Kevin...our medicine of laughter at the end of the day.

It has been busy for us lately.  And crazy.  And stressful (I think).  And trying.  And tiring.  And exciting.  And adventurous.  And fun.  And I'm sure a slew of other adjectives, but due to the aforementioned adjectives, my mind cannot think of other ones.  Just know it has been a different time in our lives.

Many of you know that when we sold our beautiful 1945 Cape Cod home in Merrillville almost 7 years ago, we intended to be in the house business.  We wanted to build a house, live in it for a couple of years and then sell it to do it all over again in the hopes of working down our mortgage.  That was when we had 2 kids.  Now we have 5 kids and the same dream of working down a mortgage, but the economy and medical bills and the simple cost of kids has kind of halted our progress in that area....mostly the housing economy.  Humphf.

Still, we sit at another crossroad of sorts having just sold our home again.  We are [technically] living at the farm now and initially had no intention of looking for a house all summer.  However, we have found a house in the most unexpected area.  Actually, we didn't find the house.  A family friend told us about it a couple months ago, but the house was already marked as sold, so I wrote it off.  The other day I was looking at houses online again and accidentally did a search I didn't intend to do and this house showed up and it was active again.  We were looking at the best house (a fixer-upper) in the worst neighborhood.  Now we are looking at a fixer-upper in the best neighborhood.

We don't know if the house is going to be ours or not, but we are praying for wisdom in this area.  If we get the house, this could be our forever home.  It is also priced at well over $100,000 under the neighborhood comps, so we also have a good investment, should the housing market bounce back up.  God knows what's going on.  We don't.  We are praying!    Feel free to do the same if you think about it.

The other thing we are doing is getting a new [to us] vehicle.  Tim's grandma passed away on tax day, of all days (one thing to smile about) and she left us "a little something" that we are splitting between a house and a car.  It's quite a sucky way to get a new car, but we are thankful and wanted to use the gift as wisely as possible.  Tim may be flying out to Mannassas, VA this weekend to pick up a 2005 9 passenger Suburban with 38,000 miles.  It is a fabulous truck and I can't say as I am not excited!!!

We have never had so many decisions to make in one week, much less decisions of this importance, but again, we are praying for wisdom and plain ol' divine intervention if necessary, so feel free to pray to that end along with us.  In all of this I also lost my voice for a week and we have been waiting for our house to close.  We are now on our 3rd closing date.  Grrr.  Thankfully we have a dog who brings us something to laugh at when the kids are in bed and have already come to the bedroom door 5 times [at least] for one reason or another.  He is sound asleep and was snoring, but oh, what a site for weary, haven't laughed all month (maybe not that long) eyes!

Sneaky little someone...but who?

I have been noticing lately that I can't find my wooden spoons.  I had at least half a dozen or more and it seemed like they disappeared over night, but I thought nothing of it.  Well, being that we are moving, I was in the girl's room packing up when I decided to pull back their dresser.  This is what I found.

Much to my surprise and laughter I saw 6 spoons lying all together, nice and sweetly on the floor.  Why would anyone want to hide my wooden spoons?  Perhaps because they double as spanking spoons. There was a sneaky little someone, but who?  My guess is Titus as he rendezvous with the spoons most often.  I don't suspect I will ever find out for sure.

Micah...sweet little Micah Joy.

Somewhere along the way (like in the womb) each of my girls developed a DNA strand that draws them to shoes.  Ever since they could reach a shoe, it was on their foot.  It doesn't have to fit.  It doesn't have to be theirs.  It doesn't even have to be a girl's shoe.  It just needs to belong on the foot and they'd put it on.

With that, we were at a friend's house the other day and Micah found these plastic dress up shoes and wore them all throughout the house, even though they were too big and she almost broke her ankles at least twice.  They ended up giving her the shoes and she wore them the rest of the day and then again today.

We were getting ready to go to the store and she put on the dress up shoes, but I didn't let her keep them on because of her tendency to fall with them on, so I told her to go upstairs and get some different shoes.

She came downstairs and walked into the kitchen (wielding a can of Pringles) and said "Is this okay?"

Not one to miss a good blogging opportunity, I laughed and got my camera to snap this shot before I told her no, it was not OK to wear slippers to the store.

Knowing full well what I wanted her to do, Micah decides to come downstairs wearing Eden's pink "Dorothy" shoes, a good 5 sizes too big and asks again, "Is this okay?" then flashes me a cheesy grin.

I snapped another picture and then sent her off to get her crocs.  Once she got them on, Imelda was finally ready to go to the store.  Oh my Micah.  My sweet little Micah Joy.

The Little Red Hen graduates!

Last year at Levi's graduation, the kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Wolfe was preparing for her NEXT graduation program, The Little Red Hen and told Eden that she was going to be the Little Red Hen.  I thought that Mrs. Wolfe was just being kind, but here we are at the K5 graduation and wouldn't you know it, Eden is the Little Red Hen.  I know I'm her mom and all, but oh how cute she was!!!

OK, well THIS picture isn't the cutest, but I promise, she delivered as an adorable chicken!  For some reason, as only a mom can do, I had a fear that she would get stage fright or something.  After all, she is a lot like me.  However, that little girl didn't miss a beat and was fantastic.  

After the program, the preschool class got up to do their program while the kindergarten kids got their caps and gowns on.  I took that opportunity to snap this picture of Titus.

 I think I kept the picture because to me, I see a preteen in his face...not the indefatigable 4 year old he really is.  It was a flash-forward of sorts.  sigh.  sniff, sniff.

Here she is walking down the aisle just before she receives her diploma.  This was the best shot I could get because I was at the other end of the pew and our [wiggly] kids were in the mix of heads between Eden and me so I had limited time.  I felt like a paparazzi.  "Eden!  Over here!"

The tassel has been flipped and Eden is no longer a "future 2nd grader" but a for really real official 2nd grader, in the flesh.  Holy cow.  Where did it go?  Bigger sigh.  Bigger sniff, sniff.

Afterwards, as usual, we went to the church gym for graduate cake.  Eden was kinda out of it for most of these pictures, but we did manage a smile here.

Next are a few of the pictures we tried to take of our family.

Can you tell...

which is our compliant child...

and which one maybe...

not so much???

Mema and poppy were there...

and Grandpa G...

and grandma and grandpa...

and auntie and uncle Dave...

and of course, Eden's teacher, Mrs. Wolfe.  By this picture, Eden was done and was starting to get a little testy.

All she wanted to do was play and with that she found Levi's buddy, Ty (Elijah's friend, Bryce's younger brother) so I snapped a shot like any responsible, camera wielding mother would do.

We were sad not to see uncle John Paul and aunt Sarah, but otherwise had a great time.  We went to Steak and Shake afterwards, graduate's choice, and stayed up way too late for way too much sugar, but at least we didn't get spilled on this time!

Congratulations Eden!  We love you and are so proud of you and all your work your first year of school!  XOXO

If you can't beat it, join it!

It is so hot here. We are pushing 90° and while I am thrilled that we aren't drowning in the typical Midwestern drab and dreary, I guess I don't want to walk around the house sticky either.  We do have the air on, but we aren't at icebox temps yet and I don't suspect Tim plans to get me there either.  At any rate, since I can't beat the weather, I thought I'd take the kids to the park for a picnic and play time to wear them down for naps.

This is most of the park that we went to today.  The little kid's area is off to the right but my kids tend to stick to the big stuff.  There is a school that uses this park as their playground I guess, so there were lots of big kids running around but that didn't stop Titus or Micah. 

The rule that the school gives to its kids is for no more than 5 kids on the merry-go-round but Titus stayed on practically the full hour we were there, not including when we actually ate.  The kids got tired of him being on there and finally declared that "the little kid doesn't count."

Micah is a fairly brave kid.  She likes to climb and do what the big kids do and doesn't typically let the fact that she really is too small for things stop her from doing them.  Like this ladder thing.  She climbed it great, though she did get scared a little bit on the last 2 rungs (her confident stride started to wane), but the sweet, tender and compassionate mommy-of-the-year that I am, I made her finish the job-all by herself-and when she did, she was a happy little girl!

Now Micah doesn't typically do this, which is why there is a picture, but as she was running around the play set, she saw that I had my camera and she courteously stopped to strike a pose and send a cheesy little grin my way.  What a beautiful little girl we have!

Titus said that he wanted to "sleep down the slide" so this is what that looks like.  Of course.  Imagine the sound effects and you are right there with us.

This is a retarded picture but in the last few minutes of my camera's battery life and only enough memory space for one more shot (double whammy), I wanted to get the two of them on this teeter totter wanna be.  Titus will only ham it up and by about the 5th photo of him with his eyes shut tight and some goofy face I finally got him to look at the camera (perhaps with a little persuasion) but then Micah's eyes were shut.  Doggone it.  Camera batteries can only handle taking a shot and then erasing it because it is terrible so many times before they die altogether.  This is the shot we were left with.  Humphf.

Oh, and to give a tid bit of personality for my little 2 1⁄2 year old, a bigger kid around 7 or so was sitting on this teeter totter impostor and asked if she wanted to get on with him.  She said to me, "I don't want that boy.  He's not your fwend. He's not my fwend."  OK then, I guess that's a "no" kid.  Sorry.  I understand she meant he's basically a stranger, but she certainly has a way of putting things and clearly she was NOT having any of that boy and that teeter totter sham.  Yes, I like REAL teeter totters.  What is childhood without at least once getting your feet or ankles slammed under one of those, or biting your tongue because the other kid teetered too hard, or hurting your rear end because you tottered too hard?  They sure know how to take the fun out of playground equipment!  LOL!