it, I marched all four of us to the dr's office to get the flu shot.

I'm interested in hearing other people's thoughts on the flu shot . . . and also the swine flu shot. Are you going to get it? Why or why not?

I am not sure what we are going to do about the swine flu shot. A part of me isn't comfortable with the fact that it is so new and hasn't been tested for long enough to make sure it's safe, but the other part of me doesn't like the idea of death associated with the swine flu. I know it's rare, but if it's "safe" like the seasonal flu shot, than why not?

My mind isn't made up yet, but I really want to know what you all think about it.

Feel free to comment!

Yep, I'm still alive!

You know that you are behind in life when no one has socks, underwear, or lunch for tomorrow. That's where I was this morning, hence the break in blogging. We have been so incredibly busy here, that I can't even keep up with the necessities, let alone my blog!

But I am getting caught up. As we speak, a load of laundry is being washed, I went grocery shopping and have food for tomorrow, and I have a few minutes to sit down and give you all an update:)

Moving is a huge task. We have not actually started to pack boxes yet, but we are almost there and getting to that point has been just as busy. We've had moving company estimates, school registrations, spending hours trying to figure out where we are going to live! And this is all from the west coast. By the time I'm up, the people on the east coast are ready for lunch! That makes it hard to make plans, especially with me working in the mornings.

Friday was my official last day of work and so now I am focusing on our transition. Packing has not been a good thing for our marriage in our past moves:) Nate and I don't usually agree on how to pack and arguments surrounding packing up our stuff usually transpire. But so far, so good. We are still married and hope to come out unscathed come October 27th when we shove off.

So we leave on Oct. 27th. We are going to take a short vacation in Southern California--which includes Disneyland and San Diego! Yay! Please don't mention this to Jenna and Abby though, they don't know the Disney part yet, and I don't feel like hearing "when do we go to Disneyland for 22 more days." We'll tell them closer to our departure date:) Then we make the long trek from San Diego to Orchard Park, NY. Fun:) Actually, Nate and I love car trips. I don't know if we'll love car trips after this one, but we've planned enough time so that we aren't driving too long each day and we can get out and let the girls have some fun along the way.

Another huge piece to this move is housing--both here and there. I am incredibly relieved to know that we have a place to go to once we leave here:) We will be renting a two bedroom apt., temporarily while things with our house here in CA get figured out. I am very excited about less cleaning and no yard work--particularly no snow removal this winter.

We own approximately half of our house here in CA. Our church owns the other half. That makes this situation very difficult when our house has lost so much money in the downturn. We still don't know what will happen with our house. We are still figuring it out with the church. We are all trying to do what is in the best interest of all of us, and that is hard. Really hard. So living in an apt. gives us some time to figure it out, and I am more than okay with that.

So that's the general update . . . we have had some of our dearest friends, the Woltemaths, in town for the past few days and we've had a few adventures that I'll share later. For now, I have a washer to unload, some underwear and socks to wash, and some peanut butter and jelly to make for lunch:)