Good news

Got a call and Cyrus who has been on the waiting list has been offered a spot in the Kindergarten class at the same school that Solomon is going to. They are so excited about being at the same school. Additionally the school extended their day by one half hour so they'll be starting at 8am and instead of picking Solomon up at 2:30pm- it will be 3pm and even better is that I will be picking up Cyrus at 11:30am instead of 11am which will come handy with my own errands, social life, appointments, and getting as much done as I can when I am not distracted by one of my cute boys.

Now if school could just start: only 11 more days until September 8th!

Summer Vacation Plans

I am leaving tomorrow to start my summer vacation- I will be in California spending time with my family and friends. Attending my high school reunion, going to Sea World and Wild Animal Park, and going to a family reunion [Happy 90th Uncle Orville]. Then I'll be leaving my boys with family [Thanks Aunt Brenda and her family plus my mom] while I fly out to Savannah, Georgia to visit with my husband before he goes overseas. He will be flying out of the States for Kuwait July 8th so keep him in your prayers... I probably won't be posting much on my blog [I don't have a laptop yet] while I am on vacation and look forward to bombarding you all with pictures and stories when I return.

Much Love,
Mab

This is the picture that I currently have on my desktop- I think it captured both of the boys' personalities pretty well and it is hard to post on the blog without a picture [I love showing off the boys and my awesome camera]:

One Day Left...

Tomorrow sometime after 7:30pm and by 9:30pm Dan will be home on leave, my father in law, and my dad with my brother should all be here. I'll be the only girl. Wish me the best.
We'll be celebrating Dan's short break with us and Cyrus's birthday. My father in law will be taking pictures which I will share... My dad and brother will be helping us with some projects around the house. Dan will be relaxing- he is currently sick from a complete lack of sleep so hopefully he gets better while home- and hanging out with family.

I am excited...

Now I need to go vacuum.

I have been MIA

Between unpacking and organizing, maintaining my cleaning and cooking-from-stratch style of cooking [which makes a LOT of cleaning up to do], enjoying our new house and yard, settling into a new routine, family time, etc I haven't been on this blog in a while.
Quite honestly I am not sure how much I will be on for the next two weeks. Time has flown by and soon Dan will be leaving for his first month's training- April 5th is when he gets activated. We'll be spending this time together so you'll have to pardon my lack of attention to my blog in the meantime...
Dan is ending work next Tuesday to spend time with us at home and Solomon starts his Spring Break this Friday.

Life

Remember when I told you one of my top favorite television show is Life on NBC back on tonight with all new episodes. Finally...

And I am going to miss it. I will be enjoy a mom/women night out playing with glass at a glass fusing studio! I'll take my camera to post about it tomorrow.

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

Superbowl

Hope everyone had a great time watching the Superbowl...

Like a girl I was cheering on the pretty little red birdies... The Cardinals came so close to wining- I wish they had.

Dan worked yesterday so the boys and I started watching it together then during halftime- Dan came home and we drove over to friends' house where my camera didn't take pictures of their cute baby but here is one of Cyrus giving the dog some tummy rubbin' ...

R. Pausch Quotes

I have seen "The Last Lecture" presented by Randy Pausch on PBS [OPB] which I truly enjoyed and then my book club picked it as January's book of the month. I recommend this book or tv program to anyone... His theme of the "lecture" [he was a Professor at Carnegie Mellon] was "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"

I read two quotes in particular that I wanted to share with you [but there are many more to be discovered... and I should let you know that the chapters are short and the book is an easy read]:

Chapter 16: Romancing the Brick Wall

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something."

Chapter 39: Be the First Penguin

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."

I really wish that I had taken the time to write out my childhood dreams so that I could make them happen or have fun trying. I will be encouraging this in my children.

I joined Facebook finally- apparently I was missing out on some information and whoa! instantly information overload!!! I can't believe how many people I know who are on there- it is- well I already said it "overwhelming"
The other reason why I joined is that I need a night out and no one seems to be available in my physical area so maybe I'll just have to do with a cup of hot chocolate and facebook- anyone want to make a date of it?

Time...

Wow- mid January already?!!!

It just hits me the other day that Dan's deployment is coming up fast... Actually 78 days away now...

And then we're just waiting on the VA appraisal on the house as well as the i to be dotted and t to be crossed so we can close on our house which is very, very soon. I should be packing by now [note to self: get boxes] which is exciting and well a lot of work needs to be done. The kids are excited. It would have been great to be at the house this week as our weather has been really nice- sunny and in the 50s and I am thinking about gardening as the kids are thinking of playing in the backyard.

Back in the Fall I was having major cravings for caramel apples that I even looked up on Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for their nearest store so that I may get one [I like the pecans on it as well] and to my dismay found the nearest store to be just over an hour away... Guess what- driving to our new house should I see a few letters of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store- now Dan wouldn't pull over for me (why doesn't he know NOT to stand between a woman and her sweets I don't know). So soon I'll have my treat and reward myself for all the packing, moving and unpacking we are about to do...

One Word for 2009

Over on capture.create [or more specifically the post here about it] there is a challenge to come up with a word for the new year to give focus to one's resolutions and path of journey for the year... I was inspired by many of the comments and wanted to join in...

My word is:



seize   /siz/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [seez] Show IPA Pronunciation
verb, seized, seiz⋅ing.
–verb (used with object)
1. to take hold of suddenly or forcibly; grasp: to seize a weapon.
2. to grasp mentally; understand clearly and completely: to seize an idea.
3. to take possession of by force or at will: to seize enemy ships.
4. to capture; take into custody.
5. to take advantage of promptly: to seize an opportunity.

The following also comes to mind:

Carpe Diem "Seize the Day"

[and a mental review of the movie: Dead Poets Society...]

And being a Newsies' fan, I'll share with you the lyrics of a song that ties in well with my theme for 2009:

Open the gates and seize the day
Don't be afraid and don't delay
Nothing can break us
No one can make us
Give our rights away
Arise and seize the day!

Now is the time to seize the day
(Now is the time to seize the day)
Send out the call and join the fray
(Send out the call and join the fray)

Wrongs will be righted
if we're united
Let us seize the day!

Friends of the friendless seize the day
(Friends of the friendless seize the day)
Raise up the torch and light the way
(Raise up the torch and light the way)

Proud and defiant
We'll slay the giant
Let us seize the day
Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son
One for all and all for one!

Open the gates and seize the day
(Open the gates and seize the day)
Don't be afraid and don't delay
(don't be afraid and don't delay)

Nothing can break us
No one can make us
Give our rights away
Neighbor to neighbor
Father to son!
One for all and all for one!

and one more quote from the band, Avenged Sevenfold:

Seize the day, or die regretting the time you lost
It's empty, and cold without you here, too many people to Ache over

I see my vision burn, I feel my memories fade with time
But I'm too young to worry
These streets we travel on will undergo our same lost past

I'll like to sieze each day- capturing moments with my family, myself, creating, learning, and purposely doing each day instead of just going with the flow...

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.

- Maya Angelou

When two kids are home bound due to snowy. cold weather- some complainin' happens and well I am looking for changes or an attitude adjuster machine to replace my parenting-hard-work of asking then removing said complainin' kid until attitude is changed- for a little while anyways...

Other negative attributes of the snow while I have this opportunity to do some of my own complainin'
1. Cabin Fever
2. Pushed our closing date on our house further away [from January 6th to January 30th] but we could still close earlier than the 30th.
3. I turned up the thermostat from 55* to 60* [I have wimpy husband and kids when it comes to the cold]
4. It has been harder to get my Christmas shopping done especially when the city stopped clearing the roads
5. I didn't buy snow boots and I really should have [I will every year from now on] so the kids can actually play in the snow for more than 10-15 minutes.
6. We only have one sled and well both boys are at that age "I want my own." "I can do it by myself" so I'll be looking for a deal on another sled.
7. "You're supposed to bake cookies" by my husband and then dealing with kids high on sugar but maybe I am supposed to feed them more sugar in hopes of sugar-induced-comas...

Honestly, I love the snow and would gladly move where it snowed every year consistently. Too bad we love living in Portland...

Counting down....

We're counting down to Christmas with our advent calendar that my Granny D made when I was a little girl [thankfully my brother let me have it]:


And we are really starting to count down until we move into our new house. Looks like we'll be moving January 15-18th! One month to go... It is getting so exciting!

This "buying-a-house" business takes up a lot of time... I have fallen behind in cooking, cleaning, schoolwork, and everything else. Even Christmas decorations is late for me this year.
First an update- the first and second offer we put out there had sellers [both were foreclosed/bank-owned] responding with a counter-offer of about $20,000 higher than the listing price with the knowledge of the 6-9 other offers so we backed out as we didn't want to get into a bidding war and the cost of the place that needs instant work/repairs shouldn't be that high in our opinion.
So we changed our tactic. We were not going to look at any foreclosed homes- I don't care what the deal is- it simply takes a longer process to move in and there was always work that needed to be done and with Dan's deployment date looming closer and closer, it wasn't work the "deal" we could get. Then a sweet little detail happened- the mortage interest rate dropped from 6% of when we started the house hunting process to the current 5%- whoo hoo- and that allowed us to have a little more money for the house purchase price. Then we discovered a couple of tax abatements in the area- mostly on new houses. This simply means that you pay very little taxes until certain year which works well for us since Dan's income will increase more than enough to pay the higher taxes when it is time and we could put more monthly money into the house cost. So all said and done- we looked at 8 houses Saturday [mind you Dan was almost done being sick but still with a cough, Solomon's cough is still lingering probably due to his asthma, and I had gotten sick] but at least it was sunny outside. Most were 10 years or newer properties.
We narrowed it down to two and wrote out a pro and con list and decided on "the one" which we made an offer yesterday...
Their acceptance would make it a great Birthday gift for me ;) and I would finally get caught up on my chores and to do list- time to celebrate Christmas and then to pack be moved in January!

*** If you live in Portland and interested in buying a house click here. We really enjoy working with him and would recommend him!

8 Things

Here are my favorite 8s...

8 Favorite TV shows:

1. Life
2. NCIS
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. Gilmore Girls
5. Boston Legal
6. Bones
7. Firefly
8. Food & HGTV Channels' shows

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. We put an offer on the house [the actual paperwork part]
2. Walked through the house again before doing paperwork
3. Made lunch
4. Did a homework assignment for class
5. Rearranged the toys in living space [need to make room for Xmas Tree]
6. Did two loads of laundry, ran the dishwasher, vacuumed and dusted.
7. Took the kids out to pizza for dinner- $14 for a extra-large Hawaiian
8. Hung out with the kids...

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Sinju Sushi
2. Hoda's
3. McCormicks
4. Elephants Delicatessen
5. Typhoon!
6. Cracked Crab [sadly not in Portland]
7. Pizza Schmizza [where we get our pizza and deserves to be on the list because it would top the kids' list]
8. Chez Loma [Coronado, CA]

8 Favorite Movies:

1. Better Off Dead
2. Die Hard series
3. Little Women
4. Braveheart [and Last of Mohicians]
5. Steel Magnolias
6. October Sky
7. Chocolat
8. Mystic River

[Movies is a hard list to do top 8 or so of- would be better to sort by genre]

8 Things on my Wish List:

1. That the bank accepts our offer on the house
2. That we get enough funds/help to do a couple of needed repairs/updates
3. Completly remodel the kitchen [through Ikea] with new pots, pans, & knives.
4. To be blessed with baby #3 [and better health this pregnancy]
5. For Dan and I to both have laptops [for better communication when he is deployed]
6. To go on a family vacation before Dan is deployed
7. A great dog for the family [also want 3 chickens]
8. Good health and happiness for my family and friends

8 People I Tag to Play Next:

Whoever would like to!

Thanks L for the idea!

House hunting

Dan got pre-approved and we started house hunting. Went to a couple of houses yesterday and we all really liked the last one. We're making an offer. So if you could send your prayers, rub the rabbit foot, wish us well- we would appreciate it.
I'll keep you all updated as we find out anything. Picture above is not the actual house.

The fellow that owns his own home is always just coming out of a hardware store. ~Frank McKinney Hubbard

Election Day

I voted 3 weeks ago with an absentee ballot but today marks the end of those mail box stuffers full of political ads and the political television ads should go away as I need to be reminded about the other products/service that I don't need or want.

Dan will be trying for his Free "I Voted" coffee from Starbucks while working tonight. [He already voted 2 days after me.]

Won't be watching the news, I'll wait until I see the newspaper headlines.

This was pretty much my first time voting absentee as I always went to a polling place before and I have to admit that I like it. It was extremely helpful to check out information/people on the internet to be a little bit more informed about the issues and people as I was voting.

Wishing the very best for our country and its communities!

Come back...

I am so sorry my dear readers that I have NOT been posting. Much has happened and while I have been under with a cold that isn't horrible as in snot streaming out of my nose kind of way but occasionally difficult to breath, throat is kind of scratchy, and so very tired, tired, tired!
Out went my cleaning goals, most of scheduled events, and survival became the name of the game. My blog was the first to go... Sorry but maybe you feel some pity and forgive me?! *bats my eyes* "Pretty please, forgive me for not posting horribly mundane things about my family!"

So as I come back to posting- dear readers, please come back to read... I have missed you all...

Very frustrating...

I have all these pictures I want to share with my dear readers however, I can't figure out how to download them from my husband's camera to the computer. Nevermind that I have done it before but my brain completely is stumped and Dan is working 7 days a week this past week and this week and it won't be until October 23rd that he'll have a day off to show me how to do it again... Please be patient until this problem is resolved [because we all know yelling at electronics really doesn't help]...

Happy First Day of Fall!

Time to get out the Autumn Decorations... Some Fall things to do:
Apple picking, Farmer Markets. Pick your own pumpkin. Corn Maze. Pumpkin soup, muffins, and pie... Catch a football game and then a basketball game. Figure out your Halloween costume if you haven't already. Make your own carmel apples or visit your local Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory if you're lucky to have one less than an hour dive away. Bake some cookies. Start having oatmeal for breakfast. Buy a winter coat. Knit a scarf. Take walks and see the colors in nature change. And a special feature here in the Northwest: go puddle jumping when raining!

What's in your treasure chest Matey?

The other day, we were eating lunch and the very bored Cyrus decides to roll up his napkin and declares it to be a treasure map. Of course the treasure map leads to a treasure chest.

I thought to myself What would this boy value? and so I asked...

"Cyrus what would you find in the treasure chest?"

He promptly replied, "Ice Cream and Chocolate!"

I think it is safe to say that an Ice Cream Maker would top his Christmas Wish List!

Solomon chimed in after the parents' laughter started to die off that he would find toys in his treasure chest.

As for D and Me? Nothing like money in a treasure chest to make us happy.