Missing milestones

We've lived in Robertsdale for 19 days. Yesterday was the very FIRST time I'd been away from the girls. I was only gone for 1 hour and 15 minutes (VBS meeting) and OF COURSE during those 75 minutes that I was away I missed a milestone.

Audrey's first "use the potty" milestone!!!!!!!!!

Good for you, little Audrey! But next time please reach these milestones when Mommy is at home instead of on the rare occasions that I'm not with you. I'd appreciate it, thanks!

Today, seeing as how I've been going crazy at home, Matt sent me off to find somewhere to read and WIFI on my own. Since libraries are closed it took me awhile to find somewhere to do that. I'd been driving around Baldwin county for 1 hour (extremely frustrated by this time) only to receive a phone call informing me that I'd missed milestone #2.

pardon the pun

YAY!

I had another long and not so great day today. Although tonight has been pretty good! Right now I'm sitting on the patio and enjoying the rain. It's the perfect amount of rain (no storms for me THANK YOU!) AND I've got a good WIFI connection outside (we're not planning on paying for service until the fall when Matt needs reliable internet service for school) AND Matt cooked dinner tonight AND Matt cleaned up from dinner tonight AND the girls fell asleep pretty easily AND the breeze is making me a little chilly (what a refreshing change!) AND the armadillo must be hiding out from the rain b/c I've been out here for 45 minutes and heard nothing from him. YAY!


umm yeah - before I could hit 'publish' I heard Audrey crying, but I'm just going to let Matt deal with that too. Don't judge me.

:)

fun stuff

I've got the Dora panties.



I've got the ready and sort of willing 2 year old.



And as of today I'm (apparently) ready to start housebreaking her.

This & That Thursday

* Matt was gone from Tuesday morning until Wednesday night with a church event. It was a long 2 days! We visited a few playgrounds, couponed for some free body wash, and watched a good bit of Barney.

* My Dad called me Tuesday morning to ask me a favor. During the conversation he wound up asking me how things were going settling in. After my tearful response of, "Matt and the girls are doing ok, but I... I... I'mnotsogreat,butIcan'ttalkaboutit.Let'schangethesubject" Dad willingly changed the subject. I did, however, receive this delivery the next morning from him and Lisa. He said he had wanted to do something for me, but wasn't sure what to do from so far away. Thanks y'all!


* I keep losing things this week. The Barney DVD case wound up stuck under the couch, the mailbox key was washed and dried, and a few other little things have disappeared/reappeared. I feel like I can't focus on anything!

* My girls aren't the only ones that enjoyed the "Festival of Champions" Sunday night. A little girl from church enjoyed it so much her parents hosted a "Festival of Hayes" get together this morning. We all had a good time socializing with Hayes' family and friends!




* We have an armadillo that lives in the shrubbery in front of our apartments. Ick! Although, I'm glad I finally know what the rustling sound is!

Happy Thursday!

A nice Sunday afternoon

I had a pretty good day today. Yay!

As I dressed Audrey for church this morning, I pulled out a little hat that matched her outfit. I put it on her fully expecting her to yank the thing out immediately. I was so wrong! She loved it! She got annoyed with me when I took it off for a second to brush her hair, and she wound up wearing the hat the ENTIRE morning at church.

cutie!

After a nap (for everyone except Julia) we went to the "Festival of Champions." It was an outreach event sponsored by the Baldwin (county) Baptist Association. The afternoon was very hot, but we wound up all having a good time.

We jumped in the jumping house.



We got our faces painted.



We got offended when others passed us on the ladder up the slide.


We also popped lots of balloons (on purpose), played festivally games for candy, acquired a few new bracelets, ate hotdogs & popcorn & snow cones. WHEW!

But the girls weren't done yet. After the dinner break, we decided to go back and do some of our favorite things again...

We returned home just in time to bathe and then cuddle on the couch for a new episode of "Good Luck, Charlie" - our family's new favorite show.

It's been a rough week.
Rough, most definitely.
Most often my anxiety has been due to high feelings of loneliness and boredom.

:)

But, things have been going pretty well the last 24 hours or so. I'm crediting the fact that Matt has spent the last day putting picture frames and such up on our walls. Plus, he's been at home and therefore my feelings of loneliness have been lessened.

After dinner last night we headed out to the pool for a swim. Julia LOVED this b/c it meant that she didn't have to wear sunscreen. I was surprised to find that we had the place to ourselves. Perhaps everyone else had something else to do on their Friday nights.

We've been having the girls "practice" swimming floatie free during the first few minutes of every trip to the pool.


I also wanted to get a picture of Julia. Here's all I could get when I asked her to pose.


Surprising her mid turn of the head though produced a much prettier photo. Of course, she got mad at me immediately after this pic was taken. The child isn't into the camera right now.

This & That Thursday

* All of you know that I'm easygoing, carefree, and laid back. Therefore, the transition to living in a new place has been totally and completely easy.

Ok, no it hasn't. Not at all. I won't go into detail, but let's just say that my sister-in-law very sweetly emailed me this week to check on how we were adjusting to our new place and she received back a tad bit more than the standard "we're doing fine" response. Thanks for checking on us, Amy!

*The girls have enjoyed exploring the area. We've checked out Robertsdale's city playground, ventured out of town in order to go to Walmart, frequented the swimming pool, revisited the library, met a few of the neighboring kids, and played in a few sprinkles of rain.


We've also enjoyed some cake.


* The most exciting thing that happened today was our finding the long lost remote control. Last summer (seriously 8-9 months ago at least) we misplaced this thing and consequently had to change the TV channels manually (how 1960's). Fortunately, while looking for a missing DVD case (that I never did find) I turned up a couch cushion and there was the remote. I guess it got "all shook up" in the move!


* Moving towns also means that I am having to figure out the new area's Publix couponing policy. I know everyone reading this is very interested in knowing that the Publix we went to this week does not double coupons. BOO!! My Green Giant Steamers were a whopping $.69/$.70 this week instead of $.19/$.20! :( **But, the new Publix definitely has a longer list of competitor coupons that they accept. That will be nice!

* I'm trying to think of something interesting and entertaining to type up for your enjoyment, but absolutely nothing is coming to me. I'm drawing a blank. So, adios blog people!

Couple of pics

First, I'd like to mention that we're all still pretty tired. I'm not even sure why I'm so exhausted since I haven't really had to do much manual labor in the last few days. I've been going to bed early, and the girls have been falling asleep whenever they get still. Both girls took naps on the couch yesterday. That is extremely rare for them.




This morning, we decided that we needed to leave the apartment complex. Our stop? The library of course! Julia insisted on wearing a little tiara. She thought she was extra gorgeous in it. She stared at herself in the mirror for 15 minutes before we left. The teenage years are promising to be rough at our house.

snakes and china

Matt had the nerve to say yesterday, "In all our moves(5), we've never broken any dishes or anything." Well, you can guess exactly what I found later that afternoon...


*sigh*

Oh well.

We're getting settled into our new place. There are still a million boxes everywhere, but that's ok. We'll get to them!

Since change can be hard, I was a little worried about the girls going to sleep last night, but it wasn't a problem! I didn't hear a peep out of either of them after they went to bed. I snuck into Julia's room to get a picture of her with a book on her face, but then I saw the fake snake that has become a 5th member of our family so I had to make sure he was in the picture too.


Happy weekend to everyone!

This & That Thursday

*Moving Day 2 went well. We cleaned... and cleaned... and cleaned... but now we're done YAY!!!!

* I cried (just a teeny bit) when I took a last quick walk through into the girls' pink (Audrey) and purple (Julia) rooms. I also cried as I locked the backdoor and headed to the car.

* Then I got over it. I might have loved the time we spent in our house - but I've taken the most important part of our HOME with us.

* Katie's head almost fell off this week. Who's Katie?? Well, in case you haven't learned from previous posts - this is Katie.

Don't worry, Dr. Meme has already performed surgery.

* I'm really hoping that with our multiple carloads to the dump and to Goodwill that we'll have downsized enough to fit into our apartment.

* After a long day of cleaning, I took the girls to the hotel pool.

* Today, we're driving and moving in. This should be the more "fun" stuff. It will involve settling in instead of uprooting. Plus, unpacking is always so much easier and faster than packing. Don't you think??

* Thank you, Danny and Jimmie Kay, for coming down to help out this week!!!!!! We would be lost without the 2 of you, and I (seriously) needed your calming influence. High strung??? me?? what? No Way!

* I'm not sure when we'll get internet service set up so my facebooking and blogging might be a little low this next little bit. Thanks for reading!

Moving - Day 1

I've been attempting to sleep for the last hour, but it didn't work. Since we're in a hotel tonight, Matt and I had to go to bed extra early so that the girls would actually fall asleep at a decent hour. Matt has had no problems getting that extra rest, but here I am wide awake. I thought I'd share some pictures of today's activities.

Before we could actually load the truck, the girls had to go up and down the ramp a few (dozen) times.



Then Audrey tried out the "Mama's Attic" to see just how high up it was.



I wanted a family pic in front of the house. Here's a closer up shot. Please excuse the way I look - it is moving day, remember??!!?! Can you see the sneer in Julia's face? She doesn't like staged pictures to be taken of her.



The girls loved performing on these mini "stages." These big trucks have a wonderful echo!

They also got a kick out of using the water hose as a microphone.

Tired of good-byes

Yesterday, we were thrilled to be able to spend an afternoon and evening with close friends before leaving Phenix City. We swam, we ate, we watched baseball (their nephew plays for the Cardinals) and we just enjoyed some time with these people. I have considered this family to be "friends" of ours for a few years now, but in the last 10 months I have realized that they were even more special to us than I had previously given them credit for. As soon as Matt resigned at Summerville, we dropped off of the majority of our "friends" radars. How nice it has been to have a few nearby that we still feel close to. I will most definitely miss the Mobley family.

BUT... with that said...

I'm ready to get this move over with. I've had a million emotions over this move... dread, anticipation, excitement, fear, etc... I'm tired of the roller coaster! I'm also tired of boxes all over my house! I'm tired of playing the same 2 games with Julia and Audrey b/c all the other games are packed up. I'm tired of not having all of the dairy/produce items I want on hand. I'm tired of saying "goodbye" to people and places. I'm just plain tired! I want to get settled down, and I want to start feeling at home in our new home.

Danny and Jimmie Kay (Matt's parents) are driving in tomorrow to help us this week with the move. I can't wait until they get here. I might be ready for this move to be over, but I'm still full of anxiousness. Having family around makes me feel calmer.

Too many toys!

My girls have alot of toys! Some of their toys I enjoy. What can be cuter than little girls playing "mommy"?????? Granted, my girls don't need 6 baby dolls each, but they are totally hooked on their favorite babies. Julia's Katie is on the left. Audrey's Brody is on the right. Don't these babies look... loved??



Then there is dress up! I LOVE having the girls use their imaginations by putting on dressup clothes and shoes. What a classic sound it is to hear little girls clickety-clack around in their princess high heels. Excuse the cardboard moving box underneath our dressup chest. :)



BUT THEN...

There are some toys that I want to have "disappear" during our move. One of them is this Cootie game. Whenever we try to play this game it winds up being played for approximately 57 seconds and somehow in the short time frame, the little beans get strewn all over the floor.

BYE-BYE BEANS!!!


I was also planning on having the Polly Pockets disappear during our move. I'm now rethinking that decision. Since soooo many of their other toys have been packed up recently the girls have come to rely heavily on these little mini-Barbie thing-a-ma-jigs. Our Polly Pocket basket is now pulled out multiple times a day. I guess we'll be keeping them after all.

This & That Thursday

* Thank you to Walmart, Starbucks, Lifeway, and Barnes & Noble for the cardboard boxes. It would be a travesty to have to actually pay for packing supplies.

* I bought PopTarts at Publix today (BOGO + coupon + our need for easy go-to breakfasts/snacks this next week)... I'm rather proud that a minute ago Julia said, "Can I have one of those thingies with sprinkles?" I eventually realized that she meant the aforementioned Pop-Tarts. Kudos to us for having children that aren't familiar w/ PopTarts! (We'll skip out talking about all the unhealthy things they ARE familiar with...)

* My mom made a Facebook photo album today titled "Hand-me-downs." In it she put pictures of Julia and then pictures of Audrey wearing Julia's old clothes. Apparently, she finds this humorous; I just find it to be sound financial management. :)
***UPDATE*** Mom has since contacted me and said that she made this album in order to look at the differences in the girls when they were at the same age NOT b/c she found my using hand-me-downs humorous.

* If anyone is in the Phenix City area Wednesday (and feels a compulsive need to clean) then stop by and help us get ready to SELL THIS HOUSE!

Breathing easy

I've been freaking out lately. I'm sure everyone reading this is shocked over that since normally I deal very **cough** sensibly with the stresses in life. :)

This week, my worries have centered around the sale of our home. Ex. How long will it take? How much will we be able to sell it for? What will our finances look like after this is all over? Etc... I was even reduced to tears yesterday afternoon b/c of the stress I'd put on myself. Julia was extremely sweet in the way she comforted me. She has also been very protective of me since then. This morning, Matt and I were joking about something and Julia (not understanding that we were kidding around) said, "Daddy, stop it. We don't want Mommy to *sniff sniff* like she did yesterday." Yes, the child actually mimicked me crying with a few "sniff sniffs!" It was very sweet and funny.

After lunch today, the girls and I snuggled on my bed and watched an episode of Dora the Explorer. I got to thinking right then about my "stresses." Yes, moving and selling a house are a big deal,but... they're really not all that humongous of a deal. Some of you that regularly read this blog have gone through times in your lives that were (are) so much harder!

My parents and my in-laws are all healthy. My husband and I have both been blessed with our health as well, and my children... well, I cannot begin to imagine the pain that some of you have experienced reguarding children. I haven't had to deal with much of anything in comparison to what others have been asked to handle. My load is light, and yet I still struggle to carry it. Not today! Today, I'm going to "let tomorrow worry about itself." Today, I'm going to pack, plan, and prepare our family for this upcoming change in our lives, and I'm going to appreciate the fact that my struggles are wonderfully few.

Good-bye Storytime!

During the last 2 years, the girls and I have rarely missed a preschool story hour at the library. We've especially come to depend on the socialization it provided us during the last 9 months or so. Since we're moving next week, today was our last day with our library friends.

Thanks Mrs. Jill and Mrs. Gypsy for the pretty cake!

Do you want to play a game??

My guess is that we'll have MANY conversations such as this in the next week!


Julia: You wanna play a game?

Me: (hesitantly) Ummm ok, which one?

Julia: a puzzle?

Me: Sorry, they're all packed up. What about Uno?

Julia: NO! How about Whack-a-Mole?

Me: Sorry, it's packed up. What about Guess Who?

Julia: Candyland?

Me: Packed.

Julia: Zippity?

Me: Packed

Julia: Bingo?

Me: Packed.

...

Julia: (in the saddest voice she can muster) Well, What am I going to play??

Me: How about UNO or Guess Who??

Julia: (sighs) Guess Who, but I want to be red.

Terri Blackstock

This week I FLEW through Terri Blackstock's Redemption Series. I had never read this author before, but I'm thrilled that someone recommended these books to me! That's why I decided to mention them on here. I have a hard time finding Christian fiction that actually entertains me, but the 4 "Light" books definitely did! Are there any Fiction books that you would recommend to me???

New hairbows

Last week, I actually won one of the giveaways that I tend to enter in blogworld. I won a $20 egift certificate to Flowerzinherhair.com!I ordered 2 pair of "natural" looking flowers, and (of course) I chose to order light pink and white b/c those colors would likely be used most often. I was also thrilled to know that shipping on my $20 order was free! 4 hairbows for absolutely nothing??? Fabulous!! When they arrived today the girls and I tried them out immediately.

Pink is definitely my fave!


I asked for a smile.


I asked for a silly face.


Then the girls started wrestling!


**I was not asked to help promote this site! I just wanted to share about our goodies.