Catching up

Breaking News~ It's been a long time since I've blogged.
We've been busy a wee bit on the busy side. I must revert to the tried and true list form to catch all 2 of you up to date on the who, what, when, where, and why of the last couple weeks.

-- I last posted on the day we cleaned our Monterey house. The next morning, we met with our landlord, passed our inspection, got our security deposit back, sighed in relief (the house was perfect, but the landlord was odd, and the security deposit huge) and went to the movies while the kids had their last day of school.

- We stayed one more night in the base lodging. Alex requested that she be allowed to fall asleep in our room instead of with Derek, and could she please have a box of tissues in bed with her. Poor baby wanted to cry in private. She hated saying goodbye to her school chums. Thankfully we've kept her busy ever since then, so she hasn't had much of a chance to be sad.

- The next morning we left dark and early to drive to Las Vegas. Along the way, we pit stopped with some friends stationed at Edwards AFB, which is right along the road to Vegas. Popping in to see friends all over the country is one thing I love about the military life. We meet, we scatter, and then I stop in to rummage through your fridge on a road trip.

- We made good time into Vegas and then spent a week hanging out with great friends. There was much eating, chatting, lounging, and merriment. We even made it down to the strip one night to see what all the fuss was about. True fact-- it's pretty cool! All the lights, the fountain shows, and the beautiful hotels and casinos were fun to see. And the mountains surrounding the city were beautiful. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I liked Vegas way more than I thought I would. Thanks for having us, Campbells! :)

- Our next stop was Michigan, to visit family over the holidays. Josh hadn't been back here for 3 and a half years! I usually come up when he's gone for extended periods, but that means that he goes for a long time without making it up here.

-- When it was time to leave Josh drove the van from Las Vegas to Michigan. The kids and I took the "easy" way out by flying.

-- "Easy" is in quotation marks, because when you have a tight connection and your first plane is delayed and you miss your second flight and you're in the airport at 10:30pm with your two kids and one of them sits in a puddle of something on a chair while you're talking to the unhelpful desk and they haven't had dinner yet it can be a little stressful.
The upside is that I had plenty of folks I could wake up call that aren't too far from the airport. My dad happened to be at work still, so he hopped on the highway and picked us up.
Thanks Dad! I'm sorry you didn't get to bed until 2:30 in the morning. Bet you thought you were done being kept up at night about 32 years ago, eh?
Wrong.

While we were waiting to get picked up, the slightly less unhelpful desk provided us with vouchers to spend in the airport for food and whatnots. But everything was closed.
So we ordered a pizza to be delivered to the airport, and we raided the only open store in the airport for drinks, treats, books, magnets, and whatever else I could find to spend the vouchers on.
They're only good for 24 hours, after all.

My saving grace was that the kids were still operating on pacific time, so it didn't feel quite as late to us and it normally would have.

-- For the past week, we've been staying at Mom & Mark's place, along with my sister and her family.
My kids don't get to see their cousins very often, so it's always fun (and loud. very, very loud) when we're all together. Also, Mark likes to buy sweets. And he likes to buy in bulk. It's a disaster of a combination for my waistline.

-- Dad and Cindy are just a few miles down the road, and they've hosted us for several dinners, as well as an impromptu snow-play session which naturally included 4 kids on 2 sleds being pulled behind a 4-wheeler. Naturally.

-- Is anyone else sensing a theme of eating running through this whole recap? There's been a lot of eating.

-- Tomorrow we head over to Pat the Bunny's to visit with Josh's family. Sadly, we found out early this morning that Josh's grandma, Grannie Annie, passed away in the night. We are so sad that we've been so close by for the last week and he didn't get a chance to see her before she passed. But we are glad that we'll get to attend her funeral, which wouldn't have been possible a couple of weeks in the future.

-- Because, ya know what? We're going to Spain. And we're going to be there in less that 2 weeks.
Crazy talk.

So that's that. I'll try not to let so much time go by between posts again!

Succinct

Yesterday we moved out of our house. It was a long day.
Today we woke up, took the kids to the continental breakfast before school, and then spent the next 8 hours cleaning our house and shampooing the carpets.
It was a longer day.
My feet hurt.
That is all.

Cruise Review, part 2

If you missed the first part of my cruise recap, you can find it here. It will be more chronologically pleasing to start there. And I am nothing if not chronologically pleasing.

Whatever that means.

So, after our 2 days at sea, the ship docked in Puerto Vallarta.

But I have no pictures of Puerto Vallarta because we did not get off the ship. It turns out that said city is located in the Mexican state of Jalisco. And the state of Jalisco is on the list of Mexican states that US military members are not permitted to go.
I would imagine that the safety issue is probably not for the cruise port area, but all the same Josh couldn't get off the ship.

But that was okay with us, because we had the pool deck all to ourselves!

Those two heads bobbing in Mickey's Pool are none other than Thing 1 and Thing 2.

And when they got hungry...no problem. How about second breakfast? Or first lunch?
Maybe even both.

Derek ate his body weight in bacon. Daily.

And if you get bored with Mickey's Pool, you can hop on over to Goofy's.

And it's impossible to get bored at Goofy's pool, because if swimming isn't fun enough, how about watching a movie while you swim?
Genius.

The next morning, we woke up in Cabo San Lucas, and this time we headed ashore.

We ended up at the beach you see directly above Alex's head. It's the Playa del amor, or Lover's beach.

Josh used his fancy new Spanish skillz to get us a water taxi there.

The beach was so nice! Clear blue water that was the perfect temperature.

Not sure what Derek's doing, but you can get a view of our ship in the background.

We walked over to the westernmost side of the beach, which is less sheltered and has much stronger waves and currents. We didn't swim there, but the water was so pretty.

The next day we were able to get off the ship in Cabo again, and this time we walked over to a beach that we had scoped out while on the water taxi the day before.

That last picture was taken by a very friendly guy from a group that was also on the cruise.
They were a group of 6 nice, and quite flamboyant, gay men.

Later, when Josh was up on the beach, I was chatting with them about the cruise when one of the guys said to me:

"I hope I don't offend you by saying this, but you're husband is gorgeous."

Ha!
I said back, "I know, right?"

;)

That night, back on the ship, was the Pirate Party. The highlight for Alex and Derek were the fireworks at the end.
They had a Pre-Party at the kids' club where they made pirate crafts and had face paint.

It was a lovely vacation, and a perfect chance to relax before the craziness of our move started up. 

We made the kids pay their way in manual labor after getting off the ship. 

 

And look what we saw on the way home!

We're back! Like, a week ago...

Hello out there! Is anyone still reading this poorly updated blog? I have a world of excuses ready for not having popped on to discuss our lovely cruise.

This biggest one being this:

But I'll spare you the excuses and just dive right in. The water's fine.

So. We went on a cruise.
Holla.

It was a Disney cruise. Even better!

The ship departed from Los Angeles. That's a little city in California. You may have heard of it.
Here we are driving down to LA. It's about a 6 and a half hour drive from Monterey.

The sun was on Derek's side. He got hot. He's also cute.

We got lucky and didn't hit too much traffic on the way to the hotel. We drove in the night before our cruise just in case.

Here are the little knuckleheads waiting for the shuttle to the port.

We had to wait at the terminal for about an hour before we could board. Then we got on and started exploring the ship!

We ran into a furry friend, though I can't say if it was Chip or Dale. I might have asked, but I was busy trying to keep Derek from jumping overboard in order to avoid the chipmunk.

The kids were big fans of the bunk beds in our stateroom.
Josh and I were big fans of the verandah.

There was a curtain that separated their area from ours, which was nice. We were able to read in bed at night without keeping them awake.
Yep. Just a lot of reading.
Nice, clean reading.

Ahem. Where was I?

The next morning we were scheduled for our character breakfast.

My favorite part was the bacon. Sorry Mickey.

Alex has a napkin on her head if you were wondering. The girls got Minnie-Bow napkin hats.

Derek was Robin Hood.

It's probably time to take a pause and discuss the food.

The Food.
It was yummy. It was excessive. It was plentiful. It was delicious.
And the service was incredible. We had the same two servers for every dinner, and we would rotate through different dining rooms-- they rotated with us.
The first one was called the Animator's Palate. It was all black-and-white when you walked in, but as the meal progressed more and more of the restaurant would be lit up with different colors and paintings. Disney knows how to keep kids entertained at a sit-down meal!

Once our waiters figured out our favorite drinks, they would be waiting for us at the table when we sat down. They even got upset with us when we didn't bring the kids to dinner one night! Apparently they...liked them??

Oh, and I gained 2.5 pounds.

I blame it on the bacon.
And the desserts.
Oh, the desserts...

Josh maxed out one day at a total of 9 desserts. And he often ordered 2 entrees at dinner.
And he gained like, 2.5 ounces.
I kind of hate him.

So after setting sail, the next 2 days were "sea days" meaning the ship didn't stop anywhere. The farther south we got, the warmer the weather got. It was so nice!

The kids clubs had a schedule with their activites, so we could makes sure Alex and Derek got to do everything they wanted.
Ratatouille's Cooking School was a big hit-- they got to bake chocolate chip cookies.

 I don't know why Derek is wearing the same shirt in all of these pictures. I promise we changed him. I think Alex must have just changed her clothes a lot or something.

We made a gingerbread house together.

 Here we are on the verandah before heading to the pool. Looks like Derek just had a big meal.

 I look that way too, but I strategically place children in front of me so you can't see.

Look at that blue water! I want to go back!

Speaking as someone who hates to wake up, if you have to wake up-- this isn't a bad way to do it...

Okay, I think that's enough for one post. I'll finish up tomorrow-- still to come is our day trips to Cabo San Lucas, which were great!

Sail away, sail away, sail away...

This bloggy episode is brought to you from a dark hotel room in Los Angeles.

The kids have finally fallen asleep despite being terribly excited about our vacation and equally determined to drive each other crazy in their shared bed by hogging blankets and "touching me with his foot."

Earlier they were jumping on the bed in their underwear.
Hotels do strange things to my kids. 

Tomorrow we board our ship and the relaxing shall begin!
 And the eating, of course.
This morning I weighed in one final time, we will call it Weight Zero.
That way I don't actually have to tell you how much I weigh. But I will tell you how much I gained when we get home.

 Unless its embarrassing, and then I'll pretend that I forgot I was going to tell you.

We'll be unplugged for the week, but I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures to share when we get home. Well, provided we can find time in the 11 days between arriving home and leaving Monterey for good.

I certainly can't complain that life is dull!

Adios!

I don't have a stinkin' title

We made it on-time to Josh's graduation this morning. No thanks to the downpour that made my perilous high-heeled walk even more ridiculous. We were all soaked by the time we arrived, but luckily the ceremony was short and we moved on to better things...like muffins and fruit.

Here is a picture of us after the graduation. We were rather wilted-looking after the rain, but at least everyone is looking at the camera.

I'm still waiting for the mushroom cut of 2012 to get a little longer so it can be adequately fixed. My hair grows slooooooooooowly.

 Look! Two pictures of me in the same post! Crazy.
Want to know why I look manically excited in this picture?

 I was on my way to the movies.
 With a couple of other middle-aged women who weren't ashamed to be watching a vampire love story.

I'm glad I didn't get into the whole Twilight thing until the series was almost completed-- it was like instant gratification. No waiting for the next book to come out, and practically no waiting for the final movie.

Also, I had a huge bag of Sour Patch Kids hidden in my vest. You can see the bulge on my left side.

Honey Badger don't care.

I liked the movie. I like them all. And I like the books.
There. I said it. Now leave me alone already.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'm sure most of you knew that already.
In the craziness of last week and the imminent departure of our family for warmer climates, I kind of put it on the back burner.
But I did buy some turkey cutlets, a box of StoveTop stuffing, 2 cans of green beans, a can of gravy, and some potatoes.
I will attempt to mash them.
This will be our Thanksgiving meal, and after tonights dinner of Random Things from the Pantry, it will be a step up.
It's that time again, of course. Time to clear out all the foodstuffs. Tonight we had sandwiches, freezer french fries, canned peaches, scrambled eggs, and carrots.
Jealous?

Hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving, and may your dinner be less canned than ours.

Last Week is Over

We are still alive.
Here is pictorial proof:

 Rainbow Bright doesn't care if it's not cool to wear a vest over short sleeves.

And Derek doesn't care if his tie is too short.
He knows he's a handsome devil anyway.

(Oh, and the weird spot on Alex's arm is a tattoo.
We decided to let her express herself.)


So last week.

It was a week. The kind you just hope to survive and don't expect to derive any pleasure from.
It pretty much fulfilled expectations.

My cold was still alive and kicking. I'm not sure I've ever had one last as long. I think my nose is now shaped differently from all of the loss of skin from the blowing and the wiping.

The car was in the shop all week, so I was taxiing folks here, there, and everywhere. We got it back on Friday, didn't drive anywhere over the weekend, and then took it to another shop on Monday. Because we like to make our lives harder than they have to be.
And because we thought she should get a tune-up before shipping her off to Spain.

The kids had half-days all week. Of course. The one week I really needed time to get things done. We had parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday. Everything seems to be good, so that's our cue to take them out of school and send them to one in a different language. 

Alex has her new retainer on her top teeth, and other than a final check-up before we leave town, she's finished with "Phase 1" of orthodontics. She's got a wider palate and less teeth, and we've got a lighter pocketbook. So that's that.

She also has great vision. And I'm not mad about that per se, I'm only mad that she didn't use her great vision when we were at the regular doctor's office the week before last.
Nope, there she said "it's too small" and received a borderline 20/40 result which necessitated a trip the eye doctor during our busiest week ever.
Aaaaaaaaand at the eye doctor's she rattled off the 20/20 line like it ain't no thang.
The difference? We told her she actually had to try this time.

Oooh, oooh! I had a dentist appointment and no cavities!
I did bribe the dentist a little, but I think I would have had no cavities anyway. I told him that I'd refer some new patients if he didn't find any sticky spots to poke with his cavity stick.

Josh passed his Spanish tests! Yea! The last portion was on Tuesday and Wednesday, so as of Wednesday afternoon, he stopped treating me like a leper and even returned to our bed.

(But he still hasn't kissed me. I think it's the lingering cough.)

He graduates tomorrow, and like the dutiful wife that I am, I will shepherd the children to the base theater for the ceremony.
Only the ceremony is at 8 am. And I have to be all dressed up.
For realz.
And there's no parking nearby, so I have to walk a ways in my high heels.
I will probably break an ankle.

But that's okay. Because do you know where I'll be in 5 days?
I will be here:

And the kids will be having fun in the kids club. And Josh and I will be at the adult pool. In the hottub.
Don't judge me, I'm sure we'll let them out of the club for a couple of hours minutes a day.

Did you know that they'll even feed them meals in the club?
Not that we wont be eating as a family of course.
But maybe once or twice or ten times...

I kid, I jest.
Kind of. 

some stuff

It's been two weeks since I've posted, but I have a plethora of good excuses.
A plethora.

But I don't have a plethora of time, so we'll go list-style.

- Halloween fell on an Awana night for us, and we had "International Costume Night."  Costumes are the bane of my existence. Remember? And this was even worse because all 4 of us needed to figure out what to wear.
We found an Asian-inspired dress that Josh had gotten Alex in Guam, Derek was from Jamaica and wore an outfit Boppa had given him from Key West.

Josh and I had nothing.
So I got creative.
We taped a line of duct tape on Josh and labeled him the International Date Line.
I cut out and colored some cardboard waves and labeled me International Waters.

Costume night, check.

- Josh spent the next several days preparing for the first part of his testing. These tests are the culmination of the Spanish course, and no one really knows what happens if you don't pass them.

We'd rather not find out. 

He took his oral exam last week. He wont get his results until he takes the written exam this week, but he's fairly confident that he passed.

- In the midst of his studying, Derek caught a bug going around his classroom. It was less than lovely.
I spent one sleepless night with him playing catch-the-vomit.
I was one for two.
But the one I missed had several waves. 

He slowly recovered, hanging out at home with me last Monday before he was ready to return to school.

- We had another week with ortho appointments, more mover surveys, school physicals, etc.

- Then I got sick. I spent the weekend with a head cold from Hades. My husband is terrified to come close to me, because as I mentioned he has a big-deal test this week.
So I've been quarantined to certain areas of the house. We sleep in separate bedrooms. He's been making his own meals for fear of me contaminating his foods.

I could actually get used to that.

- That brings us to now. Today we dropped off the Corolla at the body shop to help it get all sporty again. So we have one car this week. And 2 dentist appointments, 1 eye doctor appointment, 2 days of big-deal testing, 2 Parent-Teacher conferences, half-days of school all week, and a partridge in a pear tree.

- Oh, and Josh sold his motorcycle today. He decided to sell it yesterday, so that was fairly efficient.
It's been moving across the country with us, and not being utilized for many a moon. And now we don't have to move it anymore.

- I'm not going to lie, it did make him more attractive to me in college. We had fun riding it around.

- But it's not as attractive as the hours he spends playing board games with his babies. Because he's not smeared on a highway somewhere.

- Two weeks from now we'll be on a cruise!

- The kids have 12 days of school left in Monterey.

- I'm off to my quarantined bedroom.

Several Things

Life is a tiny bit stressful at the moment, because we have lots of decisions to make about how we accomplish getting ourselves from here to Spain.
It doesn't seem like it should be as complicated as it is, but alas, it is.

Right now it's looking like a drive from here to Vegas, a visit with friends, a flight for the kids and I from Vegas to Michigan, a drive from Vegas to Michigan for Josh, a whole heck of a lotta luggage, and myriad other details that are too minute to go into.

So let's talk of other things.


-- This is a sweaty man.

We had to take a picture to commemorate the final outing of this t-shirt. This was his PT shirt from ROTC field training. Which took place in San Antonio, Texas one hot summer month in 1998. I know because I was there, too.
It was when I started to become interested in Josh in a non-platonic way. But he didn't know that and so he regaled me with stories about the girls he'd been dating that summer.

Jerk.

Anyway, the number thirteen used to be red, but it's been a lot of years since the red peeled away.

But now there are just too many holes, and it's time to let it go.
14 years is a pretty good run for a t-shirt though, don't you think?

Adieu, number 13. Adieu. 

-- Sorry about the glare, but I was afraid to go outside to take this picture.
Did you know that racoons travel in herds?
 

 
Me either. But the fifth one was out of the frame. And I think 5 racoons definitely constitute a herd.

-- Spooky Spaghetti.
It was a fundraiser at the kids school. In which you wear costumes, trick or treat, and eat steak.

Kidding, kidding.
Obviously you eat spaghetti.

 

 The kids had a blast seeing all their classmates in costume.Yesterday I tired of doling out the candy and just let them go to town and eat it all. It's better for your teeth to just knock it all out in one shot and then brush, floss, flouridate, and hope for the best.

I don't think flouridate is a real word.

Mostly because there's a squiggly red line under it as I type it.

-- More Face Painting.
We went to an open house at the local fire department. The same face-painter from the birthday party was there, and since it was free, the kids got their faces painted again.

Yes, I am cheap. No, I would not have paid for it. It has to wash off a couple hours later, you know.

-- I think I totally forgot to blog the entire time that Boppa was in town, so lest I forget to mention it, Boppa came to visit us for a week. Our little tour guides had a fun time showing him around, and it was perfect timing as the kids had their fall break that week.
I don't understand what's going on with the hats in the picture below, but sometimes you just gotta roll with it.

We took Boppa to see a sunset "around the corner."  We actually have to drive to that beach, but don't worry it's just a few miles.

 We live here.

-- There are so many hilarious ways in which I could say this next point.  But, I'm going to try to be mature about it and just say it the normal, albeit non-hilarious, way:

We were in a small car accident last weekend in which a large truck impacted the rear of our car.

Whew. Being mature is harder for me than it should be.

Thankfully, no one was injured, but the poor Carolla Sport isn't looking so sporty from behind anymore. So in addition to the other multitudes of things requiring our attention at this point in time, I've been running the car around getting estimates and Josh has been having uncomfortable conversations with a stranger about money.

So there's that.

-- Today Alex had her palatal expander removed! Yea for her! Only the excitement was short-lived. For we were given a form to take to her regular dentist to arrange for the extraction of 3 more baby teeth. Her regular dentist happens to be in the same complex, so I figured we would just walk over and schedule it right then. Because I hate making phone calls.
Really hate it.
So we get there, and they offer me 4 different appointments. One during a time next week when Alex has a physical that had to be scheduled months in advance, two during our cruise, and one on  a day the movers will be here. But then they told me that they could do it right then.
And before I knew what was happening, Alex had the nitrous hose on and Derek was shoved into a surprisingly well stocked toy corner.
Poor baby girl.
Her dentist was super-nice and even gave her a $5 gift card for Jamba Juice so she could get a special drink on the way home. I had never been to a Jamba Juice before, but that probably doesn't surprise anyone who saw me drive up in a crumpled Carolla.
I'm more of a McCafe girl than a Starbucks girl, after all.

-- Josh's testing for his Spanish course starts next week. It's kind of a big deal.

-- My friend Nicole is getting married in Virginia on Sunday, and I can't be there. This is a no good very bad thing.


I hate to end on a no good very bad thing, but I have to go now.

Goodbye.

A new post. Really.

Is a blogger who never blogs still a blogger?
Let us ponder.

Have you ever had someone show up on your doorstep with the intent on surveying every room in your house? Only they were supposed to show up somewhere between the hours of 9 and 12, and instead they showed up at 8:15?
And you were planning on doing emergency cleaning from 8:15 until 9:00?

That happened to me this morning.
The pre-move surveyer knocked at 8:15 and I debated if I should just ignore it. I mean, I might have been nude.
I wasn't, but I might have been.

I answered the door, and tried to joke it off.

Me, looking ragged and with coffee breath: Hi there. Hmmm, I thought you'd be here between 9 and noon; my house is a disaster! I was just picking up.

Him, Dressed in a suit and looking like he doesn't care:  They're supposed to tell you between 8:30 and 11:30.

Me-- (in my head because I don't want him to break my things) Well it's not even 8:30 yet. And none of the beds are made, the kids' breakfast remnants are still on the table, and we'll be lucky if there are no dirty underwear on bedroom floors.
(out loud)-- Come in.

Oy. That was an embarrassing half-hour, as I walked him around discreetly putting toilet lids down and wiping play-doh crumbs from the table so he could do his paperwork.

But now he's gone, and so is my motivation to clean.

Let's see if I can remember what else is going on these days....

- I hate waking up in the mornings. This is not new.
Last week was particularly difficult for some reason. I woke up every day mumbling worst day ever, because until I wake up completely, every day that I'm forced from my bed feels like the worst day ever.
I was really looking forward to Saturday sleep-in.
Josh had laid out snacks for the kids, and we'd told them to put on a show and leave us the heck alone.

Only we said it nicer.
Maybe.

And to what sound do I wake at 6:45 in the a.m.?
The sound of my son crying. I can tell where the sound is coming from-- the bathroom. And I knew that I knew that I knew what was going on.
Josh beat me out of bed and down the stairs. He thought Derek must have peed in his pull-up and was upset about it.
But I knew better.
He peed down his leg, I just knew it.

He gets up around that time every morning to pee. And sometimes if he's really sleepy, he forgets to check (forgive me in advance) if his penis is stuck to his balls.

It's true. Do you remember the fatherly letter Josh wrote to Derek from Afghanistan covering this very detail?

So I was sure I was going to go downstairs to see a puddle at his feet.

I was more right than Josh, but we were both befuddled to see Derek, facing the opposite direction of the toilet, and standing in a puddle.
His pants were down, but his pull-up was up. And dry.
I was so confused.
I still am; he has been unable to explain exactly how this happened. Did he just aim the wrong direction? Did he think the floor was the toilet?

I don't have the answers. I only know that stinky morning pee ruined my sleep-in day.

Good thing he's cute.

Last night he casually mentioned that when his class "gets the wiggles" at school, they do yoga.

Why, yes, we do live in California.

He showed us some sweet yoga moves. Yoga's not really for the uncoordinated though.

Although, in surprising news, the boy has actually been scoring goals during soccer. He is so proud when that happens that he spends the rest of the game looking at us on the sidelines for approval and misses several more opportunities to score.

Alex is still enjoying school and her friends. She's gotten into reading chapter books, and I'm hoping she'll enjoy reading like me. And not like Josh, who only reads comic books graphic novels.
I don't know how he got so smart with not enjoying reading, but he did.
And it's borderline annoying.

Love you, sweetie! Do you still check my blog? Have you given up on me ever posting again? Sorry I covered me up with the extra quilt last night and left you freezing. But I was warm and toasty, if it makes you feel better.

Where were we?
Alex.
She is sad about our move. She started crying last night thinking about leaving her friends at school. I don't really know how to handle this. We have so many more moves in our future...


So that's us in a nutshell.
Derek pees, Alex cries, We live in filth.

Questions?

aaaaAAHHH Freak Out.

Okay Everyone.
It's time to calm down.

Deep cleansing breaths. In. Out.

There now.

There is no reason for you all to get so worked up over the fact that I'm moving in two months. I appreciate your concern, and the fact that you feel the need to make multitudes of lists in your heads, but never write them down on paper because then you might have to start doing something.

Okay wait.
I think I'm confused.

That would be me.

Two months? For realz? That's like, no time.

We finally got our orders, so the process has officially begun. (For you non-military folks, that just means that the papers that make our assignment official have arrived.)

Josh has already set up our three different moving shipments for the first week in December. We need to divide our belongings into three shipments--
1) Storage-- everything that is not coming to Spain with us. Think useless electronics (voltage differences), lawn equipment (apartment living bonus), furniture that might not fit into smaller bedrooms, etc.

2) Unaccompanied Baggage-- A small shipment of things that in theory arrive faster than your main shipment.
Think things that we might want if we move into an apartment before our main goods arrive. Shower curtain, towels, bedding, pots & pans, etc.

3) Main Shipment-- Furniture and Everything Else.

So now all we have to do is pretend we have some small idea of what our place in Spain will look like, and decide which furniture should go or stay, and what things we need the fastest vs what we can live without for longer. And what things we don't need at all.
So, if one of you can just make those decisions for me, you can e-mail me the results and I'll go back to my couch and bon-bons.

Because I'm finding it a wee bit more complicated than I thought it would. For example. Should we bring our ski pants? After all, we might go skiing once or twice. But on the other hand, storage in an apartment is not plentiful, would we really use it? How about the kids' bikes? Do we bring them and make them part of our living room decor, or do we let them forget how to ride a bike?

In other news.
I've been waging a war in my kitchen.

Two words. One word. A hyphenated word.
Fruit-flies.

I've been smacking the crap out of them left and right. The bodies are everywhere. I leave them there to serve as a witness to their siblings. I will win the battle.
The first step was throwing out the rotting sweet potatoes. 


They are pesky, and persistant, little buggars.


In other, other news. Oooh! Oooh! GuessWhatGuessWhatGuessWhat?

I'm going on a cruise.

Oh, the rest of my family is going too, but that's all secondary. *I* am going on a cruise.
Holla.

We were looking for a vacation for after Josh's graduation in November, and it turns out that cruises the week after a major holiday are discounted. Because who can take a week off the week after Thanksgiving?
We can, yea!
And so we are.

Disney cruise, baby. Do you know that they have kids' clubs on Disney cruises? They do. If you so choose, you can forget you have children between the hours of 9am and 1am.
Not that we would do that, of course.

Ahem.

I mean, we might send them to the club to have a dinner on our own once or twice. Or to go to the adult pool. Or maybe to take a nap. Or go to the gym to make up for the copious amounts of desserts we will eat. Or to walk around Cabo San Lucas. Or to shower in silence. Or...


In other other other news.

Derek had soccer again on Saturday. He still isn't very good, but the important thing is that he doesn't know it.

The kids went to a birthday party this weekend. There was face painting.

Alex decided she wants to be a face painter when she grows up. As well as a ballet instructor, who also designs clothes for her own store.

Derek isn't sure what he wants to do tomorrow.

But that's okay, because he can stay with me forever.

And ever.

As long as he pays rent.