Halloween, Slacker Style

Let me start by listing all the fun Halloween activities that we have skipped this month:
1. Trick or treating at the zoo
2. Trick or treating in Aggieville and then watching the parade
3. Trick or treating at the mall, at Westloop, probably some other places too
4. The neighborhood party that looked really fun and was full of people we wanted to talk to
5. Several costume parties that were earlier in the month

This is all we managed to do:
1. Trick or treated tonight, just Sean and the 3 older ones, probably hit about 7 houses
2. Hit one party because we knew they had real food and I was HUNGRY
3. Wore the costumes around the house the past 2 weeks, including Superman wearing his to bed many nights

Let me point out that Sean and I never wore a costume and neither did Emily. I know, many cute baby costumes are out there but most involve hats which Emily won't wear. Plus, it's always so cold so you can't see the costume unless it is an Eskimo costume, which I think will be the theme next year.

I could use the move as my excuse for being so lame this year but the truth is, I am always this lame. It is an enormous pain to lug the kids to all these events, so much whining about the walking they have to do and someone is always too cold or too hot. I also hate dealing with the candy fights later and the sugar rush and the sugar crash and the sticky hands leaving marks all over walls and furniture. Such a party downer, I know, but the kids don't realize it. They have no idea what they've missed out on and they are thrilled with the one hour of Halloween we crammed in tonight. Here they are, already all in bed at 8pm and I am headed to the hot tub. I may be lame, but I am happy. And I am taking a pumpkin full of candy down there with me.

ps I did finish painting the girls' room today and transported many boxes, so I can find energy for the important things in life...

So Much To Do

There is so much to do for this move, so naturally the first thing is to blog about it. There have been times lately where I have questioned our sanity as this is a lot of work and I'm not sure that it was necessary. We have a great house, everything is how I want it, great neighbors.... the list goes on. But then the children wake up and I realize it IS necessary. Oh so necessary. Oh the loudness. Poor Sean. He only worked until 2am last night though, my sympathy level isn't that high today and I need to get working.

I started painting the girls' bedroom last night and let me assure you, it is pink. Not sure how to describe it... Mary Kay pink? Stomach medicine pink? Barbie pink? Makes no difference, when 3 little girls are sharing a room, it can be any pink and they will be happy. They better love it because the hardwood floors are put in tomorrow and there is no time to change it. The hardwood floors are in homage to the last owner as she said that was going to be her next project and I figured it would be far easier to do it now before we move in. Sean is not fully on board with this but I'm pretty sure it's cheaper than just one of his media projects so he has been grumbling only to himself. Once he has his new TVs he will be so distracted that I will move on to other projects, heh heh.

The great box migration will start soon and I will begin the task of figuring out where to put everything in this house full of crazy built in storage everywhere you turn. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic for an organizational freak like myself, but it is daunting as I look at boxes full of stuff I probably don't need anyway. This house is too nice for my junk, I may just have to start over. I promise you, Sean is rolling his eyes right now in his sleep.

The kids are acting up in an awful way today, too much change perhaps. I asked Patrick if he was worried about the move and he whispered, "yes". Then I asked him if the looming election day was stressing him out, "yes". How about global warming, the cancellation of Parks and Rec on NBC, and the possibility that we might run out of candy tonight and have some angry trick-or-treaters? All yes. The boy is ripe for therapy. He's not the only one. I must end this procrastination. The work begins...

Working on the night shift

There certainly are challenges to Sean working moonlighting shifts at night, but sometimes it works to my advantage. Yesterday Patrick was put in time-out in his room to calm down at 5pm, and he certainly did:




He fell asleep in the stroller last week and slept on through until morning so we were hoping this would be a repeat performance. No such luck. I think he got up the first time right as I was going to bed and since Sean wasn't working yet he dealt with him. He must have gotten him back in bed, I mean, back on his floor, because then right at midnight when Sean was starting his shift Patrick walked in his office and announced that he would need to clean him up. Mmm, barf fest.

I have to confess the rest of the details are blurry to me as I was exhausted after freezing at a game and then thawing out in the hot tub, but when I woke up with Emily after Sean went to bed at 5am, Patrick was asleep on the office floor. Then when Patrick woke me for morning entertainment, I noticed that Sean had kept up with the barf laundry. The laundry fairy DOES exist!! Maybe someday the dishes fairy will make an appearance!! I suppose I will make an extra effort to keep the kids quiet this morning while he sleeps. One of his last shifts here in this house, so the end is in sight for him. His nice quiet office awaits.... We close on Monday and the furniture guys come move us next Saturday. Somehow I will get all the little junk over there in the meantime, thanks to Super Nana who is coming to entertain the children. No worries, Patrick is back to full energy, I think the barf thing was a fluke, everyone else feels fine.

How many children live here?

This is what I found in the girls' bathroom while attempting to start the final cleaning. Yes, this is just for two of them and yet they never seem to have a toothbrush when I tell them to go brush teeth. Hmm.

Must Replicate Yesterday

Whatever we did yesterday with Patrick worked because he slept in until 7 this morning. Maybe it was the nap so then he wasn't overtired, which seems to defy logic but everyone knows that the later you keep a kid up, the earlier they get up in the morning so there must be something to it. So I guess I will have to drive extra and stop at Starbucks everyday to get him to fall asleep. It will be such a hardship... and a good way for me to keep working on getting used to coffee.

Unfortunately today is Halloween party day at school so we are going early, no time for car nap. I decided I could actually get involved with the girls' classes this year so I am room parent for Megan's class which means I need to show up and pull the party together somehow. Hopefully the kids remember that no matter how lame the party is, it is still better than having class.

Patrick is extra demanding this morning though. Someone thought it would be a brilliant idea to put all these digital shorts on one Blu-Ray and Patrick only likes some of them. So every 5 minutes he is yelling for me to come down and figure out which one he wants to watch next. In the midst of this Emily conquers the elaborate child proofing on the cupboards (a rubber band) and helps herself to some baking soda. Deeeelicious! Bring on the four day weekend, I can handle it. Oh wait, I am supposed to start moving at some point soon too....

Saved from the nap

She is so cute in this new outfit that I just couldn't let her cry in her crib. So instead she is getting into the cupboards and enjoying that there is no Patrick around to stop her.

Superman Sleeps

It finally happened, Superman fell asleep on the way to pick the girls up from school. I think the key to success was that I took a longer route with a detour through Starbucks. He is still passed out in the garage and I will just wait for him to wake up since I can hear him from my computer perch. And yes, Starbucks, thought I would start with a dessert version of coffee, the Pumpkin Spice Latte, something like that, everyone is always talking about it on facebook. Please don't tell me how many calories are in it. I am too stressed to eat what little crappy food is in the house this week anyway. I need my strength to get through this day. I am actually down to only 3 empty boxes so this may be it for a while until I can get into the new house and start emptying them and bringing them back. Boy, that's going to be a fun week! I am really hoping that the purging will go better during the unpacking stage like people claim.

Emily was all ready for a nap until I nursed her, revenge of the latte no doubt...

Drunken Sailor

There is some kid song with the line, "what do you do with your baby brother early in the morning?" and the real song is about a drunken sailor. I think a 3 year old at 5am is not much different than a drunken sailor, highly annoying and loud, bad breath, smells like pee, the list goes on. We are out of ideas of what to do with our little drunken sailor. Several other parents assured us that locking his door would help and not be that cruel but this is one loud sailor so I end up releasing him at first kick which is usually 5am but sometimes 3am. He usually bursts out sans pajamas so perhaps being cold and sleeping on the carpet is not encouraging a full night's sleep. Maybe the hardwoods in his new bedroom will put a stop to that but I am not real hopeful. In fact, we have seriously debated whether or not we should go buy him a mattress for the new house. Girls are going back to twin beds so we will need one more twin. There are a lot of other items I would rather buy first, like chairs for the kitchen table. And perhaps a really cushy rug for Patrick's room.

Anyway, the girls were woken up by him again this morning so all were grumpy. Anna did not want to go to school today for some reason (hmm, maybe it's the rosary thing the whole school is doing, what fun for a 1st grader!) but I convinced her that staying home with Patrick would not be much fun, trust me. The girls have been fighting a lot too, mostly at night when they are sharing a queen bed, so we keep reminding them that will end soon. The bedtime fights better end too because Emily will be also sharing their room and if they wake her up at night it will not be pretty. She was up 3 times last night so perhaps teething is back on, just in time for packing hell week. This just may be the situation that I have saved coffee for. I may head out today and find a nice coffee based drink to ease my way in. Belgium Heather will be so proud! She's been working on me for years.

My sailor has wandered off, I should go make sure he isn't peeing on a floor someplace. After all the stuff I did to wear him out yesterday he should still be tired, so maybe he will go back to bed. A mom can dream, just not at night when she is woken up every 2 hours....

It's Complicated Food

I decided to ignore the box explosion going on in my house right now and watch It's Complicated while Sean was working. I knew from reviews that it is just another divorced woman fantasy movie like Something's Gotta Give (same director) and I also knew it was going to be all about the fabulous house and design, which I'm fascinated by but Sean isn't. I didn't realize how much fabulous looking food was going to be in the movie though. Do not watch this movie unless you have some decent food in the house, which I do not. I haven't had time nor the motivation to go to the grocery store so it is slim pickings (freezer) around here.

The movie makes a good point though, you don't really have time to cook and bake for real until your kids are older or moved out. In one scene they made chocolate croissants and it appeared to take many hours. I do not have many hours, but I do have a fabulous sister-in-law who said she is sending some in the mail and I really wish they were here now. Just hoping they arrive before we move because I don't want to miss out! I do have a photo of the treats we enjoyed this weekend. So good that I didn't bother eating any sketchy looking food when we were out the other night. Needed to save my appetite because I was not about to leave any of these in the box for the kids to eat in the morning...

I am fine, just whiny

It appears that the whining has paid off though as we got a couple boxes of chocolate energy in the mail. Sure, they technically may have been for Sean's birthday but he works all day and if the UPS guy comes at 10am, who am I to let a box that says "perishable, open immediately" sit and wait. That's just not responsible. Obviously I had to try them too as the days have been extra long lately and I am sticking fast to the no alcohol until Sean is home rule. I am actually back to normal now as Emily is all better and even smiling again. I think there is one new tooth to show for our efforts. 13 to go, fantastic.

As soon as she is done Anna will start round 2 of losing more teeth and then Patrick will start losing his. It's a little creepy around here with so many teeth falling out and the tooth fairy is very busy. Good thing the tooth fairy has a reminder setting on the fancy tooth fairy phone. Megan lost 2 in school a couple weeks ago and some boy told her that was crazy. There was some drama on the way home about that and it took a long time to convince her that it was a compliment. Unfortunately I tell her to stop acting crazy at home and I am not complimenting her, so she was very confused. It was like an episode of Martha Speaks and for once I am not the dog.

Well, Patrick just announced that the "pumpkin mumpkins" are ready so it's time to sugar the kids up. Full disclosure: Patrick already had a caramel bar at 6am. He wouldn't stop begging and even the nuts wouldn't discourage him. They are too old for me to eat anymore so I just gave in. He's got all day to burn it off. Church is going to be fun!

ps Sean is a trooper and rallied long enough to attend an event with me last night. He felt so awful as soon as we left that he even said he would get himself some drugs today. This is big time. I need him full strength for this move so he can write the checks... I look forward to the day when Modern Family does an episode on how men act when they are sick because there is so much material there. I won't mention any of it here because there are a few more things I want for the house and I need to be nice to Sean.

How Could I Purge This?

I'm not sure what this is supposed to be, maybe a jack-o-lantern? It creeps me out but the artist is so proud of it. I just don't know where to display it in the new house...

SLEEP

To keep this brief, I will cut out all the swearing and cursing. Just know that every other word should have a descriptive one before it. This week has been legendary for no sleeping and pretty much everyone and everything has been involved. First off, as mentioned before Emily has been sick and while she no longer has a fever, something is going on and she may just wake up with 6 new teeth this morning. So at night she doesn't just get up to eat for a few minutes, no, she is up for a long time and is very angry. Patrick has also started getting up at 5am, not sure why other than he likes to get in our bed, sit on my pillow and cough in my face. Sometimes we trick him into moving to the couch and other times we turn a movie on for him downstairs. I think perhaps the sprinkler coming on at 5am is to blame for that one and I need to just turn it off but I only think that at 5am and by then it's too late, damage is done. Megan just told me that Patrick went into their room at 6am today and told them that Santa came. What?? How does he even remember this concept? The girls also woke me up at 6am the other day, told me they were hungry. Ah, kitchen is closed? They are almost 7 and 9, for the love of all things holy, just get out a box of cereal. ARGH.

Oh, and Sean has been on army call this week and lots of people are having headaches, which means CT scans. Don't worry, the CTs were all normal because THEY ALWAYS ARE. Sometimes when people drink alcohol they get headaches, it's called a hangover. Tylenol, sleep, bloody mary, those all work better than CT scans when it comes to curing a hangover. If I sound unsympathetic it's because I am. If they would even charge the patients 50 cents to get a CT then I'm sure they could cut the workload in half. But no, it's such a great attention seeking tool to be able to say at work the next day, "oh, my headache was so bad that I went to the ER at 2am and they GAVE ME A CT". Fools. Enjoy that higher cancer rate from the radiation exposure. I think 95% of ER visits on holidays are for attention too (slight tangent here).

"How was your Christmas?"

"It was awful, I spent the whole day waiting in the ER where they ran a bunch of tests on me."

"Oh, what did they find?"

"Nothing, those doctors are useless."

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Yes but I feel it is coming back because it's almost New Year's Eve and no one has invited me out and I will need more attention."

The part that really burns me up is that these people could be home sleeping in their nice quiet houses and here I am living in a bleeping circus. Tempted to go get a hotel room for a night but I am prissy and only want my own bed now. It's so hard to be me. I'm hoping the new house cures a lot of this, the bedrooms are farther away from the living and working areas and there is no sprinkler because the only patch of grass is the size of the Civic. Oh and that is not enough room to play Bocce ball which means I can give our set away. I have also been woken up by Patrick playing that in the basement, throwing the balls into the baseboards. I can't wait to move!!!!!!!

Littles Trouble

These are from before Emily got sick, when she had her full energy. I know it is only the beginning and I shudder to think of the baby proofing we will have to do to the new house. We have this one under control with just one gate and a bunch of rubber bands and that's just not going to work anymore. Ah well, she will be past this stage soon enough and on to more exciting things like jumping off couches and getting stitches.

Way Cool

Patrick's current favorite phrase is "way cool". This morning he pulled a chair over to the cupboard and got down my prescription allergy medication bottle and held it up, declaring it was way cool. I am concerned and must find a better hiding place in the new house. He has also told me I am way cool too, usually only after I have done exactly what he demanded, like giving him a 3rd pack of cookies. I was not way cool on the walk today when I made him get back in the stroller but later we went out again and I let him wear his Superman costume so he could run ahead of me, or pretend to fly. He is always checking to make sure his cape is working properly (and that it hides his diaper).

Mmm, Caramel Apple

By caramel I mean caramel bars and by apple I mean hard cider. Tuesday evening is far superior to Tuesday morning. Patrick peaked with a tantrum when we picked the girls up from school and then was fine until he went to bed at 7pm with no protests. School days are hard, he gets so worn out but won't nap. His teacher said he was ornery today and I thought, only today? Emily seems to be on the mend too and went to bed with no protests either. I think the littles were sick of me and that's fine. I hope that feeling continues all night.

The children have caught on to the fact that all the toys they leave on the floor get packed up while they're at school. There aren't very many left which makes my life so much easier. 13 days and I can start moving boxes in, for some reason I thought it was less than that, too much cider perhaps. Now I feel a little guilty about the lack of toys (and the books they were reading, whoops) but it will go fast. I am getting very excited to have the bedrooms far away from the living areas. While the girls beg us to watch TV at night when they go to bed (body guards), they also come out and complain when the TV is too loud. They are pretty high maintenance and thus I apologize in advance to their future husbands. I will teach them how to make caramel bars though, so it's a trade-off.

Sean's birth week continues and today he apparently enjoyed meeting with the media guy, although I have been forbidden to look at the price quote. Much like Pebble Beach green fees, it is best if I am kept in the dark on this one. He is also feeling much younger than his 36 years as he was carded today when picking me up some hard cider, per my texted request. We'll see how young he feels in the morning though... he has his PT test. I may have to pack him some caramel bars for breakfast afterwards. No apple for him this week though, he's on call. All for me...

Tuesday Torture

Emily was up about every 90 minutes last night, for the 2nd night in a row, so I kept rotating the tylenol, motrin and orajel to try and get her back to sleep. Of course she wanted to nurse the entire night too so I couldn't really get Sean involved. I did force him to deal with Patrick though. While it sounds cruel that we lock his door at night, let me assure you that it doesn't keep him from waking us up. It really is just so he doesn't sneak out at night and pile pillows in Emily's crib. All it takes is the slightest noise from his room to wake me up because of my fear that he will start banging on the door and then wake up Emily too.

On Sunday he fell asleep at 4:30pm in the stroller and ended up sleeping until 3am, at which point I had to jump up and release him from his room. I figured he would want to be up for the day but no, he was just moving to the couch to sleep some more. I guess he was worn out from all that no napping lately. He did have extra energy Monday morning when we went for a walk and he insisted on running along side the stroller for a good 40 minutes. Did I mention the costume? Yes, he was wearing what appeared to be Superman's pajamas, complete with cape. I did notice some drivers laughing as they passed us. This morning he did get up and watch a movie at some point though, after I kicked him out of our bed because he was sitting on my pillow and coughing directly on me while kicking me. He decided to crank the volume on the movie too, not sure when he learned this but the house was shaking and I was not happy so I ran down there and turned the whole thing off, which of course led to more crying and everyone getting up.

Somehow I shuttled the girls out the door on time and then got Patrick off to his little school too. Emily came home and laid down for a nap and then I remembered that the house appraisal was in 30 minutes. I wasn't even worried, I know that cleanliness doesn't really affect the value of your home. But, I have some pride and I didn't want a complete stranger to see all the unmade beds and clothes all over the floor, so I made a decent effort. And then I saw the appraiser walking up to the house. WITH HER CAMERA. Crap. I am hoping that all the boxes all over the place will distract from the laundry baskets filled with whatever junk was on the floor.... So now this day of disaster will live on forever in this report that who knows how many people will see. I am so angry at the children for their usual state of toy chaos that I took a garbage bag and filled it with all the stuff I don't want in the new house, including 178 stupid silly band things. There is a limit to the number of times I pick those up off the floor. I was very close to throwing out all the ceramic figurines they made this summer at art camp and I went so far as to take photos of them so we'd at least have that to remember them by, but guilt won out and I remembered how proud they are of their oddly shaped pigs and pumpkins. So for now they are spared...

Oh, but I did discover that the normally sad task of packing up outgrown baby clothes is not nearly as hard when you've been up all night with the fussy baby. I think we are ready for bigger clothes in this house....

Yes, this random rant was brought to you by an entire pot of black tea... today is going to be long-- and the appraiser woke up Emily, awesome. So thankful that I didn't have to show the house more than once to sell it because that would be hell indeed. This has been enough....

Perspective

Wow, looking back on last week I suddenly feel like I was full of energy and very productive.... compared to today! Emily has had a fever since Saturday night and just wants to be held so you can imagine how much is getting done now. I did feel the shame after my last post and forced myself to use up every box we had left, so things are at least looking less cluttered around here. Let me recommend this as a general housekeeping tip. Just box up the junk next time it gets out of control. Label it "mementos" and put it in your storage room.

Emily is taking a nap and I fear it will be short. So, as a favor to the good people of Manhattan, I must now get a shower before I lose my opportunity once again.

Spinning Wheels

I have had the least productive week possible, to contrast with how much Sean has accomplished. And this pretty much sums up why I stay home with the kids while he works two jobs. I couldn't possibly have a real job too, how do families manage that? I can't imagine the sheer energy involved (and maybe some cocaine?). Sean took this week off the "job he can't quit" to work extra moonlighting shifts, which after meeting with the Media Guru on Tuesday morning became apparent where all the extra money was headed. Happy birthday, Sean!

It is in fact his birthday today and he celebrated by working the first 7 hours of it and now he is somehow sleeping through Saturday morning TV binge. Anna is being extra sweet and accommodating in selection of shows so as not to remind me that last night she was actually hitting Megan over some TV disagreement and as it escalated I, like Claire on Modern Family, kept upping the punishment, which of course is no more TV. I think I got up to at least a whole weekend of no TV. But now I am desperate to keep them quiet. I know better than to try and accomplish anything else at the same time, like packing.

Ah, spinning wheels, I mean, packing. I am at the stage where I think I am so organized and there won't be much to pack that last week. HA. HA. HA. Last night I was talking with 3 friends who did a move like this and they remember this stage well, delusion. I also learned that the final stage will be throwing random stuff in the vehicle with lots of angry swearing at the end because you just can't believe how much crap there is. I thought this would be a great week for me to "get serious" but I underestimated how much Sean would need to sleep and how impossible it is to do anything with Patrick helping. A rare week of great weather too, so much guilt involved in keeping the children inside instead of out enjoying it, so that justified even more procrastination. I did manage to pack up most the built in bookcase, which reminded me that we won't have those at the new house so those boxes may never get unpacked. Sean may need to do another week of hardcore moonlighting for all the furniture I'm going to need to buy....

I have had many, many interruptions this morning just trying to post this uninspiring and non-entertaining update but it has been a bad week for blogging so I felt I had to do something. Everyone else I know accomplishes so much and gets up very early to train for long races (even you, Sweatpants and a Mini-van) so I was going to feel really pathetic if I couldn't even manage this. I don't even make it to yoga anymore. I was too exhausted to keep up with the kids after doing it. So once again I am baffled trying to figure how other people get it all done. Sometimes I think they must have really messy houses but then again, so do I. I just have the option to pick up all the crap on the floor, seal it in a box, and not deal with it for 3 weeks....

Worst Backseat Driver Ever

Wow, I must have blocked from my mind that the stage after the tour guide in your backseat (pointing out every bus, truck, motorcycle, big cow, and bounce house) is the driving advisor in your backseat. Patrick is now instructing me on when to go at stoplights and how fast to go. As usual, he is very loud. He still puts up a big fight with getting into his car seat and every day tries to ride in the pink princess booster seat. Naturally. Sean remembers that Anna was the same way, bossing us around with her driving tips, but clearly I blocked that from my mind and thought having more children was a stellar idea!

I need to take more pictures of him sleeping to remind me of how sweet a three year old can be. He has started wiping off kisses though and also wipes off his lips after kissing my cheek. Mommy germs. But then out of the blue yesterday he had a meltdown as I was leaving to take the girls to school, why the face? He could somehow sense that I was headed to KC after that... maybe it's that I wasn't in sweats? Hmm.

Feetie Pajamas

Patrick was loving all the attention and "more pics" in his new feetie pajamas until he realized he was one step closer to bedtime.

90 Blasting Degrees

The girls were fighting over who was dressed appropriately this morning... Megan in jeans or Anna in shorts? So I looked up the weather for them, of course jeans in the morning and shorts in the afternoon, up to 82 today. And tomorrow, 90 degrees? "WTF? Why the face?", as Phil misinterprets on Modern Family. I was over the heat at least a month ago and decided I would no longer expose the general public to my ugly feet, so the sandals were packed up. If I wanted 90 degrees in October I would still live in Texas where I could at least console myself with great shopping and many, many tempting restaurants. Wait, why did we move? Oh yeah, the heat, of which I am being tortured with here. It could be worse of course, we could be moving in this heat, instead I am just packing- and unpacking. Yes, the unpacking has begun too as we have needed many items that I have already packed up. A month of this to go??

Other comments about today:

1. If you can compose and sing a coherent song about needing a diaper change, I think it is time to stop wearing diapers.

2. We got not just one but two catalogs yesterday for dog accessories. Anna has been talking a lot about getting a dog but she knows it won't happen until she has her own house. She and Megan were discussing it the other day, Megan declaring that she would never have a dog, gosh I wonder why, extreme fear of dogs much? Anna was talking about the dog using a litter box too, just to show you how much they haven't been exposed to dogs. And then Megan chimed in that a good reason to get married is so your husband can clean out the litter box. The girl is a genius, proud to say. I really have nothing against dogs and their catalogs full of cute accessories but clearly I am tapped out on the cleaning up of "dog dirt" as our old neighbor growing up, Mrs. Beckett, used to say. Yep, changed enough "baby dirt" for one lifetime too and still have a few years to go. Maybe if I trained Emily to go in a litter box I could get Sean to clean it out?

3. I feel there should always be a 3rd point but I am out of topics, so I will just update you on my sister who went into pre-term labor this past weekend at 30 weeks. Katie is home on bed rest now which is much better than being in the hospital. In fact, I think bed rest sounds pretty darn awesome. I know people who go through it think it is horrible but they must not love to read and never usually have time for that. And what, do they not have a laptop? I could finally watch more than my usual 4 TV shows a week (thanks to hulu.com), and I could find out what everyone else is talking about! I could update my itunes with songs that I haven't already heard too many times. And best of all, I could get out of changing diapers! Live it up now, Katie, and you will be ready to take care of that 11 pound boy when you go full term!!

My life is like a hospital meeting

Sean was complaining about the lack of blog updates to entertain him during yet another exciting and relevant meeting at work today and I explained to him that I had nothing blog worthy this week. We are just treading water here, four weeks until we close on the new house, too early to pack up much here and all the paperwork, inspections, and repairs are done. So I spend a lot of time trying to wear Patrick out at the park, dreaming of the day I can just send him out to the backyard and basketball court. He did have "school" today where he was playing baby dolls when I came to pick him up, just like at home. Ah, life with 3 sisters.

In addition to the basketball court, we are really looking forward to having a brand new master bath in our new house, one that Sean has already declared off limits to the girls. For as much as they hate taking showers and complain bitterly about it, they sure have fun punishing me by trashing the place. I don't know where all the dirty clothes comes from, there is no way they were wearing all those outfits at once, but there they are, all over every inch of floor space, and wet of course as the girls have to run around before they dry off. They also go through shampoo and body wash like they're pouring it directly down the drain. Oh wait, that is exactly what Anna has been caught doing. I told her she wasted $20 worth and I took it from her birthday money once. I'm sure that had been a long day, I don't normally fine them that much, usually just enough for one bottle of wine to help me forget.

The other newly remodeled part of the new house is the master closet. It is far too nice- and big- for the 3 outfits I own. I am fashion challenged to begin with but add in over 9 years of fluctuating sizes and dwindling shopping opportunities and it's not pretty. Have you ever heard of a father-in-law who complains that his son should buy his wife more clothing?? I didn't even have to pay him to say that, I believe it's an even exchange for the years I have spent lobbying for him to retire and golf more. I do have the best in-laws ever and I'm not just saying that because they are loyal blog readers. I would even say that if they didn't volunteer to come out and entertain the littles while I pack up and move non-furniture items to the new house! 4 weeks, Nana and Pops, start saving up energy now.

Park Pics

I find that I am very motivated to get the kids out of the house these days so I can then avoid all house related tasks. It's a little irritating to be constantly surrounded by stuff that I know I am going to have to pack up and move myself. I did manage to do about 15 boxes so far and you'd never know by looking at the place. Clearly this is all stuff we never use so if someone could just come tell me that they are moving it to the new house for me and then throw it away, that would be great, thanks.

Then I can get back to taking pictures of the kids that I will someday put in a photo book. I have at least uploaded the photos up until Emily was born, so what, I'm 10 months behind? I'll get back to that project in another year or so... In the meantime, these are from the park yesterday. Patrick insisted on taking his bike there and apparently he had been planning all along to ride it up the playscape thing and then ride it down the big slide. I don't recall the girls ever doing stuff like this.