Fall Pictures... Finally!

I've been meaning to post these pics for a couple of weeks now, and am just getting around to it! Now, I'd love to see the brilliant colors on the trees again and not just the lonely, twisted branches...

This was Brigham's first encounter with fall-time leaves. He wasn't so sure of the giant pile. Can you tell by the look on his face and his inability to let go of the fence!? :)

Not even sure of it with Daddy protecting him...

"So much for this! I'm revving up my bike to blow this joint... Eat my pink and purple dust, leaves!"

(Or as Daddy always says to us, "Let's make like a tree and leave." *chuckle, chuckle* Sorry, I just had to...)

Next on the other end of the spectrum is Bella, the tree hugger. She always appreciates the leaves, in all their crunchy, colorful glory.

Does it look like she's in heaven, or what!? That's our Bella...

Now somewhere in the middle falls Lincoln. He's our hard-core task-oriented child. While not really enjoying the leaves for their ability to provide a soft landing, he does enjoy many activities with them such as:

Mowing over them...

Burying Daddy with them...

And the classic, raking them...

Can you believe that something as simple as an afternoon of playing in the leaves can reveal so much about children's personalities? It even shows a thing or two about Mommy... That yes, I do indeed let my kids hang out in their pjs all day! :)

Bit in the Rear, Part 2

...So fast-forward 5 1/2 hours later after feverishly cleaning like a mad-woman (and man... Thank you very much, Honey.); feeding the kids fast food for lunch; and sending Mark to Target {smooch, smooch} for paper towels, Clorox wipes, 409 spray, and fresh flowers & green apples for staging.

{And yes, dirty laundry was put into trash bags and hidden, clean laundry stuffed back into the dryer, and although not done this time, I have put dirty dishes in the warming drawer or dishwasher with clean dishes!!! So glad I'm not the only one!}

It was finally 2:30 and time to leave for the hour. (Mark had already left shortly before and was going to meet us later. So, this next part is all me and my brilliant handlings...) I threw the two big, still pajama-clad kids in their carseats and ran upstairs to grab the baby who had just woken from his afternoon nap. Poopy. No really... Poopy diaper. Ugh! I don't have time for a poopy diaper! What if they come a few minutes early and walk in to my half-naked, poop-covered son on the floor!? What if? What I'm to say next, I'm not proud of, but I'm putting it all out there. Yes, I put him in his carseat poop and all, threw in a diaper and wipes, and screeched out of the driveway with 9 minutes to spare. (There, I said it...) First stop... The park a mile down the road for a diaper change! Ahem. "No, kids, I'm sorry we can't play. You still have your pajamas on and no shoes!" Ahem. Ahem.

Then, as always, we stalk our own home for part of the hour, driving by half-a-dozen times. Did they show? What kind of car do they drive? Can you see them in the windows? Are they sitting at the kitchen table writing a big, fat check? Please tell me that we're not the only ones that do this. Please.

Driving by the 1st time at roughly 2:49... Nobody there yet.

Driving by for the 2nd time at roughly 2:59... Nobody there yet. {Oh, no I didn't...}

Driving by for the 3rd time at roughly 3:14... Nobody there yet. {Oh, yes I did...}

Did anybody catch on yet? In "Bit in the Rear, Part 1" when I received the phone call from the realtor's office, they wanted to set up the showing for 3:45-4:45. Notice the times above again. Yes-sirree. I half-killed myself to leave home a full hour early, poopy baby and all. By this time, I had stopped back home to double-check the time that I had jotted down on scrap paper that morning. 3:45. Great! At least now I can get the kids some quick hobo-looking outfits and shoes to take them to the park. Leaving a message for Mark then, I confessed that yes, he was right. He had asked me earlier in the day about nap time, since the showing was at 3:45. "Nooo, it's at 2:45. No naps!" He was right twice in one day. Twice.

After all was said and done, the party did come through the house, since we found the lights off and candles blown out when we returned. (No, we didn't drive by 9 times again to check! We were at the park with ice cream, thankyouverymuch.) We just got the feedback emailed this morning from our realtor about this showing... The buyer wasn't sure of our layout. So what if the master bedroom is the size of a "child's shoebox" with the "master bath" two floors down in the basement? {insert "Tommy Boy" air quotes...} So what? Deal with it and make an offer! It's the least they could do for what they put me through...

It Finally Bit Me in the Rear...

I had just plopped down at the computer with my cup of hazelnut-flavored coffee after putting the baby down for his nap yesterday morning. The two older kids were happily watching a cartoon for a few minutes, home from school with the I-don't-know-if-it's-H1N1-or-not-sickness.

Ahhh...

RING!! RING!!
(Okay, our phone really doesn't "ring", but I don't know how to convey the spaceship-like beeping, clicking noise ours makes.)

"Hello, Kate? We have somebody who wants to see your house! Today at 3:45? Is that okay?"

"Ugh, great! Ugh, yeah, 3:45 would be fine." *click*

EEEEEKKKK! NOOOOO! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? THE HOUSE IS THE MESSIEST IT'S BEEN IN LIKE... EVER!

{Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out.}
{Pray... "God, I'm really gonna need you today!!"}

I quickly ran upstairs to wake Mark. Nervously giggling, I told him about the phone conversation. You see I said "nervously giggling", because no more than 24 hours before this, Mark had told me that the house couldn't be in its current condition. What if somebody calls and wants to see the house today? Why, oh why did he have to be right!? "No. There's no way the house is going to be ready," he quips. Too late!! I reassured him that I always get it done in time. (Even if it half kills me every.single.time.)

Okay, so I'm not joking either when I say that the house was messy, really messy. Toys all over, dishes in the sink, dust, gunk, approximately 39.2 loads of laundry both clean and dirty all over the three stories of the house, a suitcase still semi-packed from a week ago, bedrooms a mess.... Yes, it's true, I sometimes slack. We had also enjoyed the beautiful weekend weather outside walking and raking leaves, so it was easy to just pretend for a few days that the inside of the house didn't need attention. No more pretending! We've always had at least a day's notice if not a few days for house showings, so I really didn't think a last-minute call could happen to us. And now I know...


To be continued...
{I'm sure I've already lost half of you by now, so here's my feeble attempt to keep the rest of you engaged...}

The Why...

So when I said that the "why" of our moving story was coming soon, I really didn't mean soon as in "two-weeks soon". Sorry. Again, the poor blog is neglected. It's still here, though, and hopefully you are too! :)

Lets' see, where do I start with this chapter of the story? I'll just start with the man behind the move, my super-cool-super-hot husband!

(Sorry that I like to embarrass you on our blog, Honey! ;)

Ahem, back to the topic at hand about the "why"... We're moving to a certain {everything's bigger in...} southern state to allow us to further both Mark's career and our family's goals and plans for the future. Mark's been accepted into anesthesia school! Yes, that's right. Within the next few years he'll be trained in the proper way to not only knock patients out for routine and advanced surgical procedures but to also bring relief from that icky minor pain associated with birthing new lives. (You can thank him later...) There's also the few trillion other technical-medical-type things he'll learn that I could never comprehend, let alone have enough brain storage left next to the files for knowing which sippy cups don't leak or how to best break up a squabble over who gets the last yogurt tube. {Like I say, though, this is super-hero-quality stuff too...} Enough about me, though!

Here's the other important piece to the puzzle... Mark didn't get into just any anesthesia school. He made his way into the ultra-elite Army's Graduate Program in Anesthesia. This means that he'll be trained as both an anesthetist and an Officer in the United States Army. Pretty cool stuff, huh!?

Of course Mark will be the one serving in the Army, but most of you know that this will quickly morph us into a military family. While there are a little bit of nervous jitters for the unknown that comes along with this, we are ultimately very excited and honored to embark on this new chapter in our lives. We pray that this door that has been opened for us by our Ultimate Commander in Chief will shower our family with countless adventures and opportunities for growth and service to our country and Him.

I guess that takes care of the "why" now, doesn't it!? Lately, it's hard living in the now waiting for our new adventure to start, but we know that it will be here before we know it. I'm sure we'll spend many cold midwest winter days day-dreaming about what the future holds for our family!