Bella, Gabe and Josiah

You know those times when you really want to "What on earth is going on???" because the amount of crazy things going on are just a little too much to handle?  That was this week and I'm not even sure how to process it all. Sunday started with getting some life-altering news about someone that we care about.  Just as we were starting to wrap our heads around that, on Tuesday we got some more life-altering news about a different person that we care about.  Either one of these situations would be enough to make my head spin, but doing them both at the same time has been a little crazy.  On top of that, the realtor came over with her interior decorator to talk about some new strategies to try and sell our house, one of which is going to involve a lot of work.  Well, it's going to involve a lot of work for Pat.  My job will be to keep the kids out of the way, which will be a bit easier.  But we're both a little jaded from the whole process at the moment, so talking a

Coming home from camping is always a little rough. Luckily, we had a low key afternoon planned which involved napping, laundry and playing around the house. I pulled out a train set that a friend had given me and suddenly Gabe had a new favorite toy. He was also pretty sure that he needed to watch some Blippi. I was planning to go on a run, and Pat told Gabe that they could watch Blippi together while I was running. So Gabe found me and told me that “Mommy you can go running now! Daddy and I watch Blippi!” Once I was dressed he told me to “put on your running socks and shoes that look like Gram.” (Gram and I have the same shoes.) He even tried to put my shoes on my feet for me. Apparently he really wanted to watch Blippi! (Last week Daddy told him that they could read a story but then he needed to go mow the lawn. They finished the story and then Gabe said “Daddy now you go mow the lawn!”) Then last night I was upset about something and was crying and telling my mom every

We went camping this weekend. It was the first time that the four of us have been camping just us (and both kids were convinced that Gram, Gramps, Uncle Seth, Auntie Katilyn and Bryson should have come with us...), but we had fun all by ourselves. When we showed up on Friday it was raining. Luckily we didn’t need a fire for dinner and we spent the evening in the warm cabin reading a family book.  Saturday morning it was raining a bit, but that’s par for the course around here. It quit mid-afternoon, which meant that we got to hang out by the fire for a long time. Gabe and I started the morning by exploring the woods around us. That’s when we saw Bear #1. But we can’t let a little bear get in the way of our fun, particularly when I watch him wander the other way. “Hi Big Truck! Hi Little Truck!” My boys, drinking their morning coffee. After breakfast, we decided to go for a walk. Bella stayed at the cabin because she was really into her book and spe

The problem with trying to sell your house is that at any given moment, the realtor can call and tell you that someone wants to look at your house the next. While this is good (since people aren’t going to buy your house if they can’t look at it) it also means that all of your evening plans go out the window because suddenly you need to clean... This had happened twice this week. On Tuesday Pat was out of town for work and I was excited to put the kids to bed and then have the rest of the evening all to myself. Nope. We had a showing on Wednesday, so my Tuesday night was spent cleaning. Then last night we were running around crazy trying to do all the prepwork for this weekend...while also making sure that the house was spotless for a showing this morning. Needless to say, the run that I needed to go on did not happen... But such is life... And that’s pretty much how my week has gone. We’re getting into the swing of school and as much as Bella is not happy about being in schoo

School has officially started! And somehow Bella is now in 7th grade. I have no idea how that happened... She wasn’t thrilled with me, but I took the regular first-day-of-school picture: Gabe wanted a picture too, but he insisted on taking it “wif my broom.”

“Mommy can I have coffee? The green coffee that no have straw and no have lid. The little tiny one.” Sure kid. (Don’t worry, it’s water...) ——————————- Every day when we walk to school we pass the parkin garage and Gabe insists in climbing up here to say “Da Da Da Hello Hello!” So he can hear the echo. If we walk on the other side of the street, he insists on going back so “I can Da Da Da.” Every once in a while there are “peoples” in the garage and that throws him off so badly that he’s shy and quiet until we get into school. ———————- Gabe has started bringing a toy or two in the car with him. This has led to some interesting conversations. One day this week he had a rubber ducky and an excavator. G: Mommy, the duck is crying! M: Why is the duck crying? G: Because the excavator is squishing his head. Uh, I think that’s a good reason for the poor duck to be crying. Last night he had his purple helicopter. I’d promised him a trip to the library whil

This weekend was my dear husband’s birthday. He doesn’t really care much about birthdays, but I think that’s ridiculous and choose to celebrate anyway. On Saturday night, we got dressed up and went out to dinner. I don’t have any pictures of us because apparently I only take pictures of the kids anyway. But even though we have no pictures to prove it, we still had a lovely dinner and it was nice to be away just the two of us. Sunday was his actual birthday. I hadn’t had the chance to get the kids to sign the card, so when Gabe got up, I told him to come into my bedroom. Then I told him that it was Daddy’s Happy Birthday and he got so excited that he immediately tried to run out the door to tell Daddy Happy Birthday. Luckily the door was shut, so I could keep him inside. I gave him the card and a pen and he spent 10 minutes coloring all over Dad’s card, while saying “J P M O...” He doesn’t know which letter is which, but he knows what letters are. Gabe spent the rest of the

This last weekend was Community Day at camp. Pat had lived in this town since before Bella was born, but he had never been out to camp. (That’s what I get for marrying a Valley Boy...) I’ve been looking for a way to take him out there for years, but I just haven’t been able to make it happen. So when I found out it was Community Day, we definitely had to go. Friday night we told Gabe we were going to camp. His eyes got big. “I go to camp with Bella on the bus???” No, we’ll drive. “I go to camp with my Bella and my Mommy and my Daddy???” I think he was disappointed that we were just going for a few hours, not spending the night... It was the perfect day to be at camp. The weather was amazing, lots of good people were also out there and I even ran into the man that was the director of the camp when I was a camper. Our first stop was the horses. Bella wanted to find the horses that she knew from camp and I was surprised to find that one of the horses that I remembered from

The other day, I walked to pick up Gabe and I noticed a leaf on the ground. I started thinking about how last year Gabe insisted on picking up a leaf every day. He was so proud to carry around his “fowler” and then he would sit on the carseat and pull it apart. It made me sad that he’s growing up. Then I got to school and all of these were in his cubbie. Clearly he still loves collecting leaves...

Saturday Pat and I were going to go fishing. Gram was planning on staying with the kids so that we could have the day out on the water by ourselves. Well, us and Dick, that is. However, the weather report looked terrible for Saturday with crazy wind and seas, so fishing didn’t happen. Instead we had a slow day at home, catching up on cleaning, shopping and relaxing. It was just what we needed. On Sunday, the weather was great, so we headed out. Bella wanted to come too, which surprised me, as fishing isn’t her favorite thing. But if she wanted to go, we weren’t going to say no. Gabe has been talking about fishing for awhile, so I was sure that he’d want to come. But when I asked if he wanted to go fishing or spend the day with Gram, he decided that “I want spend the day with my Gram.” So instead of fishing, he went to church, fed the ducks, visited the fish hatchery and took a super long nap. The other three of us spent the day on the boat with Dick and Gramps and I think