My garden

I thought I'd post a couple pictures from the garden, these were taken at the end of May- you see lettuce (that I think reseeded from last year), bell pepper and dill.
This is the tomato section, some of these I planted from seed, some we received for free from the farmer's market and some were moved from other sections of the garden were they apparently reseeded themselves from last year...we have Roma, cherry, big boy and purple Cherokee. This picture is also from May
This is the tomato patch from May.
This is 1 of 2 berries I got before the birds got them all! Blasted birds...I have a plan for next year though, we'll get some, next year!
This is also from May, we have beans and sunflowers in the back row, watermelon and squash in the row up from that.
Ok, so this is the watermelon now...2 plants lots of trailing going on now and i see a lot of flowers, I have found at least 1 melon growing, but I've only looked at 1 little section...I am hoping to have lots of watermelon slushies in my future!
This is the strawberry patch now, you can see we've had a lot of growth and we are having a lot of trailers that are making more strawberry plants. YAY! We are well on our way to a strawberry patch!
These are my green beans, so far I have 2 that I picked, not sure what to do with 2, next year I will have to plant more, closer together...now I know! (you can also see another tomato plant that I did not plant, but is just growing there...)
Here you can see more of the garden, you can see my sunflowers are getting big, my lettuce is going to seed, and I didn't plant any of those marigolds either.
I've decided next year I can plant some stuff closer together. I also hope that I will have some compost to go into the soil and if we keep the garden this wide, I can get at least one more row in there. I also think this year I gave the tomatoes plenty of space, but maybe they should go in the back...I am having fun planning and doing all this stuff...I just feel like I need more space! Damn reseeding marigolds, tomatoes and lettuce!

Here's a story within a story that doesn't at all involve my kids!

I mentioned the jury duty service thing that I had the other day a couple things to note. First they made a big production of the fact that you are doing your civil service and we shouldn't call it jury duty. It was quite humorous, judges, clerks all called it jury service as jury duty had gone through a PR campaign and the powers that be had decided that changing the name was going to make it more appealing to North Carolinians. HA!
Ok, so that totally wasn't the point of the story, more a digression. Have I mentioned I have signed up for a half marathon? No, well I have, my training partner and I are going to run 13.1 miles in Oct! She is very confident that we will make it, I am trying to figure out if she is going to notice if I walk the whole time. But, we've made it to 30 minutes of running which is more than I have ever done in my life and if I could just run somewhere with no humidity I think I could run for hours.
But, I digress again, so back to jury duty service. I immediately get selected to be in the jury pool for a trial. So we proceed to the courtroom where we get the spiel from the judge and he has the court clerk call out 12 people to sit in the jury box. So far so good, I'm not called! The judge asks the 12 to tell a little background information: married/single, employment, spouse employment, where in the county you live, etc. Everyone goes through there info and we get to juror number 7 and he gives us his neighborhood. Right then I think that is odd, is the judge from Wake County supposed to know where that is? I certainly have never heard of this "transitional neighborhood" before. The judge turns the questioning over to the ADA and she starts asking a bunch of questions, at first the questions are routine, do you know anyone here in the courtroom, any of the witnesses, etc. But then they have to get into the more personal stuff, will you be able to be unbiased? Through this process people answer questions and a couple get removed for "cause". Whatever but juror number 7 must realize he is going to be on this jury and he's got to put the heat on, because he doesn't want to be here, so whenever he feels that it is appropriate he talks about his "transitional neighborhood" and maybe he feels like the victim looks familiar, but he isn't sure and if this crime happened in his neighborhood he would have to side with the defendant. The ADA asks him if he knows where the address the crime took place is at and he says no, but if it was in his neighborhood...blah, blah blah. He was like broken record and I kind of wanted to stand up and yell, "we understand you don't want to be on the jury, tell them you can't be biased" At this point we had been sitting in the courtroom for an hour or so, I was done! The ADA finishes up, he spews his crap at least one more time and she kicks off a juror and then has to start again. But is satisfied so the defense attorney starts his spiel, which actually was humorous. He started out saying who he was and if the selected jurors had ever heard of him, or his law partner, or seen advertisements for his business, in case someone had a bad opinion of him or his practice/who he represented. The whole way it played out was funny, because it seemed so cocky, and like he was shocked no one had heard of him. So he gets to juror number 7 and says "it sounds to me like you really would like to serve on this jury, but you feel like you can't be unbiased", all polite and political like. And the guy starts again, well you know if this happened in my neighborhood...blah, blah, blah. It kind of went around and around for a couple minutes, which was funny and then the defense attorney finally got him dismissed and put us out of our misery. Thank goodness!
What strikes me as funny is I couldn't remember the name of the neighborhood, he said it like 5 times, so you'd think I would remember, but I didn't. Today I was trying to look up the course elevation profile to send to a friend complaining about the elevations of a 10 miler she was thinking of running (which is 3.1 miles less than what I signed up for, and she's a runner!) I found the course map; low and behold I get to run very near that damn transitional neighborhood, "Walltown"! Lucky me, I guess now I know where it is and I'll be able to talk about its transitionalness. Lucky me!

5 years

I have been trying to come on here and post but have not had the words. I finally realized why, 5 years today. So, I guess I will post about that. I am still a bit distracted, but I guess I will try to type out how I feel.
A couple days ago I thought, I'd like to talk to Dad about that. This is random and not usual for me and I suspect if I figured it out, it would be one of the "significant" days of Dad's last days that subconsciously remembering. It was actually then that I realized I started several posts and hadn't finished them.
As I was thinking of my Dad today I was wondering if my ideas and thoughts about him are getting romanticized, which I guess is what happens when you don't get to talk to people, you remember the good times and forget the bad, you remember things differently. I have been considering what Dad and I would talk about today. And I have had a good giggle, when I think about how I would lament the damn bunny that is getting into my garden STILL and he would talk about the squirrel that is climbing on the pool enclosure. Then we would talk about Uncle Jack and how he would give the squirrels a ride in his town car in his humane traps.
I have determined it doesn't matter if the death of a parent is expected or not, it still is an adjustment and difficult. And just when you think you are fine a little something will sneak up on you, but fortunately those moments are few and far between for me now. Of course the problem is that you never know when things are going to sneak up on you. I suspect I will always have some kind of funk around this time, some years worse than others, but I still have my Momma left to talk to about it and although I imagine the depths of her pain are worse than mine it is nice to be able to say "How you doing?" and to have someone to share how your feeling without having to say "since Dad died".

Update

We have been very busy around here the last couple of weeks. Nate showed an interest in potty training and like Gwen I think like Gwen he would do much better if I just let him go with it. It seems to me if I ask him to go and he goes then he forgets to tell me. But then I have issues now like today when he pooped in his underpants (again) and he tried to clean it up. He pooped in his pants yesterday and fortunately I noticed almost immediately. But, sadly today he pooped during quiet time. I made him go potty before we went for a walk this afternoon and today he peed on himself during dinner. So I put him in a diaper! I know that is the wrong thing to do, but I can't handle any more laundry. He is totally able to be potty trained and he has the desire and most of the signs and I want to get it done, but I am tired of the laundry. I don't have any patience for this part of the process especially since he has days when he has no accidents. I just don't know what to do. We will be gone most of the morning again tomorrow so I haven't decided if I want to just let it go with underpants or if I am going put him in diapers and wait until later. This is the part of parenting I am not fond of, maybe I should have read up on a parenting book or something on potty training, because I am obviously no expert.
I seem to be having a random bad week where I break dishes and I get peed on and it generally makes the week frustrating. Sure they have been great moments but generally things just aren't going my way this week. Which happens to everyone on occasion. So, we will see what next week brings, it is going to be a quieter week, I think.

Spring!

Have I mentioned my husband loves living here? He thinks that the early spring we get here is awesome. This year I was able to secure us some free tulips and I planted them last fall. They are really pretty. It is supposed to be a random assortment and it seems I have put all the pink ones together, at least of the 3 that have bloomed so far they are all pink.

I think they are very pretty, the best free thing I have secured...

Changes

Lately I have noticed some things I'd like to change in our family. Mostly I want to change Nate and Gwen's dependence on junk. It might be my fault, but I'd like to get healthier stuff in them. I guess I shouldn't have bought the cheese crackers and stuff that they've become addicted to. So, I've been looking for other types of snacks to give them that might sneak some nutrition in. Nate has been refusing to eat/try dinner so I'd like get as much healthy options in beforehand. To that end yesterday Gwen and I made granola bars. With pumpkin, apple and lots of sugar, which I guess is better than lots of preservatives. The kids really have liked the granola bars, that didn't harden up as much as I thought they would, I am wondering if it is because I made the applesauce myself and it was a little "juicier" than store bought. I also made yogurt and today we made smoothies. The kids enjoyed that also. Gwen enjoys helping me in the kitchen and my kids really like fruit. I have to figure out how to sneak some vegetables in, I think, but for now I am happy to get some good nutrition in them. I hope these small changes improve our overall health.
The kids are doing well. Nate cracks me up, he wakes up in the morning and looks like a drunken 2 year old, hilarious! He stumbles out rubbing his eyes, wobbling a little bit, hair kind of crazy. He has also decided to nap again, we are going with it because he's not 100%. I am trying to decide what to do about him. He seems to have a lot of congestion in his lungs he has a terrible random cough and a clear runny nose.
Gwen is doing well and appears to be planning her birthday party. She is funny about it she wants all the girls and then she mentions 2 boys she'd like to invite. And explains how the second little boy doesn't like princesses, but it will be ok, I am sure we can talk her into whatever we want to do, it is a long way from now. She has been rearranging Eric's bookshelf which is hilarious. Eric has painstakingly arranged his bookshelf. She can't read yet and alphabetical order doesn't mean a thing to her, she is arranging the shelf by "penguins and roosters". This goes against his plan of books he's read and books he's not read. She is so helpful!
Eric has finished one of his classes, he is gearing up for spring break and the big visit from the Godfather and his girlfriend. We are glad he is back from MD, it ended up being a rough trip for him-it took longer to fix than he expected and the car we rented had no cruise control. :(
I am working on an Easter Egg Hunt for the Parish. That is taking up some of my time. I don't have much else going on, I am just happy to no longer have a fever and can eat foods again. Some day I hope to get the pictures off the camera and post them here, but first I need to charge the camera's battery and that apparently is too big of a commitment for me! Don't worry Mom, I'll get to it soon!

The business at hand...

We have been rather busy lately and I feel like the business will continue for a while. The kids are not 100%. We had swim lessons today, the kids did great. Gwen still will not dunk her head, she wants goggles, I know we have some somewhere, I just don't know where. Plus, I kind of want her to swim without the goggles and I am a little ticked at the 2 Mothers that let their kids bring their goggles, but what can you do? Nate is doing really well in swim class, his teacher thinks he will be swimming soon, he LOVES to kick. Plus I don't think he gets that irritated when he gets his face wet. Both kids took long naps today. Almost 4 hours! We let them stay up a little later and they were both exhausted and went to sleep right away. I am hoping a good night's sleep will do them well. Gwen doesn't have school on Monday, so an extra day of rest will probably do everyone some good!
Eric has to drive up to the old house tomorrow to take care of some wiring damage done by squirrels. We are a little ticked that our tenant did not let us know that there were squirrels living up there. But that's how things go, I guess.
We went to a birthday party for Gwen's classmate the other day. Now Nate keeps asking to go to Chuck E Cheese. Whenever you ask him what he wants to do, he says Chuck E Cheese. I guess you could say the boy knows what he likes and doesn't stray from it.
We have been enjoying the nice weather, we had a picnic lunch yesterday, played outside today. Gwen played with the neighbor's dog, but Nate still afraid, plus that dog barks ALOT! Gwen also held a guinea pig and now wants a guinea pig...Mommy wants nothing to do with a guinea pig! But I am glad that she does like animals, now we just have to work on Nate.

A year in review*

I think I have had a pretty productive year, maybe not on the blog, since this is my lowest amount of posts in a year! Which is pretty sad, considering the year I started this was when Gwen was born in 2006 and in 6 months I had 20 more posts than for the year than this year! Wow! I also looked back at how the year started for us and I found this post! The pictures and post probably sum everything up from the beginning of the year. I did get out and start meeting people, I think I have made friends, I am tentative to say that still, I don't know why, but I am. I did finally get Gwen's paperwork in to the preschool! She loves it, I love it, Eric loves it, and Nate loves it. The kids look so young in that picture, don't they? They are so sweet and troublesome, but if it wasn't for them I probably wouldn't have gotten out and met people!
I think I am doing much better at the end of this year. I am finally no longer controlled by the depression that has plagued me for 4 years. I am able to sit and play with my children, today we played playdoh for a while. It was fun! I am better able to tolerate my children's personalities quirks without raising my voice, a huge step for me. I still occasionally raise my voice, but on rare occasion, yay me! I certainly didn't want to be that kind of parent. I am still no perfect Mother, but I am improving and hope to continue to improve next year. I don't want to always say no to my kids, I feel like I say that a lot, and I am not talking about the don't do that things, I am talking about the stuff they want to do. We need to spend more time doing what they want to do, so I need to budget my time better, so we have more time do do fun stuff. For example, sometimes they will ask to go outside right before I have to start dinner, so I need to find the time to do that earlier. Of course sometimes I am being lazy and don't want to go outside in the rain, but I will work on saying yes more, within reason.
I think overall I am in a better place this year, which means everyone in the family is happier this year. Sure, it is still a struggle to live the lifestyle we live, but I have found a way to be more at peace with it.
I feel like I have had lots of introspective kind of years and I am ready to no longer consider who I am what I want to be. Hopefully having friends means I won't have time to sit here and consider anymore. But who knows what this year will be for us, we are as ready as we can be for this year! We hope you who read this have a great 2011!

*So I realize this isn't much of a year in review, but this is all I've got for you today...I had great plans to do a year in review when I started, but as I started to blog I apparently ran out of steam! I have made some resolutions for next year, but I will be not be discussing them now. Hopefully I will be a better blogger next year.

Second to the last post of the month

I would have liked to include a picture of Gwen in her outfit today, because that is something I would never go out in public in! But, I missed the picture, sorry. When she first came out this morning she had a zipper short sleeve shirt (teal) on and a light pink sweater over top. I made her go back to her room and put on some pants or something, she came out in hot pink and gray tights! I explained to her we don't go to school in tights and shirts only, we must wear either pants or skirt on top of tights. She was not pleased! I thought it was a little too early to be discussing outfits and "GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM AND PUT ON SOMETHING APPROPRIATE!" Actually, I didn't say that at all, or yell at her. Since she was a little tired and therefore uncooperative so I gave her some skirt options and she said I could pick. I chose a dark pink number for her. It was so terrible, it actually looked cute! Oh, and I should mention the sweater was on backwards!
The thing about parenting is you never know what to expect, you don't know how having 2 parents that have personality types that mesh well together can produce an offspring (or 2) that can completely disagree with you. Funny how someone can look like your "mini-me" and be mostly nothing like you. Like who would think she would pick a Batman cave over a pink dollhouse, seriously, anyone? Eric is proud to get that for her for Christmas and although I don't like to force into gender stereotypes I did feel like she should get something "girlier". I'd like to say that because then Nate won't play with it, but he totally will!
I heard Gwen crying today during her quiet time and I asked her later why, (not an upset something happened, but a little sob) and she was upset because her playdough that we made dried out because they forgot to put it back! Poor thing...
We are now done with Christmas shopping, well we have one more thing to get, but this limited budget and small house definitely has its benefits and I hope that we maintain this lifestyle after we are in a bigger house and less limited budget. I don't think the kids will care or notice and it certainly is less stressful. We are also doing cheaper Christmas cards this year, I have figured sending 54 cards will cost me $25, which includes postage! I am super excited about that, because I was considering not sending them this year, but we have found a way, yay!
Alright, that's it, time for bed!

Another busy day

It was another busy day at the homestead today. Eric left before the children got up, so I had to get the kids ready for school and whatnot. Not a huge deal, we made it, on time, mostly and I remembered to bring our donation for the family that Gwen's class sponsored! Go me! Gwen's backpack was a little weighed down with green beans, but she made it. I then met another preK Mom at Starbucks with our boys, while we were there another Mom showed up and we chatted until we had to get to the school for our volunteering. Today was "Celebration day" for Thanksgiving and my "trade-off" babysitter had volunteered to help with the celebration while I had been signed up to be art-helper. So the boys went with her while I went to help with art. The kids worked on their turkey water colors. Gwen's was very pretty if I do say so myself! maybe I'll take a picture and post it. When art was done I had to take both the boys to the nursery for a playdate, which is no easy task, since my friend's son is going through a Mommy phase. It wasn't too bad, but he did spend the morning sleeping on me...I couldn't bear to put him down, in his sadness. Nate didn't care, he played the whole time. We picked up Gwen from school, ran to Target, came home, had lunch. I realized I forgot to put dinner in the crockpot and it was too late! Put Nate down for a nap, I sorted separated and did 5 loads of laundry (dryer fixed!!!). Spoke to Grandma on Skpe. Made kids dinner, folded laundry and put away what I could. Made grocery list, spoke to my husband, sent cranky email about deposits not being returned, turned off computer. Remembered I had to post tried to use husband's computer which is apparently not pleased wirelessly with the world. Turned on my computer, saw deposit should have been returned, hoping to get more information in the morning, typed up boring post about my day and then hopefully read some more and go to bed! Good night!

Blah

I was just about to crawl into bed and then I remembered, I did no post today! ACK! Maybe one day soon I will get a chance to do a post with pictures again and maybe some substance, but not tonight!
Eric opened up the dryer tonight and the belt is indeed broken, the kids used it as a jump rope. Sadly I didn't have time to get a new one, but a friend graciously let me come over and dry my clothes...now I just have to get over there and pick up our jeans!
I just went into check on the kids and my heart stopped for a minute because I couldn't find Nate, and then I realized that lump of sheets by the wall was not a lump of sheets, but Nate, they are sleeping in Gwen's bed tonight I guess!
We had a project meeting tonight with some of the ladies from my Church, we had a good time, I wanted to scrapbook, but they were too chatty, so I quilted instead. Sadly on the way into Church I put my plate of fudge on the car and it fell off, fortunately most of it fell on the Al foil, so I recovered it. I considered picking it off the ground and putting it on the foil, but I didn't. Let's just say some people wish that I did and might have consumed a little glass, sorry about that ladies, next time I will use Tupperware! At the end of the meeting I sat in my friend's new minivan and she showed it off to me. Besides being a little jealous of the cool features and space I wonder at the turn in my life where I sit in a minivan and drool! Not that I really want a minivan, but it has some nice features! Ok, well goodnight, Eric has to get up early all this week and that means I am on kid duty ALONE every morning and tomorrow I am grocery shopping so I can't take Nate to drop off tomorrow in his PJs!

Belts

I've had much to do tonight, and I feel like I am not done with half of it. I guess everything I haven't will hopefully get done tomorrow. Our dryer appears to be broken, I think it is just a belt (I am praying it is just a belt) but sadly I had already done 2 loads of laundry before I realized it. :( Fortunately I realized I can hang clothes up in the house and they will dry. I won't tell you long it took me to realize that! All else is well here, I've got to get to the grocery list, I realize that I have nothing for dinner, oh wait as I typed that out I realize that I do actually have some stuff I can make for dinner, SCORE, no sides, but whatev, now I don't have to make a grocery list, yet! But, I guess I should start it because I am going to be out tomorrow night and I don't want to be up too late tomorrow night either.

Happy Birthday, Daddy

As I've thought of today's post I've had many thoughts go through my mind today. One, my Mom is probably spending the day in a fitting way for his memory, I won't go into any more details, but I think it is humorous, she might not. Two, I call my Dad-Daddy...I never really did that as I got older, but now, I think of him as Daddy, although when I speak of him I still call him Dad, only when I think of him do I call him Daddy, I find that strange. Three, what does Daddy think of our decision to move to NC, would be be stressed out, like I think my Mom is, proud of E going back for the PhD or some other random emotion/some where in between. Four, how excited he would be about Nate, sure he'd love Gwen and play princesses and tea parties, but he would love the idea of the grandson to play catch with and play soccer with.
I think that is about it, for random thoughts this year.
The kids and I have a new routine, come home from school, "picnic" outside and then they play for a while. I like to bring them in around 1p and do quiet time for an hour or so but it is nice, with the 70 degree afternoons to sit outside and breathe fresh air. We had to take out the garden this weekend, the weather is getting to cold at night, freezing so we lost whatever tomatoes we might have still had on the vine.

Today

We've had a very quiet day today. Much quieter that usual. Yesterday Gwen and I made playdoh, maybe not exactly playdoh, but its greasier cousin! Seriously greasier, but the kids have really enjoyed it, my carpet not so much and it is left a greasy sheen on the coffee table. I might need to add less oil next time! The kids played with it all evening and this morning. Eric doesn't like the texture at all, but with all the salt, I think it is a great exfoliant. We lazed around the house all day, I am not feeling 100%.
Not much else to report today...yesterday we visited with a friend from California. It was great to see her and talk to her after so many years. I don't think tomorrow will be a big day either, Eric has a take home test due Monday and since I was not much help today with the kids, he is likely going to have to spend tomorrow working on his test.
I will probably get back to the Halloween posts tomorrow...we'll see!

Free time?

Since I have a soundly sleeping boy, a girl not home, a husband at work and well the last 2-2.5 hours of peace and quiet, I thought I would do another blog update. I had a conversation this morning with the kids I thought would be funny to put on here, but now I've forgotten it. It was a rather hectic morning this morning, the kids got up at 5:30, apparently the internal clock was off by an hour. I promptly went back into bed and thought, well maybe we'll be early today. The only problem was Gwen didn't put her shoes back in her closet so we spent 10 minutes searching for them. UGH! I have started reading a new parenting book. As I am starting to get out of the fog of the move and adjusting and making new friends, I've realized that I don't like the way my parenting is going. I know that my stress level has been high, but making friends has helped with that, now is the time to focus on my kids and making sure I am a better parent. I think the kids are responding to the new parenting and I think it works nicely with Gwen's school's discipline routine. We'll see how it goes, I need them to listen and follow directions better and I hope this helps.
Nate is such a smart little pistol, it is a great thing for his future, he needs certain amount of attention though and watch out if he is tired or hungry, that is when the trouble begins. This is the toughest part of our new schedule is that it reeks havoc on Nate's schedule. Nate would really like to nap at 12ish. He falls asleep in the car or gets so over tired and then can't get to sleep. Nightmarish. I still put him down for quiet time. But about the time it is time for me to make dinner, he starts to lose it. Today he fell asleep in the car on the way home from Bible study, I had to run into the grocery store, still out cold, then I brought him home, still asleep now...3 hours later! I have to admit, I love his cuddly ways. He likes to sit on the couch read books or watch TV all cuddled up next to you. Eric has about had it at dinner time, his shirts will never be the same from Nate's wanting to snuggle at dinner time.
Gwen seems to be doing well with school, as I mentioned she has had the play date today. She still struggles with being tired and oh my GOSH the whining. "Don't look at me, don't talk to me!" Of course, she is talking to Nate. The other day it was really terrible she was just crying and crying. I knew I had to do something, so we baked muffins. It worked out really well, whinies gone! I don't think I will be able to do that every time, but it was a quick fix, plus we got some yummy treats out of the deal. Gwen tends to get cuddly when Nate is cuddly with Eric, it is the funniest thing.
Eric seems to be doing well, had his first committee meeting and is working along on an idea for his thesis. He is looking into some funding so he has to start the application for that. He seems to be much happier about the whole process now that he has a concrete plan, well as concrete of a plan as you can have in science!
We are gearing up for a trip from Grandma and Halloween, but don't have much else planned. I had a lot of free time today, so I guess just a little vacuuming and laundry and we are ready for Grandma! Have a great weekend.

Playdate

I am ashamed to admit that I've never really done playdates for my kids. It is not something that has occurred to me to do, set up playdates. But since we have moved here, I have started learning about playdates. I am now learning about the after school playdates for Gwen. Some of the Gwen's friends have shown interest in having Gwen over after school. Conveniently the 2 that have shown interest will pick her up after school and then drop her off at our house. SWEET! But, today was the first day I had one of her friends to her house. I thought we would, well I don't know what I thought, but I didn't plan anything to do. I just thought we could think of stuff on our own. But, Nate I didn't know what would happen with him. This house is small, and most the toys are in their room, so I didn't know what I was going to do for his nap/QT. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we ended up having a picnic lunch outside while he slept in the car. Then he woke up so we went in the house. Lana wanted to know if Gwen had any princess dresses, (have I mentioned she's 1 of soon to be 4-3 of which are girls). And then they seemed to not get a long for a little while, Lana was playing with something in the kids' room and Gwen was upset that she didn't want to do what Gwen wanted them to do and said she didn't want to have any more playdates at her house, only at Lana's. I asked her what would make her play date more fun, what did she want to do? So we went out back but I think the girls were tired. We played outside for a little bit, we came back inside they laid down for a little bit, like a minute and then all was right with the world and they wanted nothing to do with Nate. So I kept Nate occupied and they played and then when her Mom came, they didn't want to be separated. I guess I will ask the Mom how it went, and maybe improve our next playdate. Gwen has her second after school playdate tomorrow, I guess I will try to pump Gwen when she gets home to see what I can do to improve her home playdate experience. The only thing I did learn from Gwen's playdate is that her princess dress is itchy, I am wondering if she should get a new one for Christmas, that is less itchy?

My 2 kids

I often consider the difference between my two kids and their temperement. I have started to think of them as I-can-do-it and I-can't-hear-you. Can you guess which is which? I think the difference and temperment of the kids can be told in this story.
I have been trying to get the kids to eat better so I have been making the kids eat some kind of fruit and then they can get a snack. Gwen gets it and I often find her eating fruit. Nate, still difficult about it. The other day I told he had to finish his grapes, he had 4 left. Nate refused and cried and cried about it. He was crying so much I couldn't hear Eric's phone call, so I went into the other room to finish our conversation. I hear Gwen call from the other room and come running. Nate had pulled a chair up into the pantry and was trying to help himself in the pantry. He reached an open bag of lentils and spilled it all over the floor. UGH! He made a huge mess, all in the pantry. I was about to clean it up when Gwen asked to clean it up. I thought sure, handed her the dustpan and little broom. And she THANKED me for letting her clean up Nate's mess. She cleaned the whole thing up! I helped her clear some of the boxes of cereal and stuff so she could get all the lentils up. She did a great job and thanked me several times. It was so nice after hearing all the complaining and moaning from her brother.
Now granted this won't always be the case. But the differences between 4 and 2 are great. And the differences between my boy and girl are also great.

Random updates

I can't believe it we've made it a year. Eric has completed a whole year of school, I have completed yet another year home with the kids. I am only about 50% more insane than I was last year at this time. But the big milestone is that we thought if we could make it through this first year of this graduate school process we could make it through the rest of the duration, however long it would be. Certainly things are different than we expected, but overall we are doing well and I guess we are stronger, isn't that how the saying goes? This time has made us review our priorities realize what is important and what is not. I think we've also decided what to do if we do eventually have spending money. Of course that changes daily.
The kids seem to be doing well. I think Gwen is pretty excited to go to school, in about a month! She is a little confused though, she thinks her VBS teacher is going to be her preschool teacher. It is going to be rather interesting to drop her off and then have Nate. I think he is going to be lost without her and I am hoping that errand running will be easier with just him, but I don't think it will be! We are still working on several things with Gwen, manners and being nicer to her brother. She apparently needs more focused attention. I am working on trying to work with her on some of that stuff but I really hadn't noticed how much she just grabs stuff from Nate and just expects him to take it. I am also trying to encourage them to work out their stuff on their own. I don't think that's going to work out though...
Nate, what can I say about that kid, except trouble. Man does that kid listen only when he want to. I don't know really how to make him listen, sometimes he is great, sometimes I just want to pull out all my hair! Randomly he has started peeing on the potty, only in public, when Gwen goes to the potty. He did start peeing on the potty here at home first, but I haven't convinced him since then to do it again, and seriously in my head I had no intention of potty training him for a while, like when he was 2.5 or 3,certainly not 2! So, I haven't really been pushing it. Because as we may remember, I am not the best at remembering to remind the children to pee. (well you might not know that, but I am, I hope all my children have the iron bladders like Gwen and that we don't have to utilize public restrooms a lot.) I am looking forward to having some Nate & me time while Gwen is in school. I feel like Gwen gets Mommy and me time while Nate is napping, but Nate doesn't get that time. Maybe he will be less of a wild child if he gets one on one time...I suspect we will spend a lot of time reading, he will read and read and read with you...
In other news I have volunteered to co-lead our Mom's group at our Church. I just hope that someone volunteers to co-host with me, otherwise I don't think I will be able to do it, being new in town and all. Monthly they schedule a someone come and talk to the group or just talk about stuff. Considering I haven't been a member of this group for a year yet, what do I know. I guess I am just feeling that I've got to get out there meet people and make friends. I feel like I have been meeting people, we have like this "honeymoon" period and then things happen and I don't see or hear from them again. I used to get upset and worked up but whatever. I don't want to waste time and energy worrying about when I could be worrying about other things, like my fighting kids or my garden. Whatever has been eating my garden has apparently found greener pastures and I actually harvested 2 plum tomatoes today and am excited to make "Penne alla Vodka" tomorrow with stuff from my garden. We have been harvesting cucumbers and some onions and a little bit of lettuce and I am so excited because it looks like my eggplants are sprouting!!! I am hoping to get some eggplants this year, because I geniunely like eggplants but they are not something that I routinely buy, but if I just had them around, I would eat them.
Nothing on Eric tonight, this post has taken entirely too long...he's the same old same old, going to work, coming home, doing stuff but nothing I think that could be reported on the blog as newsworthy...maybe that is just because I am too tired to add anything else!

Happy Anniversary

I've always been a little confused, is the 7 year itch start in your 7th year of marriage or after you've been married 7 years? It isn't actually a burning question or something I think of a lot, but when I think of our 7th anniversary I wonder what the 7th year itch is all about and why the phrase came about. We got a check in the mail today, wohoo!, so we decided to go to dinner with the kids. We don't go out to eat all that much anymore. Eric teasingly mentioned Taco Bell and well we should have probably went with that instead of his first choice! His first choice was a Thai/Sushi place that although the food was good (except they didn't give us rice with our entree and they don't appear to have sushi anymore) took FOREVER! Seriously, we walked in, no one else in there, they sat us, took our order and we SAT for 20+ min waiting for our food...and that was just for the appetizer, we had to wait another at least 10 minutes for our food food and we ordered the kids soup and that came LAST! UGH! What was really the last straw was when the people who walked in 15-20 minutes after us got their food before we got our appetizer! Man was I ticked...seriously if you aren't ready to feed people especially people with 2 young kids PLEASE let them know! We'll come back on a different day, but now we aren't going to go back at all!
Anniversaries don't seem to be that big of a deal around here, they really have never been, with either of us. I think that's a good thing. Not to say we don't think about it but I am honestly so confused I thought our anniversary was tomorrow. I thought the 28th was tomorrow...which once you get the day wrong in your head hard to get it right and celebrate. My Mom says its important to celebrate so we did go to dinner and I made us an anniversary pie (Apricot/peach) and we hung out and talked...I skipped the gym. I guess a nice day overall. It would have been even nicer had Nate not disturbed our sleep last night...I can honestly say I feel no itch and am content to live out the rest of my days with Eric, even though he can drive me crazier than I ever thought possible. He's a great Dad and husband, what more could a girl ask for?

The things on my mind lately

While we were at the in-laws it was the 4th anniversary of my Dad's death. I had wanted to put something on here on that day, but I just couldn't get to it. Coming up to the anniversary day I began to think about what this day means, how/if I feel differently now than I did 4 years ago, even 3, 2 and last year. And since we made the big move I have had more time to analyze my life who I've been and who I want to be. Its all about the journey after all, isn't it?

I've mentioned the death of my friend. We went to her funeral this last weekend, I had decided when I heard of her death I'd like to go to her funeral, the thing is she died the day after we got back from NM. I knew it would be tough to get there with the 2 kids and just getting them back on schedule. I thought I'd just pop up there by myself and be done with it. Eric wanted to go with me but I thought it would be too much for the kids. After many discussions, we eventually decided that we would all go and while I was at the funeral they hung out with the Godfather and his girlfriend. I've heard the kids were well behaved and they had fun.

I haven't been to many funerals in my life and I knew Claudia's would be very sad. How could it not be, she was so very young and has a young daughter? But for me it was very inspiring, her life was inspiring. The details of some of the aspects of her last 13 months made me think and reconsider my life and how I live it. Claudia was one of those people I met and thought, I want to be her friend. And I did become her friend, but I missed most of her illness because of the timing of our move. Needless to say, everyone that knew her will miss her dearly, she was a bright, cheerful light and you always knew you were going to have fun with her. I found many parallels in her way of dealing with people and with my Dad's. I am usually very quick to pick up on things, but the subtle ways that God leads me to things I don't usually get, I tend to get the same message over and over again when I ask for help/guidance and I feel that going to Claudia's funeral helped me hear some things I hadn't heard so clearly, but that I needed to hear until I got the message. I hope to continue to incorporate these things into my life and not get so beat down in the small details, the every day crap that clouds my judgement. One day maybe humility and patience will come easily for me!

So, how is year 4 different than the others? With time I find that I still have times when I think about how much I would like to see how my Dad would be/react to the kids. My days are busy with the kids and so I don't think about missing him as much anymore, unless of course one of the kids does something that reminds me of my Dad. I guess over time you learn to deal with the missing and it doesn't cause you to cry and you can continue on with your day with a little sadness. I almost feel like for me this process is easier. I have lived far away from my parents for more than half my life now (crazy, isn't it!?) I now speak to my Mom most weekdays, but only since the kids and Skype. Before it was a weekly or so phone call and see them twice a year. And the house I grew up in is no longer the house we visit. So, even though it still sucks to not be able to see him and talk to him, my daily thoughts are not as affected as they once were. I am now more comforted by the fact that he is now always with me and can see everything that happens in our lives, because I know in ways that I can't explain that he hasn't missed a thing. I just wish I was more capable of hearing what he has to say because I know he has something to say! Miss you Daddy!