And that's why I shouldn't...

blow the snow with our snow blower.

So...the hubs is out of town enjoying the Caribbean and all its 85 degree weather (waaa, he's working...whatever. It's still tropical.). BAM! Insert 7-8" snowfall here while single parenting two kids and two dogs.

I was GOING to blow the snow the night it happened, but it was so very windy that the drift that had formed would only get worse through the night so my genius brain said, "Of course! Get up early! You'll remember how to blow the snow (from running it two years ago) and you'll be greaaaaaaat!" So that's what I did.

In fact, I WAS a genius and got it started pretty much right away. I blew a Highlander-sized hole through that drift (the rest of our driveway was bare b/c of the wind - woo!) and made it to work on time. It's ok - you don't have to call me awesome to my face. You can just think it.

So the evening happens, the girls are in bed, I'm iMessaging with my BFF (b/c that's what we do), and I finally get out in the freezing cold (and windy again, mind you) to blow the rest of the drift. I of course had to fix the (not straight) sidewalk path our good Samaritan neighbor made for us with his snow blower.

Weeeeelllllll, it turns out it's hard to see with blurry, watery, snowflyinginmy eyes and I missed the sidewalk. I ended up on the (frozen) mud a bit and voila. I'm as done as done is going to be. I head up to the house, turn off the blower, only to have the dogs CRAWLING up my legs, terrified.

Beep. Beep. Beep. I hear what they hear. They think they are being shocked (remember the electric fence we had laid on the yard last week? They KNOW it's in) by the beeping sound on the box it's connected to in the garage. I rip Jessie's collar off, (Maddie's too scared to wear one right now) and unplug the box as fast as my frozen fingers will allow (which is slow. very slow, especially with 50# dogs crawling up me trying to be held.).

Finally I can think. It wasn't beeping when I came OUT...now it's beeping...NOOOOO. I totally severed the line when I did my off-roading snow blowing adventure. Wait! I'm not electrocuted! A miracle!

So now the Invisible Fence people get to come put it back together (splice?) on Monday. Broken before it's even in the ground. I wonder how much that will cost.

No, we can't fix it ourselves b/c it will void the warranty. Special, huh?

And that, my friends, is why I should be the one inside making hot chocolate (drinking wine) and HE should be the one outside running the machinery. From Jamaica. Yah mon.

Hadley the Two Year Old

And then the baby one turned two. TWO. She's two already and loving every minute of it. Hadley highlights commence (and sorry, baby, when you read this a month late when you're big. once you move an entire family/household across the Midwest in two phases months apart, you'll understand).

• Our little talker - she's now using 2-3 word sentences that are getting longer every day. It's nice that she's really caught up on her language now - we understand her more, she's frustrated less, and we all laugh at the hilarious things she comes up with.
• Our little stinker - she's still up to no good often and loves to be the sassy one. She's the one we'll find egging Morgan on until she "pops"...but she's a good egg, too, and isn't fully sassy, if I do say so myself. Adam may disagree sometimes. ;-)
• She likes:
• babies. toy and real.
• her baby cousin, Calvin. She will kiss him no less than 1,239 times in 10 minutes if allowed to do so while leaning on his tiny baby tummy (if unsupervised).
• her big sis. No wait - she LOVES her big sis. They play together all the time and Hadley will do almost anything Morgan tells her to (at this point - another short-lived gem, I'm sure).
• the McDonald's play land, especially the one by our new house with the giant slide she and Morgan go down together (and even alone sometimes! big girl!)
• SLEDDING. We have a GINORMOUS sledding hill a few blocks from our house. this kid is afraid of nothing and as soon as the tube stops (with the parent sitting under her), she jumps off and waddles her padded self directly straight back up that mountain.
• her Grandpa Al. It must be a second-born bond or something. They are in cahoots at all times. Got an owie? If Grandpa Al is there, mom/dad might as well not exist.
• tickles. she'll tell you she doesn't want tickles but she's lying and actually means she wants more.
• to eat. She eats fairly well and if it's a soup she loves, she'll devour it and beg for more. Favorite foods include mac 'n cheese and hotdogs, my chicken noodle soup, white cheese shells, kilbasa (love it when she says this - BASAAAA), popcorn, clementines...she's a good eater.
• Her stats at her 2 year well check were great! She was 26.4lbs (50s for percentile?...can't remember) and 35" tall (80th percentile!! Woah growth!). She's still easily fitting in 2T clothes so it will be interesting this summer, unless she has another growth spurt, of what she's going to wear...Morgan was in 3T during her 2 y/o summer so we might have to revert back to last year's 2T clothes that were big on her.
• She has discovered the word "no" loudly and clearly but will usually be talked into what we need her to do eventually. She has a mind all her own and a free spirit who knows exactly what she wants.
• Hadley loves to dance. She dances anywhere to any music. She also quickly catches on to lyrics of a song and was singing one in the car this morning I didn't realize she had learned. She's also singing one about a bus and very clearly knows what she's singing even though the rest of us have no clue other than this "song" is triggered any time we talk about/see a school bus.
• She's been having a hard time going down on the first try the past week or so. She stands and yells MOM! DAD! (like that - like a big kid) and then won't tell us what she wants. We're trying to go super nanny on her and just lay her back down, cover her up, and leave. I hate that. I would rather snuggle her but then I'd be in her room until 9pm and that's not cool.
• Old news, but she's totally potty trained during awake hours. She's dry about 1/3 of the time she wakes up from naps, depending on how long they are. She's getting "driER" overnight, but we're a ways off from that and that's totally ok with me.
• We kept her in her crib for the moves and in a few weeks, we'll transition her to a toddler bed although something tells me this independent little girl with a mind of her own will not make this as easy of a transition as her older sister did for us... ;-)

Our little Hadley keeps us busy and entertained for sure. She snuggles us and makes so many people smile. We love her like crazy and are excited about the big kid she's growing into. Happy 2 years old, Hadley Elizabeth!

Aaannnnnndddd we're back!

So. Behind.
But so many amazing things!
I will be back to chronicle December 2013 at some point, including a "Hadley turned 2!" post (because she's an awesome big girl now - who are we kidding - she's still my baby) and try to get some pictures posted of what's "finished" in our house. Right now that would be ... the kitchen. I think I can safely say the kitchen is done except for decorating and even that won't be much because there are more cabinets than wall space by far (opposite of the Iowa house). The girls' rooms are done too, except for decorating, curtains being up, and blinds in Morgan's room.

But for those we didn't talk to over the holidays, we've settled in nicely, we're still "roughing it" without blinds in the master bedroom or Morgan's room (they should be done this week, early next week hopefully!), but we can fully function around the boxes that are immediately visible and are very much enjoying our new home.

Highlights:

• We LOVE that the girls can play in their rooms without supervision. At the Iowa house, their ages and distance (an entire flight of stairs that made hearing them without a monitor almost impossible) didn't allow for independent play in their own rooms. And they're suddenly playing so nicely together...ah, the joys of 2 and 4 (I know this is temporary but for now we're choosing to love it).
• Kitchen. My kitchen. The end.
• Proximity - we're relatively close to everything and when we found Calvin this referee outfit he HAD TO HAVE, we could drop it off on our way home without a bat of an eye. LOVE!
• So many more but I must move on for now. :)

Lowlights:

• OMG Is it January 10th yet? We can't wait for the dogs to have their electric fence (it comes Jan. 10th, see?) so they can go outside unsupervised. It is SO COLD and let's be honest - we hate taking them out on leashes.
• Cold. Ok, I get it, it's winter, but I'm CRINGING at the thought of the HIGH on Monday being -10. (did you see that big fat minus sign!?) And almost daily it's been going down a degree. Someone said -14 for the high and I almost fell off my chair. No. No school Monday. Please dear Lord no school on Monday for the very sake that I'll freeze to death.
• No other ones! Just whining about the cold we're all experiencing!

I'll get back to such things as Hadley turning two soon...for now, Happy New Year 2014!

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...