The Move

We are finally in our new house and so excited to be here. The kids love it. We ran into a minor setback when we moved, actually on the 14th hour of moving. The boys' room reeked like cat urine. I called the people who cleaned our carpets and they told me that what probably happened was the urine was soaked into the pad and by shampooing the carpets it brought the smell back to the top. It was so bad I can't even explain. We hauled all the boys' stuff back out and shut the door. We went to Midstates yesterday and bought new carpet and ripped out the old crap last night. Tonight we still need to scrape the rest of the padding up and then bleach the concrete. So far, since we pulled the carpet out, we can't really smell it at all. All we smell is paint. So I believe the problem will be solved. It just amazes me how nobody could smell that before the carpet cleaning, so I guess it was kind of a save for us.

We have spent the last three days packing, unpacking, putting things together, organizing, and doing some cleaning. We are finally out of the trailer completely, but no where near put together here. Our garage is packed full. We need to have a rummage sale, but I would like to wait until next year during Volga days when there are lots of rummage sales. I actually tried to arrange the garage somewhat tonight in order to make room for ONE van. I thought I did good, got in my van, pulled it in, but it wouldn't fit. It went in, just not far enough, and I don't think I could have opened my door. So hopefully we can get some more stuff unpacked so we can actually use the garage!

Anyhow, I best get back to cleaning and unpacking.

What a Day!

Guess it's been awhile since I updated again. We closed on the house this morning. We are official home-owners! It's so exciting and overwhelming. Today we did a little cleaning and then started painting. We got the boys' room painted, which is a sky blue. I'm not crazy about it, but I think it will look good when we get the Superman comforters in there along with furniture and whatnot.

The girls made a deal with us today. They have also wanted a blue room, except their bedding has no blue in it. So I kept telling them that the blue is just not going to work and I'm not buying them new bedding because theirs isn't old. Well anyhow, we broke down and bought them new bedding that has blue, purple and bright green in it. The deal was....we keep their last paycheck from the paper route. They had to talk about it and discuss if it was worth it, but in the end they told us money isn't everything. Their room is now bright blue and purple! It's crazy in a good way. Then they will have bright green curtains to go with everything.

We also tackled one wall in our room. We actually put grey on that wall and it looks pretty neat. The carpet is such a bright blue it's hard to find a color that we liked that didn't completely clash.

We also had a couple of guys installing a window today in one of the bedrooms. What a difference that made! The room had no window before, now it does. They just need to put the trim on and it's done.

I also went to court today to testify as a witness. That was interesting to say the least. Of course it couldn't have happened at a worse time. I'm glad it's done. I guess the case is now headed to a jury trial.

Tomorrow we both work and then are headed back to the house to do more painting. We have 8 gallons waiting!! Well, maybe 7 now. Then on Wednesday I suppose we'll tidy up the house and get ready for the carpet cleaners to come. And then Thursday we start to move.

I will add pictures when I get time.....

What's in the air?

Man I tell you. There is something in the air that is causing people to be really crabby. I suppose it has something to do with the economy and the uncertainy of it, the rising gas prices, or maybe even the weather. I have had my share of run ins with people who have been having a bad day and have taken it out on me, personally. When people have a bad day I wish they would take a step back and realize what they are thinking of saying or how they are thinking of treating someone. It's amazing how many people take their frustrations out on innocent people at Wal-Mart. The last two days I have felt sorry for myself and for many of our cashiers for the situations they have had to deal with and the rudeness of the many customers. Maybe if these customers would actually think that WE also live in this economy and WE also have to deal with the rising prices they would stop and just keep it to them selves. Could just be me dreaming of that ever so perfect world again.

The house is coming along well. We have almost made it to third base. The appraisal was done on Wednesday. I ran into our mortgage lender and she said we would be getting a phone call on Monday regarding the appraisal. We are praying for nothing major to have been found. Considering we had an inspection done and there wasn't anything to major found on that we figure we should be ok. The soffit (over hang by roof) has a rotten spot, so we figure we might have to have that replaced before we can close. We'll see. We're anxious! We haven't even begun packing because we don't have any place to put our boxes unless we want to start stacking them in the living room. Gosh I can't wait for the day when we are in our house with double the space!!

Today I took my PRAXIS exam. It's an exam I have to take in order to get my diploma. If I don't pass this test, I don't get the diploma. I do have the option to retake the test, but it costs $140 each time. I thought it was fairly difficult....enough so to make me nervous. But I was nervous about the last PRAXIS I took and I passed that with flying colors. It's hard to believe I'm graduating in December! Wow, where has the time gone. 6 credits and I'm done!

We took the kids over to Volga on Friday to see the school. I think I will like it and I think they will too. Right now they are pretty excited, except Shaylee. She doesn't want to leave Brookings. The nice thing about Volga is they can actually pick their teachers. Registration is August 5th and school starts on August 25th.

Family Update

Joseph went to the doctor yesterday. His arm is healing nicely. He will get his cast off in two weeks. Just in time to help us move!! Only kidding. Shaylee and Shawndra are slightly bummed that they have to stop their paper route here in Brookings. We're hoping maybe someday there will be a route open close to our house in Volga. It's been a great opportunity for them to earn some money. Jayden is doing well. He's been OFF, yes OFF, of his antibiotics for two weeks and his ears STILL look great! Here are a few pictures from the other day.

Busy Preparing

I can't believe it's already been a week since I last updated this! Wow, time really flies by when you are buying a house and even if you aren't!! Things are rolling along well. As our realtor says, we're on 2nd base. The house is ours when we make it to home plate. The inspection went pretty good. Anything that was found was minor, except one spot in the sofit (sp?). There is a rotten section, so I'm sure the appraisers will find that. We had the appraisal and title work ordered last Friday. They have until the 28th to get it completed. We've already made appointments to get the carpets cleaned and a window installed. I just hope my work schedule allows for me to get a bunch of cleaning and painting done that week.

Not much is new around the house. I've got some cold or something. We have three kids on antibiotics for strep throat. I've never had strep....knock on wood.

Mike and I went to Sioux Falls on Sunday and did more window shopping than I have ever done. We were trying to get an idea on prices on the appliances, furniture, grills, and patio sets. That sure adds up quick!

House!

Some of you may have heard...we retracted our offer on the house we originally wanted. However, we have found a different house that suits us much better and the yard is much bigger. We are super happy to have found this home and to have found out today that the sellers accepted the offer! We have it inspected on Friday.

Pictures of a Broken Boy

The broken arm was bad. Then the next day he thought he'd stand on a ball to see if he could balance. He couldn't. He face planted into the asphalt and scraped his chin, cheek, and bit it. He was really puffy.

Hey Sylvester...how's it going?

House/Joseph/General

I never knew buying a house could be so nerve wracking and stressful. I mean I've always heard people say that, but thought how bad can it be. Well I found out. The thought of getting into that loan with the huge payments is really scary. In the past 24 hours we have even gone as far as possibly retracting our offer in order to find something that is cheaper. The part that is so hard about this process is the amount of change we are encountering right now and all at once. I have to make some phone calls to the bank tomorrow and find out some answers to some very real questions we have. And we also plan to look at another house on Tuesday. Who knows...plans could change once again. Sometimes I think I shouldn't say anything at all, until I am for certain what is happening...but that would spoil all of the fun.

Joseph is now sporting a red cast up to his elbow. It has quite a few signatures on it already! The silly boy took a good tumble yesterday now. Is this where I say "boys will be boys"?? He actually stood on a ball to see if he could balance. Needless to say, he couldn't, and tumbled to the ground. He scraped his chin and his cheek and he bit his cheek really hard as well. Today it's all puffy. The best way to describe that side of his face is to imagine someone who has had their wisdom teeth pulled. He's still in good spirits though!

The kids are finally done with swimming lessons for this summer. It's been a long 6 weeks, but a skill that is so important for them to learn. Shaylee has passed level 6 now. I believe she's considered a junior lifeguard at this point, but am not totally for sure. Shawndra is moving on to level 5. She needs to work on the breast stroke. Joseph even passed to level 4 and he missed the last week of swimming lessons. So that was pretty amazing! Dalton will need to retake level 2. He tends to be more afraid of the water and doesn't want to do things on his own. I'm sure this will improve with age and practice.

The boys are not in t-ball anymore. We felt Dalton wasn't ready for it and then when Joseph broke his arm, the doctor said no more. The girls are done the end of this month and then will have the month of August to just relax and do fun stuff.

Well I suppose...it's after midnight, so I should try to sleep.

House Update

So the whole house shopping thing moved into rush mode this week, but not solely on purpose. We looked at 3 houses on Tuesday, but knew none of those would work. So we looked at 2 more on Thursday and ended up really liking one of the houses. We decided to make an offer on it this morning. The sellers counter offered and then we did the same. Finally today, they came back and accepted our offer. So needless to say, we're excited and nervous at the same time. We've made it to 1st base! YAY! It will have 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, huge laundry room, sun room, double attached garage and in a perfect location. As we move further through the process, I'll tell you more. Right now we feel scared and excited. We're so ready to have our family in a nice sized house where the kids actually have room to spread out and play! But on the other side, we're getting into a house payment so that is scary.

Good News and Bad News

First the good news. I took Jayden to feeding clinic yesterday. We got great news! He is no longer required to be on the feeding pump. I was so excited to hear this. He is doing so well with his oral intake that he no longer needs the additional calories at night! So now that we don't use his Mic-Key button, he might get it removed in 6 months. My goal is Christmas. Jayden has to go back to feeding clinic in November. At that time, we will discuss taking him off of his medicines and the possibility of taking out the button. When he does get the button removed, it is an actual surgery and he will be in the hospital. His stomach is sewn to inside wall of his body. The surgeon has to correct that when the button is removed. Jayden sure has come a long way!

The bad news. Joseph fell out of bed last night around 4am. He sleeps on the top bunk. He cried right away and Mike checked on him. This morning his wrist was swollen, he wouldn't eat, his throat hurt and all he wanted to do was sleep and lay around. I took him in to the clinic and he actually broke both bones in his right arm at the wrist. The breaks aren't bad and the doctor says they should heal up nicely. We go back tomorrow to see the ortho doctor and find out when it can be casted. Right now it's really swollen, so it's in a splint, and he has to ice it and keep it elevated. Needless to say, that means no more t-ball this summer. He's pretty bummed. To top it off, they tested his throat and he has Strep. Joseph is having a rough day. Poor kid.

We Have Officially Started!

We finally got pre-approved for a home loan. We are very excited to actually
start looking at houses now, instead of just seeing them online. I've been looking
at them for years online and always thinking I wonder when I will get to have a
house. Well the time has finally come and we got our ducks in a row and went to
the bank today with a huge stack of papers. Now that we are approved, we can
look and see which house will be the one for us.

Living in this trailer is "do-able", but definitely too small for 8 people. We're hoping
to find a minimum of a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, somewhere near Brookings.
We'll keep you posted!!

A True Artist

Jayden was painting with frozen paint. However, the paint

was not frozen very well. The spoons kept coming out.

So he started to just move the paint cubes around

with his fingers. It was cold! I took this picture just as he tossed

the spoon onto my white pants! I wonder what he's thinking?
Once the spoons came out we moved onto paintbrushes and he painted his high chair. He made little blotches all over and then smeared it together.

And proceeded to smear it all over his tray!

Forget paintbrushes, lets use fingers!!

A close-up of his masterpiece!

Back to the paintbrush for some final touch ups!

At the end he figured out how to splatter the paint! It was all over everywhere,including the wall, floor, camera and me!I think Jayden really had fun painting. It was a good texture experience for him because the paint was cold and had a crunchy feel to it since it was slightly frozen. In the pictures you can see his Mic-Key button on his tummy, well, he painted that purple as well! It took two baths to get him clean!

Harvest Festival

Jayden was scared to death of the parade! We had

to hold him the entire time. First the firetrucks and ambulances

scared him, then just regular vehicles scared him. Poor guy! He

did watch, but he had to be held and his head was resting on my shoulder.

Here's Devin in the cars, all ready to go for a ride!!
And here's where Devin was...but changed her mind

before the ride started. She was freaked out of all rides!

Lined up waiting for the parade. They got so much candy!
Jayden did love the football he received.

Bubbles

Jayden had his first experience with bubbles today. His OT (occupational therapist) was working with him. He was not enjoying therapy today, so she pulled out the bubbles. He loved them! He was stomping his feet and trying to catch them. It was really cute.

Here he is trying to touch the bubble.

And trying to catch the bubbles! I don't think he understood

where the bubbles went when he touched them.
They even landed on the rug for a few seconds.
That's his therapist blowing bubbles.

On a different note, we are off to the doctor today. Jayden's ear has been draining consistently for a week or so. He's been on antibiotics for a month. Nothing is fixing it again. We have to go have it cultured to see if it's MRSA (staph infection resistent to antibiotics). There's a chance we will be ending up at St. Paul Children's Hospital to see a Pediatric Infectious Disease doctor. Unfortunately we have to deal with the doctor ONE more time in Sioux Falls for insurance purposes before we can go to Minnesota. Stupid....but if it means insurance will cover it, then it's the smartest thing we can do. I will update on the culture in a few days as it does take a few days before we get results back.

Where did the weekend go?

It seems like it was just Friday and now it's Sunday night. Wow, the weekends always go so fast. I guess time really flies when I'm working on the weekend too. Mike was lucky, he got to stay home with the kids this weekend.

Jayden finally cut a molar. Maybe that explains his fussiness lately. It's so hard to tell with him when he's got troubles with his ears too. But I finally felt the tip of that tooth.

We go into another busy week for everyone. The kids have swimming lessons everyday, along with softball in the evening. The girls have their paper route each day too. I'll add some pictures of the kids and softball soon.

Zach

We had our favorite nephew stop by this morning! Ok, so he's our only nephew...we love him! He lives in Shakopee, so we don't see him much, but we were lucky enough to see him last weekend AND this weekend. How do we rate? I suppose it's just as nice to see his mom too....haha!

Great picture of Mike! His first time holding Zach. Jayden wasn't sure what to think of him.

Mike and his sister Lindsey (Zach's auntie) and Zach of course!
His mommy makes him smile...and so did I a couple of times!! Yay! He's

such a chunk. I swear he almost weighs more than Jayden!

Swimming Lessons

Shaylee is 2nd from the right

Shawndra is on the right.
Joseph has red swim trunks on.
Dalton
Shawndra doing the back crawl.

We have Shaylee, Shawndra, Joseph and Dalton in swimming lessons this summer. Shaylee is in level 5, Shawndra is in level 4, Joseph is in level 3 and Dalton is in level 1. He would have been in level 2 except last year he burned his feet so bad at the lake he wasn't allowed to soak them, so we had to pull him out of lessons.

The Sad Death of my Phone

So I've been looking for a new cell phone for almost a year. I can't seem to find "the right one", so I never get a new one. I waited until Christmas for the deals, but then I didn't care for the deals. I always let Jayden play with my phone...he likes to call daddy when he's working. Well lately, he's figured out speed dial and that if he holds a number for long enough he actually calls someone....then of course, I don't always know about it. So Jayden travels all around the house with it and even holds it up to his ear. It's very cute. Or was.

Let's travel in time a bit.....

I went to the bathroom, did my thing, stood up, and was going to flush the toilet. But at that very second, for one brief moment in time, I thought "Oh my gosh, what's wrong with me!?". As I glanced in the toilet (which had a reddish glow) I then realized I was fine. For the poor, sad, unfortunate glow of the toilet was my RED cell phone. I hesitantly looked at the water and thought oh great, NOW how am I going to get that out. Well needless to say, I reached in, pulled the poor dead phone out and laid it to rest on the sink. I hope it didn't suffer.....

Now, I guess I have to find a new phone, whether I'm ready or not. Hmmmmmmmmm....

Another Week in Review

We have been a busy household this week. Trying to take care of stuff from the reception, the boys and girls are in softball and swimming lessons. The girls play on Monday and Wednesdays and the boys play on Tuesday and Thursdays. They all have swimming lessons Mon-Thurs.

I'm back to work finally and actually on the schedule. It took awhile to get me back on there because of my surgery. Today is going to be day 6 of work for me. I'm definitely feeling exhausted from all of the hours, but it's nice to be able to contribute to our bills again! Haha!

Mike works four 10 hour days, which is nice for him. He gets Fridays off! He's considering applying for a lead position with the state. Wish him luck!

I got an email from Jayden's therapist stating she thinks she needs to gown up and wear gloves to his therapy sessions because of the MRSA in his ear. I replied to her that if she needed to come in looking like that I want the therapy to stop. She also questioned his Head Start teacher and daycare. Jayden has been like this for over 6 months and nobody else has felt this need. I do not need Jayden getting scared of a stranger coming into his own house all gowned up and wearing gloves. He's been exposed to that too much already with hosptials and clinics. Maybe I'm over-reacting, but the initial reaction was that. What do you think? Do you think it's ok?

Well I'm off to work for another day of work. I can't wait for a day off!

A Wedding Celebration

We had a wonderful day on Saturday. The weather was darn near perfect, even with the two minutes sprinkle! We had a good amount of people attend and even better food. Those of you who couldn't make it sure missed out on some super tasty sandwiches and salad. :-) The kids had fun playing with each other, with cousins, and other friends. And most amazing at all, after all that playing outside and in the long grass, we came home with ZERO ticks!!!

We decided Grandpa Larry's job was to hold the Citranella burner. Doesn't he look great?!

Aunt Lindsey was a huge help! She helped with much of the food, mowing, and entertaining!
And of course, the happy couple, posing for a picture. I have no clue what he was looking at!!
Devin was using the croquet mallet as a microphone while she sang "We Are The Champions"!

It was so funny! Her and another child were both singing!
A small shot of some family while eating. Did I mention the food was excellent?

We had a GREAT day! Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us!