16

There are 16 days left until we are the proud new owners of our very own home in WI.

I'm writing this with all seriousness that I. CAN'T. WAIT.

Don't get me wrong - there will be bittersweet things (ahem, 4 extra hands to help with the kids, ahem).

Did I mention I can't wait?

::writhes with the difficulty of WAITING::

(squeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

Thanksgiving is almost here

I know once the Thanksgiving weekend starts (sometime tomorrow afternoon), I won't have time to post anything about anything because the weekend is going to be nuts. Thursday - Thanksgiving all day. Friday - shopping all day. Saturday - double sister birthday party prep and party. All day. Sunday - Calvin's baptism (not all day). Monday - work. UGH. I know we're not alone in the runrunrun that this weekend will be, but you get the idea. Wahh - we are so blessed with so many loved ones to see. It's a GREAT "problem" to have.

And since pretty much all I think about is my new house and how to stay sane before getting there, we have LESS THAN A MONTH NOW until this is reality. It will still be crazy reality a month from now, but it will finally be HAPPENING. I can't begin to tell you how excited that makes me.

I'm thankful! I'm pretty much always thankful, but since we're pointing it out and all this time of year, here is a list of what I'm thankful for (and definitely not all inclusive. a book is not what I'm looking for here).

• My husband! While this whole pack-up-and-move craziness has not always brought out the best in us, he's been amazing and keeping us all grounded. He's a wonderful husband and father and in the sake of saving time, just know that he's our rock. He keeps our family going.
• My kids! I'm so blessed to have these two adorable little monkeys to keep me BEYOND busy and we love every minute of watching them grow (although the current game of "let's see who can accurately guess how many times Hadley says "NO" in one evening isn't my favorite. no lie.).
• My In-Laws. We would be dead on the side of the road if it hadn't been for them the past 3 and the next 1 month. Amazing people. The end.
• Our health! We are all relatively healthy people and for that, I'm ever grateful. It can be so scary when someone is sick, really sick and we haven't had to deal with that much at all.
• Our Iowa house selling and our Wisconsin home to move into! YAY!

Ok there are TON more but I'm just going to keep those to myself and know that we're thankful for all we can do, have, and will do in the future. Happy Thanksgiving (a little early), folks!

SOLD. SOLD. SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HA HA HA the funniest thing happened. I blogged yesterday about the showing on Saturday, what a pain, they came in the middle of packing and we didn't hear anything, so obviously they didn't like it...WELL, it turns out they LOVED it. LOVED it so much, in fact, that (long story short) they wrote up an offer and we sold it! Last night! Here's how it all went down (b/c I need to remember this later).

• (mid morning Monday) Our realtor emails us that the family really liked the house and might write an offer!
• An hour later, our realtor emails us an offer! A legit one! (no low balling here)
• We counter!
• They counter!
• We stew while I'm on my way home from work (crying, mind you. this is our FIRST HOUSE with all the memories and emotional attachment, you know). Adam is worried they won't let us counter one more time. I said they would have wrote $X FIRM if they meant it. Adam talked to Sara. She's brilliant and agreed with me that we should counter one more time.
• We counter!
• We wait. UGH.
• I'm talking to my SIL about something on the phone. The phone practically implodes (it's the house phone so I'm not so good at working it - not ours). I realize Sara's calling. I call her right back.
• Confusion about who called who.
• "You got the deal! House is sold!"
• I do the happy dance in the bedroom where I had been on the phone. I get details I will remember for a nanosecond and then promptly forget because HELLO! We just sold our house successfully!
• I sit on the couch and text Adam who is sitting in the recliner (longest. 7 minutes. ever. for him to check the phone that is practically attached to his hand).
• He finally sees he has 5 texts from me and falls off his chair while reading them.
• CHAMPAGNE!! We sold our house!

See? I like this game. Now is trying to figure out if we have to get our stuff out sooner than Dec. 21st as planned...either way - YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYYYYYYYYYYY! And that is how we sold our house.

We moved again.

I don't know how many times we're going to end up moving until our Iowa house is completely into our Wisconsin house, but for now, we've made another move.

Friday was a whirlwind of work, IEP meeting, race to run a few errands, grab the girls before they zonked out completely at school, and drive 5.5+ hours to Iowa so they had a little time to run around before falling into their beds (their OWN beds, yay!). We made it fine. Al & Sherri left around 3 and made it fine. Adam's flights were delayed an hour and a half but he got the trailer and drove down fine (only almost hit ONE deer).

Saturday, the real chaos started. I left for an 8am massage (I HAD to use up a gift certificate, darn), then we picked up the Highlander from the shop where it got a last free tire rotation, and then booked it out of the house that we had to reclean (after all the morning packing chaos and little girls' rampage) for a showing at 11:00. Of course! A showing in the middle of packing! Why not! And we have yet to hear how that went so I'm assuming it was all for nothing. More packing while the girls napped, then race to The Children's Museum for a daycare Christmas party (which was fab, as usual, and awesome for the girls to see Mary and friends again...Hadley would NOT let go of Mary for quite some time). We raced back home for dinner, play/pack time, girls got another bath, packing until 9:45. I ran out for well-deserved adult snacks and then we hit the sack hard. TIRED people, I tell you.

Sunday hit with a trip to church for a last worship which was SO heart-filling it wasn't even funny. It was sort of hard, actually, and I found more than once I had a large lump in my throat. We have an amazing church family at Grace Lutheran. Home we went and packed up as fast as we could b/c rain was coming. By rain, I meant giant thunderstorm but Adam and Al were diligent and got it all packed up/tarped down, and we hit the road just before 11:30. Longest line ever at McDonald's, then headed out of Muscatine by noon. Al had to stop for tarp adjustment. Adam and I kept going. I had to stop for kid bathroom break (a half hour into the trip...grr). Once we turned north, the weather turned. The west wind was HORRID and got worse the further north we went. I had the black luggage rack thing on my car and it might as well have been a sail. Long story short, it was once of worst trips between WI/IA weather-wise we've ever had. STRONG 30-35 mph winds going across the road most of the time with hard rain. The last hour "blessed us" with torrential rain. Nothing was ruined (that I know of yet) and we all made it.

We have lots of furniture/big stuff left in Iowa. Dressers are empty. The garage is FULL and will take a load in itself. I'm terrified about moving the China cabinet and grandfather clock. We plan the next "adults-only" trip on Dec. 20th/21st (not sure of leave date yet) to get the rest of the big furniture we need to move in and be comfortable in the new house. It's hard to believe that's just a few days over a month away! So close to getting into our new house...we can't wait! And now a crazy week of conferences awaits...

ListS

Those of you who meet me figure out within about 2 minutes that I'm:

1. Type A. 
2. Mild/Moderate OCD.
3. in LOVE with LISTS.
4. Oh yeah, I adore my family. 

So back to #3...The number of lists that are currently sitting at home waiting for me is almost obscene. (why did she underline at home? what a weirdo...)

Not a weirdo. If they were with me at work all day, do you think I'd get anything done? Anything? I *might* see my students but outside of that? Nothing. I'd be so excited to work on my lists, reorganize them (especially after the HUBS gets ahold of them and "adds" to them in his different colored pen and boyish handwriting), and then wait until the minute I get to go accomplish them that I'd be one of the worst employees ever. 

So they sit at home, waiting, while I'm hoping that my DH leaves them alone until I can get my grubby mitts back on them again and ignore whatever else is going on around me as I work on them while researching things to do with my lists online. 

Right now (outside of my ever-running work lists that stay at work), I have lists for:

• What do we need from Iowa to effectively run a household? (organized by room, with *s for cross-referencing things that don't "live" in the correct room in Iowa - like all my kitchen stuff that's stored in the basement)
• What can stay in Iowa (all pending no house sale, mind you) until we get down again late January?
• What can be stored in cold weather? What goes in the enclosed trailer(s)? What can ride in the back of a pick up truck?
• CHRISTMAS LISTS!!! What our kids want, what other people's kids want, ideas for other family members, what's been actually purchased already...these are my favorite. Oh wait, all of them are my favorite. But Christmas has a shiny gold star just for me. 
• Before signing on the new house list/schedule
• Day of and after signing on the new house schedule to when we are actual DEPERE residents

And you know what? It made my heart happy and my brain calm to make the list of my lists. Fellow SLPs and several other friends reading this can relate - you know who you are - and you are nodding your head reading this. You are my people. 

Onward with the day and tackling my lists because lists weren't made to sit there. They were made to have each item crossed off, one by one, in a certain way with a certain pen, and even for a few things to be added that I accomplished just so I can immediately cross them off. I love lists. The end. 

Just under 2 months

Just under two months since we've moved back to WI (Sept. 6th).

Just under two months until we're living in our (OUR) new house (Dec. 27th; 56 days away, but who's counting?).

I'm not going to lie - both sort of feel like an eternity.*

I also know I really shouldn't be allowed to whine here because we are very fortunate to have saved and worked hard and put ourselves in the position to be where we're at in terms of veryimportantthings like a house purchase/sale. I'm just not a patient waiter!!

So let's talk about fun things, like the girls, as I have hardly updated about them lately and it's been all me me me. Or house house house which makes me think me me me b/c it's a huge part of me. Girlie time!

Morgan (I'm FOUR now) Addison

• Our smartie. She's currently the youngest in her class at school now as we "encouraged" them to move her to the 4s room as soon as she became of age instead of leaving her with 3 y/os she was light years ahead of (think about it - 6 months as a preschool/toddler aged person is HUGE). They wanted to wait until the holiday break (2 months away). We didn't and likely would have moved her to a different location. Thankfully, they moved her for us within the building. ;-)
• She's catching up to her peers quickly and is working on Pack 3 of the 4 packs of sight words she has since starting in her new class a few weeks ago. She currently knows such words as the, and, a, she, he, and (and more but I can't remember them all). Some days she struggles with the social side of things and is "learning" about bigger kid issues. On days when I wonder if she should be in more academically challenging arenas, I am reminded she's right where she belongs socially and the two balance each other out nicely.
• She still hates getting up early to go to school (6:10/:15). Oddly enough, back at the Iowa house it was not uncommon for us to groan and hear/find her awake at this time ready for the day. Two more months, child. Then you can get up a bit later. :)
• She's playing more and more with Hadley and they are fun to watch when it's going well. Not so fun when it's not.
• Morgan has some MAD Baby Calvin love. She holds him no less than a hundred times when we visit him. SO excited we'll be so close.

Hadley (sassy pants) Elizabeth

• She continues taking her climbing and falling to new heart-attack provoking levels. She particularly enjoys climbing into Grandpa Al's smaller recliner, then leaning over the side of the arm rest, and trying to catch herself with her hands as she goes to the floor. I can't tell you how many face plants that kid has taken off that chair (or how many laughs follow after it's obvious she isn't broken).
• She's catching on quickly to things and enjoys school, too (daycare - we just call it all school for ease of lingo). She counts to 5, 6, 7 or more - it's hard to tell sometimes. She uses 2-3 word utterances and has HILARIOUS inflection (oh NOOOO! YES! Daddy-O to name a few). She also knows the first two letters in her name and we're working on D. She knows some colors. She knows shapes. I'm going to blame this move on why I'm not grilling her all the time like I did with Morgan at this age.
• Hadley has some serious. grandpa. love. I don't know what we're going to do with her once we move out...if it's a minor/moderate owie, she bypasses me without a thought, then Adam with a little hesitation, and then just throws herself into Granpa's arms. (at least she still reserves the serious stuff for me/Adam.)
• She's the happiest little monkey to ever be woken up in the morning ever. This morning, Sherri found her awake already (odd) with her water bottle in her crib going "woah!" every time she flipped it open. She's totally more than ready for a toddler bed but we'll just take care of that once we're all moved in. She's our baby so who cares. She's small and still fits so boom. Crib. Crib until she's settled at the new house. Then...toddler bed. That will be an adventure in itself...
• She's been wearing 18 month flood pants and some 2T clothes. This weekend she's officially being turned over to 2T as most everything 18-24 months still fits but I promised my girls at birth they would never wear high water pants unless they wanted to (who would want THAT gah, said the mom who wore them all the time growing up ::cringe::). Since I'm in charge of what she wears and Adam just brought her 2T stuff home from Iowa (he traveled there at the beginning of this week for work), she's getting switched. I was looking at her 18 month winter coat and wondering what size Morgan was in at this age...seems like she's a good size smaller than Morgan who might have been in 3T stuff her 3rd winter, age 2? I'll have to go back and look.

Ok, all that said, it's time to get some work done. I needed a break. It's been an awesome afternoon without meetings and the like to clog my productive juices. That and I don't know if I will ever know what's going on around here...hmm. Sounds familiar from about 6 years ago during my first year at the AEA...Happy time change this weekend, folks!

*DISCLAIMER: Eternity isn't meant to be a poor reflection of our (extremely super awesome) hosts (Adam's folks). They've been nothing but helpful, accommodating, and amazing since we've taken over their house and lives. There is, however, something to be said about having your own space/house in our culture and for a Type A OCD person such as myself, I have to give myself a pat on the back 6 days out of 7 when I've held my shit together and not been an @ss because I miss my "boring" life in my own house.

Pictures of the New House

I'm going to see how many pictures I can post of the new house - I'm not sure how much "new" storage I have on here so we'll see how it goes. Enjoy - I'm so excited...only 62 more days to go!! (I think that might be one of the biggest numbers I've ever seen...:-/)

Our beautiful house!

(minus a beautiful lawn...wonk wonk. Have to wait until spring)

Looking at the front door. Basement access on left, 

hallway/kitchen left of that, master to the right.

(angels singing)

Our My walk-in closet!

Dining/kitchen area from living room 

(girls' rooms/bathroom to the left through arch)

Hallway to bathroom (first left) and two bedrooms

TBD who gets which one. Morgan is choosing ;-)

Panoramic view of the open area of the first floor

(master left, kitchen right)

Adam's office 

(ha ha ha - WILL be his office and almost only project in this house)

One of our favorite things - no "fixer" projects in this house for a long time. The office is a project we anticipated with any of the houses we looked at and considered buying. Adam wants to put a backsplash in the kitchen but that's a "pretty project," not a "fixer" project. Oh and we have two little girl bedrooms to paint but again, pretty stuff. Not maintenance or fixer stuff. The countdown begins - 62 days!

Hello, DePere!

We had a good weekend. No no no, we had a GREAT weekend. We put in an offer on the new construction on the east side of DePere Friday afternoon. We waited with bated breaths because we went low. These builders do NOT take anything lower than list price and we were sort of hoping we could go a little under and ask for a few other things thrown in and come out a little ahead (we needed a fridge and oven...we wanted a later close date...few other things).

Saturday morning brought happy girls, nervous parents, and then boom - a counter offer! It wasn't great. It wasn't awful. I was upset b/c I wasn't sure if Adam would go for it or if he'd say nope, let's go for the other house (cheaper). Thankfully, he agreed that we should counter again and go for it. We countered and gave the builder until the end of Saturday (7pm) to get back to us. We gave him his full price so he could keep his reputation of not accepting less than full price but stuck with a few of the other concessions we wanted.

Saturday 6:30 came and went. 6:45 rolled around and while we were playing around celebrating Morgan's birthday, Adam looked up from his phone and said, "We got it."

YOU READ THAT RIGHT - WE GOT THE HOUSE!!

I can't tell you how happy I am to know that I was 31 and able to have our dream home. Yes the lot is a bit smaller than we wanted originally, but since everything else was exactly as we'd hoped, it will be great. Our realtor was shocked we were able to get the concessions we did and we went and picked out the appliances needed tonight.

It's late and I'm tired but we're so thankful that we will have our dream home (that's only 4 minutes from Adam's brother! I LOVE the idea of close cousins (and maybe sometime soon we'll have more close cousin time!)) December 27th. We have a showing at the Iowa house on Friday after a serious drought but we're not getting our hopes up at this point. Happy? Yes. Hopeful? Not really.

Pictures tomorrow if I can figure it out. I wasn't posting pictures forever b/c I had run out of room/storage but I was able to change my heading picture so maybe they gave me more. :) Either way, we're coming, DePere! It's going to be a great 2014!

Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

Today marks the last day our big girl will be THREE. Tomorrow, she'll wake up a 4 y/o child. This birthday has been a little easier to take b/c she's already a preschool aged kid and this won't change with this birthday whereas when she went from 2 to 3, she went from toddler to PreK aged. (don't talk to me next year when she would be asked if she's in kindergarten for real when she's 5). Maybe it's b/c I'm ALL CONSUMED with the house buying/looking/etc process right now and that's why this birthday is all tame and such in my head.

Today is Al's birthday (FIL). Tomorrow the big kid turns 4. Sunday is my dad's birthday. And there you have the birthday weekend extravaganza. We are taking the girls to the Children's museum in the morning, lunch out, and then dinner with a BIG COOKIE CAKE at home later. She's going to be SO very excited. Lucky duck. And I'm not going to lie - I'm looking forward to checking this museum out - it looks pretty amazeballs.

So...now that I've discussed birthdays, let's talk about what else I'm REALLY thinking about. Our potential new house. We have two very good options to choose from. Each has their own +/-s. We have HEAVILY weighed our options and chosen one. We're hoping to put in an offer today before they have their open house again on Sunday. It's so beautiful. The 2nd choice house is pretty. This one is BEAUTIFUL. I'll keep you posted but omgosh you guys. I'm so excited. We're feeling very pleased that no matter which house we get, we really can't lose because they're both great. Fingers crossed!!

Calvin Thomas!! (and more house info)

We may have found our house? I'm not sure. But I think we're sure. And after that's all said, we need to know if this is the right decision or not. Crystal ball...where ARE you!?

We don't know what to do. We're pretty sure we want this house and we can do it now. Our realtor is checking into things that we would need to change to make this happen and work for our family (ie. add a shed and dig out an egress window for Adam's office). The price is excellent and really, there are only minimal cosmetic changes we'd want to do over time (outside of the immediate shed and office for Adam).

We are downsizing which is oddly enough, a breath of fresh air for me (for now, ha...). The Iowa house and yard were too much/big. I always felt like I was barely keeping up and always behind. I'm excited for the plans we have for the basement to make it fully work for our family when the girls are bigger and need more space. For now, they'd have an awesome basement floor to ride bikes on and throw balls all over without breaking anything. (maybe we could have a pitching room for the girls...ha, Adam would be thrilled at the idea).

We looked at a new construction today that was again, beautiful. All new constructions that we see are. Tile, kitchen, master everything, blah blah blah gorgeous. Yard too small (story of our lives).

I know this makes no sense and is just a ton of rambling about houses, but we're getting really close to making a choice, I think. Maybe we'll change our minds tomorrow. For now, I'm feeling really comfortable if we were to offer on this house and get it. Our girls will be happy here, our dogs will have the space they need, and I feel like I could participate in MORE of the girls' lives on many levels if we were to be here.

All that boring housing news aside, WE MET BABY CALVIN today! Calvin Thomas (Tom & Carrie's baby) graced the world with his presence Saturday morning. He and Morgan are exactly 4 years minus 1 week apart in age. Every two years or so, another little Schmidt comes along (insert inappropriate giggle here). He's 20.25" long, 8#7oz, and a handsome little guy. We are so excited we'll be close to see him grow up. Welcome to the family, little big guy!

Ok, it's time for ice cream before Week 6 starts. Wish us luck on the house issues and we wish Tom and Carrie luck on their sleep for the next week and beyond. :)

Ready for some house confusion?

So after a looooong Saturday of looking at houses, we have some options. Long story short results in bulleted list. And go.

• Existing home about 5 minutes from where Adam's brother, Tommy, lives in DePere (rather ideal location) - we liked it. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being we'd offer immediately without a second showing and 8 meaning we'd go back for another look, I'd definitely have given this house an 8 or 9. It was nice - the yard was almost perfect, the bedrooms were split, but the garage was only 2 car, the master was a little tight to fit our furniture, and there were dings on a few doors/kitchen cupboards. Otherwise, not bad at all and within our price range to be able to swing it while still sitting with the Iowa mortgage. (read: moving before Christmas, maybe)
• Brand new build in a not ideal district for our family. The lot was sort of small but felt bigger than it was d/t where the house sat on it and the shape of the lot. Other than that, the house was perfect and we'd have bought it immediately had the stars aligned with the Iowa house selling and it was in one of our ideal school districts. Dang. 
• So...after a couple of other houses that had something wrong (ie. one house/lot was PERFECT and then the kitchen/dining area were apartment-sized at best) we are entertaining the idea of asking the builders to build the dream house on lot that was the size we want in a district we want. Boom, our realtor emailed us with four lot options already. We are still waiting to hear back about the actual size of said lots b/c anything under 0.4/0.5 is not going to be an option for our family. Down side? None of these lots are in the district closest to all our family (DePere). They are all in Howard or Suamico. Not the worst, but proximity to family-wise, it would have been awesome. This isn't counted out yet b/c of the first bullet. All in good time...
• SO...we're waiting to hear back from the WI realtor about lot sizes. We're waiting to hear back from the IA realtor as to whether or not we can somehow sway the potential buyer we have (remember? our house made the "cut" for this one family last week? we still haven't heard back...) by offering incentives of some sort to tip the scales in our favor. Hopefully it will all fall into place b/c we're excited about getting this next (last) step done. 

Still crossing fingers...still praying for an Iowa sale...and happy where we're at for now. Adam is traveling this week which puts us at 3 out of the last 4 weeks. Then comes a welcome break. And a four year old (OMGSHE'SALMOSTFOUR). Less than two weeks!

SEVEN!

Who's shocked...I'm behind and our anniversary was Monday but we're going to pretend I wrote this Monday and carry on with life b/c no one's perfect, especially me. :)

We've made it through seven years of this crazy married life together - which puts us at over 12 years together (we both drop jaws with shock and awe at this fact - how can it be that long already??). I don't have lots to say other than I'm the luckiest gal on the planet to have this guy by my side. I couldn't imagine anyone else living this life with me and still loving me even after all the crazy I put him through (oh and vice versa. totally. in different ways ;-).

We didn't do anything superexcitingomg to celebrate and we didn't buy gifts (although Adam lied and got me a big bouquet of beautiful flowers) because we're hoping to buy each other a new house here very soon. We went out for an adult's only dinner Saturday night at a place called 8th and York in Manitowoc and it was nice. The food was good (spicy!) and the chocolate we picked up for ourselves the girls at Beernstein's after was delicious as well. We even went to a few stores and browsed without care. I know - big time fancy, no? Either way, it was great to reconnect alone because those times have been hard to come by lately given Adam's traveling schedule and our current life situation.

Happy 7 years, T! They've been the best and I can't wait to see where the next 7 take us...(can you imagine in 7 years when the girls are almost 9 and 11?!? Me neither.)

In Iowa housing news, "ironically" we went to church on Sunday and boom, 3 showings this week after the trail had gone cold. One showing was a waste of time and we were informed of that before it even happened. The first showing resulted in our house "making the cut" along with a few other houses so hopefully the family makes a quick decision and chooses ours. We still haven't heard from the last showing but it was a wife and she'd have to have her husband come back next week when he was done traveling. And for the record (as I'm sure many of you know and/or have experienced), waiting blows.

In WI housing news, we started this week with NINE houses to look at tomorrow (Saturday) and by Tuesday afternoon, we were down to 4 b/c 5 of them had offers pending/accepted. Wonk wonk. One of them was our dream home (minus the size of the girls' rooms - small) that was on the wrong lot with a garage that was too small (ha, I hear you thinking "dream? doesn't sound like it..." but everything else was amazeballs) so I wasn't terribly sad b/c I was already questioning if that one would really be the perfect fit. It had so much going for it though...so now we're at around 5-6 houses we're going to look at tomorrow starting at 11:30. One that we're VERY interested in is currently only a basement with a great view of the sky and it won't be ready until the end of December, which doesn't matter, because we just found out the basement house sold. Are you kidding me?!

But wait! You haven't sold your Iowa house!! Why are you looking at houses? Funny you should ask. Well, first of all, in case the Iowa house would sell sooner rather than later, we want to look at some and know what's out there. Second, this gives our realtor a chance to get to know our likes/dislikes for when the time comes so we don't waste time (we have a new realtor from the last time we looked at houses in August). Third, we are entertaining the idea of a second mortgage with big prayers it wouldn't be much of an overlap. We can swing it but it's scary at how our life style has/will be changing with my new salary and then a second mortgage on top of that. The cool thing about the new construction is that it would buy us some time of NOT having two mortgages...but adds commute time without question since we wouldn't move in until the middle of winter (ack). If we were to buy tomorrow (which we won't), we might still ask for a 90 day close or something like that to buy us time. Either way, we are eager to find out where life is leading us so we can complete our "new normal."

That all said, we continue to be ever so thankful for Al and Sherri and how graciously they are letting us all but take over their home. I mean it - we've literally taken over and I'm sure they're tired. I'm sure they're (secretly - they'd never tell us) sad that there are babies and toys ALL OVER THE PLACE (you know how kids see toys put away and instantly must recreate the chaos) among a million and ten other things they miss about their "normal." I'm positive they're tired of the dogs b/c they're high maintenance and can be annoying (but oh do we love them and their sick selves. Maddie is sick now, too, so we have double doggie bronchitis. More meds, more vet bills, joy all around). But thanks to Al & Sherri. Many, many thanks.

And off we go. I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow. We literally count down the days to sleeping in starting with ... Monday.

Getting the hang of this

We're almost done with Week 3 in WI and I think we've got this.

• I'm feeling a TON more comfortable at work and very effective with several of my self-contained preschoolers as I work towards communicatively engineering their classrooms (CEC) so they are able to communicate using pictures, signs, and words in all areas of their environment. It's a long process but the dive I've taken into it already is paying off. Huge HOORAY - I introduced a few of my ALS (aided language stimulation) boards to a few of my kiddies during structured play activities and the next day I came in, the teacher said that as soon as they went to centers time, one of the kids went directly to a center with a board and started using it while playing trucks. That's a win if I ever heard one!
• I'm also feeling more comfortable in almost all other aspects of my job...except paperwork. I haven't had a real high demand to use what I've learned about it yet but that's coming next week. For the time being, I'm going to enjoy the therapy ride I'm on and keep on truckin' through.
• Home life gets better daily...meaning that the girls are understanding our new routine and even if it involves almost 2 hours of traveling (car time, pick up/drop off, etc) daily, we're working with it and making it happen. The girls are having less tantrums and we're working on getting more sleep in their night time schedule b/c they are certainly getting less than they did in our normal, routine Iowa life.
• The dogs make me nuts b/c we don't have a fenced in yard of any kind anymore (electric or physically standing) so someone needs to be with them at all times or they need to be tied up (totally out of their norm). I feel bad b/c they hardly have any time outside while Adam travels (the past two weeks) because cooking dinner requires me to be inside and it's hard to watch dogs AND kids AND have fun at the same time. The ILs have been nothing more than a HUGEGIANTOMG help - this would be a million times harder without them. But with Adam traveling, the "hard" factor goes up some notches as usual.
• I need to learn to go to bed earlier but am functioning pretty well on 6.5-7 hours of sleep a night. Maybe that's part of the reason for this head cold I have...or it's the germs I've picked up from all my friends at school, per the normal back to school routine.
• Adam. He's doing well home officing but he's only had a week of it, honestly. He was home the first week and on the road this and last week. We miss him terribly and are so thankful he's coming home tomorrow (for one week and then travels again another week). The girls are beyond excited that, if all goes according to schedule, his plane landing time should allow him to be home in time to play with the girls a bit and put them to bed.
• The Iowa house...ho hum, the trail has gone cold and I swear everyone has decided to hunker down for the winter and not buy houses. :-( We were pretty sad earlier this week when a second showing fell through and they were comparing our house to ones $50k more - which is so stupid b/c they're NOT COMPARABLE. Almost no house at that price difference is (unless we're talking millions. which we're not. but just in case you were looking for loopholes, there's one for ya). The guy Adam called to mow the lawn this week said that our address sounded familiar b/c he and his wife had looked at it online and were interested. Unfortunately, they're not in a huge rush (although they should be. just sayin').

More from us soon. I need to start working out again but I'm so tired by the time the girls go to bed that I breathe a huge sigh of relief we made it to their bedtime with/without tantrums and ruckus, then pack up for the next day, I shower at night now to save morning time, and then it's almost 9 by the time I even consider sitting down. That means little/no workout time unless we take the girls for a walk after supper. It will all work out...as long as I start eating less ice cream. ;-)

PS Poor Morgan came home with a fever and Hadley came home with a dried face of snot. I can breathe through my nose but I'm coughing in an annoying manner. Isn't Adam a lucky guy to come home to us beauties? HA HA HA...

Week One Done.

And we survived. We drove late into the night last Friday night and arrived in our home state and we made it. We had clothes, toys, and TONS of things for work (mostly me. like 85-90% me.). We were weary, tired, and excited. That hasn't gone away yet at all, and I don't anticipate it going away for quite some time.

We weren't sure about the KinderCare we ended up going with even though it is the most economical across the board (of the 7 in the GB area). Looooong story short, we're feeling much better about it after Adam talked to the director Friday and everybody's feeling like this is going to work out for now. The girls both cried when I left them Thursday and Friday which made me want to vomit and cry all the way to the car/work, but each day I picked them up I had reports of "she had a MUCH better day today."

We're having some SERIOUS TERRIBLE TWOS issues with Hadley and she's significantly regressed with potty training (which makes me furious even though I shouldn't be). I also realized yesterday that she's FINALLY popping through 3/4 molars she's missing which may be contributing to the fuss. That said, the kid will cry for 20 minutes straight, forced even, after she has run out of A) real tears and B) forgot what she was crying about in the first place. We're praying it's a phase thing and related to the huge transition we just threw them into. If it's not, I'm going to be an alcoholic by the time she's 8. (ok I won't be, but I might try to sell her a few times. Ok, not that either. I'll just lose my sanity. That might be more "fun.")

So work. Work. Wow. I can't BELIEVE the difference between two states. It finally dawned on me this week that the question I bombed with Appleton? The one where they asked, "What IEP system do you use?" and I fumbled like an idiot b/c I was all, um, don't YOU use the one your STATE makes you use and since I live in Iowa clearly I don't use whatever system you are using? Nope. Not even close, folks. All you educators, especially those in special ed, are going to audibly gasp when you read this - Every district gets to choose their own IEP system (someone out there makes tons of cash creating IEP systems!). So, if Jonny Smith lives in my district but then moves down the street down to Ashwaubanon, his poor special ed people have to enter his IEP into a whole new system! Now, this happens when a kid crosses state lines and that's fine. But no matter where you go, you have frequent fliers who change districts multiple times a year (unfortunately for the poor kid) and I can't imagine the paperwork! Oh good Lord.

I could go ON and ON with the differences. Some are shocking. Some make me almost fall off my chair. Like this one - my caseload has taken a huge hit and dropped significantly....however, the kids have TONS of minutes compared to Iowa so my schedule is almost as packed. I like the idea that I am part of the school because I was hired by the district, too. My dept is still 50+ strong and I like that, too, although the dept as a whole is much older than my the AEA I was in. After talking with another SLP Friday, she said that the district was at a point where they were requiring SLPs to have at least 2 years' experience before being hired! I was so sad - our rookies are some of our strongest people in our AEA and I value their fresh eyes in the field. Plus, they grow with you and the relationships formed are hard to break.

Don't get me wrong - I know I'll like it here, but it will take some getting used to. It's not just GB as a district - it's statewide things that I'm going to have to get used to. I am so VERY EXCITED to have plans in place to create communicatively engineered contained preschools at this school, but since I've got all of the new going on that's threatening my sanity, I'm going to give myself 2 years to really have it awesome and all figured out. And then I'll revamp it and make it more awesome. I can't wait.

Ok, so just to let you know, we're hanging in there. Adam's first week home officing went well - he said he's super productive since Maddie and Jessie don't come to talk to him about their weekends between business happenings ;-) although I'm sure he's missed his colleagues. I was so very sad Friday when I went to a SLP dept meeting and knew no one. I always knew everyone (almost) and had too many people to sit by (by the way, I struggle with sitting places alone - I'd rather eat in my car than eat at a restaurant alone). Thankfully, I ended up next to a really nice girl, around my age, who it turns out was my Aunt Laurie's intern a long time ago in Two Rivers. (small world)

And for the record, the house has had 5 (I think? Maybe 6?) showings. The last one might come back with her hubs/parents. Either way, I'm still terrified we're never going to sell and we'll be stuck not in "our house" forever (shouldn't happen...). Thinking positively. Trying hard. And still so glad to be home.

Day Care/PreK - CHECK.

Real quick...

Our weekend in WI was a success. At least on the front of day care/preschool. LONG story short - the in home day care we visited just didn't even come close to Mary's. We found an amazing preschool at a church but we were so sad it was only 2 days/week. We wanted Morgan to go more often than that. We finally came down to a Montessori or Kindercare. We went with Kindercare; they both can go to the same place all day (and could at Montessori, too) but we just got a better feel for Kindercare. They start Monday and we think they'll do really well. I told Mary this morning and she knew of the programs. Her "approving look" when I told her solidified our decision even more.

We found our forever home. For real. It was amazing. Done exactly the way I would have wanted. Then...the lot was too small. The garage won't fit our needs (we need over-sized 2 car or 3 car garage). So God knew what he was doing when I was all sad and mad and furious that we couldn't put an offer in on it immediately...The realtor showing is today at our IA house so hopefully that will increase traffic and "the one" will find us and buy it so we can move forward in WI. We went back and forth all weekend on whether or not to go for two mortgages if we found our forever house (the market is SO FAST up there) but after terrifying number crunching and the like...we're sticking with one mortgage at a time for now. We'll see if that's the case if we're still in this position in 6 months. (please dear GOD I hope we're not).

Now, to get some sleep sometime this week...I'm still waking up super early just to lie there and worry. Pleasant, no?

8 Crazy Days

You know that Adam Sandler song, The Chanukah Song where he talks about 8 crazy nights? I feel like that's been my life x100 (still Morgan's favorite number) the past 8 days.

9 days ago we found out we could move to WI.

8.75 days ago we found out we were going MUCH FASTER than anticipated after receiving my job offer and me accepting.

8 days ago we really started in on the house and haven't stopped since. Updates we'd been talking about taking a year (or less) to do happened in a week.

And tomorrow our "blue house" (as Morgan so affectionately calls it) is going on the market. I can't tell you the anxiety I'm feeling about this, as I'm terrified it won't sell much in the same way it didn't last time we tried this. Last time was for fun. Last time was "because we wanted to."

This time, we HAVE to. We have a new life waiting for us and it's not going anywhere. It's coming at us fast. And while I'm so very eager and excited and THANKFUL to be staying with Adam's folks, I worry that we will be a burden on them and that the longer this goes, the longer we might eventually make things awful. Two dogs and two young kids makes for a fast-paced life which is good for weekends...but not so sure they know what's coming with weeks (and maybe - but hopefully not - months). We are so blessed to have this opportunity with them...we just worry.

We're worried about day care and PreK for the girls but those questions will be answered hopefully after tomorrow's craziness of visits all morning long (and maybe afternoon....tbd). I know they'll adjust and be ok. Thankfully Morgan is old enough to tell us if things aren't going well and Hadley is getting there slowly but surely.

But the house. I'm nervous for the house. We have several in the DePere/Howard-Suamico area we love (via online pics/stats). We would love to avoid 2 mortgages at all costs. We know God has a plan which has been evident by the past 9 days falling into place the way they have after waiting for over a year for this moment in our lives to come. I just wish he could share it a little early sometimes...

So that said, anyone in the Muscatine area who knows of someone looking for a good deal on a great home in a fabulous neighborhood, please send them our way! Wait until TOMORROW (Friday) to have them look online for the house but it's in the Rolling Acres Subdivision (just north off of Hwy 38). It will be listed with Sara Carlson through Ruhl & Ruhl. Thanks in advance and prayers for a fast home sale are more than welcome!

Moving Update

Well, that was an exhausting weekend to say the very least. Adam and I are actually SORE from the not sitting and the work like crazy and the praying so hard and the being so thankful that God put Al and Sherri in our house this weekend (planned in July) to take such good care of our girls while we were worker-bees and not so much parent-bees.

Here's some new info about the WI side of things:

• I finally have an assignment! Lincoln Elementary in Green Bay. Just one school. I can't even begin to understand this, as I am currently in 4 buildings across 3 districts on a weekly basis. I'm eager to see what it's like serving one building although sometimes it's not the worst thing traveling between schools (like when it's sunny and 75). 
• I finally have a start date! My last day at the AEA is Friday, Sept. 6th. I start promptly at Green Bay on Monday, Sept. 9th. Life isn't fun unless it's a little crazy, right? I'm ready and eager to begin.
• We are staying with Al & Sherri (my in-laws) immediately upon arriving to WI. We are going back this weekend (Labor Day Weekend) to check into preschools, day cares, and see a few houses we've been scoping out online. We will come back Labor Day, we'll work til the end of the week, and then back to WI Friday when Adam is done with work. He's checking into his details, but we're pretty sure that's it. We'll officially be Wisconsinites again (well, until our vehicle registrations are due in winter...until then we'll look like tourists). 
• Praise the Lord we're staying with SOMEone in the next month, as Adam travels 3/4 weeks in Sept/Oct. Yikes. That's a lot of time but it's been coming as he hasn't traveled as much lately. 
• Morgan is taking the news slowly. She didn't get too upset when we told her, but the first thing she said was, "But I love this blue house." That was hard for us but we talked through it and encouraged her to talk to us about it ANY time, which she has. Once in a while she brought it up over the weekend and we were open and honest with her that we are a little scared, too, but it's going to be a really good thing overall. I'm working on not getting to specific and wordy with her. We told her she gets to "pick" her bedroom at the new house. This was a fun conversation, as Adam immediately piped up that she can't pick OUR bedroom...which was then the only one she wanted. ;-) We'll be involving her on decisions as we can and have let her know that. 
• We told Mary on Friday. I cried. It was hard. But then Mary said that she has family in Appleton (I'd forgotten or hadn't put two:two together or whatever) and she said that she would love to meet us there whenever she comes to visit. That will help the girls, I think. I'm worried about finding a day care that has someone Hadley's age. Morgan will at least have preschool friends her age...must stop worrying until we know specifics...

 The House in Iowa:

• OMGosh we made great headway this weekend. This would never have happened without A&S being here. We're exhausted and sore but I'd say we're probably 80% done with what needs to be done and praise the Lord for an early out today due to heat at my air condition-less school, as I'm heading home to work on things a bit before picking up the girls. 
• Wednesday, our realtor is coming to review the house for staging and finalize numbers. Thursday she is coming with a photographer for pictures, and the house gets listed Friday. Hopefully prongs of people are doing the exact same thing we are and will see the house in time to check it out all.weekend.long.

 Until next time, please continue to pray for sanity (it's working! thank you! it's not been as bad as it could be!), energy, and fast potential buyers who don't know they are potential buyers yet.

On (to) Wisconsin!

I think I've even titled a post similarly to this already but this time...it's totally different. You know how sometimes people have big news and they blab blab blab it all over the place right away? Well, we're not like that and when the news is big, we get quiet. And we've got big news.

We're MOVING back home to WISCONSIN!

You read that right. After much soul searching, prayers, tears over missed family and friends, and many MaNy  MANY miles traveled back and forth from IA to WI and back, we've made the decision that we need to raise these girls close to their family. Plus, who doesn't love WI? We sure do! Do you want the long story? Here it is...(skip to near bottom for short story)

We always tossed around whether or not we'd go back. We love our life here. We have great friends, I enjoy my job (for the most part), and we adore our daycare provider (understatement of the century). That said, the stress of running all over the place trying to see family when we are visiting WI and then only getting to see them for short snippets of time when we were home (exhausted from all the running around) was getting old. One month we'd say let's go back. The next month, we'd have had a "WI fix" and be good in Iowa. Then back on the WI train...it was a vicious cycle. In April 2012, we finally decided that we needed to have a long talk and pick a path. We couldn't keep doing this "let's go!" and "let's stay!" back and forth and wonder what the right decision was for our family for the next 20 years.

Our path was to get home.

Adam asked his work if he could be relocated to WI (specifically the Green Bay area so he'd be close to an airport AND our families) and do his job in sales from home (not unlike many other sales people in his company). The answer was yes...BUT (there was a sad, sad but) wait a year. They didn't think we'd get a final yes this year but next year (2013) looks much better. We were devastated but hung on. We could wait a year. A. Long. Year.

Fast-forward to summer 2013. We knew the time was coming so I checked into what I needed for licensure to work in the WI school system (I took a slightly different path at the end of grad school so I wasn't ready to just jump in). I needed to take SEVEN grad credits! Bucko bucks! Thank the LORD they were relatively easy credits and are done. We weren't sure on timing and sadly, I had to turn down one offer from an area school district b/c we couldn't give them an absolute yes in time (sadly. I very much liked the district and things they had going on even if it meant a moderate sized commute - hang on though...God was at work).

Then, paperwork I sent to another district didn't make it to the right person (even though I KNOW I put the right info on it). There was a delay. A frantic "did you send it?!" call was made. I sent more paperwork almost immediately after, but first I took a picture of the documents and emailing them to the secretary. I was sort of thankful for the delay - we still hadn't heard from Adam's company and the more time we had, the better. We were really running out of time for me to get a FT school job (the only thing I want right now with these two girlies to raise!).

On Tuesday (08/20) I was just about to go into a long boring training (3 hours!) about new paperwork online that I'd already been trained on in May when I got a text from Adam to call immediately. And just like that, he was approved! And just like that, within hours, the secretary lady from Green Bay emailed me that she'd received my paperwork and did they call with the offer yet? NO, but thanks for the insight! Now go "pay attention" at your 3 hour training that you really don't need even more now...

Then the waiting (again). When are they calling to "make" this offer? Did the secretary lady really have no clue? So we banked on me getting that call soon and had our realtor come over for an assessment Wednesday evening. She was pleased with our updates and gave us some tips on what to do by NEXT WEDNESDAY (fast!). While she was there, it was bath night for our smelly smelly children. I was drying off a somewhat "reluctant" Hadley and my phone started ringing. I was getting a call from Green Bay. I yelled for Adam, was so very thankful our realtor is awesome (Morgan quickly stepped in to keep her busy), and I called them back. Would I accept a position with Green Bay Area Public Schools? YOU BET I WOULD!

So...more waiting. School starts Sept. 3rd in Green Bay. As of writing this, I don't know my first day there and my last day here (did I mention waiting is hard for me?), but I anticipate it's something like last day here is Aug. 30th, first day there is Sept. 3rd, although I wouldn't mind pushing those dates back a week if GBAPS will allow it. Which means that potentially when we go home for Labor Day weekend (as not originally planned), I won't be coming back. The girls and Adam might be coming back to Iowa without me. This makes me sad but will allow me to research/visit daycares and preschools and be more sure/comfortable/less terrified of our decisions there. We are planning to leave IA Thursday night after work and head to WI for day care/PreK visits Friday and house hunting Saturday. Hopefully this all works out...

I'm freaking out about the house not selling. I'm freaking out about what the schools are like in WI b/c I don't have a clue and the politics of it are crazy at the state level right now. I'm freaking out about how sad I am to be leaving such amazing people here in Iowa whom I love and respect and can't even begin to thank enough for who they've been to us the past 8 years while we started our life together here.

And then the flip side. I'm so very eager to start our next chapter. Another Schmidt family in Wisconsin? Sounds pretty close to awesome if you ask me. The girls will get to know their family even better. We'll be able to SEE family members basically whenever we want to (I almost can't wrap my head around this). We'll road trip to MN to see my brother and his family and it will feel like nothing b/c we're not doing it monthly (sorry guys! you know what I mean!). We'll get to know a new cousin in October and more to follow, for sure. We won't be so RUSHED when we see family and they can easily come see us. We can have a village raising our girls that includes their family on a routine basis. So many sad, sad tears will be shed in the coming weeks for those we will miss. It's hard to think of it right now, even. But many happy happy moments lie ahead. Think of this - no special HUGE trip for the girls (and us) to have their grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins attend their events/games/concerts/etc. I don't have to cry anymore thinking that no one besides Adam and I will see the girls' Kindergarten graduation without there being tons of travel involved. Or (omg they're going to grow...) their high school graduation...and beyond.

So on that bittersweet note, wish us luck! We welcome any prayers (especially for my sanity!) as we make this extremely rapid transition to a new life. And don't you worry, sweet sweet Muscatine - Adam will still have to come back for meetings and on occasion, may bring the whole fam by storm! On WISCONSIN!

My favorites

It's almost that time, guys. THAT time. The time when I'm supposed to be super refreshed and excited to start the 2013-14 school year and ready to help anyone and everyone be effective communicators and awesome human beings in general. Guess what. This summer was TOO awesome. It was TOO fantastic, the girls and I had TOO much fun, the bad days were FEW and FAR between, and in general, I very much enjoyed my time home. Here's to hoping that once I'm in the swing of things, my mojo comes back and I'm good to go (I'm sure it will).

That said, I HAD to make a list of my favorites of this summer. There are SO many. Sorry if you get bored. I just loved this summer and so in no particular order, this is why Summer 2013 was superawesomeomggreat.

• I loved holding Hadley on my hip, picking mulberries, and shoving them in her fat baby cheeks while Morgan picked hers from the lowest branches she could find. I know that next summer those Hadley cheeks will be at knee/leg level and not eye level b/c she will be too big to hold that way for long so we've soaked up tons of mulberry eating time already with more to come.
• Our Minnesota vacation was fantastic. And cheap, b/c all the girls wanted to do was go to the (free) beach. And they had their first pontoon boat ride (which was a huge hit). And we got to see Trav & Tab and the girls on our way home. All around awesome.
• We've had fun hanging out at home. We've spent more time in the driveway riding bikes, coloring it, and making general ruckus than ever before. 
• The weather has been nothing short of amazing this summer. There was MAYBE a handful of times it was actually too hot to go outside but otherwise, we were outside at least a half hour (usually MUCH more) every day. 
• The Week* in WI was so very fun. The girls were very much worn out by the time it was time to go home and needed a few days to recoup once there, but it was worth all the time in the car (over 900 miles!! 5 days!! Woah!!). We got to see everyone we wanted and had a fantastic time, as usual. WI = joy. Every time.
• Morgan's activities - swimming, soccer, dinosaur camp. All these things helped her grow as a child and develop even more and she's constantly thinking harder and smarter. She's starting to read words here and there which is very exciting for us. She can sound out simple words and is learning some of the trickier things as we get to new words (like chair is not k-hair). June was overwhelming with all of her activities, but also awesome. It's going to be fun to coordinate everything when they're BOTH busy with this stuff!

I'm going to add more to this list soon, but I have a few things to do while the girls boycott the afternoon nap on the 3rd last day we're all home. Silly monkeys. Poor daddy has them tonight while I have a hair appointment! :-) Good thing they're going to a pool party at the aquatic center to keep them busy. 

*by week, I mean 5 solid, gogogo days which included part of a weekend. not our usual Mon-Sun kind of week in summer

I should probably post at least twice in July...

You guys NO LIE. This summer is flying by and I'm starting to get cranky. What?! Cranky? She gets weeks off (minus a few hours here and there for work but it's almost negligible) and she's cranky? Loser.

Ok, Ok, I hear you but yes! I'm cranky! (and changing my attitude, mind you) I'm frustrated b/c this is the best summer yet with the girls and I don't want it to end. I don't want to do everything full time again. I want to do motherhood FT and work part time. And by part time, I mean like one day a week. Maybe 2. Who are we kidding...one. Just one. I'm loving summer that much.

The girls are great. I can't believe Hadley's already 19 months old and if I was a good plan-ny mom, I'd be considering things for Morgan's FOURTH (omg) birthday coming up in 2.5 short months. But that would mean it's October and I'd be two months into school already. It would be getting cold out. I'm not ready for that either.

I want it to be summer b/c I don't feel like we've had ENOUGH fun. We've had tons! But I want more. MORE. Different kinds. All the time. It's been a month since Morgan's dinosaur camp and we still haven't been to the Children's Museum I promised her weeks ago. (aaannnndddd now we're going this week - let me know if you want to meet us there!) I STILL haven't taken them to the aquatic center in town. We haven't had NEARLY enough play dates. Or picnics. Oh my, this week just got crazy busier. Good thing we have the next two sets of Mon/Tues off, too, or I'd be really sad.

End of Summer Bucket List (b/c I'm too lazy to go get real paper/pen):

• Children's Museum
• Aquatic Center
• At least 3 different play dates (or 5)
• Paint beads and rocks outside
• Feed the ducks again
• Niabi Zoo! One more time!! Train ride too!

Ok, we're going to start with that. With 8 days off (not including weekends) remaining, we have our work cut out for us now. 

In other news, Insanity is going well. We have finished up Week 5 and are starting Week 6 tomorrow. I'm a little nervous - we start a new part of the program and the workouts get a huge step up more intense. And a bit longer. And while I feel awesome, feel like I finally LOOK a little awesome, it's a little daunting to think about this superhardsweatfest getting MORE all of that. I'm looking forward to it - I like the changes I'm seeing and while it's not always transferring to the scale, it's transferring to the mirror which is important too.

Speaking of ... it was our Day Off from Insanity today so I planned to actually USE this day off and not work out (unlike the past few days off when I ran). I told the girls we'd take them to the riverfront for a bike ride/walk and then time at the park there (our usual RF routine). We start walking and all of a sudden every other member of this family decided HA HA HA we are running this one, lady. Dang. Even though it was a very LEISURELY (slow) run, I count it as my reason to have ice cream smothered in homemade fudge (thank you, Adam) with a tiny brownie bite hiding underneath. Winning.

We had a garage sale this past weekend and had major success. We also went to WI for Tatum, Talia, and Teegan's group birthday party so I was lucky enough that Julie (who also had stuff in the sale) agreed to watch it Saturday for us. SO THANKFUL!! Gushing with thankfulness. For real. Or we never would have gotten this done this summer. We simply ran out of weekends. We made a fair amount, sent stuff to Goodwill, and are so glad to get stuff out of our house. We ARE the anti-hoarders. We don't like "stuff" lying around. We don't appreciate clutter (girl toys/items everywhere don't count). I consider it a win that only two of their toys made it back in the house. 

Adam is doing well even though his hip is really hurting him more often now (I can't help but think Insanity is not helping...) and he's likely going to have the MRI and potential scope done this fall. You know, after golf season. Geez...

But now there's ice cream calling my name and I have to go. I heart ice cream especially when I feel entitled to it. Add to the list - eat mac n cheese and hot dogs at least twice for lunch with the girls. ;-)

Cardiology, party of 1

So...we had another health "scare" (scare? it's not like she was rushed to the ER or anything) with Hadley. First there was the neuro scare when she was a teeny tiny infant (did I ever blog about that?) and then at her 18 month well check a few weeks ago, the NP heard a murmur. She had a dr listen and agreed that she heard it too, but that Hadley should be checked out by a specialist.

Fast-forward some weeks and off to the University of Iowa Peds Cardiologist we go (thankfully to the extension in the QCs...I know the QCs better than IA City at this point). (PS. I might have to cut this off b/c I'm going to be Skype-Insanity-ing it up with Adam in Montreal here in about 5 minutes (procrastinate the hell much?).

So Hadley and I got there, checked in, and went straight to radiology for her chest X-rays. It was awful. She didn't get to go in the big bad hold-her-down thing - nope. They had the big bad mom hold her elbows to her ears and not let her move. The whole time she was SCREAMING hysterically and saying my name over and over...I managed to breathe through it and only BARELY cry myself. It was like infant shots for my girls all over again (yeah - I cry for those, too). Thank GOD they turned out fine the first time and we could leave with her Tinkerbell and someotherprincess sticker.

Off to the doctor's office then, which was a LONG wait, but then EKG time (thank you iPhone with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode) and then wait some more. Hadley did well as I had put her down for a later morning nap so she wasn't too bad/tired/crabby. The doctor came in, listened to Hadley, and said her X-ray looked good but it was a bit of a loud murmur and she wanted an ultrasound done.

Lucky Hadley, more TV and even a SUCKER while watching Nemo for her u/s. Long story longer, Hadley has an "innocent heart murmur" which means it's no big deal and we shouldn't even put it on any health forms in the future. Whew. Done. She's fine once again. No neuro issues. No heart issues (although the doctor wants her and Morgan to each have a cholesterol screening done at their next well checks/birthdays b/c of the family history on Adam's side. WOW. Seems early - the doctor was NOT messing around. It sounds like it would have to be super extreme for meds and they don't start them until age 8 if they LCL (is that right?) is to the moon and back. I don't think the girls would be THAT bad but hopefully they get the 50% chance of it from my side (no heart issues). :)

Now that Adam is waiting patiently (ha) for me in Montreal to do Insanity over Skype, I best get up, get my game face on, and go sweat out a gallon. Adios, amigos. Oh, and Hadley's 19 months old today. What.

Insanity

Adam and I are starting the workout program Insanity this week. I bought it through a co-op for CHEAP and we're going to kill it. We've both lost weight since winter but we need something else to help us really feel GOOD. We've heard nothing but good about it (and by good I mean results/it works, not just the 'you feel like you are dying on a routine basis') so we were game when I found it for so cheap. Adam also got P90X2 but I'm only interested in Insanity for now.

That said, the first day is 8 one minute exercises to make up your first Fit Test. Eight minutes my rear...that was yesterday, I sweat like a hog, and I'm sore today. Adam just finished his fit test (he was playing softball when I did mine yesterday) and he's going to do today's workout too....hopefully he isn't a total hot mess (in a bad sense - hopefully he's a hot mess b/c he's sweaty and had a good work out) when we're done. I'm going to stop now and come back after our first "real" work out (plyo circuit) and let you know how much I am almost dead by now. :)

AFTER:
OMG you guys. I can hardly type this. My left lower back hurt before and during the workout it was fine and now it's freaking out man. But it will be ok - my back sucks and right now it's because A) I'm out of line and B) I'm superweakalloveromg. Maybe tomorrow I'll drop by my friend's house so her husband can adjust me (woo chiro husband perk!) and just keep working hard and getting stronger. Either way, peace out, I'm going to go eat, shower, and go to bed. I have to WORK for an hour (with a little drive time) tomorrow before turning back into super taxi mom. Shoot. I still need to figure out what I all need at Sam's...but I have an hour! Who cares!! :)

18 Months!

A few days late. Clearly I'm a blogasaurus lately and am shooting for 3x/month. How sad is that!!? Since she's 18 months, it's imperative that I update her current status!! And all the new things she's been up to lately. She's growing by leaps and bounds developmentally (and somewhat in size....)

• She's 18 months! Next step is TWO. OMG I just fell off my chair but don't worry, the Mac is a-ok. 
• She's finally talking so much more. A few two-worders in there and I swear she's saying, "what this??" A few favorites are "eyes!" (followed by some poking or involuntary glasses removal), "good girl" (in reference to Jessie NOT begging at dinner and lying down like a good dog). Also, she says Morgan but it sounds almost exactly the same as mama. Maybe I should help her say Moh-moh or something? 
• Gross motor - she alternates feet going up the stairs while holding hands. If she only holds one hand, she hangs onto the railing but needs work on her timing. She LOVES to climb ladders at the park and on the home play set outside. She "runwalks" which is the cutest thing ever when she thinks she's the fastest kid on the earth. Hadley swears her soccer skills are just as mad as Morgan's and would like to join Morgan's practices yesterday, please. 
• Fine motor - Hadley's a mad iPad/Pod user now. She loves the apps Coloring Farm/Zoo, My PlayHome, Peekaboo Barn, and whatever else she can get her hands on. On our way home from the zoo last weekend, I gave her the iPod to try to keep her awake so she'd nap at home...and she fell asleep while playing the iPod (reference FB post). It was hilarious. Then I gave her her Nike sandal and THAT kept her awake the rest of the way home WHAT. 
• She loves her daddy when she's with me and she loves me when she's with her daddy. And hands down, this kid has to know where Morgan is at all times. 
• Imitator extraordinaire. She LOVES to do any and everything her sister is doing and it's adorable to watch her try some of what Morgan is doing. Except when she thinks she's big for real and gets hurt.
• Speaking of getting hurt, Hadley will have a scraped (to a varying degree) left knee this entire summer. She gets it almost healed and BAM, rescrape. She then cries for 10-20 seconds and then  wants to go play and bleed. She's a toughie and isn't fearless but is definitely a "go-getter." 

I'm going to add more later but it's late and I need a snack. She's amazing and makes our family whole. They both do. 

The Schmidts take on WI Dells

Happy day-late Memorial Day and thank you, Veterans, for all of your sacrifices to help make/keep our country free. We are forever grateful for that freedom and cannot say thank you enough. (especially my brother, Travis, of whom I shall always be uber proud of for his (and his family's) sacrifices while serving our country.)

For this Memorial Day weekend, Adam and I made the suggestion to his parents and brother/SIL to take WI Dells by storm and have 8.45 Schmidts take over for 3 nights to celebrate the long weekend. Adam and I left work at lunch and made our way into town by 5ish. We had dinner at Culver's to feed the hungry mongrels children and Adam's parents joined us shortly thereafter at the Chula Vista Resort. It was nothing short of awesome and the suite was perfectly spacious to accommodate for our "space using" monkeys. Tom & Carrie got in just before little girl bedtime and fun was had by all.

Saturday, the "big" ladies went right to the outlet mall after breakfast and the guys took the kiddies to the indoor water park at the resort. I scored some major deals including one of  my favorites, a pair of BRIGHT pink Banana Republic cropped pants that you might be able to see 10 miles from where ever I'm wearing them if we're both outside. Oh, and they were $10 instead of the original $60. Win. Oh and they were in my normal size and fit comfortably. WIN. We reconvened over lunch and then the guys went golfing until dinner. After p.m. naps, all the girls went back to the indoor water park (it's frowned upon by my species to swim in 50-60 degree temps outside) where Morgan worked on not being scared  of the slide but LOVED being in the water and Hadley worked on going down the slides only 100 times instead of 1,000. She also became more accustomed to her new floatie and learned that if she keeps her feet up and behind her, life is better. She also enjoyed being "rained on" even though the chlorine even hurt MY eyes after a while.

Sunday came as did the stomach flu for me. Morgan had something going on earlier in the week so it wasn't a shock that somebody got something. I tried to power through it and made it (late, after a nap) to the water park with the rest of the clan in the morning. We came back for lunch where I promptly laid down and tried to down some water, but it wasn't helping. Almost all of us napped and were then set to go to KnuckleHeads but I ended up having to bail. I was really weak/tired/nauseous so I stayed back while the clan went out, had fun, and went out to the Moose Lodge for dinner. I think it was safe to say everyone was exhausted by this point so we stayed in for a quiet rest of the night.

Monday, we were going to go to the WI Dells Deer Park in the morning after check out since the rain foiled our plans Saturday afternoon, but the rain got us again so we had to bail on the whole thing. It turned out to be ok, though, b/c the girls did NOT nap well in the car, both were exhausted, and it was nice to lay them down and unpack/start wash without two adorably needy little beings running around. The dogs were glad to come home and Morgan, sweetest thing ever, asked for a piece of candy for her sister when she was given a sucker at the "puppy hotel." She proudly threw gave Hadley her tootsie roll and then proceeded to hug her til they fell down.

Miscellaneous items of note from vacation:

• I found pink Adidas track suits for the girls to wear next winter for SO cheap (and so cute omg). 
• Hadley is a fish like her sister, with Morgan being a good fish but just a little more cautious.
• Carrie's baby bump is adorable and tiny and I think I looked like her when I was 10 minutes pregnant. Or now. Either way, baby is doing great, kicking often, and trying to convince his/her parents to find out his/her gender and share it with his/her Aunt Liss. I'm not too hopeful. 
• It rained cats and dogs while we were gone. It's set to keep doing so this week. Ugh. Maybe I'll finally have time to go through the girls' dressers/closets and put winter clothes away!? 
• We'd love to make something of an annual/bi-annual tradition of this past weekend. And next year, there will be THREE crazies kiddies instead of just two! Yeah!

Is this the longest?

Meaning the longest between postings ever? Life's busy, people, but it's GOOD. The girls are good, Adam is good, and I'm REALLY good b/c the end of the school year is in sight. There are still many hurdles, but the kid hurdles are mostly done and it's on to big bad adult things like PD plans, IEP training for the new system, "fun" stuff like that. I have a materials making day with other SLPs which usually oozes creativity and productivity so I truly AM looking forward to that day of work in June. :) June 7th comes and I'm a SAHM for the summer! I have to move a 1/2 day to the end of June and be on call for a potential 1/2 day here and there in July but otherwise, it's SUMMER very soon.

Tomorrow we leave for WI Dells to meet Adam's parents and brother/SIL for a fun-filled weekend. We can't wait. In true Memorial Day fashion, the weather is set to be pretty cold (for late May) on Saturday, fair on Sunday, and then get hot as soon as we get home in time to go back to work. Isn't that how it always goes...

You want to know about the girls, don't you? Right? You do. Let's ooze some girlie goodness for a bit, shall we?

Hadley is hysterical. Hadley is sassy. Hadley is rocking potty training and we should be working it harder but sometimes we just forget. While she doesn't ask to go on her own as much as I'd like, she usually tries if we make the suggestion. She loves LOVES her milk, eating, and watching cartoons. Hadley is a crazy FOOL for water outside and plays in the dogs' water outside if all else fails and there isn't a pool/water table in sight. She is going to pee her pants for this weekend and never want to leave ever again. She is starting to make closer approximations to words but doesn't have oodles of words/two word phrases like Morgan had at this age. Since I know her well enough, we're pretty good at communicating, but I've succumbed to the fact that she will talk more in her own time and that her bright little brain is just in the "soaking it up" phase right now. Hadley also loves anything sticks and rocks when we're playing outside. Want to entertain Hadley on a walk? Put 3 fist-sized rocks in her stroller and she'll take turns moving them from one cup holder/space to the other and looking around at all the awesomeness that is nature. Add to the list - Hadley is able to get on the couch all by herself and has fallen OFF the couch no less than 4x this week. She also can successfully show you where her owie is once said child has fallen off the couch. (mother of the year holla)

Morgan has had an icky tummy this week but without signs/symptoms which is SO WEIRD. She's in obvious pain sometimes but as of yesterday, had her "Morgan twinkle" back in her eye again for a while before succumbing to the badness that was her belly. She loves to ride her big girl (two wheeler with training wheels) bike and now rides it to the end of our street and back (while her mom holds her breath b/c there is quite a bit of pea gravel and Morgan's not 100% sure how to work the brakes yet). She's sounding out words she sees but doesn't blend them back together yet. She loves to figure out math things and counting money. She knows that 4 quarters = $1 and that if she wants something, she needs to "earn" it with her chore money. Morgan will do back flips for Pez candy and both girls will die if they don't have dessert after dinner (or so they act). Morgan still loves iPad time but we usually don't have much of it during the week anymore since we're outside if at ALL possible. We have to remind Morgan at least once a day that she's the kid and we're Hadley's parents b/c she would love to be Hadley's sistermom if she could. She still LOVES dinosaurs and is beyond eager for dinosaur camp at the end of June. She also has swimming lessons for 2 weeks straight starting June 10th and soccer starting June 4th. I'm also looking into science camp towards the end of June but I have to make sure it doesn't interfere with Dinosaur camp.

I have to share a funny story about Morgan. Last week was her last week of Sunday School. We went to the late services b/c she earned a Perfect Attendance Award somehow even though we missed a few Sundays b/c of trips back home to WI (they must go by a percentage or something). We gave her a heads up that at some point, they would call her name and she'd go to the front of church to be recognized. Well...I told her it was almost time (they were just about to start introducing people), turned to look at Hadley who was spilling/throwing things everywhere, and when I turned back, Morgan was G.O.N.E. All the way gone. And by gone, I actually mean sprinting to the front of church where she quickly took a spot smack dab in the middle of the steps and smiled at everyone who would look at her. We tried to get her to come back (they were recognizing teachers first) but she "didn't notice." I even motioned for her to sit down (ps we sit in the back with twogirls and their antics) but nope, I'd like to swirl out my dress and pose for everyone, thankyouverymuch. So they went on, introducing teachers while Morgan smiled and swayed. Finally it was her turn and she got her certificate/pin and went back to sit with us like the rest of the kids. Oh, and she sprinted PAST us on her way back. We're so thankful she can provide the comedic relief at church in some way, shape or form almost each week. Other weeks it's dancing in the aisle to the last song which we may or may not encourage b/c it makes us smile and she has friends who join her.

Also (b/c heaven forbid I stop!), I have to say that I LOVE how close the girls are seeming already even though they are so different in terms of play stages/development right now. They freely hug each other. The other day, Hadley laid by Morgan on the couch and Morgan gave her "itches" (when you gently scratch their backs). They are working on sharing as all toys are MINE but when prompted, it's sweet how Hadley will give a toy back (and not so sweet when Morgan freaks out about not having her toy anymore). I hope this continues and they get/stay close. We can't force it, but they are all each other has - like a built in best friend when Mom and Dad are crazy (gasp what?!).

And with that, I head to WI Dells for our much needed family getaway and relaxation. Happy Memorial Day!

Treadmill! TrEaDmIlL!! TREADMILL!!!

Finally. Finally!! I've been wanting a treadmill since I felt motivated to really lose my baby weight with Morgan (you know, when she was like, 6 months old...or so) b/c I feel really tied down with the girls when they're awake and the thought of going to the Y (13-14 minutes away, one way) at night is usually too much for me to handle.

Then Adam travels and I don't have the option to go to the Y while the girls are sleeping (going to the Y while they're awake with just one parent who wants a real workout just isn't a choice for us right now. Hadley needs to be older.).

I know I can do Nike Training Club (which I've loved in the past) and other workouts I've pinned (which I've also loved in the past) but sometimes, I just want to walk. Or run. Or both. Or alternate. All while watching TV.

Enter the Treadmill.

It was funny how it happened, actually. I told Abbie and Sarah in an email one day at work that I really wanted one (old news, I'd said this before). 3-4 hours later, Adam emailed me two treadmills he'd found on Craig's List. Coincidence or amaze-balls huzz/wife connection? Doesn't matter. He's on board.

Two weeks ago, Adam contacted one of the sellers and we set up a meeting. He tried to low ball them (I can write that b/c he admitted it afterwards) and after some compromise, we drove away with a treadmill in the back of his truck with a very happy wife sitting in the front seat.

Fast forward to now and this is why I'm superomginove with my new (to us) treadmill:

• I can walk and catch up on Fashion Star at the same time. 
• I can run and catch up on Fashion Star at the same time. 
• The scale has stayed at my lowest since becoming pregnant with Hadley all week. PS. only 3-4 pounds to go until I'm "at weight" but then it's tone-up time BIG time.
• I can be ugly, not match, and feel connected to the girls while in my house running.
• It's raining outside and I can run/walk.
• It will be snowing outside (hopefully not for a long time!!) and I can run/walk.
• It can be HOT AS BLAZES outside and I can run/walk. 

So needless to say, I love my treadmill. Adam is worried it will become useless fixture in our house. I beg to differ even though I see his point of view. 

So that said, welcome to the fam, Treadmill. I heart you!

A few gems

The girls have been great so far this week and thankfully Tuesday evening was much better than Monday evening overall. We had a picnic supper in the front yard while Maddie and Jessie were rewarded for leaving us alone and given rawhide bones. We played and played outside in the awesome weather (mid 80s at 5:30! 90 earlier!) and then I had a church meeting at 6:30. We had a plan in place and it went about as smoothly as I could have hoped. They sort of watched their DVD, ate their snack, and drank every drop of liquid we brought with us while I tried my best to participate in the meeting. I'm looking forward to another evening outside tonight since it's going to get cold and rainy again for a good stretch. Sigh. I like playing outside in a tank and shorts much better.

I think this is the summer our a/c is going to finally kick the bucket. I'm pretty sure it's as old as the house (which means as old as we are) and it needs to be replaced. Adam's NOT thrilled. Neither am I, but the thought of being in a hot house all summer has me even LESS thrilled. That said, I'm a little thankful it's going to be cooler out the next few days so we're not roastin' and toastin' for a week to come. The girls' rooms were in the low/mid 80s the entire night - NOT ideal sleeping weather.

This evening, Julie suggested we take the kids to McDonald's (like we do when the guys travel sometimes for a change of pace and not having to cook) and I suggested we get it to go and have a picnic at our house much like last night. It went well, we had fun (while Hadley thought she was the funniest kid ever and got too close to the road 1,383,002 times), ate, played in the sandbox, and swung a bit. Bath, snack, bed, and night 3 of Adam traveling this week is complete. It's still hot as blazes in their rooms but the temp changed VERY quickly after bedtime so I cracked their windows for an hour or two to help cool it down. I've had to close some windows already b/c the temp is dropping so fast. Now comes the yucky, cold, rainy weather. Sigh. We really liked the 80s (except when we had to be in the house roasting).

Items of note:
Adam comes home in 2 days (less, actually!).
Sherri booked our vacation to WI Dells today so there will be 8.4 Schmidts storming the city and waterpark Memorial Day weekend! We will be meeting Al, Sherri, Tommy, & Carrie there for a fun-filled weekend. We've been wanting to do this kind of vacation with them for quite some time and we're all eager to go.
24.5 days left in this school year's contract. Score.
One of my students who has stalled out for a long time in speech made HUGE breakthroughs today. I couldn't be more proud of him and was so happy to get his mother's reply email after telling her how wonderfully he had done. I love this part of my job.

Annndddd finally, a few gems to note from the girls:

• Morgan on the way to Mary's this morning: "Mom, I'm not feeling so talky today." Oh. We'll see how long that lasts. 
• Opposite of gem - Hadley's been doing quite well with undies on at home and going on the potty. She does NOT, however, have pooping on the potty down and I got to clean out her first poop undies last night. So. Gross. Diapers are way easier, as hard as that might be to believe. 
• While I was "assisting" Morgan in the bathroom for a #2 trip this evening, she informed me, "Mommies are for wiping butts." Fantastic, Morgan.
• Hadley smiling = gem every time. 

We shall call it ... the Whirlwind.

This is the worst amount of posting in a month I've done since starting this blog. To say that work and home life is busy is an understatement (obviously, hellooooo absenses). This will be a quick catch up, bullet post b/c that's about all I have time for. I anticipate (ha ha, anticipate) there being more time as the school year winds down to blog at night but for now, this is all I've got. So many things...so little time.

To start off, a family bullet:

• We are all SO VERY SUPER EXCITED to be able to welcome the newest Schmidt into the family in ... October 2013!! (LOL forever, not US...) Adam's brother, Tommy, and his wife, Carrie are expecting their first baby in October (great month to have babies!) and we couldn't be more thrilled. Carrie is feeling better with the 1st trimester behind her (or shortly behind her...). They are both thrilled and will make fantastic parents. And I will continue to wear my "best auntie ever" sash until the end of time. ;-)

The One with the Diaper Rash from Hell

• She's 16 months old. I still am sort of struggling with that and honestly, she's getting close to 17 quickly. She was just at the doctor for the worst/longest diaper rash ever. She "shrunk" 0.75" for length (they really need to measure better) and was 22lbs 3oz. Just a little peanut. A hilarious one, however.
• Diaper rash - UGH. We finally took her to the dr on Monday b/c it's NOT going away and it's really awful. She was waking up for diaper changes several nights in a row b/s she was SO sore/uncomfortable with even a slightly wet diaper and TONS of goo/creams to try to make her feel better. She has a few spots that have improved a little but still lots of bad. It's supposed to be markedly better by tomorrow but my hopes are low...she's on steroid cream that's "so strong" she can only have it applied 2x/day.
• Hadley is quiet. And by quiet I mean not spouting words out like Morgan did at this age. I think Morgan was using 2 word utterances by now and Hadley is still mostly repeating words we say, but jabbering ALL the live long day. It's only slightly concerning to me as a mommySLP but I'm working HARD not to compare her to Morgan at this age in terms of talking...they are totally different and Hadley is fine for now. I can't help but think that one of these days she's just going to spit it all out and make leaps and bounds of progress...but at least her receptive language (comprehension) is great so no worries there. Now to get Morgan to be quieter so Hadley can speak up...lol forever. 
• Hadley LOVES climbing. Ladders at the park, steps, etc. She continues to love this. She also has no fear and will go down any slide at the park repeatedly even if she gets hurt doing so (hello, first big fat lip at Weed Park last weekend). 
• Potty training - Hadley is doing well considering we aren't as consistent as we could be. When we get home each night this week, I put her on the toilet right away and then she's diaper-less the rest of the evening until bedtime. She thinks this is hilarious. She's only had one accident and that was our fault. Should make for an interesting weekend...
• Unless sick or covered in hell-bending diaper rash, Hadley sleeps fine and usually until 7am. If she's really tuckered out, she'll push it even later. ::ahem, Morgan take note, ahem::
• Hadley LOVES Diego and pretty much most of the other shows Morgan likes/liked. She "answers" questions when characters pose them and dances with the music all the time. 
• She is still all about babies and her princesses/castle. She also LOVES playing outside and doing whatever Morgan is doing while outside. This includes hitting the (hard plastic) softball off the tee and running to the bases. 
• Hadley is HILARIOUS in general and loves to make us laugh. She walks around with her Easter bonnet from Mary on her head/face and when she slowly/purposely runs into something, we laugh, and she thinks she's the greatest thing since the invention of the pocket-sized cell phone. 
• Hadley can handle a fork with the best of them although sometimes she feels it's much more important to use her hands. NOTE: How do we know that Hadley is enjoying what she's eating? She says "Mmmmmmmmmm" and sort of hums the ENTIRE TIME SHE'S EATING. No lie - meals can sometimes be very loud b/c Hadley is sitting in her chair, stuffing her face, saying, 'mmmmmm' while chewing. It doesn't sound possible but it totally is. Ask her.
• Hadley and Jessie both love sticks. When outside, one of the first things Hadley does is find a stick to carry around. Then Jessie steals her stick. Hadley finds a new one. Jessie eventually steals. Rinse, repeat. 

The One with all the Emotions (that come and go in 2-5 seconds)

• Oh, my Morgan. She's so loving and wonderful but is getting big and doesn't want to be held nearly as much anymore. Mommy sad face. Her vocabulary astounds us, nothing new there, but she's constantly learning new things and remembers them well. 
• She has a new love for her Cinderella doll and her carriage/horse get up the past few weeks. This led us to realize that some of her "unbecoming behavior" is likely stemming from boredom from her current toy situation - meaning we don't have enough toys for her to pretend with...or something like that. She's just outgrown a lot of the toys we have and it's time to beef it up with some big girl toys. Sigh. She's really growing up too fast. 
• Ohhh is this kid emotional. She can be having the best morning, hour, minute and suddenly it's tears and pouting everywhere b/c her Jessie looked at her while walking by (true story. tears.). But I still get the "MOMMMY MOMMMMMMY MOMMMMMMMYYYYYYY" when I pick her up every day and I'll take that emotional side of her every time (except when she makes me a little deaf-er).
• We all continue to love her short hair. It still makes her look way older and is a billion times easier to brush/maintain.  
• Still wants to go to the Family Museum in Bettendorf every day. If only it weren't 40 minutes away and cost a fair amount to get into the awesomeness (but mostly the distance). 
• Morgan LOVES dinosaurs and often pretends about them. Oh! New older kid toy(s) - dinosaurs. Duh. She is going to Dinosaur Camp in June and it can't come fast enough. I'm ordering her some as soon as this post is over. 
• She asks to go to swimming lessons all the time. She is in a 2-week straight class in June right after I'm done with my contract. She's going to love it. 
• We are signing her up for soccer for a summer session. Given how much she loves to run like crazy, we're thinking this might be a great fit for her. She also LOVES hitting the softball off the tee and running to home base (this involves running to the grass line of the neighbor's yard and back to the driveway - longest.base.run.ever.
• Morgan bought the Toy Story I DVD with her "spend" money for her first big independent purchase a while ago. She is currently working on saving $8 to buy the Prince Charming to go with her Cinderella doll. Note: Do no buy it for her. She's trying to earn it on her own. Note: Disney Store - don't hold out on me - you keep that PC doll on sale for the next few weeks. She's really close. ;-)

The One with all the Estrogen

• Still trying to keep up to the tiny army we made. I think I've made decent headway now that they're done being sick for a while, save for the Great Diaper Rash of 2013 and the hacking cough that may render Adam breathless.
• I'm down a bit of weight! I've got 3lbs to go for my OK! weight and 5lbs to go for my WOOHOO!! weight. Finally. Some headway. I'm hovering in/out of the last tens and soon I will hopefully never see the upper tens again. Evah. Now...I need to be more proactive about toning up...
• Loves sitting down after the girls go to bed and vegging out. I do this more than I should. I keep finding reasons not to do "stuff." I need to get over it. So tonight Adam ran first and then I ran (thank you slightly warmish weather and later sunset times). 
• I'm glad the school year is winding down. I'm so excited about most of my students' progress, but at this time of the year, I definitely have a few I'm feeling burnt out on. I love my students...but sometimes I feel ineffective and I'm not sure what path to take next. That's what summer is for - to think about what to do next.....LOL forever, no it's not. It's for relaxing my brain so I can do that thinking in Aug/Sept. Silly...on that note, one of my Kindergarteners told me she named the goldfish she won at the school carnival after me. Mrs. Schmidt the fish. Now that's just plain awesome. 

The One with all the Testosterone

•  Adam is my hero. He is thisclose to losing 20lbs since January unless he already has and didn't say. He's worked his @$$ off for it and looks amazing (well, more amazing than usual since he's always amazing).
• He's traveling a bit more now and gone 2 of every 4-5 weeks. The girls have been good and his traveling is getting a little easier each time in terms of workload...but we still miss him terribly, of course, and would rather he be home.
• Adam and my Dad (who came to visit last weekend) made some serious headway with our mess that was the tree line in the backyard. Dad burned TONS of random branches we had littering the area and overflowed our campfire pit with ashes. Morgan thinks it's the greatest thing that the ashes now look like a volcano after the rain and tells me daily to check it out. 
• He didn't have anything else to add. I'm jealous he can go work out over his hour long lunch, shower, and get back to work in time if that means anything. :) 

So there you have a quick update on the busy bees that live in the Schmidt house. Hopefully you'll see more posts sooner rather than later. Oh! And check out the blog Reasons My Son Is Crying because it's funnier the more pictures you look at.