Because the Birthday Boy Loves Green...

My baby boy is now seven. SEVEN! I am so proud of the young little guy he has become. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't just melt my heart. I asked him the other day if we could just not celebrate his birthday so he wouldn't have to turn seven. "As long as I can still open the presents, we don't need party." Well...that's not how it works. "Then I guess I'll have to turn 7." Ugh. I know he's *only* seven, but I carried him to the bus stop the other day. I'm not going be able to do that for much longer...

 I just love him so much! Just look at that cute little two-year old face of his!

He's been anxiously awaiting his birthday, especially this week, as his presents started arriving from his relatives and stacking up in the corner. I ventured out earlier this week with little C to Toy 'r Us knowing it was going to be a rough trip. She did alright all things considered. There was a lot of reminding going on..."We're here for JP. We're looking for something he will like, not you." Her willingness to not pout through the entire store won her a trip to the pet store to look at the kitties. Win win I would say! Because dad had to go into work early today, I let him only open one present before we managed to scoot out the door for school. (Thank goodness my little sister called *at the crack of dawn* to talk to the birthday boy, or we might have all over slept since my alarm was set for 6pm...)

 I had every intention of getting a really good jump start on his cake yesterday. I baked it first thing in the morning and then while it cooled I took upon the task of painting the ceiling in the dining room. Not all of it, but some of it. But since I did that, I figured I better just go ahead and paint the short wall so we could put the old curtains back up. And you know, the other wall is only a couple feet wide... so by 5:30pm H was cooking mac 'n cheese for dinner. So much for working on the cake. Today was the deadline and JP was already asking about it at 7:30a. Such a procrastinator I've become. I remember when I'd start cakes on Tuesday to be done by Friday night! C tested her patience by holding spatulas and beaters and later danced her Barbie dolls around the kitchen while I she tested my patience. I finished it up with 15 minutes to spare - just enough time to dust off the powdered sugar and walk to the bus stop to get H, JP, and one of JP's new friends.

He misplaced his glasses somewhere in the house last week and we've yet to find them. He looks so young without them on! You knew he was going to have a green cake, right? He's that predictable. A couple weeks ago I realized we hadn't had the "birthday cake chat" yet. He rolled his eyes and knowingly said, "A lego cake, of course." Of course... I made H a lego cake for his 6th birthday, but yeah, we'll do legos again. As his big day neared, he made it known that he specifically wanted a Lego Ninjago cake, but didn't specify which one. I should have messed with him and made the blue or yellow one. 

I resisted and made Lloyd. I gave him yellow hands at first but his hands were struggling to stay up (you know since I procrastinated...) so I switched it up and used black. He looks a little more Ninjago-ish with the change. 

Though we didn't originally plan it, we had an impromptu sleepover with his friend. I didn't realize it until it was bedtime, but this was our first sleepover! JP has been to a sleepover before (I don't think HD has though...) but we've never had the opportunity to have a friend stay the night so the boys were extra excited about that. Getting three boys settled down for bed is no easy task, but we conquered :) They seem pretty excited about puffy pancakes for breakfast!

Super Bowl Sunday Highlights

My kids have been anxiously awaiting this day for weeks now - mostly because of all the snacks we have out to eat, but hey, family time is family time. I was somehow blessed with a husband who is a fan of the Patriots, and I, being his loving wife, always, ALWAYS, cheer for whoever is playing against them. It keeps it interesting. Unfortunately for me, every team I cheered for during the playoffs lost, so it was only fitting the Falcons would lose too. I'm hoping this losing streak I'm on doesn't carry over to the Lions' next season!

Aside from the ups and downs and cheering and screaming from our Super Bowl "party", we had a fairly mellow day. We finally had a weekend free of commitments and temper tantrums. (Yes, I had a rough weekend last week trying to decide what color to paint the living room. It's such a hard choice when your husband is color blind and you yourself are indecisive!) I had spent this past week painting the walls with the little energy I could muster up, and sleeping the rest of the week away. My energy levels became so predictable that my 3 year old was asking me when I was going to lay down for a nap.

I'm not staying up any later than I normally would and I'm not getting up extremely early. I get a solid 8 hours of sleep each night, but by 1:00p I'm so done with the day. It's terrible. I'm starting to wonder if I might be displaying a few signs of depression or if it's a problem with my thyroids. I just want to feel better overall, but I also don't want to jump to conclusions, since I did just move here. I wouldn't say I feel lonely, just unmotivated to do anything. I'm surprised I didn't put off painting the living room longer than I did...

I am happy to report that today was a better day overall for me though. We had plans to go to church at 9:00a, but we didn't get out of bed until after 8:00a so we opted for the later service. I spent some of my free time on Saturday searching for churches in our area to check out. I stumbled upon Crossroads Community Church and after some reading, I decided we'd check that one out first. A huge plus that it was in an area of town I was some-what familiar with. My hubs cooked breakfast for our crew while I finished getting ready to go. Life-saver! I wasn't expecting the church to be so big, but it also has a school on the same campus so that made it feel much much bigger. Both boys contained their excitement when they walked into the kid's gym and saw a bounce house. Inside their little heads I knew they were screaming! The younger kids were broken up into classroom by their age and my little girl was like a magnet to the play kitchen they had in there. All three kids said they are excited to go back. That's a win right there! Hopefully that means no more whining when the word "church" is said.

I enjoyed the sermon too, but I'm a little hesitant to jump to claiming this church as "mine" because of the size. I don't want to be another face in the crowd so to speak. I can clearly see why it's so big though, I mean, like I said, I enjoyed the sermon, and it was obvious the Pastor was enjoyed by many. They're in the middle of the book of Daniel - this week he was speaking on the multi-metallic statue Nebuchadnezzar had dreamt about from chapter 2. His sermon revolved around the idea that God knows our future before we even do. That really resonated with me as I kept thinking back to early this summer when I confessed to my sister how I felt I was ready to move and start a new chapter in my life. Over and over my Hubs kept asking me about jobs here and there and I was always overcome with anxiety at just the thought of him applying. This time around, regardless of everything else that was going on in my life, I just felt at peace with him applying and going through the motions to earn a higher position. I was confused as to why the thought of staying where we were caused so much stress and grief to develop inside but moving, which is supposed to be very stressful, caused the opposite feelings. I felt good about it and so I realized this week that God was just preparing my heart this past summer for a new adventure. He knows the path I'm supposed to be taking, that's why moving never felt right - it wasn't His timing.

Now I'm here in the house I cried in when we toured it 4 months ago. I felt guilty for wanting to take a nap after returning home. Perry is constantly on the go doing something productive and I'm over here barely able to keep my eyes open for 5 hours. I powered through the afternoon, and with some help from the kids, managed to remove wallpaper from a small wall in the dining room. It's ready for paint now but the ceiling needs a little love first. I finished up just in time to see former President Bush being wheeled off the football field.

I'll tell you what though, wallpaper removal is not for the faint of heart! I'm seriously considering painting over it on the long wall in the dining room... There is two different patterns of wallpaper going on, and it took nearly two hours to remove one PANEL of it. That's like a 1.5'x9' strip. And we have 50? more feet of it to remove...I don't know if I want to invest that kind of time...

Have We Been Here a Month Already?

Where oh where did January go? Our first week settling in was chaos. Unpacking boxes and so much painting! We had a couple days to get settled and get the ceiling painted in the livingroom and the master bedroom before the carpet arrived. I couldn't wait! Gail had four encounters with tack strips on her feet. I think I might have had five. Just as soon as it was installed (with H's help!) we had Perry's sister + husband + daughter as well as one of Perry's friends + wife + son join us for New Year Eve get together. 

This was the first year we allowed the boys to *try* to stay up until midnight. JP passed out on the floor around 11, and H barely made it to see the ball drop. I continuously poked at him for ten minutes to make sure he saw the ball drop. Hubs konked out shortly there after. Gail might have made it until 10:30p. 

 The next afternoon we took a drive south and wandered around the Pearl District in Portland until we found Powell's Bookstore. So many books! I'd love to go back when I have more time. 

Just a couple days later, I took the boys to their new school, which looks like one of our high schools to get them registered. There is approximately 800 students compared to the 350 students they were used to... And every form had an English version and a Spanish version. I think about half the staff is bilingual. Hubs and I took them to school on their first day so we could meet their teachers. Unfortunately Ms. Gail was hacking up a lung so Perry stayed with her in the car. I briefly met JP's teacher before leaving him with her and wandering off with HD and his teacher. 

The next morning they rode the bus. Mornings are a little rougher now that they leave the house 45 minutes earlier than they used to. Luckily if we have a slow going morning, Perry can take them to school half an hour later when he leaves for work. That might be a common occurrence... Before we could get back into the routine of school, we were hit with a massive snow storm.

 8pm vs 11pm vs 8am

 School was cancelled Wednesday - Friday. We had about 16'' come in a matter of about 12 hours. All of our trees were drooping with the weight so Perry spent the day knocking snow off trees and shrubs. 

 Somewhere under there is a demolished reed bush-thing. 

 The kids had so much fun playing in the snow. Unfortunately we didn't anticipate getting any snow while we were here so we left all the sleds at Nanny's house. Not that we would have had any room for them in the car...

 JP spent an afternoon having a contest (with himself) to see who could make the biggest snowball. Him or....? HD spent his time eating snow. 

 Our deck has some kind of plastic covering it and with all the snow on top, the beam in the middle was starting to bow so Perry spent several hours pushing all the snow off with some kind of device he made. 

The sunsets were unreal though!! SO pretty! Check out that tree line though...we've got some trimming to do!

 Let's see, other happenings in January include Ms. Gail being her fabulous self and HD and I having handstand wars. JP has been working diligently working on putting his collection of puzzles together (and staying up too late to do so!)

 We also took a little drive to the north to celebrate our cousins/niece's 2nd birthday. H took great pleasure in helping making popcorn in their mini-vintage machine. It reminds me of my days as a popcorn girl at the Hi-Line Theatre.

My neighbor and I also ventured into Portland the other day to check out the Fabric Depot. The store is about an acre in size and there is so. much. fabric! I decided I was going to try to make this sweater and since she's into making clothes, she said she'd help! Mine is going to be a burnt orange color. Just as soon as I get all my sewing stuff set up...

In the meantime to fill up my days, Ms. Gail and I have been spending our time working on the livingroom - removing wallpaper and painting. We spent several days unpacking boxes to organize my "office" closet. I'm also happy to report I'm getting really good at starting a fire! I've never had to do it before. I'm also anxious to get our taxes done... I'm awaiting three more forms and then I can file. I'm not going to lie, money is tight right now. Between having an old thermostat, an ancient water heater, and original windows from the 70's, it's costing a TON to heat this place. We're working on upgrading things, but without the funds it's a never-ending cycle. 

So while I still have a little bit of motivation left, I need to a) find my coffee and b) re-start the laundry. Here's to a grand February filled with more blog posts and more coffee!