Making a house a home

Well, it appears that we're finally buying a house here in California! We've been at it now for months. You wouldn't think that in the current economic situation where so many people are trying to sell their homes that it would be that hard to actually buy one...au contraire, mon frere! We've had a heck of a time. The very first home we saw when we started our search was perfect...until we found out it already had an accepted offer. We found another great home but were outbid. We visited house after house only to be disappointed that we couldn't seem to find a house that had all we were looking for. We finally reconsidered one home, decided it would work and put in an offer...only to find out that the owner had decided to take a loan modification and was no longer selling. We visited more houses followed by more disappointment. Then we found another "perfect" home; it was really special. We placed the winning bid and the owners accepted our offer and the paperwork headed off to the bank. Then, however, we received an e-mail from the realtor asking us to back out of the deal as the current owners had decided to take a loan modification to try and save their home. Aaarrgghh! I feel that God has a plan and it appears that he does. After spending part of last weekend looking at more houses, on Sunday, the very first house that we looked at in this comedy of errors popped back up on the market. The other deal had fallen through and so we grabbed our realtor and put in an offer....and it was accepted! Yeah!! So, we've spent the last week getting a house inspection done and meeting with landscapers as there's an HOA requirement that the backyard be professionally landscaped. If everything continues to go well we should close around the 1st of May. Hopefully, we won't run into any more snags! As I can't post without a picture, here are a few shots of Lauren taken by my very talented friend Ms. Tracy Cook.

Top o' the morning to ya!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our little leprechaun!

The Thrifty Hat

I've been looking everywhere to find a hat similar to this one in the picture above. I finally found this one at the flea market of all places (it was new)....and it was only $3! I also found a few other photo props for a total of $18. I was so excited as I felt these "treasures" that I carted home had mucho potential. Doug, however, has given me three weeks to use 'em or lose 'em. I guess they do look a little worse for wear. So, I'll need to get busy taking pictures with them. Look for some new shots soon!
Side note: Some of you have asked me how I get my pictures to show up in a larger format here on blogger. I am terribly unsavvy when it comes to computers but I played around with this until I figured it out. First of all, you need to have a template that supports it. I think I have the lefty stretch. After you've uploaded your photos, select the "Edit Html" option next to "Compose" in the upper right hand corner of the posting box. Then it's just a matter of doubling the numbers you find there. There will be four numbers you'll need to work with. Change the 10px to 20, the 400 px to 800px, double the height, and finally s400 to s800. Hope that helps!

Waitin' for a train

A thousand miles from home and waitin' for a train...

Conversations with the Peanut Gallery

Anna pulled out the tube of chapstick and said, "I'm going to chap my lips.". After she put it on, she said, "Okay, my lips are chapped."

Listening to Bob Seger singing "Night Moves" on XM the other day, Lauren asked, "Why does he keep saying "Guy-Fu"?" I guess "night moves" sounded like "guy-fu" to her.

Anna heard me telling Doug that I was worried Jacob might be getting cradle cap. "What's cradle crap?", she asked.

The girls were reciting a nursery rhyme the other day. It went like this: "Jack be numble, Jack be quick!".

We were discussing buying a new bed (headboard, footboard and frame). Anna asked, "Can it please be mine? I'm the only one without a head."

On the way to Monterey, Anna kept asking, "Where are we going again? Canada?"

Once we arrived in Monterey, Lauren started singing a song about being so happy to finally be in "Mon-te-pay".

In the hotel early Saturday morning Doug and I were talking about what we were going to do that day. Anna sat up in bed and said, "Could you guys please keep it down? I haven't had a dream yet and I'm trying to dream about mangoes."

Driving from Target back to our house, Lauren saw some construction work.

L: What's that for?

Me: They're building a new road.

L: Why?

A: So people can get to the pool easier. (The construction is right by the neighborhood pool.)

Me: Actually, they're building a bypass. Lincoln is too busy and this new road will route people around Lincoln.

A: God made too many people, right?

Me: Well....

A: Does God make people or do people make people?

Me: God plays a big role in it.

A: And I thought Daddy put the bones in there.

L: Is Nandy with God? (Nandy is their great-grandfather who passed away a year ago.)

Me: Yes, he is.

A: I miss Nandy. He was a good fellow.

Anna kept interrupting Lauren when she was trying to talk. Lauren yelled at her, "Anna, stop that! It's so fus-tur-ating!!"

Anna's class had to draw a picture and write a sentence about what they would do if they were elected to be President of the United States. Anna wrote, "If I were President, I would wear a sparkly dress and pick flowers."

What's the idea of messing up my boy?

Have you guys ever seen the "Tom and Jerry" cartoon where Tom keeps dirtying up Tyke, Spike the bulldog's little son? I think it's the funniest thing when Spike asks Tom, "What's the idea of messing up my boy?" I think I need to start asking Doug the same question. He keeps giving Jacob a "pitot tube" (basically a tube that serves as an aircraft's speedometer) or as Lauren calls it a "peanut tube". I had just given Jacob a bath last night and he was all nice and clean when I handed him over to Doug. I went to bathe the girls and when I came back I found him looking like this....

Notice the little spike on top of his head. He reminds me of a kewpie doll I had when I was little. Doug has done this same thing to each of our children. I'll have to go back and see if I can find the pictures of the girls with their pitot tubes as well.

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean...

After the lack of photos the day before, I really wanted to get some pics of the kids. We headed down to the beach at Carmel where it was so cold! I managed to bribe the girls with promises of a treat if they would cooperate with me. They "said" they were cooperating but it didn't seem like that to me. Here are a few shots, anyway.

Remind me again why we don't live in Monterey???

Doug surprised us this weekend with a last minute trip to Monterey. Every time we visit the area, we leave asking ourselves the question: "Why don't we live here?" We both really love Monterey and Carmel. I wish we were closer so we could stop by more often. When Doug asked if I was interested in heading out that way, I immediately started thinking about the pictures I wanted to take. We were up bright and early Saturday morning and I had a photo plan. We drove to Carmel and I started taking pictures of some of the cottages there. In the back of my head, I have this idea for a "fairytale" photo book that I want to do with the kids. I envision Lauren and Jacob dressed as "Hansel and Gretel" standing in front of a little cottage peering in through a window. I wanted to see if I could find the cottage I see in my head in Carmel in real life. I had only taken a handful of pictures, literally 5 minutes worth of photos before the complaining began.
A: "Mommy, this is not fun. You said we were going to have fun."
L: "I want to see the parade. Where's the parade?"
A: "We drove all this way and we're not doing anything I want to do. This isn't fun."
L: "Where's the paraaaaaaade?" (I have no idea where she got the idea there was going to be a parade.)
A: SIGH....(followed by the quivering lip.)
L: SIGH. I want to see the stupid parade.
Me: "Okay, enough. I give up. Let's go to the park."
Girls: "Hurray! We're going to the park!!!"

So, we left and drove the 3 minutes to the park. This is what I turned around to find once we arrived.

We waited for a few minutes. They didn't wake up so we turned around and drove back to Carmel. I took about another 5 minutes worth of photos and they woke up again. I didn't get a chance to find the perfect cottage but I had several others mapped out that I didn't get to see. Here are a few pictures of some of the places we did find:

We headed out to the park where the girls finally got to "do what they wanted to do". After a nice lunch down on the water, we took everyone to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which was a HUGE hit with the whole family.

Reflections

Here comes the sun...and the ladybugs!

The sun finally appeared again today. Along with it came a plethora of ladybugs...much to the delight of my ladybug lovin' children. We even managed to find a ladybug egg cluster just as the ladybug finished laying it on the wall. The girls were very excited and Lauren told Anna, "The ladybug wanted to have her eggs because her water broke!".

Ladybug Mommy...

Ladybug Babies ...

My baby...

..

Jacob and the ABC's

For some reason Jacob thinks the ABC's are just the funniest thing. They always bring a smile. The camera is a bit shaky because I'm busy motioning to the girls to get them to stop saying "Poop and Pee" in the background. Little stinkers.

How It All Vegan

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Then God said, "Let there be herbivores (or in this case macaroni 'n cheese-ivores) and there were herbivores.

Then God said, "Let there be carnivores and there were carnivores.

Then God said, "Let there be milk-ivores and there were milk-ivores.

Or something like that.

Well, as of this past Thursday I am officially vegan...at least for the time being. I've been a vegetarian in the past and admittedly as a family even today we eat more vegetarian meals than anything else. However, last May I had a physical and learned that my cholesterol was quite high. I was very surprised but found out two days later that I was pregnant with Jacob. My doctor told me that pregnant women had unusual cholesterol levels and not to worry. She suggested I have my levels checked again after Jacob was a few months old. I waited until last week and had a cholesterol test done once again. I was blown away when the resulting number was "316". Doug found one of my old flight physicals and even a decade ago the number was around 260. My dad's cholesterol was up to 350 when he had to go on medication. I guess it could be genetic. I also found a study in an AMA journal that said pregnant and breastfeeding moms can have levels up to 325. So, anywhoooo it's a possibility that it's high because I'm breastfeeding. Either way I wanted to see if I could possibly bring it down by altering my diet significantly. I've been following recommendations from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's book on heart disease. I'm headed in to see a doc on base tomorrow and it will be interesting to hear what he has to say. I'm also anxious to find out if there's been a change in any of my numbers. As you know, the Peanut Gallery is always up-to-date with family affairs. As Anna was eating a bowl of cheerios today, she read on the box that it lowered cholesterol. She asked me, "Mommy, do you have high "cholester-yol"?" I told her I did. She responded, "Here, Mommy, have some of my cheerios to make your "cholester-yol" feel better". You gotta love those sweet mac'n cheese-ivores. :)

Happy Birthday!

Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday. In honor of the occasion, Anna came home with the cutest "cat in the hat" hat. I just couldn't resist putting it on Jacob.



It's another stormy day here and what better way to chase away the rainy day blues than with a little run through the puddles. Believe me, this is not my normal modus operandi. I honestly believe there are days when the kids think their names are "No", "Stop that", and "Let him be". Doug is SO good at connecting with the little ones and he came up with the idea of a rain walk yesterday. They had such a great time splashing around followed by a super hot bubble bath. I'm trying to be more carefree and do a better job of just letting the kids be kids. So, when they asked today if it was okay to splash around for a minute or two...gulp....I said yes. The sky must be falling and perhaps Hades has even frozen over. Regardless, they had a blast and yes, I did too! As it is Dr. Seuss' day, I found what I think is a rather appropriate Dr. Seuss quote: "The storm starts when the drops start dropping. When the drops stop dropping then the storm starts stopping.” Say that three times fast. :) Happy Puddling!

Of course, Lauren managed to find a snail, of course she did...she is Lauren after all.

Conversations with the Peanut Gallery

The latest from our little ones...

I asked Lauren what happened to her hair when she climbed out of bed one morning. She replied, "I'm having a bad do-hair day."

We ran out of pepper the other day. According to Anna, this problem didn't require a trip to the grocery store. Apparently, it's possible to just microwave a container of salt and the salt will magically turn into pepper.

Anna continues to improve her reading everyday. She was carrying the Bible around on Monday. I heard her trying to sound out a phrase and went over to help. She was reading the preface and I told her she should start at Genesis instead. She asked, "Why? Is this part not true?" I explained a preface to her. She then told me she had read an entire page of the preface the day before. She also said that Lauren had been pretending to read the same page. According to Lauren, it was all about puppies.

Later that same day Anna was singing a song while reading a book. The song went like this: "Thank you God for the birds and bees, thank you for the cherry trees." I asked her what book she was reading. She closed the book, looked at the cover, and said, "It's Baby's 1st Book of Parsley". I stopped and said, "Huh??? Let me take a look at it." She looked at the cover again and said, "Oh, it's Baby's 1st Book of Pray-Ears. What's a pray-ear, Mommy?"

We made Mardi Gras masks this past week. I told the girls that it was Fat Tuesday. Anna asked if that meant that only fat people could come to the party.

Lauren had a stethoscope up to her puppy. She said, "Mommy, the doctor says my puppy needs to have an ob-ser-ration. I can take the pins out of his ears in 11 days."

Anna thought the idea of a picnic this past Friday was a brilliant idea. After all, according to her, eating outside is good for the environment and the world.

We were finishing up Anna's homework on Friday and she had to tell me two things she'd learned about George Washington this past month. As she put it, "George Washington had teeth that turned into nutcrackers and so he had to get wooden ones instead."

Jacob's main contribution to the cuckoo's nest has been the word, "Agua". Maybe he's picking up his Daddy's Spanish skills. :)