For Photographers!

I know there are quite a few of you out there who read my blog and I just wanted to pass along this awesome deal!

I don't know about you, but designing greeting cards and birth announcements is NOT my forte. Enter Tammy. She rocks my world.

She designed these totally awesome sets of Birth Announcements, making my life INFINITELY easier.
And honestly! That price can't be beat. I'm headed over there right now to get some for myself. See you there!

Feelin' it.

33 weeks pregnant today.

I hurt. ALOT. This is gonna be whiny. But it's all I've got to talk about right now.

My hips hurt. I can't sit, walk, stand or really do much of anything without inordinate pain. I hate this part of pregnancy. Sleeping is still okay, as long as I've got a large pillow between my legs. Getting OUT of bed, another story. Especially because it happens several times a night. No, not to go to the bathroom, but rather to tend to children.

Some of us (not me) have got a really lame cold right now and Abbie is convinced some medicine will fix the fact that she's sounding like Margot Kidder. And she likes to freak out about it at 3am. Losing your voice must be a scary thing for a 6 year old.

Packing. Not going well. We have PLENTY of boxes. However, the cold I just referenced has Matt convinced he's got the plague. As of 4 o'clock today, he had packed 2 (TWO) boxes. Fortunately, he got up and packed a bunch of stuff.

Perhaps the only thing more gratifying than purging stuff that belonged to me, is watching Matt purge stuff that belonged to him. He's not nearly as merciless as I'd like (he's keeping tutorials that he printed off the internet that he hasn't looked at for YEARS!!!) but I'm working on him.

The major part of the move is on Saturday. We'd better get 95% of the stuff, because honestly, there's no hope for me helping after that. I'm spent.

Matt took Miles on a fun excursion on Friday.

Go leave him a comment.

SPLURGED.

Considering that this is my second son, and fourth child, baby really doesn't NEED anything. I, of course, have a wish list of impractical items, but mostly he'll get to wear all of Miles's hand-me-downs. Fortunately, Miles was not a spit-upper, nor did he blowout very often, which makes for lots of clothes in great condition. So, I've been alleviated the heavy burden which is shopping. (Please tell me you know me better than to believe that.)

I have made an exception for one thing, a coming home outfit. I had been browsing all my usual spots, and just couldn't find anything PERFECT... Enter Zutano.

Dear Zutano-

Marry me. Also, don't tell Matt.

Love, Alissa.

in the olden days...

Ya know how certain things just take you back to your childhood instantly?

For me, it's things like my mom's homemade on the wood stove hot cocoa. Or the words "Wham Bam" which instantly brings up memories of holding a pillow to my chest and running full speed across the room into my brother while yelling, "WHAM BAM BODYSLAM!" Yeah, maybe we shouldn't have watched the WWF.

For Christmas, I got a little caught up in the idea that I wanted to buy my children more meaningful, long-lasting gifts. I purchased this and this for Abbie & Anna, respectively. I absolutely love Hearthsong. Their toys are original and inventive and they require kids to use their imagination a bit more than say, Bratz dolls (GAG!). However, we ended up getting Freecycled some great used bikes and we just seemed to have an overload of gifts. I decided to hold onto those two and give them to Abbie for her birthday.

Good move.

Today was a day off of school and Abbie literally followed me around asking me to teach her the String Games. I obliged. I taught her "The Broom" and Cat's Cradle. This is actually like shooting myself in the foot, since I'm the only one with the manual dexterity to actually play it with her. She's LOVING it.
The Broom. And raise your hand if you recognize this one:

I spent many, many hours perfecting these and wonderful others like Jacob's Ladder... which I haven't successfully taught her yet. Maybe tomorrow.

12ish down, a million to go.

So, did I mention we're moving? Just about a mile down the road, but we're pretty stoked. Or I am.

But packing is coming infinitely slowly. I think the problem is that there are fully 2 more weeks before our move date. And it's hard to actually live in a home that's completely packed up. The kids are already asking for toys I've packed away. Oops. I'm trying to pack everything we definitely won't NEED before we move. Toys, Books, Crafting Stuff (sob!)... I have a list of things to pack up this week. But I'm pretty sure that the majority of our stuff will be packed the last week before the move. And since the move is only a mile and we're giving ourselves a good week overlap, we should be able to move kind of sloppily, if you know what I mean.

But! I have packed about 12 boxes so far. And I have a huge garage full of stuff I'm trying to purge. Looks like I'll be making a couple of trips to Goodwill this week. Fun.

In the meantime, here's a fun storyboard to tide you over. I actually really love that my kids are so close in age. They're great friends (and enemies!)

Again, I apologize for my lack of blogging and interesting reading. I'm sure you understand. And if you don't, you're fired!

Oh, and will SOMEONE please stop making that baby ticker over there count down... it's just plain scaring me now... 7wks and some odd days?!

it takes two hands.

To show people how old you are:
Now, that's a big birthday. I don't feel nearly old enough to have a 6 year old.

Yes, that's right folks. In exactly her fashion (her fashion being slightly obnoxious and quite a bit precocious) Abbie made her debut on our family scene exactly 6 years ago today. Valentine's Day. I'd like to tell you that it has caused her to be a cherub, but I can't tell THAT bold-faced of a lie. I'm just not good at it. But I will brag on her for a moment.

Abbie is, however, a delightfully intelligent child who reads at or beyond a second grade level. She is in an advanced placement Math program as well. She loves school. Loves her brother and sister. Is abundantly helpful around the house. And only throws tantrums when she really means it.

Truly and honestly, she's the best first kid I could have had. She's my little personality clone, sadly. And I'm pretty sure I've only got myself to blame.


Well, myself and my mom who once cursed me by yelling, "I hope you have all daughters just like you!!!" She sure got her wish!

him or her?

Tomorrow is very obviously Valentine's Day. It's also the day I became a mother exactly 6 years ago.

So vote. Blog about Matt? Or Abbie?

And his name shall be called...

Today I was having a conversation with Miles. We were talking about his little brother.

Me: Miles, do you want to rub my belly and say hi to your little brother?
Miles: No. (Lifts his own shirt.)
Me: What do you have there?
Miles: A baby.
Me: Oh yeah? What's his name?
Miles: Gumballs!

And there you have it folks.

The reason for all the gone-ness.

I'm anemic as is so very common in pregnancy. I don't usually notice that it bothers me, or makes me tired, but holy smokes, I'm exhausted. I just can't get enough sleep. Consequently, my entire house has totally gone to pot. Not that it wasn't there before... lemme 'splain...

Note: This could get long.

When we moved to our current place, the landlord said that it needed a new roof, which he claimed they'd be doing quite soon... 2.5 years later... same roof.

After about a year of living here we started noticing that where the ceiling and the walls meet it's cracking... it has gotten progressively worse... it looks awful and scares the bejeezus out of me. I have paranoid daydreams of the roof collapsing in on us.

We're having a bit of a rat problem. That's a bit understated. We've BEEN having a problem since we moved in. We're technically in charge of "pest control" but don't you usually assume that the term pest control refers to ants/cockroaches, etc? Not live freaking rats feasting in your flipping pantry every night. the reason the rats are able to get into the house is structural. There is a one inch plus gap along the wall/floor behind the fridge which leads to the garage.... there are other places the rats are coming in as well... small holes all over the house... so, not the nicest place we've ever rented (did I mention I'm glad we're only renting it?)

ALSO. Right after last Christmas (2006) we noticed that the carpet in Abbie's room under her bed was SOAKED. Matt happened to have some of his artwork stored under there... totally ruined. We pulled out everything from under her bed thinking that perhaps it was an effect of the extreme humidity in FL combined with a very confined space? Pulled back Abbie's bed to let the carpet dry... black mildew/mold on the carpet. NICE. Randomly over the last year, we have noticed the carpet soaked in that area of that room. It does dry out. I've noticed the carpet soaked about 4 or 5 times in the last year, but I'm sure it's more often.

The landlord came out in October-ish to see how things were going (the first time he'd been out in the 2+ years we've lived here - I had no idea who he was). I mentioned the soaked carpet (it being my biggest concern) and he took a look. He theorized that the shower in the Master Bathroom (which butts up to that wall in Abbie's room) is not sealed.... leaks or whatever. And that the water is leaking down the wall and onto the floor in Abbie's room. Sounds like a decent theory, except that there isn't ALWAYS water on the floor in Abbie's room... but we're ALWAYS taking showers... comprende? At any rate, he said he'd have his handyman come over and seal/recaulk the shower... it's February... no one has EVER come by and done that.

Oh yeah... and. Our door between the kitchen and the garage doesn't shut. The house is settling or something? Hence the cracking in the walls/ceiling and now the door to the garage hangs totally crookedly. The latch doesn't line up. I have a towel (folded over to 4 thicknesses) thrown over the door to keep it shut. Did I mention this is a total dive?

Originally, we decided to stay and make it work here. I made Matt call our landlord and explain to him the problems we're having. He promised to stop by that day, but never showed. I called him back the next day to find out what the heck happened ... blah blah... he's gonna try to stop by "soon".

He basically told me, "well, we may not be able to fix the leaking water problem and if we can't figure out what the problem is, there's nothing i can do... and you might want to think about finding another place." Um, when is that something you want to hear??

In other words, he doesn't care about his property or our standard of living and THAT, my friends, is unacceptable.

THE GOOD NEWS! Well, sort of, if I weren't so darn pregnant.

We're moving. Just about a mile away from our current place. Same school, different church ward (sad face!). Fabulous neighborhood. Amazing house. We're very excited.

So, the moral of the story is 1. I am not likely to be around a whole lot as I make an attempt at purging and packing this place up. 2. I need boxes. 3. I hate moving. 4. I'm a glutton for punishment. This is the 3rd time we have moved when I was 28+ weeks pregnant. We're brilliant that way.

Anyone wanna help pack?

Adding to my TO DO list:

Blog.

Sorry everyone. Lots going on around here. Hopefully I'll be back later today with a disturbing story with a happy ending... and possibly some more pictures.