jump up and down

settling in

Apparently, moving is tiring for the whole family.  Ned fell asleep on our office chair on Saturday afternoon - it doesn't look very comfortable to me, but he seemed happy there.  We're settling into our new place, still swimming in a sea of boxes, but starting to make our way out of the mess.  I did have a couple "What have I done?" moments after we moved in.  The toilets and faucets and lights are all working now and hopefully I won't have anymore.  I also had not realized how dirty the "new" place was or had assumed that it would be cleaned before we moved in, but it wasn't and we have had to do a lot of cleaning and still have quite a bit more to do (anyone know an easy way to clean linoleum that has dirt stuck in all of its little divots?).  I'm hoping that by the end of this week I'll be ready to start on some of my projects and re-open my store.

I never got around to another post before the move because the boys are having a harder time adjusting than I anticipated.  The other times we have moved, they were both very young and it didn't really seem to phase them.  Their anxiety started about a week before we actually moved as they saw everything going into boxes and has just started to ease up.  Ned especially has reacted by clinging to his blankie that he had finally given up except for bedtime, asking for his binky (which he has been denied), and needing lots of extra patience.  I'm glad Peter has a few months to adjust to being here before he has to go to a new school too. 

Here are the things we are loving about the new place:
    -waking up to chirping birds and hearing them all day long.  I don't think I ever mentioned that our last place was right next to the freeway - no birds there!  I'll never live next to the freeway again.
    -the yard. The boys are constantly asking to go outside and loving every minute of it out there.  Even Ryan was surprised by how much he enjoyed mowing the lawn with our new electric mower.  We keep saying, "You get the smell of grass, without the gas!"  I have planted our vegetables that we started a little while back and I hope to get a few more this week.
    -our new ward at church.  Everyone has been super friendly, warm, and helpful. 
    -watching the price of gas go up and not having a heart attack.  Ryan just had to pump up the tires on his bike (that he hadn't rode for 2.5 years) and it was ready to go for the 1 mile ride to work.  Hooray for that!

another one: crochet rag rug

I was going to make myself catch up on my e-mail before I posted again, but packing is in full force now and I fear I won't post again before the move if I stick to that rule!  Please know that I love and appreciate your comments and I try to respond to them in a semi-timely manner, but I'm really not that good at any sort of correspondence unless it's a pressing matter!

Anyway, I wanted to show this rug that I crocheted this a few weeks ago -  it was a great TV watching project.  It will probably go in the kitchen in the new house.  It's made out of strips of thrifted sheets.  I meant to have it be a circle, but apparently I am not so good at getting the shape right when I'm going free hand and it's more of an oval or rounded square.  I'm just glad that it sits pretty flat.  I mostly followed this tutorial from Vintage Chica. I may have used a bigger hook than I was supposed to - the one I bought came in a two pack with two sizes, but the individual hooks weren't marked, so I just went with the biggest one.  My rug has a lot of space in between the stitches, but I think it will work well.

I'm getting really excited to get into that house and get decorating.  Our big moving day is next Saturday (the 23rd) and then we'll be back and forth for another week while we clean up at the old place and let Peter finish his last week of preschool.  I'll probably do at least one more post before moving day with a few more thrift finds.  In the meantime, I'll be back to stuffing all of our worldly possessions in boxes and trying to keep the boys from climbing all over them!

three

This little guy turned three on Friday.  He's done a lot of growing up in the last year - potty training,  giving up the binky, and growing out of those terrible twos.  He's still full of sass, which we love, it just includes a little more reason now.  I'm so glad that three years ago, this little guy became a part of our family.

The celebration was pretty low key because of our impending move. 

We enjoyed our favorite chocolate cake,

and a new bicycle.

Happy Birthday Ned! 

today

I'm breathing a sigh of relief over here.  Finals are over and I did really well in both of my classes.  And at the same time, I'm trying not to get too stressed out about our move - two weeks until that and all I've got packed is about ten boxes.  It will all come together, right?  It always does.  And it seems like we have a flurry of events and celebrations in those next two weeks.  Tonight we had Peter's end of the year social for preschool.  I didn't have time to put together a handmade gift for his teacher and the aide in his class, so we got some flowers, put them in thrifted vases and tied some ribbon from my stash around the vase.  Peter loved giving them away - he wrapped his arms tight around the vase and was so careful not to drop them as he offered the vase.  Tomorrow a certain little guy turns three.  How, how, how did he get that old? 

reflecting

I'm just popping in here quickly in between finals - psychology final is tomorrow morning and then I'll be free - free to pack and do all of the fun moving stuff:)!  We're managing fairly well this week because Peter's pre-schools are either out for the week or done for the year and there's a whole lot less running around to do.

This morning I went to Peter's end of the year parent-teacher conference at the pre-school that is finished.  This is the one we put him in so he could be around typically speaking kids and is run by our local university.  His teacher actually ended up being one of the professors at the school and if you remember, we had a bit of a rocky start last fall, but I think it has all turned out well.  Peter has made amazing progress this year!  He is actually conversing, asking questions, expecting answers and joining in verbally with others.  And I loved talking to his teacher this morning as she showed me pictures of everything Peter has been doing for the past year.  She sees all the good in him and sees him how Ryan and I do - a kid who is developing fine in every aspect but his speech.  It's so nice to hear that from someone else and see pictures of him doing things at school that I see him do at home.  She showed me that he and another boy enjoyed building block towers and knocking them down together and told me normally she doesn't allow the destruction, but might change her mind as she saw the social benefit of the exercise.  I love a teacher with an open mind like that!  I am sad that we are moving and Ned won't be able to benefit from her wisdom.  She also said that Peter always liked to join in spontaneous story time and there were several pictures with him on the teacher's lap enjoying a good book.  That is amazing to me - Peter has struggled with books and at the beginning of the year, he was still a very reluctant book reader.  He is starting to enjoy them more now, but to actually choose to join in a story time when he could be doing other things is great.  Even until a month or two ago, I was really nervous about sending Peter to kindergarten, but after talking to his teacher today, I think he'll do just fine.  He really is such a great boy!  I'm so lucky to be his mom.

p.s. the picture is from the set that Sandi took in the fall.  Oh how I love how that smile!