Eve

The children are nestled all snug in their beds...
And the coffee cake is rising....
And the ham dinner at noon today was delicious....
And the playhouse is all ready for the girls in the morning.

This is by far the most laid back and easy Christmas Eve I remember. Jilli told me several times today that Santa doesn't need to come because we already have Christmas presents under the tree, but she is going to listen very hard for the reindeer on the rooftop.

Snow!

It was supposed to start coming down at 4 today but this was about 1230 and the flakes are swirling still now. This is one of my last working Fridays at home with the girls and we are about to make cookies and build a fire and maybe sing a few rounds of Christmas carols

Mufflers are the new scarf

A good friend of mine knit this scarf for jilli and offered it up for whatever Jilli might use it for...scarf, baby blanket, whatever. Some holidayish book we have been reading has all the characters wearing mufflers so we were all very excited when Jilli embraced her very own.

Home

We returned Saturday evevning from a weeklong trip to Florida that included all grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in seven short days. It was a great trip and both girls loved playing with new toys and fun cousins. I feel like we have finally reached the point where we can make a long car trip without too much trepidation that its going to be all screaming all the time. Rory reached her limit at about 5 on Saturday but we all had, so all little scream in the last hour wasn't too bad.

One of the funny things about the trip is that when I thought about coming home I would picture us pulling up to our new house, calling Josh and Erin to see if they wanted to meet in the driveway and getting back settled in to our old rooms. But we pulled into the new driveway instead and when we walked back in it felt like, maybe, this house is home. Its progress.

Future is so bright...

This year's state fair was all about the shades.

Corn!

A few weeks back we went to our very first ever corn maze. It was incredible. They have a spooky version at night that I have no doubt would have scared my socks off, but we opted for the tamer family-friendly daytime version. Even with three scientists, a lawyer, and four kids who (it goes without saying) are brilliant beyond their years, we never managed to find our way out the exit. We did however find the entrance again and it worked just fine. While there Jeff made up the following song for practice and use by the family band...

I like corn.
















I like corn.

















It grows in fields.....
















On the moon.

Telepathy

What? You can't see all the awesome posts in my head? That's a shame because some of them are BRILLIANT.

Its been a long month. The tally is as follows:

Functional rooms: all of them
Bathrooms with new tile: two
Cabinets delievered for kitchen island: two
Countertops delivered for kitchen island: zero
Boxes remaining in garage: let's say fifteen
Birthday parties planned for almost four year old: one
Hearings in which I was lead counsel: four
Grant applications submitted: one
Overnight guests at new house: eleven
Number of triplets having visited new house: three
YMCAs joined: one
Number of times lost in a corn maze: let's call it three
Pumpkins carved: zero
Visits to state fair: one
Fried items consumed at state fair: not nearly enough
Blog posts to be composed regarding months activities: umm, lots.

The First Day

It has been a long time since we've moved, over six years actually, but before that the longest we were in any one place was two and half years. So we have some experience with the whole packing and lifting routine. Even so, this move was hard. Maybe its because we have two kids and infinitely more stuff than we had when we were two spry 26 year olds who had just finished grad school. Or maybe its because we have attained the ripe old age of 32 (one of us anyway). Whatever the cause, I am wiped out and promptly passed out in Jilli's bed after reading her one book tonight. The physicality of it all has lessened the blow of leaving my beloved house behind. But its also been easier because we have been so warmly welcomed to the neighborhood already. When we did the inspection about a month ago I met our new across the street neighbor. Her name? Michele, and it is spelled with one L. She and her husband have 4 kids, with a daughter a little older than Jilli and a son a little older than Ror. Hmmmm, I thought, that seems too good to be true. As we were unpacking the truck (for the first of four times) on Saturday her husband came over with three of the kids and introduced himself and offered to have our girls come over and play while we unpacked. The girls had a date with the eternal holders of the best-neighbors-ever title, so we thanked him and kept unpacking. When we arrived back with the second load of stuff he walked across the street with a warm, delicious, homemade casserole for our dinner. I swear, I think the moving hormones were making me a little teary. Later, a down the road neighbor walked to the house (in the rain) with his son (in his cub scout uniform) to introduce themselves and ask if they could help unload the truck. Jeff met our next door neighbor too and said she was great. Saturday night as Jeff and I were getting ready to go back and pack yet another load for transfer an adorable brown bunny hopped through our front yard. We both agreed the bunny was a bit of overkill, but we'll take it. I think we are going to be ecstatically happy here.

In!

We are here; tired and bruised and a little worse for the wear but we have couches and a few matresses and a garage full of boxes. Tomorrow we try to empty the rest of the old (wow, thats sad) house and start setting up a bit more here.

T-Minus

There are so few things that I am NOT going to miss when we leave this house that when I tried to think of what they are I could barely come up with one item. That one item is most certainly the Wendy's right next door whose service is so abysmal it is legendary with anyone who has visited us.
Exhibit A.
"I'd like a sour cream and chive potato"
Wendy's Man, "Ok, you want sour cream with that?"
"Yes, please" (puzzled)
WM, "Pull around." (takes money, hands bag out)
"Ummm, there isn't any sour cream in here."
WM, "I know. We don't have any sour cream. So I put some butter in there."

Oh, and several times they have run out of Coke. How do you run out of Coke??

So for our last dinner in our beloved house we opted for Chik-fil-A instead. We ate and talked and just sat at the table for a while and laughed when Jilli asked Rory to say 'apple' (bapple in rory-speak) about a thousand times. I can't believe that if all goes as planned we'll be in the new place Saturday night. I've already checked out the McDonald's around the corner and the mochas are excellent.

What I learned today

The Spanish word for octopus is platypus. Jilli says so and middle school spanish was, oh my, almost two full decades ago so I believe her.

The cow at Chik-fil-A for family night is freaking terrifying to Rory.

Some switcheroos and contract modifications mean we are moving in 11 days, ELEVEN days, once días (!!) Looking up spanish obscenities now.....

Vacation

Ok, so I am not on vacation, and neither is Jeff...technically (though I do not have work retreats at the beach...) The girls and I are home today and tomorrow around lunch time I am going to pick them up from school and we'll go do some work retreating of our own. Despite the fact that this is a pretty normal, work-needing-to-be-done Wednesday I feel like we are vacationing. It likely has something to do with the fact that the weather is absolutely amazing outside. So far we have:

Partaken of a mocha from McDonald's (these are my new coffee addiction, I think there is some amount of an illegal substance in them because they make me feel good, in a really good good way, not unlike what one might have felt had their pot not been seized and taken to the jail I toured yesterday...but I digress);

Listened to a marching band practice at the park, Rory thought it was fantastic and clapped in time. Jilli did some kind of hip grinding dance and correctly identified all the instruments (Shawn should be proud, clarinet first);

Dined al fresco on the deck when we got home complete with yogurt, pears and pretzels for the girls and a yummy chicken salad I made for myself; and then

Had another dance party in the office complete with princess outfits

This day is ranking highly on the (in between) scale....plus Jimmy Buffet is now crooning at me from ITunes amidst some steel drums..."You need a holiday, Take a holiday, Grab a pack and take a trail something something moonlit bay." Wednesdays rock.

Attachment

For the past few months Rory has phased through several evolutions of thing attachment (I am sure there is a more technical term, but whatever.) For a few weeks she could not be separated from a very specific pink soft baby. She demanded the baby be with her when she ate and slept and it got tossed in the bath more than once. Then she branched out a bit to some very similar pink dolls and we could thankfully interchange them when the original was downstairs at bedtime (or buried deep in the sandbox at school for three days). This weekend she even carried a blanket around Linus-style. I just put her to bed and she wanted nothing to do with a baby or a blanket. She wanted Jilli's shoes. So I put my sweet baby girl to bed cuddling a pair of worn out smelly sandals. My...the second child changes everything.

Conversing

M: Jilli, do you want to bless anyone before we go to sleep?
J: Yes, Bless Angie and Bless Angie and Bless Claire and Bless Flower and Bless Pillow.
M: You are being silly.
J: And Bless Angels. Mommy? Sometimes I see angels by the moon.
M: Really? What do they look like?
J: They are angels, but sometimes I can't see them.
M: I think they are there even if you can't see them. They protect you.
J: Yeah, angels are to protect you. They protect you from grizzly bears. Because bears are mean.
M: (laughing)
J: But not Baloo. He is a nice bear and he lives in the jungle with his friend Mowgli. Mowgli is a boy, not a girl, and he doesn't wear a shirt.
M: (convulsing)
J: He doesn't wear a shirt because its hot outside. Mommy? I want to go to school tomorrow for pajama day.
M: Ok, do you want to say 'Bless' to anyone else?
J: Yeah, Bless Angie and Bless Angie and Bless someone we don't know.
M: Who is someone we don't know?
J: We don't know someone Mommy.
M: Ok, do you want to say Amen now?
J: Mommy! Now you said it! Now we have to start all over again!

Jitters

I woke up this morning wide awake at six am. This is in direct contrast of course to the three mornings I try to be at work before 7 and (maybe) drag myself out of bed at 6:30. We are headed to the new house this morning for the inspection. I am hoping it won't hold any surprises, but really I am excited about walking through the house again and doing some fun dreaming about what we'll put where and the few new purchases we will make when we move in. Jilli wants to paint all the window frames because she doesn't like white (pretty sure that's not happening) and she wanted to make sure the house had lots of windows. She also has some design plans for her new room that involve something bigbigbigbig, but after she says it fifteen times I think she forgets what it was she wanted. Rory will go with us this morning and I was certain Jilli would want to check out the place too. But when we gave her the choice of new house or school, she hands down chose school. Rory's share partner is at school today so she'll have to tag along with boring old mom and dad. Kind of reminds me of all those years my parents were planning and designing the home we moved to when I was 15 and the seemingly endless trips to construction sites and home depot on the weekends....

Pics of the week

The past few weeks have been harrowing, in part with all the house madenss but also for other reasons I can't quite put my finger on. There have been plenty of in between moments as well; a wrestling match and Jilli's dawning awareness of jokes, she thinks every line is funny and is particularly creative with the chicken-cross-the-road genre, and Rory's new words. She tells you the cow moos (and the duck and the chicken incidentally), she says downstairs and No Sketch and a word that means Jilli but I can in no way replicate along with tons of others that are escaping me now. I realized recently I almost never even think of bringing a stroller with us anywhere because suddenly the girls are big and independent and I need to grab some of these pictures fast so I remember the slower pace that we find our rhythm in....

Rory

Jilli Sleeping, Part 2

We found her in our bed a few nights back. She snuck by us as we watched our 3000th rerun of NCIS in the office. Not unusual to find her sleeping in our bed- but the care with which she arranged the covers around her face to shield her eyes from the light warranted a picture.

We did it (almost)

Our house is under contract and we have a contract on a new house. Neither of these were achieved without an excessive amount of anxiety and frustration (and a late night contract drafting session.) As long as everything sails through from here (fingers crossed) we'll be moving in about six weeks. Without further adieu I present our almost-as-long-as-everything-goes-fine-new-to-us house.....

Fearsome

The Dinosaur Trail is finally open at our favorite museum. I think Jilli has the look down.

Favorite seat in the house

It is so hard to get the girls in the same picture, much less both looking at the camera. They both love sitting on the camel saddle though so it worked this time. Pretty, aren't they?

Working it

So the house was only kind of partially listed this week since on Monday some strange glitch occurred that dropped us (and thousands of other homes) out of the system. We are on top of it though, we've got a tenacious advocate on our side.

She manages to climb into this chair, and every other chair and couch in the house, completely unaided. I fear for the Christmas tree in a few months.

Moving on...

I keep thinking I am posting regularly and then I visit my own blog and realize that its been nearly two weeks (again) since I have updated the internets on our adventures. The thing is, I feel like for once I have a decent explanation for why I'm not chronicling our lives as methodically as I would like. First, there was the week where I had three hearings when I was supposed to have four but one settled and then there was last week where I had a big (for me) mediation and then there was the living in between, but really the thing that has kept me away is that we have been frantically cleaning our house in an effort to pretend that really, we are very shiny, clean, organized people in an effort to convince potential buyers of that fact. Because we listed our house for sale on Friday.

Its a good thing. We have known for a while that sometime between now and two years from now we would want to move (to a neighboring city, possibly less than ten miles from here) but it still seemed to come about so suddenly. Turns out this is a good time to buy a house if you can sell yours. So we are trying. We'll see.

This house is going to be hell for me to leave behind. I am crazy attached to it. Did you know the first few months we lived here I did nothing but sit in the office and study for the bar exam? I stood by the mailbox stalking the mailman on the day I knew he had my bar results and he thought it was just so interesting that I had that long hyphenated last name. Did you know we painted the entire downstairs one weekend with Shawn and Kevin? Did you know that Jeff and Dianne spent countless hours in the hottest summer we have had painting furniture white in our garage and putting up molding in what would be Jilli's, and then Rory's, nursery? Did you know that I defied Jeff's orders to stay away from the paint in the nursery to help fill in the misty white clouds? And that one of them looks like Mickey Mouse? Did you know that we have watched Christian and Makenna grow up here and that Dad built our deck and Mom and I have stayed up late at night talking downstairs? Do you have any idea how many dinners we have had with family and friends around our table? Did you know that I have spent years in the rocking chair by the window nursing my babies and reading them books and sitting up with them when they were sick and sad? Did you know we have played in the driveway and in the backyard and in the house with the best neighbors, and friends, we could have ever imagined living next to? Can you imagine that we saw both girl's first steps here? That they ate their first food and danced their first dances here? We have carved pumpkins and decorated Christmas trees and hunted for eggs here. And yes, I know we will do all of this in a new house and that these memories have less to do with our house and more to do with the people in our lives, but still....there is a small part of me that is rooting for this whole hare-brained scheme to fall though so we can stay just a little bit longer...

Its Electric!

An Apple in Three Acts

Only seven teeth...but she knows how to use them.

4th

Last weekend's festivities were tame around here. We started the morning with a trip to a local neighborhood festival that promised free entertainment. There was a bouncy house, all types of games, music, face painting, food, a firetruck and more I am forgetting at this point and it was all free. Did I mention it was free? We need more activities like this. Jilli jumped in a sack race and ran in a spoon race (and won prizes, guess what...free!), Rory cautiously checked out the robot dog in the mini firetruck, we all sampled snow cones and cotton candy and watermelon and then joined in the parade. Jilli rode her bike with all the other kids (after decorating it with balloons) and Rory pushed a walking toy. Jilli made it though the entire parade route but Rory walked about a quarter of the way, got tired of all the people saying how cute she was and parked her toy. We kicked ourselves all morning for not bringing the camera, it was all freaking adorable.

In the evening my side of the family and Josh, Erin and Hazel came over for a very simple bbq (Jilli made pink the new red, white and blue)

and we finished out the night listening to our insane neighbors set off hundreds of firecrackers. Rory decided we were taking too long getting her upstairs to bed and took matters into her own hands.

Lucky Day

Nine years ago I woke up groggy after a late night out with friends, went and got my hair done, folded some programs and ate a sandwich Brandi made for me. Then I rode down the street from my parent's house to a little photography studio and stood with my family and friends and Jeff, who would be my partner for life in just a few short hours. The storm before our wedding (really, a storm, thunder and lightning and about a foot of rain) made it challenging to get to the church. Jen fashioned a hermetically sealed plastic bag around my pretty white dress and we jumped over puddles and mud and said our vows and then danced and ate and collapsed.

It doesn't really seem like that was 9 years ago. Most mornings I wake up and still feel a bit like I am newlywed. But two houses, four new nieces and nephews (we had one already), two graduate degrees, one new dog (we had one already), two states, and most of all two little angels sleeping nearby remind me of the life we have built together this past nine years.

SuperGirlRory

Its a shame you can't see the haste with which Rory was pushing Jilli through the neighborhood last night, though that set look of determination on her face gives some indication. I enjoy the way her accessories (huge bead necklace, pacifier securely in place) say, "Sure, I am pushing my 3 1/2 year old sister around on this thing, and yes, I have really just mastered the fine art of walking, but people, I do this in STYLE." Its a shame too that you can't see the way Jilli was wielding the (play) golf club, raising it over her head and bringing it down to the sidewalk over and over again, like she was urging her steed to the finish line. Luckily, I was there to witness the spectacle and the picture makes me snicker....

Mini-Break

The girls and I are in Florida for the week. This is my first solo driving trip on my own with both girls but I figured I was being a bit of a drip and might as well try it. We left Saturday afternoon and made it here in record time. 9 hours 20 minutes. As Jeff volunteered, it must be him that slows us down. Of course we would much rather have him here too, but we are managing to have a good time. Jilli is taking swimming lessons in my parent's pool and we have celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday and took an all day trip to Sea World in the few days we have been here. I really wish someone would have clued me into this little fact earlier, but MY LORDY IT IS HOT HERE. I did spend the first 20 formative years of my life here but today I have no idea how I didn't simply melt away. Luckily, I have learned a great way to combat the heat is by consuming large quantities of the leftover ice cream cake from Dad's party. I think a trip to Bruster's is in my future once the cake stockpile runs out. Anyway, here's a snapshot (ok, 15...) of the last few days.

June 2

Its 7:53 and any minute now Brandi is going to be delivering a beautiful, healthy, perfect baby. I am on pins and needles waiting to hear and (just a little) teary and nostalgic. How is it that we were little girls in kindergarten together and now we are raising our own sweet babies?



UPDATE!



Meet Avery Michele VanBooven, 6 pounds, 15 ounces and as beautiful and perfect as I knew she would be


And Brandi, you look amazing. If not for that unmistakable gleam of love in your eyes I would say you look like an actress playing the part of someone who just had a c-section. (You look good too Mike- I dig the hat...)