Let the adventure begin!

Well, we miraculously were able to shove everything in our house into one, giant moving truck, said goodbye to every room in our house and hit the road! We were left with a final snowy night and a little snowy drive, and were at PaPa and Ma's in time for a late supper. Hubs and I were hitting the road on Saturday, but weren't in any big rush. That is, until we were ready to go.

Hubs started getting antsy about getting a move on, but really had no good reason, just, "I wanna get there before...it's dark?" So as we were loading up (again), Ma announced that she needed to run a quick errand and she'd be right back. Cuz had just dropped off her 2 year-old to play, so we thought it best not to leave them all unattended. So we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Ma returned, I had to run a quick errand before we left town, and we were on the road! THAT's when it hit Hubs. We did a remote closing on our new house, so our realtor had dropped our keys in Hubs' po box. And our po box is at a place that closes at 5:00 PM. And a place that's not open on Sunday. Sunday would be the day the truck was arriving to the house we had no keys to, and according to Garmin, our arrival time was 5:04 PM.

We called the Postal Place, and the girl said, "No worries! Take your time! Call me along the way, and if it's after 5:00, I can just scoot back over. I live RIGHT around the corner." Now, if I owned a mail place and had someone coming just after closing, I would just stay until they got there, but whatever.

We pulled into the city limits and gave her a call. After 4 rings, the call went to voicemail. No problem! She probably didn't recognize the number. We left a message and continued toward the mail place. When we pulled up, we were greeted with the CLOSED sign and dark windows. So we called again. Not only was there no answer, her voicemail was full.

Uh oh.

Luckily there was a bonefish nearby, so we decided to hang out there while we waited. As we enjoyed a celebratory chardonnay, we started weighing the cost of a locksmith vs breaking a window. Then we remembered that ALL of our closing paperwork was with the keys, in the po box at the now closed postal place. And seeing as we had out-of-state licenses and out-of-state cell phone numbers, it was going to be hard to convince a locksmith to open a strange house on a pinky promise that it was ours.

Finally, after figuring out what window to break, the girl called us back and we were able to free our keys! We drove over to the house, walked around and figured we'd scoot over to the grocery store to pick up some staples to tide us over. $96 and a redbox movie later, we were ready to go! We turned right out of the parking lot and the blue lights start flashing.

AWESOME.

I was digging around through the glove box looking for the registration (which, since it's a company car, I'm not even sure it had been put in Hubs' name yet) and we were both trying desperately to figure out what law we'd broken after coming to a complete stop and driving 5 mph. Turns out, when Hubs had his oil changed that day, they hit a reset button and triggered his automatic lights so they don't come on any more. WHEW! He made sure we got the lights on, waved and said, "Welcome to Florida!" and we were off.

PaPa and Ma lent us their 2 twin air mattresses, and we bought a crackling duraflame log, so we were ready to spend our first night in the new house. We blew up the beds, got the fire going, plugged in my computer and were ready to watch a movie and relax. However, we had forgotten pillows and blankets. Oh well! It can't be that bad!

I fell asleep very early into the movie, but woke up at some point to Hubs saying (or I thought he said, anyway), "Move over, my mattress deflated." I'm not sure our two kids could share a twin air mattress comfortably much less the two of us, so needless to say, that first night's sleep was not the greatest. But I just thought about how much nicer our 32 year-old mattress was going to feel in the morning. Well, imagine my surprise when my alarm went off to glance over and see Hubs' mattress FULLY inflated. I asked him what the heck he was doing on my mattress and he said, "No, I didn't say it was deflated, I said it felt like it was deflatING." Ugh.

We made a quick trip to Starbucks and loaded up on espresso. We met the truck at 8 AM and worked non-stop until 5. We somehow managed to get just under 4000 sq feet of stuff into a just over 2000 sq ft house, and had about 80% unpacked and settled! We treated ourselves to dinner and were going to see a movie, but ended up back at the house and dead to the world before 8 PM!

And, as if we didn't have enough "stuff" in the house already, we spent Monday driving all over looking for two additional pieces of furniture and after finding them, treating ourselves to a new mattress and boxspring (Merry Christmas to us and thank you Costco!).

We tried to make up for lost time on Tuesday and finish getting everything in place. I had a job interview at 2:00, so was watching the clock. At about 11:00 AM, as we were changing out a ceiling fan in Nugget's room, the power went out. We called to report it (after I totally blamed Hubs) and found out there was a tree down and they had no clue when power would be restored. And there I stood in a t-shirt, scrub bottoms having not showered. And I needed to be clean and pretty in 1.5 hours.

The good thing about having a husband who's lived out of a hotel for the past 2 months is you can call and get a room for an hour with little to no problem. I checked into the Hampton Inn at noon, showered, got dressed and thought about calling in sick to the interview and just taking a nap in the luxuriously quiet room, packed my stuff and checked out at 1 PM. The marathon interview ended at 5, and it took me 20 minutes to get on the interstate. Not because traffic was bad, just because I kept missing the ramp. Home for 40 minutes, we loaded the car and were on the road.

LONGEST CAR RIDE EVER. We were both SO tired, but were pulling off the interstate at midnight. That's when I looked at Hubs and said, "You did get my green suitcase out of the closet, right?"

Umm no....

"But that's the suitcase I brought outside, wasn't it?!!"

"No, that was mine! You didn't get yours?!"

"I thought that WAS mine!"

So as I type, I am literally wearing Mom Jeans (as in my mom's jeans) and am thankful we threw all of our dirty clothes in a giant trash bag to wash here.

We're hoping when we welcome the kids and pup home, there will be a little adventure.

Eh, nobody's dying.

We're closing in on the last few days here, and since the weather outside is frightful fabulous and snowy, we've been doing play dates at the bookstore. The one on Monday was so fun, the girlies decided they wanted an encore yesterday. So as soon as Strip got off the bus, she changed into her ballet clothes, I whipped her hair into a bun and we were off! The moms grabbed a cup of coffee in the cafe, then we headed back to the kids' area to play. Nugget went straight for the train table and the girls hit the books.

And it was time for me to get some sweet baby lovin! Friend Mom (FM) has an adorable baby boy who was born in October and I take every opportunity I can to get that sweet baby sugar.

I was standing up next to the trains, swaying back and forth (because you just HAVE to do that when you are holding a t-tiny baby) when an angry, older lady, came barreling past us to the computer to look up a book for a customer. I kindly stepped out of her way and continued chatting. The girls came over closer to us, and Strip knelt down to look at a book on one of the displays. Angry Lady started walking back to the customer and tripped over Strips slightly extended stabilizing leg. She caught herself, and turned to give us all the angry eye. I quickly apologized (not that it was our fault she wasn't aware there were CHILDREN in the CHILDREN'S section) and told Strip to watch her feet.

That was not enough.

Angry Lady turned to walk away, stopped and turned back to us. Glaring, she was desparatly trying to think of something to say. Unable to, her gaze shifted to the kids' sized picnic table where the girls had set up a Pinkalicious and dragon tea party with about 9 of the mini stuffed animals. BINGO!

"NO! NO! You need to clean this up! YOu can't do that! People can't even get to the table because of that mess NO NO NO!!!"

And she stormed away.

I was dumbfounded. We were the only ones in the back of the store, aside from the 86 year-old customer Angry Lady was assisting, and I'm pretty sure if she wanted to sit and read, she was going to opt for a comfy chair in the adult section over folding herself into the pint-sized picnic table. And it's not like we were leaving. We were sitting there, reading, drinking our coffee, enjoying the afternoon. Now before you start yelling, yes, I've worked in retail, and I know there is NOTHING more infuriating than setting something up only to have kids (or adults even) destroy it and leave. So, had she said, "Oh girls! Make sure you put those back, please," I would be fine, but YELL at MY baby? Oh no you didn't.

As she stormed away, I looked down to see a quivering lip. I quickly knelt down and assured Strip, "You did NOTHING wrong. That lady was not looking where she was going and tripped over YOU. And because she made a mistake, she had to find something to get mad at you about. You are NOT in trouble. That said, these are not your toys, so why don't you and buddy put all but two back."

Ooooh she rubbed me the wrong way! I looked back at FM and said, "Can you believe that woman?!"

I know. Nobody's dying.

I gave her a confused look, and she continued.

She went on to say that she thinks everyone should work in a nursing home or hospice care for a time in their life. It gives you a whole new outlook on your day. So after coming into work everyday to watch someone die and comfort grieving loved ones, retail stress just rolls off your back. 'OH! This display looks HORRIBLE!' Eh, you can fix that easily. 'These prices are WRONG!' We'll just re-do them. After watching someone struggle to take their last breath, you can pretty much deal with any bother in life.

So true.

Think before you type.

**I didn't take this picture. It's a google image from access Hollywood. There ya go**

I managed to snap a decent picture of the kids and Zoe for our Christmas card and didn't even need to photoshop it this year! As I was designing the card (and by designing it, I mean dropping my picture into pre-made cards online), I was trying to think of some way to combine moving announcement with the card.

I've got it! Adorable picture of the kids and dog, ribbon running across the bottom middle of the card with the phrase, "We'll be (in a new) home for Christmas!" an obvious play on "I'll be home for Christmas." However, on second glance, it looked more like an announcement that HUbs and I were shipping the kids and new dog off as a packaged deal to a new home and we were done with them.

Think before you type!

On a similar note, Hubs has been back and forth, so we haven't been able to watch Glee together. A week or so ago, Gwyneth Paltrow was on and did one of Hubs' favorite (as of recently) songs, "F-You," or as they cleaned it up, "Forget you." The more Hubs would sing it, the more it got stuck in my head, so when GP Gleeked it up (and if you missed it, you can see it HERE) I immediately thought of Hubs (who was in some random city the night it aired).

Tonight, a friend posted the video on her facebook page. After listening to it on a loop, I thought, "Oh! I don't think Hubs ever saw it!" So, instead of emailing him the above youtube link, what did I do? Posted it on my page with the caption, "This is for you, Hubs!"

Hmmmm. Who dedicates the song, "Forget you!" to her husband via Facebook?! Just so you all know, that was NOT an announcement of our relationship status. It was just me, failing to think before I typed.

Off to download the Glee 4 soundtrack!

Nugget says the darndest!

These are Martha Stewart's cupcakes. You can learn how to make them HERE. I didn't make these or take the picture.

But, I DID pick Nugget up from school today and noticed the remnants of a bakery box of cupcakes on the pickup table. We got in the car and were chatting about his day when I said,

Me: Hey buddy! What did you have for snack today?

Nugget: Cupcakes!!

Me: Ohhh That's special! Was it someone's birthday?

Nugget: Yes it was my friend JESUS' birthday!

I had no idea he was in their class!

Anyway, we head to the outdoor mall (because it was snowing, and I wanted to walk around a little) and were heading to a store where I wanted to check out something for the kids for Christmas. We get to the entrance and Nugget stops and says, "Hey! I can read that sign! It says, 'Balls!'"

Close buddy. Close.

Felix is back!

Felix is our Elf on the Shelf and he arrived back at our house on Monday. The kids were SO excited to see him, and I was excited to see the, "Shhh! Felix is watching!" behavior that inevitably follows.

While Felix did bring the kids a couple of surcees, he seemed to have left his magic behavior wand at the North Pole. So, Felix did what any good elf would do, laid down the guilt trip.

Because of the move, we weren't really going to be able to decorate for Christmas, but Monday night, while the kids were asleep, Felix filled the house with Christmas cheer (and decorations!). The kids awoke to find Felix atop a Christmas tree on the mantle, and with him was a note. Felix explained that the first report he had to give Santa was not so great, but he told the big guy all about our stressful Thanksgiving and upcoming move, and he and Santa agreed that they needed a little Christmas cheer in the house. He also asked that the kids sign the back of the note to confirm where they would be spending Christmas so that he could submit his paperwork to elf relocation and meet us at PaPa and Ma's.

So, last night, the kids signed their names and went to bed. Nugget went to bed easily, Strip, not so much. Overtired, over stuffed with dinner, she screamed and yelled about anything she could think of, "I need another book! This pillow isn't right! I can't see out my window if it snows! AHHHHHHHH!" Lovely. Hubs was packing for another road trip, so I was hanging out upstairs with him watching last week's Glee episode. I was about to go to bed when I remembered that my blood pressure meds (yes, I'm really 72) were downstairs. Hubs said he had to go downstairs in a minute anyway, so he'd get them.

No, it's fine, I have to move Felix anyway.

I'll do it!

So Hubs finds my drugs and comes back upstairs. We go to bed and he gets up to leave before the crack of dawn. A few hours later, I wake the kids up, we make our beds, get dressed and get ready to find Felix. Hubs ALWAYS finds the best spots for him.

Guess where he was?

Still on top of the tree. Holding the note. I text Hubs is Felix Fail, and quickly try to cover.

Well, Felix only has a certain amount of time to get to the North Pole and back. Maybe he was waiting until you settled down last night so he could give Santa a GOOD report, and missed his opportunity to leave and get back. So he just stayed?

Strip sighed and said, "here we go again..." Thinking she meant, "LIES LIES LIES!" I asked her to elaborate.

"Here we go again. Another day trying to be on our best behavior."

Whew!

Right at that moment, Hubs called, and as he was talking to Strip they discussed Felix's non-movement. I could hear Hubs saying something about how he left SUPER early, in the middle of the night even, and he SAW Felix coming back down the chimney. Ugh, we have GOT to get our stories straight. After they got off the phone, Strip filled me in on the Felix spotting.

Me: Well, that makes sense. If Felix was coming back in when Daddy was leaving, he probably got scared and just hopped right back on that tree, not having enough time to get to a different spot. And then I bet he was scared to move because he didn't know when we'd be coming downstairs.

Strip: Yeah, and he probably didn't have enough time after giving Santa that looooonng report about how we were acting up in the restaurant last night, and then me not going to sleep, so I bet he just brought the note back and will give it to whoever tonight when he goes back.

Me: You are exactly right.

Whew! That was a close one!

Thanking God for road blocks

Hubs and I married in April of 2004, and to say our life has been a whirlwind would be an understatement. I've always thrived in a chaotic, stress-filled life. Growing up, I was involved in as many extracurricular activities I could pack into a 7-day week. In college, I took as many hours as possible, while working at a local jewelry store and doing other random stuff like coaching a girls soccer team or singing for a local church in a quartet.

When Hubs and I started dating, I could see our life plans falling into place. We'd chat about life and love, and I knew happily ever after would be a breeze with him. The Monday after Father's Day, I awoke to the worst stomach pains of my life (no, this is not an "I didn't know I was pregnant" story, I promise). After being admitted to the hospital and running some tests, an emergency appendectomy was in order. Hubs rushed into town to be with me during my recovery.

He apparently was also asking Papa (then, just my dad), for my hand in marriage. A few days later, while still under the haze of pain killers, on one knee by my make-shift bed in the playroom of my parents' house, Hubs asked me to marry him. I had never really picture what my proposal would look like, but THIS for sure wasn't it!

We make plans, God laughs.

The following week, Hubs went back to work in his sales territory. We knew his company was making cuts, but figured he was safe. I mean, a company who makes its money on sales HAS to keep its salesmen, right? Wrong. Not even a week after I said YES, Hubs found out that managers were being moved down to sales, and the sales guys were out. Now wedding planning was put on the back burner as we took a deep breath and prayed for something to work out. I had no idea we'd be looking at in sickness and in health, good times and bad, richness and poor all in the same week (and 9 long months before we even made it to the alter!).

We make plans, God laughs.

Hubs found a good job and started the day of our engagement party. A few months later, we married in a beautiful ceremony, surrounded by family and friends. We spent our wedding night at the Four Seasons and flew to Mexico for our relaxing honeymoon. We arrived at our all inclusive resort and settled quickly in to our sun and fun routine. The second night, while enjoying a Japanese influenced dinner, Hubs had a few sushi rolls. Hubs then spent the following four nights romantically hugging the toilet in our room, while I sat in the in-room jacuzzi watching the Simpson's en espanol to drown out the sounds of Hubs' vomiting while pondering if I was going to have to take him to a Mexican hospital while fearfully envisioning him dying on our honeymoon. I had never really pictured what our honeymoon would look like, but THIS for sure wasn't it!

We make plans, God laughs.

A few days stateside, Hubs was 20 lbs lighter, but feeling better. We started our new life in a new town and started making plans for the future. I was dragging my feet looking for a job, hoping Hubs would be promoted to open his own office in a different location. We enjoyed being newlywed, going to dinner whenever we pleased, visiting friends and family and decorating our tiny house. While making plans for the future, we decided a tour of Europe was in order (especially considering I got slighted on the whole honeymoon thing), and we made the bold statement that we wouldn't have kids until we'd done Europe together. What came next? Two pink lines (well, actually 10 pink lines. I was convinced I was getting false positives).

We make plans, God laughs.

We welcomed Strip into the world in May (13 months after we got married, for those trying to do the math). I was feeling my way through being a new mom, and we were still waiting for that promotion. Hubs finally had enough and started looking for other jobs. He gave himself the deadline, saying if he had not found a new, good job by x, he was just going to quit and we'd move back to his hometown where he could farm with his dad. I've never prayed so hard in my life! I was standing in a Babies R Us bathroom, changing diapers with Alaska buddy when I got the call that Hubs got THE job, and we were heading to south Florida.

After suffering from sticker shock while house hunting, we found a place to call home and began feeling our way through our new normal as a family of three in SWFL. We celebrated Strip's first birthday and planned our first trip to Disney World. The discussion of kid number 2 came up and we starting thinking about expanding our family. Apparently, that's all we have to do, because we were soon staring at two pink lines, again (actually this time, it was four pink lines and the digital read out saying "Pregnant"). I had JUST accepted a job. We were just getting things settled.

We make plans, God laughs.

A long, vomiting 36 weeks later, Nugget arrived. This c-section was going to be different. I requested a mirror so I could watch and eagerly anticipated going to recovery with my tiny baby boy. After a quick hello over the blue drape, Nugget was taken into another room and we waited. And waited. And waited. He was not breathing well, so instead of wheeling us to recovery together, he was whisked up to the NICU and I was taken up to my room without my baby.

At this point, I've gotten the gist. I'm not making plans.

We busted Nugget out of the NICU a few days later, and thankfully, he's been fine, overcompensating for his quiet, still start in life by never stopping! Shortly after his first birthday, we got the news that we were moving up to corporate. And even thought I KNOW I said I wasn't making plans, this was something I had been envisioning since Hubs took the job. We found our house, our church, Costco, Trader Joes, friends and friends who were more like family. I slowly started to let my guard down. We were nearing the two-year mark on living there.

We started planning.

Planning for our future there. Planning on how Nugget would be riding the bus in a few years. Planning Strip's first performance in the Nutcracker next December. Planing for winters to come by buying winter coats a little on the big side. Planning for that European vacation. Planning on how we'd re-do the kitchen. Planning.

So it really should have come as no surprise when we had to put our house on the market almost two years to the day that we closed on it. I put on my brave face for the kids, focused on all of the positives for us, our family, our life.

But I was mad. Sad. Bitter. As my mother would say, I had my butt on my shoulders. We had it all planned out! WHY are we having to do this AGAIN. I once thrived in chaos and commotion, but I have kids. I wanted stability. For once, I wanted to do something to our current home, not impulse buy another one.

As the shock wore off, I've started to look forward to this move. This was going to be good. This was going to be good for HUbs and I as a couple and good for the kids. We spent last weekend with Hubs' brother and sisters and all the baby cousins. I smiled thinking about how many memories the kids would now have with their cousins instead of the few scattered memories mixed in with holiday travel.

We took a road trip to our Next Stop so the kids could see their schools and the new house. We were on our way back and were in the middle of nowhere. We were stopped at a light, and I was fixated on the car next to us. It had broken down and was on the shoulder. Two t-tiny dogs were playing next to the car and a tow truck was preparing to load it onto the large bed. I caught the light change out of the corner of my eye along with the steady crawl of a Mac truck pulling through the intersection in front of us, and continued to watch the puppies hoping they wouldn't run out in the road and debating whether to roll down my window and tell the lady sitting in the passenger side to put down her cigarette and pick up the dogs.

That's when I heard the crunch.

We looked around and noticed the blazer on our left was now scooted into the intersection and an older gentleman driving a sedan had plowed into the back of him. And I mean PLOWED. No breaks squealing, no swerving, just full speed impact. We made sure the man was ok, and the tow truck quickly went to work clearing the cars. We continued on our way. About two hours later, my neck was still hurting just thinking about the wreck when it hit me.

Thank God for the blazer.

Had that Blazer not been waiting at the light, that older man would have continued into the intersection at full speed, hitting the mac truck, head on, more that likely killing him instantly. And while I'm sure the driver of the Blazer wasn't thinking he was at the right place at the right time, I'm glad he was. Thank God for that road block.

And that got me thinking. The road my life, our lives, have taken has not been without it's own roadblocks. Illness, job loss, unexpected children, moves. All things we didn't plan on, but hit head on. And while I'm still not doing cartwheels about this change in our life, I'm trying to have a new appreciation for it. What would we miss if this didn't happen? What will we experience in the coming years? What new joys will we encounter?

When we head back home, we'll be embracing these last few days. Our good-byes will not be without tears, and it will not be easy to follow that giant truck. But as we thank God for our road blocks, I'm not planning for anything , just praying for happiness in our new normal. And while life has showed me that we make plans and God laughs, one thing I also know is that when we pray, God always answers.

Super moms

Yup! This is an actual iphone case available at Cafepress.com.

One of the things I love most about being a mom is listening in on other moms' knowledge sharing. Today, I got another slice.

Three Super moms were standing around chatting about Evil School and how their precious babies are now always sick.

Mom 1: I KNOW it's the school that's making him sick. We don't go ANYWHERE!

Mom 2: You know you're right. We don't go anywhere either. It MUST be the school. All those germs!

Mom 3: Ugh. Tell me about it. We don't go anywhere either, and SuperKid has been sick twice this year.

Ok, pause. You don't go anywhere? ANYWHERE? You child has never sat in a cart at Target? Grabbed a sucker out of the sucker basket at the grocery store? Sat in a highchair at a restaurant? Set foot in a public restroom? Played at a park?

I see a problem right there.

So they continue to enthusiastically nodded at each other about how the real world is slowly killing their babies. At that very moment, SuperMom 1's kid stuck his head in a trash can. Entire head. In the can. And as if it couldn't get any better, SuperMom 2's kid picked up a random shoe and LICKED the bottom of it!

But school is totally the problem.

As a side note, when we pulled into the parking lot, Nugget unbuckled, leaned over my seat and as I turned to see what he wanted, he let loose a juicy sneeze right in my eye. Immune systems hard at work!