It's School Time/Progress

Hannah started Kindergarten and wears a UNIFORM.  This feels like craziness, why is she growing so much. Carter started preschool today and is gone all day and carries a lunch box and book bag...how can this be?!!?! He did really well today on his first day of preschool. I'm so proud of him and happy that he wants to go and enjoys it. He has speech therapy tomorrow so hopefully he does well with that. Hannah of course loves school AND homework. She's a strange child, just like me when I was a kid :)

The house is coming along. We moved out with the exception of furniture and a large portion of our stuff and have started painting and cleaning....and cleaning and cleaning. We meet with the realtor on Saturday so hopefully we'll have this puppy on the market pretty soon.

Here We Go!

This weekend we will officially start taking steps to move to Missouri, yay! We are cleaning and repairing so that we can get this house on the market. Hoping to have it done and on the market within the next week or two. Fingers crossed.

My Dad has been cracking me up over the potential relocation. Rest assured he has given me a minimum of five lectures on the topic and I'm sure they'll be many more in my future.Without him I would have never known that I need a job, benefits and MONEY to move...who'd a thunk it. Here I am hoping to live in a van down by the river, eating berries and small animals to survive.

In case anyone out there is wondering why we want to move (a few have asked), let's count the ways shall we (in no particular order):

1. Houses in DE are too expensive
2. We need a four bedroom house
3. The school district we live in sucks
4. Private school is crazy expensive
5. Tom and I both love Missouri
6. I need wide open spaces
7. No offense to my fellow Delawarean but quite a lot of you act very ghetto. Sorry/Not Sorry, learn manners
8. We've both worked at our current jobs for ten years...this is crazy talk and we need change
9. We are only 30 and 28 life is to be enjoyed in a place you will enjoy it best
10. I'd like to try living closer to the rest of my family for a change

I don't know where we'll work, I don't know what town we'll live in but we'll have all that hammered out before we pack up three kids, three cats and a dog to head west.

So there you have it. It's starting; let's see what the next year and a half brings...good Lord willing of course.

Missouri Bound? Maybe, Eventually

This weekend Tom had off of work, hooray! I threw it out to him that I really hate living in Delaware and want to move to "The Promised Land" (as my Dad calls it). Tom said lets go for it.

So here we are again planning how we can escape this life in Delaware for a new one in Missouri. I plan on phasing out our stay here in DE.

• Phase 1 sell our house
• Phase 2 pay off debt and save money
• Phase three find jobs and a new house

Sounds crazy, but good Lord willing it will happen. So any of you Missouri folks have any tips on jobs that are in need or good places to live...let us know :)

Wordless Wednesday-Go Cards!

 

We Are Such A Close Knit Family...

This whole situtation makes me chuckle...

Back around Thanksgiving my Great-Aunt Cookie called to tell my Dad that his Aunt Bea was about to pass and that she was very sick due to her cancer.  Well Dad wasn't home so I talked to Aunt Cookie and she asked me to tell Dad so I did. It dawned on me after our phone conversation that Aunt Cookie didn't know I was pregnant. Mostly everyone asks me the typical pregnant woman questions everytime they see me so I figuered she didn't know because she never asked "How are you feeling." I know I am a weirdo but bare with me.

So when Dad comes home I told him what Cookie said and he seemed like he really didn't care. He said something along the lines of, "I'm not that upset about it, I never cared for the way she treated her kids." So that was that. Then I said, "Daddy, did you ever tell any of them that I am pregnant?" He said, "You did at the family reunion." Which I had to then explain that I didn't know I was pregnant then because I took the test when I came back from Missouri. "Oooooh, well I guess they don't know then. But, your Mom probably told Cook."

Well no one told anyone anything! Can you freakin' believe that? My dad's side of the family didn't know I was with child. Considering my Aunt Judy asked me if I was going to adopt at some point in time I feel it is best that people know that I am indeed pregnant and will most likely not be adopting. So that we can slow down the family rumor mill just a tad.

Well hopefully everyone knows now because I sent a little note out in my Christmas cards that we are expecting a baby girl, etc, etc.

This is all very typical of my family, divorces, babies, marriages, deaths all just seem to be stumbled upon in this family. No one ever calls and tells you anything except good ole' Aunt Cookie-she atleast makes an effort to keep you informed. Then you just have to hope my Dad relays what she tells him to the rest of us!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Vacation and Identity Theft.

Here is a little tiny recap.

Vacation was a lot of fun! Saturday we went to our family reunion, super fun, someone asked me if I was still considering adoption? Where do people get this shit? Sunday was G-Pa's memorial service and Monday was the funeral. It was a military funeral at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetary and the gun shots scared the shit out of me. It was a beatiful service and I was slightly amazed at the whole process. After the funeral we went to the St. Louis Zoo, my favorite zoo in the world. After the zoo, Tom and I caught a baseball game, it was awesome, our seats were awesome, we had an excellent time! The game was the St.Louis Cardinals -vs- Arizona Diamondbacks, Cards won! Yay! Tuesday we went to the Anheuser Busch Brewery in St. Louis and got two free beers at the end. After that we had barbecue pork steaks with my Aunt and Uncle, delicious! After dinner Tom and I went to the movies and watched Transformers, it was pretty good. Wednesday we woke up and met my Great Aunt and Great Uncle for breakfast, super fun, she is my favorite Aunt and just loves us to death. After that we drove down to Dexter to another Aunt and Uncle's house and the whole family including 47,000 children came over and we had a party and shot fireworks off in the front yard, good times! Thursday, we went to the Current River in Van Buren and went tubin' super fun! Tom got sun-poisening and everyone else got sunburn too! Dad and I have the least severe sunburn due to our natural olive complexion, thank God! After tubin' everyone drove from Dexter to Poplar Bluff to meet us for dinner at an awesome steak house, delicious! After dinner Mom and I went to Walmart to buy some Aloe, my debit card was denied for $15.00!?!? I thought must be something wrong with the system because I have plenty of money. Got back to the hotel and logged on the the internet there to see why I had no money, negative $30.00, what the hell is going on! I looked over the charges and someone had charged over $800.00 in fraudalent charges!!! I nearly had a stroke! I called the bank and cancelled my cards, keep in mind I am a thousand miles from home! They said it was most likely someone stealing my card information from the internet and that I would have to come in a fill out paperwork and they will start to recover my money. Beings it was a Thursday and I am in Missouri it was not so easy to just come fill out paperwork!!! Ahhh! Friday we left for Pigeon Forge, Tenn. for the fun of it? Dad wanted to drive hours out of the way so that we could look around and see if we wanted to go on vacation there!?! We drove down the main drag and turned around in a parking lot, Tom turned around in the same parking lot but managed to hit the curb and rip off the skirting around the bottom of our Dodge Magnum! That was a hilarious situation that I will have to write about later. We rode home after that and we were on the road a total of 24 hours and drove right to the bank to fill out our fraud paperwork! Needless to say I am exhausted and will be sure to post pics and write more later, this vacation slowly turned into a vacation from hell and has left me wondering if my identity is stolen.

Going to My Homelands.

It's vacation time! Going to Missouri, leaving tonight. I am still not packed, just call me Mrs. Procrastination!

 I went to my mom's earlier today to see my neices one last time before we leave, it is also my oldest neices birthday today. I start to leave and the oldest one throws a fit! It was the fit of all fits, I have never seen the likes from her before. The poor thing was screaming and crying, "I want to go with you, I am going to miss you, No Heather!" Pulling on the back of my shirt all the way down the driveway until I got in the car. I started to cry a tiny bit, it was heart-wrenching to watch her like that. I hope she is okay while we are gone, since her Mammie and Gampie are leaving for the week with us. She is so attached to us and it is making me sad just thinking about it.

I have been in the worst mood all week, the impending burial of Grandpa, missing my girls, leaving the dogs and finding out that I have to go to "the diabetes center" for practically the rest of my life.

I guess it's time to put my big girl britches on and pack my bags! But why am I so damn weepy?

When I Get Where I'm Going

I love this song and wanted to share it with everyone. I heard it this past week and literally started bawling. I have heard it plenty before but not since my Grandpa passed and the irony of it is that Mom, Grandma and I were talking about the burial and memorial service that is planned for July earlier that day. Weird!

I hope you enjoy it, it has been stuck in my head since Wednedsay!

Missing Missouri

Have I mentioned that soon we will be in Missouri! Yay!

I have really been missing it lately and wanting to move there. It feels like my mind has this homing signal that wants me to move "home."

I remember last time Tom and I were there together was in 2005 and we had the best time. When we were crossing the bridge over the Missisip' heading into Illinois, I started to cry. I really wanted to go back but when he asked me if I wanted to turn around I said no.

Part of me doesn't want to move because everything is here. Church, friends, my parents, my nieces, my home, everything!

But part of me does want to move.

So I guess I will just have to settle with going on vacation to Missouri.

This year will be different, my brother and his wife, there daughters, my parents, my grandma and Tom and I are all going together. I have no doubt we will have a great time. We are all taking separate cars, in-case you were wondering. I plan on catching a Cardinal's game, taking a tour of Budweiser, exploring Merrimac Caverns, tubing in the Currant River and who knows what else. I think we are going to the zoo somewhere in there. The Saturday we get there is my dad's side of the families reunion. Sunday will be my grandpa's memorial service at my uncle's and then the rest of the week will be fun stuff.

Man I am excited, one month left!

What is everyone else's vacation plans?

No Don't Go!

The past few days have been spectacular! It was sunny with a light breeze and the temperature reached up to 80 degrees! Now it is cold, windy, raining and I think it is supposed to snow or at the very least ice up. I love the spring and fall season, the in-between of freezing cold and smoldering hot.

The sunny weather makes you start to reminisce old memories that you hold close to your heart.  Like the time me and best friend went to North Carolina to go see Brad Paisley and we were acting silly and singing at the top of our lungs. When we tried to fight off high school girls to catch his hat and we break out in song even when no music is playing.

 I miss trips to Missouri in the warm weather and when you get there you get to see your family that you haven't seen in a 'coons age.  Then we went to the river for the day and just hung out and relaxed and you felt like your mind was at peace and nothing mattered besides you in the river with your family. No stresses, just fun.

Lazy summer days lying around our pool, I remember Dad would always fall asleep out there. If he go to hot he would jump in the pool and splash around, making a noise similar to an elephant. I always thought that was hysterical.

I miss the summers we spent at the beach house and  all the fun Mom and I had running our own store.

Then all that stuff ends and it leaves you sad, but I would be sadder if I had never experienced it at all. I have SO many memories that I hold close to my heart.  Thank you to everyone that shared an awesome memory with me.

The Marble

While we were in Missouri a week ago, we went to look at a house in the country. It was everything my parents had been looking for (they have been looking for about 27 years). The house is beautiful! My parents went with the realtor and looked inside the house and then we looked at the outside. Before we left the realtor asks if we would like to look through the house one more time. Dad and I said no, so Mom went in by herself. After about fifteen minutes she comes onto the porch with tears in her eyes. My dad was talking with the realtor and didn't notice. I walked toward my mom and she held out her hand. In her hand was one marble. (A yellow cat eye to be exact) I started to cry.  Out of this entire big empty house that has been completly emptied and cleaned, she found a lone marble. It felt like a "sign" from Grandpa as if he was telling my parents to buy this house. We got ourselves together and went to Dexter to visit family and carry out our trip while we were there.

My Grandpa when he was a child was very into playing marbles. He played them all the time and one time he didn't pick up his marbles so his mother put them in the oven and melted them down. He talked about marbles all the time so this will always be in my mind and remind me of him when I think of a marble.

Last week my mom called the realtor and is in the process of putting a bid on the house. I don't know why but this house is stuck in all of our minds. How can we deny the marble?