"There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark." - Helen Keller
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck
You may never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.- Unknown
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow' ~Helen Keller
Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."- Dr. Seuss
"Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it."
"God doesn't give children with disabilities to strong people: He gives them to ordinary, everyday people, then He helps the parents to grow stronger through the journey. Raising a child with special needs doesn't TAKE a special family, it MAKES a special family."Author Unknown
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go – Abraham Lincoln
Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~ Benjamin Franklin
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle - Albert Einstein
The journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step
Sometimes in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives you a fairy tale
Where there is great love, there are always miracles - Willa Cather
The Difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer
Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.
Be the change you want to see in the world
Don't tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big Your God is..........
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it
Fall down seven times - get up eight - unknown
Despite our differences, we sink or swim together
Life may not be the party we expected, but while we are here, we might as well dance
"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." -Confucius
We are always having fun here! Especially with two toddlers in the house. Sigh. They are getting more and more mischeivious every day. Finley is the worse of the two. She will not stay off the stairs or out of the upstairs. She loves going up there now that she can open the doors. She is like having 6 kids in the house sometimes! But then there are days where she and Cainan play so nice together and stay out of trouble. I love those days!
Anyway, everyone is doing well. Cainan had a pediatrician visit yesterday. Nothing major. Tomorrow he is having a CT scan and is going to be sedated for it. He won't lay for them – not at all – so they are going to have to knock him out. So, he had to make sure he was healthy. And he is. I had he and Finley weighed, since I had them both with me. Cainan is 21 pounds, 13 ounces (very close to 22 pounds) and 34 inches long. And Finley is 21 pounds 15 ounces, and 33 ½ inches. So Cainan is taller by a little bit. They keep changing places – who is taller. I have a feeling that neither one of them are going to be very tall, or very heavy!
So tomorrow is the CT scan. We have to be there at 9am for a 10am sedation. Should be a fun morning. Not. We have to wake him up around 5:30am so that he can have clear liquids before 6am. Then he can eat when we get home. Let's hope it goes quickly and we are out of there by lunch time. He is going to be pretty mad. I am going and Mat is staying home with the girls.
Arlington is doing well. This weekend she is going for a sleep over at her best little friends house. She is so excited! She has slept over there before, but it was because Mat and I were at the hospital having Finley. So this is for fun this time. She can't wait. Then the next weekend we are having her little friend for a sleep over at our house. They are going to really miss each other when we go, so we are getting in a bunch of fun stuff before that happens.
Arlington got a chance to play with her little best Friend this past Sunday. We had her here all afternoon. They had a good time and I took a bunch of pictures, of course. They will be below. Cainan and Finley love having this little girl here too – they like to follow her around.
We didn't do much else this weekend. Mat went to a going away party for him on Saturday. It was during the baby's nap time so I stayed here. He and Arlington had a good time there. And Finley's big girl bed was delivered on Saturday. It is hanging out in the garage ready for the moving truck. The movers are going to be so happy that there is another piece of furniture to move! But I am glad we have it. It will be there for her in a few months when she is ready for it.
So that is about all to report. Oh, the septic tank! Yes, it was inspected and the report looks good overall. They took pictures and marked its placement so we will know from now on. I am waiting to speak to the inspector, but I think there are only one or two things that might need to be dealt with and they seem to be minor. Thank goodness for that! So we are glad to hear. The fun of country life. So I think we are finally coming to the end of the issues, and things are going to be kind of quiet for the next couple of weeks until we get there. At least I hope so! We are really looking forward to getting up there and into the house. We only have 17 more days until we leave Florida. Whoo hoo!
Hi there! So the newest on the house – more pictures to start with! Our agent was really sweet and went out and took more pictures of our house – inside and out – during the septic inspection. The only room she didn't get (and we didn't get either!) was the downstairs bathroom. But no worries – we will be there soon enough. I cannot remember what it looks like – how fast you forget the details. It will be fun to discover it all again when we move. I will include details about the pictures in this post so when you look at the pictures below, you have some narrative. I know you are very excited about that!
Before I get started on the blog I wanted to mention a very fun blog that I read that you should check out! She is giving away a basket full of Munchkin products that are really great for any mom with young kids! Her blog is NEW MOMMY RANT She has a great blog to read as well!
The kids are doing well. The babies have hit a new level of mischeiviousness. Is that a word? They have figured out how to open the doors in out house and now nothing is safe. We have a few door handle covers on, but I don't want to buy any more because we are soon going to move. We have door handles – not knobs. Our new house has knobs. Anyway, they are driving me crazy with going in and out. And Finley has taken to the game of slamming them and Cainan thinks it is funny. I am afraid someone is going to get their fingers caught! She will open the door and Cainan will be watching her, and they will giggle, and then she will shut it. I used to be able to just shut all the doors in the house and that kept them out – but no more. Hopefully they will not figure out the front door. I try to keep that one locked, so that helps.
So the little ones are getting wilder. They escape to the upstairs without me even knowing! They are very quiet climbers. I had to resort to gating the stairs again until they get past the “newness” of opening the doors in the upstairs. And having two of them who do it - ugh! Somedays it just seems like constant chaos at our house. Ebb and flow. Wait until we get to the new house! A whole new place to explore!
Arlington is doing well. We are still working on her books. I help her with the hard words and she reads the words she knows. She is getting them faster and faster – not having to think about them as much when she looks at them. Next will be teaching her to write them from memory. She is still getting upset with the move from time to time. She will say she will miss Florida, miss her friends, etc. That is understandable. (well, at least the friend part!) Then I will show her pictures of the new house and we will talk about Kindergarten and all is good again. Her favorite book series at the moment are the Rainbow Fairies books and Junie B. Jones. These are great series with tons of books! She loves when we read them to her, and they are actually pretty cute stories.
Arlington got her hair cut today. We had a fun time. We went to the “Sweet and Sassy Salon” which is a salon for little girls. It is where we had her birthday party. Today she got her hair cut pretty short – just because we are getting her bangs to grow in – her nails done, and nail art. They were running a great special, so we took advantage! She got glitter in her hair, and picked sparkly nail polish and got heart nail art and a ring, plus a free lollipop and balloon. She was a very happy girl. It is fun that she is getting old enough to do these fun things.
Today is a party for Mat – one of two going away parties. The next one is in a few weeks at our friend's house. So he and Arlington are going to that this afternoon. The party is right during the babies nap time, so we aren't going. I wish we could have gone! We are also having Finley's big girl bed delivered today. Since she and Arlington are going to be sharing a room, I wanted them to have the same bed. We bought Arlington's bedroom set down here in Florida at a local store. I checked on line and of course, this is the only place they sell this bed, so we need to get it before we leave. No biggie. We are just going to have it moved with the rest of our stuff! Finley will first spend a few months in her crib that we will convert to a toddler bed to get her used to that first. Then once she gets a little bigger, we will move her into the bigger bed. I wish we could have waited and bought it when we actually needed it, but this store doesn't ship out of state, so we had to get it now. Oh well. I am excited that they will have their matching beds. And we have all the other furniture we need, so that is that! And Cainan already has a whole bedroom set (bed, dresser and nightstand) so he doesn't need a thing!
I have had a very productive week. All of our local services have the date to be turned off, and all of our new services are set up to be turned on. So that is a big job done! I changed the address on most of our bills and magazines, and made a huge dent in my list! I am very proud of myself. I still have quite a few things to do, but they are minor.
So as for the septic tank – we had it inspected. The took pictures, found it (big plus!) and emptied it (yuck). The people who did all of this said that the results will be back next Monday night or Tuesday morning and then they will call and talk to me about the findings. The results were 50/50 unfortunately. 50% chance that everything is fine, and a 50% chance that it isn't fine. The septic tank should have been emptied and cared for every 5 years, and it has been 12 years and these folks never emptied it once. So, even thought the people dealing with the septic tank said they couldn't say anything, our agent felt that they think there is a problem with the tank from their findings. So it might need to be replaced, which is going to be a huge issue. If that is so, septic tank replacement can run several thousand dollars, and it is on the SELLER. These sellers are not going to like this, but they have to understand that they will not sell their house unless it is fixed. We will be insisting that it is fixed before we close on the house, or no deal. But I am jumping the gun. It could be fine. I just think the people emptying it were a little worried because it hasn't been emptied in so long. That can damage the system. So we will see. I am holding my breath until then. I love this house, and I know the sellers already have a new house that they have a contract on, so let's hope they do what they need to do - if it comes to that – to make the sale happen.
So that is my lesson for they day! Okay – so here are the picture explanations and below that are the pictures. Enjoy!!
1 - that is the septic guy. This is our front yard if you come down the stairs and look left. This isn't even close to where they thought the septic tank was. looks like they made a good mess. Annie said they had to remove three of our beautiful stones, but they saved them, so we can put them back. Our whole front has these beautiful stones. We were told that if they have to replace the tank, they will have to dig a lot of them up – that is going to be tragic. Let's just hope they are careful so we can keep them!
2 - this is a tree directly in front of our house - pretty flowers! It is as you are coming down the steps to the walkway.
3 – Our stairs to the second level. Anyway, I thought they were carpeted - I am glad to see they aren't because we are going to change the upstairs to hardwoods anyway. This is what you see immediately when you walk in the door. Down the hall is the kitchen. I hate the tile on the floor - we are going to change that eventually.
4 - coat closet to the left when you walk in the door. It is a big closet, and a little hallway. We talk about taking it out because we have yet another coat closet in the house. We are thinking of opening that wall to make another entrance to the family room. Right now you have to go down the hall, through the kitchen to get to the family room. But we will see. I am not sure about losing so much wall either.
5 - The office. Don't you love the French doors? Right now, where Annie (our agent) is standing to take the picture - is where there is an opening. It is what you see when you come in the house and look right. We are going to put a door in that doorway to make the office completely closed off. Probably another French door.
6 - The girls bedroom - just a different view. I think they will fit in here. Arlington wants to know if we are going to be changing the color soon.
7 - A different view of the master bathroom. I hate the wasted space where they have a mirror. But that is where they put a dormer. I don't know what I will do with that - maybe a nice hamper? Or install another counter? We will see. But you see the tub to the right, and next to that is the shower (behind the door, sort of - you just can't see it. It isn't directly behind that door. You get all the way into the room and the shower is in the corner and the tub right beside - kind of like we have now. It is a whirlpool tub! Yeah!
8 - Master bedroom. It is pretty big. They just have a giant bed in there at an odd angle. But it is not as big as we have now, but we definitely don't need that!
9 - Second bathroom upstairs. This lady loves duckies! It is decorated really cute for the kids, but I am not keeping the ducks. :)
10 - Cainan's room. This is where she has her twins. It is definitely the smallest of the three bedrooms, but no smaller than the kids bedrooms in our existing house. Cainan will have plenty of room in there. I didn't remember the foe painting. We will be changing that.
11 - Another view of the kitchen. It is a nice sized kitchen. It has a pantry that looks a lot like the custom one we had put in in our existing house. The refridgerator is also on that side. And there is a little bar area near the entrance to the family room. I like the corner cabinet with the window. We have that now. And you can't beat the stainless steel appliances! I just wish it was a gas stove.
12 and 13 - family room again. Yep - they still haven't cleaned. :) Looks like our house! But it is a nice size - I like the beams. They are leaving all the window treatments except one in the twins room. They are all blinds which are fine. We are going to put plantation shutters in little by little.
14 - Dining room. I am going to probably leave the paint color depending on what happens when she takes down the stuff on the walls. Hopefully she has left over paint. It is a nice neutral brown color. I like it. We liked a lot of their existing colors in the downstairs. But hopefully she takes the stuff over the sliding glass doors. I don't like that much.
15 - Another view of the tree - Annie loves that tree! This is looking toward our driveway
16 - Our side yard. It is 36 feet big, which is 16 feet bigger than our existing back yard! That is sad. So it is a nice size. But we are still going to plan on clearing a 1/4 acre or our 9 acres in the back to get a lot of space for the kids. It will be nice and flat. This is on the right side of the house, if you are facing the house. I am pretty sure they are taking the play structure. That is fine because I don't want to put our new one there anyway. The steps lead up to the deck. There are two sets of steps from the deck to the yard. No idea what is under the tarp.
17- -Up past the playhouse - still the side yard. You can see the back that we are going to have cleared - it is definitely sloped.
18 - The back of our house. I love the wood shingles on this house. Great character. The deck is a really nice size. It is long, so there is tons of room out there. Hopefully for a hot tub! Ha!
19 - Looking on the side yard again, back to the septic guys. Sigh. Did I tell you that the septic tank was no where near the original house plans said it was? Funny. I was glad to see it was in the front of the house, though. The well is in the back and you definitely don't want the septic tank near that for obvious reasons! But the plans now are marked where it is. But I will also always have these pictures in case we forget! :)
The rest of the pictures are pictures of the kiddos – you remember them, right?
OKay - so I read several blogs, and many people do "Thankful Thursdays" and so I thought I would to! I am such a follower. I don't normally blog on this day, but hey, change is good.
Anyway, here are the things I am thankful for today:
I am thankful for my children and husband. I sometimes don't appreciate how wonderful they really are and how greatful I am to have such a wonderful family
I am thankful for all of my brothers and sisters and in laws and parents. We have wonderful support and we all look out for each other.
I am thankful for our home and our new home! We feel so lucky that we are able to provide a stable, safe, environment for our children.
I am thankful for ice cream - just kidding. Well, I am, but I am just seeing if you are paying attention.
I am thankful for my health and the health of my family. We are very greatful that everyone is healthy and thriving.
I am thankful for adoption. There are so many children who would have very different lives if it wasn't for adoption and adoptive families.
I am thankful that God believed in Mat and I as parents. God gives us what we can handle and we trust in Him for that fact.
For all of you out there, take today and think about what you are truly thankful for.
I am sitting on my back porch as I write this soaking up the sunshine. It is another 80 plus degree day here in Florida. I am thinking about all the things I don't like about Florida, but I am going to miss the weather to an extent. Sure, next winter as I scrape ice off my car, and have to bundle the kids up in 40 layers of clothing to go outside, I will miss this sun! The kids have known nothing but wonderful weather - warm just about 365 days of the year here. Even when we lived in San Diego, we never really had a cold day. So this, after 7 years of nothing but warm, is going to be quite the change. Mat and I grew up in the north, but you do tend to forget how cold "COLD" really is.
Anyway, not much to report. We had a nice weekend. We got a lot done, and I had a good start to the week. I made a ton of phone calls yesterday, putting a small dent in my list of things to accomplish over the next month. I did find out today that our prudential relocation company will take care of calling all the places to turn off and on our electric, phone, cable, etc. for our old home AND new. How nice is that! That takes care of about 20 things on my list. That was very good news.
Today's fun project for our new house is called "find the septic tank". Yes, it is a little game that has been going on for about 5 days at our new home. Okay - for all of you who, like me, have no idea what that is, well - it is best it stays that way. This is not a fun topic to explain. But the hunt for it is kind of funny in a way! So, the current owners of our new home built the home and have not had to empty the septic tank since they moved into it. But as part of the escrow process we had a home inspection and we need to have a septic inspection. So the inspector went out last Friday and looked at the plans of the house and where it says the septic tank is. Well, it isn't there. Huh? Where is it you say? The owners have no idea. So down to town hall the agent went to get new plans. These plans say the septic tank is in the same spot. Hmmmmmm. Okay -so we are 2000 miles away thinking, well, now what? Now we are having a special inspector with special equipment that will locate this tank. I invision a torn up yard while they say, "nope, not here! Nope, not here either!" My agent assures me that this is not the case, but who knows. But it has been interesting. There are all of these new things we have to deal with. Having never lived in this small of a town or this country, we have oil heat (what?), septic tank (come again?) and well water (oh boy). But we are not alone. EVERYONE in the area that we are living has these items. I had to have quite the lesson in what they all meant.
So anyway, that is our latest. The home inspection went fine - nothing major. And so now we just wait for closing! We are getting all of the big stuff out of the way in the beginning.
The kids are doing great. Not much new to report. Finley and Cainan have little colds. Finley doesn't really feel like eating much and Cainan is whinier than usual. But it isn't too bad. Hopefully it will pass soon.
Tonight I am going out with my girlfriends. We are going to eat some yummy seafood - I can't wait! It is nice to go out with just the girls every once in awhile. This will probably be the last time I get to go out with these ladies sad!
I meant to post these yesterday, but I forgot! I have just a very few more picture of the inside of our new house. When we visited the homeowners were home, so I felt funny taking pictures. And they had a set of twins napping in one of the rooms, so I couldn't take pictures. And when we went back the second time - I forgot the camera! But we will be there soon enough.
Anyway, we have just a few pictures, and then there is a picture of the homemade ice cream place that is within WALKING distance of our new neighborhood. Whoo hoo! We ate there and it was AWESOME- so good. I will be eating there a lot!
And there are a few pictures of Arlington's kitty that we took on the trip. She was really excited that we were going to get our new house, so I took her favorite kitty along and took a few pictures in various places. It was fun. :)
We finally got our new camera and I took a lot of pictures over the last couple of days. I won't be posting them all, of course! But I put a nice selection below for all the grandparents that were going through withdraw! We were able to get this camera for FREE using our Sony points from our Sony credit card. We were very excited! We love getting free Sony stuff. :)
So we are busy in the swing of getting ready for our move. I even made one of my extensive lists of things to complete. It is quite long, but not daunting. Mostly minor stuff. I have a lot of short term memory problems due to my thyroid disorder (and old age) so I have to write down things as I think of them! There isn't anything pressing on the list – just the last minute things that come with a move. We are expert movers. This is our 8th change of address since we got married 10 1/2 years ago. I say it that way because we changed homes several times in the cities we lived in. This is out 4th state move. We have lived in Maryland, California, Florida, and now Connecticut. We only need to move to Washington and basically we have lived in the 4 corners of the USA! Ha! But this is hopefully our last move for a very, very, very long time.
Cainan had speech therapy on Thursday again this week. Now that we are done with our long weekend trips, he is back to his usual appointment days. Finley and I hung out in the hallway for most of the session and Cainan did great. He talked, and participated and even blew some bubbles! So that was progress. We only have three more sessions with the speech therapist before we leave. Then we will be starting over in a new place. Hopefully we can find someone close to home. Cainan is still talking a good bit. He hasn't really added any new words, but he does try new words when asked. And he is perfecting the ones he knows. So that is great. He has kind of learned the word “bear”. And he is working on his first 3 word sentence, “all done milk”. It kind of runs all together, but we get what he is saying. He is also getting good at saying the word “no” to his sisters. Before he would just kind of take what they were doing to him, but now he is fighting back a little. Not that they really ever listen to him saying no, but he is making the effort to get his way!
Finley is doing great. She got a little haircut thanks to her mother. I couldn't take the fine baby hair strands around her neck area any longer, so I took a pair of scissors to them and they are no more. She took it pretty well. She looks pretty cute! Yes, she looks a little like a boy, but her hair is neater! I think that now it will look thicker when it grows back in. BUT, I could be really wrong about that too. :) Finley is still talking up a storm. She is learning to sing the ABC song. She picks and choses the letters she chimes in. It is funny. She also loves to sing “Rock a Bye baby” She will sing those words over and over again, and then hum a little and say “top”, hum some more, “rock”, then Rock a Bye Baby again. She is funny. She loves to sing, and talk. That girl is a chatter box just like her big sister. Finley also loves to state the obvious “mommy's shoes”, “sissy's shirt”. When we sees things. It is her favorite game – guessing what things belong to whom. And she is in to pretending to go shopping. She will say, “go boppin'” and grab a bag and fill it up. She is funny. She will tell us bye and she will go “boppin”.
Arlington is doing great. We are working on her learning a first book. She knows so many words that I am just trying to work her through some of the hard ones in the book until she learns them by sight. She is having fun with that. She will be taking a Connecticut Kindergarten readiness exam this summer, so anyone out there that can give me some insight, I would love to hear! I am sure it is a no biggie, but I am curious. I know I have a few Kindergarten teachers who read the blog! She is having some emotional difficulties with the move. After we came back from our trip to Connecticut, we talked with her about where we were moving and she got very sad. She has a couple of really great little friends here, and she is very sad that she won't be seeing them on a regular basis. She has also been rehearsing for the Pre-K end of year program and they sing a song about leaving. She cries every time they sing it. She told her teacher she doesn't like that song because it makes her “sad a little bit”. Then she makes the most horrible frowny face. We know that we have to move, and actually this is the best time to move – before she starts school. But we do feel bad for her because she does understand what it means. So we try to talk about the positives. Her new room and new stuff she will be getting, Kindergarten (which means she is a big girl – very big deal to her), being close to her grandparents, getting new toys for the trip to Connecticut, a new playset in the backyard with things she likes on it -especially swings), and so on. Those things always cheer her up. And we know, as sad as it is, her memory is short. This trauma will soon pass and she will have new fun things to fill her days. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this is a permanent move for us so that the kids can grow up in the area where they started school.
Nothing much going on this weekend. Arlington played with her best little friend today. We are trying to make that a weekly weekend thing for her since we only have a few weeks left. And we are going to try and squeeze in a sleep over with this little friend before we go. They both have been asking weekly for that. It breaks my heart every time I see them together lately knowing how short their time together really is. They could not be better friends, and I know that if we were staying here, they would be life time best buds. You can just tell when kids are going to click for life. I had a friend like that growing up, and we are still friends today. I know she is going to cry for her the most once we move. And we, of course, are going to miss our friends just as much that we have here. We hope to be able to stay in contact.
This weekend we are also just organizing and wrapping up a few last minute things before we head out. We are organizing so that when the packers come for our move, it isn't total chaos. We have already made one amazing run to Goodwill, and I have a feeling another run will be in order before we go. We just want the packers and movers to have an easy time, so our three day move goes smoothly!
Hello again! Okay – so that should be the last time for awhile that I go a whole week without contributing to the blog. Mat and I were away for the weekend, and I didn't take my computer with me. And, our camera is still broken, but we have gotten a new one. I just need to get a new memory stick for the new camera in the next day or two, and pictures will return to the blog – I promise! :)
Anywhoo, the reason Mat and I were away for the weekend (MINUS the kids by the way) is because we are moving to Connecticut. We are actually very excited about this move because, if you couldn't tell, we are not in love with Florida. :) Mat accepted a job with Pfizer in Groton, Connecticut so that is the reason for the move. If you are unfamiliar with Groton, it is near Mystic Seaport. It is a quaint New England town. Here is the link to Mystic so you can take a peek: Mystic
So Mat and I left Thursday morning for a whirlwind weekend of house hunting. We have already sold our house in Florida, so we were able to make this a real house hunting trip and know that if we found something we could buy it. We had a list of houses that we wanted to see, our agent at the ready, so off we went. Mat's parents were a blessing to us and they came down to watch our kids while we were gone. We knew we would be really busy and having three little ones in tow – they would have hated it. Anyway, we toured homes all day Thursday and Friday and repeated a few on Saturday. By Friday we had found “the one” and knew what we wanted to do. So on Saturday after one more look, we put our bid in. We found out Sunday that it was accepted! We couldn't be more thrilled. This is the perfect house for us.
We are moving to an area about 25 minutes north/west of where Mat will be working in Groton. It is called Salem, Connecticut. If you want to read about Salem, here is a link: Salem It is a small area – I think the population is about 3200 people! But it is close to neighboring, larger towns that have a lot of things to do. We are definitely not isolated from the world, but we will have our privacy. We are in a neighborhood, and on a cul-de-sac. Our yard is 9 acres of property, and it is all behind our house and then that backs onto an environmental preserve, so no one will be building around us. We have close neighbors to either side of us (that we can see from our house) but our house sits the highest on the hill. Arlington will be attending school at the only school in the town called the Salem School. It is Kindergarten through 8th grade. It is a cute school, and we visited and were very pleased. Connecticut schools in general are the best in the country and this one got an extremely high rating so we are happy. Here is the link if you want to see the school: Salem School
We found out that the people in our neighborhood are a few Pfizer families, families with young children the same age as our kids, and a police officer. (can't beat that!) We got a chance to meet the current owners of the house, and the husband works for Pfizer. Neat coincendence. They were very nice, and we got to talk to them about the town, the neighbors, etc. It sealed it that this was the house for us. They are moving because they are expecting their 4th child and they just don't have the room anymore.
The house is the perfect size for us. It doesn't need a thing done to it, but over time we will change little things to make it our own. It is smaller than the house we have now if you include the basement in the square footage, so it is around 2800-2900SF. That is what we wanted. We went down a bedroom, to a three bedroom, but that is fine. We gained the basement, and the house already has an office (which is what we use our 5th bedroom for now) so we didn't lose much. The basement is finished and is going to make an EXCELLENT playroom for our kids. It even has a mud room – my favorite thing in the Pottery Barn catalouges! We love everything about the house and can't wait to close the deal.
So that is our news. Mat accepted the Pfizer job, we sold our house, we bought a house, and on May 17th we start our drive to Connecticut to our new home. We will be traveling from May 17th-May 25th. We hope to close soon after we arrive. I am going to try and post pictures below of the house – I hope it works. I have a few more that I took on my parents camera, so as soon as I get those uploaded, I will post them as well. Please don't pay any attention to the people's clutter! It isn't terrible, but they weren't too interested in cleaning up for the pictures. We think that is funny!
It has been a week since you heard from me – did you miss me? We had a nice weekend at Disney (despite the unusual rain) so I will recap!
Thursday we left around 8am. We intended to leave earlier, but the kids were tired, so we let them sleep. It takes 2 ½ hours to get there, so we got to Disney around 10:30. But the line to get into the parking lot was HUGE! We have never seen it like that before. Mat and I are always good about scouting out the “slow” weekends at Disney, but I forgot to look at Thursday when we changed our plans. We got quite a surprise! By the time we got parked and into the park it was almost 12pm! Time for lunch! This was our first Magic Kingdom day. (the main of the 4 Disney parks) So we quickly grabbed some lunch then headed to the rides. The wait times were nothing like we have ever seen before. Now, for those of you who are NOT from Florida, going when the wait times are more than 30 minutes for the most popular rides is not what Floridians do! This day, we were shocked. The wait times STARTED at 30 minutes and went up to 2 hours. What????? We didn't dare tell anyone we were from Florida – they would have thought we were crazy being there on this day! But Arlington got to ride a few favorites, and of course we had good food. We got chased out of the park in the early evening by rain, so all in all, a very short day.
Friday – we woke, our spirits higher, and our kids up earlier. We decided to go to Hollywood Studios (which used to be called MGM Studios) on this day. We had a great, warm, sunny day. We got to ride a lot of things, and watch a lot of shows. The babies LOVED the car show. It was funny! It is loud and crazy, and Finley just kept saying “more cars”, and watching very intensely! And Cainan just kept clapping and clapping. And Arlington rode Tower of Terror 3 times, which she loves. I just hate even watching that ride, but she loves it. We did get chased out again by rain, but we were about ready to go by that time anyway.
Saturday – back to the Magic Kingdom this day. This is Arlington's favorite park, so we did this one twice. We decided to skip Animal Kingdom this time since we didn't have park hopper passes (we didn't renew our annual passes). Anyway, we got started bright and early again this day and hit the two biggest rides for Arlington in the park this time. We didn't get to Splash Mountain on Thursday due to the 2 hour wait, but today, 30 minutes. So she rode it several times as well as all of her other favorites. Thursday was the only busy day. When we looked at this weekend, we chose it specifically because it was NOT a busy weekend. So Friday-Sunday, perfect amount of people. BUT – there was a downside. It started raining off and on around 1pm this day. That was much earlier than the two previous days. We kept getting chased out of line due to thunder and lightening. That was crazy! We did a lot of inside rides, and then finally had to call it a day around 6:30pm. It got to the point where it just got really bad. See, in Florida there seems to be two types of rain. The kind that last a couple of minutes and then clears up and it is sunny OR the kind that is followed by tornadoes. There is no inbetween. And guess which one we had starting around 5pm? Yep – the second one. The non-natives were hilarious during this rain. Florida rain does give you a small warning. It will lightening and thunder VERY loud, and then – DOWNPOUR. So, the lightening would flash, the thunder would clap, and we would put up our umbrella. We watched the others scream at the sound, and then stand around and stare and then scream again when the got unexpectedly poured on. And they would scatter which was even more hilarious! On our way out, we are walking down Main street with about 100,000 other people who were tired of the rain. It had momentarily stopped raining and we were heading out. Then it happened – the lightening, thunder warning. I put up the umbrella, Mat covered the babies and started to run. Everyone else just kept going. Then it poured and everyone screamed and scattered to the sides and Mat and I and Arlington were about the only ones left in the street! That made it easy to leave! People are so funny. Arlington got scared by everyone screaming and running, so I had to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way.
Sunday – our last day and the weather report wasn't good. We watched the weather channel, and it looked like we were only going to have good weather in the morning. But we were going to Epcot this day. Epcot has a lot for grownups, but not so much for little ones, so we weren't thinking this was going to be a long day anyway. We made it until 11am before the rain hit. We were able to get in Arlington's favorite rides before this, and then we had to do inside things. We had lunch and the babies took a great nap. Epcot has a lot of wonderful inside play places for all ages, so that really helped. Then we would run out under the umbrella to a ride, while either Mat and I stayed with the babies. We stayed until 5pm, and the rain just kept getting worse and worse and never stopped. Arlington cried that we were leaving, but we really did need to go. We had done as much as we could do at this point, and so it was time to hit the road. We stopped for gas and some food on the way home and were home by 8pm. Not bad! It rained almost the entire way home – hard, crazy rain.
Again – I say – why is Florida called the sunshine state? They missed the ball on this one.
Anyway, we still had a ton of fun. The babies had a blast and Arlington, as always, enjoyed every minute. Everyone slept pretty well at night. Finley was the only stinker. At night she really wasn't interested in settling, so Mat and I would have to put her into the bed with us and cuddle her tight for about ½ hour until she got bored and fell asleep. She is such an independent sleeper, this was weird. But she was just wired! After she fell asleep, we put her in her bed and that was that. And the babies took great naps at the park. It never ceases to amaze me how much noise they can sleep through. We stuck to their schedule (naps and bed) like always, because sleep is so important and so is their schedule. And that always makes our days go better when we have well rested kids!
There are two things I wanted to share that I thought were humerous! One was – on our last day at Magic Kingdom, I got the babies stroller stuck in the trolley track. I was busy trying to get the wheel out of the track when an old lady on one of those motorized scooters (the ones for people who have trouble walking) shoved me so that she could get past. She shoved me hard, too – right into the stroller! I couldn't even be mad, though because I am SURE she was a native Floridian.
This other was Mat. He had been in the bathroom getting ready for bed. We had all the lights out while the kids were falling asleep in the room. He came over to get into bed, and he kind of misjudged the space he had and fell right out onto the floor! I almost woke the kids up laughing so hard! He just kind of gracefully fell onto the floor. That was great – made my day.
So that was our weekend. Monday Arlington had a dentist appointment and her teeth are perfect. I am glad she got blessed with my teeth – well it seems like it so far. I don't have a single cavity. (knock on wood). She LOVES going to the dentist. She couldn't wait to get there this morning. She is too much. The children's dentist is fun, though. I got a chance to ask her about Cainan's teeth and she thinks he should see a dentist started at age 2.
Here is the sad news – I only have a few pictures. Our camera broke the first day. It lost a button! We have had that camera long time – so weird. So sadly – not very many pictures. We are going to get it repaired, so there may not be many pictures for awhile.
So I probably won't be blogging on Saturday because Mat and I will be away for the weekend. So I will see you again next Tuesday!
That is what we are having, but does this surprise you in some way? Probably not! It is ALWAY warm here. Never any change. Boring. And it has been rainy again. We aren't even to our rainy season yet (which is summer). It rains a little every day in the summer right around 3pm. Weird, huh?
Anyway, now that I am through being a weather girl, here is the happenings. Not much! Ha! No, we had a nice weekend and a nice start to our week. We had our friends Mike and Julie over on Sunday. Their eldest had played with Arlington all day and then they came over for the evening. Julie's parents are in visiting so their twin babies got to stay home and Julie and Mike got a break. I am sure they liked that! We had a nice time relaxing and visiting with them.
Today Cainan had speech therapy. He was "wowing" his speech therapist with how well he is doing. He really showed off today. Ever since his surgery he has really been articulating his words well and his speech is becoming clearer. He is doing great! Speaking of his surgery, we are pretty mad about it right now. The last of his stitches disappeared and what is left is a large hole inside his nose! His stitches must have come out before they had a chance to heal - hence the fact that his nose looks exactly like it did before surgery. It came completely apart! I called the doctor's office to talk to them, and the surgeon is out of town until next Tuesday. And unless it is an emergency, they aren't seeing patients. Nice, right? We were just told to keep an eye on it and watch for infection. Fun times. But I guess it might have to be redone after all. I am really over this surgeon, but I just can't really justify leaving it the way it is. I will talk to the doctor next week. They need to be able to do whatever it is outpatient and then we will probably do it. Plus he needs to have a CAT scan still under anesthesia. Hopefully they can do it all at once. We are steaming mad right now.
We leave on Thursday for Disneyworld and will be there until Sunday night. We are excited to take another trip - we love going. The weather is not supposed to be great, though. They are calling for rain all weekend. I hope it just comes and goes or we are going to be in trouble! But we are looking forward to going. We are doing two days in the Magic Kingdom and probably one in Epcot and one in MGM Studios. Arlington is so excited.
Cainan's new words are "bye babies", and "cracker", and "circle", and "all done". He is starting to put more and more two word sentences together. Cainan recognizes A, B. He recognizes Circle, but that is where he decides he isn't interested anymore! That's okay.
Finley's new words are "itchy", "sticky", "square", "belly". she recognizes A, B, C, D, W, I, P, M, O. Don't ask what happened to going in order. She makes her own rules. And I think she has the shapes down finally. Yeah!
Arlington had April fools day at school today. She thought that was pretty great. she wore her uniform shirt backwards, pink shorts, and pink socks. She likes being goofy, so this day was perfect for her. She got a book for her birthday "Dr. Seuss all about me" so we have been filling that out. She keeps me busy! I can't believe that next year she will be in Kindergarten and gone all day. She is going to love it. I can't wait for her to have that experience. She is going to be sad, though, because she will be going to different elementary schools than all of her little pre-K friends. Not one of them is in her school district. She will miss being with the kids she has known all these years.
Anyway, before I go, I want to mention a blog that I found through a cousin of Mat's. This blog has really humbled me into how lucky we are that we are healthy, that our kids are healthy, and that our every day annoyances mean nothing. I wish I had half the faith that these people have, and I think you would really enjoy reading their blog. Please pray that their situation improves and that God watches out for them. Here is their blog: Confessions of a CF Husband
Anyway, that is all for now. I won't be blogging on Saturday since we will be at Disney, but I will have plenty of pictures for you next Tuesday when we return! Have a great week everyone!
We are a family of 5 living in Massachusetts. Mat and I have been married for 16 years, and we have three children. Arlington is 11 years old, and Finley and Cainan are 8 years old. We adopted Cainan from China when he was 14 months old. He was born with cleft lip and palate level three. This blog started out as our journey to bring him into our family and has turned into our family blog. He and Finley are only 30 days apart!! We love being a blended family, and enjoy sharing about our trials and tribulations through becoming one! Also, our daughter Finley was diagnosed in 2009 with Lebers Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) a rare genetic eye condition that has made her legally blind. Come and read about our proud family! If you want to read Cainan's story, click here: The Pletcher Five Journey Blessings Times Three: Cainan's Story