Whew!
We took a big/little break around here!
My last entry was in March!
Since March, we have looked at close to 50 houses and prepared our house to sell it. This meant packing, painting and purging. At the very end of May we made an offer on a new house. Four days later, we listed our house for sale.
The Thursday before we were going to take the house off the market (maybe?) and while we were in Yellowstone national park, we accepted an offer on our house.
In July, we traveled to through Iowa to Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and through Kansas to home again.
More packing and packing.
John had the opportunity to travel via aircraft carrier in August. He flew out on a Wednesday and returned home the following Thursday. Friday morning, the movers arrived. We were supposed to close on Monday, but it got pushed until Tuesday. The movers arrived with our belongings on Thursday. We left to attend John's brother's wedding the next day.
The big kids started a new school while John was in Hawaii. G started a new preschool school the day we closed on our house.
To say it has been busy is an understatement. Sadly the blog has had to take a backseat to the craziness. Now that things are settled down a little, it is my hope to spend a little more time updating here again.
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, August 29, 2016
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Goodbye sweet Mudd
4/2/03-3/14/16
She and her brother were our first babies. We simply adored them. She slept on my pillow most nights with her paws on my hair. She was there to greet us when we came home and she loved to play.
It was harder with the human babies around. It was just more to manage. But, she was still there everyday. She was a great companion- at least until the baby started to cry and then she hit the road.
As she (and her brother) got older the health issues started piling up. This made juggling the needs of cats and kids even more tricky. I'm not always sure we handled it right, but we sure did try hard. In mid February, we were told our sweet girl had inoperable stomach cancer. She had dropped from a 10.5 lb cat to just 4.5 lbs. figuring out how to treat something in an animal who doesn't speak is so difficult. She couldn't tell us if she was in pain or if something was wrong. Although we knew the end was near, we did have a few more precious weeks with our girl. We spoiled her a little extra and gave her some extra love. William offered his life savings to save her life. This broke my heart in hundreds of ways because there just wasn't a way to explain to him that there wasn't going to be a permanent fix for her problem. Anything we could do was going to be a very temporary fix for a growing cancer problem.
So, with a very heavy heart we said goodbye to our little black cat with a great big heart.
Monday, February 29, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Mom and dad Halloween
Halloween chaos
This would explain why I have only 1 or 2 pictures of all the 3 kids dressed up and ready to go this Halloween.
William decided he wanted to be a dragon/dinosaur.
Amelia was Elsa from frozen and Gemma was Anna from frozen.
Amelia's costume parties
Gemma's Halloween library party
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Family fun night
Amelia's school hosted a family game night in October. I'm sad to say we almost didn't go (after a long, busy week I like to just sit on my couch). At the last minute, Amelia and I snuck out for some one on one time.
One of the game stations was a "minute to win it" game. Each game was less than a minute in length and when your number was called, you weren't sure what you were going to be asked to do.
Here is brave Amelia playing minute to win it against a much bigger girl (spoiler: and winning!)
(She won a pencil)
One of the game stations was a "minute to win it" game. Each game was less than a minute in length and when your number was called, you weren't sure what you were going to be asked to do.
Here is brave Amelia playing minute to win it against a much bigger girl (spoiler: and winning!)
(She won a pencil)
Sent from my iPhone
The 50th day of school
Which meant we needed a costume.
Which meant I decided I could make a poodle skirt with directions I found online.
It was way more math than I bargained for - I had to calculate circumference! Using a math formula!
Anyway, we for running behind and all I have of my cutie is her running down the street to catch the bus!
Pumpkin patch fun!
Self portrait of a kitty
Here she is taking pictures of herself with my phone at the grocery store.
When we walked in, the greeter stopped us and told me they don't allow cats in the store. Gemma was tickled by this and then reassured the greeter that she was a girl, not a cat. Many other people complimented me on me well behaved or very cute cat as I walked through the store. At first Gemma thought it was pretty funny, but then she got somewhat overwhelmed. I'm not sure if she was overwhelmed from all the strange people talking to her or by the apparent lack of understanding about the differences between cats and a human from all the adults she encountered.
Gemma is a ninja
So, here are a bunch of kids with toilet paper wrapped around their heads practicing their ninja moves.
Fall
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Mississippi River from Belmont State Park
It was the kind of gorgeous day that had us marking this place down and as "return visit needed". Being that we had to get back to prepare for work/school and other responsibilities, we had to leave earlier than we would have liked. They had a pretty big campground, so maybe we will be back?
Friday, February 12, 2016
More signs.
I really (really!) do read a lot of them when we get home, but rarely when we are out.
These signs explain how Belmont, Columbus and Cairo were connected during this war time. For those of you who aren't sign readers, the answer is the river. All these towns were on the river, but opposite sides. The river was a major transportation route for supplies and people, so controlling the river was important.
Kentucky: Columbus-Belmont State park
It looked really interesting online and the website indicated it would be open on Sunday occasionally. Sadly, the visitor center was not open. We were still able to enjoy quite a bit of the park, although we were wishing we could have seen the full museum.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Arkansas Nature preserve: Wapanocca National Wildlife refugecypress swamp
We needed to drive home, but we also wanted to make brief- ish stops in both Arkansas and Kentucky. We wanted to stop long enough to see something and we didn't want to drive too far out of our way. In our research, we found slim pickings. It would seem that most of the major attractions in Kentucky were in the eastern half of the state and western half of Arkansas. Which we wouldn't be traveling through.
We were able to locate a nature preserve just off the highway in Arkansas that was home to cypress trees. Cypress trees used to be somewhat common, but have been cut down for their valuable lumber.
As it was a Sunday, the resource nature center wasn't open, but we enjoyed a quick drive through the park. It was very pretty and the trees were amazing. The kids were less impressed and were quickly ready to move on. We got out and took a quick walk and then went back to the highway.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Cotton fields
Shiloh wrap up
The kids were so good at Shiloh! We were so glad we pushed ourselves to make the drive and explore something we hadn't originally planned on doing.
We left about an hour later than we planned, but we had some snacks in the car.
Original plans called for us to find a place along the way back in Mississippi for us to eat, in order to check Mississippi off of our states list. I was planning on locating this destination on our way back using my phone. However, with the morning's unplanned stop in Corinth, Mississippi, we no longer needed to stop.
We decided to just head back towards Memphis and find somewhere on the way to eat. We went back a different way than we came and while it was light, we all enjoyed the pretty countryside. I did some serious Google-ing while the kids watched a movie in the back seat and John drove. The flaw in our plan was the gorgeous countryside between Memphis and Shiloh contained almost no towns. The only places I was finding to eat were gas stations. We weren't that hungry (yet), so I went further afield in my searching. I came across a family style BBQ place in my internet searching that was right off the highway. When we got closer, we couldn't find anything until we were almost past it. Turns out, it was a tiny trailer in a parking lot selling BBQ. No place to sit, no lights in the parking lot. It probably was excellent food, but
1) the kids were not fans of the bbq we ate the previous night. I was going to have full on mutiny on my hands if I tried to get them to eat it again.
2) bbq is not the kind of thing you want to eat in your vehicle if you can avoid it. Especially little kids eating bbq.
So we continued onward. Finally, I realized we were just going to have to wait until Memphis. We would be eating at 7:30, but there wasn't much else along the way. At some point, someone mentioned they wanted pizza and suddenly that was all anyone wanted to eat. Once the idea was planted, no one could be talked into something different. (That isn't entirely true. I probably could have sold the kids on pancakes, ice cream or cupcakes. Sadly, none of those ideas sounded as good as pizza to me.)
So I googled myself the closest pizza restaurant with passing marks in Memphis. Then, I located their menu online and Everyone came to a consensus about what they wanted to eat. I used the gps on my phone to estimate how long it would take to get to the location. Then, I called ahead and ordered our food. I explained to the super nice employee that I was traveling with little kids and we were running late. And Hungry. Super hungry. In conclusion, my smart phone has made my life so much better.
We arrived and identified ourselves. Food was brought to our table and we inhaled it. Everyone but Amelia. Our family of 5 was crammed into a tiny booth. We didn't care because we were hungry. The kids had ordered fountain soda (a HUGE treat). However, all Amelia wanted to do was lay down on the bench and fall asleep. She wouldn't eat. She wouldn't drink. It wasn't until I had something to eat in me that I realized she wasn't just being annoying (sorry Amelia! Moms make mistakes when they are hungry too!). Amelia was burning up.
Old plan: gas station, swimming pool, family game of cards and to bed.
New plan: gas station for gas and medicine, back to hotel for Amelia to go to bed.
The poor girl was so pitiful. I felt terrible and suddenly her earlier behavior all started to make sense. The complaining and complaining and not wanting to explore different places all made much more sense when you understood that she didn't feel well.*. My poor girl!
* she ran a fever off and on for a few more days until I finally took her in to have her diagnosed with strep throat. I would have taken her earlier, but she insisted her throat did not hurt at all. Oops.
Sent from my iPhone
We left about an hour later than we planned, but we had some snacks in the car.
Original plans called for us to find a place along the way back in Mississippi for us to eat, in order to check Mississippi off of our states list. I was planning on locating this destination on our way back using my phone. However, with the morning's unplanned stop in Corinth, Mississippi, we no longer needed to stop.
We decided to just head back towards Memphis and find somewhere on the way to eat. We went back a different way than we came and while it was light, we all enjoyed the pretty countryside. I did some serious Google-ing while the kids watched a movie in the back seat and John drove. The flaw in our plan was the gorgeous countryside between Memphis and Shiloh contained almost no towns. The only places I was finding to eat were gas stations. We weren't that hungry (yet), so I went further afield in my searching. I came across a family style BBQ place in my internet searching that was right off the highway. When we got closer, we couldn't find anything until we were almost past it. Turns out, it was a tiny trailer in a parking lot selling BBQ. No place to sit, no lights in the parking lot. It probably was excellent food, but
1) the kids were not fans of the bbq we ate the previous night. I was going to have full on mutiny on my hands if I tried to get them to eat it again.
2) bbq is not the kind of thing you want to eat in your vehicle if you can avoid it. Especially little kids eating bbq.
So we continued onward. Finally, I realized we were just going to have to wait until Memphis. We would be eating at 7:30, but there wasn't much else along the way. At some point, someone mentioned they wanted pizza and suddenly that was all anyone wanted to eat. Once the idea was planted, no one could be talked into something different. (That isn't entirely true. I probably could have sold the kids on pancakes, ice cream or cupcakes. Sadly, none of those ideas sounded as good as pizza to me.)
So I googled myself the closest pizza restaurant with passing marks in Memphis. Then, I located their menu online and Everyone came to a consensus about what they wanted to eat. I used the gps on my phone to estimate how long it would take to get to the location. Then, I called ahead and ordered our food. I explained to the super nice employee that I was traveling with little kids and we were running late. And Hungry. Super hungry. In conclusion, my smart phone has made my life so much better.
We arrived and identified ourselves. Food was brought to our table and we inhaled it. Everyone but Amelia. Our family of 5 was crammed into a tiny booth. We didn't care because we were hungry. The kids had ordered fountain soda (a HUGE treat). However, all Amelia wanted to do was lay down on the bench and fall asleep. She wouldn't eat. She wouldn't drink. It wasn't until I had something to eat in me that I realized she wasn't just being annoying (sorry Amelia! Moms make mistakes when they are hungry too!). Amelia was burning up.
Old plan: gas station, swimming pool, family game of cards and to bed.
New plan: gas station for gas and medicine, back to hotel for Amelia to go to bed.
The poor girl was so pitiful. I felt terrible and suddenly her earlier behavior all started to make sense. The complaining and complaining and not wanting to explore different places all made much more sense when you understood that she didn't feel well.*. My poor girl!
* she ran a fever off and on for a few more days until I finally took her in to have her diagnosed with strep throat. I would have taken her earlier, but she insisted her throat did not hurt at all. Oops.
Sent from my iPhone
Minnesota monument & peach orchard
Shiloh Indian Mounds Trail
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