I Thought School Was Over

We celebrated the last day of school on June 3, as that was the last day we had to count school days to reach the required 180 days, but I still had some more to do before the school district considered us finished. The boys had their evaluation on June10. MIL came over in the morning to watch the youngest 4 so I wouldn't have to worry about them getting bored and into trouble, and distracting the boys from the interview. Our van had broken down the week before, and Chris hadn't found a garage for us yet. We really had no idea what was wrong with it, just that it was driving funny. Chris was supposed to take the day off of work so I could take his car and he could watch the boys. He never got around to asking for the day off (though I'd been bugging him for a month) and it turned out he was scheduled to go out of town that day. So no Chris, no car. I'm really glad MIL could come over. I would not have been happy if the van had given up on us with everyone in the car. As it was I was nervous driving it.

We only had to go less than 10 miles to get to the evaluator's house, but the van was driving really badly. It almost stalled out a few times. It was very scary, I sure didn't want to stall right in the middle of a turn or backing out of a driveway. Luckily we were able to limp to the lady's house.

The evaluations went well, the lady is very nice and helpful, and she said I had more than enough in the portfolios to make the district happy. She chatted with the boys and showed them her cats and fish. She also gave me information on summer programs that are being run by the homeschool group in the area.

As we got back into the van, I told the boys to "pray without ceasing" and hope that angels would carry us home, LOL. It must have worked because the ride home was fine. The van didn't act funny at all, whatever it was was now better. I was so relieved when we pulled back into the driveway at home.

Finally, the very last thing we had to do for school this year was turn the portfolios in to the district office, along with the evaluator's report. I just got that done yesterday morning. While I was at the office, I turned in my affidavit for next year's schooling, to save myself the trip. The woman there seemed a bit confused, she thought the affidavit I was turning in was for the current year. I had already brought that in to them over a month ago, so I explained that it was for the next year. Now, unless they have any issues with what I turned in, we are done until next year.

When I got home I found a letter from the district in the mail. It had actually come before we left the house, but I hadn't looked through the mail. I wish I had, so I could bring the letter along and work out the confusion. They sent me a note to say they received my affidavit for next year. Huh? I just dropped it off, so they must be referring to the one I turned in last month. Well no wonder they were confused today, if they didn't realize I had registered to homeschool for *this* year. Ugh. I've been trying to call them today, but no one is answering the phone. I'm hoping this is just a simple mix up and won't take long to fix.

Happy Magna Carta Day! (A Week Late)

Last Wednesday, June 15, was my Dad's birthday. He is 67. I had a friend who was born on June 14, Flag Day, who used to taunt my dad about having his own holiday. My dad was a bit disappointed that he missed the holiday by one day, and then he found out he had his own holiday after all. Ever since, he has never failed to remind us, each year, of this important day.

This year my dad was down in Florida by himself. Well, not technically alone, because he had dinner with his girlfriend. All of his daughters are known for being slow with the mail, though we usually try to get a card within the week it is called for. I mailed out his card on Monday, so I figured it might be a day or two late. I did, however, call him to wish him Happy Birthday, and we had a nice chat. He was just on his way out the door to dinner. I told him that Troyer had made him a very nice card, but had only done it the day before, so it would be late. He told me don't bother to mail it out, since he would be leaving soon for his trip (he is driving up to Hershey for the Porsche Parade) and he wouldn't get it until he got home again. He will be stopping in at our house on the way home, so he said he'd just get it then. That was fine with me, I wasn't sure I could unearth an envelope anyway. Well, on Thursday he emailed all 3 of us girls to whine about not getting any cards. What the heck? I know for a fact that he had arranged with my older sister to wait until he saw her (he is stopping at her house on the way TO the Parade) to do the birthday thing. And I called ON his birthday! What the heck was he crying about? He tried a big guilt trip, invoked the name of our mother (said he was taking on her cause, since she always hated late cards - not that we daughters remember it that way), and then issued threats about withholding cards for future birthdays if his were late. Ugh ugh ugh. What a baby. I wish he would have waited until after his visit to do that. Now I'm not looking forward to it quite so much.

So Much Catching Up To Do

I have so many things to post about, that I haven't been able to settle my thoughts enough to post about any of them. I am going to try to get to them this week, I hope! Noah is going off to camp next Sunday, so this week will be spent making sure he has all the right clothes to pack and everything else he needs, too. This year he is going a week ahead of Troyer. He wasn't sure he wanted to go alone, so I am glad they got to be together last year. Next year will be Samuel's first year at sleep-away camp and he will get to share with Noah, so this 2 year age gap seems to be working out really well :-)

I have been tagged for a reading meme (what the heck does that word mean, anyway? lol) which I am working on, but it will take a while. I think maybe some of you will be really disappointed in my answers (and maybe a few others of you will secretly be happy to see them, and feel less guilty LOL) when I come out of the closet about my reading habits. But I'll get to that in another post.

Finally, for today, I want to say Congratulations to my friend Catherine (aka Mabear) and welcome to her new baby daughter Robyn! She was not overdue according to due dates, but going by past deliveries she had us all on the edge of our seats for about a week now LOL I am looking forward to reading her birth story.

Last Day of School! And More Pictures

Today was our last day of school! Troyer and Noah each baked a cake and we layered them and frosted them, and had a party. It was fun, and I think I am just as happy as they are that we are done for the year, LOL. They will have evaluations done next Friday and then I have to get the portfolios together to turn in to the school district. If I am on the ball, I'll have next year's affidavits ready too, and can turn them all in at the same time. I am still going to try to squeeze in some field trips this month and next, but I don't know if we'll be able to count them as school days or not. It depends on when the affidavits get turned in.

Here are Troyer and Noah with their cake:




For the past few days I have been letting them do fun things for school rather than just writing and workbook pages. One day they did a science experiment with balloons to study action and reaction. They set up some strings and straws and had balloon races:




Troyer also did an experiment with magnets. It was pretty cool. It will be hard to keep them out of the stuff before we start next year, so I can count it towards next year's day count LOL.

A few weeks ago, Chris' aunt offered to give us her set of couch and chairs from her family room, so we got our old dead couch out of the house and onto the curb for pick up. We turned it upside down for a last toy check, and got tons of little legos and action figure accessories out of it, along with this gem:



I have to say, actually touching it and looking at it isn't near as disgusting as the idea that that mouse had died and decomposed in the couch cushions years ago, and we have been sitting on it unaware all the while. ICK!

Here are some pictures from Caleb's birthday. I don't have pictures of his bike yet, but he has it and loves it!

I got take out pizza for dinner, a rare treat, since I can make a decent home-made pizza


Caleb had a hard time choosing which Star Wars cake he wanted, since they didn't have one with Obi-Wan and Darth Vadar on the same cake. He wanted both, but ended up with Bobba Fett. He was happy. :-)


As usual, all the boys wanted to dig right in to Caleb's stash of presents, but we have a rule that the Birthday Boy gets to hog all his stuff to himself for 24 hours before he is required to share. Here is Caleb with the bubble-blowing weed whacker that he was excited to get. It doesn't work, though; it won't suck the bubble solution down to the fan. He was happy with the bottle of bubbles and the wand, but I could have spared the extra $8 it cost, LOL. I hope Chris can get it going.



And here is a picture of the Birthday Boy:



I am so far behind on getting birthday pictures done. I had Levi done right before we moved, but I haven't gotten any done since. WalMart only lets you do one package per month, and I'm already 3 behind. I don't know that I can catch up at this point. I suppose I had better try. I will really hate myself in a few years if I don't have the pictures then. There were a few I missed of the boys as a group back when I only had 4 and I hate that I don't have them. Ugh, so many things to get done!

Separation Anxiety and Camp Registrations

It looks like Levi is starting to have a bout of separation anxiety. I went out shopping tonight, and he was starting to get cranky just as I was leaving. He got over it enough to eat dinner well, but got cranky again just before bed. Chris said all Levi wanted to do was be held and rest his head on Chris' shoulder. I got home with a trunk full of groceries but after just one trip inside, he heard me from his crib and started to cry. I tried to nurse him but as long as he thought I was going to put him back to bed, he wouldn't drink. I had to take him downstairs where it was cooler and walk with him a bit until he calmed down, then sat on the couch and he nursed fine. Troyer and Noah came over to say goodnight and he was happy and playful. I took him back to his room and he layed down and went to sleep. *sigh* I guess that means I will have to take him along on shopping trips for a while until he gets over his distress at my absence.

Once I got him back to sleep, I had to go finish bringing in the groceries and put them away, then gather up the trash and put it out. I'm annoyed that Chris didn't do that for me while I was out. I know if I had been home alone tonight because he had to work late, I would have been expected to get the trash out even though I was watching all the kids. He didn't help carry in groceries or put them away either. Grrrrr.

I registered Troyer and Noah for summer camp today. They will be going back to the same camp they went to last year, but this time they will go two separate weeks. Troyer is 10 this year, which puts him in Junior Camp, while Noah is still in Adventure Camp. He was disappointed until I pointed out that next year he will get to have Samuel with him for his last year of Adventure Camp. That made him happy.

They each had to choose 3 activities to sign up for; Troyer chose Swimming, Horseback Riding, and Crafts, and Noah chose Swimming, Archery, and Aqua Jump which I think is like trick swimming. I know it involves a big inflatable slide, lol. Troyer toyed with the idea of archery, but I talked him out of it. I'm not sure he is coordinated enough for it, LOL. I'm interested to see how well he does with riding.

Samuel and Caleb will be going to day camp at the YMCA. They are also looking forward to that. I am not sure I am looking forward to having to get up everyday, early, to get them ready and drop them off. I remember doing that for Troyer and Noah a few years ago, and bleh, lol. Oh well, they will have a lot of fun.

Tomorrow Troyer and Noah have drs appointments, so the dr can sign release slips for camp. I sure hope the appointment goes better than Caleb's last week. I didn't know it was possible for a 5 yo to actually fail his check up, but Caleb managed to just about do it. The nurse tried to check his vision, but he refused to talk to her, so she couldn't tell what he could see. We have no idea if he was really having trouble or not. I haven't noticed him sitting close to the tv or anything, but maybe he covers well? I think Chris got his glasses at 5 or 6 yo, so it's possible that he is having trouble. The dr said he tested at 20/50. But the nurse said she thinks it was more of a stubborness problem than a vision problem. I was very embarrassed. He also wouldn't talk to the dr (who was a woman) and was uncooperative when she asked him to undress, or bend over to check his back, etc. I tell you, there's nothing like having 6 kids crammed into one of those tiny exam rooms with no toys or books, one of which is an inquisitive crawling baby, and have the patient be obstinant. Ugh. He is in a stage right now where he doesn't want to talk to girls. It was tough to explain that doctors, nurses, and teachers have to be excluded from that rule. He tried the same trick in Sabbath School and his teacher had to come talk to me after the class to tell me how bad he was. More embarrassment *sigh* Growth wise he did ok, though the dr wondered about his being on the short side. It turns out he is my biggest 5 yo so far, LOL. I'm only 5 feet, so I'll just be happy if he can get above 5' 6" LOL.

I am having lots of trouble with my email lately. It turns out my ISP has been transferring to a new email server, and it messed things up. I had to send them an email with my IP addy so they could manually add it to the server to allow connection to download mail. Ugh. Apparently they are still having trouble too, because I can receive mail now, but I still can't send mail out. I have to go online and use the webmail service and that is totally aggravating. I can't send attachments with it. Ugh ugh ugh.

I got birthday pictures loaded onto my computer, but I still need to edit them and upload them before I can post them. I hope to get to it soon!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Today is Caleb's 5th birthday. He is very happy to be 5. He can write his name and count to 10, and is working on writing the numbers up to 5. He is looking forward to getting a bicycle, though I talked him into waiting til later in the week to choose it, since it rained today. I just couldn't see dragging all 6 kids out in the rain, and trying to push the bike to the van, and getting soaked trying to cram it in the back, and then he couldn't even ride it once we got it home. He did see the good sense in waiting, thank goodness, LOL. We had a nice family party, with pizza and a Star Wars cake, and some smaller presents. I'll have pictures to post later.

Argh

My email server has been down for a while now. I have no idea who is trying to get a hold of me, but sorry, I didn't get your message! I hate hate hate having to pay for services that I am not getting! Maybe I'll be trying out a different ISP next year. *sigh*

More Pictures

We had a beautiful day here today, warm enough to go dig some shorts out for the boys. They enjoyed the weather out back, and I got some nice pictures.



Noah was mad at Samuel, so he wouldn't come outside to get in the group shots :-(




Levi is already starting to pull up on furniture and "cruise"

Here is a picture of the boys downstairs in our family room/computer area. We have a fireplace! We will probably not build fires in it, but at least now the boys have a place to hang stockings at Christmas!



Noah was very proud of this Lincoln Log cabin he built.

And here are some more pictures of Levi, just because he's cute ;-)

Happy Birthday Micah!

Friday was Micah's birthday. He is 3 years old now. We all came down with the flu last week, so the party I had hoped for didn't happen, but I did run out and get pizza and ice cream and a cake, and he opened a few presents, plus he got a few cards in the mail. Being only 3, he was plenty happy with that!









Poor Micah is not so happy with being in a new house. Everytime we get ready to go out in the van, or even talk about going out, he says "I want to go home!" I have assumed he wasn't using the right words, since he is still confusing "in" and "out" and "open" and "closed" sometimes, but on Sunday Chris found out that he really does mean "home." He thought we were just here visiting, and now he is ready to go home, back to our old house. We felt sooo bad when we realized that. The other boys aren't all that happy here yet either. They miss their friends, and it's hard for them to be learning the new rules that come from a new house with a different floor plan. It's doubly hard for me, since there are so many things I am disappointed with. I am trying to keep in mind all the things that are better here, and pass that positive outlook on, but it's difficult.

The stress of the move is still evident in all of our moods. I am very short tempered, no matter how hard I try to be patient and forgiving. The boys are all bickering constantly, and no one wants to do school (not even me!). S0 much needs to be unpacked, but I just can't figure out where it should go. Some things I just can't find, like the baby nail clippers. Levi has scratched his face so many times because I can't get his nails short enough. And we are short on pencils, because I can't find the box of extras. Ugh. I need some peace and quiet, but each time I try to sneak away for a few minutes, Chris comes home and finds me hiding, and starts bugging me about how much we have to do, and why don't I have the boys do it for me? Well, of course because that means I have to figure out what there is that they can do, then instruct them on how to do it, and the supervise them to make sure they do it, and then re-do it anyway so it's done right. If I don't have time to do it myself, how can I have 4x as much time for them to do it??? Argh.

Well, anyway. Life could be worse. My sister had her day planner stolen out of her car overnight, right in her driveway. Years of phone numbers and addresses and months of appointments and school schedules, plus she kept lists of her kids' baby milestones in it. All of it is gone. I cry for her, I can't believe anyone would take it. She didn't have anything valuable in it, nor did she have any critical information like credit cards or passwords or bank account numbers. She didn't even have her last name in it anywhere; so no one could use the information in it, unless they could decipher the initials, which I doubt. So someone took it, and then just dumped it somewhere. What a waste. So my life isn't *that* bad, LOL.

I got my hair cut a few weeks ago. Since Levi was about 4 months old, my hair has been getting really thin, thinner than the usual post-partum fall out, and I am really concerned about it. I should go to a doctor and find out if it is thyroid related or something. But of course we have moved, so I don't have a doctor yet, and I just don't have time to find one right now. Meanwhile, I decided it would be good to cut it shorter so I don't have to have it back in a barrette all the time, to get the weight off of it, and see if that helps. Of course the over zealous girl at the salon cut it shorter than I asked, so now it's shorter than I have had it since I was in high school. It is such a change for me, I have always had long hair. The longest it has been is to the backs of my knees when I was pregnant with #1, then for a long time it was to my waist; last year I cut it mid-back; and now it barely brushes the tops of my shoulders. I think it looks pretty good, but it's freaking Chris out; he keeps thinking I look like my sister. She has always had shorter hair than me. The funny part is, she has been growing hers out, so for the first time ever, she has longer hair than me.


Levi and Mom


I will try to post some pictures eventually, but it is hard to find time right now to take them, edit them, upload them, and then blog them.

Living Out of Boxes

We're here! Actually we've been here for a while, we moved in April 1; but it took a while to choose a new isp, and even then, I have hardly any time to get online. The new house is nice, but smaller than the old house, so we are digging through things trying to decide what to get rid of. I am a pack rat, so not much is going, LOL. Meanwhile it is all still in boxes because I can't decide what is important enough to unpack and find a place for. Of course I am in the middle of all the new-house stuff too, changing addresses, settling final bills, finding the stores, getting the boys settled into a new school district. Homeschooling should make that easier, wouldn't you think? But noooo. So I spend a lot of time on the phone, a lot of time chasing kids out of stuff that isn't out of their reach yet, tripping over boxes, searching for things I can't remember which box they were in, and of course trying to do all the every day stuff that most of us can't get done even without moving, like cooking, laundry, schooling, and cleaning up after the messy pigs, I mean boys. Did I mention I'm also trying to potty train the almost-3 yo? Yipee. So maybe some day I'll have some pictures for you, but right now I have to go take care (fill in the blank!)

Procrastinating

That is why I am here, and not packing, LOL. Now is the time for me to really dig into it and get stuff packed; we will be leaving here by Wednesday night, so less than a week to go. I have done some things, like the linen closet in the bathroom, and I just dug through my cabinet of assorted plastic what-not in the kitchen (you know, those yogurt/margarine/Cool Whip containers that seem so useful you just can't throw them out? Plus all the mis-matched lids, lol). I packed 2 more bookshelves, some more board games, all the plastic sippy cups and plastic pitchers. It sounds so good, and yet there is more to do! And so, of course, here I sit :-) I did pick up some file boxes to pack away what is in the file cabinets. It would be easiest to leave the papers in them, but then they would be way too heavy to move. Darn.


Today is Chris' last day of work in the local office. He has next week off for the move, and then he starts work in the new office. He is a little excited, but nervous too. He will have support staff, which he does not have now, but he knows the boss he has up here is waaaay better than the one down there. So I guess it will be a trade-off. He is hoping that at least he won't have to be working the amount of overtime he has been doing the past two weeks, because he will have others to pass the work on to.

I just wanted to make a brief comment on a current news item. I am taking a risk here, as I see that others who have written about it are getting nasty comments about it; I hope that doesn't happen to me. I don't think I have such a large audience, and since most who read here are friends of mine, you will all be nice to me :-) Ok, so here goes. First of all, I am wondering just where the heck anyone got the idea that it is a fundamental human right to choose how we die? It was my impression that MOST of us *do not* get to choose at all. I can tell you emphatically, my mother would NEVER have chosen to go as she did. Her two biggest fears in life were throwing up and drowning. She spent the last 3 months of her life doing just that. But she never ever considered it unfair, that she should have been given the option to die some other way. What she wanted was the option to NOT DIE. Next, I have serious doubts about the whole "following someone's wishes" issue when it comes to predicting how you would want to die in some nebulous future, telling someone else, and that someone else carrying that out for you when you can no longer convey what you want. NO ONE at 20 years old is going to say "Gee, I sure hope that someday I get in an accident or have an illness that causes me to be severely disabled, so I can sit in a bed the rest of my life and be a burden to others!" Duh. None of us wants to live that way, and looking at it from the perspective of a healthy active person, it seems like torture and the complete opposite of personal dignity. I have also read stories of people who have had such accidents befall them, and they sink into severe depression and really really really wish they were dead instead of having to live the way fate decreed. But I have also read many many stories where people such as these eventually learn to accept their situation and go beyond that to find meaning in their life even with the new restrictions. They learn that there is more to life than physical strength and agility. Yes, a certain well-known person would not be able to live the life she had planned for herself at 20 (again, who of US is living the life we planned at 20?). She claimed at that immature point in her life that she would never want to live this way. But who can say she has not changed her mind?

I admit, I can only go by what I read or hear, which is filtered through the opinions of the sources who put the information out. I am also very biased, as I am NOT an athiest but a Christian, and believe that God is in control and we are very poor judges when it comes to knowing what will really make us happy, and how to run our lives. Evidence seems to point to the fact that it is a certain well-known someone's *husband* who does not want her to live like this. He seems to resent the burden she is to him, and has gone on with his life without her, and pretty much neglects her. Just why won't he divorce her and let her parents take care of her? Some have suggested that he wants her to die so he can get the insurance. I have no idea; I don't know these people. But I can't figure out why he won't let the parents take her if he doesn't want her anymore.

And finally, I agree with the general consensus at The Big Yellow House, who agrees with some other bloggers, that the way they are letting this poor woman die is just cruel and inhumane. People would be shocked and outraged if I let my rabbit starve and dehydrate, yet doing it to this poor woman, who MAY NOT WANT TO DIE AFTER ALL, is ok? It just doesn't make sense to me. I don't believe in mercy killing anyway, and it isn't even drastic measures keeping this woman alive, just a feeding tube. Yes, she doesn't have much of a life at this point, (but it seems that may be more of her husband's fault than hers) but I think those who would see her die "compassionately" are looking at it with their own emotions, thinking "wow, *I* would never want to live like that, so she must not want to either." Maybe instead of asking able-bodied active people to decide that question for her, we should be asking others in similar situations. Ask those who *did* have a debilitating accident or illness and are now bedridden if *they* think she should be killed. You know what, I think if she really *did* want to die, she would have by now. It seems her husband gave her enough chances to do that. An accusation, I know, and I certainly have no proof. It just seems a shame that the country would rather find out after she is dead that her husband was the one who really wanted her dead.

Ok, that is my little rant. I carefully omitted her name so I won't come up on any searches of her particular case. I don't need strangers leaving me nasty comments.

Oops, that was more than a brief comment!

Come to think of it, it won't matter if they do, because I won't be here to read them, LOL. This is probably my last post before packing up the computer to move. I just have too much to do to now to have the time to sit down and procrastinate any more! See you in a few weeks!

Why Am I Even Considering It?

I know I don't want to go, it would never be worth the money, and there isn't enough time in the world for me to lose enough weight to show my face there, but... my high school 20th reunion is next fall. I was never really good friends with most of the people in my class; I had 2 best friends, and everyone else pretty much had a face and a name. I never really fit in there, not a true nerd and not an athlete, and not a pot-head either. I did pretty well with grades, but wasn't the top in my class. I wasn't really smart or popular or pretty or anything outstanding. I'm sure most of my classmates would remember me, but only because how many red headed twins do you know?

My high school was in New Jersey, and boy is it hard to go back there. It is soooo expensive. I guess if you never left you'd be used to it, but I moved away right after graduation (literally - I stayed a week at my grandma's house while the movers packed up our stuff and left, the day after graduation) and it seems so crowded and snooty now. I miss my town the way it used to be, but it won't ever be that again. So what would going to the reunion serve? And now that I don't have any family living in that area anymore, I have nowhere to stay either.

I googled some of my classmates, and it seems that some of them have done very well for themselves. I am impressed with their success. I wouldn't say I would be embarrassed to show up to be compared to them; after all, who else has 6 boys? LOL But I sure don't have anything to brag about. I didn't go to my 10th reunion, but it seemed like that was all about bragging. Maybe everyone is older and wiser now? I think I would actually consider going, just out of curiosity, if only I were 50 lbs lighter....

Chris' reunion was last year, and I really hate it that we missed that one. Unfortunately I was 8.5 months pg at the time and he just really didn't like the idea of my dropping the baby right there on the dinner table LOL. THAT sure would have been memorable! LOL Too bad it wasn't this year instead; with our move next week we will be very near his old hometown, and we could have attended, even pg. Oh well.

I hope that the reunion organizers for my class at least put up a website with pictures afterwards, so I can check and see what happened to everyone.

Second Verse Same As The First

A Little Bit Louder, And A Little Bit Worse

More bickering, more school work hysterics, only today included tooth marks in someone's arm and bloodshed (surprisingly not by my hand lol) and to top it off, because God needed a good laugh today, at 6 pm I discovered we are out of heating oil, and so have no heat tonight. We just had 200 gallons delivered less than 6 weeks ago, I have no idea where all that oil went. We suspect that maybe someone came and siphoned out some of our oil. Brrrr.

Bad Mommy

Today I have been a bad mommy. I am going to have to moderate myself somewhat when we move, as the neighbors will be much closer and be able to hear my screaming, lol. It seems that I could get absolutely nothing done today without screaming at my boys. I have a headache and my voice is rough. So much of what goes on is minor, but it just builds and builds until I can't take it. The 4 yo and 2 yo are fighting over who can sit closer to the baby, who is on my lap, while I am on the phone with the realtor. The 2 yo is carrying a box of Chocolate Lucky Charms around the house, leaving a trail like Hansel and Gretel (does that make me the witch? LOL) He also carried around 5 different pieces of cold pizza from dinner last night, all of which now have one or two bites out of them, and are now residing in different rooms in the house. The 8 yo very nicely brought me his school work and we worked on it together, but this made the 10 yo jealous and he turned on the tv (forbidden before all school work is finished). The 4 yo complained that he was hungry 2 hours after breakfast, and whined when he couldn't have more cereal. ALL of them complained when their play date got scheduled for tomorrow instead of this afternoon. The 10 yo had sudden brain fade and couldn't for the life of him figure out fractions, which he has been doing for a while now. Somewhere in this frenzy I had to get a shower, wash dishes, and get more laundry done, plus make some phone calls related to moving details. So I ended up blowing my top and screaming at them. They had just pushed me too far and I lost it. I went through the house just yelling NO NO NO NO over and over again, LOL. "But Mommy..." NO! "But I want ..." NO! "But you said..." NO! and a few NOs to hands moving towards yet another piece of pizza LOL. Things are a little more settled now, and the boys are behaving more cautiously, but I still have that headache.

Levi's 6 month portraits

I took Levi out and had his 6 month pictures done today. He's such a cutie!

It was so hard to get him to smile, which was weird, as he smiles all the time at home.

We Got It!

Our offer was accepted! We have a house! We don't need to live out of the van! LOL Phew, it's almost over. Now to pack everything and get out of here. We are going to see what we can do about getting in a few days early so our stuff doesn't have to sit in a truck for a week. Officially our closing date on the house is April 1, so 4 weeks to go and counting!

Another Offer Submitted

We decided to go for the gold house. Really the only things wrong with it are the color (it is vinyl siding, so not that easy to paint) and the very small back yard. These are things I can live with, but Chris is very disappointed about the yard. He says it is not even big enough to put in a garden. I disagree, I think he could take the sunny corner and do very well; besides that, he can put some energy into doing flowers and other landscaping (maybe detract from the siding color LOL). It is also just around the corner from the community center, so he can just come home and take the boys down the street and play ball or whatever (hmm, a win-win for both of us there!) So the offer goes in today, cross your fingers!


Levi's 2 top teeth have come in, so now he's up to 4. He likes to use them, too. Ouch! He has gotten much more hungry lately too, and has been trying to eat me, so I decided to finally go out and get him his own food. Last night he had his first official dinner, a bowl of baby rice cereal mixed with applesauce. He's been getting tastes of mashed potatoes and yogurt for a week or two, but last night was the first real meal he's had. He was a pig and ate it all! This morning he was begging for more for breakfast. I am not used to the baby getting so excited for food so quickly. With the others it took a few weeks for them to get used to the texture and the process of moving food to the back of their mouths to swallow. I guess the good thing about this is that he should move out of baby food pretty quickly to finger foods, and I will not have to spend so much on Gerber foods :-)


We were supposed to have a big snow storm on Sunday night; the snow didn't start until Monday and most of it fell Monday night. Even so, we only got half of what they originally predicted. I am glad, I want Spring! Snow is pretty, as long as it melts off the roads quickly, lol. I sure hope there is no snow at the end of the month, when we are loading up the moving truck!

14 Houses, No Home

Yesterday we saw 14 houses. After running out of homes that met our criteria, we lowered our standards and looked at homes that we could at least afford. Here is what we found:

1. too small. very nice, but not enough room for the boys, nevermind all their stuff.

2. Harvest Gold - need I say more? (that's the color of the house, not the appliances!)

3. couldn't get in, the combo on the lock box was wrong
4. too small
5. off the market
6. busy street, we had a really hard time backing out of the driveway
7. too small, plus the breaker box was messed up, probably wouldn't pass inspection
8. off the market
9. too small

10. too expensive. I hadn't gotten the tax info on it before we went out there, but we stood in the driveway looking at the sheet and it was way too high. otherwise a very nice house

11. too small
12. busy street
13. too small

14. waaaaay too much work needed. Apparently the guy who lived there had a temper and took it out on the house.

So in the end, it looks like #2 is our only option. It is a bi-level/split foyer/raised ranch (depends on where you are from what you call it, apparently). It has 4 brm and 2 baths, a nice family room, the back yard is totally fenced in (though it is really small), comes with appliances, has a garage, and is in a quiet neighborhood. Plus it is close to shopping and the library, and not too far from where Chris will work. It is also in our price range. It doesn't need any work done, other than paint, and that is only because I don't like the colors in there, not because it is bad; so I think that we could save up some money while we are there and hope to move on in a few years to something with a bigger yard. I sure hope so anyway; my sister bought a house with the intention of moving on and she is still there. So if we go for this house, I will have to overcome my aversion to Harvest Gold, LOL.

Still No House

Well, yet another house was no good. This one was an old log home that was being fixed up a little bit at a time. A lot of work had been done, but there was still a lot more to go. It was mostly carpentry type work, which Chris is not good at, plus the floor plan was again really odd, so that one won't do either. I raced down there and back to try to beat the snow, and I made it. It started to snow on my way back, but it didn't get bad until a few hours after I got home. I'm glad I made sure to hurry and didn't stay at MIL's to chat. I did drop in just to say hi to Troyer and Samuel, who are spending the week there.

This weekend we will be looking at 6 or 7 more houses, all of which are not at all what we wanted. We have run out of time, and now are looking to buy something that we can just move into to get us down in that area, and then maybe in 2 or 3 years move again into a house we really want. I am still crying over that white house we put 2 bids in on. I can't believe the seller is such a jerk that he won't sell it to us. *pout pout* Less than 5 weeks to go before we will be living out of our van!

So I Went to See the House

and it was just as great as it looked. Nice and big and in good shape. The bad news about that is that it was actually worth the asking price. Actually maybe a little more. There was no way we could get into that house without creative financing of some sort, and for sure not more that the list price, so we said good bye to that one too. Sigh. When we got home we found out there were 2 offers on the table for it already, so I'm glad we had already decided not to try for it.

In my email I had a link to another listing, this one another house near Chris' parents. I have set up an appointment to see it tomorrow. I made it before lunch because we are supposed to get a huge storm tomorrow afternoon. Doesn't that figure? I am hoping to be home again by 3, and miss the snow. If it is already snowing when I wake up in the morning, I am staying home. I will be driving down in the car with just the baby, leaving Chris home with the boys. He wasn't excited about the idea of driving back down there 2 days after spending the day down there already. At least I'll have better luck in the car if the weather beats me home.

If this house doesn't work out, we have discussed changing our plans a bit. We will try to buy a house in a development that we can live in for 3 or 4 years, then sell again when the "perfect" house comes up. That way we can shop from the area, and not do this crazy running around business. We only have about 5 weeks left before we have to vacate this house, so we are getting close to panic time. We can't see how we will be able to afford to rent anything down there, it would cost more than any mortgage we could get, and monthly payment is what's holding us back in the first place. If we could afford $1300/mo on rent, we'd spend it on a house! LOL


So I'll update again tomorrow night.

Well, God Must Have Something Really Good In Store For Us

Our realtor just called again. The second house we were going to offer on is Sale Pending. So now we have absolutely nothing to buy. We haven't seen anything else that we would fit in. Waaahhh. There is that nice house I saw, which I guess I am going to go see tomorrow; but I tell you, we will all be on a diet if we get that one, because our budget is going to be severely cut just to pay the taxes.

Out of the Running

Well, my reator called me this afternoon. He said the seller did not accept our offer. Not only that, but this guy, who last week countered another buyer's offer with something lower, this week said he wants his full asking price or no deal. Harumph! It sounds to me like maybe we are better off not getting this house, I don't think we want to have to deal with this guy. What a pig. I hope he takes a huge loss on this house. And I also hope we find something better! Yikes, time is running out.

More Waiting

We found out this week that the house didn't get sold last week. I guess the other buyers also thought it was too high priced. We talked to our agent and wrote up a new offer quite a bit higher than our last one but still below what the seller countered with. I have no idea if he will go for it or be stubborn and greedy and wait until someone pays him what he wants. If he doesn't take this offer, we don't have any more money so we will be writing up an offer for another house we saw, if it is still available. I found another house I would love to go see, but I found out the taxes are crazy. $300/mo makes it out of our range, we'd have to offer much less than the asking price to afford it, and that would most likely be a waste of everyone's time. I wish we had a little more money, but I am seeing that a little more money just makes me look at a new group of houses that are all a little out of our range, lol. If I had enough for this latest house, I'd be looking at houses another $25K too high. Ah well, I am very glad to be able to afford *something.* I know it will all work out.

Tomorrow we will be going down again, because Chris has to work from that office, so I will be able to drive around a bit and hopefully meet with our realtor and get some papers signed.

He Sits! He Crawls!

Ok, he's not going to win any contests for endurance or distance, lol, but Levi, who just turned 6 months old on Sunday, can now sit for about 30 seconds before falling over, and can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth until he falls forward! He is regularly escaping his bed, so I had to set up the play pen in his room for him to sleep in.

He had his 6 month appointment on Friday. He weighs 17 lb 4 oz, and is 26.25". That puts him right at 50% for growth, and in fact is in the middle of his brothers' stats too. The dr was impressed at how good he was, very social and calm. He is right on track for all developmental milestones. I guess it'll be time to start solids with him soon, but right now he doesn't seem to be missing them.

Here is Levi crawling:

Here he is sitting up, very proud of himself, LOL:

And here he is with his brother Samuel cheering him on:

Kill Him or Kiss Him?

Well, after such a huge disappointment about not getting that house we both really wanted, and talking it over ad nauseum, I learn from Chris that maybe, just maybe, we might have a little bit more money we could afford to offer for this house. Ugh! I already told our agent that there really wasn't any more money per month or in savings for a higher down payment, but it seems that I lied to him! So I will be talking to him on Monday, and letting him know that we actually can go a little higher, if the house hasn't already sold to the other interested buyers. So maybe we're back in the game. But maybe not. Bleh, I'm glad we have more money than I thought, but I hate looking like I'm playing games with my own realtor. So should I kick Chris *while* I'm kissing him? LOL

Back to the Start

Well, my agent just called to tell me how our offer went. He says the listing agent told him that he just got a similar offer to ours, and the seller countered with a pretty high number; he said his buyer wasn't going to take that counter offer either, but that his buyer didn't request inspections. I have no idea how you can buy a house these days without any inspections unless you are paying cash, but I know for sure my mortgage company won't approve a loan without them.

So I guess we're back to the beginning. Waaaahhh. In my mind I was already moving in.

Waiting Waiting

We signed the offer today, and our realtor submitted it to the listing agent. Now we wait to hear what the seller has to say. Hopefully we will know by tomorrow.

Our agent found out some history on the house and the seller; it seems that the seller owns another home that he had put up for sale in another state, but it didn't sell. He is still living there, and has decided that whichever house sells first, he will live in the other. He bought this house back in July and did a few improvements, but not much. I have no idea why his other home didn't sell. It may be because he is asking too much money and won't take a lower offer. If so, then the same may be true about this house, which means we are out of luck, because we just don't have the money to counter with a higher offer. I guess that means he is out of luck too, LOL.

And so we wait.....

Making An Offer

We went to see another house yesterday. It was priced out of our range, but we really didn't have much else to look at, so we figured we'd give it a try. Here's the report:

The location is great; back road, very little traffic, exactly half way between Chris' parents and his office. The yard is very pretty; nice front yard, huge back yard, lots of nice mature trees, but still a big open space to play. 2 car garage plus another shed maybe for bikes and toys.

The house itself is a 4 brm (4 true bedrooms, not closets! LOL) 1.5 bath farmhouse. There is a back screened in porch and what they called a 3 seasons porch, which just means it is a porch with windows. Neither is big enough for furniture, maybe just some lawn chairs, but perfect for pulling off snow suits or muddy shoes. The kitchen needs updating desperately, but it will do for now; I am not one known to love being in the kitchen, LOL. Nice sized living room plus 2 more small rooms that could be a den and a school room.

Some of the drawbacks about the house: the furnace is an old coal furnace converted to oil, so it is very inefficient and needs to be replaced. The siding is shingle, and the windows are wood, so it would need vinyl siding and replacement windows eventually. I mentioned the kitchen already, plus it is painted a dark brick red color, and is on the north side of the house, so it is very dark. The basement had 2 sump pumps in it, so there is clearly water in there. It looks like the previous owners did a good job of channeling it but still, no water would be better. Most of the wiring is old; service to the house and the panel are all brand new, but Chris would have a lot of outlets and switches to replace. The laundry is in the basement, and the steps down are awkward; I would really like to have the washer and dryer hook ups moved upstairs next to the half bath, but Chris said that would not be a priority. There was some water damage under one window in the master bedroom, but I couldn't tell if it was recent or not. I thought it looked like it, but Chris says he doesn't think so. We'd have to find out about that. It could be as simple as a clogged gutter, or something more serious. Last, it was not clear how the two bedrooms on the east side of the house were heated. We couldn't find any vents but it was very warm in them. Of course, yesterday the temperature was in the 50s, so it was actually hot in the house. It has a metal roof, so it was very warm in the sun. I am concerned about heat in the summer too. At least there are lots of shade trees on the property, so maybe we will just spend a lot of time outdoors, lol.

A view of the front yard:

Front of house:

The back of the house and the garage

A view from the driveway looking down the street:

After walking through the house and talking with our realtor, he told us that since there was a lot of work left to be done on the house, and it has been on the market a while and is vacant, that we could offer quite a bit below the asking price. He said there was no harm in trying, which was nice. I'm used to realtors saying "I won't waste my time with an offer too low" and such. I think we got lucky getting this guy.

He's going to email me more info about the property today, and we are going to write up an offer this week!

Yet Another House to See

On Sunday Chris and I are going to drive down and see another house. This one looks great on paper, except for one thing: the price. It is really out of our price range. We have exhausted everything in our range and it's all either too small or just icky. This one has promise, but I don't know how we'd find the money for it. The plan right now is if we like it, we are just going to offer the absolute most we can scrape together and hope they take it. I am afraid, though, that it will still be an insulting offer. There is always hope that the sellers are motivated, or that money will fall from the sky and land in my wallet! LOL

Another House With Issues

But of course, what can you expect when you are working with a low price range, at least for the size house we need? So here is the report on yesterday's house:

The property was perfect. 2 acres, some open, some meadow-like, a stream in one corner, a small barn with room to put both the car and the van inside (no doors, but at least I wouldn't have to clean snow off in winter) and also the riding mower. Pretty views, not too close to the road, and I can't even tell you how excited Grandpa was at the thought of his boys being so close by. There is an in ground pool which has been kept up, so we could use it (not sure what insurance and upkeep would run on that per year, though); and they are leaving behind a nice wooden swingset.

The downstairs of the house was also pretty nice and roomy. A living room, a smaller room for a family room or office/den, a dining room big enough to fit my table in with all the leaves in, plus a kitchen that was a decent size. There were two sets of stairs, the main set in the front of the house, and another small "servants' stairs" by the kitchen. I have always liked the idea of 2 sets of stairs in a house. Perhaps in reality that would be annoying. I can see the boys racing around the house in a big circle, LOL.

Unfortunately, the upstairs has major problems with organization of rooms. The two front bedrooms are nice and roomy, no problem there, but what should be the third bedroom has to be a walk through to get to the bathroom at the back of the house. There is really no way to put up a wall to enclose it without cutting the room right in half. As I said, the bathroom is at the back of the house, and it was pretty gross. It only had a shower, no tub, which is a problem for at least 3 of my boys. It was pretty mildewy, too; no ventilation. It would have to be redone. Next to the bathroom was a tiny room that really is only big enough for a sewing room or a huge walk in closet. Troyer would probably be willing to have a tiny space like that just for the chance to have his own room, lol. So essentially, there are really only two true bedrooms.

Another big problem was the roof. I walked around the outside of the house and could see at least two huge holes in the soffit under the roof. It is a metal roof, and needs to be replaced. I'm not sure how much is leaking in but holes are not good, lol. Also the windows are a mixture of new replacements, old replacements, and original (and keep in mind this house is over 100 years old!). I think 2 rooms have new vinyl replacements. I didn't count, but there are a lot of windows, and most need to be replaced. Finally, the cellar under the house, accessible only from the outside by a set of very steep steps, is unfinished stone, and it does get water in a hard rain. I have no idea if it requires repair or how to divert the water so it does not leak again.

I asked about heating costs, and they are very high. I think windows would go a long way toward remedying that, but we couldn't afford to do much with the windows after taking care of the roof and foundation, and the bathroom. It would be a few years before we could get all the windows done.

That said, it would be a great investment, if we were willing to fix it up right. But is it a money pit? What kind of problems would we find while trying to fix the obvious ones? Can the house be repaired or would it be a case of needing to take it down to studs and starting over? Would I *want* to live in a house under constant construction? (in other words, do I look crazy??? lol)

I am really really hoping that the perfect house for us just hasn't come on the market yet, and that when it does we will be in there first with an offer. I keep in mind that our house was only on the market 5 days. So maybe the perfect house for us will be a similar story; on the market and sold (to us!) in less than a week. It just isn't out there for us to see yet. Let's hope, lol.

Back Home!

Ok, here is my report from the houses we saw today. We looked at 3 and drove past another one. That one I am going to go down and see on Tuesday without Chris. If I like it, I will have him drive down to see it too. I wrote out this report for my sister, and it was a lot of typing, so I am just going to cut and paste it here.

1st house: Broad St. It is a huge old victorian home, there is as much space as they claim, and more. The neighborhood is actually quite crowded. It is a small side street, but not a dead end, and every lot is built on. At the back of the property there is an alley that runs down to a ball field, so I am guessing that on game days that gets a lot of traffic, though it wouldn't be fast. The yard was full of snow, so it was hard to see just what it was really like, but it seemed plenty big enough for the boys. The deck is just as pretty as it looks in the pictures, and has gates that lock at each of the steps - very nice! The front porch is great too, with a porch swing. The kitchen was great, with new stove and refrigerator, a double sink and seating at the island. Lots of cupboard and pantry space. There is a laundry room on the first floor with a laundry sink, and a butler's pantry between the kitchen and laundry room. There is a mud entrance to that area, with vinyl flooring. The second floor has 3 bedrooms and a bath, plus another small room that they had just installed a ton of closet organizer type shelving. The third floor has a den area at the top of the stairs, and 2 more rooms, plus a half bath. It also has one more room that isn't finished to be used as storage.

So here is what is wrong with the house: #1 and biggest problem, the windows are old wooden single pane windows. No storm windows or screens. We are not even sure the windows open. There are a/c units in some of the windows, so I suspect at least some of them do not. #2 is the bathrooms. On the second floor, the bathroom was just carved out of a bedroom, and the tub runs part way under one of the windows. There is no shower, just a ring overhead with a curtain. The sill on the window is in bad shape from water damage. Nothing structural, just ugly. I would definitely plan to redo that bath. The other full bath is on the first floor. It is off of the laundry room, and is tiny. Maybe 2.5 feet wide, with the sink right in the door, so you have to squeeze around the sink to get to the toilet. A pg woman would not be able to get to the toilet. That bath has a shower, not great but ok. Other negatives to consider: The paper is obnoxious but not hideous, we would live with it just fine after suffering in this house, lol. Parking is a short driveway in front of a garage. It is supposed to be a 2 car garage, but those would be 2 very skinny cars. Because of the snow we could not be sure just how wide the driveway really is, but for sure the van would never fit in the garage. We would have to work out how to get both cars into the drive. The laundry area is about even with the upstairs bath in terms of quality. Kind of icky. I'm not sure how easy it would be to fix it up. Heating is gas forced air, and it has city water and sewer. I am very afraid of what the heating bill for a house that size would be. The basement is dirt. No concrete or anything, straight dirt. Yuck. Last, the roof is slate, and seems that it might have a leak at one corner, it could be expensive to fix up.


We are seriously considering this house anyway, soley from the standpoint of space. There was a lot of work done to it, but the windows are a major issue, as are the bathrooms. Ok, that's the report on house #1.

Ok, #2, Canal St. This house was soooo nice, but much tinier than they claimed on the info sheet. We measured out the rooms and I can only barely get to 1200 sq ft. Not only that, but there is not a single closet in the whole house. No joke. The ceilings in the front half of the second floor are only 6' 3" high. Chris had to duck to get through the doors. There are two staircases, but both are narrow and enclosed, and turn the corner at the bottom, so it would be difficult to get furniture up them. There are french doors in the master bedroom (for a future deck, I guess) and we'd have to get all the furniture in through those. Also, there is a water problem in the basement; they have a sump pump, but Chris didn't like the looks of the whole thing. There is a concrete floor, but the washer and dryer would be down there and it is icky. I think if we were to go with this house, we'd have to bid low and plan to add on immediately.


That said, there are so many pluses to this house. The kitchen is brand new and beautiful. No appliances, so we'd have to buy those. The yard is absolutely perfect, and the view is great on all sides. Both bathrooms upstairs are new and very nice. Most of the windows are new vinyl; only 4 small windows in back are aluminum, and the back door doesn't have a storm door. It was plenty warm in there when we visited today, even though it was set to 60.


I really really really liked the character of this house, even more than the Broad Street house. That house had an air of genteel poverty to it. This house was very pretty inside, since they did all that work to it. I just wish it wasn't so small!!!! It would be perfect if it were bigger and had closets.

#3 was the Blackberry Rd house, the split level, and yuck, we wrote it off right away. The driveway is as steep as it looks in the picture, that is not an optical illusion. It is also very short, so not really good for the van. The inside is dark, and the entire property is the side of a mountain, all sloped and wooded. No real yard to play in and no where to ride bikes.

I didn't take any pictures today; it had snowed overnight so it was hard to get around in the snow. The first 2 houses are unoccupied, so no one had shoveled. I wish I had remembered to wear my boots.

Our First Trip to Scout Out Houses!

Tomorrow morning we are all driving south to go house hunting! Chris and I are going to drop the older boys off with Grandma and Grandpa, then driving out to York to meet with a realtor and start looking! We have 3 houses to see tomorrow. I had hoped for more, but only 3 made the cut between Chris and me. I did find one more today, but it was too late to schedule a showing for tomorrow. I may go down myself during the week to get a look at it.

We are leaving at 7:30 in the morning (that means we are planning to leave at 7:30 and will be doing well if we leave by 8 lol), driving 2.5 hours south, dropping off the boys and driving another hour east. We will be meandering our way back west, from house to house, and end up back close to the in-laws'.

The last house I just found today is almost around the corner from them; I'm deliberating whether I want to live that close or not. It is literally 5 minutes from their house. Would that be good or not? I'm not sure; as a newly wed I was doubly blessed to live 4 hours away from both sets of parents, but I am pretty established as a wife and mother now. Would I be able to hold my own against them? I have to keep in mind how Christmas went. I would be deep in "enemy territory" LOL. Would it be worth the conveniences? I'll really have to consider that.

On the way home we'll be lighter by 2 boys; MIL is keeping Noah and Caleb for a week. Next week we will go down and pick them up, and drop off 2 more. She is still working at the elementary school, but FIL retired this year, so he will be home to watch them during the day. He is very excited to have them coming; it seems he is pretty bored with retirement already, lol.

I hope to take some pictures on this trip, and if any of them come out well, I'll post them here. I'll definitely be writing a report on how the trip went!

A New Bed

Today I moved Levi into a new bed. Well, not technically a bed, but a mattress on the floor. It's where we used to have the crib, but the crib is in storage so I had to make do. Levi has been too big for the bassinette for probably 2 months now, but I didn't have anywhere else to put him. Today I decided that he is just too big to be safe anymore. He is rolling and spinning all over the floor, and I didn't want him tipping the bassinette over trying it in there. He has also been getting up on his knees sometimes; just not when he is on his hands too, lol. On top of that, he is about to get his top 2 teeth. On top of the cold, that has made him pretty cranky. He is a pro at spinning in the exersaucer, though, and he is very proud of it!

Here is a picture of Levi sleeping in his new "bed":

Snow and Snot

Well, the big storm came; it doesn't really seem like a lot of snow, but that is because it is so cold that the snow is very fine and powdery. Light to shovel, but it also just blows right back across the area you just did. I am getting really really tired of this cold weather. How long has it been since we've seen a day above 25? Ugh. I hate cold.


Something else showed up at our house this morning. Everyone except Chris and Levi is sick. Runny noses, headaches, upset tummies (probably from the post nasal drip), coughing. We had already planned to be staying home from church today because of the snow, but at this point even if it were 40 we'd be home. The boys all laid around under blankets and drank hot chocolate and ate soup. Some were too tired to eat and we had to really push the liquids to keep them from getting dehydrated.

Troyer was about the same as he has been all week, not any better, not any worse, but Noah and Caleb are miserable. And poor Micah woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. Levi is cranky but doesn't seem sick; he may just be picking up on the mood of the others. I feel horrible. I felt the cold coming on most of the week, but I had been hoping it wouldn't catch me. But when I woke up in the middle of the night for Levi and tried to go back to sleep, I couldn't get warm. Last night after chat I took a hot bath, but I guess it didn't help. I tried to take a hot bath again today, but ran out of hot water. Chris had each of the boys rotating in the tub, and Troyer used more than his share. I tried to take a nap after the bath, but was freezing again. I just hate that, when I am snuggled up in the flannel sheets with a warm blanket and a comforter on top, and can't get warm. Now I am hot and sweaty. I prefer it this way, lol, but I know I am just due for another round of cold later. I had orange juice and hot chocolate this morning, but the post nasal drip has my stomach upset now, and I haven't been able to eat anything all day. Ugh, I hate being sick!

At least Chris is not sick, he has been doing a great job of taking care of everyone today. He has not given me a hard time at all about not being able to do much to help. I sure hope he doesn't get this.

Inspection is Over, Almost

Today at 9:30 our house was inspected, as part of the sale. There were quite a few people scheduled to come for this inspection, namely the buyer and his real estate agent, the house inspector, the exterminator to inspect for termites (Pennsylvania law), a Radon Inspector (who will have to come back on Monday to collect her testing device) and the septic pumper, who needs to pump out the tank before the house inspector can inspect it. I am pretty sure there was one other person here, but I can't think of who he was, lol.

The day started out very cold. At 7 am it was 0 degrees, and I had to go out and help Chris jump his car to get it started. I had my doubts about how the septic guy would fair in this kind of weather. Chris spent 3 days digging at the frozen dirt in the back yard to dig the lid up for him, but would the lid come off? Let me save you some time wondering and just tell you, no. My realtor had her husband come over last night and throw some hay on the hole to keep the lid from freezing. In my experience, hay is good for keeping off a frost, but not a deep freeze. I was right. I watched out the window when the septic guy got here, and he walked over and very disdainfully threw the hay off, LOL. Then he got out a pick axe and tried to get the lid up, but no luck. I give him credit, he didn't try very hard, for which I was thankful. He may have broken the concrete lid if he had tried too hard. He came to the door to ask if there was a way to get hot water out to the tank, but other than carrying buckets of water there wasn't, so I suggested he ask if he could come back next week when it warms up to almost freezing. He did wait and talk to the buyer and agent, but never came back to talk to me, so I don't know if that is what he is going to do.

I had originally planned to be out of the house while these people all came through, but since it was so cold and so darn early in the morning, I decided to stay home. I cleaned up pretty well, and then herded all the boys into the computer room and promised to try to keep them out of the way. I am pleased to say that the boys were great. Micah ended up coming down to watch "Hot Hot" which is his name for the Hot Wheels movie we have. He made me stay down and watch with him, so I sat on the couch with Levi and nursed. I could smell when the inspector tried out my stove top; he turned all the burners on, and I *never* use the large burner at the back, so I could smell the dust burning, lol. It took all I had not to jump up and make sure they weren't burning the burner covers, which is something that Chris does with some regularity, lol.

They walked through and tried most of the outlets, and flipped the light switches, and tried out the windows. They went through the attic and the basement. All in all, they were pretty thorough. Probably much more than the inspector we had when we bought this house, lol. They had a tendency to stand around and talk, a lot. About things not related to my house. Like the quality of water in a neighborhood nowhere near mine. Bleh, I was waiting for them to get out! The inspection ended up being 2 hours, I was told it would be about 45 minutes. One thing that really got to me was the furnace. They came upstairs to turn up the thermostat so the furnace would come on. Um, hello? It's 9 degrees outside! (up from 0 at 7 am, lol) Don't you think that if the furnace wasn't working it would be a *little* cold in my house? Not only that, but it had come on at least 5 times while they were there. Ah well.

Finally they all went outside to walk around the outside. After a while I wondered what they were doing, and it turned out they had left! They didn't even poke their heads in to say they were leaving. It would have been nice to let me know, since I was waiting until they were done to put Levi down for a nap. No one has called me since, either, so I don't know when I'll be hearing about the inspection, or if I will at all. I guess no news is good news, and there is nothing that needs to be done.

My realtor is going on vacation tomorrow. She is going on a cruise and will be gone more than a week. I hope I don't have any questions before she gets back! I also hope someone is going to contact me about the septic guy coming back.

Troyer has had a cold this week, mostly a runny nose with a little cough. He had lost most of his voice, but it is coming back. No one else was sick, I was hoping he'd keep it to himself. Well, I have been feeling like maybe I'm getting it, and now I'm pretty sure I am. This fall I have been lucky, though, and when I get a cold it's mild and doesn't spread to anyone else. I hope I can keep this one to myself too. Then this afternoon, Noah started coughing, and tonight he went to bed early. I hope he will be ok.

We are supposed to get a snow storm tomorrow, up to 10 inches. Church is cancelled, which is nice, but we probably would have stayed home anyway. The van stinks in the snow (see post below! lol). That also means our house hunting for this weekend is cancelled. Bummer. I may have to go down mid-week without Chris and start doing drive-bys, just to narrow down the list. We'll have to see how the weather goes. My MIL was going to keep 2 of the boys for a whole week, drop them off this week, pick them up next week, but now the weather cancelled that plan too. They are disappointed, and MIL and FIL are even more so. But maybe it's just as well, if they are all starting to get colds.

Ok, now that the news is out, more to report:

I know you were all waiting to hear about that, so now the rest of the news lol:

Levi is rolling! All over the house! On Friday morning he finally rolled from back to front on purpose. Once he did that, it just clicked and he loved it! Now he rolls everywhere. He is very excited to be mobile!

The weather here has taken a turn for the worse. Yesterday while we were out driving around during the house showings, it snowed some, and the temperature really dropped. It was slippery when we went out, but we had to be out until almost 5 pm. By then it was snowing again and very bad. I was driving on a back road and the van totally missed a turn. Luckily I had the option of going straight, and no one else was in the intersection, so I just slid through and then backed up and inched around the turn. Yikes, it was scary. When we turned onto our road, there was a cow coming down the road! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop then either and end up hitting it, but it turned down the drive to its barn, so I didn't have to stop after all. Phew! When we finally inched our way the rest of the way home, I went inside and called the owners of the cow to tell them it was loose, but it turns out the guy was in the barn feeding them and saw the loose cow come home.

While we were out yesterday I bought Troyer some snowpants, since last year's just weren't going to stretch over him anymore. He was very excited since it was snowing, he thought he'd get to go right out today and put them to use. Well, the temperature today was 19 and it was windy. Right now the wind chill is -5 degrees. Brrr! No way they are going out. They'd have to come in in 3 minutes! He's very mad at me now, LOL.

I am planning to make a trip to house hunt next Sunday. I hope the weather cooperates. I'm not sure what I'll do if I can't get the van down there. The inspector is supposed to come this week to inspect our house and septic. That means digging up the lid and pumping out the tank. I hope Chris can find the lid under the snow. He's not thrilled LOL Cross your fingers that the inspector doesn't find anything serious.

SOLD!

Yes, we sold our house last night! One of the couples who walked through on Saturday came back on Sunday and wrote an offer. We got our asking price, no haggling needed. It is very exciting! Now we have to get to work on finding a place to move to! Closing is set for March 31 so we have about 2 1/2 months to get out of here. :-)

Another Nibble

Just after lunch the realtor called me again to set up another showing. They will be coming over tomorrow at 4. Yikes, I am not ready! I spent all day today racing around trying to do 8 things at once all while trying to keep the boys from messing it all back up again. I vacuumed, and decluttered a few more surfaces, swept the kitchen floor, wiped down the kitchen chairs, washed dishes, put dishes away, washed a few windows, threw in a load of wash since Micah peed on the bath rug getting into the tub today (oops! lol), and tried to get my hallway as clear as possible. There is another big load of boxes for storage now down in the "family room" (we have never called it that, but that is what it is listed as). Whoever walks through the house will just have to understand that we are packing! It should be gone on Sunday. I hope. Chris spent each evening, after getting home late, shampooing spots of various rugs. They look great, sure, but I would have appreciated his helping with the decluttering. Maybe get that big blue tarp off the deck. Maybe straighten up the basement a bit so people could get through it. Tonight he came home and cleaned off his dresser top (well, I'm sure he thinks it's clean) and his desk (again, same thing) and then sat down to do work he brought home. I have to take the boys to a homeschool meeting tomorrow morning at 10, we'll get home sometime after lunch, and have to go out again around 3:30. Not really a lot of time for me to get anything done but last minute stashing. So I've been running around like a crazy woman trying to make the place decent. Chris just sat there with the tv on doing his work. Bleh. And do you think I am getting any credit for what I got done today? Nope. Because, of course, it doesn't compare to all the painting he's done. And because now he'll have to take the boxes to storage. Double Bleh. I'd like to see him get anything at all done around this house with a baby stuck to his boob! I sure hope tomorrow will go ok and I won't be embarrassed.

Oh, and I forgot to say Happy Birthday! to Levi, who is 5 months old today!

A Nibble!

I got a call this morning from the realtor, and set up our first showing for Sunday morning. They originally wanted to come this morning at 11, but ummmm with 6 kids to dress and get out plus get the dishes out of the sink and hide miscellanious junk, with 2 hours notice? Nope, don't think so! LOL Plus, she actually called twice, the first time I was in the shower; so I also had to get me ready too lol.

I will be limiting my online time during the day now, so the realtor can get through to set up showings, but I'll post updates at night when I can. Now I'm off to wash mirrors and dust!

Good Teeth

I am happy to report that my boys have inherited their father's good teeth. (Hey! He's good for something! LOL) My oldest 3 boys had appointments at the dentist yesterday morning. It was Samuel's first dentist visit, as this is the first year that he had any adult teeth. I am so proud of them all; I had to take all 6 boys in, and they were all very good. The dentist came out and asked who would go first, and Noah volunteered right away. He was done in a matter of minutes. Troyer went next, and actually walked back before the dentist came out and asked for him. Next came Samuel, who could have been understandably nervous, but he jumped right up and went back for his turn. No crying, no nerves, no complaining. It was great! And the dentist came out after they were all done and said "No Cavities!" Yipee! Thank goodness they did not get my teeth! I had at least 6 cavities by the time I was 10. Also nice was the fact that they didn't even do a full cleaning on the boys, so the total bill for all 3 only came to $75. Not too bad!

Our house is now officially on the market. We have spent the last week trying to get rid of all the clutter and dirt, and have made a good dent. The living room and family room/play room/dining room are done. The bedrooms are almost finished, just a few things need to be hid in closets or thrown in a box. Unfortunately, the most important room, the kitchen, still needs work. There is a huge pile of papers on the table in the center of the room, a bunch of clutter (that will soon be in a box) on top of the microwave, a whole shelf of school papers and resources that I had hoped to have put in storage but I just don't know how I'll do without those things, plus the floor did not get mopped. Chris did patch up parts of the floor along the edges that were missing vinyl. I guess it was the sort of thing that he wasn't going to bother to do before because we really need to just replace the ugly brown vinyl, but if we were going to do that we'd need to put in a new subfloor because the floor slopes, but we don't want to put that kind of money into this house, we just didn't think it would be worth the investment. So he should have just patched it up years ago. Uh huh, no need to get into that again, right? It looks pretty nice. He also shampooed a few of the carpets and scrubbed the bathroom, which looks great. He has some trim up in Troyer's room, around the ceiling, so it just needs to be patched and painted and that will look good (just paint the trim, btw, not the whole room; or not yet anyway).

I just took the boys' picture on the couch this morning. I think this one is the one I am going to have to use for the christmas pictures (yes, it is mid-January and I am still planning to send out christmas cards!) Everyone will just have to be happy with it! LOL

This morning it started out raining with a few snowflakes mixed in. The boys were jumping up and down, "It's snowing! It's snowing!" They were all set to go pull the sleds out and put snowpants on. I just rolled my eyes. Well, a few short hours later, I glanced out the window and saw SNOW! Several inches! The rain had changed completely over and I even saw a snow plow come by. Oops, LOL. I guess this time the boys were right! Unfortunately for them, it is already starting to melt again. But that is the best kind of snow, right? The kind that melts right after it finishes falling? ;-)

Just a Few Pictures

Here are some pictures of the room Chris doesn't want to paint:

You can see from all the shelves and big furniture that it will be a pain in the neck to clear out enough to patch and paint. But still, $10K? I'd do it.

I Just Don't Understand My Husband

Ok, anyone who knows anything about him is right now thinking, "yeah, and who does?" But let me tell you what happened tonight. Tonight the realtor came over and we signed the papers and discussed prices and showings and all that stuff. My husband doesn't really like to talk to strangers, he's painfully shy and while he tries to overcome it so it doesn't cripple him in life, he willingly lets others take over for him in situations like these if he can get them to. So, as expected, he let me do all the talking tonight. The realtor gave us a price she thought was a good place to start, and I suggested a little higher as we weren't going to go down much further than what she started at. She was fine with that. Then she walked around the house to see the work that we had done. She was VERY impressed with how nice it looks now. Well, except for the 2 rooms that didn't get painted. Now that the rest of the house looks so good, they look hideous. She suggested that we go ahead and paint these rooms too. Of course I, being the woman of the house and the one concerned with these sorts of things, agreed that it should be done. Chris, meanwhile, was downstairs sitting in his chair waiting for us to get done with the tour. So we come downstairs and she tells him how nice it looks, but that he really should paint the last 2 rooms. He knows that I agree. I did mention to her that he really didn't want to do them. It's a lot of work to clear all the furniture out and take everything down from the walls and patch the nail holes and prime and paint wallpaper. He was soooo excited to be done with painting.

Here is why we need to paint one of the rooms:

The water damage is actually just from leaving the window open when it rained, and is from before we moved in. The old windows weren't installed right and the water filled up the sill and flowed over into the house instead of out the window. With our new windows it is not a problem; plus we replaced the sill. Now it just needs to be painted.

Here is what I don't understand about my husband: he is upset about having to do more painting. I can understand his frustration, but the realtor said it should be done! He truly believes it will not add value to the house or help sell it any faster. He thinks that anyone thinking of buying this particular house will already know it needs tons of work and they had better be handy or rich. I reminded him that the realtor had told us if we listed the house without doing any work to it, she'd put it $20K lower than now. I asked him, didn't he think a few hundred dollars of paint and a few months of weekends and evenings were worth $20K? He said, get this, No. Do you know the reason he has made me live in this hideous house for 8 years without painting? He claims it's because the boys would mess it up, but really it's because he just didn't want to do the painting. I asked him, "so you would rather leave the 2 rooms undone and take $10K less on the house?" and he said Yes. Ugh!!! And just how does he think he is going to be able to afford his 4 brm 2 bath house on at least an acre if he doesn't get all he can out of this house??? He had no answer to that, just that he didn't think paint was going to make a difference.

He sat in a sulk after the realtor left and then decided that if he has to paint this room he is not going to set the computers back up when he is done, I'll have to go without internet until we move. Keep in mind that we don't even have a house to move to yet, so this could be 2 months or more. How hard would it be to set it up downstairs in the meantime? How hard would it be to set it back up? Oh no, the computers would go to storage, and therefore would not come back out until we move. So I said fine, don't paint, be a baby. I'll call the realtor tomorrow and tell her that he just doesn't want to do it, and see what she says.

The Realtor is Coming!

Yesterday I called the realtor and told her to come on over, we are finally ready to sign the papers! She will be here this afternoon. We still have a bunch of clutter to hide, and some final scrubbing, like the tub and the kitchen floor, but mostly we are done. She said that the couple who was interested in the fall are still waiting for our house, and that we should have no problem getting the price we want. Yeah!

I found a picture of my kitchen from before we put in the new sink and counter, so I wanted to post before and after pictures for you to see:

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

Also, I have some pictures from our Christmas trip:

The Boys in the Van Driving to Grandma's

The Christmas Bush (and yes, that's how it looked on Christmas Day, no ornaments and unlit)

And finally, I took some pics of the boys today. I took Troyer in to have his portrait redone, since the one he did in December came out blurry and I had to return it. It was another pita, so I decided then that I will just do a digital pic of them all and make prints to send out for Christmas cards. Today we did practice shots, since Levi was napping. I took a few of Levi then, when he woke up.

5 of the Boys

Levi

Here is Levi trying to see what the boys have to play with. I had put him down in the middle of the floor, and he scooted himself over to the side with the bins of cars, lol. He did officially roll over from front to back 2 days ago, and he did again yesterday, but he hasn't rolled today.

An Aside

I know I said I'd post about my Christmas, but honestly, it was so depressing that I haven't had the heart to go through it all again as I write it. I vented to both of my sisters, then brought the mood down in chat on New Year's Eve with the story, and I just don't even want to go there again. I can tell you it is nothing physical, nothing happened to anyone, no one is hurt or sick. In fact, the boys had a great time, and Chris had fun too. It was just me who didn't want to be there. Maybe later I'll get around to writing about it.

What I wanted to say today is: Woo Hoo! Congratulations Kmomof10, Kim!!!! So so so exciting to hear your news! Best of luck to you, and I hope all that m/s means twins!!! LOL