Davey got his license

The past few weeks we have been waiting the arrival of David's license so he could work when he gets out here. I went over to the house last night to do some yard work and the mail had come. I was so happy to see his license had finally arrived. I put the mail, my phone, Henry and the kids clothes on the deck. The kids were in their swimsuits and were going to play in the sprinklers. They also had the hose and were spraying each other. I told them the deck was a "no spray" zone. I know I told Charlotte at least 4 times. Sometimes I hate to tell her not to do something because it will tempt her even more. I was in the front yard for about 5 minutes and when I came to the back I saw the baby had water on his legs, Simon's clothes were soaking wet and.......David's license was wet. Charlotte really knows how to get under my skin, and this was no exception. First she claims she forgot. Then she said Simon told her to. On the way home I bought Simon a Happy meal and she was trying to "kiss up" to me. She told me things like "I love you" "I love our family so much" "I love our house" "Thank you for all you do" Her compliments are always convenient upon when she is wanting something. I was on the phone with Dave this morning and I had her tell him what she had done. While I was on the phone she was putting the leash on Ruth. I told her not to take the dog outside and went and grabbed Henry. I came out and was trying to find her and sure enough...she was coming in from taking Ruth outside. Any suggestions on how to tame this "beast" before she is 16?

Painting is so much fun

In the past 7 days I have spent about 25 hours painting the trim at my new house. I am so completely exhausted. Most of the time I have all 3 kids with me while I am alone painting. It is so hard without David here and my parents are on a cruise so I don't have the help with the kids. On Saturday I was painting for 6 hours. After 4 hours David's sister Laura came and picked up the kids which was so nice. Right before she showed up I heard Simon outside yelling "I need to poo, I need to poo......." over and over. I yelled for him to come inside and he didn't so I went and found him on the front steps and also his poo on the front steps. The new carpet is going to be installed on Wednesday so I have to finish up all of the painting. I realize how old I am getting because I am so sore all over. My sister in law Ellen gave Simon a new PDA a couple of days ago. He is super excited and of course carries it everywhere. He has made it clear that boys have PDAs and girls have purses. Today I asked him to clean up and he said "No" so I told him I was going to take away his PDA. He got upset and was yelling that I cannot take his PDA because I am a girl and only boys have PDAs. My parents have a bunch of young girls that all live close that can babysit for cheap which is great. In NC you had to pay a minimum of $8 per hour. I gave my babysitter $20 for 4 hours and she was super embarrassed and told me it was too much. Well, I must get to bed because I have a lot more painting to do tomorrow.

Our new house

We got the keys to our new house 2 days ago. When I pulled up to the house the men to rip out the carpet in the basement were already there waiting. I spent the first night painting the trim. In the photo you can see it is the color of "Thousand Island Dressing" I am just painting it white and then the walls before the new carpet is installed. We were excited to see that the sellers left the hot tub. I am not going to be moving anything into the house until Davey gets here. My kids are starting a preschool camp that lasts for 2 weeks next week and I am excited about it. Simon's dog "t-bone" is in time-out more than my kids because he says "poo". Simon is the one putting him in time out. He tells me to start the timer and I hear him disciplining him. Simon still hangs out with his make believe friend named "Deanit" He makes up crazy stories about him all the time.

Our deck. We are getting a railing
put in. From where the picture was taken is
a 5ft drop to the driveway.

The entry to our home

Finally I have a nice stove top and oven.

The kids dancing around our living room.

Charlotte went crazy while playing
with Henry. The one on his right foot
is his favorite and it was driving him crazy
that he couldn't reach it.

Charlotte told me the basement
didn't look too good when they tore out
the carpet.

Brendan Fraser--for real?

So my sister Linda has spoken freely on her blog about her love for David Hasselhoff and the "MC" Matthew Mcconaughey. I feel that she has left out a very important man......Brendan Fraser. Below are a couple of his quotes
"I'm just glad that I have bragging rights to working with Bugs and Daffy. "
"Maybe my caveman ancestors invented the wheel or something. I'm not sure. "

Also, I found a few really great photos of him.

Wish this was larger

This is him just a couple
days ago at the MTV movie
awards. He is trying to look
good here. Really? Check out
the hair. Am I alone in this?

What is this on top of him?

our perfect family dinners

So tonight the kids and I are sitting outside eating dinner when Simon announces "I want to pee on the grass" I agree to it. A few minutes later I yell for him to come back up and eat and he appears totally nude. I then tell him that he needs to go get his clothes and he replies "I can't, I peed on them" I told him he has to eat and so he ate without any clothes on. A few minutes later I was cleaning up and I went looking for the kids and caught them about to ring the neighbors doorbell, Simon is still naked at this point. It was so quiet and relaxing.

Out with the old

David and I are very different when it comes to storage. I love getting rid of anything, but I also love to get new things. David would never get rid of anything. One example of this is an old box of cassette tapes. We do not have anywhere, house or car, where cassette tapes can be played and yet he could not part with his old cassette tapes that had been in the attic untouched for 4 years. Last fall we had a yard sale to prepare for our move to Utah. I went through every single drawer & closet in the house. When it was time to go into the attic I knew Dave would have some rise in his blood pressure. It usually went like this
Janet "do you want to keep this for any reason?"
Dave "yes, it is usuable?"
Janet "you haven't used it in 5 years"
Dave would then either ignore me or say something like "do what you want then"
In the end I was very pleased with how organized my house was when we were packing to move. We also got rid of some large items including our couch, chair, coffee table(which had been chewed on by our dogs and had numerous coloring from the kids), eliptical machine & lastly our washer/dryer.
We got our washer/dryer when we moved to NC 8 years ago. We got both for about $600. They were the cheapest Kenmore available. They worked fine but I knew they would be a pain to move, were not at all energy efficient & were very noisy. We sold them on Craig's list to a UNC student who was beyond excited for $100.
The timing of Memorial day sales is so perfect for us moving into our house. On Friday I found the washer and dryer I could only dream of on sale $600 off. I am so excited. It shows how old I am that my joy is truly in a washer and dryer. I also got a couch and 2 chairs this weekend saving another $2000. In our new house we need a couch upstairs and a couch downstairs so we will probably have to wait a few months to get the upstairs couch, which is fine since I now own a red washer and dryer.

Favorite new treat

I have found the best thing in Utah.....chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I know, they sound disgusting, but they are truly super yummy. You can buy them in bulk at the grocery store down the street from my parents and I often make trips there just to buy them. About a week ago I bought a large amount and they were on a bench in the basement. My dog Ruth found them and ate the whole bag. That night I was watching t.v. and truly I could barely breathe as the cinnamon bears made their way out of Ruth in a gas form.

We got the house and we close on June 5th. I have been in Utah now for 3 weeks. It feels like I have been on a long trip and need to go home. I will be in NC June 26-29th for David's graduation.